[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11237]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 A TRIBUTE TO MONSIGNOR LOUIS ANTONELLI

  (Mr. SABLAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SABLAN. Mr. Speaker, God's blessings come to us in many forms. 
One of the ways the people of Rota in the Northern Mariana Islands have 
been most blessed by God is through His minister, the Reverend 
Monsignor Louis Antonelli. In September, Pale Antonelli will celebrate 
his 92nd birthday. For 37 of those years, he has served on the island 
of Rota, first as pastor of San Francisco De Borja Church in Songsong 
Village, then as pastor of San Isidro Church in Sinapalu.
  Throughout these years, Monsignor Antonelli has presided over 
countless masses, baptisms, catechism classes, counseling sessions, 
weddings, and funerals. He has ministered to hospital patients, prison 
inmates, the sick, and the elderly. But in addition to being a man of 
the spirit, the beloved Pale Antonelli is a man of the Earth. His herd 
of cattle, about 100 head, and the grazing lands he has cultivated for 
them are widely recognized among Rota's finest, a product of nurture 
and careful breeding.
  It is a long way from Sheppton, Pennsylvania, where Pale Antonelli 
was born, to the island of Rota. God's ways are unfathomable. But we 
are all grateful that God's ways brought Pale Antonelli to the Northern 
Mariana Islands.

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