EUROPE/ITALY - The death of Don Luigi Mazzucato, for over half a century director of Cuamm

Friday, 27 November 2015 human rights  

Medici con l'Africa CUAMM



Padua (Agenzia Fides) - "Sad, but with the serenity that comes from the fulfillment of a long life devoted to others, we announce the death of Don Luigi Mazzucato, director of Doctors with Africa-Cuamm 1955-2008". This is the note sent to Agenzia Fides announcing the death of this tireless soul of Cuamm, who carried out more than 100 mission trips in Africa. Don Luigi continued to accompany with his silent presence the work of Cuamm until the last moments of his life.
There were many significant moments in his life, many trials and difficulties which he had to overcome in more than 50 years at the helm of Cuamm.
"In my 110 travels in missions in Africa I saw poverty, suffering of people – said Don Luigi -. I experienced the anguish, in 1987, before the first ward of 40 beds for AIDS patients, at the hospital in Aber in Uganda, where there were some dying patients and others who died within two years. I suffered to see the victims of the guerrillas in Mozambique, the churches full of corpses in the genocide in Rwanda (1994), severely malnourished children in Ethiopia, the agonizing cry of a mother from a nearby village, crying in despair because of the death of her child. I saw the destruction caused by internal conflicts in Angola. I have seen recently, the extreme poverty in South Sudan and the squalor of some hospitals where none of us would dare to seek treatment and maybe even put a foot inside".
Don Dante Carraro, director of Doctors with Africa Cuamm, remembers him like this: "Under that inevitable black dress, accompanied by the equally unmistakable cap (black of course), there was the daily discovery of a rainbow, harmonious and intense colors of a a rich personality and full life. I like to name just a few colors of that rainbow: the poor, who for Don Luigi are the heritage of God; the people he always listened to and put them at the centre of attention; Providence and faith in God's plan, at all times; and, finally, prayer, the fresh and clean source of his life". (AP) (Agenzia Fides 27/11/2015)


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