In Pace Christi

Fr. Alessandro left us on 19 November at the venerable age of one hundred years. He was “the dean” of the Institute. He was born at San Giovanni in Persiceto, in the province of Bologna on 14 March 1921. At a tender age, he entered the Comboni apostolic seminary in Riccione. “The Lord alone knows I had no intention of entering. I met two of my friends and they said: ‘We are going to enter the Comboni seminary in’: ‘I’ll come with you’, I replied. Those two left and went home but, by the grace of God, I am still here”. He spent two years in Brescia to finish secondary school and was sent to the novitiate, one year in Venegono and another in Florence.

He spent five years in Troia and nine years in Sunningdale (England) as the novice master. Fr. Alessandro was then sent to Africa where he spent almost forty years: South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and two years in Eritrea.

A long life speaks for itself. A long life well spent is a witness in itself. Fr. Alessandro served the Lord always in humility and simplicity, standing in the breach well beyond the age of ninety.

Right up to the end, he possessed an enviable clarity of mind: one didn’t have to shout to make him understand and he continued to follow the life of the Institute and the community with such vigilance and attention that nothing escaped his notice.

E may well call him “a great man”, for his long life, his long and passionate missionary service and his existential quality of rectitude. At the same time, he was a humble man and rather shy. He never failed to thank people for their simple visits to him during his final days, happy to share a little prayer and to know that his confreres and relatives were close to him, remembered him, prayed for him and sent him their greetings.

He had a deep love for the mission: his leaving for Sudan was his happiest memory in all his hundred years; the years he spent in Africa were the best years of his entire life.

He loved the Institute, offering his youth for the formation of future Comboni missionaries and his mature years to accompany the student priests during a historically difficult time. He loved the community of Gozzano where, already over ninety, he served in pastoral ministry and he loved Castel d’Azzano where he went out of obedience and settled in well, asking to be put in a double room “To keep each other company”.

It was an easy task to accompany him during his final days which he spent in serenity, despite his pain. “Fr. Alessandro, I think you must be in some pain’…” I would say to him. And he would answer: “That’s right, but I deserve it!” To anyone who asked Fr. Alessandro how he was doing, he replied: “I can’t wait for the moment when it all ends … so that I can leave this world … to be with the Lord forever … (Fr. Renzo Piazza, mccj)