In Pace Christi

Fr. Arcangelo Petri was born on 11 November, 1924, at Segonzano, a small town in Val di Cembra, Trent, a town where a number of Comboni Missionaries were born. He describes his call thus: “Some Comboni Missionaries of Africa came to visit Our Lady of Help. One of the older missionaries spoke to us of Africa and invited us to go there”.

Arcangelo joined the minor seminary of the Comboni Missionaries at Trent and, once he completed his novitiate in Florence, he took his temporary vows on 7 October, 1944. In 1949 he took his final vows and was ordained priest on 3 June, 1950. For three years he served in the houses of Trent and Gozzano and was sent to South Sudan in 1953.

In South Sudan he was assigned to the community of Cukudum, among the Didinga. “I immediately felt at home. Naturally, it was a tiring mission because one always had to go on safari on foot. The shortest safari involved a journey of at least four or five hours. However, it was satisfying work as it brought me into constant contact with the families. One went from village to village. Wherever there was a small church, one stopped for at least a week. The people responded very well. I may say that there was a great change in those eleven years: at first there were only a few Christians but when I left there were 15,000”.
In 1964 Fr. Arcangelo was expelled from South Sudan with all the other missionaries. It was a hard blow but, like Bishop Sisto Mazzoldi and other confreres, he moved directly from Sudan to Uganda in the region of Karamoja, at that time under the diocese of Gulu.

The unexpected arrival of a good group of missionaries, complete with their bishop, facilitated the erection of the diocese of Moroto. Bishop Mazzoldi himself became the first bishop. In the south of Karamoja, in the zone of Moruita, refugee camps had been created to receive Sudanese refugees who had fled to Uganda on account of the civil war between North and South Sudan. Many of them came from Cukudum and Fr. Arcangelo again found himself among his own people.

Fr. Arcangelo was then assigned to the mission of Amudat, not far from Moruita, among the Pokot people. When a peace agreement was signed in 1971 between North Sudan and the rebels of the South, the refugees returned home and in 1972 the refugee camps were closed. Then Fr. Arcangelo was assigned to the mission of Namalu, on the southern border of Karamoja, in a very fertile zone where various groups of Karimajong went to live. They had lost all their cattle to raiders and were trying to make a living through agriculture. Those were difficult years in every way: raids turned the life of the communities upside down and people were more interested in material matters than in the Gospel. The dictator Amin was imposing an iron rule and the massacre of potential opponents was the order of the day; the expulsion of the British and the Indians as well as some missionaries created constant uncertainty regarding the future of the mission.

In 1977, Fr. Arcangelo was appointed rector of the Moroto minor seminary situated at Nadiket, a few miles from Moroto. There he lived through what was a crucial period of instability and insecurity. As provincial counsellor and representative of the confreres of the diocese of Moroto, he would visit all the missions of the area and come to know the people. His indomitable spirit, the clarity of his decisions and his courage in facing crises, especially during the various periods of war, first involving the fall of Amin in 1979 and then the several coups which went on until 1986, when the present President Museveni took power, gained him the respect even of the Karimajong warriors. More than once he was stopped by the warriors but he always managed to avoid any tragic consequences, being able to challenge them and, in a way, keep on a par with them.

In 1981, Mgr. Mazzoldi resigned from the diocese of Moroto due to age and the new bishop, Mgr. Paul Lokiru Kalanda, asked Fr. Arcangelo to be his vicar general. After a short period in the parish of Naoi (1983-84), Fr. Arcangelo returned to the seminary of Nadiket to stand in for the rector. His numerous posts (apart from being Vicar general and Rector of the seminary, he was also on the administration committee of the diocese), journeys to visit the missions with roads in a hopeless condition, the continual tension caused by raids and frequent attacks on the missions, the seminary included, undermined his health. As he suffered from damage to the spinal vertebrae and continual backache, he took early holidays in 1986 to seek treatment for the pain. Despite many efforts, there was little improvement. The pain and stiffness in his back would accompany him for the rest of his days.

Returning to Uganda at the end of that same year, he was again assigned to Naoi community, while waiting for the Comboni house Regina Mundi to be opened. He moved to the latter the following year. In the meantime he continued to serve the diocese as vicar general, taking care of the diocesan clergy and seeing to the support of the diocese.

At the end of 1987, as he ended his mandate as vicar general, Fr. Arcangelo was asked to re-open the mission of Karenga which, located in the far north on the border with Sudan, had been closed a few years earlier due to the attacks on it by the Karimajong and occupied by the regular army. In 1988 the soldiers left the place and Fr. Arcangelo re-opened the mission. Life at Karenga was not easy, either pastorally or health wise, since he suffered continually from backache. Speaking of that period, Fr. Arcangelo said in an interview: “There is not a single shop in this area with about 15.000 inhabitants. We have to bring from Kotido supplies for the people, such as salt, soap, school supplies (for 2,500 pupils). We decided to do this until a better solution is found. However, we try not to confine ourselves to this work alone: through catechesis we help the faithful to rediscover in the Gospel and in the Church the ways of forgiveness and tolerance as well as an understanding of the mistakes that were made. Rather than a centre for relief, we would prefer the mission to be the centre of a great family of people trying to live in solidarity”.

He returned to Italy on holiday with another problem: the loss of his voice. He wrote: “Back trouble is one thing but for a missionary to lose his voice is a blow which goes beyond the limit since it strikes him in what is essential for his mission”. On his return to Uganda he was appointed to the mission of Kanawat as bursar but did not stay there very long as, once again, he had to go to the seminary at Nadiket (1993) as superior of the community until the arrival of the new rector, Fr. Guido Oliana. When Fr. Oliana came, he was assigned to Matany as superior. That was the year of 1994.

During all this time, his health problems were getting worse and his holidays were nothing more than opportunities for medical treatment. In 1997 he went again to Naoi and also to Kanawat. He was transferred from there to Loyoro in 1998, then, in 1999, he went to Kapedo and once again to Loyoro. Fr. Oliana, the provincial, reminded Fr. Arcangelo that “missionaries are nomads just like the Karimajong”. Fr. Arcangelo often had to play the role of the stopgap but he always did so in a spirit of freedom, obedience and love for his confreres and the people.

In 2000 we find him in Verona for tests and treatment. His stay was longer than planned. From Verona he went to Arco, where further health problems emerged: high blood pressure, migraine and prostate problems. Meanwhile, his plane ticket had become out of date and his departure was postponed indefinitely. In 2003, he received a letter transferring him from the province of Uganda to that of Italy and said: “I was expecting this as it is physically impossible for me to return to Uganda”.

Fr. Arcangelo’s heart remained in Uganda and Karamoja, as his letters to provincials and confreres show.
I met Fr. Arcangelo several times when I was passing through Milan. Towards the end he had also lost his hearing and this caused him to confine himself to his room with his memories and in continual communion with the Lord. In his heart he had always lived intensely and exclusively for the mission. At the age of 85, his heart gave up the struggle and the Lord received him into his Kingdom after a life spent winning souls for God.
(Fr. Giuseppe Filippi)
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 241 suppl. In Memoriam, luglio 2009, pp. 62-72.