Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Maputo (Fides Service) -* Italian Xaverian Missionary Giuseppe Mauri,
died yesterday, 15 April, in Mozambique, of injuries caused by a road accident. The news was released by Father Joao Bortoloci, head of Xaverian Missionaries in Mozambique. Around 8am Father Giuseppe was killed when the car in which he was travelling to the capital Maputo crashed head on with a truck . The missionary was working in Mozambique at the Chibututuine mission entrusted to the missionary Fraternity of Piombino, founded by Xaverian Father Carlo Uccelli.
Father Mauri, born at Ronco Briantino (Milan), was 51 years old. He entered the Xaverian Seminary in 1963 and was ordained a priest in 1980. From 1982 to 1989 he was on mission in Democratic Congo ; after that he worked in Xaverian communities in Great Britain where he also served as Superior. For some years he had been in Mozambique where he was involved in teaching and missionary animation.
In one of his recent letters Father Mauri said this about his work : "I have not written for so long that I have almost forgotten how to write. The reason I have not written is not that I don’t want to or that I have nothing to say. The reason is that I have no time. School keeps me very busy. I have to prepare the lessons, write my reports, correct homework, take part in class meetings…In recent months I have also devoted myself to helping terminally ill patients with AIDS through the last weeks of their life. I take them to hospital for medical examinations and tests and visit them at home. It is sad to see long lines of people waiting to be seen. I often wonder if its worth it. But then I realise that a visit to the doctor gives them new courage to keep on living; at least they do not so feel so abandoned...Besides helping AIDS patients I also do missionary animation. We organised a formation course for catechists, or rather for people who want to become catechists. The course lasted a week and about 30 came: 4 adults and 26 young people between 16 and 22. There was also Lucia, an exceptional girl, only 12 years old but intelligent and enthusiastic : she wants to be a catechist. Imagine, for two years now every Wednesday afternoon Lucia goes to another community, a half an hour’s walk away, to teach hymns and read the Gospel to people who cannot read... It is moving and exciting to meet young people like these who cling to the Lord with all their strength. They are adolescents like all the others, with all the problems of the age group; what is more that are poor and alone. They have no one to help them. But they find the strength to work for the Lord with an enthusiasm of which only they are capable. It is true that the Lord is in them and that he helps them."
(S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 16/4/2004; Righe 31; Parole 474)
