In Pace Christi

The son of Alejandro Emilio and Eustasia, Emilio was born at Vezdemarbán (Zamora), on 3 January 1943. On 21 January he was baptised at the local parish and, on 21 May, he was confirmed there.

He joined the seminary of Sigüenza (Guadalajara) where he did his classical studies and two years of philosophy. In 1964 he left the diocesan seminary and did his military service. On 6 September 1970 he asked to be admitted to the seminary in Moncada. In a letter to the superior of the community he wrote: “I have decided, with the consent of my spiritual director, to become a missionary and I hereby request admittance to the Institute of the Sons of the Sacred Heart, the Comboni Missionaries, to pursue my religious and missionary vocation”.

Once admitted, he studied philosophy at the Superior Centre for Theological Studies at Moncada (Valencia), and did two years of theology. He made his first profession at Moncada on 15 August 1972. From there he went to Granada where he continued his theological studies. He made his perpetual profession on 8 December 1974, at Granada, at the hands of Fr. Enrico Farè, who was provincial at the time. He was ordained deacon at Valencia on 2 February 1974, and was ordained priest at Vezdemarbán, his home town, on 1 March 1975.

After he was ordained to the priesthood, he was first appointed to the province of Spain on 9 May 1975, to work in the centre for missionary vocations. He wrote to the provincial council on 3 April 1975 asking to be allowed to visit the missions for some months. He was sent to Ecuador.

On 9 July 1978, Fr. Emilio was appointed superior of the community of Madrid. While he was director of the vocations centre he wrote the book entitled “Yo misionero, y ¿tu?” published by Mundo Negro. He worked very hard organising vocation courses which were held in the Madrid house, producing many Comboni vocations. As from 1 July 1981, he was assigned to what was then known as Zaire but first he went to Paris to study French. He therefore reached his destination, Zaire, in 1982. He worked in various missions: he was parish priest at Tadu, director of the Diocesan Catechetical Centre at Nangazizi, and parish priest at Ste. Anne at Isiro.

Recalling that period, Fr. José Rubio Aguerri says: “We worked for two years side by side in the same mission. It was a real pleasure to see how he adapted to all the activities with his usual simplicity, his constant serenity and his evident desire to discover the reasons behind all that was happening around him”.

After some years (1991-1997) of rotation in Moncada, working in the field of animation and in charge of the Comboni Lay Missionaries, he returned to Congo in 1997 as parish priest at Rungu. The situation in the country was uncertain and Fr. Emilio wrote in 1999 to his provincial: “Despite the fact that this area is in the hands of the so-called “rebels” (under Ugandan control), generally speaking we work normally and freely but the economic situation of the country is taking giant steps backwards and this complicates matters”.

From 2004 to 2007 he worked at Mungbere. Often, besides his pastoral ministry, he was chosen by the confreres to coordinate the activities of the community as superior. In 2007 he returned again to Moncada, in Spain, where he was entrusted with the care of the elderly confreres.

On 31 December 2009, Fr. Emilio called a confrere of the community, Fr. Carmelo Del Rio, to tell him he was not feeling well with dizziness and a headache. His blood pressure was very high and not even the efforts of the doctor, who came immediately, succeeded in lowering it. At 10.pm he was taken to hospital in Valencia where he suffered a serious brain haemorrhage during the night and was operated upon. Meanwhile, his relatives had been informed. On Saturday, 9 January, his condition worsened due to a second haemorrhage. Though the doctors said that Fr. Emilio did not suffer at all, from the time of the operation he remained in a coma until the day he died, 19 January, at 5.pm.

The funeral took place the following day at Vezdemarbán (Zamora), his home town. The Mass was presided over by the provincial and was concelebrated by the Vicar general of the diocese of Zamora, Mgr. Juan Luís Martín Barrios, the parish priest Fr. Mario Manso, eighteen Comboni and six diocesan priests. There was also a group of the faithful from the parish. He was buried in the cemetery of his birthplace.
(P. Daniel Cerezo Ruiz).
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 244 suppl. In Memoriam, aprile 2010, pp. 23-30.