It was commissioned, today, February 9, 2024, with the decree signed by the Archbishop of Salerno-Campagna-Acerno, Andrea Bellandi, the Opera del Gregge del Bambino Gesù.
The private association of the faithful - reads in the statement released by the Archdiocese - was born from the spiritual experience of Mrs. Caterina Tramontano (1911-1996). Attracted by her testimony of faith and charity, from 1939 to today, a large group of people, laymen and priests, has been established, who then constituted themselves as a private association of the faithful, based in Montecorvino Pugliano.
It is worth remembering that, with the decree of May 31, 2017, the then Archbishop of Salerno-Campagna-Acerno Luigi Moretti, approved ad experimentum atque triennium the Statute, conferring canonical legal personality on the association. "Having expired the terms of the approval ad experimentum, while recognizing and appreciating the nature and purposes of the association, by virtue of my duty of supervision, in view of the final approval of the Statute, I deemed it necessary to acquire further elements of evaluation", reads on Bellandi's decree.
The various vicissitudes that have occurred over the years have culminated in the failure to overcome the various criticisms repeatedly highlighted and in strong divisions within the association, accompanied by not infrequent abandonments. For its part, the "Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life" has invited the archbishop to implement all means to achieve clarity about the authentically ecclesial nature of the association.
The Archbishop has appointed Commissioner Monsignor Erasmo Napolitano of the clergy of the Diocese of Nola and Judicial Vicar of several Ecclesiastical Tribunals; Vice-Commissioners Monsignor Pasquale Silvestri of the clergy of the Archdiocese of Naples, deputy vicar of the Interdiocesan Ecclesiastical Tribunal Partenopeo, and Father Antonio Russo of the clergy of the Diocese of Mileto-Nicotera-Tropea, Judge of the Interdiocesan Ecclesiastical Tribunal Calabro. "In carrying out their duties - the note continues - the archbishop's commissioner and the vice-commissioners will assume all the competences attributed to the president and the executive council which, from the date of notification of the decree to the president of the association, must be considered lapsed. The commissioner has legal representation and the ordinary and extraordinary administration of the assets of the Association. Meanwhile, the exercise of worship and pastoral activities in the chapel of the "SS. Hearts of Jesus and Mary" - in the territory of the Parish of SS. Joseph and Vito, in the locality "Pagliarone" of Montecorvino - will continue as already established by the archbishop".
"I hope for fruitful collaboration, especially from those who have had directive responsibilities, with the commissioner and his deputies in order to make this my measure more fruitful and to conclude their mandate shortly - Bellandi concluded - I am sure that this my decision, the result of long and deep prayer and reflection and aimed exclusively at the good of the association, is welcomed by the associates as a sign of due attention of the archbishop for the good of the association and the Church, with the aim of a hoped for full, concordant and transparent insertion of it into diocesan life".