Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Quito (Agenzia Fides) - Italian born Comboni Missionary Fr. Cirillo Tescaroli, tireless missionary through press, radio and television died on Sunday 30 September at the age of 84. Fr Tescaroli dedicated his life to announcing the Good News through the media and he collaborated with Fides News Agency. In Quito he opened an important Centre of Missionary Information and Documentation, Fr. Osvaldo Fiero, secretary of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Ecuador told Fides.
Fr Cirillo was born on 5 February 1923 at Vigasio, Verona, Italy. At the age of 11 he was sent to the Istituto Mazza di Verona, where he discovered his missionary vocation anxious to follow the example of Saint Daniele Comboni. He finished school in 1942 and entered the intermediate Novitate in Venegono. In 1947 he obtained a degree in Theology at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome. He was ordained a priest that same year on 5 April in Rome by Bishop Eliseo Corolí a Barnabite in Brasil, whose cause for beatification has started.
On 26 September 1953 he was sent on mission to Múpoí, southern Sudan. He worked in Catholic missions in Yambio and Tómbora until 29 February 1964, when over 200 Catholic missionaries were expelled en masse. From 1964 to 1969 he was involved in missionary animation of Verona and the Comboni magazine “Nigrizía”. From 1969 to 1981 he was secretary general for mission animation at the Comboni General House in Rome. During that time he worked with Vatican Radio on mission programmes in various languages. With the Consolata Missionaries he produced about 20 documentary films in various languages and published several books on Church's missionary activity.
In 1981 he was called to Quito by the archbishop Cardinal Pablo Muñoz Vega, to launch a new National Catholic Radio of Ecuador which has since become an important radio station and still uses his programmes of evangelisation. He accompanied the Radio from its foundation. In Quito he opened an important Centre of Missionary Information and Documentation,
Fr Tescaroli published more than 200 books on evangelisation, spiritual formation. He had his own recording studios where he produced many programmes which he made available to the National Catholic Radio. On 5 April this year when he celebrated his 60 years as a priest, he renewed his commitment to serve God. His funeral was held on 1 October, feast of Saint Therese of Lisieux, the patron saint of the missions and will be buried in Esmeraldas. The Comboni missionaries, mourn Father Cirillo, but they thank God for his life and for his legacy as a tireless mission through the means of communication. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 2/10/2007; righe 38, parole 506)
