Meet the ‘Church’s Media Saint’

Pro-Family Profile

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“The First Apostle of the New Evangelization” is the title St. John Paul II gave to Father James Alberione when he beatified the priest on April 27, 2003.

Although he is not yet a household name in America, as he is in his native Italy, where he was born in 1884 and died in Rome on Nov. 26, 1971, Blessed James Alberione was a media pioneer in the Church. So highly regarded was he that when word got to Blessed Pope Paul VI that he was dying, the Holy Father immediately left the Vatican to visit him.

Blessed Father Alberione was a simple priest, yet the title of a new documentary heralds what he did: Media Apostle: The Father James Alberione Story.

In 1914, Father Alberione founded the Society of St. Paul for priests and brothers in Rome. In 1915, he founded the Congregation of the Daughters of St. Paul, who are celebrating their 100th anniversary with 2,500 sisters in 51 countries. Shortly after came the Association of Pauline Cooperators for laypeople. All three were to exercise the Pauline apostolate through numerous media, from books and magazines to catechesis — and then eventually to radio and film, and now the Internet and social media. In all, the founder expanded the Pauline Family (PaulineFamily.com) to five religious congregations, a lay cooperators association and four aggregate institutes of secular consecrated life, the last for married couples.

As Media Apostle relates, the idea of using media to spread the Good News came to him providentially during Eucharistic adoration on New Year’s Eve 1901. In a way reminiscent of Mother Angelica and EWTN’s start, Father Alberione began with nothing. “He always said, ‘Start at Bethlehem; start at the stable. Those who begin the works of God with money are naïve,’” recalled Sister Helena Burns of the Daughters of St. Paul, the writer and director of Media Apostle (MediaApostle.com). She studied screenwriting at UCLA and the Act One, Hollywood program. Media Apostle has garnered praise and endorsements from experts like Father Robert Barron of Word on Fire Ministries.

“We tend to think you start with money,” she continued. “But he believed in leaving room for God and letting God guide you. He believed God’s dreams are always bigger than our dreams.” A recent guest on EWTN’s Life on the Rock, Sister Helena first met Father Alberione while reading about him when she was 15. She thought, “Here’s someone who gets us modern people … the first guy who has this vision and strategy for our modern times and technological age.”

“Our primary aim, and in the spirit of St. Paul, is to bring the Good News to all people, especially those most distant from the Church,” said the Society of St. Paul’s Father Michael Goonan, general director of apostolate in the United States. “Through radio, television and film, you can reach a lot of people. One priest on radio can reach 100,000 people. So although our religious community is small, the nature of our ministry means we have a wide impact in the places where we are established.” There are 931 members in 40 countries: 813 priests and brothers and 121 in temporary vows as seminarians and brothers in training. Overall, the Paulines are still best known from their publishing work and bookstores.

 

St. Paul Inspires

Father Alberione gave the directive: “You must be St. Paul living today.” After Father Alberione was cured of terminal tuberculosis through the saint’s intercession, he insisted his congregations call St. Paul their founder.

“We feel like St. Paul in the marketplace,” said Sister Helena. “He went to the centers of commerce and culture, to those places where he could reach people and influence culture.” She pointed out how Father Alberione had the vision of making films to catechize Italian audiences, insisting on the best professional standards. Films like Saul and David can still be seen. And Mary, Mother of God was the very first color film made in Italy, which the government restored and remastered in 2000, for the film’s 50th anniversary.

Engaging the culture in this way is key to the Pauline mission. When people say retreat from a culture that’s tainted, she says, “Absolutely not. Let’s shine the light.” Sister Helena points out that one effective way the sisters do so is through social media. “Many people don’t see nuns anymore. Now, teens and young adults are excited to have access to a nun [using social media]. We can put forth good information for young people in all the confusion and all the many voices out there.”

Sister Helena pointed out Father Alberione’s thoughts on media in his book The Publishing Apostolate, in which he counsels families on how to use media wisely, making his media spirituality “so vital to our Church today,” she said. He even seemed to envision the Internet, when he said in the 1960s: “It may well be that in the future we will get our newspapers through the telephone wires.”

In every way, the Paulines continue in their founder’s footsteps. “We need to teach about media in catechesis,” Sister Helena said. “Technology and media are not God-free zones.”

The film Media Apostle has online resources about engagement with the media, and the Paulines have a book collecting Father Alberione’s prayers concerning media entitled, Live Christ! Give Christ! Prayers for the New Evangelization.

“We’re all living media lives now,” Sister Helena said. “As Catholics, we need a coinciding spirituality and strategy and use self-discipline in our media choices.”

        

Person-to-Person, Too

Still, media does not replace one-on-one evangelization. Father Goonan noted the sisters, priests and brothers’ commitment to their book centers. “People come into a religious book center, and they talk about their lives, the challenges they’re facing, and they do that with another human being,” Father Goonan explained. “That’s something online can’t replace. That’s a crucial aspect of our ministry: That personal contact is something people are hungry for.” Some then reconnect with the Church, he said.

“People who might be intimidated to walk into a church are not afraid to walk into a bookstore,” agreed Sister Helena. “That’s why we have chapels in our bookstores — to not only get the light from media, but heat from God himself. Father Alberione said our ultimate goal is to bring people into the life of the Church, not just to read books.”

Allison Gingras and her husband, Kevin, have been positively impacted by the Pauline Family. “I feel very connected to the Pauline charism, which is sharing the Good News though all media available,” Alison Gingras said. A blogger, author and retreat leader, she hosts A Seeking Heart show daily on Real Life Radio. (ReconciledtoYou.com). Gingras invites many guests whose books are Pauline publications, calling it “a true blessing for me.”

“It works two ways,” she said of the Pauline connection. “We help each other and support each other in our ministries and mission.”

According to Sister Helena, Blessed James Alberione hoped that the Paulines, and indeed the whole Church, would become innovators in the technology field in order to communicate God well with the world. Looking over the results of the blessed’s mission, she said, “This is the Church’s media saint.”

Joseph Pronechen is the

Register’s staff writer.