Bishop of Acireale
Bishop Antonino Raspanti, Bishop of Acireale, was born on June 20, 1959, in Alcamo, in the province and Diocese of Trapani. After his secondary studies he entered the diocesan seminary and attended the San Mamiliano Major Archiepiscopal Seminary of Palermo. He obtained a bachelor's degree in theology from the San Giovanni Evangelista Theological Faculty in Palermo in 1982, and completed his academic studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome with a doctorate in theology in 1990. He was ordained a deacon on March 6, 1982, and a priest for Trapani on September 7, 1982. He then served as parochial vicar of the cathedral of Trapani (1984-1986); vice-assistant of the diocesan youth sector of Italian Catholic Action (1984-1988); lecturer in dogmatic theology at the Alberto degli Abati Institute of Religious Sciences in Trapani (1984-1993); and assistant in dogmatic theology and the history of spirituality at the Theological Faculty of Sicily (1984-1998). He was parish priest of Maria Santissima delle Grazie in Trapani (1986-1991 and 1993-1994) and of San Giuseppe in Trapani (1991-1992); assistant of the Missionaries of the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ (1995-2000); parish priest of the mother church of Erice (1995-2001); spiritual director of the episcopal seminary of Trapani (1998-2001); and vice-dean of the Theological Faculty of Sicily (1999-2002). From 1998 he has been a permanent lecturer in the history of spirituality at the Theological Faculty of Sicily; he was a member of the presbyteral council and of the college of consultors of Trapani (1999-2009) and dean of the Theological Faculty of Sicily (2002-2009). He has been a member of the Pontifical Academy of Theology since 2005, was named a chaplain of His Holiness in 2005, and from 2008 has been a member of the Italian Episcopal Conference committee for studies in theology and religious sciences. He is the author of numerous theological and philosophical studies published in various reviews. On July 26, 2011, he was appointed Bishop of Acireale. He received episcopal ordination on October 1, 2011, at Acireale, with Paolo Romeo as principal consecrator and Pio Vittorio Vigo and Francesco Micciché as co-consecrators. On September 26, 2015, he was appointed Apostolic Administrator of Messina-Lipari-Santa Lucia del Mela, and he ceased to hold that office on April 4, 2016.