In Pace Christi

Mgr. Olindo Natale Spagnolo was born at Santa Giustina in Colle (Padova) on 25 December 1925. He attended the junior seminary at Padova until 1944 when he went to Venegono Superiore for his novitiate, taking his first vows on 15 August 1946, followed by the first two years of theology. He went to Rome to complete his studies at the Urban University and was ordained priest on 29 March 1952, at the Basilica of St. John Lateran. His many activities may be grouped under three well-defined headings, all of which are characterised by the same missionary tone: Mgr. Olindo was, in fact, a missionary animator, a missionary parish priest and a missionary bishop.

Missionary animator: formator and vocations promoter. In those days he worked in the Comboni seminary at Crema and later in that of Trento. He also worked at the Mother House in Verona where he was superior for three years and in Rome, where he was Secretary General for Missionary Animation from 1969 to 1979.

It was during that period that he went to Spain for four years (1958 to 1962) to establish the first Comboni house and take in hand the work of missionary animation in the diocesan seminaries of that country. Those were years when Comboni vocations, male and female flourished. It was also the time when Fr. Enrico Farè, superior in Spain from 1959 to 1975, with the help of the editors and administrators, founded Mundo Negro magazine, thus giving an intelligent, powerful and courageous impulse on all fronts to missionary animation and vocations promotion. Fr. Olindo easily found his place in all of this, with his distinctive personality, his good priestly qualities and powers of persuasion so acceptable to the youth of the time.

Missionary parish priest in Ecuador: In Ecuador, Fr. Olindo worked mostly in two different parishes: Merced in Esmeraldas and Guasmo in Guayaquil.
His first mission was in the apostolic vicariate of Esmeraldas where he arrived in 1963. Soon afterwards he was made parish priest of Merced, the main parish of Esmeraldas. He provided a strong impetus to the work of missionary evangelisation and organisation. In 1969 he returned to Italy as delegate to the General Chapter.

He was of the opinion that the Comboni Missionaries should also be present even outside the Esmeraldas Vicariate and was happy to be assigned to Guayaquil, the second city politically but the first in economic terms. It is, in fact, one of the great naval ports on the Pacific Ocean, together with Callao-Lima (Peru) and Valparaiso (Chile). The area chosen was that of “Guasmo”, a truly missionary zone in the outskirts, undeveloped and inhabited mostly by people of African origin.

Anyone who saw that area in the early eighties would have felt they were looking not just at part of the third world but of the fourth or the fifth! The minister for finance, Rodrigo Paz Delgado, on visiting the place exclaimed: “It is the most pitiful sight I have ever seen. I left it heartbroken”. Largely due to Fr. Olindo, a new parish dedicated to “Maria Estrella del Mar”, was built with various halls for catechesis, formation and meetings with the people. Pope John Paul II visited Guasmo during his visit to Ecuador in 1985. Fr. Olindo did the honours very well indeed.

Missionary Bishop in Guasmo. Already vicar general since 1985, Fr. Olindo was made auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Guayaquil on 3 March 1990 and, due to age, bishop emeritus in 2001. He chose to continue living in his parish of Guasmo, still active in pastoral commitments. On the day of his episcopal ordination he said: “Being a weak and poor sinner unworthy of this ministry, I feel within myself that profound truth expressed by Our Lord when he said: without me you can do nothing. (Jn. 15.6). … Since I fully trust in the Lord I have chosen as my episcopal motto the phrase: ´The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep´ (Jn. 10.11)”.

As bishop he knew how to transmit his missionary and Comboni drive also within the Episcopal Conference of the country. In particular, he founded two religious and missionary ad gentes Institutes: The Maria Stella Maris Missionary Men and Women (Maria Estrella del Mar). In his final years, especially after retiring from diocesan responsibilities, he devoted himself entirely to the formation and guidance of the members of the two Institutes, investing considerable personal and economic resources. Knowing his end was near, he warmly recommended his Institutes to the care of the new Archbishop of Guayaquil, Mgr. Antonio Arregui Yarza.

Mgr. Olindo's was a very human personality, blessed with many talents. Here are some notes about his character and personality written by the General Administration of the Comboni Missionaries (1 January 1990) in reply to an enquiry by the Congregation for Bishops, in view of his probable appointment.
“He is of good character, open to dialogue, with a sense or responsibility. He is a man of communion who knows how to gain the cooperation of others. He has good human qualities which enable him to feel at ease in whatever company he finds himself… He has proved an effective missionary animator in the seminaries of Italy and Spain. He has visited many missions and chaired many meetings. He has had a vast pastoral experience and is a ‘trustworthy’ person from the doctrinal and ecclesial points of view. He is an excellent orator, capable of transmitting sound doctrine in an understandable way. He is a good organiser and was successful as superior of large communities and as parish priest. He is attentive to the problems of the people in his charge…. He is esteemed by people at all levels and his superiors have always given him posts of importance and great responsibility.”

Mgr. Olindo was certainly a generous missionary after the charism of St. Daniel Comboni which nourished his own life and which he knew how to communicate to others wherever he worked as animator, parish priest and bishop.
(Based upon an outline and notes suggested by Fr. Romeo Ballan)