“With joy we welcome you into our family, and we are pleased to share with you this passion that the Holy Father Dominic hands down to us.” Thus concludes the words of welcome by Br. Aldo Tarquini, Prior Provincial of the Roman Province of St. Catherine of Siena, as he received into the priestly fraternities Fr. Ennio Grossi of the Diocese of Avezzano, Italy. The rite was held on the feast of Bl. John Dominici, 10 June 2015, during the vespers, celebrated with the friars of the Convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome.
In recognizing the relevance of the Dominican fraternities in the life and ministry of a secular priest, the Provincial underscored the gift of the Dominican spirituality as something that reinforces the commitment that is made in priestly ordination, that is, to be conformed more and more into the image of Christ, and to build up the Church. Thus, in addition to the grace of the sacrament of the Holy Orders, the priest is given another aid as a partaker of the grace and mission of the Dominican Order.
Addressing Fr. Ennio, Br. Tarquini added,
“This affiliation to the Dominican family requires you to conform your life to the spirit of St. Dominic, and to strive to greater perfection of apostolic life, through means that are characteristic of the Dominican Family: assiduous contemplation, combined with tireless study and fervent prayer; voluntary poverty; and a constant concern for the salvation of souls. In the exercise of your apostolate, you have as an example, in addition to the apostles, the Holy Father St. Dominic, a most holy priest of God who, as the chronicles say, in his zeal to save souls, dedicated the day to his fellowman and the night to God, and who spoke either with God or about God.”
Born on 24 February 1982, Fr. Ennio Grossi underwent formation for the priesthood at the Pontifical Major Seminary of Rome, where he also completed his philosophical and theological studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He was ordained into the priesthood on 19 May 2007, and is currently the parish priest of the communities of Aielli and Aelli Stazione. He also serves as the Chancellor of the diocese, while also taking charge of its historical archives. He has recently published a three-volume work on a well-known Dominican saint, entitled “La storia e il culto di S. Vincenzo Ferrer”.
The rite of admission was capped by a solemn procession while singing the hymns to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to St. Dominic. With the vesting of the scapular of the Order, Fr. Ennio, who in the Order takes on the name Luigi Maria, begins a year of formation in the novitiate under the care of Br. Antonio Cocolicchio, OP, the Provincial Promoter of the priestly fraternities.
fr. Florentino Bolo, OP
