The whole celebration of the 75th anniversary of the missions of the Piedmontese Capuchin friars in Cape Verde took place on Sunday 12 June in Fossano under the banner of the most sincere “thank you”, repeated in several voices to people who for different reasons have allowed its realization. . A feast that commemorated the hardships endured by the first missionaries, which celebrated what is experienced today, which rejoiced in what is still continuing to be. He did so in his salient moments of the Eucharist (presided over by the provincial minister, friar Roberto Raccagni), from the successive slides that told the past and present story of the mission, from the prolonged afternoon moment, spent with the community lunch in the courtyard of the Capuchin Convent. (enlivened by the 80s music performed by the Easy Band, with the voices of Giulia Bima and Andrea Trapanotto). “Heroicity” and “passion” were the two most important elements underlined by Brother Raccagni in the homilywho helped the first missionaries “to weave relationships with the people and finally move in other directions”, thus arousing the missionary spirit in the Cape Verdeans themselves, who have reaped, and today continue, what has been sown to them, with the almost total presence of local friars in those islands.
However, the Cape Verdean mission is not the only one of the Capuchins (others in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Turkey) and fits into the context of early Franciscan spirituality. “The missionaries who in 1942 had to leave their activity in Ethiopia, having to circumnavigate Africa and then land in Brindisi”, explained fra Ferruccio Bortolozzo, former missionary and now parish priest in Madonna di Campagna in Turin, “passed in front of the Cape Verdean islands . Among them, however, only the apostolic vicar, Leone Ossola, got off the ship and celebrated Christmas mass there. The others saw those islands only from afar ”. But that was enough five years later for the Capuchin Order to accept “to start the mission that no other congregation wanted to take in that archipelago”. Whose vision, only in passing, was instead seen by the Franciscans as a sign of God’s call to go there.
However, the inconveniences they encountered were innumerable: “From the ships that could not be found, because there was no transport service for those islands, to the Portuguese language that the friars had quickly studied, only to later note on the spot … that the Cape Verdeans they only spoke Creole! To people who did not consider the mission well, because those priests of bad reputation expelled from Portugal were thrown into those islands ”.
Love, therefore, did the rest, making flourish what today can instead be known and seen in the works (social and pastoral) carried out, including kindergartens, schools, hospitals and so on. Those “of which you – Father Ottavio Fasano said enthusiastically – are the builders, thanks to your money. So have the courage to make some trips there to know the fruits of our and your work ”. Now that we start traveling again, think about it!
