In Pace Christi

Here we have a Brother who was the joy of the communities where he lived. He was pleasant, cheerful, optimistic, and sincere in the love he showed for his confreres. Pio became an institution in the Congregation, loved and esteemed by everyone. It can truly be said of him that "He sowed good wherever he went".

Born at Fara Vicentina, he was still a small child when the numerous family moved to San Giorgio di Perlena, Vicenza, where his father opened a small grocery.

Pio was the sixth of ten children, four of whom died in infancy. He never forgot the terrors of the First World War, even though he was only 6 when it ended. He remembered vividly the explosion of the Austrian shells, the flights with his family to find shelter, the deprivations caused by the war. He hated conflicts for the rest of his life.

Bro. Pio often reminisced about the trips to Marostica or Thiene with his father, Francesco, to buy goods for the shop. They used a horse and cart, so had to leave very early in the morning. "During those long journeys," he would recall, "my father said countless rosaries, for a successful journey - and a safe one."

His mother, Giovanna Guerra, had her work cut out to look after her large family, but still gave a hand in the shop whenever she could.

Vocation

Here's how Pio tells the story of the early days of his vocation: "My dad, who loved me a lot, said to me one day: . I said yes straight away, and took that task as a duty, and a very pleasant one.

Quite often, close to Thiene, we would meet a little friar, also with a horse and cart. I asked Dad what he was doing.  he answered. I immediately got a very soft spot for friars, because they looked after the poor who asked for their help. I almost asked my father to let me go to be a friar too, but how could I? He would say quite often: .

But one day, when we were in a haberdashery in Thiene, a missionary came in. He greeted everyone, then came over to my father.  . The two moved away, still talking; then they shook hands, and that was that. On our way back home, I asked what the missionary had said in the shop.  Instead, I could not get the thought out of my mind for quite a while. Then gradually, it faded.

Then one day, while we were in Thiene station to load some goods that had come by train, we met the missionary again. My father was in a hurry, but not the missionary.  My father said that was fine."

Pio would describe all he had seen in great detail: the visit to the carpentry and the other workshops, the tailoring and shoemaking classes where a lot of boys worked in silence, but were obviouly quite content. The Father - it was Fr. Francesoni - explained what they were doing and what they were preparing for. Pio listened and pondered. Then there was another event.

Every now and then Fr. Magagnotto went to San Giorgio to hear confessions and preach. Even he, seeing Pio's good nature and obedience, and certainly in agreement with Fr. Francesconi, kept saying he should enter the Comboni Missionaries. And the missionary went to talk to the boy's mother at home, to talk about the wonderful missionary vocation. His mother said that Pio was far too lively to be a missionary, that he had to grow up and take over the shop; then, to close the discussion, she offered the father a small glass of something.

Since this happened a number of times, Pio would comment later: "I never did know whether the father was more interested in my vocation or in my mother's tots of spirits!"

A painful leave-taking

One day, during the usual trip to Thiene, Francesco asked his son if he really wanted to be a missionary. "Yes, dad; even though I feel like crying whenever I think of leaving you and the family."  "Yes, dad. Let's talk about it." And when they reached Thiene they went to see Fr. Francesconi and decided on the day Pio would enter.

Pio recounts: "It was 1927, 7th May. I was 15. I'll never forget that May 7th! And how much it hurt leaving the family. The previous evening my father had packed my belongings in a cardboard box; he had not used a suitcase, so as not to upset mother. We set off together at 5 o'clock the next morning, pretending to be going to Thiene on business, and we did not my mother or any of the others. We went along in silence in the cart. I could hardly bear not having said goodbye, not giving my mother a kiss, but that was the best way. I had seen her crying too often, when the thought of my departure crossed her mind.

At 8:00 sharp we were at the door of the missionary institute.  said dad, squeezing me tight, . "Yes, dad." The chestnut horse stamped - even he seemed to be sad. I loved that horse."

The Brother at the door let us in, then the superior arrived. After an hour, father got up to leave.  Then he gave me such a loving look, and a kiss. I repeat: it was 7th May 1927, at about 9:00.

