A Year Dedicated to Fr. Paul Albera

A Year Dedicated 
to the Memory of Fr. Paul Albera

by Fr. Ivo Coelho, SDB
General Councillor for Formation

(ANS – Rome – January 11, 2021) – In the Acts of the General Council no. 432 (2020), the Rector Major promulgated a year dedicated to the memory of Fr. Paul Albera, commemorating the first centennial of the death of Don Bosco’s second successor.

2021 is therefore the Year of Paul Albera. Elected by General Chapter 11 to succeed Fr. Michael Rua, Fr. Albera was Rector Major from 1910 up to his death on October 29, 1921.

The year will be inaugurated during Salesian Spirituality Week, January 15-17, 2021, which this year, because of the coronavirus pandemic, will be held completely online. A video interview with Bro. Paul Vaschetto, an Albera scholar currently pursuing a doctorate in Salesian history at the UPS, will be broadcast during these days.

The year will be brought to a conclusion during the Salesian Spirituality Week, 13-16 January 2022.

During the year, one of the highlights will be a congress on Fr. Albera organized by the Salesian Historical Institute (ISS) from October 30 to November 1, 2021, at Valdocco (Turin).

Throughout the year there will also be a special exhibition, “Paolo Albera (1845-1921): The world seen through his eyes,” in the Casa Don Bosco Museum at Valdocco. The exhibition will be inaugurated by Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime. Photographic and documentary material has been meticulously researched from the Salesian Central Archives and other sources by Bro. Paul Vaschetto and his collaborators, and gives us an extremely interesting glimpse into the life of the third Rector Major, not least into his many demanding travels around the Salesian world, both as representative of Fr. Rua and then as Rector Major. The exhibition also contains some items from the extensive correspondence that Fr. Albera carried out with the over 1,500 Salesians directly involved on different sides of World War I, and excerpts from his spiritual diary, which he wrote not only in Italian but for several years also in French and English.

Germain Kivungila (ISS) is preparing a new biography of Fr. Albera, while Aldo Giraudo is working on an anthology of his writings, which will be prefaced with a biographical profile and a note on Fr. Albera’s spiritual-charismatic contribution. Work on translations is under way.

The Salesian Bulletins around the world will carry Fr. Bruno Ferrero’s article on Fr. Albera and have been encouraged by Fr. Gildasio Mendes dos Santos, general councilor for communications, to find ways of promoting the Albera Year.

Salesian News of the New Rochelle Province began such coverage with its January 7 issue.