In Pace Christi

Bro. Lino Cremona was born on 28 June, 1912, at Venegono Inferiore. He took temporary vows on 11 February, 1933, and perpetual vows on 6 January, 1939.

In 1937 he was sent to Tonga, in South Sudan, in charge of the house. Then he was sent to do the same work at Hélouan, in Egypt, where he stayed until 1971. After a year in the NAP, he was sent to Isiro, Congo, and worked there until 1980. Afterwards, he was again sent to Hélouan where he remained until 2007, the year he was sent to Milan for health reasons.

Fr. Lino Spezia, superior of the Centre for Elderly and sick Confreres in Milan, who lived in the same community as Bro. Lino for two years, says: “A profile of Bro. Lino written many years ago by a confrere, goes: ‘He pitched his tent at Isiro on 30 November, 1972. It was there that I got to know him. He was a man of iron, radiating energy from every pore with a body shaped by hard work and a face marked by sixty years of exposure to the weather. Despite his age, he never lost heart when faced with a job he was sent to do: even to fit out the mission from scratch.

He would find time for painting, sculpture and intarsia. Several works of his, kept at St. Anne’s, bear witness to his undoubted artistic ability. It must also be said that the educational work, which others now do among the youth elsewhere, it was first done here by Bro. Lino, among the young Congolese Comboni aspirants. With them he prayed, worked and engaged on a journey in spite of being well over sixty.

Being principally in charge of receiving guests, he was a friend to all and could tell by one’s facial expression what a person needed. He was engaged solely in practicing charity in serving others, without asking for anything in return or seeking any reward, always ready to be in the background as a ‘useless servant’.
During his last two years, his heart was never really here in Milan but in Egypt and in Congo, the two provinces he loved so deeply and to which he hoped to return. For him what mattered was to go… back to the missions!

He was a man constantly in search of the will of God which he discovered in prayer and in his missionary work, because there he was fully himself.”

Fr. Pierino Landonio tells us of his second spell at Helouan: “Bro. Lino never abandoned that concrete spirit, industry and attention to the essential which he inherited from his own country people and made his own, even in living out his Comboni Missionary Brother spirituality.

His workshop, which produced everything required for the maintenance of the mission, was also a place of encounter with the youth, mothers, children, Sisters and confreres who enjoyed chatting with him or seeking his advice in the many difficulties of life.

In the community he created cohesion, reconciliation and fraternity. He was aware of how, in the mission, the charism of the consecrated layman and the priest complemented each other. He was convinced that each had its own area of competence in order to serve the mission.

Dear Bro. Lino, we could tell many, many things about you but we want to remember you for your physical and spiritual longevity. You wrote part of the history of our missions in Egypt and in the Congo”.
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 242 suppl. In Memoriam, ottobre 2009, pp. 8-13.