Pope Francis appointed a new preacher of the papal household: a 53-year-old Italian Capuchin priest who discovered his vocation while reading a free copy of St Matthew’s Gospel on the subway. Source: NCR Online.
Capuchin Fr Roberto Pasolini succeeds Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, also an Italian Capuchin priest, who turned 90 in July and had been the papal preacher since 1980 when St John Paul II appointed him.
Pope Benedict XVI and Francis respectively confirmed his position, and Francis elevated him to the College of Cardinals in 2020.
The Vatican made the announcement on Friday.
The papal preacher is tasked with preparing the traditional series of Lenten and Advent reflections each year for the Pope and top Vatican officials and is charged with preaching at the Pope’s public celebration of the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday.
Born in 1971, Fr Pasolini received his degree in computer science with a transdisciplinary exploration of artificial intelligence, mathematics, philosophy and psychology,
He became active in parish life, especially in its outreach to the poor, after using his commuting time to read a copy of the Gospel according to St Matthew he got free with a copy of L’Unità, an Italian newspaper founded by the Italian Communist Party and later supported by the Democratic Party of the Left.
He said in a TV interview that he had been politically active, wanting to change the world, but that he then changed his approach when he was struck by a line in JD Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye: “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.”
He said he also admired St Francis of Assisi who believed, “You change the world by repairing it not by overturning it.”
Fr Pasolini made his perpetual vows in the Orders of Friars Minor Capuchin in 2002 and was ordained a priest in 2006.
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Italian Capuchin succeeds Cardinal Cantalamessa as papal preacher (By Carol Glatz, CNS via NCR Online)
