Dr. Anthony Pezzotta

Dr. Anthony P. Pezzotta was born in Bergamo, Italy, in 1935.  He studied fifteen years in Roman Catholic seminaries of the Salesians of Don Bosco in Italy, England, Spain and Germany.  He was ordained a Catholic priest on February 11, 1961 in Turin, Italy, by His Eminence Cardinal Maurilio Fossati, then Archbishop of the diocese.  In the Catholic Church, Dr. Pezzotta earned undergraduate degrees in Philosophy and Greek, and the equivalent of a Master’s degree in Theology from the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome.  In the Philippines, he was appointed as Director of Schools and Seminaries, as well as a Rector of Local Salesian Communities (1964-1974).

On February 26, 1974, after studying the Scriptures on his own, and through the testimony of Rev. Ernesto Montealegre, a Filipino Baptist pastor, Tony (as he liked to be called) trusted Christ alone as Savior and Lord of his life.  Tony left the Catholic church and joined the Santa Cruz Baptist Church, where he was baptized on March 3, 1974.  There he met Zita Vitangcol, a Sunday School teacher, whom he later married.  God blessed Zita and Tony with three children, Marie, Angela and Daniel.

Tony completed a Master’s degree from Denver Seminary, Denver, Colorado in 1975, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity by Western Seminary, Portland, Oregon in 1991.

In 1975, after finishing their studies, Tony and Zita joined the First Baptist Church of West Los Angeles, CA, where Tony was ordained to the Gospel Ministry on May 16,1976.  In June of the same year, Tony and Zita were appointed by the Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society, now WorldVenture, as missionaries to the Philippines where they ministered through evangelism, discipleship and theological training until June 1999.

Upon returning to the United States, Tony served as the Director of Ethnic Ministries for the Conservative Baptist Church Association, now the Pacific Church Network. He worked joyfully  with Hispanic and Asian pastors in Southern California, until a rare form of Parkinson’s disease prevented him from working in April 2009. Tony’s final years on earth were spent living with Zita and near two of their children in Littleton, Colorado, where they had begun their married life many years before. After a long, difficult illness, the Lord graciously called Tony home to be with his beloved Savior on April 2, 2014. Tony is missed by many today, but his life’s work and legacy lives on in his family, his friends, his students and those whom he encouraged towards a truth encounter of their very own.

TRUTH ENCOUNTER, was first published in 1996 (red cover) and then reprinted in 2000 (purple cover).  The Spanish translation, Encuentro Con La Verdad, was published in 2004.  The English e-book version was created in April 2015. If you would like to make a tax-free contribution to the cost of reprinting hard copies of either the English or the Spanish version, please contact The Pacific Church Network at 909-944-5900, or give online on the Truth Encounter Reprint Project page.

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