To remember the figure of the unforgettable Papas Vito Stassi, we have decided to publish an article by Don Enzo Cosentino already published in Eco della Brigna immediately after the death of Papas Vito Stassi.
Enjoy the reading
Salvatore Vasotti
On Saturday 19 February 2011, in Palermo, at the age of 73, suddenly following a heart attack, Papàs Vito Stassi, Protopresbyter-Parish Priest of the Parish of San Nicolò dei Greci alla Martorana and Vicar General of the Eparchia di Piana degli Albanesi died. .
Papàs Vito Stassi was born in Piana degli Albanesi on 15 December 1937; in 1948 he entered the Italo-Albanian Seminary in Palermo where he attended the first two secondary school classes; in 1950 he completed his high school studies in the seminary of Piana degli Albanesi; in 1953 he moved to the Benedict XV Seminary of Grottaferrata where he completed his classical studies. In 1956 he went to the Pontifical Greek College in Rome where, at the Pontifical Gregorian University, he obtained a bachelor's degree in philosophy and sacred theology. In 1959 he received the Lettorato; on 11 December 1960 in Rome he was ordained a Hypodiacono; on January 15, 1961 he received the diaconate. On November 19, 1961, in the church of the Madonna Odigitria, he received the sacred order of the presbyterate from the hands of His Eminence Mons. Giuseppe Perniciaro. On 1 September 1962 he was appointed Disciplinary Master of the diocesan seminary; in October 1963 he was commissioned to teach in the minor seminary, he was also appointed episcopal delegate of Catholic Action and Director of the Catechetical Office of the Eparchy. On 1 September 1964 he was appointed mansionary of the cathedral of Piana. He then moved to Palermo to serve at the Martorana Church as assistant parish priest, the Rev. Papàs Matteo Sciambra being parish priest there. From 1964 to 1984 he was a member of the Regional Presbyteral Commission, from 1973 to 1985 he was Regional Secretary of the Catechetical Office. On 24 March 1968, following the death of the aforementioned Rev. Papàs Matteo Sciambra, Papàs Vito was appointed parish priest of San Nicolò dei Greci, Co-Cathedral of the Eparchy of Piana degli Albanesi.
He was Vice President of the Regional Ecumenical Commission. On November 19, 1986, the 25th of his priestly ordination, Bishop Ercole Lupinacci appointed him Protopresbyter. On 28 September 2010 he was appointed Protosyncellus of the Eparchy.
Respected by all, Papàs Vito Stassi left an unbridgeable void in a difficult moment of our eparchial journey, in which we all hoped that his appointment as Vicar General could revive in us the reasons for our existence as an eparchial community.
From the first meeting with the clergy, he offered his willingness to work without sparing himself and asked all the priests for help and collaboration to resume a journey aimed at the reconstruction of the Eparchy, which our Fathers had laboriously founded with immense sacrifices, and that was in danger of being torn apart by our weakness, by our quarrels and by our mutual envies that only obtain the result of its demolition.
The death of Papàs Vito, who loved this eparchial Church as a true son, must commit us to continue the path of communion he embarked on, spurring us to value the things that unite us and to diminish the things that stand in the way of eparchial communion.
Eternal be your memory brother our unforgettable and worthy of bliss.
Don Enzo Cosentino
da Eco della Brigna
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