General

It is with a heavy heart that the Community of Missione Maria Ausiliatrice announces the passing of our beloved founder, Father Romano Venturelli, sdb., on the 14th of August at the age of 76 in Edmonton where he had been serving since the year 2000.

It is with a heavy heart that the Community of Missione Maria Ausiliatrice announces the passing of our beloved founder, Father Romano Venturelli, sdb., on the 14th of August at the age of 76 in Edmonton where he had been serving since the year 2000.


Born on March 7th 1941 in Sona (Verona) in Italy, and ordained a priest in Rome for the Community of the Salesians of Don Bosco on December 21st 1968, he was assigned to San Domenico Savio Mission, in the Diocese of Montreal, in 1969. He began some pastoral work with 200 Italian families in Rivière-des-Prairies in 1972, founded the CSRDP, today known as Club Soccer of RDP.  The needs of a growing community saw the construction a new church, with the breaking of the ground on October 1983, thanks to his charism he was able to raise the enthusiasm of many families to work closely with him to realize this dream. The first mass was celebrated on August 5th 1983, in a nearly completed church. It was blessed by Mgr Paul Gregoire, Archbishop of the Diocese of Montreal on December 22nd 1984.

Father Romano Venturelli will be exposed at Missione Maria Ausiliatrice from Tuesday, August 22nd  to Thursday, August 24th. The wake will begin at 9 pm on Tuesday to 10 am on Thursday, when he will be taken to his final resting place at Repos Saint-François d'Assise, in Montreal. 

A solemn mass will be celebrated on Wednesday, August 23rd  at 7:30 pm.

In lieu of flowers, a donation to Missione Maria-Ausiliatrice would be appreciated so as to sustain the good work that Father Romano began in RDP.