James Alberione

James Alberione (Giacomo Alberione) was an Italian Catholic priest and founder of the Pauline Family, a cluster of religious institutes devoted to evangelization through the press and other means of social communication. He was born on 4 April 1884 at San Lorenzo di Fossano, in the province of Cuneo in Piedmont, northern Italy, one of six children of a farming household. He entered the seminary of the Diocese of Alba and, during a night of Eucharistic adoration between 31 December 1900 and 1 January 1901 at the turn of the century, formed a lasting sense of vocation to serve the people of the new century, especially by using modern instruments of communication. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Alba on 29 June 1907 and soon combined pastoral work with a growing interest in the apostolate of the press.

In 1914, at Alba, he founded the Society of St. Paul, gathering young men to print and distribute Catholic publications. In 1915 he founded the Daughters of St. Paul with Teresa Merlo (later known in religion as Thecla Merlo). Over the following decades he established further congregations that together constitute the Pauline Family: the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master (1924), devoted to Eucharistic, liturgical, and related service; the Sisters of Jesus the Good Shepherd, or Pastorelle (1938), for parish pastoral work; and the Sisters of Mary Queen of Apostles, or Apostoline (in the 1950s), for the promotion of vocations. He also instituted aggregated institutes for lay people and diocesan priests. The charism he proposed was modelled on St. Paul the Apostle and aimed at employing newspapers, books, radio, cinema, and later other media so that the Gospel might reach people in the forms of their own time.

Alberione directed the growth of Pauline publishing houses, periodicals, and book centres in Italy and abroad, and he transferred the general headquarters of his foundations to Rome. He promoted the building of the Sanctuary of the Queen of Apostles in Rome, which became a spiritual centre for the Pauline Family. He wrote extensively on spirituality, formation, and the communications apostolate for the members of his institutes. He took part in the Second Vatican Council. In later life his health declined. He died in Rome on 26 November 1971. Pope Paul VI publicly commended his work in the field of the media apostolate.

After his death a cause for beatification was introduced. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 27 April 2003 in Saint Peter's Square. His liturgical memorial is kept on 26 November. He has not been canonized. His foundations continue as a significant expression of the Catholic Church's engagement with social communications in the twentieth century and after.