In Pace Christi

Fr. Angelo Rodorigo was born on 5 March 1924 in Italy, at Avezzano, a charming Abruzzo mountain city. After his third year of theology he moved from the diocesan seminary to the Comboni novitiate of Florence where he took the religious vows on 19 March 1948. He was ordained priest on 6 June of the same year.

After studying Arabic in Lebanon he was appointed to the circumscrip-tion of Egypt. In 1950 Fr. Angelo went to Hélouan as bursar and teacher at the “Collège de la Sainte Famille”. In 1958 he was appointed head-master of the school, a post which he would occupy until his departure for the Sudan. He was also parish priest of Hélouan parish. From 1972 to 1975 he was regional superior of the circumscription of Egypt.

In 1976 Fr. Angelo was appointed to El Obeid in Sudan where he was headmaster of “Comboni Boy’s School” and then Parish Priest at El-Nahud, but still in charge of the Comboni schools. While he was there, in 1981 he was stricken with a tumour at an artery. He was sent back to Italy and underwent an operation at Verona hospital. A long section of the artery was removed and substituted with an artificial one. He was given a year or a little more to live. Instead, in 1982 he was already back in Hélouan, Egypt, where he gave himself to missionary service for an-other 23 years. He was again placed in charge of the schools and ap-pointed superior of the community. In 1988 he moved to Zamalek, Cairo, in the pastoral service of the parish of St. Joseph until 1996. He spent the last years of his life in the community of Cordi Jesu as rector of the Shrine and as bursar.

From 1950 to 2005, except for the five years in Sudan, Fr. Angelo lived in Egypt, mostly at Hélouan, where his name is associated with the Holy Family School to which he instilled an extraordinary attitude of serious-ness and love of learning.

Apart from Italian, Fr. Angelo spoke French, Arabic and English well. He was reserved by character with noble and lovable traits. Strict with himself before being strict with others, he expressed his opinions clearly and directly with a frankness that never concealed resentment.

At the beginning of September, following a fall, his health began to de-teriorate: obliged to use a walking stick, he never failed to make his friendly presence felt in the Shrine which evokes St. Daniel Comboni’s visits and the start of his work for the salvation of Africa. It was here that the Lord took Fr. Angelo to himself on the evening of 7 November 2005, when his heart suddenly stopped beating.

His funeral was solemnly celebrated in the afternoon of 9 November in the packed church of “Cordi Jesu”. Because Fr. Angelo had spent al-most half of his missionary life at Hélouan, about a hundred people from that area were present, including the former headmaster and many teachers from the school. Also present at the funeral were Mgr. Makarios Tewfik (Coptic Catholic Bishop of Ismayliah), Mgr. Andraos Salama (Coptic Catholic Bishop of Guizeh) and the Maronite Bishop Mgr. Joseph Dergham. The delegate, Fr. Claudio Lurati, and twenty other priests concelebrated. Fr. Claudio spoke in his homily of Fr. An-gelo’s life and missionary service in Egypt and in Sudan. He then de-scribed his last days when he prepared himself for his final journey.

We remember him in the Lord with gratitude and we entrust him to his mercy.
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 230 suppl. In Memoriam, aprile 2006, pp. 42-52