A message from Pope Benedict was read out at a thanksgiving meal held after the ordination of an Eastbourne man on Saturday.Fr Aaron Spinelli was brought up in the East Sussex town and attended St Thomas a Becket Catholic Primary School and St Richard's, Bexhill.
He is the son of a Filipino mother and Sicilian father.
As a young boy, Fr Spinelli was an altar server at Our Lady of Ransom Catholic Church in Eastbourne.
He then went on to study for the priesthood and was able to celebrate Mass last weekend in the church he had served in for so many years.
The packed church rejoiced with the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, Kieran Conry, who was joined by 60 priests, including parish priest Canon Seamus Hester, as he ordained Fr Spinelli in front of friends and family.
Bishop Conry reminded Fr Spinelli in his homily that in the ordination rite, he was called first of all to care for the spiritual and pastoral needs of the people in his care; then that he must celebrate the liturgy, especially the Mass, so that praise is given to God and the whole community, and finally, that he must preach the Gospel both in words and action, to those around him.
Only having done this, Bishop Conry said, was he then to worry about his own spiritual needs which he was to do by modelling himself on Christ the High Priest.
At the end of Mass, Fr Spinelli returned to church to give his first priestly blessing to family and friends before joining them in the nearby Eastbourne Town Hall, alongside the Mayor and Mayoress Greg and Claire Szanto for a celebratory meal.
He was joined by his parents, brother and sister as well as friends from St Richard's, Bexhill and Cardiff University were he studied law and from Rome where he studied for the priesthood.
Mgr Nick Hudson, the rector of the Venerable English College in Rome, gave a speech of thanks after the meal and read out a message from Pope Benedict XVI, who offered Fr Spinelli every blessing for his future priestly ministry.
Fr Spinelli, who has now finished his studies in spirituality in Rome, will move to Guildford later this month to become assistant priest at St Joseph's as part of the Guildford parish team.
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(Source: TC)