In Pace Christi

Father Cadè was born on 11^th January 1932, in Zanica (Bergamo). While still a boy, he entered the Piccolo Seminario Comboniano in Brescia for middle school and high school. In 1949 he began his novitiate in Gozzano and concluded it on September 9, 1951, with temporary vows. Immediately afterwards, he moved to Verona, to the Mother House, to begin philosophy. In 1955 he went to Rome to begin his theology studies. On 1^st March 1958, he was ordained a priest. He remained in Rome for a year, during which time he attended a course in missiology. In July 1959, he was a professor in the novitiate in Gozzano. He remained there for a year and was then called to Rome, to the community of San Pancrazio, for pastoral service among the youth.

In July 1963, Father Pierluigi was assigned to the missions in Burundi when the work of the Council was beginning in Rome. He returned to Italy in June 1965, shortly before the bishops’ work in Rome ended (8^th December of that year). For 12 years he had the extremely difficult, if not downright hostile, task of working with young people and seeking new paths, both to present the vocational proposal in a new way and to design a training path inspired by the ideas that emerged from the Council.

Between 1970 and 1977, he was Provincial Secretary of Formation, spiritual director in the scholasticate of Venegono, formator of scholastics in Rome and, finally, formator of postulants in Florence. I was a young student who joined the Comboni missionaries in those very years. I remember that they were extraordinarily stimulating years for us young people: we wanted to change the world, but we represented a real nightmare for our formators at the time. During my novitiate, Father Cadè was charged by the superiors to come to us to mediate a crisis that had arisen between us novices and the Novice Master, who did not understand us and had difficulty managing us. He, however, managed to restore serenity and peace, because he did not present himself with authority, but sought dialogue and took an interest in finding answers to the problems we had.

In July 1978, Father Pierluigi was assigned to Mexico, as parish priest of the Immaculate Heart of Mary parish, diocese of La Pax, until 1988, when he was assigned as parish priest of the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes, in Ciudad Constitución, also in the diocese of La Paz, until July 2004. He then returned to the Immaculate Heart of Mary parish, until 2010.

At the basis of his vision of mission was the parish that, upon his arrival in Baja California, he found organised in small base communities (he called them ‘chapels’). From the very beginning, he saw them as ‘privileged fields’ to organise Christian life, which he considered as a ‘journey of faith’, where two things must be put together: the encounter with the Lord and the change of life. Certainly, he had to make a long personal journey to enter into the spirit of the documents followed by the Mexican Church and, above all, into the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, which in Latin America has known particular ‘trends’, not only at a biblical level, but also at a theological level, mainly in the field of ecclesiology and pastoral care.

With this extremely solid wealth of knowledge, Father Pierluigi organised Christian communities, starting with the formation of pastoral councils of which he keeps repeating: “We must open up to the participation of lay people and women, but also to everything else.” He produced a series of pamphlets that he used in his training activities for community leaders, catechists, parents and their children who attended catechism, seminarians, Sisters and priests.

At the beginning, the things he did were seen as “novelties to be taken with a pinch of salt” but then, little by little, everyone began to see the fruits and copy them. The catechism books he wrote and published were adopted at the diocesan level and, often, even outside of it. He was sent to preach retreats to seminarians, priests and nuns, and then he also began to be called for courses of retreats both within and outside the diocese.

He inaugurated the ‘Via Crucis’ through the streets of the city and representations of the passion of Jesus, something that always attracting large crowds. In the parish already dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe he built an important sanctuary, which quickly became the spiritual centre of Ciudad Constitución and the nearby region, where there is still a group of faithful very close to him, who continued to keep in touch with him even after his return to Italy, in 2013.

He defined himself as a “Mexican from Bergamo”: originally from Bergamo – and he was very proud of his roots – and Mexican by vocation and by choice; in fact, he asked to be buried in the sanctuary he had built.

In October 2013, Father Pierluigi – now eighty years old – felt that the time had come to ‘retire’. He returned to Italy and was assigned to the ‘San Tomio’ Rectory in Verona, as superior of the community. He only stayed there until the end of the year, dedicating himself to the ministry of confessions and spiritual accompaniment of the many people who frequent the church run by the Comboni missionaries.

In January 2014, he was transferred for treatment to the Father Ambrosoli Centre in Milan, which welcomes sick and elderly brothers. He was always ready to go to the nearby church to meet people, hear confessions, and give spiritual direction. To keep him in his room, a high fever or something serious was needed, to the point that the confreres were forced to invite him to slow down, but often without success. People wanted to see him for two simple reasons: his genuine humanity and his profound wisdom.

In December 2021, he was taken to the Fratel Alfredo Fiorini Centre in Castel D’Azzano, because he needed more targeted treatment. In July 2022, he arrived at the Center where Father Franco Noventa was his roommate. With him, Father Pierluigi shared not only the space but also many moments in which he approached him to stay with him, talk to him, and pray with him as long as Father Franco could; he would then pray for him and support him with his closeness and affection. Father Franco died on 12^th October 2024. Two days later, on Monday the 14^th, Father Pierluigi joined him and their heavenly Father.

The plan to have him buried in the Marian sanctuary of Ciudad Constitución was abandoned at the last moment. He was buried in the cemetery of his hometown, Zanica.

Father Cadè had an email with a curious name: patriarca58@gmail.com. It was, perhaps, how he really felt and how he wanted to be remembered. Even many who knew him like to remember him as a patriarch of the Old Testament, full of years, but above all of wisdom and lightness, acquired on the path of life. The email address contains a number: "58". These are the final two numbers of the year of his priestly ordination: 1958. Sixty-six years ago! Yes, perhaps it was precisely this type of person that Jesus was thinking of when he spoke of the father of the family who extracts from his home treasure things both new and old (cf. Mt 13:52). (Father Giovanni Munari, mccj).