New York, August 17th, 2021. His Eminence, Cardinal Silvano Maria Tomasi, Scalabrinian priest and collaborator to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, as well as Special Delegate to the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta (Order of Malta), presided today, at the Parish of Our Lady of Pompeii, a thanksgiving eucharistic celebration for the XXV anniversary of his episcopal ordination, on August 17^th, 1996, during the pontificate of St. John Paul II. The mass was concelebrated by His Excellency Nicholas di Marzio, Bishop of Brooklyn, His Excellency Gabriele Caccia, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, as well as by Rev. Angelo Plodari, superior of the Saint Charles Borromeo Scalabrinian Province, Rev. Sergio dall’Agnese, President of SIMN, Rev. Jairo Guidini, Executive Director of SIMN, and Rev. Juan Manuel López García, Scalabrinian priest in the parish of St. Joseph, in Brooklyn, New York.

In his homily, Monsignor Tomasi recalled his first duty as bishop, acting as Apostolic Nuncio to the governments of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti and, after this experience in Africa, as Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the Office of the United Nations and Specialized Institutions in Geneva, Switzerland. Monsignor Tomasi stressed that the objective and ultimate sense of the priest work is serving the others: to the community where one is and belongs to.

SIMN gladly joins this celebration and takes advantage of this opportunity to thank Monsignor Tomasi for his commitment and leadership example in the way all different Scalabrinian entities, from the Gospel, understand and respond to the difficult and harsh circumstances that migrants, refugees, internally displaced people, seafarers and fishers have to face daily. Monsignor Tomasi, thank you for everything.