During a recent audience, Pope Francis communicated to the Reverend Father Angelo Magistrelli, Rector of the Saint Pius X Pre-Seminary, his decision that the Rector move the Seminary outside Vatican City, to a more convenient place, beginning this coming September, reported the Holy See Press Office on Tuesday, May 25, 2021.
The Vatican press release stated: “For some time the possibility has been studied of moving the Saint Pius X Pre-Seminary to a place outside the Vatican Walls, to facilitate the students’ proximity to the places where they study and engage in their recreational activities.”
The note explained that “on this occasion, His Holiness did not fail to express his profound gratitude to Father Magistrelli for the work carried out over these 75 years from the institution’s foundation, recognizing that it retains its educational validity and requesting that it continue the appreciated liturgical service given by the young students in the Vatican’s Saint Peter’s Basilica.”
The move is “a new stage in the life and activity of the Society of the Saint Pius X Pre-Seminary, which undoubtedly will have new opportunities for growth and development, especially in the realm of the promotion of vocations to the sacred ministry,” continued the note.
Saint Pius X Pre-Seminary
As the Facebook page of the Pre-Seminary’s altar boys explains, it is an institute of vocational orientation located in Vatican City, promoted by Pope Pius XII and by the Venerable Father Giovanni Folci in the year 1956, with a mission of liturgical service in the papal Basilica of Saint Peter.
