The Vatican Post Office celebrates Saint Luigi Orione

On May 16, 2025, the day of the liturgical feast in memory of Saint Luigi Orione, as per tradition, the Postal and Philately Service of the Directorate of Telecommunications and Information Systems gathered at the headquarters of the Vatican Central Post Office for a moment of prayer and reflection.

This year, the celebration was presided by Archbishop Emilio Nappa, Secretary General of the Governorate of the Vatican City State, in the presence of the President, Sr. Raffaella Petrini, the Director of Telecommunications and Information Systems, Antonino Intersimone, and the Procurator General of the Opera Don Orione, Don Fabio Antonelli.

In his greeting, Monsignor Nappa emphasized how each Saint is inspired by God, in a specific historical context, to respond to concrete spiritual and social needs.

With this perspective, the Chief of Service, Don Felice Bruno, retraced the charismatic roots of Don Orione, highlighting how, in an era marked by strong anticlericalism and a growing detachment from the papacy, the Saint from Tortona identified Charity as the privileged instrument to lead hearts back to God, the Pope and the Church.

The reflection then focused on the deep and Christ-centered love that Don Orione had for the Pope, whom he recognized as “the sweet Christ on earth”.

The moment of prayer represented for the entire staff of the Postal and Philately Service and for the Orionine Family — which has had the honor of managing the Vatican postal service since 1940 — an opportunity to renew their loyalty and affection towards the Holy Father Leo XIV.

The following is the speech by Don Felice Bruno:

Saint Luigi Orione is universally recognized as the saint of charity. Just think of his social welfare centers, known as “Little Cottolengo,” or the words with which he was celebrated by Supreme Pontiffs.

Upon his death on March 12, 1940, Pope Pius XII called him “father of the poor and outstanding benefactor of suffering and abandoned humanity.” John Paul II, on the occasion of his beatification, stated that Don Orione “had the determination and heart of the Apostle Paul,” and called him a “strategist of charity” on the day of his canonization 21 years ago. Benedict XVI mentions him in the encyclical Deus Caritas est, indicating him among the “outstanding models of social charity” (n. 40). Not to mention how in the Magisterium of Pope Francis we can find evident, sometimes even literary parallels, with the Orionine charism: just think of the theme of the “outgoing” Church or the constant call to recognize the face of God in the poorest and most rejected.

However, the ultimate goal of Don Orione's work - and that of the Congregation he founded - is love for Christ, for the Church, and especially for the Pope. Charity is the privileged means.

In a historical context marked by strong anticlericalism, fueled in particular by the anti temporal ideology of the Risorgimento, Don Orione wanted to impress upon his religious from the very beginning the distinctive sign of a profound "papalinity".

Love for the Pope has a vast range of expressions that materialize in the religious Institutes of special consecration through a fourth vow. There are, for example, the Jesuits who - in addition to the three religious vows of obedience, poverty and chastity - make a "fourth vow" of unconditional obedience to the Pontiff. Our Pauline brothers, by will of the Founder, Blessed Don Giacomo Alberione, make a fourth vow of fidelity to the Pope which is expressed above all in the apostolate of the press, as "an extension of the mission of the successor of Saint Peter".

Don Orione has a spirituality all his own - Christocentric. The well-known hagiographer Alessandro Pronzato titled the biography of the Saint from Tortona “The fool of God”. He was in love with Jesus, and this love was reflected in his love for the Pope – whom he called, quoting St. Catherine, “the sweet Christ on earth” – and in the poor, in whom he loved to repeat: the image of God shines. Jesus, the Pope, the poor: three flames of a single apostolic fire that burned without limits in his heart. It is not surprising, therefore that Don Orione spoke of the Pope with intense, at times hyperbolic expressions. We heard his words a moment ago: “Our Creed is the Pope, our morality is the Pope; our love, our heart, the reason for our life is the Pope. For us, the Pope is Jesus Christ: loving the Pope and loving Jesus is the same thing”. Considering the Pope as the “cornerstone of the work of Divine Providence in the world,” Don Orione was clear in perceiving the growing rift between the Church and the people, between faith and society. Faced with the allure of ideologies and customs that distanced people from the Gospel, he developed his inspiration and his strategy: charity.

“Never before as in our times,” he wrote on April 13, 1920, “have the people been so detached from the Church and the Pope; and this is how providential it is that this love is awakened by all possible means so that the love of Jesus Christ may return to live in souls. The exercise of Charity will perfectly achieve its purpose by corresponding to the needs of our times, which is precisely this, to bring society back to God by reuniting it with the Pope and the Church”.

And again: “Works of Charity are needed: they are the best apologia of the Catholic Faith. It is necessary that in each of our steps a work of brotherhood, of humanity, of pure and most holy Charity, worthy of children of the Church, born and flowing from the Heart of Jesus, is created and flourishes: works of the heart and of Christian Charity are needed. And everyone will believe in them! Charity opens the eyes of Faith and warms hearts with love for God”.

What love for the Pope, then? A Christological love, because it is rooted in the awareness that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ, lived concretely in works of charity towards the little ones, the poor, the people. This is the originality of the Orionine “papalinity”.

I conclude with some words of the Saint that well express his ardent passion for the Pope and the Church, with the hope that they can inspire us too, at the beginning of Pope Leo XIV’s Pontificate, to whom we spiritually send our warm embrace: “We are all of the Pope, from head to toe; we are of the Pope inside and out, in total union of minds and hearts, of action, of works of life, to whatever may be the Pope’s wishes.

Love for the Pope, I dare not say, is our third holy love, as I would be saying too little, since love for the Pope for us is identified with the same love for Jesus Christ. In the Pope we see the Lord, in the word of the Pope, we comprehend the desires of the very heart of Jesus. The Pope and Jesus, I would dare to say, are the same thing, because the Pope is the sweet Christ on earth”.

And so, paraphrasing Don Orione, not only we Orionine religious, but also all of us workers of the Vatican Postal and Philately Service – in whom I see a great loyalty to work, to the Pope and to the Governorate – we want to be “many hearts that beat around the heart of the Pope”.

And if Pope Leo wants to visit us, we will repeat it to him with filial affection and sincere enthusiasm.