Who we are
The Apostolic Movement
The Apostolic Movement is an ecclesial group of lay faithful that does its best with a peculiar service of announcement and remembrance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Bringing the Gospel by living it, offering their own lives in a commitment to conversion and sanctification for the salvation of the world: this is the answer that the members of the Apostolic Movement are called to give to an appeal that pours out of the heart of the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption.
Founded in Catanzaro November 3, 1979, by Mrs. Mary Marino, who is its Inspirer and Founder, the Apostolic Movement was welcomed with favour by the Archbishop of Catanzaro Monsignor Armando Fares and by his Auxiliary Monsignor Serafino Sprovieri. His successor, Monsignor Antonio Cantisani approved its statutes. Subsequently, the approval was sealed by the Calabrian Episcopal Conference.
On 16 August 1987, accompanied by Monsignor Vincenzo Rimedio, a large representation of the Apostolic Movement was received in private audience by H.H. John Paul II at Castelgandolfo. Being born from the Supper Room – the Pope said to the members – the Apostolic Movement has the duty to “give the world a new soul” (cf. Roman Observer, 16-17 August 1987, p. 5). It is the commitment of salvation and conversion carried out with the power of the Holy Spirit; feeding on the Eucharist, in communion with the Bishops; unceasingly invoking, with the Holy Rosary, the Virgin Mary, particularly venerated under the title of Mother of the Redemption, with protection of the Angels and Saints.
A first area of engagement of the Movement in accordance with its own charism is evangelization and catechesis. Where the Apostolic Movement is founded, it offers an organic, systematic and permanent catechesis, led by priests and open to all believers in order to be formed in the faith. It is accompanied by meetings of training to the spirituality of the Movement, so that the members can answer with conscience and responsibility to their own specific charisma and to the proper role that this aggregation has in the Church.
Forming in the faith and advancing in a process of conversion, the adherents of the Apostolic Movement first of all, get inserted in their parishes and the diocesan organisms, to live responsibly the Church’s missionary activity. They become available for the mission where there is greater need: in the poorest ecclesial communities, among the sick, the young, and in every social environment in which they daily live.
From the spirituality of the Apostolic Movement arose many vocations to priesthood and diaconate. Particular expressions of it are also the Secular Institute Mary, Mother of the Redemption, which was approved by the Catanzaro-Squillace Ordinary; and the Centre of Theological Studies Verbum.
Currently, the Apostolic Movement has spread to most of the Italian regions; it is also present in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, India and it is being formed in other States. Its means of communication are the homonymou fortnightly paper, published since 1983, and the website www.movimentoapostolico.it. In addition to the online version of the paper, the subsidies for catechesis and comments to the New Testament books of the Central Ecclesiastical Assistant, Mgr Costantino Di Bruno; and the musicals of Cettina Marraffa – multimedia tools to communicate the Gospel in a fresh and relevant way, in our world.
In its national conventions, from 2006 to 2017 – centered respectively on the speeches of Cardinal Angelo Scola, of Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, of H.E. Mgr. Mauro Piacenza, of H.E. Mgr. Joseph Marciante, of H.E. Mario Toso, of Mgr. Miguel Delgado Galindo, of H.E. Mgr. Filippo Santoro, of H.E. Mgr. Nunzio Galantino and of Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri – the involving missionary force of the Apostolic Movement, its complete fidelity to the Magisterium of the Church, its Christian commitment to be “light of the world and salt of the earth” have been confirmed