Martyr in Burundi

Chapter 4. Prayer and Mission

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Fr. Aldo Marchiol conversing with a friend

Perhaps there is an echo of this painful process in the sorrowful words that Father Marchiol addressed to his superior. He was a convinced and fearless member of the Church, ready to boldly proclaim his fidelity to its teachings. A Xaverian remembers him as “a very meek person, he also showed great personal strength. It may seem like a contradiction, but his physical fragility was more than compensated by an inner strength that surely came from his profound prayer life”. Father Aldo Marchiol was a man of prayer. Sometimes Xaverians would jokingly ask him to pray for them because they had little time to pray themselves.

Father Aldo Marchiol began to feel restless and somewhat dissatisfied with the life he was leading: he wanted to go the missions. However, he did not lose his serenity or cheerfulness, he never got discouraged. He went on praying and fulfilling his duties.

Another confrere recalls. “He was enthusiastic about his missionary vocation and he suffered greatly because his health prevented him from going to the missions. I recall his fidelity to community life; he was a serene and content man, capable of minimizing tensions and focusing on the good side of each”.

The moment for his own departure finally arrived, April 15, 1978. He was assigned to Burundi, in Central Africa. At the age of 48, with 20 years of ordination behind him, he was finally leaving for the missions.

Burundi is a country of 18,000 square miles and with a population of 6 million people divided into two main ethnic groups, the Hutu (over 80%) and the Tutsi (about 15%). The country is governed by the Tutsi. There is frequent bloodshed in what is one of the 30 poorest countries in the world. Burundi obtained its independence in 1962; this was followed by a coup d’état and the end of the monarchy in 1965, yet another coup in 1966 in which colonel Mircombero seized power; in 1972-73, the Hutu were massacred; colonel Bagaza seized power after yet another coup in 1976 and began persecuting the Church.

This was the situation that Father Aldo Marchiol found upon his arrival in Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi. He immediately began to study of the kirundi language, and went to Muyange, the mission of the Missionaries of Africa, where he thought he had a better chance of grasping the new language.

He wrote a letter from there to the Superior General in March 1979: “You will surely be wondering how I am getting on. I am experiencing some difficulties with the kirundi language and the local diet. I am, however, quite surprised by my progress in the language. My health hasn’t been giving me any real problems, with the exception of my cervical arthrosis, though it is less painful here than it usually was in Italy. I am at 6,000 feet above sea level and I will be staying here until the end of June. I am happy. I am no longer a young man and there is a limit to what I can do, but I am satisfied with that”.  

50 Years Young

Father Marchiol was happy, in spite of the fact that he was heading for 50 and with some health problems he could not ignore. At long last, however, he was in Burundi and he was prepared to do all in his power to announce the Gospel by word and example in a country torn apart by violence and bloodshed.

He was sent back to Bujumbura where he was asked to direct the Xaverian house. He, instead, asked to get involved in direct mission activity and his wish was granted: he was sent to Butara, where he worked alongside another Xaverian, Father Ernesto Tomé.

If ever a monument were erected to ordinary kindness, he would be a more than worthy candidate. He knew how to adapt to the rhythm of pastoral activity with a serene spirit.
Fr. Tavera on Fr. Aldo Marchiol

In October 1983, he left Butara after four years service there. He moved to Gasorgwe with Father Fiore D’Alessandri, taking the place of Father Marchetto who had returned to Italy for health reasons.

Father Amedeo Pelizzo wrote in his biographical profile of Father Marchiol: “Father Marchiol and Father D’Alessandri were a unique combination: D’Alessandri was a dynamic, untiring man, bursting with enthusiasm and initiative; Father Marchiol was his equal in zeal, but he was forced to be more methodic on account of his fragile health”.

Fr. Aldo monument of ordinary kindness

Monument to ordinary kindness

We can only imagine how much Aldo Marchiol suffered on account of his limited capacity for mission work. That was his cross and he carried it willingly for the love of the Lord he had decided to serve.

Father Giuseppe Tavera, who arrived in Gasorgwe in 1986, describes the activity of Father Aldo: “I lived almost a year with him in Gasorgwe. If ever a monument were erected to ordinary kindness, he would be a more than worthy candidate. He knew how to adapt to the rhythm of pastoral activity with a serene spirit. I remember how he would strive to prepare his homilies and catechesis by carefully taking notes in a small book. He traveled around the chapels on the outskirts of the parish to direct retreats and administer the sacraments. When he returned, he always told us about the virtues and the defects he had noticed in the communities.

He was still studying the language and he enriched his knowledge of it by faithfully reading the Catholic weekly newspaper and by listening to the local news program in kirundi. He dedicated the evening hours to preparing and writing his homilies. He kept himself up to date about what was going on in the Church in Burundi. He dedicated his free afternoons to manual work or gardening. He was a very methodic person. He warmly welcomed people and treated everyone with respect, no matter what their social position was.

When the workers were guilty of some petty thieving, or other transgressions, he would complain about it then immediately excuse them. I remember a homily he gave on the day he was forced to leave Burundi (March 31, 1987): it was not sublime but, rather, a sorrowful exhortation that encouraged the Christians not to let themselves be intimidated by persecution, and always remember that the Lord alone is our King. In the end He would surely triumph. Those present listened to him in an emotional silence. I had the feeling that these were the words of a prophet”.

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