PART THREE

MAN OF THE WORD

AND

FOR THE WORD

Scalabrini explicitly states that his most characteristic apostolic initiatives (catechesis, pastoral visitations, migration, the deaf-mutes) are but the fulfillment of Christ's missionary mandate: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to every creature" (Mk 16:15) He is a man of the kerygma, the missionary message of the gospel.

For his diocese of Piacenza he adopts a new style of pastoral care, marked by an intense administration of the Word and the Sacraments, driven by an ardent "thirst for souls" and characterized by direct contact with the people of all classes and places.

Five pastoral visitations, personally conducted, of the more than three hundred parishes of his diocese, three diocesan synods, and seventy pastoral letters give concrete evidence of his aspiration to become all things to all so as to win over all to Christ.

Convinced that religious instruction is the primary means for Christian formation, he once again confers on catechesis the primacy in the work of evangelizing and rechristianizing a society rapidly becoming unchristian because of anticlericalism, rationalism and materialism.  Consequently, he turns into a pioneer in the new catechetical movement, calling thousands of lay people to the catechetical ministry, encouraging parents to be the first catechists of their children, within the family, which is "the domestic church" where one prays and reads the gospel.

St.  Paul's "woe to me if I do not preach the gospel" finds concrete expression in Scalabrini's instruction of the deaf-mutes; in the gospel ideal ‑- not limited to the physically handicapped ‑- of giving hearing to the deaf and speech to the mute; and in the recovery of the sanctity of the Lord's Day, the day of the community's joyful celebration of the banquet of the Word and of the Eucharistic Bread.