Fr. Piergiorgio Perini and the evangelization cells

A week after his death this past 19 November, the Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life would like to commemorate Fr. Piergiorgio Perini, known to everyone as “Don Pi.Gi.” He was a believer of great conviction, passionate in his priesthood, a true man of the Church, and the founder of the Parish System of Evangelization Cells which has taken root in many countries throughout the world.

Don Pi.Gi. was able to adapt and develop his pastoral experience of “evangelization cells,” which he came to know in the United States, in a creative and effective way. He recognized a real call from the Lord to start a renewed pastoral ministry in his parish, one with a new radical missionary openness.

In this way, Don Pi.Gi. made many people discover the beauty and joy of evangelization as an integral part of their faith. He was also convinced of the fundamental importance of all priests dedicating themselves, with all their energy, to the building up of the community.

As such, the ecclesial reality created by Don Pi.Gi.—precisely insofar as it involves the parish priest in the role of mediator and guide—manages to harmoniously combine the aspect of a “lay movement” (i.e., a movement geared towards the laity, with activities carried out primarily by laypeople) with the parochial dimension. And it is this parish dimension which still remains, in much of the world, the face of the Church which is closest to the common people.

In our prayers, we entrust to the Lord Don Pi.Gi., who, in his ninety years of life and in his sixty-five years of priesthood, was a passionate witness to Jesus and to the Gospel.