Francis’ choice to lead his Diocese of RomeAntoine Mekary | ALETEIA On December 7, Rome will officially have a new Cardinal Vicar, Baldassare Reina, who will be given a red hat by Pope Francis at the consistory who heads the vicariate in charge of the pontiff's diocese will have the onerous task of fulfilling the Pope's desire to see Rome become a model diocese for the rest of the world but as he is also in charge of the universal church a vicar helps him with the practical matters of running his own diocese.) At the Angelus on October 6 Pope Francis not only announced that Bishop Baldassare Reina would be created a cardinal in December He also appointed him vicar for the Diocese of Rome This position had been vacant since the Pope appointed the previous cardinal-vicar Cardinal De Donatis was particularly well-established in the Diocese of Rome he had held the post of spiritual director at the Pontifical Seminary from 1990 to 2003 giving him real proximity to a whole generation of priests was parachuted into Rome by Pope Francis only in 2022 making his integration all the more delicate Bishop Baldassare Reina, known as “Don Baldo” (“don” being an Italian term of respect for clergy), hails from San Giovanni Gemini, a small town in central Sicily he found himself called to the priesthood from an early age He joined the minor seminary of Agrigento at the age of 11 before leaving for Rome to pursue his studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University his first contact with the Italian capital Ordained a priest in 1995 at the age of 25 for his Diocese of Agrigento he continued his studies in biblical theology (graduating in 1998) and was then appointed diocesan assistant for Catholic Action for his diocese for three years He then served as parish priest in three different parishes Then in 2013 he was put in charge of the major seminary in Agrigento “Don Baldo,” as he is still called today by those around him during which time he also taught Sacred Scripture of forcing him to undergo conversion therapy in order to cure him of his homosexuality His diocese came under the spotlight in 2013 when Pope Francis chose it as his first destination outside Rome, visiting the island of Lampedusa Francesco Montenegro — who was particularly committed to the issue of welcoming migrants — prompted the pontiff to elevate him to the cardinalate in 2015 In doing so he gave him priority over the other archbishops of Sicily's major dioceses: Palermo Reina will sit alongside this discreet 78-year-old cardinal now retired but reputedly very close to the Pope Reina's name first appeared on Pope Francis' agenda in 2018 when he was received at the Vatican with seminarians from his diocese the pontiff paid several compliments to the rector Pope Francis published his new apostolic constitution for the diocese which severely restricted the powers of the cardinal vicar It defined him as an auxiliary bishop of the pope and a mere coordinator of the work of the other auxiliary bishops placed under the direct control of the pontiff the Pope strengthened the position of vice-regent (the cardinal vicar's second-in-command) who had been in Rome for only a few months He then combined this position with that of bishop in charge of the western sector the pontiff asked Bishop Reina to take over the transition at a time when the Pope had launched a major renovation program aimed at making Rome a model diocese His appointment as vicar brings to a close a period of transition that may not have gone down well with all the members of the community of priests in Rome who gets up very early in the morning to work; a simple man who takes public transportation to get around,” reports a diocesan priest interviewed by I.MEDIA who also notes that “Don Baldo” is comfortable being on first-name terms and is approachable he admits that adapting to this non-Roman was tricky: “People looked at him strangely,” he says As the key position in the vicariate is now that of vice-regent the choice of his replacement will be decisive Bishop Reina stated that his desire was “to continue to serve” the Church of Rome unfortunately marked by many problems and difficulties,” he acknowledged he assured them that he wished to be “the image of the Good Shepherd for all.” A major mission awaits the new cardinal vicar in 2025: the Jubilee he was quick to denounce the delay and inconvenience caused by the work being done by Rome's mayor's office Articles like these are sponsored free for every Catholic through the support of generous readers just like you Please make a tax-deductible donation today Help us continue to bring the Gospel to people everywhere through uplifting Catholic news I traveled to Sicily to report on the various towns that are selling homes for as little as $1 in a bid to revive their economies that are suffering from the effects of depopulation I got to travel a lot around the Mediterannean island to areas that are seldom explored by tourists — and I was bowled over by its natural beauty While the $1 homes won't be winning any pageants the towns that they inhabited were overflowing with rustic Italian charm Despite its many assets, Sicily still flies under many travelers' radars. In 2018 tourists spent just over 15 million nights on the island — in comparison tourists spent just over 69 million nights in Veneto meaning that — by my calculations — now is the time to go I'm by no means a professional photographer but below are some of the best pictures I managed to capture during my time reporting from Sicily Source: CNN Travel. Read more: I stayed in one of Italy's ghost towns that's selling off homes for $1, and I was treated like royalty Source: Virtual Sicily. Read more: Meet the Americans, Brits, and Europeans flocking to Italy's rural ghost towns to buy abandoned, dilapidated homes for $1 Read more of Tom Murray's $1 home coverage here Mussomeli is roughly 60 miles from Palermo located