I was taken round to see the house and the workshops. Then the superior took me into a room and, in a really fatherly way, explained the life of the house, and assigned me to the carpentry section. My teacher was Brol Clemente. I settled in very quickly. We all go on well, we prayed, worked, played. It was a good life, even though there was a bit of home-sickness. Alone in bed sometimes I found myself crying as I thought about my mother and father and the others.

I talked to the superior about this anguish, and he said it was the Devil tempting me, because he did not want me to become a missionary. Knowing that the pain was a temptation, I found it easier to get over it by praying to Our Lady. After the first month, my parents came to see me. My mother hugged and kissed me, and then asked if I wanted to go back home. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I answered: "No, Mam, I think the Lord wants me here, and I like it here." They went home happy. And for the three years I was in Thiene, I never went home on holiday; that was the custom then."

These are Pio's own notes. But there is also a letter to the Superior General written in January 1930, in which he asks to go with Fr. Francesconi to Brescia, to be a bit further away from family and friends, "because they come to see me a bit too often, and disturb me in my community life."

In the meantime, one of his sisters had entered the Sisters of Mercy, and a brother had gone to the Xaverians. He left later, but one of his sons is now  Xaverian priest.

A visit home

Before going to the Novitiate, Pio went home - for three days, including the journey there and back (March 1930). He found the family in mourning: the small daughter of his brother Leone had just died. So Pio practised his carpenter's skills for the first time, making a little white coffin for his niece.

Novice at Venegono

At the age of 18, on 23 March 1930, he entered the Novitiate with 5 companions. He was disappointed when his "clothing" was put off: he did not receive the religious habit until 9th September, feast of St. Peter Claver. But he got down to work, and grafted the spirituality passed on to him by the Novice Master on to the solid stock of honesty and faith he had received from his family. On 7 October 1932 he made his first Religious Profession.

The remarks of the superiors, both at Thiene and at Venegono, give a picture of a young man who was good warm-hearted, good company, able to create and spread an atmosphere of peace and serenity around him.

Everyone liked being with him, because he chatted readily, was full of jokes and pithy expressions, and could "tell a good yarn". But the Novititae was not without problems, and he got a lot of support from Fr. Carlo Pizzioli, the assistant Novice Master: Pio would always remember him with gratitude and affection.

At Troia

He was sent to Troia after the Vows, and stayed there from 1932 to 1936. His first meeting with the superior, Fr. Sartori, caused a few sparks to fly. The Father had asked for a carpenter, not too young, who was an expert in the fittings (doors and windows) the house needed badly; not a novice.

"If you want me to go back to Verona or Venegono, just tell me, and I will leave at once!" said Pio.  But when Pio got to work, the superior found no reason to regret he had been sent a beginner.

There are lots of episodes in Fr. Sartori's biography in which Bro. Pio features. Let us recall one of the outstanding ones. Among his duties, Pio held the office of sacristan. At that time there was a lot of friction between Fr. Sartori (who was not born a saint, but became one through his efforts to tame his quick-tempered and impulsive character) and don Spinelli, the PP. Because of the earthquake, the chapel of the Mediatrix, served by Fr. Sartori, had to be used by the parish. Clashes between Sartori and Spinelli were almost daily occurrences.

For Christmas, the PP put up a Crib in church. Fr. Sartori put up his unveiled his own at the last minute, with lights that went on an off, and moving figures! It was a masterpiece, compared with the humble effort across the church. The PP felt humiliated when everybody stopped to admire the missionary's Crib, with hardly a glance at the other - not to mention that the women commented:

Pio thought things had gone far enough: "That's not the thing to do: it's hardly Christian. Especially at Chrismas!" he said, gently but firmly. Fr. Sartori went off and, on his knees, asked the Parish Priest to pardon him. Then he apologised to the people for his "act of piracy".

Fr. Sartori's esteem of Bro Pio became such that he entrusted him with the purchase of a car for the house (a Fiat 501), while he was on holiday at San Giorgio di Perlena.

Eventful Pilgrimage

In his later years, Pio had a blind faith in all the appearances of Our Lady and her hand in human events. It was not always so, as the following story shows:

One day Fr. Sartori decided to take the Brothers on pilgrimage to Pompei, to give the new car a run. They left very early in the morning, as they had to cross to the other side of Italy, and wanted to be fasting for the Mass and Communion when they got to Pompei. Everything went well, and after the Mass they visited the usual interesting sites around the shrine. On their way back, it became very dark, and in fear of a possible mishap, they stopped in a clearing among trees to wait for daylight. Some stayed in the car, but Pio chose a wood-pile outside.

