In Pace Christi

Fr. Alfredo Bellini, founder of the system of Communication of the Foundation of the Prelature of Balsas / MA, of the Buona Novella Radio and TV, died during the night of 6 August at Teresina (Brazil) at the age of 89 years, due to respiratory problems. Fr. Alfredo was one of the last of the prophets.

He was born in Verona, in Italy, in 1921. While still young, attended the school of the Institute of the Comboni Missionaries. He studied philosophy at Verona and theology at Venegono, near Milan. In 1945, when he was twenty four, he consecrated himself for life to the mission. The following year, on 7 July, he was ordained priest.

The first stage of his apostolate was that in Portugal (from 1951 to 1956). After five years, he left for the mission of Mozambique where he stayed for over 10 years.

Second stage: on his return from Africa, he was asked to go and work in Portugal which he did for more than nine years. Constantly attentive to the problems of the missions abroad, especially of Mozambique, and being in charge of the secondary school-level seminary at Coimbra, he never failed to speak of the injustices committed by the dictatorship abroad. Due to this attitude of his, one day, after the homily, «he was summoned by the State Police of Coimbra (PIDE), who interrogated him and told him he would be immediately expelled from the country. He was accused of implying in his sermons that Mozambique faced the spectre of hunger and misery. The order for his expulsion, was, however, rescinded at the last moment when he already had his plane ticket. The intervention of Cardinal Antonio Ribeiro, who sent his private secretary with a letter to the prime minister, Marcelo Gaetano, proved decisive. With the cancelling of the expulsion order, Fr. Alfredo was forced to leave Coimbra for a period of six months” (cf. I Missionari Comboniani e il nuovo Stato, Além-Mar, by Carlos Neves Sobrinho).

The superiors then saw fit to send him to the missions of Brazil. He immediately demonstrated his spiritual qualities as rector of the Comboni seminary of the great city of Vitória (in Espírito Santo State). As an artist and a professional decorator, Fr. Alfredo embellished a number of churches in a modern and pleasant style, showing the situation of poverty existing in the slums of Brazil. He was also elected director and vice-provincial of Brasil do Sul for three years. At Vitória, he worked with Bishop Luis Fernandes, “encouraging the birth of the Ecclesial Base Communities and endeavouring to help the Church become more liberating”.

Always on the move, dynamic and creative, after ten years of ministry he left South Brazil and opted to work in the mission of Maranhao, in the North-West province. There, in the diocese of Balsas, Airton Carlos Rocha, director of Giornalismo dell’Emittente, wrote of him that when he became aware of the absence of the voice of the Church in mass media, he never stopped working until the federal government gave him permission to open a radio station called “Radio Buona Novella”, running at 10,000 watts, reaching the four states of Maranhao. “Communication is the liberation of the most needy peoples” was the motto of Fr. Alfredo. He justified the need for the station saying: “It is there to defend the small farmers and the population which is being dispossessed of its land and to condemn the vast projects of monoculture”.

Fr. Alfredo had always to struggle against the continuous refusal to allow “a radio and a Church involved with the poor, condemning evils and injustice”. He had to stay at Brasilia (at Taguatinga – DF) as a guest of the Comboni Missionaries of the parish of Holy Family in order to follow the process closely, until the day when, after many applications, difficulties and refusals, he managed to get the longed-for permission.

In the view of many young people, Fr. Alfredo was “without doubt, one of the last prophets of the diocese of Balsas as he continued to put forward the truth with courage, his anger at the injustice of the world, his struggle in favour of the least important people, those badly treated and the undesirables of society”.
(Fr. Vincenzo Santangelo).
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 249 suppl. In Memoriam, ottobre 2011, pp. 115-118.