In Pace Christi

Fr. Lorenzo Turrini was born on 16 January, 1934, at Denno, in the province of Trent, joined the novitiate at Florence in 1953 and took temporary vows in 1955, on 9 September, as was the custom in those days.

He studied theology from 1955 to 1958, first at Verona and then at Venegono, Varese. While there he would spend his free time doing a lot of small jobs especially as an electrician which was his main hobby. He always carried with him his famous Swiss penknife which was, when the need arose, a veritable toolbox. He would even use it to help himself to some salami!

He took his final vows in Venegono on 9 September, 1961, and was ordained priest on 7 April, 1962, by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini. He was immediately sent to teach science and mathematics for a year at Pordenone (Italy) and was appointed to the missions of Mozambique in 1964.

Fr. Castellari writes: “We met when we travelled together to Viseu, in Portugal, to learn Portuguese before going to Mozambique. This was a requirement of the colonial government since the missionary, according to the Missionary Agreement of 1940 between the State and the Church, ‘was on a civilising mission’.

We went by sea together with Brothers Silvano Bergamini and Raffaele Francesconi. After 24 hours we reached mission territory. We spent some days at the mission of Carapira, in Nampula Archdiocese and then we went our separate ways. I had been appointed to the mission of Netia and Fr. Lorenzo to that of Nacaroa, both on the same route. The latter was a vast mission, founded in 1951, where we found Fr. Attilio Busi, a missionary of few words but who knew the language almost like a native. He would hurry from one community to another visiting, organising and animating.

Fr. Lorenzo learned well that kind of lifestyle and of the mission: people would rise very early and celebrate Mass at five in the morning. Then each one would go to his own particular work. Fr. Vincenzo Capra always said that also Fr. Lorenzo suffered from ‘busitis’”. And so Fr. Lorenzo began his ministry in the vast mission of Nacaroa, where there were many Christian communities, primary schools in the care of the Church, catechumenates with large numbers of children and endless activities. He found plenty of room to exercise his abilities.

In 1972, he was appointed to Viseu, in Portugal, to work in mission and vocations promotion. At that time there were many seminarians and Fr. Lorenzo would visit the schools to recruit future missionaries.

He was sent to Brazil where he worked from 1977 to 1982 in the diocese of Balsas where, still engaged in mission promotion, he travelled far and wide, covering enormous distances in the diocese. After five years he returned to Viseu, again to work in mission promotion and stayed there until 1988. Used to his mountains in the area of Trent, he was very much at home in the cold climate of Viseu, close to the Serra del Estrela, the highest mountain in Portugal (2000 m).

Appointed once again to Mozambique, he formed part of a group of missionaries assisting the Mozambican refugees in Malawi, near the mission of Gambula. The others were: Fr. Martinho Lopes Moura, Fr. Emilio Franzolin and Fr. Tarcisio Candian. In view of this work, he was sent to Nairobi to study English. He shared the lot of the refugees affected by the civil war between Frelimo and Renamo: thousands of Mozambicans fled their country to seek refuge in neighbouring countries.

Fr. Giacomo Palagi tells us: “I was Provincial at that time and, together with Fr. Emilio, Fr. Martinho, Fr. Tarcisio and Fr. Lorenzo, we opened the two communities of Gambula and Nsanje (in Malawi), in cooperation with the Comboni Sisters and the confreres of the province of Malawi-Zambia. I was able to follow the work of Fr. Lorenzo, especially in the area of Gambula where, together with Fr. Candian and the Comboni Sisters, he assisted the refugees from Zambezi. The work consisted in religious assistance in the various refugee camps of the area but also involved making more human the degrading situation in which the refugees found themselves due to the failure of the authorities to act and the way they abandoned the refugees.

He worked in the small schools that sprang up in the refugee camps and in small projects that served to provide an income for the refugees. In his pastoral work, he did not confine himself to the refugees but also welcomed the community leaders who would come secretly from the various missions of Zambezi and who, due to the war, did not enjoy the benefits of a missionary presence among them. A Gambula, they found encouragement and help, attended short courses and returned with consecrated Eucharistic hosts to their communities in Mozambique, often risking their lives”. The war in Mozambique ended on 4 October, 1992, and peace came at last with the signing of the General Peace Agreement in Rome on that date. In 1995, Fr. Lorenzo was appointed parish priest for three years in the parish of Mueria, in the diocese of Nacala that had been, until 1991, part of the diocese of Nampula.

From 1998 to 2000, he ministered at Nampula, in the area around the Procure. He then went to the diocese of Tete and, in 2006, became local superior for a year. In 2007, he went to the Pre-postulancy of Nampula as a member of the formation team.

In October 2012, he returned to Italy for holidays and a medical check-up. Unfortunately, while in Italy he fell and broke his hip and was sent to the Centre for the Sick in Verona. He was hoping to return to Mozambique but the Lord called him to himself on the vigil of the Ascension.

The funeral took place on the morning of 14 of May, in the presence of a number of missionaries from Mozambique, Fr. Joaquim Valente da Cruz, Fr. Massimo Robol, Fr. Tarcisio Candian, Fr. Davide De Guidi, Fr. Celestino Seabra Invaha N., Fr. Gino Pastore, the Comboni Sisters Franca, Linda, Enrica, Antonia, and many others.

(Fr. Luís de Albuquerque).
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 258 suppl. In Memoriam, gennaio 2014, pp. 69-76.