TODAY 05.06.2021 We remember the 40th anniversary of the departure of the Eparch of Piana degli Albanesi H. Exc. Rev. Msgr. Giuseppe PERNICIARO.
I PERISHESMET KLOFT KUITIMI I TIJ.
ETERNAL BE HIS MEMORY.
Biography
He was born on 11 January 1907 in Mezzojuso, an Albanian colony of Sicily, in the then archdiocese of Palermo.
Formation and priestly ministry
In 1921 he entered the Pontifical Greek College of Sant'Atanasio in Rome, after having attended the Italo-Albanian Seminary in Palermo for five years; in 1928 he obtained a degree in theology from the Pontifical Oriental Institute, also in Rome, and the following year the specialization in Oriental ecclesiastical sciences.
He was ordained a priest on 7 July 1929 by the eparch Isaias Papadopulos in the Greek College of Rome.
Returning to Palermo, in 1932 he was appointed rector of the Greek Italian-Albanian Seminary.
Episcopal ministry on October 26, 1937, at the same time as the erection of the eparchy of Piana degli Albanesi and the appointment of Cardinal Luigi Lavitrano as its apostolic administrator, Pope Pius XI appointed him, at the age of 30, titular bishop of Albania and auxiliary bishop of the eparchy; he received episcopal ordination on January 16, 1938 from Giovanni Mele, eparch of Lungro degli Italo-Albanesi, co-consecrating Paolo Schirò, ordinary of Sicily for the Italo-Albanian faithful of the Byzantine rite, and Aleksandr Evrejnov, titular bishop of Pionia.
He was vicar general of the eparchy both with Lavitrano and with his successor Cardinal Ruffini until, on 12 July 1967, Pope Paul VI appointed him first eparch of Piana degli Albanesi, making him the youngest bishop in the world at the time.
In fidelity to the Albanian tradition of the Fathers, expressed by the thought and action of the Servant of God Father Giorgio Guzzetta, he zealously dedicated himself to the socio-religious reality of the Albanian communities of Sicily, enhancing the Byzantine liturgical characteristics as well as ethnic-cultural ones. With an ecumenical ideal, in the first period of his apostolic life (1929-1961), he promoted relations with the Orthodox Christian East in Italy, especially in relations with the Albanian autocephalous Orthodox Church, and the Churches of Constantinople, Greece and Crete. .
He participated in all the sessions of the Second Vatican Council and was a consultant to the Congregation for the Oriental Churches and a member of the Commission for Ecumenism of the Italian Episcopal Conference.
During his long episcopate he held various positions of certain ecumenical importance; he collaborated and supported the eparchy magazine "Oriente Cristiano".
He resigned on May 31, 1981; died 5 days later.
Arch. Papas Antonino Paratore
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