Main Feature

By Simon Hart

‘Church Street was always a dream for many of the sisters,’ says Sister Angela Grant, explaining the recent relocation of the Pauline Books and Media Centre a short distance down the road from its former home on Bold Street. ‘We wanted to be in the hub of the city. We wanted to be where we’d be more visible and would be able to reach out to the non-evangelised as well – to bring in lots of people from different walks of life.’

The Daughters of St Paul have been in Liverpool since 1966 but their new base on Church Street, inaugurated and blessed by Archbishop Malcolm McMahon last May, represents a new and hope-filled chapter. This is not only a bookshop but a ‘Centre of light’, to use the Sisters’ terminology. It has a chapel, inaugurated by Bishop Thomas Neylon, and a conference area which will be available for hosting events such as retreats and book launches. Crucially, adds Sr Angela, there is also a pastoral hub which she believes will prove significant once the centre is fully opened. ‘If people want a chat or a cup of tea or some information, they can go there for a conversation confidentially.’

It is the cue for her to quote Blessed James Alberione, the founder of the Pauline Family. ‘He said that the book centres were not a business venue but a place that radiated the love and truth of Jesus Christ and that everybody should find a place where their spirituality is nurtured and where they feel welcomed,’ she says. This blend of books and spirituality is at the heart of the Sisters’ work. And it is not just books. The Pauline mission means ‘communicating God’s work through the media and evangelising’, says Sr Angela, who remembers how Pope Francis reiterated this point in an address to their General Chapter at the Vatican in 2019.

‘Pope Francis encouraged us to continue to arise and be women of resurrection, to be women of faith and to respond through our Pauline mission of communicating God’s work through the media and evangelising,’ she explains. ‘He encouraged us that this is a muchneeded mission in the Church and in the world today.

‘The Pauline charism is such a relevant mission in meeting the people of today with the means of today – that was very much reflecting on what Blessed James Alberione would have said. We need to reach the people of today with the means of today. Everyone has a mobile phone in their hand. He encouraged us as Paulines to use these means for the good of evangelisation and to communicate God’s word with these means.’

Back to the beginning The history of the Paulines can be traced back to one New Year’s Eve more than a century ago. To be precise, to 31 December 1900 in Alba, a town in the northern Italian region of Piedmont. Blessed James Alberione, the future founder of the Society of St Paul and of the Pauline Family, was a 16-year-old seminarian attending Midnight Mass. He stayed behind for the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and in that moment found the inspiration to ‘do something for the Lord and for the people of the new century’, as he later described it. That something was to spread the Christian message through the printed word.

He began by directing the Gazzetta d’Alba, a weekly diocesan newspaper. In August 1914, he founded the ‘Little Workers’ typographical school which would later become the Society of St Paul. A year later, with the arrival of the first woman, 21-year-old Teresa Merlo, he began a second Congregation, the Daughters of St Paul. Sr Angela elaborates: ‘We started off with the printed word. Alberione’s great desire was that the word of God would be in the hands of all people. Radio was invented and then television and he used all these means to evangelise. When he died in 1971, we continued to carry out his charism of evangelising through the media. We are in 51 countries throughout the world and today have sisters working in co-operation with lots of lay professional people.’

The mission in Britain When the Pauline Sisters arrived in the United Kingdom in the late 1950s, their first approach was evangelising via ‘drop-aganda’, as Sr Angela calls it. ‘That was literally going around houses, schools, factories and giving people the opportunity to buy a book or a Bible.’ Then came the book centres –starting in Birmingham, with others opening in Liverpool, London, Glasgow and, most recently, Newcastle. ‘The book centres were a very visible presence of us on the high street with a Christian witness of communicating God’s word and making it visible to people,’ adds Sr Angela.

Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald celebrates Mass on the 50th anniversary of the death of Blessed James Alberione

‘We also have a production centre based in Slough where we produce catechetical resources, visual resources, and work with different dioceses in exploring ways to provide resources which support the existing religious education.’ One notable initiative she cites is the series of books on the religious art work of Sieger Koder, a German painter and priest, which have proved popular across different Christian denominations in this country and beyond. ‘Lots of people appreciate the visual resources and reflections in the series of books we have on his paintings. We started producing them in the early 90s.’

Today, there are almost 3,000 Pauline Sisters worldwide, with 21 of them based in the United Kingdom. Their new ‘Centre of light’ on Church Street represents a reinforced presence in Liverpool, as Sr Angela explains. ‘At the new centre there are eight sisters working currently but this number will rise with new posts to be filled in the administration department, warehouse and book centre.’ Both the warehouse and central apostolic offices on the upper floors are being relocated from their main base in Slough as a result of a Europe-wide reorganisation process which followed the Pauline Sisters’ general chapter in 2019.

Sr Angela, a member of the steering commission assisting the general leadership team in Rome, reflects that ‘the vitality, continuous support and Synod process of the Archdiocese of Liverpool’ were all factors taken into account when the Sisters chose to deepen their footprint here. ‘The whole Synod process offers hope for the future,’ she says.

And it is very much the future that the Pauline Family are focused on. Sr Angela talks with enthusiasm about the range of activities which will now be run from their Church Street base, including their marketing work and website. ‘We dedicate our time and our lives to exploring all ways to communicate God’s word through

Archbishop Malcolm blesses the new Church Street Centre - May 2021

the media – today, social media, the digital world, is a huge opening for us to be ever more present there to communicate God’s word.’

Yet those Pic readers who prefer the printed word need not fear. Of the new bookshop, Sr Angela says: ‘The Word of God and Scripture is something we keep very much at heart and there’s also a very colourful and attractive children’s area, as well as a section on youth outreach and another looking at the whole area of self-help. We hope in time we can offer open days for people to come and see our new presence. All the Sisters very much look forward to welcoming many people from across the Archdiocese and beyond.’

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