Suddenly they were aroused by a police patrol, shouting  After a moment of panic, because it was pitch dark, the missionaries identified themselves. The sergeant gave them a friendly warning:   answered Fr. Sartori,  Nevertheless, none of them closed an eye for the rest of the night!

Early in the morning they were on their way again. As they breasted a rise, Pio noticed there was a railway crossing at the bottom, and the barrier was coming down. Bro. Varotto, at the wheel, was fighting sleep and did not notice. "The barrier! The barrier!!" yelled Pio, and the next second he had dived from the car. Varotto braked hard, and the vehicle came to a stop with the bar resting gently on the bonnet. A few seconds later the train rattled past.

 exclaimed Fr. Sartori. "It was a night stuck on a wood-pile!" growled Pio in reply.

A cold shower for the doctor

Some of the children used to ring the bell and run away, to Pio's great annoyance. A certain Comboni Sister still talks about it... "I'll larn you!" thought Pio one day, and hid in the attic above the door with a bucket of water. The next time the bell rang, down came the water! Unfortunately it was the doctor!

Heroic charity

When Fr. Sartori went to Africa in 1934, he was succeeded by Fr. Luigi Urbani, who had been spiritual father of the boys. But Fr. Urbani had developed tuberculosis, and eventually had to be isolated in his room. Pio looked after all his needs.

"I would take him food, wash his utensils and do his laundry, even the bloodstained handkerchiefs," he recounted. "I did it quite willingly, because the father was so good, a real saint." But Pio developed TB too, and both of them ended up in sanatoria, Pio in Chievo near Verona (1936-37) and Fr. Urbani in the TB ward in Tradate hospital, near Varese.

Pio's fellow patients, like all good people of Verona, liked a drop of wine, which was prohibited in the sanatorium. With the connivance of a the landlord of a local hostelry, and the use of the sash from Pio's religious habit, a few bottles were sneaked into the ward. This all happened while the Sisters were at Mass. Pio said that he would take payment in kind for the use of the sash! When the Sisters found out, Pio was the one they scolded most:  He growled back: "The wine goes into my stomach, not my lungs!" But wine or no wine, he got steadily worse.

To Tradate

The superiors decided to send him home to rest for 6 months (1937). "With the good wine of Breganze I drowned all the microbes, and the survivors I suffocated with some good cigars!" Pio would boast. It was not quite like that, because he had to be admitted to Tradate (1937-1938) and underwent a lung operation.

In the biography of Fr. Urbani written by Fr. Santandrea, there is a moving episode. A few days before his death, Fr. Urbani dragged himself to Bro. Pio's bed and knelt to beg his pardon for having infected him. It has to be remembered that in those days TB was called "the unforgiving sickness". The father promised that he would pray for his recovery, from Heaven. Pio lost a lung, but he did recover, well enough to go to the missions. With one of his usual sallies, he would say: "Well, with only one lung, I can never catch double pneumonia!"

He spent 1938-39 at Trento, recuperating and helping out in the house.

Put up against the wall

He was back at Thiene from 1939 to 1942, as assistant in the kitchen garden. One day a German patrol stopped him on the way into town to do some shopping, and put him against the wall to be shot, since they thought he was a partisan spy (the partisans were planning an attack on Thiene at the time). The Italian secretary with the soldiers said she had seen "that priest" celebrating Mass for a group of partisans on Mt. Pasubio. He was saved only because Fr. Rossi intervened. Another time during those war years, he might have been killed when the Americans bombed Thiene station, not far from the Comboni house. Then, during the withdrawal of the German forces, he saw soldiers coming and dived into the big tank that collected rain-water for the garden, and risked drowning. Somebody told him he had exaggerated. "I challenge anybody to be as scared as I was!" he retorted.

Back to Troia

The superiors sent him to Troia again until 1945; he was already known and liked in the town. There was plenty of work for a carpenter in the house, but Pio turned his hand to any jog that needed doing.

