In Pace Christi

Fr. Giuseppe Galeotti had returned to Italy from South Africa in September 1982 due to health problems. He was then assigned to Pesaro where he stayed for the last 20 years of his life, first as the community’s treasurer and later as vice superior. In 1996, due to serious health problems, he underwent surgery in Pesaro. Later he was moved to Milan, where he underwent further surgery. He was able to return to Pesaro only in September 2003. Since then, his health had never being good.
On Christmas day 2003 he was feeling all right and had gone to say Mass at a Sisters’ community. He then had dinner with his nephews and returned home apparently in good form. Two days later, however, he began to feel sick and his health deteriorated as the day went on. The doctor was called and in the morning of 28 December it was decided to take Fr. Giuseppe to the hospital in Pesaro, where he unexpectedly died of kidney failure and respiratory complications at 10.00 pm.
The funeral was held in the parish church of San Luigi, where our house is located. Fr. Teresino Serra, Superior General, was the main celebrant, assisted by the provincial, Fr. Francesco Antonini, and by the administrator of the diocese of Pesaro, Mgr. Romano Morini. Beside 18 Comboni Missionaries, also 20 diocesan priests concelebrated. The young people who were taking part in the GIM’s end of the year gathering in Pesaro also attended. Following the Mass, the body was taken to his home town of Urbania, diocese of Urbino.
Fr. Giuseppe was born on 7 October 1921 in Urbania. In 1934, at 13 years of age, he entered the local diocesan seminary and in 1939 moved to the seminary of Fano. In 1942, because of the war, he returned to Urbino where he started his theology. At that time his missionary vocation was beginning to take shape, helped also by the visits of Fr. Arnaldo Violini, Fr. Tito Tempestini and Fr. Alfredo Paolucci. Thus in October 1945 Fr. Giuseppe entered the Comboni novitiate in Florence and completed his theology in Fiesole. He was ordained priest in Urbino on 29 June 1947 and the next day he said his first Mass in the Comboni seminary of Pesaro.
He was first assigned to Florence as local treasurer. The following year he was moved to Pesaro to do mission promotion. On 1 September 1951 he set off from Venice destined to the missions in Uganda, from where he returned 21 years later, on 2 April 1978. After a second period in Pesaro, again as treasurer, on 25 January 1981 he left for Africa, but this time destined to South Africa. He stayed there less than two years and, for health reasons, he returned definitively to Italy on 6 September 1982.
It is not difficult to know the personality of Fr. Giuseppe, because he himself left us personal notes about his life, his family and his missionary work. It is also easy to interpret his life, because, even in the silence of death, one can perceive his presence as a person who lived the time allotted to him by God with a strong self-image and with faithfulness for what he perceived as the will of God for him. His notes highlight the ties he always maintained with his family, with the diocese of Urbania-Urbino, with the Institute and with the Christian communities of Africa where he did his pastoral ministry. All “to the greater glory of God”.
Fr. Giuseppe some last words in his notes are: “In Pesaro I found kindness and understanding. I live awaiting for the day of blessed hope and of the coming of the Lord. I am grateful for the love many people have bestowed on me!”.