He had assumed he would be spending another year in Coventry.įather D’Ambrosia succeeds Father Bertil Anderson, who died on July 7 after an extended illness. Mass in Boston and went on to Pope John XXIII National Seminary.įather D’Ambrosia, now 55, said Bishop Thomas Tobin request was a surprise because it came well after July, when most appointments are made. I saw God as carrying me through personal struggles and I took a chance on it. “I wondered if God was calling me to be a priest. He questioned what he wanted to do with his life. A graduate of Pilgrim High School, he moved to Westerly to live with his brother where they both worked at Lum’s Restaurant. In an interview Tuesday, Father D’Ambrosia said he received his calling early in life.

Father D’Ambrosia will be installed at the Saturday Mass at 5 p.m., which is also a celebration of the church’s 75th anniversary. Now he is stepping into a new role – his first as pastor – at St. Most recently he was the parochial vicar at Ss. He taught at an all-boys Catholic school in Michigan, served as a parochial vicar at churches in Maine and Massachusetts, was the retreat director at the Marist House Retreat Center at New Hampshire and chaplain at Salve Regina University and Rhode Island Hospital. He went to Holliman Elementary School and Aldrich Junior High School.įather D’Ambrosia has been a lot of places and done many things since then. He lived on Post Road not far from the intersection of Elmwood Avenue and remembers when President Lyndon Johnson visited the state and drove past the front of his house on his way from the airport to Providence. Father Peter Joseph D’Ambrosia is a “Warwick boy.”

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