In Pace Christi

Paolo Antonio (better known as ‘Paolino’) was born on 4 November 1937 in San Pietro Apostolo, a small town in the province of Catanzaro, in Calabria, in the diocese of Lamezia Terme. He was the first child of Santo and Rosa Tomaino. For more children followed. At the age of six, Paolino started primary school in the village. His parents thought his education should have ended here. However, the religion teacher, Don Corrado Mazza, was convinced that Paolino should continue with his schooling. He told his father who at first did not entirely agree but did so in the end.

In 1951, Paolino passed the eighth-grade exam and was enrolled in High School. During the holidays after the second year of studies, he was offered the opportunity to go attend a summer camp organised by the parish. There he met Don Corrado to whom Paolino confided his desire to help those in need. Don Corrado suggested he become a priest and so he entered Catanzaro seminary where, in mid-1956, Father Enrico Farè came to visit the seminarians: he spoke of Daniel Comboni, of Africa, of his missionary vocation, of his experience in the missions of South Sudan. «It’s the path I’m looking for», Paolino said to himself and there and then informed the missionary.

On 1^st September 1956, Paolino went to Gozzano to begin his novitiate. In July 1960 he was assigned to the scholasticate of Venegono for a year, and then moved to the scholasticate of Verona, at the mother house, for theology courses.

During the four years of Theology, Paolino built a network of acquaintances and friends who could help him once he left for the mission. Every Sunday he went with the confreres in charge of missionary animation and ‘mission Sundays’ in parishes near and far, distributing missionary publications, the magazines Nigrizia and Il Piccolo Missionario, but above all, he ‘started up conversations’ with everyone, and recorded in a notebook their addresses and telephone numbers. And it would be precisely thanks to these addresses – behind which there were very specific faces, often reproduced in photos that he always carried with him – that he would accomplish all he did: miracles!

On 9^th September 1963, he made his perpetual religious profession. On 28^th June 1964, together with 53 other Comboni deacons, he was ordained a priest in Verona. He was immediately sent to England for further preparation in English because he was appointed to Uganda where he arrived at the beginning of 1965. He was sent to the mission of Nyakishenyi and then to the parish of Rushoroza (Kabale). In October 1966, Father Paolino went with Father Erminio Tanel to open the new mission of Nyamwegabira, detaching half the territory of the parish of Makiro, which was also assigned to the Comboni Missionaries.

After holidays in Italy, in January 1971 he was assigned to the Buhara mission as parish priest. He began to lay the foundations of schools and chapels. Two years later, Bishop Barnabas Rugwizangonga Halem’Im-ana called him to entrust him with the task of the lay apostolate of the entire diocese of Kabale.

In 1976, Father Paolino returned to Nyamwegabira, to everyone’s joy, but he remained there for a few months because he was due to have some holidays at home. More visits to friends, missionary days and more projects to propose for possible sponsorship… When he returned, on 1^st July 1977, he was appointed to Makiro as parish priest. He remained there until 1980 when he returned to Italy for holidays and medical check-ups.

In July 1981 he was back in Uganda, at Kambuga Mission, where he built a wonderful church, a parish centre with numerous rooms and halls, and laid the foundation stone of what he already called ‘Kambuga Comboni College’. At the end of 1989, the parish was officially handed over to the local clergy.

The bishop of Mbarara suggested he go to Kyamuhunga, a very difficult parish, without priests for over four years. On 1^st July 1990, he went there and remained until 2000. He regained his past enthusiasm. The ‘friendly’ parishes of Lamezia offered to support him financially. A large hospital, a secondary school, numerous chapels and dispensaries were built in distant communities; numerous agricultural cooperatives were also started, which had immediate success among the population.

After a sabbatical in Italy, in September 2000 he returned to Rushere mission in Uganda, assigned to ministry among the shepherds of the Bahima ethnic group. He was to remain there until 2011, even if, in 2004, he had to return to Italy due to heart problems.

In February 2015, he returned to Kyamuhunga where he remained for good. The pace of work slowed down a bit, but he continued to follow everything: projects, correspondence (even with former pupils, pupils and students sent to Italy to graduate), courses for catechists, schools, cooperatives... He also sponsored projects that were ‘not his’ in other missions that turned to him for help.

In May 2023, Father Paolino’s heart again began to disturb him. He was taken to hospital in Kampala, where he recovered. In December, a new crisis. On the 28^th he was admitted to the hospital and stayed there for two weeks. He was then taken to Limone Medical Centre, the house that the Comboni Missionaries run in the parish of Mbuya for convalescing and sick confreres but the situation worsened.

On 14^th February, the president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, who considered and defined Father Paolino as “The greatest Kigezi development agent of the last 50 years”, made the presidential plane available to take him to Italy, to the Niguarda Hospital of Milan, in the hope of saving his life. Father Paolino remained in the hospital for two weeks. Then, at his express wish and at the request of his sister, he was taken by ambulance to his hometown, where he died immediately after he arrived. It was 3^rd March 2024.

The funeral was celebrated on the 6^th by the Bishop of Lamezia Terme, Mons. Serafino Parisi, in the mother church of San Pietro Apostolo. On the 8^th, President Museveni sent his presidential plane back to take back the remains – “too precious for Ugandans” – of Father Paolino, so that he could pay homage to him throughout Uganda, before being buried in Kyamuhunga “Like a holy national hero with a state funeral planned in his honour.” (Father Franco Moretti, mccj)