In Pace Christi

Fr. Peter was the son of Angelo and of Mariannina Stefanetti. Five years earlier the first child had been born: a sister, who would consecrate her life to the Lord as a Reparation Sister of the Sacred Heart. Only two children, because Angelo had to emigrate to America in search of work, and died there after just a few years. Mariannina moved to S. Giovanni Rotondo, where she purchased a house close to the Capuchin friary where there was a priest whose name was becoming well-known: Fr. Pio, who discovered wounds in his hands, feet and side on 20th September 1918.

The adopted father of "Petruccio"

"Petruccio" is the name given by Fr. Pio to his little altar boy, who grows up in the shadow of the friar. Fr. Pio will always be present, living and dead, in the life of Fr. Villani. I think - with respect to the Capuchin Friars - that nobody knew and loved Fr. Pio as much as Fr. Villani, or thought, talked, read as much about him. Fr. Pio was his father: human, adoptive, spiritual... And yet the 12-year-old Pietro does not put on a Franciscan habit, but the cassock of a diocesan seminarian, on the day of his Confirmation, 19th March 1926.

First Comboni seminary in the South

God had his plans. On 28th February 1927 a missionary arrived at Our Lady's shrine at Valleverde: Fr. Bernardo Sartori, not yet 30 years old. His superiors had sent him to found a Comboni seminary, on the invitation of the Bishop of Bovino.

Those are the days of pilgrimages on foot. One day the young seminarians of Troia diocese hike over to the Shrine of Our Lady of Valleverde. In the building they find a Father up a ladder, busy painting. He comes down and welcomes them with pleasure and enthusiasm. Among them is Pietro. When they get back to the seminary the lads are full of their experience; and the Bishop of Troia then takes a hand, inviting Fr Sartori to come over and talk to the seminarians and the people about the Missions. Indeed, he invites the missionaries to move to Troia and live in the Seminary while Fr. Sartori busies himself making the old Poor Clares convent habitable. After a year spent together, on 8th December 1928, two of the seminarians move into the ranks of the Combonis. One of them is Pietro Villani: not the quietest and most tractable of boys - on the contrary! The Prefect, Giovanni Giordani, decides to rein him in by making him "head boy", so that he is forced to behave!

Pietro perseveres, showing he has the right stuff to make a priest and a missionary. In 1931 he enters the Novitiate at Venegono Superiore, where he makes his Religious Profession on 7th October 1933, taking Teofano as a second name (after Theophane Venard, a French missionary who had been martyred in Tonkin). For two years he is full Prefect, in the Comboni junior seminary at Sulmona; then in 1935 he begins his theological studies in Verona.

Joint Founder of "Combonianum"

Knowing the love of study and reading of the "mature" Villani, one obviously deduces that he must have had it from his youth. So during the four the years he will have dug the deep foundations on which he erected, over the years, the imposing structure of his formation in Theology, Scripture, History and Social teachings. To his devotion to the Sacred Heart, Our Lady, St. Joseph and Comboni, Fr Pietro added a devotion to Books and Magazines (with capital letters).

The scholastics lived and followed the events of Comboni's Cause during those years. They read the first full biographies of Grancelli (1925) and Capovilla (1929), and they themselves gave life to "Combonianum", which had as its aim the study and knowledge of the Founder. The scholastic Pietro was among the most enthusiastic supporters of the project.

At the end of his Retreat in 1981 he writes: "Thank you, Jesus, for making me a Priest and a Missionary! [...] We have done this retreat under the sign of the Comboni Centenary. I felt as though I was back in Fai in '38, preparing the Missionological Congress, and the figure of Comboni leaped out of the books and the bookshelves to put himself at the head of the young members and renew the Congregation "Comboni-ly" (combonianamente)! It is to Comboni that I owe, besides love for the Missions, my love for the Cross and its mystery, my ardent filial love for the Church and the Pope. They are the two pillars that have upheld and strengthened me in my ministry and in my religious life. I truly feel that Comboni is my `Father'."

Ordination and departure for the Missions

On 16th April 1939 (Dominica in Albis), Pietro is ordained priest. A week later he celebrates his first High Mass at S. Marco in Lamis and, on 26th April, goes over to S. Giovanni Rotondo to thank Padre Pio for all his prayers and assistance during the years of preparation. P. Pio answers: "I have to thank you for the joy it gives me to see you a priest!" And while Fr Pietro celebrates at the main altar, P. Pio celebrates at the same time, at the side altar of the Immaculate Conception.

