In Pace Christi

To understand the character of Fr. Miglioranzi, known as Miglio, one would have to see some of the films taken during his missionary life. He was always on the move, flying - and not only because he had a pilot's licence. He even flew on his Cagiva motorbike in Africa, jumping obstacles like an expert. Even in his narrow canoe in Ecuador, with its outboard motor, he would skim across the surface and manoeuvre like a stunt-man. "I used to write what I wanted on the water," he would say later, as he showed the film.

 someone asked. "If everybody stops to ask what is the point, nothing would ever be done, and the world would be totally monotonous! Anyway, I attracted attention, especially of the children, so I always had a good audience for what I had to say."

A lad free of doubts

Son of Ferdinando and Angela Bonato, young William left San Massimo in 1936, along with Fr. Sorio and a couple of other lads, to enter the missionary seminary at Padova.

Always noted for his lively character, he was full of new ideas, his constant good humour and his "discoveries". His primary school teacher thought he would become an inventor of some kind. He was also very competitive, and did not like to be beaten at sports.

The Verona missionaries went frequently to supply at San Massimo and, naturally, talked about the missions and the adventurous side of Africa, besides the crowds of children waiting to hear the word of the Gospel and be baptised.

Miglioranzi, always very generous - as his PP testified - was immediately enthralled by the prospect, which seemed to suit him perfectly. And indeed, he seems to have gone right through formation without ever doubting his option.

At Padova, and later at Brescia, he was always up with the top of the class, both in his school marks and in his behaviour. Despite his vivacity, he always got 10 in Conduct. He studied hard, even though it was not his main preference, and he kept the whole class on its toes. He was popular, and even the superiors had a good opinion of him.

During holidays he would be at daily Mass and communion, spent time with the altar servers, and chose the best among his own age group as companions, trying to communicate his enthusiasm to them -  wrote the PP  - this when his lowest mark was 7 in two subjects.

File and chisel

On 14 August 1942, in the middle of the War, Guglielmo moved on from Brescia to the Novitiate. Fr. Antonio Todesco sized him up, then got to work with file and chisel. Although Miglioranzi was generous, friendly and devout, he was also "dissipated, flighty and scatter-brained", and needed modifications if he was to become a good missionary.

After two years of hard work, God's grace, the Novice Master and Miglioranzi himself reached the following conclusion: He can go forward to the Vows». So Guglielmo made his first Profession on the Feast of the Assumption, 15 August 1944. Then, since the Mother House was in a dangerous area and partly occupied by German troops, he went to Venegono to continue his studies.

For two years he was at Rebbio (1945-1947) to complete Humanities and start Theology, then he spent two years in Verona (1947-1948) before completing his studies at Venegono, which had become the Theologate. He was ordained by Cardinal (now Blessed) Schuster in Milan on 3rd June 1950.

Mexico and Ecuador

When Miglioranzi arrived in Mexico on 8th March 1951, the Combonis had not long arrived. He was sent to Santiago in Baja California, for pastoral work.

 But right from the start of his missionary life, Fr. Miglioranzi started moving from one mission to another, and this would be one of his life-long crosses. He was at Santiago, San Luis, Santa Rosalia as assistant priest and bursar. He always demonstrated that generous heart that was another life-long mark. He would do anything to help a confrere in trouble. But he had constant dysentery and cystitis which disrupted much of his community life and work, and tried the patience of several of the confreres.

The people usually got on very well with him, admired him and loved him, because he was always ready to answer any legitimate need.

Locked up or kicked out...

His time in Mexico ended with a tragi-comic event. The anti-clerical laws that prevailed forbade the wearing of the priestly habit in public. Miglioranzi decided to test the law. It went very badly for him! The choice was simple: be locked up or be kicked out. The second option was taken, and Fr. Miglioranzi moved to Ecuador, where he was in Muisne from 1956 to 1960 as PP of the parish which he practically started, and in which he founded a school. This is the period of his aquatic displays and other initiatives to attract people so that he could draw them into the church.

This period ended with an event that was pure comedy. The hot and humid climate wore Fr. William down: he was always on edge and often could not sleep. There were cows around the mission, and they would bellow at the wrong times... One night he could stand it no longer; he jumped out of bed, grabbed a big kitchen knife, caught hold of the tail of the first cow he could reach and lopped it off!

The next day the poor animal was found dead in a pool of blood. The father had to pay a fine, of course; but the superiors, worried about his health, decided to send him to Europe for a while.

