Martyr in Brazil

Chapter 2. Patience in Brazil

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Fr. Albert Pierobon, Fr. G. Zanchi, and Br. P. Bernardi depart for Brazil, May 29 1961

On June 12, he wrote his first letter to his family: “My first encounter with this mission country was quite difficult but, at last, I have at last arrived in the country of my dreams”. He also wrote to the Superior General: “My biggest suffering at the moment is due to the fact that I cannot respond to the people’s needs by giving them a suitable spiritual assistance. Everyone tells me to be patient and, while this helps me to participate in the people’s suffering, it is also an incentive for me to finish my preparation as soon as possible”.

He had been assigned to the State of Paraná, South Brazil, in the diocese of Londrina. Pier Michele Girola wrote in the Italian magazine “Famiglia Cristiana”: “Besides being a good priest he was also a skilled worker. He was entrusted with the task of organizing the work that needed to be done. There were many projects that needed to be brought to completion and many of them were after just two years, especially the seminary for vocations, something that was very important to the missionaries”.

Nevertheless, this was not the kind of missionary that Albert Pierobon had dreamed about becoming, but this was what he had been asked to do, at least for a time. The Xaverians believed that the time was ripe to engage the Brazilian Church in the mission to non-Christians, and they founded a seminary for missionary vocations.

Albert Pierobon dedicated himself wholeheartedly and without reserve to the work of providing for the new seminary. He wrote to his family: “The job is made more difficult by the fact that I am new to these surroundings. At the moment we have 70 students. We are happy and serene in the knowledge that we are striving to achieve a noble ideal”. It was 1962, and Father Albert Pierobon was 35 years old, blessed with a robust physical constitution, in spite of his ailments, and with a great desire to proclaim the Gospel to all the poor.

In another letter to his family, he wrote: “My work has its ups and downs, but we press ahead, and woe to anyone who gets discouraged and abandons the struggle. I am working hard to build up a network of benefactors and friends. It means I have to move around a lot, to get to know people, meet them and chat with them”.

This was how he considered the missionary life: always on the move, listening to others, persevering and never giving up. Many of his letters begin with the motto “Caritas Christi urget nos” (the love of Christ impels us), the same motto that Guido Maria Conforti had chosen as an inspiration for his missionary family. Albert was driven by the love of God to work as a missionary on the other side of the world in obedience to the mandate Jesus gave to his apostles: “Go into the whole world, preach and baptize”.

At this stage in his life the love of God asked of him things he would rather not do: manage accounts, receipts, money. He suffered at the beginning but he accepted in a spirit of obedience, finding his joy in the fulfillment of his vocation, as he wrote in a letter to his family on June 4, 1963: “On the anniversary of my first Mass I cannot conceal my joy, happiness and serenity. I am happy, completely happy, in spite of the work, the worries, and the responsibilities that increase every day”.

He wrote again on November 7th: “I have finally found a measure of happiness in this service, which I never wanted to do and which always seemed to fall upon my shoulders. I suffered greatly at the beginning, spending months of anxiety because I never managed to find a way of combining economy and apostolic work. Now I have succeeded in doing so, in accordance with the wishes of my superiors”.

Fr. Giuliano Sincini, who worked in Brazil for many years, visits a vibrant community

In the Front Lines

In June 1963, Pope John XXIII was succeeded by Pope Paul VI who resolved to continue the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council that his predecessor had convoked to renew the Church in its relationship with the modern world. On November 22, 1963, the Catholic President of the United States of America, John Kennedy, was assassinated. The Vietnam war was beginning and would last until 1971, causing division and widespread horror throughout the world.

Finally, in August 1964, Father Albert Pierobon was given a direct mission assignment. The Xaverian bishop Giovanni Gazza, who had been appointed to Abaeté, Pará, in North Brazil, called upon his services. The bishop said of him: “So much needed to be done and Father Pierobon committed himself wholeheartedly to getting it all organized. Though he was a quiet man, he was also impetuous and bursting with initiative”.

The love of God drove him on in his new assignment and the tasks entrusted to him: to build schools, churches, hospitals, houses for the missionaries, and chapels along the giant Amazon river. He wrote home: “During the last week I worked as a driver, wood carrier in the forest, supervisor, plumber, bricklayer, etc. On Sunday, I am a priest”.

My biggest suffering at the moment is due to the fact that I cannot respond to the people’s needs by giving them a suitable spiritual assistance for my lack of Portuguese. Everyone tells me to be patient and, while this helps me to participate in the people’s suffering, it is also an incentive for me to finish my preparation as soon as possible.
Fr. Albert Pierobon

Upon his return from a visit to the parish of Acará, he confided to his family in another letter: “Now that I am back here, my heart is full of nostalgia and the longing for an assignment among the Indios. I wish I could leave behind building projects, bricks, cement, but it doesn’t seem that this will happen in the short term. I must be patient and accept what God wants”.

He finally obtained his heart’s desire and was sent by the bishop to the parish of Acará: it was an immense parish, almost as large as his entire home region. He now felt like a true missionary, though he would not be able to leave behind entirely bricks and cement because there was building to be done in Acará too.

In the meantime, bishop Giovanni Gazza had been elected Superior General of the Xaverians and returned to Italy. Albert Pierobon remained in the jungle, among the poor people who had now become his family, his mission and his Church. The climate was difficult and taxing, and every so often he had to change air, go back south, where he felt better, for a period of rest and recover from the ailments that afflicted him.

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