Vatican City (Fides Service) - Fr. James Alberione, was born in San Lorenzo di Fossano (Cuneo), Italy, on 4 April 1884 and baptized the following day. The profoundly Christian and hard-working Alberione family, made up of Michael and Teresa Allocco and their six children, were farmers and besides transmitting the faith to their children they handed on to them a profound education to work and unswerving faith in Divine Providence. Little James, the fourth child of the family, felt the call of God early in life. When questioned by his first-grade teacher as to what he wanted to be when he grew up, he replied, "I want to be a priest!". His childhood years were directed to this goal. At the age of 16, James entered the seminary of Alba (Cuneo).
At the end of the Holy Year of 1900, James, who had read and reflected deeply on Pope Leo XIII's encyclical, Tametsi Futura, underwent an experience that would give direction to the rest of his life. On the night of 31 December 1900, the night that divided the 19th and 20th centuries, he prayed for four hours before the Blessed Sacrament and contemplated the future in the light of God. A "particular light" seemed to come from the Host and roused in him a sense of obligation "to do something for the Lord and for the people of the new century": he felt "obliged to serve the Church" with the new instruments provided by human ingenuity.
James continued his intensive study of philosophy and theology and on 29 June 1907 he was ordained a priest. After a brief pastoral experience he was appointed Spiritual Director for the seminarians at Alba Seminary and teacher in various subjects. Young Fr James prayed a lot he studied he was engaged in preaching, catechesis, parish conferences. In addition to this, he devoted much time to studying the civil-ecclesial situation and the newly-emerging needs of society. He came to understand that the Lord was guiding him toward a new mission: to preach the Gospel to all peoples, in the spirit of the Apostle Paul, using the modern instruments of communication.
On 20 August 1914 Fr. Alberione initiated the Pauline Family in Alba by founding the Pious Society of St. Paul: priests and brothers (the latter called Disciples of the Divine Master) devoted to announcing Christ "in the swiftest and most effective manner". Later he founds four congregations for women, the Daughters of Saint Paul with the same mission as the Society, the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master, whose members would carry out the Eucharistic, priestly and liturgical apostolate; the Sisters of Jesus the Good Shepherd to work with parish priests; the Sisters of Mary Queen of the Apostles for vocation guidance and several secular institutes for the consecrated life: St. Gabriel the Archangel, Our Lady of the Annunciation, Jesus Priest, and the Holy Family. Ten institutes (including the Pauline Cooperators), united by the same ideal of holiness and apostolate: to bring Jesus Christ Way, Truth and Life to the world through the instruments of social communication.
In 1926, he established a branch house in Rome, followed over the years by many foundations in Italy and abroad. Fr. Alberione lived to the age of 87. Having completed the work God had entrusted to him, he left this earth on 26 November 1971 to take his place in the house of the Father. In his last hours, he was comforted by the visit and blessing of Pope Paul VI, who had never hidden his admiration and veneration for the Founder
Today the Pauline Family has a total number of17,744 members gathered in 673 communities spread all over the world running 610 centres of apostolate (books shops, liturgical apostolate, vocation animation, media didactics) in 62 countries. The Pauline Family publishes 87 periodicals of various types including Sunday mass leaflets, reviews for pastoral workers, catechists, liturgical animators, teachers of religion, biblical and catechetical handbooks. Italy takes first place for the number of Pauline publications 19; followed by Brazil 13; Philippines 8, Argentina 6, India 5, in many different languages including Lingala (D. Congo), Cebuano, Ilongo Tagalog (Philippines) Hindi (India). SL (Fides Service 23/4/2003 EM lines 47 Words: 641)