In Pace Christi

Fr. Andrea Pazzaglia was born on 21 August, 1928, at Apecchio (in the province of Pesaro-Urbino). He did the novitiate at Florence and the scholasticate at Rebbio and Venegono where he took perpetual vows. He was ordained priest on 7 June, 1952, and sent to Pesaro as vocations promoter, spiritual director and superior.

In 1966 he was assigned to the province of Brasil do Sul and first worked in the parish of João Neiva, in the state of Espírito Santo. Two years later, he went to the Comboni seminary that had been built in the nearby town of Ibiraçu which was the provincial seat.

In 1967, with his energy and vision, he was chosen to head the province of Brasil do Sul. He served for eight years in that post and then, in 1975, became a parish priest and devoted himself to pastoral work, spending time in the various parishes of western Brazil: Tangará da Serra, in Mato Grosso, Ouro Preto do Oeste and in Jarú (Rondônia).

In 1991, he moved to Cacoal to work in ministry and as local superior, staying there until 2005.

These were his impressions during the first months, as described in a letter published in Azione Missionaria in February, 1992. “After we handed over the parish of Jarú to the local clergy, here I am at the new parish of Cacoal. To tell the truth, the only new thing here is myself, as the parish has been there for 16 years already. It was founded in 1975 where there were only a few groups of people trying to clear the forest for cultivation. Now there are 150,000 people living in the commune and 20,000 of them live in the city. Besides being known for its rapid development and its poor living conditions, it is also known as the place of the martyrdom of Fr. Ezechiele Ramin, a thirty one-year-old Combonian from Padua who was killed there in 1985.

To improve living conditions for the cultivators, the parish opened a school of agriculture with eighty students from among the boys who had completed primary school and were interested in farming. The school building was carried out with help from the people of the place and of friends in Padua, encouraged by Fr. Ramin’s brothers who have come here twice already.

The worst problems are those of drugs and the situation of the Indios. There are various tribes in the parish. Four Comboni sisters work with them in the various ‘aldeias’. We are two priests and five Sisters in the pastoral service of 130 communities. On 16 October, during the Pope’s visit, I concelebrated with him at Cuiabá, about 1,500 Km from here. It was very hot that day, above 40^o. I don’t know how the Pope could stand it. In the afternoon, he met the Indios and then the youth. It was a beautiful occasion and very moving!”

In previous years, Brazil had seen the appearance of new pastoral problems and new challenges. It was in this climate of political and economic change that the class struggle between the big ranchers and smallholders began.

The young Comboni group, reading the signs of the times, reflected upon the situation with the result that Fr. Andrea, step by step, opened up new frontiers of mission and took up new pastoral challenges: those in the outskirts of the large cities and in Amazonia. Within the diocese of São Mateus, in the state of Espírito Santo, the Comboni group, together with their Comboni bishop, Mgr. Aldo Gerna, and the rest of the diocese, decided to adopt a critical position. A group of Comboni Missionaries went beyond the restricted confines of the state and opened parishes and missionary communities in Rondônia and Amazzonia: Ouro Preto do Oeste, Pimenta Bueno, Cacoal, Jarú, Ji-Paraná, Porto Velho, and Tangará da Serra. The large distances, heterogeneous groups of Brazilians from all parts of the country and popular religious practices engaged the Combonians in setting up the structures required for the gradual religious formation of the immigrants. That was how there began the long story of evangelisation consisting of much work aimed at building up churches and forming Christians. The model adopted was that of the Small Christian Communities. The seminaries of Ibiraçù, São Gabriel da Palha, Jerônimo Monteiro (in the state of Espírito Santo) and of Lages and Campo Erê (in the state of Santa Catarina) were oriented and directed by the norms of the Ecumenical Second Vatican Council which allowed only young aspirants, moved by the winds of religious, missionary and social renewal, to enter the seminaries. A Postulancy was built at Curitiba.

When, on 24 July, 1985, Fr. Ezechiele Ramin was assassinated, he became a rallying cry for the whole diocese and a stimulus towards the development of involved pastoral policies that moved the Church to become involved in the problems and needs of the people.

After completing the Renewal Course at the centre for Ongoing Formation in Rome, in June 2006, Fr. Andrea returned to the parish of Cacoal to assist in ministry. A year later, he was sent, again for ministry, to the Postulancy of Curitiba, the capital of the state of Paraná. He spent a year at the parish of Santa Amelia, in Curitiba, and then returned to Italy.

In 2011 he was admitted to the CAA in Verona where he died on 23 March, 2015.

His commitment, both as formator for many years in Pesaro and in Brazil, brought to light his human and spiritual qualities. Fr. Andrea was very much attached to people and to the community: in Brazil, he travelled much and by various means to visit the communities scattered over a vast territory so as to be always close to everyone. He was personally concerned that each person should live the Comboni charism with joy and commitment and helped those who had left the Institute to be fulfilled in social life, still living according to the Comboni spirit.

He was amiable and always ready to dialogue, attributes which are confirmed by the fact that he was elected three times by his confreres as superior of the communities of South Brazil.
(Fr. Vincenzo Santangelo, mccj).
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 266 suppl. In Memoriam, gennaio 2016, pp. 28-35.