Then, Fr. Villani leaves for Egypt. He starts work in the school and the parish - but the War comes to throw everything into disarray. In November 1942 he writes from Ghiza, a few miles from Cairo, that "in this holy retreat" (the Coptic-Franciscan seminary) the fathers are busying themselves translating theological works: "As you see, the time does not pass idly. However, let us hope that the Lord will shorten these days!"

Missionary, in a different manner

He returns to Italy in 1947, and is appointed to Troia as teacher of French and curate (later PP) of the parish of Our Lady Mediatrix.

It is the period in which political parties are springing up like grass! Centres like Troia, but even small villages, are in turmoil, and the fear of the Communists' taking power troubles even the "holiest". The fiery Villani, in his early thirties, throws himself into the battle, supported by possibly an even more fiery confrere (because he was younger): Fr. Ivo Ciccacci. The latter is quite an artist, and designs a number of satirical posters, which the two put up at night, at strategic points around the town! And the City Council of Troia remains "white" for a good four decades!

During the Holy Year of 1950, Fr. Villani has the joy of meeting Fr. Bernardo Sartori once again: a "Father and Master" he has not seen for over 20 years. The joy of both is increased by the celebration of the crowning of the statue of the Mediatrix.

At the end of that year he receives a quite unexpected appointment: clerk in the Secretariat of State of His Holiness! Papist as he is, he does not refuse; and has the honour and pleasure of working with the Pro-Secretary of State of Pius XII, the then Archbishop G.B. Montini; they become good friends. He will treasure one of the things the future Paul VI told him: "Father, whatever one does for the Church, whether a little or a lot, is always great!" However, office work must not have suited him, for after little more than a year he is back in Troia as PP and, from 1953-59, also Rector of the Seminary.

Fr. Villani is forty. He devotes to the parishioners all the talents of his intelligence, formation and studies. Those are still the great days of Catholic Action, which he fosters in all its sections: children, youth, adults. He is priest, teacher, formator, spiritual director. About 15 girls will go from Troia to join the Comboni Missionary Sisters during this time, besides others that entered other Institutes. Eight years of intense activity.

The superiors make him a "Scalabrinian"

After the 1959 Chapter he is sent to England for the spiritual care of Italian immigrants. Not the best climate for his weak bronchial tubes and lungs! But he stays for eleven years.

In 1970 he is called back to Italy to take charge of the parish in Naples, left empty by the sudden death of Fr Ivo Ciccacci. Here too, Fr. Villani will work tirelessly for nine years. On 26th February he loses his only sister, Sr. Maria Pia. Fr. Peter is now alone, as his mother has already passed away, on 7th June 1955.

He is assigned to England once again, for missionary animation. Making Mission Appeals almost every "blessed Sunday" does not stop him spreading the devotion to Padre Pio, - already much venerated in England - and forming "Padre Pio Prayer Groups".

The Comboni Centenary in 1981 brings him another "divine caress": he requires urgent heart surgery. He had already experienced several smaller "kisses", but this big one came as a shock. For a while he was quite perturbed, but put himself into God's hands and regained his composure. After a few months of recuperation following the operation, he is off again as before - even more so: Padre Pio had given him "new heart"!

On 10th December 1982 Fr. Villani receives an invitation to return to Egypt, the land of his missionary experience. "A great Christmas present!" is how he defines it. The way seems to open up to him: first the Provincial of Kenya (from whom "some letters had filled me with a taste of the heart of Africa, the famous `black pearl'") gives up his `option'; the confreres in the London Province encourage him to go, and the Provincial "though he mentioned the personnel problems, told me to say yes". But, at the last hurdle, a heavy fall: on 10th March 1983 Fr. Villani goes to the Italian Hospital in London for a check-up, a year after his heart surgery. The doctors are happy with him, but when he mentions that he hopes to leave shortly for Egypt, "they tell me that heat is good for me, but Egypt is too much. And they advise against it. So the Egyptian venture is over already. I am really disappointed, but once again, and always: Fiat!"

