In Pace Christi

The second last of seven children, Francesco Rinaldi Ceroni came from a well-off family of committed Christian farmers. As many as six of the members of his family, including cousins, became priests. Among these was Antonio his younger brother.

After primary school, Francesco joined the seminary at Imola, intending to become a diocesan priest. Deep down, however, he felt called to be a missionary. In fact, his favourite reading material were the missionary magazines, especially “Nigrizia” and the lives of Mgr. Daniel Comboni and Fr. Giuseppe Beduschi.

While in high school (Francesco was 14 years old), Fr. Saturno Stefano Santandrea visited the Imola seminary and spoke to the students of the missionary vocation. After the conference, young Francesco approached the missionary saying he would like to be a missionary. Fr. Santandrea answered: “God willing, we shall meet in Africa.”

In 1940 Francesco joined the novitiate at Firenze where Fr. Stefano Patroni was novice master. When he took his vows (7 October 1942), he was given the traditional wooden crucifix. He kept it as a precious relic, even if it was broken several times during his many years in the missions, so often, in fact, that it was held together with bits of wire. He asked that, at his death, it would be placed in his coffin.

On 6 June 1948 he was ordained priest in Verona, in the chapel of the Mother House, by Mgr. Girolamo Cardinale, Bishop of Verona. On his ordination leaflet he wrote: “Souls, not honours; souls not being loved; souls, not riches”. Then he signed his name: “Fr. Francesco Rinaldi Ceroni, son of the Sacred Heart and Comboni Missionary”, an unusual title at that time.

From 1948 to 1950 we find him in Lebanon to study Arabic in preparation of his going to Southern Sudan. In January 1950 he was at Wau where he met Fr. Santandrea. His first ministry was as assistant priest at the Cathedral of Wau and as secretary to Mgr. Eduardo Mason. At the same time he studied English and committed himself, body and soul, to his ministry among the people. He was famous for his ability to arrange new marriages and prevent old ones from breaking up. So much so that he was called the “marriage abuna (priest).”

In 1956, immediately after Sudan became independent, he was one of the first to be expelled, the fifth, to be exact. That was for him a terrible wound, “a death sentence”, as he would later say. He managed to stay in the North, at El Nahud, but finding himself in a Moslem area, he could not exercise his ministry as he wished and he became discouraged as a result.

Fr. Francesco, in fact, felt an authentic passion for the mission. Not just a love, but a passion and this passion made him especially zealous, sometimes even too much so, approaching exaggeration. Safaris, visits to the Christians, sacraments, and lessons… kept him busy from morning to night.

From 1957 to 1959 he was at Rebbio, Italy, doing mission appeals. In 1959 he asked to go to South Brazil, in the diocese of São Mateus, but his heart was still in Africa, the land of his first mission experience. The Comboni Missionaries, meanwhile, were opening missions in various countries of Africa and Fr. Francesco asked to be sent there. In 1968 he went to Congo in the mission of Ndedu, where he stayed until 1972.

After a period in Italy, from 1972 to 1974, he went back for good to Congo, to an Azande area of the diocese of Dungu and later to Isiro diocese, at the mission of Rungu. There he stayed until 2005, completing 58 years in the missions. He lived those years intensely, in the front line. When he became ill he retired to Verona.

A man of deep prayer, he liked the established formulas and was faithful to his personal and community prayers. The three confreres in his community were used to get up at 5.30 and do an hour of meditation before Mass. Even so, they all agreed to rise at 5.00 for an extra half hour of prayer, before starting work.

One of Fr. Francesco’s great qualities was obedience to the will of God, which neither excluded long discussions with the superiors nor gave up at the least objection. He always wanted to thrash things out. In the end, however, obedience had the last word.

On hearing of the sickness that would take him to his death, he wrote to the Superior General: “Today, 28 July 2005, Divine Providence has made me a present. The director of our “Centro Ammalati” has informed me that I have terminal cancer of the pancreas. See how the good God has planned the final part of my long missionary life; fiat voluntas Dei.” He described his sickness as a gift. Then he added: “I renew with all my faith my total and irrevocable desire to die in the Holy Catholic Church to which I always felt I belonged, despite my many faults and sins, and in the dear Institute of the Comboni Missionaries. I ask the Lord to have mercy on me on that day, trusting in the maternal intercession of Mary.”

In Congo he suffered much because of his strong character, but especially because of the guerrillas: “In one attack they stole my jeep, in another my motorbike and, in a third, my bicycle. They took everything I had and pointed their rifles at me. I showed them my crucifix and they let me go.”

He also had days of great joy. We recall how a young Comboni Sister, who took her vows in September 2005, came to Verona to thank him for her vocation: her name was Federica and was only eight years old when she heard Fr. Francesco speak of the beauty of the missionary vocation. She secretly decided to become a Comboni Sister and when her dream came true, she went to thank Fr. Francesco who was especially happy that day, because someone was carrying on his vocation.

A cheerful and optimistic character, he never seemed to know the meaning of words like depression, pessimism or tiredness. Even on his deathbed he was serene and happy to meet the Lord whom he had made known to the people of Africa and Brazil. He died just after two o’clock in the afternoon, assisted by the nurse Graziella and Bro. Simone Della Monica. “In that final moment – Graziella wrote – we held hands and said goodbye… As I held your hand you answered yes to my invitation to pray. Then your breath grew weaker and that was how you left us.”

Fr. Francesco had prepared two books of missionary memories, one in French and one in Italian, having missionary animation and vocations ministry in mind. The funeral, held on the day dedicated to the Missionary Martyrs, took place at the Mother House. Then the coffin was taken to the Cathedral of Imola where, in the presence of the local bishop and numerous faithful, a prayer vigil was held. The following day the funeral took place. Both funeral services were festive occasions, as everyone felt they were saying goodbye to a saint.

Fr. Francesco was buried in the family tomb in his home town. He and his brother Antonio, who died in 1995, are two pillars of the Comboni Institute, true missionaries in the Comboni mould. May they both from heaven obtain for us many vocations like the one they had.
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 232 suppl. In Memoriam, ottobre 2006, pp. 37-48