The diocesan inquiry closed of Mother Rosetta Marchese

Vatican City. On 4 July 2025, at 12:00 p.m., the Closing Session of the Diocesan Inquiry of the Servant of God Mother Rosetta Marchese (1922-1984) 7^th Superior General of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, was held in the Court Room of the Lateran Apostolic Palace, seat of the Vicariate of Rome.

Present were the Superior General, Sister Chiara Cazzuola and her Council, the Rector Major of the Salesians of Don Bosco, Fr. Fabio Attard; some Provincials of Italy and their delegates; Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni, SDB, Postulator General of the Causes of the Salesian Family; Sister Francesca Caggiano, Vice Postulator; numerous FMA also from different parts of Italy, some family members of the Servant of God, members of the Salesian Family, and acquaintances.

The ceremony was presided by Bishop Mons. Renato Tarantelli Baccari, vicegerent of the Diocese of Rome. The members of the diocesan Tribunal who conducted the inquiry participated: Mons. Giuseppe D’Alonzo, episcopal delegate; Fr. Giorgio Ciucci, promoter of justice; Marcello Terramani, notary actuary.

This closes the stage o la diocesan phase of the Inquiry, opened on 30 April 2021. All the documentation collected will now be delivered to the Dicastery for the Causes of the Saints where, after the validity of the diocesan Inquiry, it will proceed to the drafting of the Positio super virtutibus in view of the recognition of the heroic virtues of the Servant of God.

“The closing of the diocesan phase of the cause of Mother Rosetta Marchese is a significant stage in the recognition of the holiness of this Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, authentic pilgrim of hope. She let herself be loved by the Father who enveloped her life in blessedness and hope and opened it to that gift of spiritual motherhood which is one of the most beautiful characteristics of Mother Rosetta. A hope that was manifested especially in the most difficult moments of her personal and apostolic life and the life of the Institute with the strength of human courage and the power of prayer,” highlighted Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni.

Thanking, also on behalf of the Institute, Msgr. Renato Tarantelli Baccari, and with him Card. Baldassarre Reina, Vicar General of Pope Leo XIV, who delegated him to preside; all the members of the diocesan Tribunal, the Postulator, the Vice Postulator, and the Rector Major for his presence, Mother Chiara Cazzuola in her greeting spoke of Mother Rosetta as a “true woman of God, deeply immersed in His Mystery that she lived with faith and love, totally dedicated to the youth mission proper to the Salesian charism. (…)

In her vocation as a Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, she always put in first place the spiritual care of people: Sisters, young people, lay people, accompanying them to the encounter with Christ. She expressed her motherhood by following spiritually also the priests for whom she felt as a mother and daughter at the same time, and for whom she offered her life. Faithful to the binomial of Don Bosco, forming the young as ‘good Christians and honest citizens’, she promoted forms of youth protagonism in evangelization and human promotion with a shared vision of the living Church and close to the most suffering and needy, taking care of their Christian formation with up-to-date schools and catechetical proposals. (…)

She guided the Institute to the highest goal of Christian life, offering her illness and her life for the holiness of the Institute, the fruitfulness of the youth mission, and the sanctification of priests. Her example is for us a strong call to live with deep interiority the apostolic passion towards the young generations, in the style of the Preventive System of Saint John Bosco and Saint Mary Domenica Mazzarello, in the Church and in society.

Mother Rosetta was a Pilgrim of Hope; a woman who, with her life, pointed out to the Institute and to youth the search for the only essential, Jesus Christ, and proclaimed it with competence and beauty. It therefore seems to me significant that the diocesan inquiry should conclude in this Jubilee Year, a time of special grace.”

She concluded by recalling the concomitance of this event with the first year of celebration of the Triennium in preparation for 150^th of the first missionary departure of the FMA, and with “the fervent preparations for the forthcoming Canonization of Sister Maria Troncatti, (19 October 2025) missionary in Ecuador who, like Mother Rosetta, lived totally for Jesus, Mary, and the salvation of souls.”

MotherRosetta Marchese was born in Aosta on 20 October 1922. She made her first profession in the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in Turin on 5 August 1941. First in Turin and then in Vercelli, she studied to obtain a teacher’s diploma. In 1947, she graduated in Letters at Sacred Heart Catholic University in Milan. From 1947 to 1958, she was a teacher in Turin at “Mother Mazzarello” Missionary House. From 1959 to 1961, she was Animator in Caltagirone, and from 1961 to 1965, in Rome (Via Dalmazia). In 1965, she was entrusted with the leadership of the large Roman Province “St. Cecilia”. From 1971 to 1973, she was Animator in Lecco Olate and then Provincial of “Mary Immaculate” Province of Milan. In 1975, during General Chapter XVI, she was elected Visiting Councilor, and in the subsequent General Chapter of 1981 she was elected Superior General.

On 8 March 1984, after a long illness offered like Mother Mazzarello for the holiness of the Institute, she ended her earthly life. The Cause of Beatification opens in July 2019.

On 13 January 2021, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints communicated to the Cardinal Vicar of the Diocese of Rome, Card. Angelo De Donatis, the Nulla Osta on the part of the Holy See at the opening of the Cause of Beatification and Canonization.

Mother Rosetta is a true woman of God, characterized by a deep contemplative root that supported her Salesian vocation as an educator. Her message is an invitation to configuration to Christ, to evangelical radicality as a filial response to the gift of filial identity given to believers at Baptism.

Photos: Flickr FMA