1912 – 2004

Father Luigi was a native of Val di Non. He was born on September 9, 1912 to Francesco Wegher and Luigia Bottocletti. He entered the Congregation at Madonna del Monte in Rovereto: “I was a little mouse … but in Rovereto I became an eaglet.” He consecrated himself to the Lord through religious profession in 1933 and was ordained to the priesthood in1937. He had some difficulty reaching this goal because of his height. His classmates called him “pulcino’ [little chick] and there seems to have been some reluctance to ordain him because he was too short!
He taught for a year in the minor seminary in Gambettola and then left for Mozambique in 1939. While he was at sea the Second World War broke out. On its return trip the German ship, the “Usumbara” that had taken him to Africa was sunk by the British off the coast of France. Father Luigi went to Massangulo in Nyasa where he worked for forty years. For thirty of those years he worked alongside Father Pietro Calandri, the first Catholic missionary in that land (he founded the mission in 1926).
Father Mario Teodori tells us: “Father Wegher found his place in the world in Massangulo and no one could move him. He had the virtue of St. Aloysius, the discipline of St. John Bosco and was responsible for the formation of so many young people. He made good use of all his talents: he was a poet, a writer, a playwright, a printer, a typist, a puppet master, a map maker, etc. The wide variety of his interests was marvelous.”
All of these activities unfolded at the great mission school he directed. There were at times 500 students who came from all parts of Mozambique and Malawi. It was the only mission open to Africans and mulattoes – people no one else wanted. He was also in charge of an orphanage with sixty some children. Father Luigi was responsible for the Christian and cultural formation of generations of children and young people.
Besides being a teacher he worked with Father Ugo Versino in a small print shop. Together they bound books, published official government communications, organized a photography studio and taught typing. His whole life was devoted to teaching and improving the lot of young people. He was also a theater, film and audio-visual enthusiast – and used these media wisely to evangelize children and adults.
In spite of his already exhausting work-load he managed to organize a 35-piece band. It was directed by Father Ernesto Motta and played for feasts and processions. It went to the capital of Nyasa and played for the President of Portugal and other important people.
The work was hard and required twice as many people. “For some time now the work was far more than anything we could handle; it is only the love of our vocation that carries us forward” (Letter to Father Domenico Fiorina, Superior General, April 18, 1951).
Thanks to this dedication Massangulo became a crowning Consolata achievement – a source of pride for the whole nation. Luis Moreira de Almeida, Ministry of Education Inspector, visited the mission and stated, “On November 13, 1951 I visited the Mission of Our Lady of Massangulo. It made an enormous, pleasing and comforting impression upon me. Without bias or exaggeration I can acknowledge that there is no national or foreign mission that can surpass its organization, order, missionary zeal or sense of direction. Undoubtedly this visit was an unexpected revelation even though I had heard promising reports on the mission’s work. My congratulations to the men and women Consolata missionaries!”
Dom Enrico Dias Nogueira, the Bishop of Lichinga affirmed that Massangulo was the “Mother and Teacher of all our missions.”
In 1971 Father Wegher was appointed superior of the mission. Those were difficult times – there was an armed struggle for independence going on in Mozambique. In 1975 all the parish projects were nationalized. Emissaries from FRELIMO invaded the mission and brutally separated Father Wegher from all his activities. They took over the work and camped in the mission – they were the new bosses. With sadness, he witnessed the closing of the Consolata Sanctuary on May 23, 1979. Father Wegher wrote “It was only by a miracle that we managed to save the Blessed Sacrament and the statue of Our Lady, the Consolata. I managed to bring the statue to Lichinga and deposit it in the Bishop’s palace. Last year (2001) the statue was carried in pilgrimage to all the missions of Nyasa – it is now once more in Massangulo.”
The new bosses of the missions wanted to get rid of his meddlesome presence and he was called to government house and interrogated at length. His answers were exhaustive and he took the occasion to ask for the restitution of Father Calandri’s pictures – they were artistically valuable. Today they hang in the General House in Rome. To save the mission diaries – he suggested that Father Marchiol, the Regional Superior remove them from our houses. Those precious accounts of our missionary work are now kept safely in the General Archives in Rome.
