Diocesan Inquiry for
Mother Rosetta Marchese Opens
(ANS – Rome – May 3, 2021) –
The opening session of the diocesan inquiry on the life, heroic virtues, and
reputation of holiness of Servant of God Rosetta Marchese, FMA, took place on
Friday, April 30. During the opening session, the members of the diocesan tribunal
were sworn in: the episcopal delegate, Msgr. Giuseppe D’Alonzo; the promoter of
justice, Fr. Giorgio Ciucci; the actuary notary Marcello Terramani; the deputy
notary Giancarlo Bracchi; and subsequently, also the postulator, Fr. Pierluigi
Cameroni, SDB, and the vice postulator Sr. Francesca Caggiano, FMA.
Present for the Salesian Sisters were Mother Yvonne Reungoat, superior general, Sr. Chiara Cazzola, her Vicar, Sr. Piera Cavaglià, secretary general, and some sisters from the Generalate. In her speech, Mother Reungoat compared the faith witness of Mother Marchese to that of St. Mary Domenica Mazzarello: “Both – the only two superiors general, so far, whose holiness we have asked the Church to recognize – consciously offered their lives for growth and the sanctity of the Institute, in difficult times. Both lived their mission as a service to the life and vitality of the Institute, paying attention to the journey of each sister and of the Institute as a whole. Emblematic are the words she spoke when she was elected on October 24, 1981: ‘The Institute has always given me everything, but now it gives me all of itself.’ Both in their educational service were capable of intuition and mystagogy, they nourished their donation to the educational mission with a profound interior life, they were sisters and mothers for the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, for young people, for those who needed to be welcomed and accompanied in the response to God’s call.”
Mother Rosetta Marchese was born in
Aosta, Italy, on October 20, 1922. She knew and attended the Daughters of Mary
Help of Christians since childhood, thus maturing her faith and her ideal of
total consecration to God. After her first religious profession in 1941, she
completed her studies at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart,
graduating in literature. From 1947 to 1958 she was a teacher and vicar in the Mother
Mazzarello missionary house in Turin, where she followed with particular
attention the young sisters who were preparing to leave for the missions. From
1958 to 1974 she carried out tasks of animation and government in Sicily, Rome,
and Lombardy.
In 1981 she was elected superior general,
but just eight months after her election, the first signs of leukemia came. In a
circular letter on October 24, 1982, Mother Marchese concluded her teaching by
wishing that all her daughters let themselves be infected by Don Bosco “with
acute nostalgia for ‘beautiful Paradise,’” to enter the path of holiness “with
a will without return.” She said, “The destination is unique: to arrive in
Heaven with all the young people for whom we have given and consumed our
existence.” She died on March 8, 1984, in Rome.
You can see the opening celebration and a video presentation by Mother Marchese.
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