On July 1, 2024, at the age of 76, he was born into real life Father Orazio Restivo. The Lord of Life called him to celebrate the mystery of his glorious death and resurrection on the very day in which he completed the 51st year of priestly ordination. He had been ordained, in fact, on July 1, 1973, by Msgr. Giuseppe Petralia, in Santa Maria del Monte in Racalmuto, the town where he was born on September 1, 1948.
As a new priest he was assigned as assistant vicar of the parish of SS. Crocifisso in Agrigento (1973-78). Most of his priestly ministry saw him engaged, from 1978 to 2005, as parish priest of the Mother Church of Santo Stefano Proto Martire, of Santa Elisabetta, of which he zealously took care of the decor and restoration, without neglecting pastoral activities. In the small town, everything is done to everyone with particular attention to the elderly and the sick; he promotes Catholic Action and with the laity he is the soul of various cultural and social initiatives.
Many remember him as a priest in step with the times, he established a library and a parish film library, he provided it with a computer and he held the first computer literacy courses for his children. He opened the spaces of the parish oratory to everyone and it soon became a meeting place for the small town. He founded a newspaper, “La Voce”, to give a voice to those who had no voice, to educate about the sense of community, democratic participation and the common good; he involved the best cultural resources of Santa Elisabetta and beyond in the enterprise. He paid particular attention to young people to whom he dedicated a large part of the space in the newspaper, with contributions from Don Lillo Scaglia and the former Salesian students of Agrigento, in their defense he fearlessly openly denounced the phenomenon of drug addiction that was also spreading in Santa Elisabetta. He spent his energy and his savings on a dream: Radio Cometa. With it he reached the homes of the people of Sabbette and those of the neighboring towns. He believed in the radio as a popular instrument of information, education and evangelization. Every day he was the one to lead the evening prayer moment in which everyone, from their homes, joined at the moment. Soon the broadcasts of Radio Cometa were appreciated and often rebroadcast by Radio Diocesana Concorda; “the young people of Father Restivo” became a point of reference for the diocesan Radio where they were invited to curate radio programs that were appreciated by the listeners.
After leaving Santa Elisabetta he will serve as an assistant to the Vincentian Volunteers (2007-2014), chaplain of the San Giovanni Di Dio Hospital (2007-2015). He will not fail to collaborate with the Sanctuary of San Calogero in Agrigento, where, for over a decade, after the morning mass, he served as a confessor for the many faithful who stopped at the Sanctuary.
The funeral will be celebrated by Archbishop Alessandro, the July 2, at 4:00 p.m.in the Church of Madonna del Carmelo in Racalmuto.
As soon as the news was published on our social media, the comments of those who knew him were unanimous: many remember him as a good, gentle, kind priest, who always had a sweet word for everyone, available, with a disarming smile, a humble worker in the Lord’s Vineyard who, with a sober but authentic lifestyle, served the Agrigento Church in the pastoral roles entrusted to him.
The Church of Agrigento entrusts him to the prayers of all and to the merciful love of God so that He may give him the reward of the righteous.
