The rector of the historic archiepiscopal college “Alessandro Volta” of Lecco, founded in 1902, changes. The rector Don Gabriele Gioia, who has been at Volta for five years, has been appointed provost of Varese. Born in Lecco in 1961 to a family resident in Valmadrera, he was ordained a priest for the diocese of Milan in 1986, when Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini was archbishop.
Don Gabriele had already been at the Volta in Lecco as vice rector from 1992 to 2005. Then he became parish priest of Cassago Magnago, in the province of Varese, before returning to the Volta five years ago.
There is a singular detail to note in his journey towards the priesthood: that he received the ordinary diaconate, which precedes the sacrament of Orders by a year, in the parish church of Sant’Antonio Abate di Valmadrera, the church of his baptism and of the other sacraments of Christian initiation until the first Mass as a priest, celebrated in June 1986. The previous year a group of deacons from the diocese of Milan were ordained in the church of Valmadrera and among these was the seminarian Gabriele Gioia.
He now assumes the pastoral role of provost of the Roman minor basilica, provost collegiate church of San Vittore in Varese, ancient seat of the chapter of canons.
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