A missionary like the Little Flower

On 17th July 1981 he writes: "I still feel a yearning for Africa, for the primitive, pagan peoples, to testify to them how much Christ has loved them, and still does and - why not? - how much I love them too. Blessed Theophane Venard galvanised me when I was very young, then Comboni piloted my heart towards. Now, travelling towards my sunset [...] I am living out, here in the quiet of Sunningdale, my missionary passion for Africa and for the whole world in prayer, which is made easier for me by the much-reduced work-load and the restful silence; and the sacrifice of my years which are becoming an increasing burden. [...]  In union with the Passion of Christ I offer everything to the Father, in the Holy Spirit, for the Body of Christ, the Church, so that the world may believe in and love the One who loved us first, even when we were still his enemies. I dearly wish to die with the Adveniat Regnum Tuum on my lips. [...] In these days I am thinking of our confreres in Uganda and especially in Mozambique [...]. I would love to mix my sweat and my blood with theirs, to have the grace and the joy of being the seed of new Christians. It gives me the greatest pleasure to receive the letters that Missionary Sisters write to me from Uganda, Kenya and elsewhere, when they have a moment; sisters that, by the Lord's grace, I helped when they were "in the world" but already "not of the world". I feel I am working with their hands, becoming tired with their feet, but especially, preaching with their lives and their voices. I don't think I am appropriating the precious merits of others, but that I am taking advantage of the. Thank you, Jesus, for having made me a Priest and a Missionary!"

Four Pillars

The spiritual life of Fr Pietro rests on four pillars: love of Mary, love of his Comboni Missionary vocation, love of the Church and of the Pope, love of suffering.

Love of Our Lady

Having been born on 21st November and having made his Vows on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary are two good reasons for wanting to love Mary all his life. On the day of his first Profession he consecrated himself to Our Lady in the spirit of St Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort - a consecration he renewed many times. But he had an outstanding master in this: Fr Bernardo Sartori. And he will always have a special devotion towards Mary the Mediatrix, of the shrine in Troia. Not a dull or superficial devotion: it is alive and solid, striving to imitate Mary, the faithful disciple of Christ. He visits the Shrines of Mary: Lourdes, Fatima, Pompei, Walsingham, Loreto, Medjugorje. On 13th October 1985 he is in Fatima, and writes: "We are leaving this morning, and feel the sharp pain of departure. I am leaving my heart with Our Lady: may she keep it for me, for eternal life. I hope to die in her arms. This has been the chief aim of the pilgrimage: to obtain from Our Lady the grace of final Perseverance. [...]."

On 21st November 1984, Feast of the Presentation of Mary, he is seventy, and writes: "Today is the presentation of Our Lady. May she, our most sweet Mother, present me to You, God of my heart. Do not look at me, but at the one who is presenting me to You. Today my thought goes to my family, especially my mother. I have thanked them all for the great love they had for me, the great good they did me, especially my Catholic upbringing, made up not of words and teachings but of a lively, concrete faith, of good example and of witness. The simple faith of my Mum, a poor and illiterate housewife, is my light and my comfort even today. Thank you for revealing your mysteries to little ones [...]."

On 5th December 1985, while going down to chapel for the evening Mass, he begins to stagger. He goes back to his room, and notices that his right cheek and his lips have gone numb. The doctor is called, and says it is a slight heart attack. On the 7th he is able to celebrate the Mass of the Immaculate Conception (brought forward that year), assisted by Fr Anthony, "to thank the Lord of Our Lady for her goodness, her beauty, her fulness of grace, and to entrust to her, my Mother, this new trial which the Lord has given me; and ask that the Salus infirmorum, Consolatrix afflictorum may assist me and never leave my side. As she stood near her Son on the Cross, may she stand by this other son. Her presence is strength, comfort and joy to me."

On 11th February 1986 he undergoes an operation on a carotid artery: it is the day of Our Lady of Lourdes. "There cannot be a better sign than this," he writes. "I will be assisted by my Mother as they operate on me. These are heavenly signs. Following the, one can never get lost [...]. O Handmaid of the Lord, teach me to do and to entrust myself to the holy Will of God."

Love of his Comboni Missionary Vocation

Pietro is a sanguine type, but not sentimental. He does not like to be demonstrative of his affections and feelings. When this type of person falls in love, they are firm as a rock. Pietro falls in love with Comboni. He gets to know him, knows everything about him, reads everything about him; he can say, quite truthfully: "I really feel that Comboni is my father". Fr. Peter will celebrate the feast of the Beatification in Heaven; and how much he prayed that this day would come! Writing in 1981 about Comboni as a "vir ecclesiasticus", these are his thoughts: "May this Father of ours instil in me an ever more concrete love of the Lord, of prayer, and increase in me my love of and fidelity towards the Church and the Pope [...]. Father most Holy, glorify this son of yours who lived and died only for your glory and the salvation of souls [...]. With God's help and the protection of Comboni, I am going to start doing Mission Appeals again today."

In Cairo in 1942 he had the joy of discovering a book "that belonged to our Venerable Founder" in the Copto-Franciscan Seminary. It had been given to Comboni in 1857. When writing to inform the Superior General, Villani becomes quite lyrical: "Inside the cover there is all the soul of the Servant of God, in that written in his own hand. It is a wonderful relic. I will treasure it indeed. I will make it the subject of my meditations." Fr. Peter is overjoyed at having in his hands something that Comboni had held in his!

