In Pace Christi

Fr. Erminio Tanel was born at Spormaggiore (TN) on 17 October, 1923. After primary and middle school in his home town, in 1937 he joined the minor seminary in Trent and then that of Brescia.

Having entered the novitiate in Venegono on 14 August, 1942, Erminio took first vows on 15 August, 1944, and was ordained priest in Milan on 3 June, 1950, by Cardinal A. Schuster.

He worked at the novitiate house in Florence in mission promotion until October, 1951, when he left for Bahr el Ghazal where he worked in Thiet, Mayen and Nyamlel. Mayen was a village of the Tuic Dinka, located about two hundred km. north east of Kwajok between the river Lol and Bahr el-Arab. Regular flooding meant he was isolated for eight months of the year. The Tuic, numbering around 60-80,000 people, seemed less opposed than the other Dinkas to Christianity. Some young Dinka men, having been instructed and baptised at Kwajok or at Nyamlel entered the area of the Tuic and sowed the seed that yielded much fruit. Fr. Erminio arrived there in 1952, when he was 29 years old. He had already learned the Dinka language during his stay at Thiet. In those days, in the euphoria of the declaration of independence of Sudan (10 January, 1956), there was quite a lot of confusion: freedom of cult had been promised and then denied, the possibility for Christian pupils to go to church on Sundays was withdrawn and then all students were obliged to study the Koran.

In April of 1956, without warning, Fr. Tanel had to leave Bahr el Ghazal for Khartoum as his permit to reside in that region had been withdrawn. In January 1957, he went to Mading-Aciueng, which geographically belonged to the region of Kordofan. On 11 June, 1960, he went to Abyei where he became the Parish Priest but on 17 March, 1964, the mission of Abyei, despite being in the north, received the order for the expulsion of all missionaries, with just 48 hours to leave the country. Three days later, on 20 March, they reached El Obeid by car under police escort. The weeping and cries of the people who accompanied them for a distance but whom they had to abandon, were still ringing in their ears. On 21 March, they left for Khartoum and on to Italy.

In 1965, Fr. Erminio went to Rome for an updating course and then went to Uganda, in the diocese of Kabale. He worked as curate in the parish of Makiro and then became Parish Priest at Nyamwegabira. After his holidays in Italy, he moved to Maracha in West Nile, as ad interim director of the Lay Helpers. He was then sent to Pakwach.

He went back to Italy in 1981 and in February 1983 his superiors asked him to collaborate with the Focolarini movement.

On 1 April, 1983, he was assigned to South Sudan and entered through Kenya in July, 1984, and worked at Kwajok until June, 1985. Guerrilla warfare was raging around Kwajok and Fr. Tanel moved to Wau as temporary Superior. In September, he moved to the North and went to El Obeid to study Arabic. In 1986 he returned to Wau and then had to go to Kenya for health reasons and, due to the lack of security in South Sudan, he went to Khartoum.

In June, 1990, he returned to Italy. He spent five years in Limone, a year in Arco, a year in Milano (having treatment) and then he went back to Arco. In July, 1998, he was again sent to Uganda (to Kyamuhunga) but soon returned to Italy where he spent five years in Trent and six years in Arco. He went to Milan for treatment in 2013 and died there on 8 January, 2017.
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 274 suppl. In Memoriam, gennaio 2018, p. 7-11.