Parishioners, religious sisters, seminarians, families and visitors filled Holy Rosary Church in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 25 for Mass to celebrate the 125th anniversary of St. John Baptist Scalabrini’s visit to the United States. Cardinal Robert W. McElroy celebrated the Mass. The concelebrants included Cardinal Silvano Tomasi, a longtime Vatican diplomat who is a member of the Scalabrinian order; Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, the apostolic nuncio to the United States; and Bishop Jacques Fabre-Jeune of Charleston, South Carolina, who is also a member of the Scalabrinian order.
More than a dozen priests concelebrated the Mass, including Father Maurizio Maifredi, the pastor of Holy Rosary, who welcomed everyone to the multilingual Mass speaking in both English and Italian.
Fourth degree members of the Knights of Columbus led the procession up the marbled isle of Washington’s only Italian parish which was established in 1913.
When Cardinal McElroy was a new cardinal in 2022, he voted in favor of sainthood for John Baptist Scalabrini. The cardinal called it “a great privilege because of the legacy [Saint} Scalabrini had left in our world and in the Italian communities in particular.”
Celebrating Saint Scalabrini
Saint John Baptist Scalabrini was born in Italy and joined the seminary when he was 18. He is known as the “Father to Migrants” because in 1887 in Italy he founded the Missionaries of St. Charles, known as the Scalabrinians, a community of male religious whose mission is to move with migrants as they move in order to serve them through their journey. The next year, some of St. Scalabrini’s first missionaries were sent to the United States and Brazil to serve the growing number of Italian migrants leaving for the United States and South America.
“He brought a sense of what was going on [in the Italian immigrant communities]. He helped raise the consciousness of the wider society and helped society understand that there are gifts and grace which comes from immigration and grace which comes to people coming to a new land,” Cardinal McElroy said.
In 1901, St. Scalabrini traveled in the United States for 100 days to 20 cities, including to Washington, D.C., where he met with President Theodore Roosevelt to advocate for Italian migrants.
“How important it was to have the Church and leaders who would speak up and defend the rights of those who were coming here,” Cardinal McElroy said in his homily. “In the first reading, Moses shows that the alien, the orphan and the stranger have a special place in the eyes of God,” he said.
Today Scalabrini missionaries are in 31 countries.
‘Ministry of the commoners’
Cardinal McElroy noted the three ways that St. Scalabrini shepherded migrants: through pastoral ministry, advocacy and vision. “The ministry of Saint John Baptist Scalabrini was essentially the ministry of the commoners,” Cardinal McElroy said. “He understood and was struck by the large number of people who were leaving Italy, and so he anchored his ministry around them.” Even more, the cardinal noted that St. Scalabrini felt a responsibility to the migrants.
“[St. Scalabrini] resolved that it was up to the Church to make clear what the pastoral priorities were and how the rights of immigrants should be protected,” the cardinal said. “Migration is not something to be feared. All of us in this world are children of one God. That's more important than nationality.”
Continue the work and the community
The petitions at the Mass were read in Italian, English, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Tagalog, a language of the Philippines. The first reading from Exodus was in Italian, the second reading from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians was in Spanish, and the Gospel reading from Matthew was in English.
The congregation sang the Our Father in Italian and the Communion hymn was an Ave Maria composed by a Scalabrini priest, Father Tarcisio Bagatin, who was pastor of Holy Rosary from 1993 to 1996.
Sister Myrna Tordillo from the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo (Scalabrinian sisters) founded by Bishop St. John Baptist Scalabrini and co-founded by siblings Venerable Father Joseph Marchetti and Blessed Assunta Marchetti attended the Mass. She and her sisters were also celebrating the 131st anniversary of their founding. Sister Tordillo was just passing through Washington, DC on her way to El Paso, Texas to serve the migrants there.
“Serving migrants is relevant today,” she said, adding that she hopes to keep alive what the cardinal said about St. Scalabrini’s work and dedication and “walk with migrants and immigrants.”
Louisa Maria Pelz attended the Mass with her sister, Ann Llop-Keuter. The message from the cardinal and St. Scalabrini about accepting and loving their immigrant community resonated with them. “I do believe in immigrants coming here and being able to make a better life and not being put in positions that are not pleasant,” Llop-Keuter said.
For Ennio Ditullio who attended the Mass with his daughter, Daniela, it was another Sunday to celebrate his Italian culture. He immigrated to the United States in 1967 and shortly thereafter started attending Mass every Sunday at Holy Rosary. He met his wife, Emma at Holy Rosary, and they were later married there. All his kids were baptized there, and he still goes to Mass there every Sunday. “Italian culture and community are very important,” Daniela said.
A formal dinner reception in the Casa Italiana Hall followed the Mass to continue the celebration of St. Scalabrini.
