24 Nov 2022
Warmest congratulations to Fr Giacomo Gelardi MSC, who was ordained to the priesthood on Saturday, November 19th, 2022. The ordination ceremony was led by Bishop Fintan Gavin of Cork and Ross, who travelled to Italy for the great occasion, with the Mass taking place in Fr Giacomo’s home town of Urbino, Italy, at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart, a new beautiful church which was consecrated in September of last year.
Bishop Fintan concelebrated the ordination Mass with local Archbishop Mgr Giovanni Tanni, along with local diocesan clergy and members of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart from Ireland, Italy, Spain, and the General Administration in Rome. Irish Provincial Superior Fr Carl Tranter and Formator Fr Joe McGee were accompanied by MSCs Fr Michael O’Connell, Fr Tom Mulcahy, Fr John Finn, and Fr Con O’Connell, while MSC brothers Domenico Rosa and Jaime Rosique, who originally completed their novitiate programme with Giacomo in Myross Wood, West Cork, also travelled to Urbino to serve at the ordination ceremony as Deacons.
A host of friends travelled from Dublin and York to be with Fr Giacomo at this special time, along with Fr Pat Fogarty and parishioners from the parish of Carrigaline, Co. Cork, where Giacomo served as a Deacon in recent years. Everybody involved was delighted to join the celebrations with Fr Giacomo, his mother, Francesca, his father, Michele, his brother Luca and sister Maria, plus extended family members, friends, and parishioners.
“This was a beautiful celebration, presided by Bishop Fintan in Italian,” writes Irish Provincial Superior Fr Carl Tranter MSC. “We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Fr Giacomo and blessings on his priestly ministry as he commences a life of missionary service as an MSC.”
On the morning following his ordination, Fr Giacomo celebrated his first Mass at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart on the Feast of Christ the King. He will now return to Cork for the Christmas season, and will prepare to travel to the MSC Province of the Pacific Islands in January. Here, Fr Giacomo will embark upon a period of mission in Fiji, where he will work in our MSC parish in Suva, and at the Chevalier Training Centre, our trade school in Namosi.
   
We join our voices and prayers with Fr Carl’s in congratulating the newly ordained Fr Giacomo Gelardi MSC, with every blessing as he begins this new chapter as a Missionary of the Sacred Heart.