During the monthly retreat of the Clergy of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Catanzaro-Squillace, which took place this morning at the “Santa Maria della Roccella” parish in Roccelletta di Borgia, the Archbishop HE Monsignor Claudio Maniago announced some important diocesan appointments which will mark the start of the new pastoral year.
The vocational ministry will be entrusted to Don Riccardo Catanese, Don Stefano Lafranconi and Don Pierpaolo Antonio Madia, coordinated by Don Ivan Rauti; the Office for school pastoral care has been assigned to Don Ferdinando Fodaro, who takes over from Professor Anna Maria Fonti Iembo after forty years of qualified service, and will be supported by a new team of collaborators. Furthermore, the Migrants Office will be led by Don Gregoire Nsabimana, succeeding Father Piero Puglisi, to whom the Archbishop expressed his heartfelt thanks for the ministry carried out with dedication.
Monsignor Maniago also announced the next diaconal ordination of Pio Giuseppe Merante, which will be held on Saturday 7 December at the Basilica “Maria SS. Immacolata” in Catanzaro, inviting priests and faithful to pray for him and for all vocations.
The retreat, led by Br. Ippolito Fortino OFM Cap, was an intense moment of spiritual reflection focused on the theme of prayer, proposed as a source of strength and fruitfulness for priestly life and ministry. Br. Fortino invited priests to rediscover the beauty of silence and listening to God, remembering that prayer is not a duty to be fulfilled, but the very heart of Christian and pastoral life.
At the end, the Archbishop thanked the speaker for his testimony and called on all priests to diligently maintain the dialogue with the Lord, “the source of every vocation and mission”, also encouraging them to pray for peace in the world, in harmony with the exhortation of Pope Leo XIV.
Finally, Mons. Maniago recalled two upcoming diocesan events: on Sunday 12 October the Jubilee of Families at the Basilica Madonna di Porto in Gimigliano, and on Monday 13 October the opening of the second year of the “Mons. Antonio Cantisani” School of Theology at the Co-Cathedral Basilica “Santa Maria Assunta” in Squillace.
With this meeting, the diocesan clergy resumed the community journey of fraternity and formation, renewing the desire to serve the people of God with joy and fidelity.