SCALABRINIANS

(CS, Official Catholic Directory #1210); officially known as the the Missionaries of St. Charles, and popularly as the Scalabrini Fathers, was founded on Nov. 28, 1887, in Piacenza, Italy. Its purpose, besides the personal sanctification of its members, is the spiritual and, whenever possible, the pastoral care of Italian emigrants, many thousands of whom have left their native land to settle in new homes, especially in the New World. Scalabrini was a pioneering apostle in many fields. While zealously and effectively caring for a vast diocese, he labored to meet the difficulties confronting the Church in Italy at the turn of the century. Toward the solution of the problems of Italian emigration, not only did he found the society of the Missionaries of St. Charles, but he established the Missionary Sisters of St. Charles, cofounded the Apostles of the sacred heart of jesus on March 19, 1889, and bestowed on (St.) Francis cabrini and her six missionary sisters the missionary cross, on the occasion of Mother Cabrini's first apostolic venture on behalf of Italian emigrants.

Among his writings Bishop Scalabrini left several treatises on Italian emigration, and contributions on other problems current in his day. He took a special interest in both the reform of clerical studies and the development of improved methods of teaching Christian doctrine. In the very controversial question of church-state relationships following the Italian Risorgimento he opposed the position of the "intransigents" and favored some kind of compromise with the new Italian state. Scalabrini also was the author of a work titled Il Concilio Vaticano (Como 1873).

Through the work of his missionary congregation, Bishop Scalabrini became familiar with the U.S. and foresaw a happy future for the Church there. The members of his congregation are today established in various parts of both the Old and New Worlds, where they labor in parishes, schools, centers for immigrants and refugees, and homes for the aged. In the U.S., the congregation has two provinces: the Province of St. Charles Borromeo (estab. 1888 and headquartered in New York City), and the Province of St. John Baptist (estab. 1903 and headquartered in Oak Park, IL).

Bibliography: f. gregori, La vitae l'opera di un grande vescovo, Giovanni Battista Scalabrini (Turin 1934). i. felici, Father to the Immigrants: The Servant of God, John Baptist Scalabrini …, tr. c. della chiesa (New York 1955).

[g. tessarolo/eds.]