In Pace Christi

Fr. Silvester was the eleventh of thirteen children in a family of small farmers and was born on the last day of 1937 in Gais, then a small mountain town in South Tyrol (Bolzano province). As he himself stated, his roots in a large family shaped his contacts with people and his love for his fatherland throughout his life.

Due to family contacts with the Missionary House of the Sacred Heart in Milland, near Bressanone, he attended secondary school there. In 1951, he began to attend the diocesan minor seminary in Bressanone up to the maturity exams in 1959 when he decided to enter the Comboni novitiate at Mellatz (Germany) and to follow the call to the missionary life. He took first vows on 30 October 1960. After the novitiate, he returned to Bressanone to study philosophy and theology at the major diocesan seminary. On 13 March 1964, he took final vows and on 29 June of the same year was ordained priest in the cathedral.

He was then sent to Spain where he worked from 1965 to 1976 in Saldaña, at the new seminary, as formator and director and later as community superior. He looked on those years as a great challenge to learn, grow and mature, and so as a preparation for the tasks which would be entrusted to him later on. The students in Saldaña nicknamed him “Fanta”, since, like the smiling character on the advertisement for the soft drink, he always had a smile for everyone.

He spent more than ten years in Spain and was then transferred to the DSP. From 1976 to 1984, he worked as formator and director at the Comboni minor seminary, local superior and a member of the provincial council. That was a period of crisis for the minor seminaries of the Institute and marked the end of a model of formation and vocations promotion.

In 1984, a dream he had nurtured for years came true when he was sent to Peru where he remained until 1998. Those fourteen years in that country were the happiest of his missionary life. He considered his encounter with the people of the settlements of Chorillos in Lima (1985-1990) and then at Arequipa (1995-1999) as gifts from God, even though he sometimes felt helpless and unable to respond to the needs of the people. From 1990 to 1995, he was Provincial Superior of Peru. Being close to the people, sharing and inspiring, offering hope and comfort by means of social action and community celebrations of faith: these were the activities Fr. Silvester remembered all his life.

He spent the last part of his missionary life in the DSP. From early 1999 to the end of 2004, he was Provincial Superior. At the start of the year 2005, he took on the job of superior of the community of Milland, opened in 1895, which lasted ten years.

In September 2015, Fr. Silvester, then almost seventy and ill, took charge of the parish of Latzfons, 16 km from Milland, where he worked with dedication as an esteemed pastor until he retired due to illness in July 2019. With great inner tenacity, he continued to fight the cancer he had suffered from for years. After a month in hospital after a brain operation and with kidney failure and infected with Covid-19, Fr. Silvester passed away on 11 December 2020, at Brunico hospital.

As he had wished, he was buried in the cemetery of his parish. During the funeral service, Bishop Ivo Muser, who was born in the same town, spoke of the friendship that bound him to Fr. Silvester and the gratitude of the diocese for the various services he provided as a parish priest, a member of some diocesan commissions and by taking part in the synod.