The news of thesudden death yesterday afternoon of the Rogationist Massimiliano Nobile, at only 45 years old, due to a fulminant heart attack. The superior of the Institute in via Santa Cecilia, father Giorgio Nalin, gave the news in the city, together with the rector of the basilica of Sant’Antonio, father Mario Magro; numerous messages of condolence came from the many people who knew him, priests, young people, families. The priest, currently superior and treasurer of the community of Villa Santa Maria in Faro Superiore, was located in Shenkoll in Albania for a mission of the congregation, in which he had decided to allow himself a few days of rest. Born in 1978, originally from Partinico in the province of Palermo, Father Massimiliano carried out his priestly ministry mainly in Sicily, in the houses of the capital and, in Messina, at the Christ the King Institute.
He entered the seminary in the Apostolic School of Palermo in 1989, he carried out his novitiate in Messina making his first profession on 8 September 1998 and his perpetual profession in Rome on 8 September 2006; on 26 April 2008 he was ordained a priest in the cathedral of Monreale. Endowed with an extraordinary voice and a natural talent for bel canto carried on with study commitment, during the period of his academic training in Rome and in the first year of the priesthood he was part of the Sistine Chapel, covering the role of soloist and guide of the Pueri Cantores; also in Messina on various occasions, most recently the mass broadcast live on Rai 1 on 2 July last, many remember him for his ability to animate liturgical solemnities with song. “In the face of every death, especially if it happened in an unexpected and tragic way like this one, the most appropriate attitude is silence which speaks through pain and tears, bewilderment and questioning, impotence and the inability to react . It is a silence that speaks, but at the same time full of words to listen to; they are the words of faith, those of a God who, against the appearance of the moment, wants us to live fully. Here is the word of faith that makes me see in this moment of death, a moment of birth in which Fr. Massimiliano brings with him his deepest affections, his dearest people, all of us, his confreres and friends, because all that is and remains his forever, he remains ours, forever,” said the provincial superior, Father Antonio Leuci, who immediately rushed to help him. As soon as the body can return to Italy, news will be given of the funeral that should take place in the basilica sanctuary of Sant’Antonio in Messina.