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In Pace Christi
Cioffi Vincenzo
Date of birth :
13/11/1933
Place of birth :
Piano di Sorrento
Temporary Vows :
09/09/1958
Perpetual Vows :
08/12/2000
Date of ordination :
30/03/1963
Date of death :
15/03/2003
Place of death :
Quito/EC
Fr. Vincenzo Cioffi was born in Sorrento, Southern Italy, on 13 November 1933. He grew up in his native town and joined the diocesan seminary. In 1955 he came in contact with the Comboni Missionaries and after a time of discernment, he entered the noviciate of Gozzano. He took his first vows on 9 September 1958, his perpetual vows four years later and was ordained a priest on 30 March 1963. His first mission assignment was Ecuador.
He worked in the Guasmo of Guayaquil, in Esmeraldas and in Quito, always showing a great sense of responsibility in his pastoral work and a special love for the liturgy and for preaching. Gifted with a very creative and independent character he found it difficult to live in community and in 1983, after a long period of reflection, he decided to leave the Institute and to be incardinated in the diocese of Quito, where he took the pastoral care of a large parish in the city.
Despite the geographical distance that his decision brought about, Fr. Vincenzo never ceased (as he himself would later say) to be a Comboni Missionary: “I continued to be one in my own way…”. He never cut his ties with the province of Ecuador. In 1995, when Fr. Angel Irigoyen Lafita was provincial, Fr. Vincenzo began the process that eventually brought him back to the Institute. In 1996 he was assigned to Cali, Colombia. Here he took up the care of the shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, where he distinguished himself for seven years for his generous dedication to the pilgrims, his Marian spirit and his love for prayer. Lately, a congenital illness that had already surfaced some years earlier, got worse to the point that it began to impair his sight and his movements. In April 2002 he suffered a mild heart failure that obliged him to follow a strict diet and medical therapy. He accepted these limitations with courage, helped by his faith and by his devotion to the Blessed Mother, offering it all for the missions.
On 5 March he left for his holidays and, on his way to Italy, he stopped in Quito to see his friends and to rest for a few days at the provincial house. He was supposed to continue his journey on 10 March, as he had planned to celebrate his 40th anniversary of ordination in Sorrento with his family and with other priests he knew. But God had different plans… On the morning of 9 March he suffered a serious stroke that made him fall down and left him in a deep coma from which he never recovered. He underwent emergency surgery at the Pasteur Clinic in Quito, but died five days later on 15 March 2003, on the very day when the entire Institute was celebrating the beginning of the Comboni year in preparation for the canonisation… From heaven may he pray for us.
He worked in the Guasmo of Guayaquil, in Esmeraldas and in Quito, always showing a great sense of responsibility in his pastoral work and a special love for the liturgy and for preaching. Gifted with a very creative and independent character he found it difficult to live in community and in 1983, after a long period of reflection, he decided to leave the Institute and to be incardinated in the diocese of Quito, where he took the pastoral care of a large parish in the city.
Despite the geographical distance that his decision brought about, Fr. Vincenzo never ceased (as he himself would later say) to be a Comboni Missionary: “I continued to be one in my own way…”. He never cut his ties with the province of Ecuador. In 1995, when Fr. Angel Irigoyen Lafita was provincial, Fr. Vincenzo began the process that eventually brought him back to the Institute. In 1996 he was assigned to Cali, Colombia. Here he took up the care of the shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, where he distinguished himself for seven years for his generous dedication to the pilgrims, his Marian spirit and his love for prayer. Lately, a congenital illness that had already surfaced some years earlier, got worse to the point that it began to impair his sight and his movements. In April 2002 he suffered a mild heart failure that obliged him to follow a strict diet and medical therapy. He accepted these limitations with courage, helped by his faith and by his devotion to the Blessed Mother, offering it all for the missions.
On 5 March he left for his holidays and, on his way to Italy, he stopped in Quito to see his friends and to rest for a few days at the provincial house. He was supposed to continue his journey on 10 March, as he had planned to celebrate his 40th anniversary of ordination in Sorrento with his family and with other priests he knew. But God had different plans… On the morning of 9 March he suffered a serious stroke that made him fall down and left him in a deep coma from which he never recovered. He underwent emergency surgery at the Pasteur Clinic in Quito, but died five days later on 15 March 2003, on the very day when the entire Institute was celebrating the beginning of the Comboni year in preparation for the canonisation… From heaven may he pray for us.