In Pace Christi

Fr. Romeo De Berti was born at Sorga, Verona, on 14 September, 1938. He joined the Comboni Missionaries and did the novitiate in Florence and Gozzano and the scholasticate in Verona and Rebbio. He was ordained in Verona on 28 June, 1964, by Cardinal Gregorio Agagianian.

Fr. Francesco G. Moretti remembers Romeo when he was twenty two: “he was one of the first Combonians I met. He was twenty two and I was ten. He was prefect of our group of boys in the fifth year of elementary school who entered the seminary at Rebbio as “little apostles”. He was frequenting theology at the diocesan seminary of Como. We used to call him ‘Brother’ and he really was a brother ... and even later on, in Kenya, he always was for me the ‘Brother Romeo’ I had known for so long. I will never forget him”.

Soon after he was ordained, he was assigned, for the period from 1964 to 1971, to the province of Italy and the community of Thiene as superior, bursar and a teacher. Then, from 1971 to 2015, the year he died, he worked in the province of Kenya. Officially, his assignment had been to Uganda but just as for the time being before going to Kenya where the Institute planned to open a new missionary territory.

With some other confreres he went to Kipalapala in Tanzania to study Swahili. He then spent a few months at the seminary of Uru for the formation of the Apostles of Jesus.

In Kenya he worked at Kariobangi (1973-1983), Gilgil (1983-1987) and at the new mission of Kerio Valley (1987-1992). At the bishop’s suggestion he was transferred from the area as his life was in danger. During the elections, he had in fact spoken all to plainly of political corruption right in the home area of the then president, Daniel Arap Moi.

In 1993 he was assigned to Kabichbich ad then to Kacheliba. He was councillor and vice-provincial from 1993 to 1998. He was then placed in charge of the postulants at Ongata Rongai (1995-1998).

From 1999 to 2012 he served as provincial bursar at a difficult time for the province and for the nation of Kenya. Even though he had no specific training, with his natural ability and sheer hard work, he managed to rectify the economic disarray of the province. Bro. Fernando Cesaro says: “When Gilgil went bankrupt, he fulfilled and honoured all the commitments towards the clients of the buildings under construction; he dismissed all the workers justly and according to the law, giving them what they were entitled to. For 12 years he administered the goods of the province with competence and efficiency as procurator and provincial bursar”.

The last task given to him, from 2013 to 2015, was the founding of the new parish of Embakasi, close to the airport of Nairobi where the province had built St. Daniel Comboni Centre for mission promotion. For some time Fr. Romeo was being treated for cancer but when the situation worsened in 2015, he had to be transferred to the Italian province. He died at Castel D’Azzano on 11 August, 2015.

Fr. Giuseppe Caramazza: “Perhaps the Italian word ‘burbero’, meaning ‘brusque’ best describes him. He was a man who concentrated on the essentials to the point of appearing unhappy and with little time for human relations. In fact, he was quite the opposite. I had the opportunity to know him a bit better when he was assigned to the postulancy at Ongata Rongai. There I observed some of his traits of character that I believe are worth noting.

Fr. Romeo gave the impression of being a traditionalist. I was, however, surprised to see how open he was to the social teaching of the Church. In his preaching, he spoke out strongly in favour of democracy, justice and the rights of women and children.

He was certainly in favour of the teaching of Vatican II. In a way that was truly Combonian, he wanted the laity to be involved as much as possible in the life of the community”.

Testimony of Fr. Mariano Tibaldo: “Fr. Romeo was a friend with whom I shared part of my missionary life, first at Kaibichbich (Kenya), as a member of the Provincial Council and also as Provincial Bursar. I have many memories of Fr. Romeo but what I admired most in him was his total honesty, his love and passion for others, his dedication to his work and his faithfulness to his life of prayer.

His honesty was such that he would never beat about the bush when there were problems to be tackled and he never unloaded onto others his serious responsibilities. This attitude of his meant that he was always ready to take his responsibilities and assume the consequences, however serious, of his options; furthermore, he would, out of profound loyalty, take responsibilities upon himself that he could have left to others. Fr. Romeo was a man one could count on.

He was a man who was sensitive though wrapped in an apparent cloak of belligerence. If anyone needed his help, he could be sure Fr. Romeo was willing to give it. As provincial bursar, he helped not only the province and several bishops but also members of other local religious Institutes. When, as provincial, I had to tell him off for doing more than his work allowed, he would reply saying he would always help the local Church. He was so exact in his work as bursar that, when he noted an error of a few cents in the bank statement, he brought it to the attention of the manager. ‘You ought to get Fr. Romeo to work in your bank’, was the comment of the manager’s wife.

How many times did I see Fr. Romeo shut in what was nothing more than a storage place that served as our provincial procure, working even at weekends! There was only one thing that could distract him from his work as bursar: his pastoral work to which he dedicated the whole of the Sunday mornings. It was indeed so, since Fr. Romeo was not, first of all, a book-keeper but a pastor, a man with a passion for the people and for preaching. His knowledge of Swahili facilitated his direct contact with the people who appreciated his homilies.

That which always struck me about him was his prayer life: his prayer was constant, assiduous, organised by the clock; I believe it was this constant meeting with the Lord that gave him the strength of his missionary vocation … right up to the last when the Lord came knocking at his door asking for the extreme gesture of abandoning himself into his hands. It was this impression of serenity and abandonment that Fr. Romeo gave me when I saw him just a week before he placed his life in the loving arms of the Father.

Fr. Romeo was one of the founders of the province of Kenya, one of the Mzee, one of the elders of the Province – in the deepest sense that the word has in African culture, where old age becomes the point of reference for the younger generations, the voice that is listened to and, once gone to God, the protector of the domestic hearth”.
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 266 suppl. In Memoriam, gennaio 2016, pp. 99-105.