His second period in Troia ended with a very difficult journey back to the North, partly on foot, partly hitching lifts in lorries, and partly by train, with the Americans bombing, the Germans rounding people up, and the partisans making reprisals. Poor Pio, he had been terrified or war since his childhood, and had to go through that arduous journey.

From 1945 to 1948 he was at Padova as bursar, doorkeeper, sacristan and general handyman. He put up an African village at the Fair of Padova, and showed visitors around it.

In Africa

At last, at the end of 1948, he was able to leave for Africa. He went to Egypt, where he stayed until 1951 in the Regional house in Cairo, and looked after the Sacred Heart church. In his memoirs Pio describes in great detail the send-off they gave him at San Giorgio. "High Mass, speeches to draw tears from stones, poems in dialect in rhyming couplets (and doggerel - we have the texts), and even the town band."

One of the first things he produced was a contraption to make candles. It was all in wood, and worked very well. But when it was suggested he went to school to learn a bit of French and Arabic, he baulked, proposing instead that he should learn a sentence a day, talking to the children. By all accounts, success was slight! But later he would boast (in broad dialect, his main language...): "I learned all my languages in the streets (Mi, le lingue le go imparà in piazza)".

In Cairo he made friends with two old people, almost 90, who had been redeemed from slavery by Comboni. He also knew Sister Casella, who had left Malcesine to follow Comboni when she was 16, and was then in Cairo, full of years.

The Regional superior was Fr. Bombieri, quite a character. One day he told Pio to cut a bottle across, to make a vase; he also told him how, though the method could not possibly work. Pio tried several times without success. The father told him to try again, but with more faith. And Pio, with the patience of Job, set to again. But as soon as the father had gone, Pio cut the bottle his way, and was finished in a trice.  asked the superior, surprised. "I put a bit more faith in it, Father" replied Pio.

Another time, Fr. Bombieri told Pio and Fr. Messori to open a door in one of the main walls of the house.  suggested Fr. Messori.  Pio intervened: "Leave it to me". As soon as the superior had gone to lie down for his afternoon nap - which he never missed - the two began banging on the wall with sledgehammers, making the house echo. Fr. Bombieri rushed down.

On the feast of St Alphonsus Rodriguez, patron saint of Brothers, Fr Bombieri invited all the Brothers in Cairo to a "fraternal entertainment". The `guests of honour' were preparing to leave their various houses when a telephone call from Fr. Olivetti informed them that the superior intended to give them a day of retreat. Strangely enough, none of the invited guests turned up for the feast.

After four years, Pio asked the Superior General to return to Italy for a period of rest and recuperation.  Four years with Saint Anthony (Fr. Bombieri's nickname) are worth eight, at least!" replied Pio.

In Comboni's land

For Pio, Egypt was the gate that led into the Sudan. He arrived there in 1951, assigned to the community of Comboni College, in the Carpentry section of the technical school. Pio was happy to be in the places that had witnessed Comboni at work; however, after a few days he had to go to bed, with a temperature of 104°F. diagnosed the doctor when he had examined him. "Not double!" replied Pio with a certain smugness. "I only have one lung!"

The "fioretti" of Bro. Pio in Sudan are a luxuriant forest, rather than a flowering garden. Here is one of them.

An English official, who had noticed that Pio loved animals, asked him to look after his parrot while he was absent on leave. Pio accepted willingly, and was the parrot was tended very carefully. Imagine his surprise when, one morning, when the Brother arrived with rations, the bird greeted him with `Pio, you're stupid!' (Pio sei scemo).

"Brute! Who has taught you to treat the one that takes care of you in that manner?" It had been a confrere, with a certain amount of effort and ingenuity. Everybody had a good laugh, starting with Pio.

From 1953 to 1955 he was carpenter at Delen (Dilling), the mission Comboni had held so dear, and which was being reopened and rebuilt. Following the descriptions left by the first missionaries, he found the sites of the early buildings, and went off to look for the crucifix the fathers had hidden when they were carried off as prisoners of the Mahdi. It was somewhere on the rocky slopes of Mt. Kudrù, but Pio was unable to find it. It seems that the crucifix, which is quite large, has never been found.

