On the 2nd Sunday of Easter, 16 April, the parish community of Jesus Nazareno welcomed Archbishop Roberto Repole for the Eucharistic celebration and for the liturgical feast of Saint Cesare de Bus, founder of the Priests of Christian Doctrine, canonized by Pope Francis on May 15, 2022. On November 11, 1902, the Doctrinaries arrived in the Cit Turin, then a suburban district, to first found a new house, then a parish and finally build a monumental church.
“Jesus of Nazareth had the joy of welcoming Archbishop Roberto Repole for the celebration of thanksgiving that the Community of Doctrinaires raised to the Lord for the gift of our founder – says the parish priest Father Andrea Marchini – Saint Cesare Debus, who on Easter day, April 15, 1607, he concluded his earthly existence. San Cesare de Bus founded the Congregation of Priests of Christian Doctrine in 1592: today we are present in France, Italy, Brazil, India and Burundi. The parish of Jesus Nazareno was built by the Doctrinaries in 1905 and since then a history of witness and proclamation has developed which still today finds its sap and enthusiasm at the source of Cesare de Bus’ holiness. In the presence of the archbishop we returned the altar in the right aisle dedicated to the saint who is proposed as a model to all catechists for his great passion for the Word of God and for his announcement; with the invitation that it be everyone’s passion, because, exhorted Saint Caesar, “all in you catechists so that you may be a living catechism”». In preparation for the feast of Saint Caesar, the parish experienced a vocational week, led by Father Paolo De Leo, born and raised in Jesus the Nazarene and today in charge of the Cesare de Bus International Seminar in Rome. The archbishop was concelebrated by the parish priest Father Andrea with the doctrinal confreres of the Nazarene Fathers Battaglio, Binay, Chiavero, Mpitabavuma and Perizzolo, Father De Leo and the Superior General of the Doctrinaries Father Sergio La Pegna, and Father Lorenzo Curti, rector of the Sanctuary of the Our Lady of Lourdes. At the end of the celebration, Father Sergio La Pegna, Superior of the Doctrinaries, thanked the Archbishop and gave him the first three of the four volumes with the “Family Instructions” that Edizioni Doctrinari had re-edited for the canonization of Father Cesare.
The altar dedicated to him in the right aisle of the church of Gesù Nazareno has been repainted and a monitor has been added to the ink on panel painting portraying the holy catechist: a short video tells the earthly story of Saint Caesar.
Mauro Fresco
