Ganzirri greets Father Antonello Angemi: 17 years of life, faith and affection in Messina. «I’m leaving different from how I came»

«Thank you Father Antonello for making our community flourish». It is the phrase written on the banner in the courtyard of the church of San Nicola di Bari, a summary of the 17 years lived by Father Antonello Angemi at the helm of the Ganzirri community. A simple yet meaningful greeting, which accompanied a celebration marked by the emotion, gratitude and affection of an entire community. The church was packed: present were the brotherhoods of Saint Nicholas and the Madonna of the Mountain, altar servers, parish groups, choirs, associations and the many realities that have shared a beautiful and fruitful journey with the priest in recent years. Different faces, families and generations gathered to gather around their parish priest at the moment of farewell; among the concelebrants also his predecessor, Msgr. Gaetano Tripodo, and Don Enrico Mortillaro, parish priest of Santa Margherita and originally from Ganzirri and the president of the Sixth District, Sasha Cardile. To make the greeting even more significant, the community’s gift to Father Antonello: a chasuble that the priest wore in the second part of the celebration, a concrete sign of a bond built over time. Father Angemi leaves Ganzirri in obedience to a new calling. It was destined for the parish of San Nicolò in Villafranca Tirrena, where it will be installed tomorrow, 28 September at 6pm, in the mass presided over by Archbishop Giovanni Accolla. Father Marcello Pavone will arrive in Ganzirri instead. In his greeting, delivered with evident emotion, Angemi spoke of obedience as a “madness of love”. He talked about the struggle of leaving people who have become part of one’s life, comparing himself to Abraham, called to leave his security for a new land, and to Elijah, invited to get up and follow new paths. “The Lord calls me to go and work in another portion of his vineyard,” he said. But in his words the real protagonist was not the farewell, but the thank you. “I’m leaving totally different from how I came,” he confided, recognizing that perhaps the deepest meaning of those 17 years was not being necessary to Ganzirri, but having discovered how much Ganzirri had been necessary to him. His thanks were gathered around three words: presence, understanding, example. The presence of a community that opened the doors of their homes and hearts to him, standing by him even in the pain of the loss of his mother. The understanding of those who knew how to know man beyond the priest, with fragility, limits and errors. “Thank you because you forgave me when I made a mistake,” he said. And finally the example received from families, children, young people, the elderly and the sick. He asked everyone to welcome the new parish priest without comparison or division, remaining “unanimous and in agreement”. Because love, he recalled, is not divided when one is called to love someone else: it multiplies. Then the last words addressed to his community: «You are not my parishioners, but children. And children always love each other.”