One year after the canonization of Cesare de Bus, on 15 May 2022, the parish community of Sant’Andrea apostolo in Rome, entrusted to the Doctrinaires Fathers, celebrated with a triduum of prayers that began on 12 May with the Via Lucis at 5 pm and ended with the Eucharistic concelebration on Sunday 14 at 18.
The celebration, presided over by Father Sergio La Pegna, Superior General of the Congregation, was attended not only by numerous Doctrinaires Fathers, but also by the priests of the parishes of Prefecture XIII and the nuns of the pastoral area, invited by the parish priest, Father Ottorino Vanzaghi. At the end of the liturgy, the statue of Saint Cesare De Bus was solemnly blessed, sculpted by the artist Antonello Santilli, which will find its definitive location at the end of the renovation works of the parish church.
Father Sergio La Pegna during the celebration – animated by parish groups with the choir accompanied on the organ by maestro Alessandro Albenga – said: «Exactly one year after the canonization in St. Peter’s, there is no better way than to gather in the Eucharist to thank the Lord for this gift. Saint Bernard, in one of his famous homilies, said: “every time I read the life of a saint, it arouses in me the desire for Heaven”. Today, through the blessing of the new statue of Saint Caesar, we can do the same: he dedicated his whole life to catechesis and the statue has no other reference than to the Word of God. It reminds us that we are messengers with life and with words, to glorify the Lord by going and preaching the gospel. As St. Caesar himself said: “By your life proclaim the Gospel; that word that I offer you must be lived as I have lived it”».
Father Sergio himself, last April 15, in the annual message for the 416th anniversary of the death of St. Caesar, had sent, in Caesar’s words, to be a “living catechism”, to “Be catechists and not be catechists” .
And it is precisely the path of catechesis that, starting from this pastoral year, the parish priest, Father Ottorino, has started in Sant’Andrea Apostolo. A path of “living catechism” which has found the main fulcrum of the formation of children and young people in the family nucleus. «Polarizing the parish on the Word of God and catechesis is really important – says Father Ottorino – it is an opportunity for parents who are also committed to being catechists for their children. This is family catechesis following the example of Saint Caesar, who entitled his catechetical work in several volumes, now republished by the Doctrinaires Fathers, “Instructions for the Family”. And we do it starting from what Pope Francis continually reiterates, as St. Caesar once did: we are all catechists, pastors and lay people together».
Inspired by Saint Caesar, thanks to family catechesis, many families today in many places in Italy continue to nourish themselves spiritually, listen to the Word of God, meditate on it and profit from it to become a “living catechism for their children and for many others”, and they do it through a simple language catechesis, as Father Cesare suggested many centuries ago.
Antonella Oliverio
