In Pace Christi

Bro. Silvestro Fadda was born at Monastir, a small town in the province of Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy), on 15 February, 1929, to Giuseppe Fadda and Maria Pedevilla. The simple and almost austere surroundings in which he grew up and the sound Christian education he received from his childhood deeply affected his personality.

In March, 1949, he joined the novitiate at Florence where he made his first profession on 9 September, 1951, under the protection of St. Peter Claver. He made his final profession in Naples on 21 September, 1961.

He spent his first years as a professed engaged in various services in the communities of Florence, Carraia, Sulmona, Rebbio, Pellegrina, Gozzano and Naples, until 1965 when he was sent to the far side of the ocean: to Brazil. There he worked until 1971, for the benefit of the missions of São Gabriel da Palha and São José do Rio Preto.

He then returned to Europe where he stayed two years, working especially in mission promotion and technical work in Pordenone, Verona and later in Santiago di Compostella (Spain). In 1977 he was appointed to Ecuador where he stayed until September, 2010. This was a long period of missionary work throughout Esmeraldas (Bishop’s House, the diocesan seminary, the parish of St. Joseph the Worker), Quinindé, San Lorenzo and Viche.

Bro. Silvestro was totally dedicated and obtained visible results. He was absolutely convinced of the importance of training competent personnel – electricians, in his case – because a good technician meant being able to offer a service to families and contribute to the development of society. For this reason he was very strict in his teaching and was never happy with “more or less”. He used to say a technician had to be a professional or else he was useless. He would explain everything down to the smallest detail and repeated the explanation as often as necessary with many examples but above all, he himself was the demonstration of what he taught. In this he was truly “great”!

Bro. Giuseppe Foglio, who knew him personally, stressed that “the courses he taught for electricians were approved by SECAP (Ecuadorian Service for Professional Qualification), a certificate that was valued and recognised throughout the country”. Many fathers of families are employed today thanks to Bro. Silvestro. It is also worth noting that he conducted courses for prisoners so that they could have better hopes for the future.

Bro. Silvestro was also a person of profound spirituality and prayer. Faithful to the timetable of prayers, he placed God at the centre of his life and this brought him to renew each day his missionary consecration which helped him overcome the difficulties he encountered. We must not forget his love for sacred music and how well he played the organ. The sheets of music he used are preserved at the Provincial House, many copied by hand with additional interpretive indications to render the liturgy even more beautiful.

Without doubt, one of the characteristics of Bro. Silvestro was his great availability. Even when he found it very hard to move, he was always obedient and ready to go wherever there was a job to be done and no-one to do it; he gave the best of himself as a “stop-gap”, quietly resolving the most urgent problem and then doing what needed to be done, ready for the next task that came along.

In 2010, he went home on holiday but, when he was about to return to his mission, he was diagnosed with the illness that brought him to his end. He spent the last six years of his life in Brescia, receiving treatment and doing light manual work, remembering and praying for the many friends he had everywhere. God called him to himself on 5 October, 2016.
(Fr. Rafael González Ponce).
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 270 suppl. In Memoriam, gennaio 2017,  pp. 131-134.