Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Lilongwe (Fides Service) - “I want to be a good religious so I can be a good missionary tomorrow”. “I think this sentence reveals Mgr Assolari’s pastoral and missionary spirit” Fr Daniele Carraro, provincial superior of the Society of Mary or Monfort Fathers, said as he remembered. Bishop Alessandro Assolari, emeritus of Mangochi in Malawi, who died yesterday, 13 April in Bergamo, Italy.
“Bishop Assolari had a strong missionary spirit. He started his missionary activity in the late 1950s in Madagascar. Later he was moved to Mangochi, a part of Malawi where the people were mainly Muslims and a completely new territory from the point of view of evangelisation. In 1973, when the diocese was created he was appointed its first Bishop. His pastoral work was based on development of the people through education, promotion of women and healthcare, besides explicit proclamation of the Gospel” the provincial Superior said. “Thanks to the tireless efforts of Bishop Assolari, in a few years hundreds of schools and dozens of dispensaries and medical centres were built. Gradually a Catholic community was formed and the first vocations were born. Bishop Assolari gave special attention to formation of local priests and he built a minor seminary and then a major seminary” Fr Carraro told Fides.
“During the years, Bishop Assolari invited other religious institutes to work in his diocese for example the Sacramentine Sisters, Canossiane Sisters and the Poverelle Sister of Bergamo work in the fields of education, healthcare and promotion of women. Local vocations were born and many Sisters in Mangochi today are local women” Fr Carraro said. Another area of activity encouraged by Bishop Assolari was communications: a press centre which publishes two magazines, one religious and the other social-political, and Radio Maria.
In an interview with Fides last November just after his appointment on November 20 the present Bishop of Mangochi Mgr Luciano Nervi had this to say about the work of his predecessor: “I saw the diocese grow thanks to the tireless efforts of Bishop Alessandro Assolari. It was difficult at the beginning. The people in the area are mainly Muslim Yao coming from the coastal area of Mozambique where they were involved in slave trade with Zanzibar Arabs. For some time the Yao dominated most of Malawi. Then when British colonial settlers arrived the Yao refused to be integrated with the rest of the country and isolated themselves. When the British, and later the independent government, tried to build schools they were immediately burned down”.
Alessandro Assolari was born in Scanzorosciate Bergamo, Italy on 26 August 1928. Ordained a priest on 13 March 1954, he was appointed Bishop of Mangochi on 17 September 1973 and ordained on 8 December 1973. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 14/4/2005 righe 43 parole 491)