Bursar at Trento with an interval in Ecuador

Fr. Miglioranzi was bursar in our seminary at Trento from 1960 to 1963. He not only had to make the little money he had go as far as possible, but had also to go and bring it in, as there was a good number of seminarians to support during those years.

He travelled up and down the valleys in the Province of Trent, visiting the parishes and looking for supporters. Parish priests welcomed him, because he was a good speaker and brought the missions to life. However, some of his sallies while preaching would make people sit up, open-mouthed. Fr. Miglioranzi was like that: direct, imaginative, unpredictable, trying to concentrate his many experiences into a short sermon and sometimes getting the listeners' logic rather tangled! But he went on regardless - and parish priests began to ask the superiors to send someone else...

However, his health improved considerably, and he asked to return to Ecuador, where he had been happy and had done a lot of good.

He was PP in Quinindé from 1963-65. He threw himself into the work with his usual energy, trying to be everywhere at once, making contact with people, whom he genuinely loved, and was loved by them in return. Human contact was a basic need for him.

But such a frenetic rhythm could not continue, and his health began to deteriorate again, forcing him to return reluctantly to Europe.

Pilot

In 1966 he was sent to be bursar at Corella, Spain, and stayed until 1971. With his knowledge of Spanish he got on well with local people and clergy, so was able to take up the work of Mission appeals and animation.

In the mission he had often thought that to be able to fly "a little plane" would be very useful to get around quickly, avoiding the endless dusty tracks, or the long, long canoe journeys up and down rivers. He enrolled at a flying school and obtained his pilot's licence in quite a short time. With his stunt-man antics on land, flying held no fears for him.

He spent a year in England doing some linguistic brushing-up, and explained why he stayed longer than expected to Fr. Agostoni (Superior General) thus: "The international flying language, including signals and controls, is English, so I have to learn it well. And if I don't use it for flying, it will be very for talking and teaching too!"

Painter

Back in Italy, he found his Spanish flying licence was not recognised, so he decided to go in for an Italian one, which would be international. But nobody would give him the money for the flying school at Boscomantico near Verona; most thought a pilot's licence would be of no real use in the missions. Besides, two Consolata missionaries had just died in a flying accident in Kenya.

Not to be put off, Fr. William thought up one of his bright ideas. He got some pieces of plywood blockboard from the carpentry workshop, procured brushes and colours and began to copy picture postcards. Then he went off to Ponte Nuovo, in the middle of Verona, to sell his works. Amazingly, they went like hot cakes: he asked for 20,000 lire apiece, paid his costs, and had 16,000 lire from each item sold for his flying. One day he asked the writer for a lift to Boscomantico, promising him a flight, since he was allowed to go solo. It seemed like a good idea, so the pair duly arrived at the airfield.

The instructor frowned:

"No problem! All we have to do is swing the propeller, and we're away!" -  - "No problem; we have to come down, anyway." The instructor shrugged:

At which point the writer thought of discretion being greater than valour, and decided to watch with both feet on the ground. Fr. Guglielmo swung the prop, jumped into the plane and took off, flying up the valley of the Adige. After a while the aircraft returned, did a few turns over the airport and landed, light as a feather.  said the instructor.

Testing time

It is quite obvious by now that Fr. Miglioranzi was quite an individual, and that members of his community could not always go along with his antics. Which tended to isolate him, and caused him pain. He needed company, somebody at his side, as a formator had noted. But it was no easy task to stay close: he moved too often, and people could not keep up with all his initiatives and undertakings, in any case. So, having been free from doubts all through formation, he now began to wonder about his options, and whether religious life, with its rules and constraints, was really for him. He still had not the slightest doubt regarding his priesthood. We wrote to Fr. General: "They have blocked me so often, for no real reason, that I have lost the desire to want something particular..."

Even taking into account some of the things he had wanted to do, it is true that he suffered greatly at the reactions of others. In another letter from England in 1972 he wrote: "I am not really welcome in communities, and I feel that because of various circumstances in the Congregation I will no longer be able to work with the commitment and serenity I once had. The death of Bishop Barbisotti, who was so good to me, has been a great trauma. Having seen how things are in Italy as regards me, I realise that I would not achieve any results. I am inclined to go into a diocese in Spain or Italy. If I leave, it will be without bitterness, but with much sorrow and pain, and full awareness of my own responsibility. I have been pondering on all this for a long time."

In Africa

Fr. Agostoni, the General, and Fr. Marchetti, Provincial of Uganda, did all they could. The latter wrote: as well...»

