Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Lilongwe (Agenzia Fides)- The Catholic community in Mangochi (Malawi) is mourning the death of Giacomo Marcialli 64 year old builder from i Lurano (province of Bergamo, Italia), who decided to spend his retirement putting his building experience at the disposal of the people of Africa. Last year he arrived in Malawi to work with “Malawi nel Cuore” Association (of which his sister Giuditta is also a member) to enlarge Namandaje hospital in the district of Mangochi.
“After years of hard work, he had discovered his vocation: to help Africa, to make his personal contribution to the missions. After helping with several missionary projects in Cameroon he reached Malawi, where his sister Giuditta has worked for years at a Mission run by the Sacramentine Sisters of Namwera” Italian Monfort missionary Fr. Piergiorgio Gamba, for years a missionary in Malawi, told Fides.
“ Giacomo Marcialli, known to everyone here as Marcello, arrived in February at the Mission of Namandanje to help Fr. Eugenio Salmaso. Among the many jobs he did, one was to help prepare festivities for the ordination of Fr Wilfred Sumani, who became a priest of a little church lost in the woods on the banks of Lake Malombe. And it was on that very day that he began his calvary due to an attack of malaria which eventually killed him ”.
On Monday 29 June after a vigil and a night of prayer the Christian community of Namandanje offered to accompany him on his long journey to the church of Saint Paul's Seminary in Mangochi. This is the seminary church where future priests begin their vocational journey, and it is also the church where they hold funerals of missionaries and priests of the diocese of Mangochi. “The church was too small and the school children overflowed into in the seminary portico. Boys and girls come to say farewell to a travelling companion whom they had hardly known, because he had lived in a small church far away from Mangochi, and whom today they hailed as a brother. This is the soul of Africa. This is the richness of its villages” says Fr. Gamba.
Bishop Alessandro Pagani, the bishop of the diocese of Mangochi, presided the liturgy with all the priests of the diocese. In his homily the Bishop thanked the faithful for giving such a warm welcome to Giacomo Marcialli. “He was not one of your sons, you hardly knew him, he spoke only a few words of your language...why have you come to his funeral? This is the power of the faith, this is what it means to be Christians” Bishop Pagani, told his people.
“Giacomo Marcialli was buried in the same cemetery as Bishop Luciano Nervi, former Bishop of Mangochi, Fr. Michele Gotti and priests of the diocese of Mangochi. Giacomo is the first lay volunteer to rest in peace with bishops and priests. The impossibility to have members of his family here and above all his request to be buried here in Malawi, was seen by the Catholics of Mangochi as a great gift” Fr. Gamba says. “These young people are anxious to learn the lesson Giacomo left as his legacy. They are the Church of 2009, the Year of the Synod for Africa. Thanks to Giacomo who believed in them. Thanks to this Church, continually new” the missionary concludes. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 6/7/2009 righe 40 parole 531)