Love of the Church and of the Pope

Being in love with Comboni, he loves what Comboni loved: the Church and her visible Head. He reads and lives the documents that come out. He buries himself in works on the Church and the Pontiffs. After one retreat talk on he writes, on 17th July 1981: " [...] yes, publicly and in sincerity of heart, I feel I have always - through divine grace - taken God's side, and defended the rights of the Church even at the cost of being judged a conservative, old-fashioned, `the Vatican's man'; for having defended life against abortion and indissolubility against divorce".

Having worked 25 years altogether in England, once called the "Dowry of Mary", he still felt the schism of Henry VIII like a present event! In 1982 he welcomed the conversion of the famous Malcolm Muggeridge: "Lord, what great joy! I have been waiting ages to hear the news of the conversion of this man! Deo Gratias!" Contemplating the ancient ruins of the Abbey of Barrow in Furness, destroyed by the Protestant fury, he writes: " [...] those broken walls raised up to heaven implore pity and forgiveness for the murderers. Oh, when will the peaceful and joyful restoration of unity take place?"

Love of suffering

He used to say that as a student he was constantly afraid the Superiors would tell him to leave the Institute, because of his poor health. Yet he did not spend much time in a sick-bed. And he spent, without a murmur, almost a third of his life in England, famous for its cold, damp climate; travelling, in and out of countless churches and presbyteries doing Mission Appeals and ministry. As we have seen, he had a heart operation, and carotid operations a few years later. He had various other problems: prostate, blood pressure, diabetes... On 12th July 1983 he writes: "Another bell had tolled: the doctor informs me it is a pre-cancerous condition [...] and so, Lord, you pronounce your judgements once more on your ... faithless servant. Give me the strength and courage to accept everything your love sends me, and to offer you praise and glory for your goodness, in expiation for my sins, and for the salvation of ... the whole world." And he prays for the intercession of Padre Pio, a "specialist" in suffering [...]: "I will tell him to make me love the Cross and to learn to bear it, just as he loved it and learned to bear it. Comboni and Padre Pio are brothers in this. So why am I not ready to stand between them?"

Fr Pietro prepared for his meeting with God from 1981: Many passages in his writings show this. On 25th February 1985 he writes: "Today the Lord has come to me through St Paul (writing to Timothy) and encourages me: So it's a matter of `my share'. It is mine, I have to bear it. I cannot draw back: the whole process would be ruined. My share is what is still lacking in the Passion of Christ for his Body, for the Church [...] Jesus, the one `sent by the Father', wants me to be Victim, Priest and Altar with Him [...] and with Him who gives me strength, I can do everything. I do not know how to thank the Lord who is thus preparing me for my most blessed meeting with Him."

Despite the sufferings, Fr. Pietro continues to busy himself, work, travel around.

In 1989 he celebrates his priestly Golden Jubilee. And in 1993 the people of Troia, through their Bishop, ask Fr. General to let Fr. Pietro return there for ministry as confessor of the clergy and the faithful in the city. Fr. Villani leaves England with a certain sadness and settles in Troia, where he takes up his pastoral ministry once more, especially among the elderly.

In June his health problems increase; he feels that "from one moment to the next I could be facing God". Then he improves a bit, and feels well enough to travel to S. Marco in Lamis, and from there goes over to S. Giovanni Rotondo: there was "something to do with the leaders of the Padre Pio Prayer Groups". At the end of the concelebrated Mass, while removing his alb in the sacristy, Fr. Villani collapses and strikes his head on the ground as he falls: it is 6th July. He is taken to intensive care, and spends some months there. He shows few signs of awareness, and is later moved to the ward for long-term patients. When someone he has known well in the past visits him, he shows some signs of recognition, and even smiles. But it is clear he is suffering a lot: sufferings that he has offered to the Lord long since.

After a year and 12 days of this Calvary, the Lord calls him to Himself on 18th July 1995, at 8.40 a.m.

Father's cousins want him to be laid to rest in the cemetery at S. Marco, where he had wanted his sister to be buried.

The funeral was celebrated in the church of the Mother of Sorrows, his parish church. On the following day, there is a solemn concelebrated Requiem Mass, led by the Bishop in the Basilica-Cathedral of Troia, packed out in the way it is on big feasts. It was not difficult for Bishop Raffaele Castielli to recall the figure of their beloved Fr. Pietro to the grieving assembly; many of them had known and respected him, and had made use of his pastoral care as a priest, a teacher and a pastor. (Fr. Angelo D'Apice mccj)