Video Dominum: sayings from blessed scalabrinians

A booklet collects the sayings from Blessed John Baptist Scalabrini’s writings, Blessed Mother Assunta Marchetti and her brother, the Venerable Father Giuseppe Marchetti

Blessed Paul VI’s Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi (n. 41) restates a well-known expression taken from an address the same Pope had given in 1974 to the Pontifical Council for the Laity: «Modern people listen more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, or if they do listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses».

Blessed John Baptist Scalabrini is, without a doubt, one of the many people who fit this description, even if stated many decades after his death. Truly, Scalabrini was not only a teacher, but also a true witness to the primacy of prayer united to the work of charity; so natural was for him the need to bring together an intense spiritual life with a constant effort to improve his diocese and human society, that of him it was said that «he was a bishop, for whose heart a diocese was not enough». He clearly manifested in his person the embodiment of prayerful holiness and commitment to action. For this, many, in his days, listened to him and followed him, while others opposed him and fought him bitterly.

In our time as well, this authentic witness and esteemed teacher has much to say, and I am certain that a large number of people will grow to admire and appreciate him.

Herein lies the purpose of this booklet: it is a collection of sayings from Blessed John Baptist Scalabrini’s writings, chosen among the many, that have grown out of his life and work as a man, a priest, a diocesan and missionary bishop and founder.

Blessed Mother Assunta Marchetti and her brother, the Venerable Father Giuseppe Marchetti, are among his first disciples. Some thoughts taken from their writings enrich this collection.

Fr. Gabriele Bentoglio