The little priest, named 3P, was born in Brancaccio (a suburban quarter in Palermo) on 15th September 1937. He was the son of a shoemaker and a dressmaker. He was killed by Mafia on 15th September 1993, on the very day of his 56th birthday while he was returning home.
He entered the seminary in 1953 and was made a priest by Cardinal E. Ruffini on 2nd July 1960. Since the very beginning of his ministry he was attracted by the social problems of the poorest and most marginalized areas of Palermo.
In 1978 he became pro-rector of Palermo Seminary and one year later he was appointed director of “Centro Diocesano Vocazioni” (Diocesan Vocation Centre). In 1983 he was in charge of “Centro Regionale Vocazioni” (Regional Vocation Centre) and joined the National Council as well. He also taught Maths and later Religion in several schools. He passionately devoted himself to young people’s Christian and human education organizing various activities for them.
On 29th September 1990 he was established parish priest at San Gaetano Parish in Brancaccio. Being aware of the problems of that area, he devoted himself to the children and teen-agers who had already been enrolled by Mafia trying to bring them back to the principles of legality, justice and Christianity. He adopted a method which exalted the human and personal qualities of the young together with Christ’s message. It was this activity of his that caused his death as it was proved during the trial in which his killers were arrested and condemned.
On 15th September 1999 Cardinal Salvatore De Giorgi set up a diocesan ecclesiastic court whose task was to acknowledge don Giuseppe Puglisi’s martyrdom. His life and death testified his faithfulness to the only Lord and made it clear that Mafia and the Lord’s Gospel are absolutely incompatible.
On 25th May 2013 he was beatified.
His phrases
|
The Lord knows how to wait. «No man is far from the Lord. The Lord loves our freedom, he does not force His love to us. God does not force everyone's heart. Every heart has its time not even ourselves can be able to understand. The Lord knows and he is always at the door knocking. When our hearts are ready they will open themselves to Him». The sense of our life. Each one of us feels inside ourselves attracted by something, a carism. A plan which makes someone unique and different from others. This call, this vocation is the sign of the Holy Spirit. Only when we listen to this voice we can be able to give sense to our lives. |
|
I have done my best. «Each one of us needs to find our own vocation, that is the way which leads to love. We can not sit and think as we have already arrived but we have to begin every day. We have to recognize that we have accepted the call of the Lord. We have to walk and to construct to be able to say I have done my best.». |
|
We are the tiles of the mosaic. «We have to think of how Jesus was presented in the Cathedral of Monreale. Each one of us as the tiles of that big mosaic. |
|
The words and the facts. «It is very important to talk about mafia above all in the schools to struggle against mafia attitude which is any ideology ready to sell human dignity for money. We have not only make demonstrations, peotests,statements. All these actions are important but we can not only say words. The words must be confirmed by facts.». |
|
If each one of us does something. «Our efforts as well as the efforts of the volunteers has to be a sign. Only these signs can not change Brancaccio. We can not believe it, it would be such an illusion. |
|
A witness that turns into martyrdom. «Any disciple of Christ is a witness. The witness of christians meets some difficulties and may turn into martyrdom. It is a short way, we can say that the martyrdom honours the witness. If we think of Saint Paul " I wish strongly even to dye to be with Christ ." This wish turns into the wish of communion which trascend life itself». |
 |
Photos about Blessed Giuseppe Puglisi |
