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A new chapter for the Pauline Family The Daughters of St Paul have turned the page in Liverpool with the opening of the Pauline Books and Media Centre on Church Street. By Simon Hart ‘Church Street was always a dream for many of the sisters,’ says Sister Angela Grant, explaining the recent relocation of the Pauline Books and Media Centre a short distance down the road from its former home on Bold Street. ‘We wanted to be in the hub of the city. We wanted to be where we’d be more visible and would be able to reach out to the non-evangelised as well – to bring in lots of people from different walks of life.’ The Daughters of St Paul have been in Liverpool since 1966 but their new base on Church Street, inaugurated and blessed by Archbishop Malcolm McMahon last May, represents a new and hope-filled chapter. This is not only a bookshop but a ‘Centre of light’, to use the Sisters’ terminology. It has a chapel, inaugurated by Bishop Thomas Neylon, and a conference area which will be available for hosting events such as retreats and book launches. Crucially, adds Sr Angela, there is also a pastoral hub which she believes will prove significant once the centre is fully opened. ‘If people want a chat or a cup of tea or some information, they can go there for a conversation confidentially.’ It is the cue for her to quote Blessed James Alberione, the founder of the Pauline Family. ‘He said that the book centres were not a business venue but a place that radiated the love and truth of Jesus Christ and that everybody should find a place where their spirituality is nurtured and where they feel welcomed,’ 4
Catholic Pictorial
she says. This blend of books and spirituality is at the heart of the Sisters’ work. And it is not just books. The Pauline mission means ‘communicating God’s work through the media and evangelising’, says Sr Angela, who remembers how Pope Francis reiterated this point in an address to their General Chapter at the Vatican in 2019. ‘Pope Francis encouraged us to continue to arise and be women of resurrection, to be women of faith and to respond through our Pauline mission of communicating God’s work through the media and evangelising,’ she explains. ‘He encouraged us that this is a muchneeded mission in the Church and in the world today. ‘The Pauline charism is such a relevant mission in meeting the people of today with the means of today – that was very much reflecting on what Blessed James Alberione would have said. We need to reach the people of today with the means of today. Everyone has a mobile phone in their hand. He encouraged us as Paulines to use these means for the good of evangelisation and to communicate God’s word with these means.’ Back to the beginning The history of the Paulines can be traced back to one New Year’s Eve more than a century ago. To be precise, to 31 December 1900 in Alba, a town in the northern Italian region of Piedmont. Blessed James Alberione, the future founder of the Society of St Paul and of the Pauline Family, was a 16-year-old
‘If people want a chat or a cup of tea or some information, they can go there for a conversation confidentially’ seminarian attending Midnight Mass. He stayed behind for the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and in that moment found the inspiration to ‘do something for the Lord and for the people of the new century’, as he later described it. That something was to spread the Christian message through the printed word. He began by directing the Gazzetta d’Alba, a weekly diocesan newspaper. In August 1914, he founded the ‘Little Workers’ typographical school which would later become the Society of St Paul. A year later, with the arrival of the first woman, 21-year-old Teresa Merlo, he began a second Congregation, the Daughters of St Paul. Sr Angela elaborates: ‘We started off with the printed word. Alberione’s great desire was that the word of God would be in the hands of all people. Radio was invented and then television and he used all these means to evangelise. When he died in 1971, we continued to carry out his charism of evangelising through the media. We are in 51 countries throughout the world and today have sisters working in co-operation with lots of lay professional people.’ The mission in Britain When the Pauline Sisters arrived in the United Kingdom in the late 1950s, their first approach was evangelising via ‘drop-aganda’, as Sr Angela calls it. ‘That was literally going around houses, schools, factories and giving people the opportunity to buy a book or a Bible.’ Then came the book centres – starting in Birmingham, with others opening in Liverpool, London, Glasgow and, most recently, Newcastle. ‘The book centres were a very visible presence of us on the high street with a Christian witness of communicating God’s word and making it visible to people,’ adds Sr Angela.
