In Pace Christi

Orlando was born in Rescaldina in the province of Milan, on 25^th October 1944. He attended primary school in the town. Every day, he spent hours and hours at the parish oratory, always ready to lend a hand to the parish priest and the curate.

In 1955 he enrolled in the industrial vocational training school of Rescaldina, located in the oratory premises. In 1957, a Comboni missionary, a teacher in the Venegono Inferiore scholasticate, was in Rescaldina for a week of missionary animation. Orlando was fascinated. He approached the parish priest and told him he wanted to become a missionary.

On 10^th October 1967, he entered the novitiate in Gozzano. On 9 September 1969 he took his first religious vows and moved to Rome for theology courses.

On 8^th December 1972, in the letter in which he communicated his ‘missionary option’ to the General Council, Orlando wrote: “I would like to leave immediately for the mission. I am available for every mission land, Spanish, English and French speaking; if you want to send me on a Portuguese-speaking mission, I will not preclude this path: I would commit myself to studying it thoroughly in the coming months. If your decision is different from what I deeply desire and I am asked to spend some time in the Italian province, I am also available for this, albeit with a pinch of regret.”

On 2^nd April 1973 Orlando made his perpetual religious profession and on 15^th September of the same year he was ordained a priest in the cathedral of Como, at the hands of Bishop Teresio Ferraroni.

He already had the letter in his pocket telling him that he had been assigned to the Italian province for missionary animation and vocation promotion. That ‘pinch of regret’ does not last long: he just needed to reach the community of Troia, where there was also a seminary with 71 students, to recover all his enthusiasm. He spent four years there, esteemed and loved by everyone, even in the parishes that he visited to look for future missionaries.

In March 1977, he was assigned to the Comboni province of Mexico: The Apostolic Vicar of La Paz (Baja California) asked for a young missionary who could take an interest in the youth of that vicariate.

A few months later, Father Orlando was assistant parish priest of the Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in La Paz, and in 1979, he was parish priest in Bahía Tortugas, also in Baja California Sur. In the missionary and pastoral context in which he found himself operating, Father Orlando finally feels like he is in the world and environment he has always dreamed of. In 1982 they asked him to go to Tuxtepec, first as superior of the Comboni community, then also as parish priest of the mission, and he wrote to his family, friends and parishioners: “I feel I am in Heaven.”

In July 1987 he agreed to spend a sabbatical in Rome. He enrolled in refresher courses available both at our house and in other theological institutes in the capital. Then he returned to Mexico, assigned to the postulancy of Xochimilco, in Mexico City, as a formator of student postulants.

He remained in the postulancy for only two years. In 1990 he was again free to dedicate himself to parish pastoral work in La Paz, in the parish of Corazón de María. He writes home: “It’s so beautiful here that I would stay here for my whole life, if only they would let me.” The "paradise" of La Paz lasted until June 1997, when he is assigned to the parish of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, in Guerrero Negro. There too, Father Orlando was welcomed with open arms, and easily made friends with everybody.

However, Father Orlando also received a request to return to his homeland for service in his province of origin. He accepts reluctantly and on 1^st January 2002 he became the superior of the Comboni community of Casa Madre in Verona.

After three and a half years spent in Verona, in September 2005 he was able to return to Mexico, to the community of Guadalajara, capital of the state of Jalisco, in charge of pastoral care and missionary animation. The local community was a large one. In these years, the seminary was closed and construction began of the Oasis, a centre for elderly and sick missionaries. Father Orlando took to heart the construction of the large chapel dedicated to Saint Daniel Comboni. But, close by it, he wanted halls, rooms and offices for the catechesis of children, teenagers and adults (a hall bears his name today).

In 2009, he spent five months in Rome, for the renewal course, and in September of the same year, he left for the mission again, assigned to the then Central American Delegation. He mostly resided in San Salvador (El Salvador), a place that became his second home. There he dedicated himself to the recovery of street children, built churches, oratories, structures for lay training courses, centers for vocational promotion... As they already did during the years he spent in Mexico, the parishioners of Rescaldina are once again at his side, ready to help him in any way.

In 2020 he returned to San Salvador determined not to move again. But he agreed to return to Italy to celebrate his 50th anniversary of priesthood on Sunday 17^th September 2023, the patronal feast of the parish of Rescaldina. In early November, he was back in San Salvador. His health, however, suddenly began to fail; in December he felt very weak and was diagnosed with cancer. He says: “What a grace! If I had been taken ill sick in Italy, they wouldn’t have let me return. Instead, I’m here... I’ve always wanted to die ‘on the missions’.” His health deteriorated rapidly. The confreres watched him pass away little by little. The faithful of the parishes of San Tommaso and San Daniele Comboni worked hard to take care of him. Everyone was praying for him.

Father Orlando died in San Salvador on 15^th January 2024. There were two nights of vigil, the first in the church of San Tommaso and the second in that of Saint Daniel Comboni. After the funeral, his body was buried in the parish church of Saint Daniel Comboni. On the 20th, in Rescaldina, a funeral mass was celebrated for him, the church crowded with people who knew, loved and supported him. (Father Ramón A. Orendáin C., mccj, and Father Franco Moretti, mccj)