Blessed Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, a renowned Italian priest and bishop considered a father to migrants and refugees, will be declared a saint of the Catholic Church on Oct. 9.
Pope Francis approved the canonization in May with a dispensation from the requirement for a second miracle for Scalabrini. In 2018, speaking to members of the congregation founded by Scalabrini, the Pope called on the religious to walk with migrants, following the charism of their founder, by paying attention to the “dignity of the human person, especially where it is most wounded and threatened.”
A native of the Italian region of Lombardy, Scalabrini (1839-1905) was ordained a priest in 1863 and made bishop of Piacenza in 1876.
As bishop, he founded the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo (also known as the Scalabrinians). He created the Saint Raphael Association, which, like the order he founded, was dedicated to offering pastoral care to migrants leaving Italy at the turn of the 20th century.
Scalabrini was convinced of the need for institutions to accompany the journey of migrants, taking care not to abruptly sever cultural ties with their homeland and maintaining the mother tongue as a bond of unity with the other compatriots. Deeply moved by the drama of so many Italians forced to emigrate to the United States and South America in the late 1800s, he sent his missionaries and missionary sisters around the world to help and support migrants in ports, on ships, and upon arrival in new countries.
Father Rosemond Sylvestre, CS, is the superior for the Scalabrinian priests in the Archdiocese of Vancouver and pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows, Vancouver. He offered this reflection on his order’s founder.
Scalabrini: pastor of migrants
To speak about our founder as a pastor, it is good to look at the period of his life from 1839 to 1905 in order to understand his spirituality and charisma.
As a pastor he sent missionaries around the world to preach the Word and to feed the flock they encountered, first Italians and then all those on the move through migration. I am in Canada as a Scalabrinian and a migrant through the shepherding of the Scalabrinians.
| Portrait of Bishop Giovanni Battista Scalabrini. (CNS photo) |
Canada is a country that receives migrants from around the world. It is a multicultural country, especially in British Columbia where we Scalabrinians have been accompanying migrants and refugees for more than 65 years.
As Scalabrinians we began our mission with Italians, and in the 1950s the Archdiocese of Vancouver entrusted parishes with a concentration of Italian migrants to the pastoral care of the Scalabrinians.
As we people from all over the world arrived, our priests began to minister to the needs of other ethnic groups. Father Gerolamo Angeli, CS, began working with Portuguese immigrants in Our Lady of Sorrows in the 1960s.
Our mission with Hispanics has had different aspects and different periods. With waves of refugees from Chile, Guatemala, and El Salvador, we accompanied them throughout different parishes in the archdiocese. We opened Our Lady of Sorrows to welcome them. We are currently accompanying them in two other non-Scalabrinian parishes in the archdiocese.
By 2000, many migrants were arriving from Mexico and Guatemala to work on farms. Since 2007, Scalabrinians have accompanied farm workers in six parishes in the archdiocese, celebrating Mass, visiting them at their place of work, and providing services to them. It is a work we carry out with lay Scalabrinians, Carmelite Sisters, and many volunteers in the parishes where we serve them.
To illustrate the Scalabrinians’ shepherding of migrants I want to share with you the experience of the Ibrahim family, who were welcomed from Syria at St. Helen’s Parish in Burnaby in 2017.
“It has been very tough living through the war in Syria since it started in 2011. We had to move many places looking for safe areas to stay until we ended up in Lebanon to live for a couple of years in a hard situation. We were always hoping to move to somewhere better, especially after we had our daughter Tatiana and we had more responsibilities.
A friend mentioned to us that a group of families had applied to Canada through a Catholic parish. We applied and were very excited. With God’s grace it didn’t take long, and we were told to be ready for travelling. That feeling of excitement mixed with a little concern that we were moving to a totally different country with different language and culture.
After a long flight that was super-tiring for our one-year-old daughter, the airplane landed in Vancouver. All the feelings of tiredness and concern were gone after seeing the group of friendly people waiting for us and welcoming us with beautiful smiles on their faces, making us more comfortable than we had expected.
We moved into our home which been prepared in advance with a lot of care and everything we might need – even a fridge full of food, fruit, etc.
Day after day we noticed how great this community is and how lucky we were to be sponsored by them. They took care of all little details and offered the best to us, especially the Scalabrinian priests and lay Scalabrinians. We are so grateful for everything they have done for us, and they are always open to listen to us and support us whenever we need them.
It has been a successful and unforgettable experience as we had care, sympathy, and welcome. I thank the Scalabrinians and especially Father Rosemond. Because of them we settled smoothly in Canada with no problems.
Thank you,
Bashar, Rasha, and Tatiana.
The migrants and refugees bring their cultures, religiosity, and customs with them. They come to our communities with gifts and talents. They bring new vitality to our parish communities.
An example of this is the Brazilians at Our Lady of Fatima in Vancouver. The Scalabrinians have ministered to the Portuguese community in Vancouver for more than 50 years, and now the community is aging, with many of the elderly Portuguese moving to seniors homes or moving in with their children.
The mission of a pastor is to welcome, accompany, and guide, just as Blessed Giovanni Battista Scalabrini did. The Scalabrinians in Vancouver continue doing the same.
With Catholic News Agency files
