In Pace Christi

Fr. Guido Poda was born in Cunevo, in the province of Trent, on March 31, 1928. He entered at a very young age in the seminary of the Comboni Missionaries of Trent. After moving to the novitiate in Florence, he took his first vows in 1947. He completed his theological studies in Rebbio (two years), Venegono (one year) and Rome, where he was ordained a priest in 1953. Then he spent seven years teaching in our houses in Florence, Trent, Verona and Carraia. At that time he obtained various qualifications: Pedagogy, Diploma in Psycho-Pedagogical Sciences (1952) and in Theology (1953) and Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy. In 1960 he was assigned to the province of Portugal, where he taught in our seminaries of Famalicão and Maia for a period of five years.

In July 1965 he was sent to England where, for ten years, he was formator and then superior of the scholastics in Elstree, teaching at the Missionary Institute of London (MIL), which was supported and attended by students from various Missionary Institutes.
In July 1976 Fr. Guido was assigned to the province of Kenya. The superior general, Fr. Tarcisio Agostoni, in the letter with which he informed him of his destination, thanked him for his work in England in the teaching and formation field, saying: “You have done a considerable job in a period of transition, uncertainty and adjustment.”

In Kenya, and after having begun the study of the Swahili language, his first destination was the mission of Sololo, first as a parish priest and then as local superior. The mission was located on the border with Ethiopia, among the nomadic Borana. The decision to open this mission, in 1973, was made on the basis of the neediest areas, where people were predominantly pagan and there was a great shortage of clergy. Poverty, distances and evangelization still in its infancy made it a classic Comboni-style parish. After three years in Sololo, Fr. Guido was sent, again as a teacher, to Langata, Nairobi, where the scholasticate of the Apostles of Jesus was also located, and where in 1977 the novitiate of the Comboni Missionaries was also opened. He went then on to Tartar (where the novitiate had been transferred: 1981-1988) and to Kapenguria to work in pastoral ministry, for a total of seven years. These were two parishes in the Diocese of Eldoret, a very underdeveloped area of the Pokot tribe.

In 1992, after a period of illness, Fr. Guido was sent to the parish of Mogotio, a mission opened fifteen years earlier. Then, after spending several months in Verona, Italy, for medical treatment, he was sent to the Comboni Polytechnic in Gilgil for ministry and then, from 1998 to 2001, again to Mogotio, although he continued to spend some periods in Italy (Verona and Trento) for treatment.
In 2001 he was assigned to the Italian province, passing from the community of Verona to that of Arco and finally to that of Milan. In this house he died on October 8, 2011.
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 251 suppl. In Memoriam, aprile 2012, pp. 15-18.