“We Congregation”: Excerpts from a Recent Interview with Bishop Bressanelli, SCJ

Following his return to the Father, we offer you some excerpts of Bishop Bressanelli’s words regarding the Congregation and its mission. It was on May 1, 2026, in Puente la Reina, Spain, on the occasion of his 84th birthday,celebrated with the other Dehonian bishops who had just concluded their gathering.

Bishop Virginio Bressanelli, SCJ

“First of all, I want to send greetings and, more than greetings, a warm embrace to the entire congregation. I have known the congregation at a particular moment, in a—we could say—in a space or a stretch of its historical journey,which is 12 years; but the congregation comes from many years before and, thanks to God, continues its journey throughout history.”

“The congregation was willed by God Himself. Father Dehon used to say in the final years of his life that he was convinced that the true founder of the congregation was not himself, but God, the Lord.”

“The One who makes our history, who builds it, who guides it, is the Holy Spirit. I feel that the Lord accompanies us,that the Sacred Heart of Jesus truly loves us and takes care of us with the eternal love of the Father.”

“I believe that this path of the Lord must be supported by everyone with generosity. That is why I say: we are called to commitment and to have great hope, because the certainty of everything is given to us by God alone.”

“I believe that by the very nature of my vocation, which is the Dehonian vocation, I had no other profound choice left than to resume my place according to the Congregation’s rule of life.”

“I have always been in the congregation, but I ceased belonging in a certain sense, because it is a belonging that is legally considered to exist even when one is in episcopal service or in service to the episcopal ministry.”