In Pace Christi

Fr. Antonio Valdameri was born at Pieranica (Cremona Province) on 30 January, 1928. He joined the Comboni seminaries at Crema and Brescia as a boy and continued his formation in the novitiate of Venegono where he took his first vows on 15 August, 1946. After the scholasticate at Rebbio, Sulmona and Crema (where he also was a “Prefect” of the boys), completed his final year at Venegono and was ordained priest on 7 June, 1952. “I have indelible memories of the ordination in the Dome of Milan by the Cardinal Schuster and the words he spoke in his homily – Posui vos ut eatis... I chose you and commissioned you to go out and bear fruit (Jn. 15,16) – have stayed with me for the past fifty years”, he wrote at the time of his Golden Jubilee of priesthood.

He completed his studies in the field of formation in 1971, with a year of specialised studies in Rome where he attended the Higher Institute of Theology at the Pontifical Salesian University gaining a degree with full marks (magna cum laude).

In 1952 he was given his first and unexpected appointment to the London Province where he had the good fortune – as he himself said – to meet and to come to know, during his first years of priesthood, Fr. Ugo Toninello, “a person of profound humanity and goodness, a humanity that always felt somewhat restricted by the rigid clerical rules and structures of that time! It was from him that I undoubtedly learned the meaning of ‘mercy’ and, perhaps, how to be somewhat unfettered by structures that were too strict!” In the London Province he was also Provincial Bursar.

In 1961 he was appointed to Padibe, Uganda where he had his first missionary experience but was expelled in January 1967 with another ten Combonis. He was appointed to Ethiopia and worked for two years in the parish of Fullasa but was recalled to Rome after this short period for a year of specialised studies and sent as Novice Master to England. Fr Paul Felix recalls: “Fr, Antonio was a good man, generous and kind with a big, big heart. I met him for the first time at Elstree scholasticate in 1975”.

Fr. Antonio returned to Ethiopia and stayed there for another fifteen years. “These, too, were wonderful years. I was into everything. In my free time I even built a seminary and had the satisfaction of its official opening when I was back in Rome as Procurator. Mgr. Armido Gasparini invited me because, as he said, it was only right that I should be present: if I had not taken it on, that seminary would never have been built. I was happy to take part in the baptism of ‘the child of my old age’!”  On his part, Mgr. Gasparini, known in the Vicariate as Abuna Joseph, would often say that the Combonis in Ethiopia owed a lot to the administrative ability of Fr. Antonio.

During this second period in Ethiopia, Fr. Antonio prepared the communities in Addis Abeba and succeeded in charming the authorities and purchasing the building sites and so provided for the requirements of the confreres as the Province developed.

Fr. Antonio greatly loved the poor of this country, showing great respect and love especially for the needy women and children. As well as this, he greatly appreciated the qualities of the Ethiopian people. This is shown in the many sacred images displayed on the walls of our communities and in our magazines – the work of the famous artist Zeleke Ewunetu – whom Fr. Antonio sponsored and encouraged.
Even after his return to Rome in 1992, his heart was still in Ethiopia and Fr. Antonio continued to work for the missions and the local Ethiopian Church.
In 1993 he was appointed to the District of the Curia as Procurator General. In 2001 he was assigned to the Italian Province, residing at San Pancrazio as Vice Superior and Bursar as well as working in mission promotion and assisting the travels office and Acse.
Fr. Antonio gave a great witness of life. He was determined, practical, serene and happy in his calling as a disciple of Jesus and a Comboni Missionary. He was also a man of prayer. He was faithful to his personal prayer and the daily Rosary. He used to prepare well his homilies and animate the community prayers.
He served with joy, dedication, passion and a great sense of belonging to and love for the Institute in various provinces (London Province, Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea-Ethiopia, Italy, Rome-Curia). In many situations he had the courage to take risks, often with a positive outcome which, in time, turned out to be blessings and seeds of success. While he was in Italy, he continued to follow the situation in Ethiopia through visits, contacts, publications and the mass media. When he would meet missionaries coming from Ethiopia he would listen to then at length to get up to date on the Province, the local Church, the people and the nation he served and loved so well.
In 2006 he was appointed to the community of Gozzano and then to that of Brescia. He died in Milan on 1 July, 2012. His funeral took place in his native town of Pieranica.