In Pace Christi

Fr. Elvio Gostoli was born in Furlo di Acqualunga, in the province of Pesaro, on January 1, 1924. He completed his high school studies, up to first year of theology, in the diocesan seminary of Fano. In September 1945 he joined the Comboni Missionaries in the house of Florence, continuing his theological studies in Fiesole. After the novitiate, he took his first vows. He continued his theological studies in Verona and Venegono. He was ordained on June 11, 1949, in the church of his hometown. Soon after, he worked in mission and vocation promotion and for some years he was sent to various Comboni houses: Trent, Pesaro, Rebbio and Sulmona. Then he spent the rest of his long life first in Sudan, where he worked for 8 years, that is until the expulsion of all missionaries, and then in Uganda, where he remained for 45 years, also learning different African languages, in particular Madi, Bari and Karimojong.

So in 1955 Fr. Elvio was assigned to the Vicariate of the Bar el Jebel, Equatoria Province, Southern Sudan, with the capital Juba. After a short adjustment period in the vicinity of Juba, his first real mission was Loa, among the Madi tribe, 200 km south of Juba, near the border with Uganda. There he found Fr. Umberto Cardani, his first teacher of Madi language. His mission among the Madi, however, was short lived - five months – because he was sent to replace a missionary, who had become ill, to Kadulè among the Mundari, in a territory that extended from the far south to the far north of the Bar el Jebel, a really huge mission. It included, in fact, the territories on the two banks of the Nile and the tribes of Mundari, Nyangwara and Pajulu: 10,000 sq km, with 75,000 inhabitants. There were only two missionaries. To visit all the villages it would take a year and a half and there were several problems to be overcome, like difficulty in finding drinking water and food, the wild animals, mosquitoes and malaria.

After the expulsion from Southern Sudan, Fr. Elvio was for a year in Pesaro, in charge of mission promotion.

In 1965, Mgr. Sisto Mazzoldi, who also had been expelled from Juba, took charge of the Karimojong’s region, becoming Bishop of Moroto, in the north-east of Uganda. Fr. Elvio followed him there. The Bishop asked him to bring aid to the Sudanese refugees in the Acholi region (Gulu diocese) who had been secluded into two refugee camps, 10,000 of them to Agapo and 17,000 to Achol-pi (which means dirty water), and had no shelter, food, water or medical care. The Comboni missionaries were doing their best to assist them and Fr. Elvio daily visited these camps and filled the Land Rover with sick refugees to take them to the hospital in Kalongo, where Fr. Giuseppe Ambrosoli and the Comboni Sisters never refused to take them in. When a group of Sudanese refugees was transferred in an area near the mission of Fr. Elvio, it became easier for him to take care of them, even the spiritual side.
Later, he was one year in Kangole, three years in Nabilatuk, fifteen years in Lorengedwat, eight years in Namalu, nine in Naoi and, finally, in Moroto from 2002 until his death.

Fr. Elvio had been sent to Nabilatuk in 1966 to help a very old missionary. A big problem there was the water, in short supply in the dry season and muddy in the rainy season. Fr. Elvio first dug a well and, when he met the granite, continued with the help of some rather crude but effective chisels he had made himself. Later on he dug a second well, which managed to provide water to the whole mission and the people in the neighbourhood. The years 1971-1973 were very difficult ones in Lorengedwat. After two years of drought, there was a great famine and many people died of starvation and cholera, especially the children who were dying on average 20 per week.

With the fall of Amin Dada and later on of Milton Obote, the situation became chaotic, partly because of the army’s disbandment and the general stampede. Fr. Elvio tried to rescue as many people as possible, transporting them for long distances, often at night. The mission of Namalu, where there occurred armed clashes, was looted and abandoned. Later Fr. Elvio took care of this mission. One day the Pokot, neighbours and rivals of the Karimojong and lived partly in Uganda and partly in Kenya, organized a full-scale revenge against the villages closest to the border, which were somehow used as basis by the Karimojong warriors and raiders. So they roamed the vast area of Namalu district burning all the villages on their path and killing those who had been unable to escape. Once again Fr. Elvio did his utmost to save the injured.

At the end of June 1973, he returned to Italy for a bit of rest and holidays. Just in time to treat a colon haemorrhage. In October he was told he could return to Africa as long as he was stationed in a mission not too far from a hospital. The nearest mission to Matany hospital was Naoi, so Fr. Elvio was sent there. He was now among the Mathenico, the most primitive group of the Karimojong tribe. His parish had about 40,000 people of this ethnic group. He had, once again, to start anew by getting to know the local people, finding catechists, beginning teaching catechism, forming new groups of prayer and building new constructions.

At Easter 1997, Fr. Elvio managed to prepare a hundred boys and girls for baptism. He very much desired to build a small hospital there. When, feeling pretty tired, he returned to Italy for a little rest and medical checkups, he met his cousin, Angelo Candricci from Fano, who offered him at no cost all the material needed for the construction of the hospital and the necessary hospital equipment.

In 2002 Fr. Elvio was sent to Moroto, Karamoja’s capital and seat of the bishop. Here he carried out his ministry until his death, which occurred on October 6, 2011. The Karimojong used to call him Ekasikout, “the elder”, not so much referring to his age as to his authority. After the funeral, presided over by the bishops of Kotido, Mgr. Giuseppe Filippi, and of Moroto, Mgr. Henry Apaloryamam Ssentongo, Fr. Elvio was buried in the cemetery of the mission, as it had been his desire.
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 251 suppl. In Memoriam, aprile 2012, pp. 7-14.