Big party in the parish community of San Brunello a Reggio Calabriabetween Thursday 27th and Friday 28th June during which a huge number of faithful gathered around their parish priest Monsignor Angelo Casile per celebrate three anniversaries of significant importance. The first anniversary is the 67th anniversary of the elevation of the church of San Brunello to a Parish, desired by the late metropolitan archbishop Blessed Giovanni Ferro and canonically founded on 27 June 1957, and on the same day entrusted to the new parish priest Don Mario Manca.
Background
And immediately Don Manca, returning to the house of the Lord our Father on the evening of September 22, 2020, with the passionate and consistent help of many faithful in the neighborhood, built the current place of worship. Church which in 1957, for the first time in the world, was dedicated to San Bruno of Cologne, monk and founder of the Carthusians. A significant coincidence is therefore that the church stands on the place where between 1089-1090, Saint Bruno stopped in prayer during the period in which he was following Pope Urban II and Count Roger of the Normans who were visiting Reggio as part of a plan of “translation” of the Greek rites into the Latin language. And it is the history of the Reggio parish, which Count Ruggero, for the occasion, had asked Urban II to appoint Bruno archbishop of Reggio, a metropolitan seat to which almost all the dioceses of Calabria were subject, without the owner. Faced, however, with the energetic refusal of San Bruno, the broadest support was given to the rise of the Certosa which would rise in the captivating silence of the vicinity of Arena and Stilo, resembling the great Chartreuse already erected to the north-east of Grenoble. The Certosa di Serra San Bruno is today a center of Western spirituality and Latinisation.
The others two anniversaries celebrated with particular warmth by the faithful of the Reggio parish are linked to the figure of Monsignor Angelo Casile, who celebrated the tenth anniversary of his appointment as Parish Priest as successor to Monsignor Mario Manca who on 27 June 2014, after having founded the Church of San Bruno and served it for 57 years, had ceased from his role as leader and extraordinary pastor of the parish community. The last and third anniversary It is the anniversary of the 32 years of ordination as a priest of Don Angelo Casile, who was ordained priest on 28 June 1992 by the hands of the meritorious Archbishop Vittorio Mondello.
Who is Don Angelo Casile?
Born in Reggio on May 10, 1967, Don Angelo Casile Today he is both the parish priest of the church of San Bruno and the “Moderator of the Curia”, a new role for the vicar general of the diocese of Reggio-Bova, created by the metropolitan archbishop, Monsignor Fortunato Morrone, to create a sort of “Guardian Angel” of the Curia Offices: a priest committed to promoting “harmony in the relationships” of those employed in the various curial offices – Casile himself recalls – and therefore, to developing and harmonizing a service dedicated to the many people who turn to the Curia to carry out administrative and spiritual tasks, but also to receive material and charitable aid.
The choice made by Monsignor Morrone will certainly have taken into due account the character of “sweetness and humility manifested every day in being a priest and parish priest attentive to the care of souls”, the representatives of the parish of San Bruno. And it will also have taken into account the vast ecclesial experience acquired by Monsignor Casile from 1992 to today, which began with the role of parish priest of Podargoni, Schindilifà and then of Sant’Alessio in Aspromonte, and then in Gallico at the helm of the parish of Santa Maria del Porto Salvo, until 1999.
That year saw the important call to Rome with the role of member of the secretariat and then secretary of Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, appointed general secretary of the Italian Episcopal Conference by Pope John Paul II and responsible for organizing the Jubilee of 2000. From 1999 to 2001, next to card. Antonelli, Don Angelo experienced many moments of meetings and liturgical rites of great impact, including his participation in the organization of the XV World Youth Day in Rome. When Card Antonelli was appointed metropolitan archbishop of Florence in March 2001, his successor as general secretary of the CEI, Monsignor Giovanni Betori, confirmed Don Angelo Casile as his private secretary. A task that Casile carried out with extreme competence until 2008, when Betori also left the CEI to take on the pastoral leadership of the metropolitan diocese of Florence.
The priest from Reggio thus remains in Rome where, due to the considerable ecclesial experience acquired and recognized among the members of the CEI, he is appointed by the leaders of the Vatican City to direct the prestigious National Office for social problems and the work directly emanating from the commission of the same name of the CEI, which he will lead from 2008 to 2013. It will be a happy return for Don Casile who previously, in January 1999, had been called to collaborate with the Director of the Social Problems Office Msgr. Mario Operti, then Director of the Office, to prepare the three Jubilee Days of the world of work – led by HE Mons. Fernando Charrier -, the Social Week of Naples, and help him in consolidating the many activities of the Office and the Policoro Project.
As Director of the National Office, in 2010 Don Angelo Casile led the organization in the diocese of Reggio Calabria of a very popular Social Week of Italian Catholics which recorded the participation of over 1200 delegates from all the Italian dioceses.
At the end of his assignment, on June 27, 2014, Don Angelo returned to his Reggio Calabria with the mandate of parish priest of San Bruno where over the course of this decade, he has strengthened and deepened the spiritual and faith relationships with the inhabitants of the populous neighborhood located in the historic center. In 2023, in the sign of the relaunch of faith around the figure of the monk San Bruno, it is worth noting the signing of the twinning with the Sanctuary of Santa Maria del Bosco in Serra San Bruno.
The two communities, closely united by their particular devotion to the Carthusian saint, sealed their spiritual friendship with the intention of growing into “a partnership of brotherhood in love for Christ and of prayer in devotion to Saint Bruno, the universal brother”.
“Thank you Lord for the gift of the priest Don Angelo Casile who in these ten years has always shown enormous care for all of us with great humility and availability – is the testimony given in the Prayer of the Faithful of the parish community -, and we ask Our Lord for the same support and strength to walk together with him, and consolidate the Faith and Love towards God and Neighbor”.
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