about an hour’s drive south of the Sicilian capital Stroll its perimeter on a late afternoon in winter Order the town’s signature minni di virgini—breast-shaped cakes filled with cream and squash jam—and a hush silences the chatter in the local bakery By the time I walk into a small restaurant that first evening seeking dinner my self-consciousness has reached an uncomfortable peak After the waiter and I stumble through my order impeded by his poor English and my worse Italian I pull out a book to hide my awkwardness while I wait for the food But when the first course arrives—a heap of ocher-tinted pasta topped with crimson shrimp and shards of pistachios—I am so clearly delighted by the dish that the waiter then decides we are friends and when two women with their children enter the restaurant he seats them next to me and introduces them as well stepping out from the kitchen to kiss his wife aloft on a wave of bonhomie and sturdy Sicilian wine I’m not the only person to arrive at that revelation I had come to Sicily to investigate a program that has attracted thousands with the same notion although they may not have the financial wherewithal to go full-bore Tuscan-villa-with-frescoed-ceilings-and-private-vineyard to nevertheless live a different version of the dream A program that promises them a house for a single euro large numbers of villagers in the poorer parts of Italy have migrated to more prosperous regions and countries populations have shrunk so dramatically that there are no longer enough patients to keep the local doctor in business Young people who moved away to study or work didn’t want to return the village of Salemi in western Sicily was one of the first towns to come up with an idea: What if you could fill them again by offering the properties for sale at a ridiculously low price But I wanted to know if the program worked Though the rumors I’d heard about driving in Sicily gave me pause—highways that suddenly turn into rutted cow paths; drivers whose chosen passing method involves achieving the closest possible proximity to the fender of the car in front of them—I decided to set out in a rental car through villages in various stages of implementing the initiative Were once-sepulchral towns reinvigorated by newcomers eager to put down roots Were the new residents integrating into small-town life or was an influx of new blood bringing unintended side effects And did a town that drew enough newcomers lose the qualities that had attracted said newcomers in the first place From left: The population of Sambuca di Sicilia has declined because of a low birth rate but the town gained media attention after The Sopranos actress Lorraine Bracco bought a home there; The Valley of the Temples has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1997 The morning after my dinner in Sambuca di Sicilia I leave my home base to see my first one-euro house the valley preserves the remains of a Greek colony founded in the 6th century B.C.E on land inhabited by the indigenous Sicani the original temples to Hercules and Hera survive but so does evidence of Carthaginian rampage and Roman reconstruction Those peoples would in time be followed by Vandals from northern Europe and Muslims from Africa looking at the gold-colored columns of once-grand temples set against the sparkling sea and flowering almond trees have been making their homes here for a long time a steep jumble of a village whose mountains are dusted with snow In the 15 minutes I spend standing in front of a very sleepy-looking town hall where I’ve arranged to meet architect Martina Giracello The members of StreetTo want to rejuvenate Cammarata Many moved to neighboring San Giovanni Gemini where the gentler topography allows for larger buildings and better conveniences “the one real estate agency in the area doesn’t even handle houses in the historic center.” moved away for university and to start their professional careers But as they approached the end of their 20s “We studied other towns with one-euro programs and they don’t have a relation to the people there,” she tells me They banded together with other professionals to form a volunteer association called StreetTo which convinces the owners of abandoned properties to sell then helps foreigners find their houses and navigate the inspections and gatherings for townspeople old and new Driven by their desire to revive the Cammarata they love StreetTo’s members offer these services free of charge but what we want is to also bring Cammarata’s citizens back just as Gianluca and I have come back,” Giracello says.) Their town gets something in the way of revitalization As we slowly make our way up Cammarata’s steep streets the silence gives way to the sound of hammers and saws where Giracello introduces me to the reality of what one euro buys you: not much more vertically challenged shed than house has what real estate ads might call “significant structural issues” and what I might call “a massive hole in the roof.” and the battered sink and laminate countertops make it look like the kitchen was outfitted sometime around World War II But the floor is adorned with beautiful geometric tiles and a view of the valley spills through the windows “We try to find houses in not really good condition,” Giracello says “Because the purpose of the project is to help the town get better.” StreetTo has helped negotiate the sale of 18 houses so far but contract negotiations and renovations are still in progress and none of the buyers have been able to move into their homes yet But Giracello is confident it won’t be long before her village swells with new life She pulls out her phone to show me a video “When a German nurse and her husband bought a place a local couple were so happy to see new people that they held a dinner for them “Even though the Germans didn’t speak Italian and the Italians didn’t speak German Santa Caterina d’Alessandria was home to nuns from 