In Pace Christi

Fr. Pietro was born in Casal di Principe (Caserta), in the diocese of Aversa, on 2 July 1936, the fourth in a family of eight brothers and two sisters. At the age of twelve he entered the minor seminary at Aversa and later moved on to the major seminary in Salerno. When he had finished secondary school, he decided to become a missionary.

After joining the Combonis, he took his first vows in Gozzano on 9 September 1958 and perpetual vows in the Venegono scholasticate on 9 September 1960. He was ordained priest in Milan on 16 March 1961.

In September 1963, he was appointed to Sudan, and the school of Khartoum North, as a teacher. In 1965 he went to Wad Medani as curate in charge of Kosti where he moved a few years later to be the superior and parish priest.

We read in a page dedicated to him in the book by Fr. Giovanni Vantini, La missione del cuore: “He visits the groups of Christians in the city and in the nearer villages. He was assisted by the catechist David Kilonga. In 1971, in Redif, the poorest quarter, Fr. Coronella opened a school for three classes. Industries were springing up around Kosti and soon groups of Christians were formed there too. Fr. Coronella travelled unceasingly: he rented one or two houses in Dueim, Gebelein and at Tendelti. The number of Christians from the south was continually increasing. In 1972 Fr. Coronella initiated and pursued for a whole year an application to obtain some land, a plot of 10,000 m² in the Qoz quarter. He was given reason for optimism but when it came to signing the document, the plot had been reduced to 5,400 m². Bro. Girolamo Fortuna constructed all the buildings and, on 22 April 1973, the Apostolic Nuncio laid the foundation stone of the church”.

In 1974, Fr. Pietro was recalled to Pesaro in Italy where he stayed for three years as local superior and responsible for mission promotion.

Back in Sudan, in 1977 he was appointed rector of the minor seminary of St. Augustine and superior of the community of the Khartoum Welfare Centre and, later, parish priest of Omdurman. He stayed in Khartoum up to 1989 when he returned to Italy for a further three years and was sent to Casavatore.

“I have come back – he wrote to the readers of Azione Missionaria – not without great nostalgia for the Sudan where I spent almost 25 years of my missionary life. I was ordained priest in 1961 and, after a year of pastoral ministry in Italy, four of us set out by boat from the port of Naples for Lebanon where we did a course of Arabic with the Jesuit. A year later we were told by our superiors to proceed to the mission of Sudan. Many missionaries had preceded us along the Nile and many had sacrificed their lives … Now that we have come back, we feel the urgent need to devote our missionary service also to the Churches we once left behind”.

Fr. Pietro again left Italy for the Sudan in 1994 and worked there until 2010.

He returned to Italy for health reasons and joined the Lucca community where he spent a year in mission promotion. He then went to Milan. In 2015 he went to Castel d’Azzano and the Bro. A. Fiorini Centre, where he passed away on 4 May 2019, having spent about ten days in intensive care. He was 82 years old.

His requiem Mass was celebrated on Tuesday 7 May, and on the following day he was buried in his home town, Casal di Principe. The funeral ceremony was led by Fr. Carlo Plotegheri who had known Fr. Pietro in the Sudan. He described him as “an intrepid missionary of many talents: this was why he was often sent to open new missions or to rejuvenate weaker ones. The parish of Omdurman later gave birth to five more, the fruit of his labours and his dedication. In Omdurman he started many prayer centres: there were eighteen of them at one point”.

We will conclude with the words of Fr. Rino Rufini who knew him in Sudan and accompanied him during his final years at Castel d’Azzano: “Fr. Pietro was a great missionary. His name should be written in capital letters. He engaged many people to help him with his missionary works. If I should depict him as a missionary, i would use the image of a comet. He is in the lead, followed by countless benefactors. Thanks to their generosity, he was able to accomplish many works of charity”.
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 282 Suppl. In Memoriam, gennaio 2020 pp. 53-58.