On June 22, 2025, the community of San Giacomo alla Lungara in Rome and local members of the Militia of the Immaculata (M.I.) came together to celebrate the 90th birthday of Friar Angelo D’ONOFRI. Friar Angelo is a member of the Italian Province of St. Francis of Assisi (Central Italy), which was formerly the Province of Rome.
The event was marked by communal prayer in the Church of San Giacomo, which was filled with friends, relatives, fellow friars, and members of the historic Father Luciano LELII M.I group, for whom Friar Angelo served as Spiritual Assistant for fifty years.
During the Mass, the Guardian, Friar Renzo DEGNI, offered best wishes on behalf of those present, and expressed the community’s closeness to Friar Angelo, who has spent nearly his entire life there. Friar Renzo wished Friar Angelo, many more years of fidelity, simplicity, evangelical witness and ever vigilant and faithful service.
During his homily, Friar Angelo thanked those present and focused his reflection on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, inviting everyone to place the Eucharist at the center of their lives.
At the end of the Mass, the Guardian read a telegram from Pope Leo XIV: “I express my heartfelt congratulations and best wishes, along with appreciation for your long, generous, and faithful witness of priestly life and service in the Secretariat of State.”
The celebration ended with a buffet on the friary terrace, prepared by the cook Margherita TREPICHA and attended by a large group of Militia members including the local M.I. President, Antonio DI PLACIDI, TV2000 Director Vincenzo MORGANTE, the friary’s physician, Dr. Filomena D’AGROSA, and several families who attend the morning Mass.
Friar Angelo was born in Ferentino in the Italian Region of Lazio on June 23, 1935. However, his parents registered his birth at the town hall on June 27. After his formation, he was ordained to the priesthood on July 9, 1961. He then completed a year-long course in missiology at Propaganda Fide, [the Dicastery for Evangelization] and began his service in the Vatican Secretariat of State, a role he held for fifty-six years, from 1962 to 2018. He spent his life dividing his time between the Vatican, the San Giacomo Friary (where he had also spent several years in formation), and his plants and flowers, which he tended in his free time on the large friary terrace, in the shade of the Romanesque bell tower overlooking the Janiculum Hill and St. Peter’s Dome. He has a deep relationship with flowers, and it is not uncommon to find him talking to them.
For fifty-six years, he held a rather delicate position in the Archives of the Secretariat of State, as an employee of the Separate and Confidential Envelopes Section, a task he performed with scrupulous dedication as a faithful servant and guardian of a rather precious heritage. Through his hands (using a little computer and a lot of pen) have passed the personnel files of the entire Roman Curia, along with thousands of documents, letters, and dossiers from the Vatican dicasteries, apostolic nunciatures, and dioceses around the world.
He was a member of several commissions within the Secretariat, and was entrusted with the power of signing the validations of entry permits into Italy for priests and religious from all over the world. Always discreet and a silent keeper of many secrets, in 2005, at the age of seventy, he was supposed to retire, but the Pope kept him on for another thirteen years.
During his years of apostolic service, he oversaw the Secretariat for six popes: John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis, as well as six Secretaries of State: Cardinals CICOGNANI, VILLOT, CASAROLI, SODANO, BERTONE, and PAROLIN.
The San Giacomo community and the M.I. members wish Friar Angelo a long life.
Friar Paolo FIASCONARO