It was almost five miles to the nearest water; a bit too far to satisfy the needs of the future mission. Pio took a deep breath, and started digging a well, with the help of local workers. To avoid the collapse of a shaft, he traced out a kind of funnel, with a wide opening. But orders came from Khartoum to suspend all work, as there was little point in opening a mission where there was no water. It had been Comboni's problem at Delen too; but he had found a source - miraculously, in the opinion of his contemporaries.

Bro. Crivello had already arrived with a lorry to take away the tools and other materials when, at almost 60 feet, the well began to give water: fresh, sweet and clean. So Bro. Crivella faced the sides with bricks and cement, and the well is still giving water today.

Pio spent a year alone at Delen, because Bro Crivello went to work in the mission of Kadugli, and evangelisation, or `proselytism', was forbidden by the British authorities at the time. Delen was a kind of way-station for missionaries going elsewhere. "The solitude was burdensome," Pio would say, "because I enjoyed the company of confreres. And I was not fond of scorpions and snakes. They were all over the place, though I was never bitten. The Lord protected me." He made some very good friends among the people and the children, and he would go hunting with some of them to procure meat. "On the whole I was happy," he concluded, "because Delen was one of the last places visited by Comboni before his death."

He also spent some time at Malbes, near El Obeid. Comboni set up a "colony" of Chrstian families there.

Then for 10 full years (1955-65) Pio was at Atbara, still as a carpetner, but carrying out all sorts of tasks and duties as sacristan, assistant cook and handyman. Atbara, a big railway centre, also had a large college run by the Comboni Missionaries; Fr. Rovelli and Franco Gasparini were there at the time.

Pio would go to visit people in the hamlets all around, to make new friends and speak about the Gospel. One day he asked the Sister in the kitchen to prepare him food for a three-day safari.  Therefore, no food for him. He was less than pleased!

He had the gift of dialogue with Moslems. Many became his friends, and he was everyone's friend, especially the old people who could understand him despite his mixture of Arabid and Veneto... Some confreres attributed the great mutual "understanding" to the fact that he knew little Arabic and the people knew none of the dialect of Vicenza!

Nevertheless, it can be said that he (along with Bro. Sergi and others) was a precursor of the dialogue between Christianity and Islam that is so much in favour today - though one can find few signs of it in books or articles.

Pio's stay at Atbara ended with the student riots, brought on either by leftist elements or, more realistically, by the "Muslim Brothers". The students rejected all foreign teachers and smashed up everything, starting with the school and the mission. Pio returned to Italy, and the others went to Khartoum.

At Verona

After a few months at Carraia growing mushrooms for sail (one of our many failed commercial enterprises) Pio was transferred to Verona, where he stayed until 1971. He had a bad attack of bronchial pneumonia which, given his earlier problems, brought him to death's door. But his time had not come, and he recovered so well that he was assigned to Africa once more.

However, his permit to return to Khartoum took a long time coming, and while he waited, he helped in the mailing of Piccolo Missionario. In the meantime his superiors decided his health was not good enough for Africa.

Pio was in Verona during the student troubles of 1968. Even in the scholasticate the students took the statues out of the church (including the one of St Aloysius Gonzaga) and put the pictures up in the attic. Pio, typically, was both scathing and witty in his criticism: "You know why they took St. Aloysius out of Church? Not for himself, but because of the lilies he is holding: they don't like the smell!" He continued the the mailing department, saying: "Fr Gaiga makes the little ones (Piccoli) and I wrap them up and send them out!"

A legend in Rome

From 1971 to 1993 he was receptionist at the Curia in Rome. "I have been at four General Chapters of the Congregation!" he would say after 1991. In Rome he became almst a legend, much loved and appreciated, even though he was not a linguist.

He wrote "Rules for a good Doorkeeper" in his notebook. They are worth recording, because they are few, essential - and he lived them:

"First: great charity towards everybody. second: patience and respect with everybody; third: think the best of everyone, and think bad of nobody. Only the Lord is judge. Help all confreres passing through as much as you can, and with a smile."

The reception area was a kind of meeting-place for conferes: they went to meet Pio, to chat with him and tease him. He always took it with a smile, and often seemed to enjoy the efforts to say something new, that he hadn't heard before.

But he was also very observant, and his obeservations regarding people were very often quite accurate.

