In this XIX anniversary of priesthood, in which our hearts are full of joyful fraternity, we wanted to express to Don Rosario Sultana Archpriest Parish Priest of the Mother Church, while aware of our limitations and our poverty, that we are eager to improve ourselves and world around us, making ourselves available to our community with generous and serene service. With the guidance of don Rosario we want to make our different charisms available, to harmonize and build together with him a community that listens to the Word of God, is nourished by the Eucharist. All together we want to collaborate to restore strength, restore hope, give the good news that every man is loved by God.

Together with our parish priest, we are intent on wanting to grow in faith, which is why don Rosario is also doing his utmost to carry out the catechesis of adults to restore foundation to the faith of the community and secure references to our formation to grow as aware Christians, capable of giving reason of our hope. In mutual respect and in the collaboration of each one, according to his talents, we wish to enhance the capacity for good that is in each of us. We hope to be able to carry out a pastoral care for all and together. Of course, the community does not respond adequately to the opportunities for formation and growth for all: the lectio divina, the catechesis of adults and Eucharistic Adoration are attended by a few, while they are opportunities for spiritual nourishment for all and can strengthen our faith, recharge our life and cementing the friendship between us, members of the same family, which although with different group methods, goes in the same unique direction towards Jesus who comes.

We thank the Lord, dear Don Rosario, for the gift to our community of a priest with an authentic vocation: a good, kind person, appreciated for his simplicity, humility and honesty, who, while maintaining a certain privacy, typical of his character, it transmits Christian values ​​and helps us to grow in faith. The Lord can give you the strength you need to guide our community wisely and we are willing to work together. In these years, – don Rosario Sultana – is giving an imprint to the pastoral line of the Parish, rearranging and modifying, as he gets to know people and situations better, which is neither simple nor painless, requiring courage and determination … together with our parish priest we must try to establish a family atmosphere, overcoming frictions and respecting differences. As one family we will have to commit ourselves each to his own part and with his charisma to experience children of God and brothers among us to adhere ever more and better to God’s plan and his Gospel.

On this day that is so special to you, that remembers her “YES” to the call of the Lord, we want to wish her that Jesus is always on her mouth, in her heart and that she shines in all her existence. Jesus is the only principle and end of all his actions. Every day can fulfill the great “SI” of Priestly Ordination in many small “yes”.

The testimony of a priesthood lived well not only ennobles the Church, but it is also a source of blessing for the community and is the best vocation promotion, as Pope Benedict XVI said. From the priests the faithful await only one thing: that they be experts in promoting man’s encounter with God and capable of authentic spiritual paternity. In particular, the Community appreciates and remains positively affected by the climate of respectful fraternity that reigns between you and Father Giovanni, our parochial vicar: these signs of communion edify us so much and infect us.

Dear Fr. Rosario Sultana, he often asks us to pray for you, but you also remember us in your prayers as we remember you in ours, because by now we form together the only large parish family in which priests and faithful are intensely united by a common journey of faith and search for the face of God.

Enrica Munafò