In Pace Christi

Fr. Bruno was born at Riva del Garda (Trent) on 29 June, 1923. He joined the Combonians and took first vows on 12 October, 1942, in Florence. He moved to Verona for theology and was ordained priest on 7 October, 1947. He then worked for a year in the editorial office of the magazine in Verona before being assigned to Sudan.

In Sudan he worked at the mission of Cukudum (1950-1953) and of Kapoeta (1953-1963), both in the Vicariate of Juba. As he recalled his first years of missionary experience in Sudan, during British rule, he said that, in those days, the Sudanese enjoyed peace and freedom and that the missions all had their schools, dispensaries and other works of human and social development. When Moslem rule came in 1956, life became difficult for Christian missionaries. Increasingly severe restrictions were imposed and, eventually, the missionaries were forbidden to leave their missions and evangelise the people. Anyone who disobeyed these rules was immediately expelled. Little by little, the situation became impossible. The reason was that the Muslim government did not want the missionaries to get in the way, even by their simple presence, of their plan to impose Islam on the blacks of the South. In January, 1963, Fr. Maccani was expelled from South Sudan.

Fr. Bruno spent a couple of years in ministry in Troia (Italy) and in Bradford (England). He then got ready to go to Ethiopia.

From an article by the late Fr. José Luis Lizalde who met Fr. Maccani at Tullo and interviewed him on behalf of “Mundo Negro” (May, 2001).

Together with Fr. Bruno Lonfernini, Fr. Bruno Maccani was the founder of the mission among the Sidamo. Fr. Lonfernini died just a year ago (1999) and Fr. Maccani is the only remaining witness to those first years of pioneering work. In Ethiopia, the superiors entrusted the founding of the mission among the Sidamo to him and Fr. Lonfernini. Fr. Lonfernini was immediately impressed by the beauty of Tullo and opened the first mission there, while Fr. Maccani, following an old Italian road, reached the mountains of Fullasa that overlook lake Hawassa and there he cast the foundations of a second mission. The area was densely populated. The Yanase who live there seemed to be a tough and primitive people but Fr. Maccani managed to discover their positive and spiritual values.

At first, Fr. Maccani lived in a tent while he was building, unaided, a hut of poles and iron sheets. His greatest efforts were devoted to learning the language. There were no dictionaries or grammars. There were just a few notes left by the departing Italian army that served as a starting point. His teacher was an old leper, disfigured by the disease but blessed with a sensitive spirit. He taught Fr. Bruno the secrets of the Sidamo language and, more importantly, allowed him entry to the world of the elders.

Fr. Maccani learned the language so well that he was able to write a grammar and some translations, while Fr. Lonfernini worked at translating the liturgical texts.

Fr. Maccani stayed at Fullasa for nine years and his work produced abundant fruit. At present (the article was written in 2001) the mission has more than 23,000 Catholics. The presence of so many adult men and elders is impressive. The missionary revealed the secret of his success. “I was convinced – he said – that I should start work with the elders, given that they were the guardians of tradition and those who guided all the life of the society”.

Once he had learned their language, Fr. Maccani decided to study their culture, being persuaded that this would gain him great esteem on their part. He would prepare his homilies together with his leper teacher and let the elders make their comments. “That was something wonderful”, he said, sighing nostalgically as he remembered the first years of evangelisation.

He also gave particular attention to the preparation of truly Christian families, an undertaking that produced remarkable results. The young bride was the property of the husband who had to pay a considerable dowry for her. In this way, she became a source of labour and lived a life of semi-slavery. Many of them would run away from home, abandoning their children. The missionary had them understand the advantages of Christian matrimony since Christianity forbids to ill-treat the wife and demands respect and love.

Despite all his work and concerns, Fr. Maccani was considered above all a preacher of the Word of God, a messenger of love. “I feel – he said – a great joy in being a missionary and to work like one. My greatest satisfaction is to have been able to convince them that God is love. Imagine their surprise when they learned that they could call God ‘Abbà’, Father, as Jesus taught us”.

Fr. Bruno worked in various places among the Sidamo. He was sent to Shafinna (1976-1982), Hawassa, Tullo and to Miqe. He later returned to Shafinna and to Hawassa. In 2000 he was briefly in Addis Ababa, then again in Tullo and Fullasa. In 2011 he went to Dongora.

He was assigned to Italy in 2015 and was welcomed to Castel D’Azzano, the new centre for elderly and sick confreres. He died there on 19 August, 2015.

Fr. Giuseppe Cavallini wrote: “Dear confrères, I join you in keeping dearly the memory of Fr. Maccani. He had introduced me, as he had done with several other confreres, to the mission work in 1980. He used to tell me that he felt almost a calling from God to ‘domesticate’ the young Combonis, often quite wild and unrestrained, who reached Ethiopia in those years. Other confreres know very well how much we gained from this apparently tough, rough missionary with a big heart and passion for the mission! We thank God for the many things we learned from him, how to balance severity with goodness of heart, but most of all the absolute dedication and radical self-giving to mission and God's Kingdom!”.

Testimony of Fr. Julio Ocaña Iglesias, the present provincial superior of Ethiopia.

Today we learned of the death of Fr. Bruno Maccani. God called him at the age of 92 years of which he spent 48 in Ethiopia, evangelising the Sidamo people. Adding the 13 years he spent in Sudan, we may say that his 61 years spent in the African mission constituted a grace much greater than anything he himself hoped for. Fr. Maccani never ceased to express his great joy at having been a missionary in Africa and for Africa.

We thank God for Fr. Bruno and, in this Golden Jubilee of the founding of the Vicariate of Hawassa, with the arrival of Fr. Bruno Lonfernini and Fr. Bruno Maccani, we thank God for the fruits that God has granted to this faithful servant of the Gospel who gave birth to and nourished for many years the community of faith in Ethiopia among the Sidamo.
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 266 suppl. In Memoriam, gennaio 2016, pp. 106-113.