1311 to 2014 located nearly in the center of the island which drape themselves seductively across a ridge the craggy volcanic outcroppings that rise from the valley below have trapped pools of mist making the town appear to be floating on clouds The illusion doesn’t last: With a population of nearly 11,000 people Mussomeli is large enough to support a Carrefour supermarket and even a mini traffic jam and views from its tangled streets of that mystical valley and a hilltop with the ruins of a 14th-century castle and ask the elderly man behind the counter what he thinks about the foreigners moving to town “But in summer they buy a lot of focaccia.” more than 200 inexpensive homes have been bought by foreigners in the past few years Australian Danny McCubbin owns one of them Ready for a quieter life after 17 years of working in London for the chef Jamie Oliver McCubbin was recruited by producers late in 2019 for a television show that planned to follow people on their one-euro adventures in Mussomeli The pandemic intervened and the show was never finished he had decided to move permanently to Mussomeli and turn his home into a community kitchen to help people with inadequate access to food From left: The Good Kitchen rescues surplus food from supermarkets to provide for people in need; Australian Danny McCubbin moved to Mussomeli in 2020 He’d just served lunch to local residents and Ukrainian children welcomed by the town after fleeing the war the Good Kitchen also supplies weekly meals for the elderly and has taught some of Mussomeli’s youth to cook A clutch of older men use the space as an afternoon hangout and there’s also a free Sunday afternoon lunch (The only requirement for those with means is that they bring something to share.) Not long ago Mussomeli’s mayor told McCubbin that he had planted a seed and that more in Mussomeli were now thinking about social projects “My whole way of living is so simple and joyful now,” McCubbin says “I don’t know where else I could have done this.” Rubia Andrade Daniels has also adjusted her expectations she fell in love with a vibe that reminds her of the Brazil where she was born and spent her childhood but that also seems open to the kind of diversity she’s found in California I couldn’t figure out why people here were being so nice to me,” she says with a laugh “Then I realized they’re like that to everyone.” loved the town so much she purchased three one-euro houses on her first visit in 2019 but her timetable has shifted: The kitchen in the house where she plans on living part time once she retires wasn’t finished until August 2023 and progress on the other two—an art gallery and a wellness center—has been pushed to an undetermined future in part due to the pandemic and the delays in its wake “You can’t have American expectations,” she says I think about that pace each day when I return to my base in Sambuca di Sicilia there’s been such demand for the listed houses that one euro is no longer the final sale cost but rather the opening bid in an auction that could see prices rise into the thousands the campaign was so popular that the municipality launched a second round in 2021 with an increase in the starting price—to two euros who has been summering in Sambuca since childhood and eventually settled here full time about 20 years ago says that “99 percent” of Sambucans welcome the newcomers “They worry they have been invaded by Americans,” says Licata who works for a real estate agency in town “If Sambuca one day has a thousand outsiders living here But it will maybe mean the young [people] can find a job and not go somewhere else it’s possible that Sambuca could become transfigured by take-out coffee joints and big-box stores and other supposed comforts that the town’s new residents like some Americans have complained about the local teenagers who cruise the streets on their motorbikes at night And imported class divisions are also emerging: Among the more free-spirited DIYers who have purchased homes rumors circulate that some of the wealthier buyers want to build an exclusive From left: Margherita Licata has lived in Sambuca for roughly 20 years; Pasticceria Enrico Pendola is one of few bakeries in the small town there’s little evidence of a non-Sicilian presence in Sambuca and it remains difficult to find anyone who speaks English What I did find was an archaeology museum where and marched me at breakneck speed through the antiquities on display while barking descriptions of them at me in Italian I also found a market that popped up alongside the traffic circle where the fishmonger told me how to cook the sardines I bought from the back of his van as well as a café whose arancini made me finally understand why anyone would want to eat fried balls of rice and where the elderly man who glared at me as I drank my breakfast cappuccino turned out not to be annoyed with the foreigner invading his morning sanctuary but justwaiting for the opportunity to ask me if I knew his cousins in New Jersey I’d arrived in Sicily wondering if the one-euro initiative would ruin the towns that adopted it replacing their traditional culture with more consumerist ones and destroying their lifestyle and easy sociability And when that turned out not to be the case I also wondered if it wasn’t simply a matter of time: Perhaps the pandemic had slowed an already slower way of doing business But as I sat again in that same restaurant from the first night it seemed to me that Sicily would be just fine Maybe the slower pace was not a flaw that would eventually be overcome but instead a feature that would ensure Sicily remains alluringly and unequivocally itself different peoples have been arriving on these shores for millennia They may leave an imprint; they may shape the culture But it’s clear that a distinctively Sicilian spirit still dominates From left: Mussomeli is one of the most popular towns in Sicily for one-euro home