Monday, November 02, 2020

Fr Giuseppe Vallauri, RIP

We have just received news of the death earlier this morning of Fr Giuseppe Vallauri, a priest of the Sons of Divine Providence, and one of the pillars of the early movement to preserve and promote the traditional Latin Mass. Not long after the Ecclesia Dei indult was promulgated, Don Vallauri, who was (if I remember correctly) stationed in Ireland at the time, made a tutorial video on how to the celebrate the TLM called “The Most Beautiful Thing This Side of Heaven.” Many of the priests who offered the old Mass under the indult regime learned to do so at least in part from this video (back when there was no internet and people still had VCRs.) For many years, he worked in the Roman Curia, and celebrated the Mass for pilgrims at various shrines in the area of Rome, at weddings and funerals, and in more recent years, as the TLM has continued to flourished, helped with the magnificent Holy Week services at the FSSP church in Rome, Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini. (He had a beautiful baritone voice, and was perfect as the Christus for the singing of the Passions.)

Deus, qui inter apostolicos sacerdotes famulum tuum Joseph sacerdotali fecisti dignitate vigere: praesta quaesumus: ut eorum quoque perpetuo aggregetur consortio. Per Christum, Dominum nostrum. Amen.
God, who among the apostolic priests made Thy servant Joseph to flourish with priestly dignity: grant, we beseech Thee: that he may also be joined unto their perpetual society. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Fr Vallauri was born in the town of Robilante, near Cuneo in the northern region of the Piedmont, on Sept. 7, 1945. He entered the congregation of the Sons of Divine Providence (founded by Don Giuseppe Orione in 1903, and also known in Italian as the “Orionisti”) in 1956 at the age of 11. He served in the order’s parish in Bantingford, England for 24 years (his English was excellent), then Ireland, before going to Kenya in 1996. In more recent years, he served as an archivist in the Roman Curia and at the community’s house in Pompei. He was 75 years old, a professed religious for 58 years, and a priest for 48.

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