14 continually been developed, renewed, has been transformed into something more authentic, deeper and more mature and has contributed to purifi cation and growth! – In view of religious communities, the Council specifi es: The adaptation and renewal of the religious life includes both the constant return to the sources of all Christian life and to the original spirit of the institutes and their adaptation to the changed conditions of our time (Perfectae Caritatis 2). This provides the approach: to open the Pallottine sources anew in order to better and more deeply understand them in the context of contemporary life and thought, perhaps to discover new dimensions and then to translate the insights into the present day in the sense of modernisation that John XXIII desired for the entire Church. A fi rst glance at the person of Vincent Pallotti does not immediately unveil the timeliness of the saint, including and especially for today.2 Pat Jackson observes that he would not only appear as too conservative in the context of political developments and as closed toward democratic processes.3 John Paul II, in his speech of April 12, 1985, was of the opinion that Pallotti’s “idea found its defi nitive expression in the texts of the Second Vatican Council”4. Therefore, one could ask why the realisation of these ideas and, furthermore, the proposals attached to them, took until 2003 to fi nd a legal foundation of the Catholic Apostolate, and why they are taking so long in general. Biographers and other authors have concluded that Vincent was fi lled with prophetic spirit.5 In order to trace this dimension anew and to be able to discern the prophetic voice today, it is not enough to study the writings of the saint. Rather, it must be researched in the context and in the perspective of the times as well as through the prism of history of reception. This should not be driven in the fi rst place by historical interests, which are already covered by the presence of a plethora of material, but by the search for prophetic suggestions for the present and specifi cally for an ecclesiology in its concrete ability to be lived and its concrete consequences, a “practical 2 For example in 1975, Karl Stelzer gives as a reason for writing a short, new biography of Vincent Pallotti, upon the request of his superiors: “This biography of the ‘Apostle of Rome’ desires to demonstrate the astonishing contemporary nature of the saint even for our day”; cf. Karl STELZER, Vinzenz Pallotti. Ein Heiliger für heute, Friedberg 1975. 3 Cf. Pat JACKSON, Die Liebe Christi drängt uns. Einführung in die Spiritualität Vinzenz Pallottis, Friedberg 2001, p. 37. 4 Cf. ACTASOCIETATISAPOSTOLATUS CATHOLICI (Acta SAC), Rom, Bd. XII, p. 111. 5 For example, . F. TODISCO, San Vincenzo Pallotti profeta della spiritualità di communione, Roma 2004.
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