In Pace Christi

Bro. Giuseppe Eugenio Belotti (29.12.1942 – 14.05.2007)
The death of Bro. Giuseppe Eugenio Belotti, at our house in Milan, took all of us who knew him by surprise. It was common knowledge that he was not well and had gone to a retirement home in his village, but his condition gave no hint of such a swift end.
Bro. Giuseppe was born on 29 December 1942 at Capriolo (Brescia), the last of many brothers and sisters. His mother died while he was still very young. This loss left and indelible mark on his whole life. One could sense his sense of loss when he referred to himself as a “motherless child”. He soon learned the tailoring trade from his brother-in-law Gigi, the owner of the shop where he worked until he was eighteen. He then began to help his father who was a postman. Giuseppe always showed great esteem, almost devotion, for his father and spoke of him respectfully as a good and wise man. His pride in working close to his father whom he loved, led him to appreciate this kind of work about which he always spoke with pleasure.
Bro. Giuseppe was inclined to reflect a lot and his personal experience made him especially sensitive to the sufferings of others. One Sunday at Mass he heard the parish priest say that one should remember the less fortunate. He took this remark as directed at him personally and spoke to the assistant parish priest, Fr. Lino Tominelli, with whom he began spiritual direction.
Some months later he went to visit the Missioni Africane seminary of Brescia. His vocation towards the less fortunate was becoming clearer. In September 1964, at the age of 22, he began the postulancy at Gozzano and made his first profession on 18 March 1967. Bro. Belotti always remembered his first “yes” to God with great gratitude. Even many years later he wanted the community to remember the anniversary of his vows.
Assigned to the Verona Mother House, his first job, which lasted until 1972, was that of tailoring in the confreres’ wardrobe. There were still many requests for the black religious cassock for first professions and for the white cassock used in the missions. It was also a time when Bro. Angelo Viviani was becoming overburdened with the needs of confreres who were ill and Bro. Giuseppe would willingly assist him in the medical wing. Since he was very precise in his work, he asked the superiors to allow him to do a course in nursing at the civic hospital, where he was awarded a diploma.
At last, as he had desired for so long, the door to Africa was opened to him too. In 1972 he studied English in London and then Swahili in Tanzania. He was assigned to Kenya where he worked at the Comboni missions of Kapenguria and Makindu. There he was happy to exercise his profession as a nurse. Each day, together with a Comboni Sister, he took care of 150 children who packed the clinic. At the mission he opened a small trade school where he taught carpentry and tailoring. In all this he was happy just to be “the Mission Brother”.
After a rather long period of rest in Italy, he returned to Africa in 1979. This time he was sent to Morulem, Uganda, where there was a leprosarium. To better assist those suffering from Hansen’s syndrome, he took a diploma as “leprosy assistant”. He spent eight years at Morulem with the lepers, a period he remembered with particular pleasure.
He then began a period spent in various Comboni communities, changing quite frequently, perhaps because of a deeper sense of unease. He spent time in England (Leeds, London), in Italy (Arco, Verona), in Kenya (Ongata Rongai), again in Italy (Brescia) and lastly in Uganda.
Then in 2002 he went to Rebbio, one of the Italian houses for elderly confreres. He would have liked to take care of all the confreres of the house, but was unable to do so on account of an illness that had afflicted him for some time. Among other things, he spent some time in Genoa where he underwent tests and treatment for Hansen’s syndrome. He humbly and serenely accepted to become the “House Brother”, taking also care of the guests. There he was much appreciated for the kindness and wisdom he showed in meeting the many people who called at the house.
However, when he realised that, due to his poor state of health, even that work was too much for him, he asked permission from the provincial to retire to an old age home in his home village. There he spent his time caring for the other residents and doing many little jobs which made life in common that much easier.
In early May he was taken to Brescia hospital for further tests. When the doctors diagnosed a worsening of his sickness, Bro. Giuseppe was transferred to our house in Milan. He died peacefully at daybreak of 14 May 2007, just a week after his arrival.
At his funeral, the church was packed with faithful. His friends from the retirement home and the parish of Capriolo, together with the parish priest, as well close family members and relatives, had organised cars and coaches to come and show, with a final gesture of affection, their esteem for this citizen of theirs. His mortal remains rest in the Comboni Missionaries’ plot in Bruzzano cemetery.
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 236 suppl. In Memoriam, ottobre 2007, pp. 39-44.