In Pace Christi

Fr. Adriano Galeazzo was born in Voltabarozzo (now part of Padua) on 31 October 1934 into a family rich in faith. He grew up and was formed in the parish youth groups, especially in a fine group of GIAC, the Catholic Acton Youth. On the first Friday of the month, he would join the groups of the Apostleship of Prayer. Listening to the reflections that were proposed, young Adriano’s heart beat faster and especially at the mention of the missions. He told his mother. Teresa, of this and she, being a woman of great faith and industriousness, brought him to his senses and answered: “First you have to do your studies!” He studied at the Barbarigo Episcopal College, taking a diploma in accountancy. It was during those years of study that, accompanied by his spiritual guide Rev. Mario Versuraro, that his missionary vocation developed and he afterwards entered the seminary of the Comboni Missionaries. He did the novitiate in Gozzano and took first vows on 9 September 1958. He went to Venegono for the scholasticate and made his perpetual profession on 9 September 1961. He was ordained priest on 7 April 1962, in Milano, by the Cardinal Archbishop Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Pope Paul VI. The following day, he celebrated his first Mass in Voltabarozzo. Since he had administrative inclinations, the superiors sent him to Venegono Superiore to the theological scholasticate as bursar and assistant in parish pastoral work.

In 1966, the time came for him to leave for the mission. After spending some months in London to brush up his English, he left for Ethiopia-Eritrea and joined the community of the mission of Asmara. It was a time of great activity: as a teacher, the bursar, spiritual assistant to the Comboni Sisters community and engaged in pastoral activity in the parishes of the mission. His contacts with his home parish were frequent. His parish was already organising times for prayer and collections for his mission. His ministry in Asmara lasted eight years until his superiors sent him to the Comboni mission of Awassa among the Sidamo, in the south of Ethiopia. Fr. Adriano joined in the intense work of evangelisation and development begun in that place less than ten years previously. He learned the local language and immersed himself in the pastoral activities with the catechists. He forged bonds of friendship with them and the local people that lasted many years, even after he had returned to Italy.

The superiors asked Fr. Adriano to carry out his ministry in Addis Ababa, in the heart of the Horn of Africa, at the provincial house where he also had administrative duties as procurator. He continued his “missionary itinerary” in Ethiopia being transferred to the mission of Tullo, about 10 kilometres from Awassa. He stayed there for about four years, ministering at the local hospital. Fr. Adriano spoke of his next period of mission at the parish of Fullasa, also in the Sidamo region, as the nest years of his life: there was no electricity there and the missionaries lived simple lives, preaching the Gospel love of Jesus.

In 2002, Fr. Adriano left Ethiopia for health reasons and continued his pastoral service in the communities of Trent, Thiene (where he was one of the last Combonis present at the closure of the house in 2007), Padua and Verona. The one desire of his heart was still the mission, a subject that occupied his thoughts and was often mentioned in many of his meticulously-prepared homilies he delivered in his parish church of Voltabarozzo. Naturally, since Voltabarozzo was always “his” parish, his family and friends. He often celebrated Holy Mass there. Younger people would enquire who that elderly priest was, the one with the white hair and beard, so careful and precise as he celebrated the Eucharist, bent over the altar.

In 2015, Fr. Adriano was transferred to Castel d’Azzano where he passed away on 14 November 2020 due to the coronavirus.