The Popes & St. Vincent

St. Vincent has long been recognized by a number of Popes for his spiritual and apostolic accomplishments.   Even in his own day he was praised by Pope Gregory XVI and Pope Pius IX, whose ascendancy to the Papacy Vincent had predicted.

Here are some of their observations.

Pope Pius XI
St. Vincent Pallotti "by founding 'The Society of the Catholic Apostolate' ... divined not only the name but the substance of modern Catholic Action.... (which) shall also profit from the teaching of such a providential and precious fore-runner and collaborator."

Pope Pius XII
"A very necessary thing in our day is to gather together lay people ... and to organize a work in which Vincent Pallotti must be considered the pioneer." Pope John XXIII "Vincent Pallotti's celebration of the Octave of the Epiphany "is a powerful call for the development of the missionary conscience in the Christian world and a plea for the unity of the Church among all the people of the earth.

Pope Paul VI
"Vincent Pallotti aroused the consciousness of the laity, he let loose a new energy in the Church.   He gave to lay people an awareness of their own potential to do good.   He enriched the Christian community with a variety of vocations, not merely of passive acceptance or a faith of ease, but rather a call to the active and even staunch profession of faith."

Pope John Paul II
St. Vincent "conceived his Institute 'as an evangelical trumpet that calls everyone, that invites everyone, that reawakens the zeal and charity of all the faithful in every state, rank, and condition so that everyone will cooperate effectively and perseveringly in the evangelical undertakings of the Catholic Apostolate.'   In the light of these programmatic words, (Pallottines) intend to construct a bridge between clergy and laity in order to give life again to that form of apostolate that associates the faithful to the work of evangelization and sanctification that the whole Church, in her head and in her members, is called to carry out in the world."