In Pace Christi

Fr. Mario was born on 7 September1922 at Thiene (Vicenza). As he himself said, he was struck by the words of a missionary whoaroused in him a desire to become a missionary. At first his parents were against the idea: his elder sister was also a missionary and two of his elderbrothers had been killed in the war. Nevertheless, they did not stand in his way. Mario entered the Institute as a Brother aspirant on 15 June1940 and took temporary vows at Venegono on 7 October 1942, afterwards moving on to Rebbio Scholasticate. He moved from there to Pesaro and, on 7 October1948, made his final vows.

He remained in Italy up to 1949 when he left for the mission of South Sudan. As a builder and carpenter, he made his first contribution during the construction of Juba cathedral. Hethen moved to Kadule and Rejaf from where, about a year later, in 1964, he was expelled with the other missionaries.

After the expulsion, Bro. Mario moved to Moroto in Uganda where he stayed from 1966 to 1970. How ever, since he wished to become a priest, he returned to Rome to study at Daniel Comboni International House of Studies and was ordained priest in Verona on 27 June 1976. While waiting to return to Sudan, he spent the years from 1977 to 1979 at Zahle, in Lebanon, and at Aswanin Egypt, where he studied Arabic.

He eventually managed to leave for the mission where he stayed for a period at Rejaf (1979-1984) as parish priest and with “The Apostles of Jesus”. Then, again as parish priest, he worked at Lomin (Kajo Keji 1984-1988), among the Kuku people, to the west of the Nile in the southern part of South Sudan,on the Uganda border. Knowing the Bari language, the mother tongue of the Kuku language, he was soon able to communicate with the people and commence his work of evangelisation. Once he had explored the location and come to understand the needs of the people, he decided, together with Bro. Domenico Cariolato,who had joined the community, and with the people of the place, to open a school at Lomin. Three years later he reopened the old primary school, closed because of the war. A few months later, five Comboni Sisters arrived whom Fr. Mario supported and encouraged to improve the health service; as a result, a hospital was opened close to the mission compound.

The war between the SPLA and the government of Khartoum which, after independence had decided to Islamise the people of the southern region of Sudan, in 1987 forced the Kuku population to flee to northern Uganda. Fr. Mario followed his parishioners, opening a Comboni community at Moyo. At first, he was the sole missionary looking after those refugees whom he provided with food, soap and medicine and tried to meet all their needs. He also saw to their primary and secondary educational needs until the local Ugandan government took over.

In 2000, for health reasons, Fr. Mario had to return to Milan, Italy, for a year, after which he went back to Uganda and was based for a short period at Lomin (Kajo Keji). Finally, in 2002, he had to go for treatment to Arco, then to Brescia (2013) and, in 2016, to Milan, where he passed away on 25 January 2020.