In Pace Christi

“Fr. Carlo Cappelletti, just as he lived serenely, left us serenely, while the church bells of Verona sounded the hour of the Angelus”. These are the first words of Fr. Aleardo De Berti’s homily at Fr. Carlo’s funeral.
Born at Selva di Progno on 16 December, 1919, he attended middle and high school at the diocesan seminary of Verona. In 1940, he asked permission to leave the diocesan seminary and to enter the Comboni novitiate of Venegono. After two years novitiate he took first vows and, on 29 June, 1945, at the end of the Second World War, he was ordained priest: his missionary formation had taken place entirely during the five years of war.

Once ordained, he lived at the Mother House while he ministered at San Tomio and acted as assistant recruiter for the house of Padova. After studying English for some months in England, he began his long missionary life in July 1947 when he left for Khartoum and his baptism of fire. He was, in fact, sent to the Comboni College to teach shorthand and European history, subjects with which he was not at all familiar: “Dear Fr. Stellato is teaching me shorthand.” He had agreed to teach only out of “blind obedience”, a taken-for-granted requirement in those days. Even so, however, there was no miracle forthcoming and the young missionary went into a deep crisis which was resolved only by the help of an understanding and wise superior.

In May of 1952 he returned to Italy for a brief period of rest after which, in November of the same year, he was appointed to Uganda where he stayed for twenty-two years (1952-1974) and where he could be more peacefully fulfilled in the apostate and ordinary ministry, serving various ecclesial and religious communities in the diocese of Gulu and, later, of Arua, learning the local languages very well. His first mission (from September 1952 to December 1955), in the diocese of Gulu, was that of Kalongo, among the Acholi. Many years later he wrote this description of the area: “The many chapels scattered through a vast region provide me with the opportunity to gain practice in visiting the villages. That was the time when the work began in the mission which, in the space of a few years, made Kalongo the great and well-known centre it is today”.
At the end of 1955, Fr. Carlo moved to Nyapea, among the Alur. Again we have his own words describing the situation there: “Large groups of catechumens, baptisms, first holy communions and countless marriages. Good old Fr. Domenico Spazian, who is in charge of the parish registration, says he cannot manage it all”.

In 1957, having moved to the diocese of Arua, he worked for five years among the Jonam, a people of the zone of Pakwach on the Nile and infested with mosquitoes, so much so that on Sundays, during the canticles inviting all creatures to praise God, Fr. Carlo would add: “All you mosquitoes of the river, bless the Lord”. In October, 1962, he returned to Italy for a year of rest which he spent helping with ministry at San Tomio, also spending a few months at Carraia.

In October, 1963, he was sent to Warr for eight months. In 1964, he went to Paidha, a mission just being started where “The Christians follow the missionaries with enthusiasm”. Meanwhile, there was a civil war spreading in nearby Congo which was felt also in West Nile and Comboni Missionaries were being expelled from Sudan. At that time Fr. Carlo wrote to the Superior General, Fr. Gaetano Briani, to express his solidarity at the pain the expelled confreres had to endure. On 15 January, 1967, there followed the expulsion of five confreres of the diocese of Arua and five from Gulu. Fr. Carlo had to move from Paidha to Nyapea to fill in for those expelled. He also worked at the missions of Orussi and of Arua-Ediofe.
Fr. Carlo always worked with great humility and seriousness. His personal dossier contains very few items of news and, even when he returned from the mission, during the many years he spent in Verona, he never spoke very much about his time in Uganda. We may note, however, that, at the behest of the bishop, he attempted to set up a chapel on the banks of Lake Victoria for the many fishermen who, from the spiritual point of view, were much neglected.

Fr. Carlo always maintained cordial relations with his mission confreres and his liveliness and infectious good humour were something of a legend. He was assigned to Italy from 1975 to 2003 and stayed in Verona at the San Tomio Rectory. To convey some idea of this period, we may refer to part of Fr. De Berti’s homily: “For more than 27 years he was an untiring ‘confessor’ to both the laity and religious. Almost half of his ‘active’ priestly and missionary life was spent administering the sacrament of reconciliation. Anyone who has lived with Fr. Carlo, sharing the same priestly ministry with him, may honestly apply to him the somewhat pretentious saying that ‘if it is a martyrdom to confess Christ before men and women, it is no less a martyrdom to confess men and women before God’.
In Verona, Fr. Carlo was known as a man capable of listening, patient to a heroic degree, wise in discernment, understanding regarding complex spiritual problems, confident in his judgements and in the solutions to be followed and steadfast in the guidance he gave. Among his penitents were people with great religious and civil responsibilities.

He was always cheerful in community, an excellent storyteller (whether true, fictitious or beefed up) keeping the small community happy. He loved to speak of Selva di Progno, where he was born, of its valleys and its ancient inhabitant, the Cimbri. He enjoyed seeing us happy. We had many good laughs with him. When he was absent the meals were governed by a truly monastic silence! In the last period of his missionary life, 2003-2011, we must not forget his transfer from San Tomio, where he was seen as an ‘institution of himself’, to the infirmary of the Mother House. There, both illness and old age required a different way of living the missionary life.

At the Mother House, Fr. Carlo suffered more from interior pains than anything else. His personal situation and the environment of suffering lived by other sick confreres provoked in him very strong emotions, often impossible to contain. Then, little by little, he conformed and accepted the cross, resigning himself to the plan of God. But he lost his liveliness and his good humour of former times; he loved solitude and kept silent as he prayed in preparation for the final exam.
I wish to note particularly our final meeting on Saturday evening of 17 September, 2011. Fr. Carlo clearly whispered: ‘I am Fr. Carlo Cappelletti’. We looked each other in the eyes with prolonged smiles. I understood that gesture – he never made it before then – as humorous, but it was a sign of the approaching end”.
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 251 suppl. In Memoriam, aprile 2012, pp. 1-6.