In Pace Christi

Father Luigi Sala (4.2.1933 – 23.2.2025)

Luigi was born in Azzano San Paolo, in the province of Bergamo, on 4^th February 1933, to his father Antonio and his mother Giacoma (known to all as ‘Giacomina’). Luigi was Antonio’s first child, but when he was born, he already had a brother and six sisters at home. In fact, his mother had been married to Antonio’s brother, with whom she had 7 children in a few years. After the premature death of her first husband, she married her brother-in-law, who took care of them all. After Luigi, 7 more children were born. Shortly after Luigi’s birth, the family moved to Colognola, a neighbourhood in the city of Bergamo, where Luigi attended elementary school. In 1944, the boy entered the apostolic school of the Comboni Institute in Crema, where he attended middle school, repeating a year. In September 1949 he moved to the seminary in Brescia for the two-year high school period. Father Ernesto Calderola, superior of the seminary in Brescia, spoke warmly of him in his report: «Luigi is skinny, but healthy. A very lively in character, even if sometimes thoughtless. He is serious and committed to his duties. Good spirit of sacrifice and strong attachment to his vocation».

In October 1951, Luigi entered the novitiate in Gozzano. On 9^th September 1953, he took his first temporary vows. For the three-year period of high school he was in Verona, at the Mother House, until June 1956, when he obtained his classical high school diploma. Then he moved to the scholasticate in Venegono Superiore for theology courses. On 9^th September 1959, he made his perpetual religious profession. On 19^th December he received the diaconate from Cardinal Giovanni Montini, the future Saint Paul VI, and on 2^nd April 1960, he was ordained a priest, again by Cardinal Montini, in the cathedral of Milan. He wanted to leave for the missions immediately, but his superiors assigned him to the apostolic school of Rebbio (Como), as a Latin teacher for the first-year middle-school students.

In June 1962, he was assigned to the missions of the Arua Region, in Uganda. He took it for granted that he would have to go to England to learn English. But Uganda insisted that he leave immediately. His first experiences of evangelisation coincided with the Second Vatican Council, which was a real watershed for everyone. However, he did not consider himself either pre- or post-conciliar. He lived – and would continue to live – the missionary experience with his own personal touch. He wrote: “I love people. I feel and understand that my missionary life is first of all sharing the life of hardship of these poor people, walking together, taking on their problems… In short: being a missionary means making common cause with the least, as Comboni used to say.”

He began at the Warr-Zeu mission (1962-1968) as assistant priest. He then moved to Pakwach, first as assistant priest and then as parish priest (1968-1976). In 1970 he went on holiday to Italy and asked to attend an English course in London, but Kampala rushed him and he interrupted the course.

At the beginning of 1973, he returned to Italy for a short period of rest. After a few months, he returned to Pakwach, leaving his father ill. On 16^th September 1973, his father Antonio died. In June 1978, he took a vacation in Italy to recover his health. In September, he returned to Warr-Zeu, but remained there for just over a year. In December 1979 he was in Parombo as parish priest, where he remained until March 1982, when he returned to Italy. Father Luigi met with the major superiors in Rome, who told him of his new destination: the province of Italy. He was asked to serve 6 years in his country. But after just over 4 and a half years, in May 1987, he was unexpectedly assigned to Uganda. Once again, he was told that he had to leave as soon as possible. He never learned English well. But he would end up speaking the various local languages like the locals, and learn to tolerate “the poor figure he cut with the authorities or in the offices of the capital Kampala.”

At the end of 1987, Father Luigi was back in Uganda, assigned to the large parish of Angal, assigned to pastoral ministry. He visits schools (there are many throughout the diocese), meets teachers, organises seminars and courses for the leaders of small Christian communities... The Comboni missionaries had also started an important high school for young people. Father Luigi, however, saw that something was missing and threw himself into its body and soul. And so, he created a school for the professional training of young people, the Comboni Technical School.

In Bergamo and in his familiar environments, he found people who agreed to get involved. And so, he began to build, opened and finally took over the running of what would soon become an important point of reference for the young people of the region. The technical school began to churn out carpenters, electricians, bricklayers, mechanics... He explains: “We must develop the manual skills and creativity of our young people.”

With the excellent workers who graduated from school, he built kindergartens, sports centres... In the mechanical department he started the production of wheelchairs for the disabled, extremely important in isolated places like northern Uganda.

In Italy, Father Luigi created a group called ‘Friends of Uganda’. Year after year, they supported him in the construction work - the expansion of the hospital, the technical school, the church and other structures in West Nile. Dozens of artisans, professionals and technicians regularly went from Italy to spend short periods in Uganda dedicating themselves to Father Luigi's projects. Among them, in the optical field, the birth of optical laboratories stands out (in Angal, Hoima and Arua) which were created by the numerous Italian opticians who went there, installing and making operational the instruments donated by various Italian companies, by the Higher Institute of Optometric Sciences of Milan, by Federottica Nazionale and by Federottica Bergamo.

Father Luigi remained in Angal until December 1996, when he was sent to Parombo for three years. In November 1999 he was in Akanyo until December 2005, when he was able to return to his beloved Angal, with the intention of never moving again.

Father Luigi was tired. He had serious health problems. His heart was causing him problems, to the point that, at the beginning of 2012, he was forced to return to Bergamo and put himself in the hands of serious cardiologists. He stayed in Italy longer than usual, because he needed appropriate care and specific medical checks. He reached the point of fearing he would never be able to recover. In the end, everything fell into place. He returned to Angal, where he remained until June 2014, when he agreed to go to the mission in Opit, diocese of Gulu, among the Acholi ethnic group. But at 81 years old, it was not easy to change linguistic zones. He therefore asked to return to Italy permanently.

In June 2015 he went to Rome, where the superior general, Father Enrique Sánchez, gave him a letter with his new destination: the Italian province, starting on 1^st July. After a brief visit to his hometown, he went to the community of Brescia, where on 2^nd April 2020 he celebrated the 60^th anniversary of his priestly ordination. In May of the same year, he moved to the Ambrosoli Center in Milan. In August 2022, his superiors decided to assign him to the ‘Fratel Alfredo Fiorini’ Centre in Castel d’Azzano (Verona).

Father Luigi was now unable to move, to speak, to interact with others or to express thoughts and emotions. However, he was calm: being completely dependent on others did not seem to bother him.

Towards the end of 2024, he became very weak, to the point that those responsible for the centre decided to hospitalise him. He seemed to recover a little and returned to the community. On 23^rd February 2025, he passed away peacefully, assisted by his confreres and medical staff. The farewell Eucharist was presided over by Father Giovanni Munari, head of the community for elderly missionaries in need of care, concelebrated by several dozen confreres. Some of Father Luigi's relatives from Bergamo were present. In his homily, Father Giovanni recalled that “the farewell we give to a confrère, placing him in the hands of the mercy of the Father of us all, we want to do so as people who live beautiful and profound relationships with each other, but also as missionaries who have spent a life for others, keeping little or nothing for themselves, and as Christians who believe that death is not the final punishment of a life of suffering, but a point of passage to something truly great.”

The funeral was celebrated on 28^th February, in Colognola. Then the body was taken to the cemetery to be laid to rest next to his deceased loved ones.