Dear Friends, do you know what happened on December 23, 1961? That day sixty years ago our dear founder Father Giovanni Salerno was ordained a priest. He was ordained by the imposition of hands by Monsignor Corrado Mingo, Bishop of Monreale. Father Giovanni remembers his words to him on that day, “What you have not been able to do, God will do in you.” And the words of his mother, “May these hands save many children!” These words turned out to be prophetic.

In 1968 he was sent to Peru by his Augustinian superiors to the region of Apurimac where he helped lepers, visited many villages, built roads, and brought the Good News of God. Finally, in 1984, he founded the Missionary Servants of the Poor of the Third World with its motherhouse in Cuzco.

These past few years he exercised his ministry in Cuba. Now he is living in our house in Lima where he prays for all the members of our community and for our benefactors. We ask your prayers for him that he may finish his life in holiness.