In Pace Christi

Fr. Adriano Danzi was born at San Michele Extra, Verona Province, on 28 November, 1936. He did the novitiate at Gozzano and took his first vows on 9 September, 1956. After the scholasticate at Verona and then at Venegono, he was ordained priest on 30 March, 1963.

He was appointed to the Italian Province (1963-1973) and was sent to Thiene as vocations promoter and local Superior. In 1973 he was sent to Congo, to Rungu and Ndedu. The latter was closed for four years on account of the Simba rebellion but the Christian life continued thanks to the courage and zeal of the local catechist.

In 1978, Fr. Adriano was appointed to the Curia in Roma where he stayed until 1983, in charge of ongoing formation. The following is an excerpt from an article of his published in the “Tribuna Aperta” of the MCCJ Bulletin (January, 1982). “Let us try to understand each other when we speak of Ongoing Formation as there is the danger that we may not all mean the same thing. Articles and books on the subject agree that the essential element is the person. The person who grows, matures, goes through different stages of life experience and who has the right to receive such spiritual, intellectual and other assistance so that his life may be harmonious, authentic and in growth”.

After his time in the Curia, he returned to Congo (1983-1989), to Kinshasa as formator of the Brothers. Fr. Adriano, right from the start of his missionary activity, promoted the vocation to the Brotherhood and wrote several articles about them. In an interview in 1966, he stated that, in the history of the mission, the Comboni Brothers had a very important role. Intrepid, hard-working and humble, they were the technicians of the missions. The Brothers were the synthesis of two realities: the missionary vocation and total consecration to God. Their presence is as necessary today as it was yesterday (Nigrizia, 1966).

In 1989 he returned to Italy to the Mother House at Verona. There he spent 15 years working in the financial department and in ministry and then, although under treatment, was made vice superior. Fr. Adriano died in Verona on 3 December, 2010.

Fr. Eliseo Tacchella, remembering Fr. Adriano, said that during his stay in Congo he always worked with great passion and love and left a wonderful impression among both faithful and confreres.

Bro. Duilio Plazzotta speaks with affection of Fr. Adriano whom he met “during the final year of college at Villa Opicina (Trieste), where he was finishing courses of professional training in carpentry and joinery. I wanted to dedicate some years of my life to the missions and Fr. Adriano came to talk to me”. Bro. Duilio met him again “in what was then Zaire, as formator in the CIF at Kimwenza. Fr. Adriano was always sensitive to and aware of the needs of the youth in formation and was a very good formator. In the nineties we met again in Verona where he was provincial Bursar. He had had to leave the missions and come back to Italy for reasons of health. Everyone knew of his administrative ability, his certainty and clarity. Several new policies regarding the running of the CAA such as employing external personnel for a better and more constant care of the sick confreres, the insertion of our structure in the plan of the regional department of health, etc., were adopted during his tenure. Attentive to the needs of others, competent in solving problems, bold in his decision-making, he gave a new form to the CAA and the houses for elderly confreres. We remember that the construction of the new CAA in Milan, the new structures in Arco and the modifications required by law made to the CAA and the Mother House were carried out by him. Since he usually did not mince his words, even to the point of being too clear in his relations with others, he sometimes made others feel uneasy with him. However, those who knew him knew he had a big heart. Having often worked and collaborated with the Brothers (at Thiene, at the CIF in Zaire and in the financial department), he had great sympathy and esteem for them. He was an excellent preacher, a man of culture, profound, clear and incisive, one who had no time for trivia and who nourished his spiritual life with personal prayer. Fr. Adriano, in my opinion, had something of the ‘soloist’. He was capable of moving against the current, with determination, certainty and competence, without upsetting things and in harmony and peace with the community. We all esteemed him greatly for these qualities of his”.

Fr. Pietro Ravasio: “Fr. Adriano is a true witness who will leave his mark, not only in the community of Verona but also in the Institute, due to some aspects of his Comboni testimony. I personally remember his effective missionary animation on behalf of the Brothers during his youthful years, his work at Kinshasha and, naturally, all he did as a member of the Verona community over many years. His long drawn-out illness gave added value to and purified his life under the sign of the Cross.”