Roman report Alberto Carosa remembers the late Don Giuseppe Vallauri, a giant of the Traditional Liturgy

A true man of God

Alberto Carosa remembers the late Don Giuseppe Vallauri, a giant of the Traditional Liturgy

Sometimes it happens that in the times and circumstances in which the death of a person occurs, it is possible to see indications of the extent to which he or she was appreciated by the Lord.

This is precisely the case with the recent death of a priest linked to the Old Rite, among the many others who have left us in recent months: the Italian Don Giuseppe Vallauri (1945-2020), member of the congregation Figli della Divina Provvidenza (FDP- Sons of Divine Providence) founded by St Luigi Orione (1872-1940).

Fr Vallauri was struck by a heart attack on the morning of 2 November 2020, in a clinic in Rome, while he was preparing to celebrate Holy Mass; thus he ended his earthly pilgrimage to go and receive his eternal reward from the One whom he had served so faithfully in his lifetime. Don Vallauri, as he was familarly called, was 75 years of old. For 58 years he had been a member of the FDP congregation. He had been a priest for 48 years.

Don Giuseppe was born in Robilante, in the Province of Cuneo in Piedmont on 7 September 1945, the seventh of eight children. He joined the FDP congregation (alsocalledOrionines,afterthefounder)in Voghera in 1956 at the age of 11, following in the footsteps of his elder brother Don Sebastiano. After his novitiate and high school at Villa Moffa, he made his first religious profession there on 11 October 1962. He carried out his apostolic training in 1965 in Tortona (Alessandria) and in 1966 in Campocroce di Mirano, Verona.

In 1967 he was sent by his superiors to England, to the community of Up Holland for theological studies at the inter-diocesan major seminary and he was ordained priest on 27 May 1972 in Liverpool Cathedral.

Don Giuseppe began his first priestly apostolate in Dublin, from 1972 to 1977. In those years he also graduated in English Literature, a language he spoke fluently. From 1978 to 1988 he was assigned as parish priest in Buntingford (in the diocese of Westminster) and then returned again to Dublin, from 1989 to 1995.

From 1996 to 1998 he was in Nairobi, where he laid the foundations for the opening of the new Orionine mission in Langata. He returned to Italy to the Vatican, where he served in the Vatican Post Office from 1999 to 2004. From 2005 to 2008, he was confessor and head of the Orionine community at the Sanctuary of Madonna di Pompei. He spent his last years in the General Curia of the Congregation in Rome, where he arrived in 2008 to serve as an archivist.

The Gruppo Stabile san Luigi Orione was founded by Don Giuseppe to promote the celebration of the Old Rite. I had the great honour, privilege and pleasure to know Don Giuseppe at this time.

Those who, like me, knew Don Giuseppe well knew him to be a true man of God, one of the most intrepid in safeguarding and promoting the Traditional Liturgy. Needless to say, his wonderful celebrations of the Mass, which he had already begun long before the Summorum Pontificum came into force, are deeply missed.

Don Vallauri managed to bring the ancient rite to the Cesi chapel of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore and to San Nicola in Carcere. He also teamed up with the Institute of Christ the King, and with the parish of the SS Trinità dei Pellegrini.

He was especially devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, as reflected in his countless pilgrimages to Marian shrines such as Pompeii, Montevergine, Madonna del Buon Consiglio in Genazzano and Madonna della Guardia in Tortona in Piedmont, where the mortal remains of San Luigi Orione were laid to rest.

Don Giuseppe brought the Traditional Mass to the sanctuary of Divine Love near Rome, and it was Fr Giuseppe who promoted the practice of the Lenten pilgrimage of the seven churches, a Roman and medieval tradition revived by San Filippo Neri and which included a visit to the four major papal basilicas, St Peter’s, St Mary Major, St John Lateran and St Paul outside the Walls.

In the pilgrimage to Pompeii and Montevergine in early October 2011, a friend of my wife came all the way from Finland to join us once she learned that Don Vallauri was leading the group, a clear sign that his fame as a holy priest was now spreading far beyond national borders.

For a number of years he also served as chaplain and preacher of spiritual retreats with the Militia Templi (Militia of the Temple), also called the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ (Christi Pauperum Militum Ordo), a Catholic private association of lay faithful that adopts as its liturgy the Tridentine Mass.

One traditionalist remembered Fr Vallauri as: "An extremely polite priest, who embodied the sobriety of a certain kind of Roman clergy, that now hardly exists.”

Dear San Luigi Orione and Father Vallauri, orate pro nobis!