Martyr in Burundi

Chapter 3. The many ways of the Cross

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Fr. Marchiol by the Alps in Udine, Friuli, together with Fr. Ciroi and Fr. Carretta

Aldo Marchiol, the missionary with the kind smile, was a man of infinite patience. While he waited the arrival of the time when he would help the poor of Africa to carry their cross, back in Italy he shouldered the burden of his own personal cross in his assignments to various communities. Father Agostino Clementini remembers his priestly piety: “In addition to his well known simplicity, kindness, laboriousness, sincere and faithful friendship, and his fidelity to his duties (his breviary was always at hand), I remember the serene and silent way in which he endured his physical suffering. Father Marchiol would never have died in such a way if he hadn’t been prepared”.

He left Massa Lucana in 1963 and, in the next six years he moved around various houses: Salerno, Parma, Udine, Cagliari and, once again, back to his native Udine. The superiors tried to find the best place for his health, without much success: in spite of the different climates and treatment, his health did not improve. Yet, he never lost his smile. He went back to Salerno in 1969 and remained there for nine years until 1978 when, finally, he left for the missions.

In the meantime, he was appointed confessor, mathematics teacher, and put in charge of contacts with the benefactors and the local page of the Xaverian Newsletter. He never explicitly asked to leave for the missions, fearful that his health would be an obstacle to himself and others. Only in 1975 did he express such a wish in a letter: “I pray that the Lord and my superiors will send me to the missions”.

A man of clear ideas

In the meantime, Aldo Marchiol continued to carry out the tasks that had been assigned to him in Italy, convinced that this was the will of God for him. Nevertheless, he wrote to the Superior General on April 4, 1974, at the age of 44: “I certainly do not feel entirely satisfied; I feel as if I am on the sidelines, somewhat useless. I am only too aware that I should not judge myself on purely human criteria; indeed, I am fairly satisfied that I do measure myself against the criteria of the will of God as I perceive it. On the other hand, I am disturbed and scandalized by certain ideas that are not in harmony with the teachings of the Church, by the attitude of some superiors who do exhort these members of our community to obedience, respect and veneration for the Pope, the bishops and their teachings”.

I am only too aware that I should not judge myself on purely human criteria; indeed, I am fairly satisfied that I do measure myself against the criteria of the will of God as I perceive it.
Fr. Aldo Marchiol

Aldo Marchiol was a good, meek, and humble man, but he also had clear ideas and expressed them with the typical frankness of the people of his native Udine.

At that time, the Church was experiencing the turbulence that followed the Second Vatican Council and Pope Paul VI was caught in the middle between the renovators and the traditionalists: the former were already pressing for a Third Vatican Council, and the latter wanted to go back to the First Vatican Council. Pope Paul VI guided the Church through these difficult times at the cost of great trials and sufferings.

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