AFRICA/SOUTH SUDAN- The Bishop of Rumbek, Monsignor Caesar Mazzolari dies during Mass

Rumbek (Agenzia Fides) - Bishop of Rumbek, Monsignor Caesar Mazzolari, died this morning, July 16, at 8 am at the State hospital in Rumbek, where he was hospitalized after the illness that struck him while he was celebrating Mass. According to information released by Cisa agency, Fr. Don Bosco Ochieng, Director of Radio Good News Rumbek, said that the Bishop was concelebrating the morning Mass when, at the beginning of the consecration, he fell on the chair, without any strength, bringing a hand to his chest. With the help of some priests, nuns and faithful attending the Mass, he was taken to the sacristy and then in his room, where he was visited by a doctor and then was taken to hospital, where he died shortly after.
Mgr. Mazzolari was born in Brescia on February 9, 1937. He entered the Comboni Missionaries, was ordained a priest on March 17, 1962. After a first missionary experience in the United States, among blacks and Mexicans, in 1981 he arrived in Sudan in the diocese of Tombura-Yambio, then in the Archdiocese of Juba, then in the diocese of Rumbek (South Sudan), where he was ordained Bishop on January 6, 1999, by Pope John Paul II. On 9 July he attended the celebrations for the independence of South Sudan. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 16/07/2011)