In Pace Christi

Fr. Giovanni Ferracin was born on 9 February, 1930, in the small town of Malo, in the province of Vicenza (Italy). He joined the Comboni Institute and took first vows in 1952. He was ordained priest in 1959. He was then sent to England to study English and as a teacher at Stillington and Mirfield. Appointed to Sudan, he arrived in Khartoum in 1962, and was appointed to teach in the Comboni College.
In 1969, he was called to be the Novice Master at Venegono novitiate in Italy. It was not an easy task as there were tensions both in the Church and in civil society. Fr. Giovanni, with his ability to dialogue and his simplicity, succeeded in restoring trust and harmony in the young men under his direction.

From 1976 to 1979 he worked in Spain, again as Novice Master. He then served in Kenya for two years (1979-1980) and in Uganda for another two years (1980-1981), always working in tasks connected with the formation of future missionaries. He was Provincial of Kenya from 1981 to 1987.

From 1987 to 1997, Fr. Giovanni worked in Rome as coordinator of the central commission for Ongoing Formation, another delicate post, where he was again very much appreciated. During that time, he came to know many people to whom he brought spiritual relief by means of his friendship, his humanity and, especially, the way he spoke of the tenderness of God. Many remember him with affection. In 1997, he was happy to return to Sudan, his first mission, despite knowing only a little Arabic and, at the age of sixty six, began again to attend Arabic lessons. He was again assigned to the community of Comboni College. In 2011, he moved to the community of Omdurman.

Fr. Giovanni was a man with a great spirituality, always available and ready to preach retreats, to accompany people with spiritual direction and to assist in all sorts of programmes of ongoing formation. He loved to use short phrases that summed up his profound spirituality such as: “Jesus is Lord”, “Thank you, yes Father”, etc. His spirituality did not remove him from reality but gave him that interior energy which Fr. Giovanni expressed in concrete gestures of charity. On the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of his ordination, he apologised to his confreres for not having had the time to write autobiographical notes, and recalled a quotation from a letter of Comboni that was very dear to him. Comboni wrote the letter while in El Obeid, on 13 July, 1881, three months before his death: “In the world I have seen just about everything; and I have learned by experience that first we must have a great love for God and this gives birth to love of neighbour, which is the universal law”.

He was very attentive to the poor and those who approached him, whatever their suffering. He wished to express the goodness of God to everyone and, when at times he had nothing to give, he would invite the person to pray and trust in God. Then he would go and knock on the doors of those who had the resources to make Divine Providence effective.

Fr. Giovanni was a joyful person. He died on the third Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of joy. He had gone to Qaria 10, a centre belonging to the parish of Omdurman, to hear confessions and say Mass. He was unable to finish his last Mass. He was taken, unconscious, to Villa Gilda where he began to recover. Then, in the afternoon, he had a second heart attack. He died while those around him were praying. “Through Him, with Him and in Him… Amen... Thank you... Yes, Father”. These were his last words.
The Mass and funeral were celebrated on 16 December, in Khartoum. Fr. Giovanni was buried in the cemetery of St. Francis, next to other great missionaries such as Fr. Josef Ohrwalder.

Fr. Enrique Sánchez González, Superior General, stated: “The Lord has called to himself a great missionary, an extraordinary priest who leaves us a truly great example of missionary life, of passion for the poor and of love for the Institute, a Comboni missionary after the heart of St. Daniele Comboni”.
(Fr. Angelo Giorgetti)
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 258 suppl. In Memoriam, gennaio 2014, pp. 155-160.