Shortly afterwards, May 23, 1979, he received a peremptory order to leave Massangulo and go to Lichinga. His words express the bitterness he felt at this forced separation: “I can only say that this was some reward for forty years of work! I had a small bundle of personal belongings and nothing else. I said goodbye to everyone and everything. Few saw me leave – only the sisters who remained. I had a lump in my throat. I had to leave everything … Massangulo without a priest …! Marxist-Leninist teachers installed in our school. Willing or not they would be forced to teach atheism to our young people …”
Father Wegher is talking about Massangulo – but this nationalization took place all across the country and it was a catastrophe. In a few years they managed to destroy half a century’s work of evangelization – work that was done with so much love, sacrifice and blood. Father Wegher went on to say, “Today’s youth (2002) never saw, nor can they imagine what the mission was like – the work being done by the trade school, how hard everyone studied! Now we have to re-build and everyone will have to work so hard. When will we conquer illiteracy? How committed are we to rebuilding the social fabric? And the new evangelization? Nowadays the Gospel and culture represent a genuine problem … we must not lose courage nor let problems overwhelm us. There is work here for everyone.”
Father Teodori writes, “Even today everything at Massangulo calls Father Wegher to mind: the ruined walls, the destroyed print shop, the looted photography studio, the empty offices, dormitories covered with graffiti, dining halls where nothing remains but a few slabs of cement. The theater has fallen victim to the wind and rain – the theater where he put on shows, projected films that delighted young and old, presented his singing groups and Father Motta’s band. The majestic pines that surrounded the mission have all withered; the garden he so loved has grown wild; the priests’ house is roofless; the zinc fittings of the great Consolata Sanctuary have been carried off.
Even more evocative of his memory than these buildings are the many people scattered across Mozambique who have benefited from his work. People whose lives have been enriched by educational endeavors. So many government officials and professionals have come from Massangulo – Doctor Brazão Mazula, Rector of the State University and Father Filipe Couto, Rector of the Catholic University.”
The Bishop of Lichinga assigned Father Wegher to work as assistant pastor in the Cathedral. He wrote at the time to Father Mario Bianchi, the Superior General, “I am here in the diocese. You know what a great blow closing the church was for me. Even worse leaving the mission after forty years of work. I had one satisfaction, though. In spite of all the difficulties I worked right up to the end…
The Gospel is heavy and difficult and I can do so little. We must intensify our prayer and offer our apparent inactivity to the Lord and Our Lady. Sacrifice is redemption. Deus providebit! He can manage without us – maybe things will even go better without us. Trials purify us and our Christian communities. Moreover the seed we have sown has not been sown in vain! We have faith in the work of the Lord. He is the Savior” (June 15, 1979).
In 1986 after the death of Father Camillo Ponteggia he was appointed Vicar General of the diocese and held this position until his death. In the meantime he served as Sunday chaplain to the contemplative Servite Nuns, extraordinary confessor for several congregations of sisters, retreat master, counselor and moderator of the Consolata Missionaries in northern Nyasa.
As always he was surrounded by children from morning to night – on Sundays he never failed to show them films. The parish hall was too small to accommodate the more than 500 little “runny noses” that came for the show. Seeing them happy and content meant the world to him. Whoever knocked at his door – the poor, the blind, drug addicts, individuals mutilated by mines – never went away with empty hands.
From Lichinga he witnessed the horrors of the civil war between FRELIMO and RENAMO. It caused him much suffering: “Our Christmas here was very beautiful. Both the cathedral and the parish church were packed for all the Masses: beautiful Christmas carols sung with so much fervor. All the same the cursed war continues and we go on working … The torment continues in Nyasa … we go out visiting in fear and trembling. But God and Our Lady, the Consolata, continue to help us … Here in the city things are relatively calm but outside the war goes on. People flee into the jungle to escape attack. Children suffer and die. There are thousands of refugees. In short all is suffering and sadness!
I am approaching eighty years of age … fifty-three of those years I have spent in the missions of Nyasa. Thank God I am still able to do some work. Every Sunday I entertain hundreds of children with movies … Films, theater and poetry were always my passion” (Letter at Madonna del Monte, February 1992).
