On February 22, Mons. Giuseppe Sciacca ordained Deacon Fr. Ricardo Patah, LC at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Philip Martyr in Rome. Present at the ceremony were some of Fr. Ricardo’s family members and several legionaries living in Rome. Concelebrating, among others, were some of the priests present in Rome participating in the General Chapter of the Congregation.

During the homily, Mons. Giuseppe recalled that through the perpetual profession, the religious fully dedicates his life to a “sequela Christi radical, permanent, and visible” which exalts what is part of his baptismal vocation to proclaim “with courage the Kingdom of Christ so that it may spread and increase in the world […]. Wake up the world and be witnesses of a different way of acting, doing, living,” said the Bishop quoting Pope Francis.

Mons. Giuseppe Sciacca concluded his homily by mentioning the feast of the day (the Chair of St. Peter) and the charism of the Legionaries of Christ, inviting Fr. Ricardo to deepen the “bond of fidelity and love to the successor of Peter.” With his final words, he asked for the intercession of the Virgin Mary, “the humble servant whom the Lord has exalted beyond all human measure.”

Father Ricardo Nassif Patah, LC, was born in São Paulo on November 11, 1985. He was a member of Regnum Christi during his youth and entered the Legion of Christ in 2005 at the Novitiate in Arujá, São Paulo, where he made his first profession of vows. In 2007, he moved to Salamanca and studied two years of humanistic studies. In 2009, he traveled to Rome to study a bachelor’s degree in philosophy at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum. From 2011 to 2013, he collaborated as part of the formation team for the humanists in Salamanca, where he made his perpetual profession on January 1, 2013. From 2013 to 2014, he supported vocations pastoral work in Central America. He returned to Rome in mid-2014 to study a license in Philosophy and the first year of theology. In 2018, he completed a second period of apostolic internships at the Dublin OAK in Ireland. Subsequently, he has been finishing his theological studies at the Seminary Maria Mater Ecclesiae in Brazil and at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum.