In Pace Christi

Born at Mores, Sassari, on 30 January 1937, Fr. Paolo Serra had begun to follow his priestly vocation in his home diocese when he entered the novitiate at Gozzano in 1957. On 9 September 1959 he took the religious vows and went to Venegono for theology. In 1964, just ordained priest, he was sent by the Superior General to Uganda, where he remained until December 1996.

He learned English and Luganda well and soon showed a passion for his missionary life in the service of the diocese of Kampala. He faced the violence of war both in the North and South of Uganda without fear. On the contrary, on more than one occasion he showed the soldiers and the rebels that meekness of heart with which he was gifted.

Fr. Paolo found interior peace in prayer, especially in meditating on the Psalms, which he often recited alone in church before community prayer “to savour completely the spiritual depths of each psalm.”

It was also due to Fr. Paolo, together with Fr. Pierli, that the scholasticate was started in Uganda. It was a pioneering initiative that saw the light of day in 1975. Fr. Paolo took care of pastoral and missionary formation, involving the scholasticate and the parish of Mbuya. Fr. Francesco attended more to the academic aspect, teaching in the national seminary of Gaba where also the Comboni scholastics studied theology.

It was the first Comboni scholasticate in Africa with students from America, Eritrea and Uganda. With the arrival of Fr. Lorenzo Carraro, mission promotion and vocations promotion were started.

In the nineties, the Ugandan Episcopal Conference placed Fr. Paolo in charge of the Catholic laity, a ministry that he carried out with passion and skill, emphasising, in all the dioceses he visited, the urgency of the ‘ad gentes’ mission of every baptized person.

The YCS (Young Christian Students) provided the methodology and the contacts with the groups of young Christians both in Africa and in Europe. As we well know, Fr. Paolo’s special involvement with the youth reached its apex between 1985 and 1995, when he was responsible for the pastoral care of the youth in Uganda.

As regards the pastoral care of the parish, he cared especially for the poor who were quite numerous. The social pastoral work was directed by a committee inspired by the Comboni Sister Gabriella Crestani. It reflected not only her directives, but also her piety and open-mindedness.

In order to involve the entire parish in helping the poor, Fr. Paolo would organise three penitential services a year with all the small communities’ members coming to the central church for the sacrament of reconciliation. On those occasions, all the Christians were invited to provide for the needs of the poor. Everybody remembers the mountains of “matoke”, bananas, cabbage, flour, pineapples and beans placed in the middle of the church.

The make up of Mbuya parish was complex, partly agricultural and partly industrial, with many refugees from Rwanda. There was also a notable increase in the number of conversions to Catholicism. The missionaries did some research to discover the reason. The answers converged on two aspects: first, the Catholics prayed, participated actively in the celebrations and sang nice hymns; second, the Catholics helped the poor.

Fr. Giorgio Previdi joined Fr. Paolo and Fr. Francesco when, with the growth of the scholasticate and the parish, it was necessary to have a third full-time priest. Cardinal Emanuele Nsubuga considered Mbuya a pilot parish in the complex pastoral life of his archdiocese.

Fr. Paolo passed the last eight years of his life in Rome in charge of ACSE (Comboni Association at the Service of Migrants and Itinerants). Greatly valuing “his great human, Christian and priestly gifts”, Mgr. Agostino Marchetto, Secretary of the Pontifical Pastoral Council for Migrants and Itinerants, wrote of Fr. Paolo: “Missionary of the Comboni Family, Fr. Paolo bore witness with his life to his calling to service, evangelisation and charity, both among the people of Uganda and the immigrants of Rome.

“The apostolic soul of Fr. Paolo found a means of expression in the more than thirty years of pastoral activity in Africa, from where, significantly, the Lord called him to Himself.

“Also in Rome Fr. Paolo gave his best, especially in welcoming the immigrants who knocked at the doors of ACSE, continuing, with enthusiasm and self denial the providential work begun many years ago, in 1969, by the late Fr. Renato Bresciani. Fr. Paolo leaves us all a great inheritance because he invites us to imitate his apostolic zeal, to become, following the footsteps of Christ, and in the heart of the Church, peacemakers, ministers of welcoming, generous servants of the Gospel proclamation and tireless builders of authentic communion, without leaving room for compromise or superficiality.”

Not by accident it is possible to read on the Internet the presentation of his last work, a kind of last will and testament: forty six files for a true journey of faith for the immigrants, a series called: “Together for Life.”

In the last long conversation Fr. Paolo had with a confrere, he confided his desire that ACSE should one day become a source of African vocations for Africa. We may call it a spiritual intuition, a utopian gamble, which this great missionary leaves to each one of us.

The Lord willed that in March 2005 Fr. Paolo should return to Africa and then he called him to Himself from that land he so dearly loved. A cerebral haemorrhage ended his life in a matter of hours. His remains, brought to Italy, now rest in the cemetery of his hometown.
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 228 suppl. In Memoriam, ottobre 2005, pp. 63-77