programs; Sambuca di Sicilia was a prominent trading hub centuries ago but this time for reasons slightly more personal Because I had seen enough one-euro homes to know that my powers of imagination were no match for their state of decrepitude As soon as she pushed open the doors to the arched courtyard The rooms were rundown and furnished with old-fashioned chandeliers and faded wallpaper with intact walls and floors covered with gorgeous patterned tiles there was an attached space that would make a perfect rental apartment two rooftop terraces offered views of the town center in one direction “Fifty thousand euros,” Licata told me with a wink “But that’s just what the owner’s asking.” The money in my bank account had not magically grown during my time in Sicily AFAR participates in affiliate marketing programs which means we may earn a commission if you purchase an item featured on our site.© 2025 AFAR LLC Across Italy once thriving communities are fighting urban decay by offering foreigners the opportunity to buy houses at dirt cheap rates one Sicilian town has taken it to the next level — by offering homes for free old historical center empty and turn into a ruin "The owners are oblivious to the damage they cause when they ditch their homes and refuse to restyle their ancient dwellings It leaves a deep scar on the townscape with the risk of dangerous collapses." and must pay the town a deposit of €5,000 ($5,600) to secure the property That deposit will be returned once renovations are finished buyers must present a proposal of how they plan to refurbish the house with Cammarata's mayor saying that the town will give precedence to young couples when selecting who gets the free homes and saying that any couple who has a baby in the first years of living in the town will be given €1,000 ($1,120) While the plans sound immensely attractive on paper living in Cammarata is not without its challenges and found a town that had been abandoned by many young Sicilians because of its mountainous location and narrow were deterred from living in the town because of the tiny which were nigh on impossible to get a car around they lived in the neighboring San Giovanni Gemini." Mayor Giambrone, however, stressed to CNN that the town is ready to welcome new homeowners with open arms. They revamp the local economy and can kick start a revolution," he said "A local proverb goes 'a tavula è na trazzera' meaning the table is a sheep trail where all wayfarers are welcome to sit and enjoy the great food." you may have become aware of a certain phenomenon Numerous Italian towns have adopted a scheme of selling abandoned homes off for 1 euro, or about $1.12 at the current exchange rate Urbanization has led to the dwindling populations of provincial settlements as cities and their suburbs thrive and become overpopulated The headline-grabbing low prices are designed to combat that and what success there has been so far has led to a proliferation of similar strategies being deployed across the country Read more: A picturesque Sicilian town succeeded in selling off its abandoned homes after auctions started at just $1 The strategy has received plenty of media coverage and many of the towns have become inundated with offers from foreigners on their cheap properties A home for $1 was always going to be too good to be true and most of these properties are often in a dilapidated condition requiring thousands of dollars in restoration and renovation to make them habitable again — let alone nice I recently traveled to Sicily to visit three of the towns that have adopted the $1 home plans — Sambuca and Cammarata — to see what foreign buyers are really getting themselves into Here's what some of them look like inside and Read more: A picturesque Sicilian town succeeded in selling off its abandoned homes after auctions started at just $1 After visiting many of the $1 houses in person I can honestly still say that despite the garbage and in need of thousands of dollars in renovations but the properties I visited had bags of historical charm all three of the towns I visited were delightful and the weather was incredible — I barely saw a single cloud The only criticism you could levy at them was just how quiet they are why these strategies are being tried in the first place that some residents in Sambuca were already learning English to begin operating walking tours With the media storm surrounding Italy's $1 homes it may not be long before the towns are full of Americans .st1{fill-rule:evenodd;clip-rule:evenodd;fill:#2a2a2a}By Ron Stein/The Jersey JournalVincent Virga of Partnership Financial Services at 766 Broadway in Bayonne on Wednesday Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey JournalThe Sicilian Citizens Club of Bayonne will hold its 85th anniversary gala on Saturday according to club president Andrew Gigante and event chairman Joseph De Marco Virga learned various trades through his involvement in family businesses Virga was employed by the Industrial Bank of Japan where he advanced in the ranks during his 14 years working for the company eventually managing over $3 billion in assets Virga ran the Green Cow Brick Oven Pizza and Catering Company at Exchange Place in Jersey City Virga became the president and CEO of Partnership Financial Services a firm that provides financial and retirement planning for individuals and businesses serving as president of the Bayonne Chamber of Commerce vice president of the Bayonne Rotary Club and trustee on the Board of the Hudson County Chamber of Commerce he was appointed to the Bayonne Board of Education by Bayonne Mayor Mark Smith Virga and his wife Camille D’Elia recently celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, (updated 8/1/2024) and acknowledgement of our Privacy Policy, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated 1/1/2025) © 2025 Advance Local Media LLC. 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