In Pace Christi

Valentino Saoncella was born at Casale di Scodosia, in Padua Province, on 14 February, 1920. Having completed primary school, he entered the diocesan seminary at Thiene for secondary studies. From there he went to Venegono Inferiore and then to Padua Major Seminary. Valentino was especially open to the missions, an openness cultivated by the visits of the missionaries. He eventually decided to take the difficult decision of leaving the diocesan seminary and becoming a missionary.

In 1939, he joined the Comboni novitiate at Venegono where he took first vows in 1941. He was sent to San Pancrazio, Rome, for theology, frequenting the College of Propaganda Fide. In the summer of 1943, the scholastics were transferred to Rebbio (near Como), as Rome had become dangerous. Valentino was ordained priest on 3 June, 1944, by Mgr. Alessandro Macchi, in Como Cathedral and was temporarily appointed to the parish of Luvigliano, instead of Padua, since the latter too, like Rome, had become dangerous on account of the aerial bombing. During that period, Fr. Valentino took part in many adventures: encounters with the Germans and partisans and reprisals. More than once he had to administer absolution to people about to be shot and was once threatened with death with a rifle pointed at his chest.

In 1946, he was appointed to South Sudan. As he arrived from Khartoum North, he found a chapel, four mud huts and burning heat. There he passed eleven months learning English. He again set out, this time for Bahr el Ghazal, and after two more months at last reached Juba and then Wau. In Sudan he spent thirteen years at the mission of Wau from where he was expelled in 1964 together with all the other missionaries, male and female. During all that time he could only go home once.

He arrived at Mboro on the anniversary of the death of Fr. Angelo Arpe who had founded that mission among the Ndogo people in 1913. When Fr. Valentino arrived, there was already a vocational school where the ministry of education had decided that teaching was to be done only in the Ndogo language. The people of that tribe were joining the Church en masse, even though there was still the problem of religious marriage which could not be celebrated until the spouse had paid the bridal dowry in full.

After the nationalisation of the schools (1957), Mboro was less disturbed than other missions as it had its own police station and there were few inspections by officials from Wau. When Fr. Gaetano Briani left for the 1959 Chapter and was elected superior general, a short time later he appointed Fr. Valentino as provincial superior of South Sudan. It was a very difficult time for the province because of the hostility of the Islamist government which was already planning the expulsion of the missionaries. As a matter of fact, it forbade those who left the country from returning, it published lists of missionaries who were to be sent away and bribed people to falsely accuse the missionaries of speaking ill of the government. Fr. Valentino was also accused several times, even of having a cache of arms in the cathedral. Finally, the expulsion order arrived.

Now back in Italy, Fr. Valentino served in Naples from September 1964 to April 1970. With the help of Fr. Ivo Ciccacci, he transformed the parish of Villanova, often visited by Cardinal Corrado Ursi, into a model parish. In 1970, he was appointed to the United States.

He worked in the NAP until October, 1981, a period which Fr. Valentino described as “eleven difficult but wonderful years”. Having visited his family, which had immigrated to Walla Walla, Washington, USA, he was appointed to the parish of St. Michael, Cincinnati, as parish and superior. It was one of those parishes which had been originally inhabited by European immigrants but was gradually populated by black Americans to whose pastoral care the Comboni Missionaries were dedicated.

After a Sabbatical year in Rome, he was sent to Limone sul Garda (March 1982 - October 1984) as superior. He threw himself into the work of mission promotion, assistance to various groups and endeavoured to improve the house building itself.

In early 1984, the NAP asked him to do some mission appeals during the months of May, June and July. He obtained the necessary papers and left to help as he had been asked. However, due to the shortage of personnel, as soon as he arrived the provincial of the NAP asked Rome to appoint Fr. Valentino to that province. He was taken by surprise by this decision. He returned to Limone to complete his commitments there and hand over things to his successor.

He returned to the NAP and was appointed to the parish of Pius X in Cincinnati, where he stayed until November 1987, when his transfer and rotation were considered.

He was allowed another Sabbatical year which he spent in Walla Walla at the home of his sister, spending his time also studying but always at the disposition of the parish priests of the area. He did much good chaplaincy work at the hospital of St. Mary and assisted in the prisons of Washington State.

He then spent a year at the provincial house in Cincinnati and then eighteen years at La Grange Park where he worked mainly in mission promotion.

In 2008, at the age of 88, he was transferred for medical reasons to the Ambrosoli Centre for the Sick in Milan where he died on 19 April, 2011. Fr. Lino Spezia concluded his funeral homily saying: “He was a Comboni Missionary who dedicated his life to the mission and to making the dream of Comboni come true wherever he found himself, whether in Sudan, the United States, Italy or confined to his room; he always tried to build up a more evangelical and a more welcoming Church and to leave the world more beautiful than when he found it.”
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 249 suppl. In Memoriam, ottobre 2011, pp. 73-79.