His "Hello, Comboni Missionaries", pronounced clearly and deliberately, and his courtesy became his trade mark. One prelate, mentioning Pio's "telephone manner", said .

One inflexible attitude was his respect for the "professional secret". He never joked about it, and would not accept humorous remarks. If someone asked slyly: , he would reply, unsmiling: "I am as silent as the grave!"

He was very regular in his prayer times, and would walk to and from the church with his books of devotions in his hand: he would not have given up the prayers he had learned in the Novitiate for all the tea in China! Nevertheless, he adapted well to the changes brought in by Vatican II, because he found them appropriate and intelligent. He would read only the "Osservatore Romano", which was his bible; the other papers, for him, carried only tendentious rubbish. One day some confreres prepared a collage in which the Osservatore mentioned a landing by Martians, who were marching on Rome. Pio was puzzled; but, after all, it was in the Osservatore! Late in the evening he called a friend, and asked for an explanation. Seeing his anxiety, the other told him that it was just people pulling his leg. "Well, I had my doubts. But it was in the Osservatore! How did they manage to put it together so well?"

On 23 June 1979 Pio, along with the Chapter members, was received in Audience by the Pope. He thought long and hard about what he would say during his moment with John Paul. Finally, when his turn came, he said: "Holy Father, I have never taken off this habit" - touching his cassock - "in the 49 years since my clothing!" The Pope laughed, and answered: .

In 1982 Pio celebrated the Golden Jubilee of his Profession. The scholastics, who loved their old "grandpa" dearly, prepared a large poster, and asked what he would like written on it for the happy occasion. Without hesitation, Pio answered:  Living with the Lord was the programme of his life. He lived everything with the Lord: life, sickness, his last stay in the hospital at Negrar, and his death, caused by kidney failure.

Last stage in Verona

After a long time in bed in Roma-Eur, Pio was taken by ambulance to Verona in 1992. His health was causing a lot of concern. His heart was not working well, his circulation even less, and his legs were swollen. He wrote: "A little cross has come from Heaven: my left leg won't move any more. Reason: the blood has stopped. So the doorkeeper has stopped too".

In Verona he missed the cheerful group of confreres that would gather in reception to chat and joke with him. But his health improved, and he began to hope for a return to Rome, though this never came. Even in Rome he was missed. Fr. General expressed the sentiments of everyone:

On 1st January 1994, Bro. Pio was assigned definitively to the Mother House, Centre for Sick Confreres.

"How pleasant the thoughts of 20 years at the receptionist's desk in Rome!" he wrote. How pleasant to look back at the numerous confreres who went through on their way to meet the Major Superiors, to receive a word of greeting, encouragement, counsel, or comfort... in a word: charity! A long period in Reception is really good, and has a good effect on you. You learn so many things: how to welcome people kindly and with a smile, for God's love - everybody. That is why St. John says: `If you do not love the brother you can see, how can you love God whom you cannot see?'" These are a few brief notes at the end of his diary.

Everyone in Verona saw how ready he was to give a hand to confreres who were more ill than himself. He always answered letters promptly: in this he showed, right to the end, his natural tendency to show gratitude to others.

60 years of Vows

Pio celebrated the 60th anniversary of his Profession in Rome on 7th October 1992. Fr. General wrote to him: "Thank you for the witness you have always given: of joy, of love for the Congregation, of attachment to your vocation as a Comboni Brother, of constant prayer, of community life. I invite you, on your anniversary, to entrust yourself once more to the Lord of life, uniting yourself to the Cross and Ressurection of Jesus for the redemption of the world. On October 7 I will ask Mary, the Mother of all missionaries, to remain close to you always."

Sleeping next to his parents

After the funeral in the Mother House, the body was taken to his home town. Here the funeral was a triumph. Because he was loved by everyone. Now he rests beside his parents, whom he loved so much, though he had caused them to suffer in order to follow his calling.

Of his 83 years, 62 were lived in the Institute. He loved his life as a Comboni Missionary, and his example helped many confreres to love it. May he continue to help his confreres to live in that holy simplicity and open joy that were his characteristics, and made him loved throughout his long life, and also made many people appreciate the vocation of a Missionary Brother. (Fr. Lorenzo Gaiga, mccj)