A life of service and pastoral care: Father Antonio Pannunzi
OTTAWA – It has been thirty four years since Father Antonio Pannunzi O.M.I. was appointed the Pastor of Madonna Della Risurrezione (MDR) parish (in the pics above, the church and Father Antonio).
Little did he guess that when he met Father Ostan in the 1980’s, who was vacationing in Italy, and talked with great enthusiasm about his Canadian parish that Father Pannunzi would one day replace him in Ottawa. The Roman born new pastor of MDR had worked in Germany providing pastoral care to Italian immigrants. While preaching in Calabria, he received a call to travel to Toronto and assist in the Italian parish of St. Catherine of Siena. So it was that after several trips to Canada that Father Antonio’s “marvellous adventure” began at MDR.
Better educated than most of his parishioners, having demonstrated his ability in all of his successive assignments, with the support of his Order and the Diocese, nevertheless, Father Antonio’s experience in Canada is similar to that of many Italian immigrants. Notwithstanding his knowledge of several languages English was not one of them! His stepped into a more than full time assignment of taking his parish and his flock to the next level while ministering to their daily needs. He needed to speak and work in English while at the same time working extremely long days and having very little time to formally learn this new language.
He had a new church, with a significant debt, where the mortgage was not being consistently paid, and no place to live except in the church. He soon moved to Saint Paul’s Seminary until he could make other arrangements. He began ‘ to sweat’ every time the phone rang because if the call was not in Italian he could not understand what was being said. He adapted by allowing the caller to leave a message on the answering machine and getting the request translated so he could deal with it. Like any new and growing organization with many leaders in its founding period, the administration had not been well established, rules and regulations about raising funds in Canada and how Revenue Canada rules applied had to be learned, internalized and applied. Canadian standards had to be discovered, learned and adhered to across many domains. All while learning the language!
To say that Father Antonio was extremely busy growing, stabilizing and building his parish over the first few years is not an exaggeration. Working with the Diocese, a small group of very active volunteers he “got to work”( mi sono datto da fare)! He grew the volunteer base, provided pastoral care to his parishioners, grew the numbers of families who made the parish a weekly focus of their life, ramped up fund raising efforts, introduced many many religious ceremonies and social events. Through monthly dinners, the annual festival, and the annual pilgrimages in Canada and in Europe, parishioners were provided spiritual guidance and support as well as events that they talked about for months and years to come. These events were the mainstay of many parishioners and talked about throughout the broader Ottawa community. At its height the annual festival had xxx participants. Madonna Della Risurrezione became the centre of a community that was flourishing.
However, change was happening in the parish at large. The Italian population that was concentrated in the parish began to disperse throughout the greater metropolitan area and the population was aging rapidly. The challenging became- how to continue to attract new volunteers, younger parishioners, and build that sense of community amongst a more diverse and decreasing population. And then COVID happened. Today the task is to rebuild that sense of community and belonging amongst a new generation and more diverse group of individuals to a renewed purpose of pastoral care and belonging. A challenge that with help Gather Antonio is up to!
Maryantonett Flumian
Maryantonett Flumian is a former federal deputy minister who worked with the publisher of the Corriere Canadese, the Hon. Joe Volpe
