In Pace Christi

Fr. Giuseppe Detomaso was born on 31^st January 1942, the eldest son of the Detomaso family, in Pieve di Livinallongo, on the northern slopes of the Marmolada, the queen of the Dolomites, mountains that, since he was a boy, he loved and climbed. He will also do so as a young seminarian, during family holidays. It is from his family and the mountain environment that he receives - and will always cultivate - a great love and respect for nature. Even in Ethiopia, he will continue to take long walks in the mountains of that wonderful country.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Giuseppe’s father was called to military service in Russia, leaving his mother Caterina alone to take care of the little family, forced to live for years in the most extreme poverty. Only in 1948, three years after the end of the conflict, would the father return home, in very poor health. The family got together again and grew in number, but the father would always remain poorly for the few years he still had to live.

After elementary school, Giuseppe entered the Comboni seminary in Trento and then attended middle school in Padua and high school in Carraia (Lucca). In 1962, he entered the novitiate in Gozzano, where he made his first vows in 1964. He then moved on to the scholasticate in Verona, where he made his perpetual religious profession in September 1967. On 26 June 1968, he was ordained a priest.

He would have liked to fly to Africa immediately, but the superiors kept him in Italy and assigned him to the community of Pordenone, for missionary animation. There he furthered his preparation for a future African assignment by taking a basic nursing course. In 1970 he was in the minor seminary of Asti as a formator.

In 1971, he was given the green light to Ethiopia and went to England to learn English. In October 1972 he was in Addis Ababa attending an Amharic language course. At the beginning of 1973, he was assigned to the mission of Dilla, where his main work was the management of the Catholic school.

In 1986, Father Giuseppe began a period of more intense pastoral activity in various missions, often as superior of the Comboni community and/or parish priest, sometimes in charge of the Catholic schools. At a certain point, it almost seems that the superiors decided to assign him the tacit task - renewed several times - of opening, preparing and handing over missions to other confreres or local priests. The list is quite long: Hawassa, Dongora, Tullo, Arosa, Teticcha, Daye… In 2020, now suffering from prostate cancer, Father Giuseppe returned to Hawassa.

His records show many names of missions and as many dates. That might sound like a long, dry string of place names and dates. But far from it, inside him is all the passion of Father Giuseppe and his immense desire to proclaim Christ to the Ethiopian brothers and sisters, showing them what happens when Christ becomes the centre of someone’s life.

He founded missions, built schools, opened halls and parish centres, houses for missionaries and sisters, chapels, churches, dispensaries, small hospitals… He brought food to areas affected by drought and famine and cared for the sick. He dug wells and brought electricity where there was none. He directed schools, created Christian communities, animated and baptised thousands of catechumens, forged bonds of friendship with everyone, even the various non-Catholic leaders... and he made himself loved by the people. He even managed to continue teaching religion and catechism in a school of 2,000 pupils and students, even under the Marxist-communist regime of the Derg, with the tacit approval of local authorities.

At the end of 2022, on the occasion of Father Giuseppe’s “golden wedding” with the Comboni mission in Ethiopia, Father José da Silva Vieira, a Portuguese Comboni Missionary, also in Ethiopia, asks him to tell him the story of his life. Giuseppe gave free rein to memories and told all. Fr. Joe takes notes, all of which he then types on a computer keyboard and sends to Rome by e-mail. [You will be able to read the “deeds” of Father Giuseppe in the next issue of the MCCJ Bulletin].

Father Giuseppe’s health deteriorated and prostate cancer was diagnosed. He carried on as usual with periodical medical check-ups and takes the prescribed medicines. At the beginning of January 2023, speaking frankly with the nurse who is taking care of him, he learned that his life was coming to its end: the cancer had spread with numerous metastases. He felt very weak. Father Asfaha Yohannes Weldeghiorghis, the provincial superior, went to Hawassa and convinced him to go to the capital for further checks. The two took a flight that same day, but Father Giuseppe did not want to go to the hospital immediately: he remained in the provincial community until the night of January 11, when, in an attempt to get out of bed, he fell to the floor. He said it was nothing serious, and that he also happened to fall in the chapel of Morocho, while he was going down the steps of the presbytery to go and offer Communion to the faithful. However, he was taken to the Landmark Hospital in Addis Ababa. Two days later, on 13^th January, his heart stopped beating.

In the afternoon of 15^th January, a large congregation attended the funeral of Father Giuseppe, in the cathedral of Hawassa. Almost all the priests and religious of the vicariate were present.

On 29^th January, in the parish of Pieve di Livinallongo, the birthplace of Father Giuseppe, a funeral Mass was celebrated for him, presided over by the Dean Rev. Andrea Costantini, a great friend of Father Giuseppe. The missionary office of the diocese of Brixen-Bolzano, on the other hand, has planned a great celebration in memory of Father Giuseppe on 12^th February, in Oies, the birthplace of San Josef Freinademetz (1852–1908), missionary of the Society of the Divine Word, missionary in China.

At the news of the death of Father Giuseppe, Father Giacomo Bellini, another great pioneer of the Comboni missions in Eritrea and Ethiopia (he worked there from 1961 to 2017), today “retired” in the reception house for elderly confreres in Rebbio (CO), typed the following words on his old Olivetti 22: «The death of Father Giuseppe Detomaso saddens me greatly. We were together for several years in the Sidamo missions. I remember him as a generous, understanding and helpful confrere in difficult situations, always attentive to the needs of those who were with him, whether they were Ethiopian confreres or of other nationalities, regardless of the role they covered in the mission. He was really good-natured and very practical. I like to depict him as a climber who tackles steep rock faces first, planting pitons – one after the other – to make the climb easier for those who will come after him. In his role as a trailblazer, he was always guided by a great sense of equilibrium, so much so that he became an “experienced tightrope walker” in the most impervious situations. The Lord, who called him, will certainly reward him for the good he did to spread the Gospel”.

And the “record” of Father Giuseppe? In the latest Comboni Annuario, an “ET” appears, followed by the date (1972), and this is supported by a dash (-), which remained for a long time awaiting a second date to indicate a transition to a new province that never happened. Father Giuseppe’s “record” lies in that very short dash, which however has taken on the length of 50 years without interruption. He arrived in Ethiopia in 1972 and, for over half a century, he never left Ethiopia. He arrived there one day, immediately fell in love with “her”, made her his own and never left her except to fly to his new “province” of Paradise.