As a prolific writer, Fr. Wegher was able to express his artistic genius in various publications where he describes usage and customs of the Nyasa region, his experience, plays, essays and poems. His book “Um olhar sobre o Niassa”, a book over the history, geography, social and religious situations in Nyasa, was published by the Paulines and has achieved notable success. It was presented on TV at the presence of the Apostolic Nuncio, various Bishops, the President of the General Assembly, etc., winning general approval. Among other literary works of Fr. Wegher, we have:
- books of Italian and Portuguese poems;
- a booklet for teachers by the title “Luz no teu caminho”;
- an unpublished novel, “Sidrek. The Evil Prince”;
- a biography of Fr. Pietro Calandri, “The Man and his Mission”;
- Numerous plays staged in Massangulo and elsewhere.

In 1982 the Holy Father awarded him with the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice medal. It is kept in the Motherhouse museum. As Father Luigi remarked in 1999 on the sixtieth anniversary of his arrival in the missions, “Nowadays in Mozambique one can only roll up one’s sleeves – there really isn’t time for medals and awards.” Sixty years in the Nyasa mission and stretching out his arms he would say, “Magnificat anima mea Dominum … thanks to Our Lady, the Consolata, our Blessed Founder and my Guardian Angel, Amen, Alleluia!”
On July 24, 2004 the Lord called him home. He was 92 years old, 70 years a religious and 67 years a priest.
The Funeral Mass was celebrated in the cathedral at Lichinga – there was an overflow crowd of friends and parishioners. Msgr. Hilario Massinga, the Bishop, presided and all the missionaries in Nyasa concelebrated. The governor and other provincial authorities were present – some of them had been Father Wegher’s students. Father Artur Marques, the Regional Superior, read Father Luigi’s spiritual will – everyone found it very moving.
After Mass an impressive procession followed his body to the Massangulo mission, some 90 km from Lichinga. With his parishioners and many Muslims, Father Mario Teodori, the Pastor, welcomed the mourners. He was buried in the local cemetery. The Burial rites were celebrated by Father Artur Marques in the presence of the Bishop and almost all the clergy of Nyasa. Speeches were delivered and messages read by everyone group present. Our beloved brother now rests in the midst of that people he so loved and that will never forget him.
The Editors of Da Casa Madre

TESTIMONIAL
With the death of Father Wegher our congregation loses its next-to-last link with the Founder and his times. Father Luigi entered the minor seminary at Madonna del Monte (Trent) in 1925, one year before our Blessed Founder, Joseph Allamano died. The only one remaining from his class is Father Giuseppe Incicco who is working in Cascavel, Brazil.
With his death our Mozambique Region has lost its renowned dean. He was our standard bearer, a survivor of the mission’s earliest years. Although the mission was already established when he arrived he gave it his heart and soul and for many years worked with the mission’s founders. His love and respect for those pioneers is well known and documented. Father Wegher was living history. Fortunately he was a willing recorder of his memories. Only a small part of his writings have been published – much remains to be made public.
This Christian community was blessed with a man who planted the seed of the Gospel in its midst. Father Wegher’s life was not wasted – he did not live in vain. He spent his whole life with young people and children. He was a great educator. He knew how to train young people and bring out their personality. Many famous men are the product of his training – men well known in Mozambique for their seriousness and ability.
We, your younger brothers, your heirs and successors in the mission, we have lost a father, a teacher, a brother, an advisor, a confessor … a friend. Yes, a genuine friend! You opened up for us a broad and well-lit path that embraced 65 years of Mozambican history. A glorious if painful journey, sustained by human, religious, priestly and apostolic virtue. May God allow us to inherit “a double dose of your spirit.”
May God reward you, Father Wegher, for what you were and for the example you gave us. God reward you for you love and dedication to this church, this people and this mission where you chose to remain until the very end. From our Father’s house where you now reside, stretch forth your hand – as you promised – over Nyasa and each of us. Now that you have been freed from the weakness and limitations of the body see that each of us experiences the strength of your prayer and intercession.
Father Artur Marques