Martyr in Bangladesh

Chapter 5. Bhoborpara

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Fr. Mario, guided by local children, crosses a flooded area as he visits Noyakandi village

On February 7, 1960, Father Mario Veronesi celebrated his first Mass as parish priest of Bhoborpara, a large peasant village not far from the border with India. He had two Xaverians, Fr. Albino Tessaro and Fr. Benedetto Rota to help him. Father Rota, 34 years old, was a robust, dynamic and very generous man who tragically died of malaria on August 11, 1960. He was the first Xaverian to be buried in Pakistan. Father Mario mourned his death for a long time and feared that he had not done everything possible to save him.

A year later he recalled: “It had been a torrid day and the evening was hot. I was sitting on the church steps with some children waiting for the air to cool. One of the boys started singing the Ave Maria in Italian, the last song that Father Benedetto Rota had been teaching them for the feast of the Assumption, shortly before he died. Hearing that hymn a year later, all the memories came back and I was deeply moved. We have just celebrated the first anniversary of his death, but his spirit is alive and working in our midst. Three of his children have said that they wish to become priests”. The death of Father Rota led to the conversion of a Protestant teacher and Father Mario baptized her with the name Bernadette.

The 1960s brought a wave of hope to the whole world. Khrushchev governed the Soviet Union, John Kennedy had been elected the first Catholic president of the United States of America and, above all, an elderly peasant farmer from Bergamo, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, had been elected Pope in 1958, taking the name John XXIII. These men were all symbols of hope after the dark years of the Second World War, and the Cold War between the East and the West. 

One of the boys started singing the Ave Maria in Italian, the last song that Father Benedetto Rota had been teaching them for the feast of the Assumption, shortly before he died. Hearing that hymn a year later, all the memories came back and I was deeply moved. We have just celebrated the first anniversary of his death, but his spirit is alive and working in our midst. Three of his children have said that they wish to become priests.
Fr. Mario Veronesi

John XXIII was 77 years old at the time of his election and everyone thought that his would be a transitional papacy. To everyone’s surprise, he convoked the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council, 90 years after the preceding one had ended. A Vatican Council is the most important forum of the Church and everyone was talking of a “springtime renewal within the Church”. The entire Christian world welcomed the news with joy, trepidation, and expectation. The Council opened in the Vatican on October 11, 1962 and ended three years later under the guidance of Pope Paul VI.

In the meantime, the diocese of Khulna was making its own “examination of conscience” in the Diocesan Synod (May 23-25, 1961). Bishop Battaglierin thus assessed the missionary presence in the area: “Initially, things were difficult, but in the meantime a great deal of work has been done. The number of living resident Christians increased by 86%. New residences were built. Sisters arrived, seminarians were recruited, new churches, houses, schools, villages, hospitals, printing works and the Training Center were built, the synod convened. We must thank the Lord for these fruits. I also feel obliged to thank each and every one of you for the hard work and the sacrifices you have made in the midst of this poverty. There has been no lack of defection among the faithful; death, sickness and repatriation have depleted our ranks. Nevertheless, we do not base our judgments on material achievements, though we have the duty to attend to these too”.

After ten years in the missions, Father Mario returned to Italy on holiday. Rovereto, his family, friends and native mountains welcomed him home. The summer and the autumn of 1963 brought back to him fond memories of the past, but he was eager to return to Pakistan. He left Italy from Naples on December 1.

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