The Inspiration of the Divine Calling of all People 13 Introduction The mandate, on the occasion of a special anniversary, to look again and anew at the founding fi gure and his heritage, as well as his inspiration for the present day and the future, combines the twofold perspective. There is a refl ection on the charism of the origins and its original realisation together with the exploration and research of the concerns of the present day. In accordance with the intention of the Pallottines, that the 50th anniversary of the canonisation of Pallotti be employed in such a way that it contributes to spiritual growth.1 The following refl ections wish to place themselves at the service of this intention. They pursue the connection between the theology of the Second Vatican Council and the person of Vincent Pallotti on the occasion of the 50 years since the Council and 50 years since the canonisation. The Question and Considerations regarding the Methodological Orientation If one approaches the biography and personality of Vincent Pallotti for the fi rst time, then the date of his canonisation on January 20, 1963, in other words, during the Second Vatican Council, is one of the fi rst and striking things to stand out. The anniversary of his canonisation is connected, therefore, to the anniversaries of the Council for all time. This suggests that the connections between Pallotti and the Council’s content and its history of reception until the present day be refl ected upon anew and repeatedly. A fi rst question already results from this connection. How is the life of the Catholic Church shaped 50 years after this outstanding and epochal Council, which not only ushered in new orientations, but a fundamental paradigm change? Can the upheavals and new structures, the hopes, questions, irritations and confl icts that characterise today’s reception of the Council, gain trend-setting inspiration from the life and activity of Vincent Pallotti? The fact that the Church and its members, its institutions and facilities are in constant need of reform became one of the programmatic phrases of the Second Vatican Council – semper reformanda. On the one hand, a never attainable term in view of the obsolete, the rigid, and that which went wrong, in view of sin and mistakes. On the other hand, a hopeful expression of persistence under the perspective of a dynamic of change toward an evergreater identity, a word of yearning with eschatological connotations and never ending possibilities. How much out of the Church of the origins has 1 Cf. Presentation by Francesco Todisco SAC on the occasion of the 20th. General Assembly of the Pallottines in Ariccia on Oct. 9th, 2010.
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