In July 1973 Fr. Miglioranzi arrived in Kenya and immediately plunged into language study. He learned well and quickly, and was able to begin ministry among the people quite soon. He was assigned to the area of Gaichanjiro and Saba Saba and, with his usual gift for getting around, was soon familiar with it all.

"The catechist Peter Ndungu has 15 years of experience, and we translate into Kikuyu together. We always travel together, by motorcycle or in a vehicle, and are doing some good work: Confessions and Mass on Saturday afternoon, three Masses on Sundays, and all the biggest centres are served."

He had never been given permission to buy a small aeroplane, so he wrote to a confrere in the USA to get him a microlight craft, or at least a hang-glider. But nothing came of this, either.

In any case, after two years he was forced to return to Italy with severe back pain, which went down into his hips. Some suspected it was caused by the way he rode a motorcycle. He never did it for sport, it should be said; it was just his way of getting around to see people, and he just would not slow down and save himself a bit, like other older men.

Final moves

This time he ended up in Switzerland, Canton Ticino, and stayed from 1976 to 1983. His health improved at Gordola, and he was able to return to Kenya, where he spent two years at Kolongolo, before returning definitively to Italy, and to the Mother House in Verona.

He had a hip operation, and limped for the rest of his life. "You know, I'm lucky!" he said to a confrere. If I was a millipede, I would have 500 legs out of action. But here I am with only one that is bothering me!" An argument worthy of Socrates...

He took a keen interest in solar panels, which he saw as the future for energy in Africa. He obtained them for a good number of confreres, who were all very pleased. With one solar panel he ran a refrigerator he had put together himself, and kept it in his room as a demonstration model. He even used solar energy to run a little aeroplane in one of the exhibits of the African Museum. Another of his interests was magnesium salts, which he publicised as a panacea for all ills. And in this way, he was working for the "regeneration" of Africa.

He also studied the whole story of Our Lady of Guadalupe, towards whom he had a great devotion. He tried to illustrate the great theological significance of the apparition at that particular time, for Latin America, the Church and the world.

He undertook a similar study of the Holy Shroud, concluding, with some scientists, that the Resurrection of Christ was a kind of "cosmic explosion". Even in his constant motion, Fr. Miglioranzi found time to read a lot of books, and did not choose light topics!

He wrote to newspapers in defence of life and of Christian values, and also in support of missionaries and of the human development work carried out by his confreres. Often he drew the wrath of other correspondents down on himself - he called them "blabbermouths with no experience!".

He also corresponded with a number of well-known people. One was Vittorio Messori, whose books he admired and diffused. Messori wrote to the superior of Verona when he heard of the death of Fr. William:

He was a very good photographer, and a lot of his work was used in our magazines. Some was used to make postcards. He was also a good mechanic and electrician: a very gifted man.

To die in the missions

His love of the Mission never diminished, and in January 1994 he asked to return to Ecuador. The Bishop of Ibarra, an old friend, was quite willing to have him. And so Fr. William set out again. He did well at Corlaví-Ibarra and, being alone, had no community problems. One of his last actions was to propose to the Provincial that the Combonis buy a piece of land near the church where he ministered, to found a Comboni Missionary project.

But his health put a full stop to everything. He was found to have a lung tumour, and had hardly arrived back in the Mother House where he had spent a good number of years of his priestly and missionary life, than he died.

Comboni-style missionary

Fr. Miglioranzi was a restless missionary, always on the move, full of ideas and projects - one might say in a true "Comboni" spirit - to tell the good news and extend the Kingdom of God. In 45 years of priesthood, he worked for 21 in Italy, and 24 in various missions of America and Africa.

He was generous, ingenious, creative, with a very active imagination, and quite determined to achieve his aims. The intention was the Gospel and human development, but the manner did cause a lot of friction with confreres and superiors. But his missionary group at home in San Massimo followed and supported him with devotion.

One who loved much

A confrere who was a student with Fr. Guglielmo and later worked with him in Kenya writes: acle. Suddenly he exclaimed aloud: "I offer my life for the Pope, the Church, the missions, the Congregation, and for all those in need of God's mercy."

After a long silence he added: "I vow that if I recover, I will dedicate the rest of my life to assisting my sick and elderly confreres".

Then: "Jesus Crucified, receive my spirit as you did that of the Good Thief."

`But you're not a good thief; you have been a good missionary priest!' He just smiled: his goodbye to all of us.»

He leaves us with the memory of an ardent, overpowering spirit, as a man and as a missionary. He was a rather eccentric but dear confrere. (Fr. Lorenzo Gaiga, mccj)