Pope Francis met with Father Filippo Grillo, C.M., a 96-year-old Lazarist religious missionary present at the morning Mass at Saint Martha’s in the Vatican on November 5, 2019, “reported Vatican News in Italian.
“At 96 I have the joy of continuing to be a priest to the end. I celebrate Mass, I hear confessions and I do catechesis: there is no greater gift,” said Father Grillo, who introduced himself to the Pontiff, who received him with open arms after the Mass. “I have been a priest for 70 years, but it’s as if it were the first day,” he added, while the Pope himself will celebrate his 50 years of priesthood on December 13 of this year.
Father Grillo has always carried out his priestly ministry at Naples, both in his Mission Congregation, where he was Superior General, as well as at the Archdiocesan level, where he was, five years ago, Episcopal Vicar for Consecrated Life.
Father Grillo is Deputy Judge at the Regional Ecclesiastical Court of Campanie.
He came to the Vatican accompanied by Father Vincenzo Lazzarini, missionary in Eritrea, and by Father Salvatore Fari, who succeeded Father Grillo in his post of Episcopal Vicar for Consecrated Life.
