APOSTOLIC UNION. - A priestly association, founded under the title "A. U. of the diocesan priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus" in France in 1862 by the honorary canon of Orléans, Msgr. Lebeurier.
Some priests of the Veneto, who had already established something similar for Italy, joined the French Association, and on 18 Nov. 1880 at Monte Berico in Vicenza the first Italian circle arose through the work of Fr. Luigi Marini of Bassano Veneto. The A. U. is spread across 24 nations and numbers 26,000 members. It was blessed and enriched with numerous briefs by the pontiffs. It is consecrated to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Its patrons are St. John Vianney, curé of Ars, and St. Joseph Cafasso. Bl. Pius X was a member of it and always supported and recommended it.
Aims of the Association: 1) to give secular priests the possibility of enjoying certain advantages of the religious life, protecting them against the dangers of solitude, fostering mutual charity and fraternal friendship; 2) to procure the sanctification of its members through fidelity to the practices of priestly piety: this fidelity is facilitated by an individual and fraternal check exercised by means of the regularity bulletin that each member fills in every day and then sends to the director of the Association or to his own spiritual director; 3) to orient all members toward an intense devotion and a close union with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary; 4) to make them share, in life and in death, in the prayers of their confreres and in the fruit of the Holy Masses celebrated for the members of the Association.
The national Directorate for the Italian clergy is currently in Trento (Via dei Giardini, no. 36).