The years in which Aurelio Bacciarini was parish priest at Trionfale were short but rich in apostolate.
He was endowed with fortitude and patience, for a valid "street ministry"

by Gabriele Cantaluppi

MMany aptitudes, acquired during childhood, structure a person's character throughout their life and, supported by the grace of God, make them persevere in the practice of good. Among them there is fortitude, one of the four cardinal virtues which - Pope Francis recalled in one of his first catecheses - enriches the world of "simple people, who live an ordinary life with extraordinary love, performing heroic daily gestures in silence small and large difficulties of existence" (23 June 2013).

Fortitude was the virtue that Monsignor Aurelio Bacciarini, since childhood and youth, practiced in a gym of sacrifice, which then made him the "Job of the episcopate", as Pope Pius XI defined him. His parish priest Don Pietro Vaghetti instead called him "the son of Providence", so numerous were the signs of protection from the Lord. Fraught with difficulties, but also rich in help, his path towards the priesthood had been, longed for since as a child, despite the extreme poverty of the family that had given him birth on 8 November 1873, the seventh of eight children, in Lavertezzo, in the Canton of Ticino in Switzerland.

Two imprints, those of fortitude and trust, which will accompany the entire ministry of Don Aurelio. Having experienced poverty firsthand, he could well understand the poverty of the Trionfale neighborhood, where his Roman parish was located, then on the extreme outskirts of the city. There was material poverty, but it was aggravated even more by spiritual poverty. He was appointed the first parish priest in 1912 and remained there until the death of Don Guanella in October 1915.

At that time the wounds opened in Rome by the Italian Risorgimento had not yet healed. Indeed, anti-clerical opposition had intensified, often involving physical violence. The Trionfale area was also favorable ground for the Protestant sects, with the economic possibilities with which they favored their followers. Furthermore, the parish also embraced the area of ​​Valle Aurelia, a village of bakers, among the first in Rome to have a union, strongly influenced by radical socialism.

The population of the parish, initially made up of the white-collar class, subsequently saw the arrival of a population dedicated to labourers, who, in the absence of an urban plan, lived in inhumane conditions.

Don Aurelio had learned from the parish priest of his childhood that "street ministry" that made him write: «Here the good must be done more outside the church than in the church». Certainly the Christian community of his small Swiss village was not that of Rome, but even there in the mountains the pastoral ministry required attention to the families, who were often left without their most capable hands because they had emigrated elsewhere in search of fortune, or were absent for long months on the mountain pastures. . Then the parish priest had to experience what Cardinal Ildefonso Schuster would say, years later, returning from pastoral visits to the most remote villages of the Milanese diocese: «For the pastoral ministry in the parish it is also necessary to have good legs».

The proverbial Roman apathy further aggravated the burden of pastoral work in the parish of San Giuseppe al Trionfale: «Is there a shelter for an old man, for a sick person? – it is always Bacciarini who writes – you have to climb the stairs of a building at least a dozen times. The same thing is renewed for marriages, for subsidies, for all other acts of the ministry."

Although busy on the material assistance front, Don Aurelio had learned the priority of the pastoral ministry for the priest. In fact he never missed his presence in the confessional, at the bedside of the sick, especially if they were dying. His preaching, until the last period of his life, was always carefully prepared and written; he wanted it "short and simple like the Gospel, but as frequent as possible, full of examples and similes".  He remembers that one Sunday, after preaching  numerous times to different groups, in the evening he was completely voiceless.

In such a large parish, Don Bacciarini understood the importance of having valid collaborators who supported pastoral care in the various sectors of daily life. He therefore had at heart the formation of associations that would involve the greatest number of parishioners in evangelical testimony in their own environment. He followed them personally, with training meetings; they counted up to seventeen. He always privileged that of "Catholic men" and that of young people, convinced that youth should be cared for, because he "holds in his hands the future of the faith among us".

A completely new initiative was the so-called "Gold Star", which had the purpose of providing first aid and transporting seriously ill patients to hospital, especially in the event of accidents. He provided her with a stretcher and employed a doctor to hold an instruction course on how to treat the sick, because "charity must be done well". 

Certainly Monsignor Bacciarini was a child of his time in his underlying motivations and in his life choices, but over everything the supernatural fortitude that drew on the Heart of Jesus, to which his last thoughts went on his deathbed, prevailed in him. A few minutes before closing his eyes to this world, he signed the parchment with the act of consecration of the Canton of Ticino to the Sacred Heart, placing his name between two crosses.