On Saturday, September 11, 2021, at 6:30 p.m., Friar Rosario TERRANOVA, of the Province of St. Agatha and St. Lucy in Italy (Sicily), was ordained to the priesthood by the imposition of hands of the Most Reverend Corrado LOREFICE, Archbishop of Palermo, Italy. The ordination took place in the Pontifical Minor Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi in Palermo.

Those attending the ceremony included Friar Gaspare LA BARBERA, Minister Provincial of Sicily; Friar Giovanni VOLTAN, Assistant General for the Federazione Inter-mediterranea Ministri Provinciali (FIMP); Friar Giorgio TASSONE, Custos of the Provincial Custody of St. Daniel and Companion Martyrs in Italy (Calabria); along with numerous priests from the Provincial fraternity and the diocesan clergy. The next day, Sunday, September 12, the new priest presided over his first Mass in the same basilica.
The archbishop addressed some warm and fatherly words to Friar Rosario and the faithful. He spoke about the figure of the Servant of the Lord from the Book of Isaiah and compared him to the ministry of the priesthood. “God opens the ears of a priest to be able to hear His Word. The priest’s ability to hear shows that he belongs to the Lord.” The Archbishop continued, “The priest is someone who is not seduced by human logic and therefore, does not become a ‘scandal’ before God. Rather, he collaborates with God in the implementation of his will. The Lord never ceases to ask his priests to follow him, to be ministers of the Gospel.” Then, Archbishop LOREFICE, addressing the newly ordained, spoke about St. Francis of Assisi, the man who became a living Gospel, who took the lifestyle of the Gospel and conformed himself to it. Finally, the archbishop urged Friar Rosario not to be prideful about the gift of the ministerial priesthood, which is, and will always remain, a free gift of God for His people.

We assure Friar Rosario of our prayers and ask that he may be successful in his priestly ministry and in his service as Provincial Secretary, a role recently entrusted to him by the Provincial Chapter.

From the Province of Sicily