Back home!

Back home!

October 24, 2025

I'm finally in Bangassou!

I arrived in Bangui on Wednesday, but had to wait for my flight until Monday, October 20th.

I took advantage of these days for a few meetings.

On Saturday, I met with the 14 Bangassou orphans who live and study in Bangui, welcomed by the sister of a nun. Some had been in Bangassou until a few months ago.

Between Friday and Sunday, I was able to meet with our seminarians studying in the capital's seminaries. After completing their second year of high school (Troisième) in Bangassou, they will go to Bangui, where they will continue their vocational journey at St. Paul's Seminary (for high school), a year of preparatory studies, and seven years at the Grand Séminaire St. Marc, for philosophy and theology students.

There are 41 seminarians in total!

It's a huge commitment, both personal and financial, but they are the future of the Church!

On Monday morning, we finally left Bangui, arriving in Bangassou around 10:00 a.m.

With me was Daniela Dalmasso, a midwife, who is staying here for a little over a month, helping out in the maternity ward of our hospital. I took her there as soon as we dropped off our bags, and she stayed there all day!

The next day, Tuesday, she assisted a mother in giving birth, and they named the baby girl Daniela...

Her presence here in Bangassou is the result of the Friends of Father Aurelio Gazzera Association, founded a few months ago to support the work and projects of the Bangassou diocese. The website has been active for a few weeks: https://www.padreaureliogazzera.it/

These days we're starting work to renovate a home for the older girls from the "Maman Tongolo" Orphanage. It's a simple home, where they can live, go to school, and prepare for the future. It's a kind of transition from the Center to life, and here they'll learn to manage their lives more independently.

Best wishes, girls!

Daniela all'opera alla Maternità
Daniela au travail à la Maternitè
Daniela trabajando en el Hospital de Maternidad

 

Il gruppo di orfani a Bangui
Le groupe des orphelins qui sont à Bangui
El grupo de huérfanos qu viven en Bangui

Un pallone!
Le ballon!
Una pelota nueva

La casa per le ragazze orfani più grandi
Le foyer pour les orphelines plus grandes
El hogar para niñas huérfanas mayores

 

Hope!

 

Hope!

 

I have been in Bangui since Wednesday afternoon, waiting for the plane to Bangassou.

This morning at 6 a.m. I was already at the airport: we were on the passenger list, but the ticket did not arrive. MINUSCA (the Blue Helmets), despite (or perhaps because of) a DAILY cost of 2.7 million euros, did not find the time, in three weeks, to sign the necessary authorisation. We hope to leave on Monday with another organisation!

We arrived on Wednesday around 1 p.m. I left Milan on Tuesday evening with Daniela Dalmasso, a midwife. She is coming to Bangassou for a month and a half to help in the maternity ward of our hospital.

This brings to an end an intense month, during which I met many people, saw many situations and received a lot of attention.

Living elsewhere for a long time also helps me to be amazed, every time I return to Italy, by so many aspects of life that I discover and rediscover.

I discover many paradoxes!

A lot of hope, and a lot of resignation.

So much wealth, and so much poverty.

So much ease of communication, and so much loneliness. But also a great deal of attention to the beautiful things in life, such as a simple greeting, a coffee, a farewell, a prayer.

So much hunger and thirst for God, and so much indifference.

There are many lively communities that pray and live in beautiful fraternity, and others that are frightened by the disappearance of faith and the scarcity of priests and seminarians.

But it is still a world loved by God! And He never fails to be close to each one of us, in very different ways.

He is there. And He loves!