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Fr. Giacomo Alberione was born on
4 April 1884 in San Lorenzo di Fossano, in the province of Cuneo, North Italy,
from a family of farmers. Ordained Priest in 1907, he fervently dedicated
himself to pastoral ministry and to the training of the students of the minor
seminary and clerics of the Major Seminary of Alba. Then he consecrated himself
to the evangelization of the world through the apostolate of the media of social
communication. So that Christ Master, Way, Truth and Life may come into in the
hearts of people, in society and in the world, he undertook an intense priestly
activity and founded "the marvelous Pauline Family," made up of five
religious congregations: Society of St. Paul (1914), Daughters of St.
Paul (1915), Pious Disciples of the Divine Master (1924), Sisters of Jesus Good
Shepherd (1938), Sisters of Mary Queen of the Apostles (1959); four
institutes for lay men and women: Our Lady of the Annunciation and St.
Gabriel the Archangel (1958), and the Institute of Jesus Priest and Institute
of the Holy Family (1959); one association of Lay Cooperators, with
solemn promise, founded in 1917. Furthermore, he gave life to other pious
unions and associations.
Venerable Giacomo Alberione lived till the age
of 87 years. Having accomplished the work that the Heavenly Father had given him,
he left this earth on 26 November 1971 at 6:25 p.m. to occupy his place in the
Father’s House.
Fr. Alberione was
comforted, during his last
hours on earth, by the visit and benediction of Pope Paul VI who never concealed
his admiration and veneration for Fr. Alberione.
On 25 June 1996, the Supreme Pontiff John Paul
II declared that the Servant of God, Fr. Alberione, exercised in a heroic degree
the theological, cardinal and related virtues.
In view of his
Beatification, the Postulation
of the Cause has subjected to the judgment of the Congregation of the Causes of
Saints the alleged miraculous healing of
María Librada González
Rodríguez, of
the Institute of Our Lady of the Annunciation, born in Guadalajara, Jalisco,
Mexico on 7 September 1931. On 4 April 1989, due to a fall, she had a trauma at
her right foot that forced her to immobility due to a plaster cast. On 29 April
of the same year, she was urgently confined in a hospital in Guadalajara where
she stayed for twelve days due to respiratory problems caused by pulmonary
tromboembolism. Two days after she was dismissed from the hospital, she had to
be confined again due to atrial fibrillation associated with serious breathing
difficulty which was followed, on 19 May, by an embolic vascular-cerebral
accident that caused paralysis of her face and the rest half of her body along
with aphasia. The next day, 20 May 1989, subject to a new respiratory crisis
more serious than the preceding and lasting for thirty minutes, associated with
strong pain on the shoulder, Maria Librada Gonzalez Rodriguez felt she was dying.
She then prayed for divine help through the intercession of the Venerable Fr.
Giacomo Alberione. Instantly, she recovered her ability to breathe normally,
allowing the removal of the oxygen supply. On May 25, she was released from the
intensive care unit.
The
healing, immediately considered miraculous,
was subjected in 1994 to a Diocesan Inquiry at the Guadalajara Curia. It was
recognized as juridically valid by the Congregation of the Causes of Saints with
the Decree of 10 November 1995. The Consulta Medica, during its session on 14
February 2002, recognized that the healing was relatively speedy, complete,
lasting and unexplainable in terms of current medical and technical knowledge.
On 6 September of the same year, the Peculiar Congress of Theological Consultors
was held and on the following 15 October, the ordinary Session of Cardinals and
Bishops took place, with His Excellency Msgr. Andrea Maria Erba, Bishop of
Velletri-Segni, as Proponent of the Cause.
On 20 December 2002, the Holy Father read the
Decree for the Beatification of Venerable Fr. Giacomo Alberione, the solemnity
of whose proclamation and inscription to the Roman Martyriology, will be held at
the Piazza San Pietro after the Feast of Easter 2003.
Fr. Gino
Valtora, ssp
Postulator General of the Pauline
Family
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The miracle
