(1936-2004)

The 1950’s were a golden time for the Institute and for the Church. Seminaries were crowded with candidates for the missionary priesthood and new forms of recruitment for candidates over the usual age were introduced. Marcello Vampini entered the seminary at Rosignano Monferrato at age 16 after he had acquired a diploma in professional studies. He was born in Vestone di Bre-scia on March 14, 1936, the son of Arturo Vampini and Caterina Ghirindelli, and baptized on March 19, 1936. He did his secondary studies at Rosignano Monferrato (1952-1955), novitiate at Certosa di Pesio (October 1, 1956 – October 2, 1957) and philosophy and theology in Turin. On October 2, 1957 he made his temporary profession and on October 2, 1960, his perpetual profes-sion. On March 30, 1963 he was ordained to the priesthood in Turin. At Christmas, 1956 Marcello Vampini, in the name of his fellow novices, wrote to Father Gaudenzio Barlassina (the Procurator General) from Certosa di Pesio: “Dear Father, if you only knew how much I would like to meet face to face one who has endured and grown strong through long experience, to hear from your own lips words that reflect the spirit of our Father... “
He was a teacher and spiritual director in the seminaries at Alpignano, Biadene, Be-nevagienna, Rovereto and again at Biadene (1963-1976). Without abandoning his other obliga-tions he enrolled in a two-year course at Verona for academic and professional counseling (1969-1970). He pursued graduate studies at the University of Padua and in 1976 was awarded a doctor-ate. His thesis was “L’educazione sessuale del seminarista preadolescente” [Sexual Education of the Pre-adolescent Seminarian]. In the introduction he writes, “This essay will illustrate the re-sults of my thirteen years of experience as a spiritual advisor confronting this problem with semi-narians in lower middle school.” Father Vampini saw these studies in pedagogy and formation as an integral part of his work training future Consolata priests. Training priests was not haphazard work; it requires serious preparation for everyone engaged in this apostolate. “A new method,” he went on to say, “will emerge from closer adherence to recent Church directives.”
Studying study educational method was in vogue at that time but there was so much opposi-tion in our Institute, that Father Vampini asked to be transferred to another house. Naturally his request was not granted – his work in formation was too important to be abandoned. Finally in 1970 we realized that “success in vocation recruiting could not be left to casual improvisation; we would have to depend more on training those involved.”
At this time he began to experience physical problems that curtailed his activities. “I’m still here in Rovereto,” he writes “tied to the hospital in Trent where they are treating my foot problem with liquid nitrogen (cryotherapy)… unfortunately my problems have been complicated by the mistaken x-ray treatment I received in Turin. The Turin x-rays have caused problems for all sub-sequent treatments. Maybe this one will be effective… I have been spending these past two months doing various tasks: moving and a short course of theological renewal… It is funny but reassuring to discover at a certain point in life that priests and missionaries are human beings. To discover one’s true identity is something beautiful. I wrote to Father Bianchi and told him I was ready for anything he wanted me to do in Brazil.”
Brazil was on the horizon. In July 1976 he began a course on Latin American problems in Ve-rona. Health problems forced him to postpone the date of his departure for South America.
Finally he arrived in Rio de Janeiro on January 18, 1977. He spent several months studying at the Centro de Formação Intercultural (CENFI) in Rio. He hope to prepare himself for any even-tuality. His geographic, social and cultural surroundings may have changed – Brazil was not Italy – but he felt the same need to grow spiritually and culturally.
From May 15, 1977 until February 14, 1986 he was engaged in formation at the Nossa Sen-hora de Fátima seminary in Três de Maio as spiritual director and assistant master. The years he spent in Três de Maio were difficult for Father Marcello. Seminaries were already in the process of downsizing.
In March 1986 Father Vampini began six years of work in the parish of Nossa Senhora da Consolata in Cafelândia. “My presence is unobtrusive and quiet,” he writes, “but I am involved in every sort of activity.” He was especially concerned with the problem of young people who aban-doned the Church after catechism classes ended. It was not easy to get close to them or enter their world. He was determined to meet them in school and so took up teaching religion classes.
In 1990 he left parish work in Cafelândia and returned to his work as a teacher and spiritual director at the São Paulo seminary in Cascavel. Certainly his presence and his teaching were of great help to seminarians at this critical time (missionary work was being confused with activ-ism). He was satisfied with this work. In a letter to a superior he affirms that religious life is the foundation and pre-condition of missionary work – as our Founder asserted. He returns to the theme of religious life so often that one of his earlier teachers declared that Vampini was strongly attracted to the monastic life. After Cascavel he worked in Curitiba and then back to Cascavel as professor of moral theology in the Inter-diocesan Theology Center (CINTEC).
At this point he began to experience pain in his bones; he was hopeful that the treatment he was getting in the Cascavel hospital would succeed in arresting his partial paralysis. During the last months of his life Father Venturi continued to work – in spite of poor health. On the morning of April 2, 2004 his illness worsened and he went into the hospital. At 9:45 AM he suffered a heart attack, coronary failure and died.
Father Marcello Vampini was 68 years old, a religious for 46 years and a priest for 41. He is buried in the cemetery in Cafelândia where Father Luis Luise is also buried.
Father Giovanni Tebaldi

Pastor’s Testimonial

“Dear Father Marcello, commemorating you is a duty, a need for me.”
“Marcello, what are you waiting for – go be a priest! I can extinguish the candles on my own.”
He was a fifteen-year old sacristan whose punctuality and sense of responsibility were aston-ishing. He rang the Ave Maria bell in the morning and evening and then ran to the sacristy to pre-pare everything needed for the service … immediately after Mass he would run off to catch the bus to school in Vobarno.
In the meantime he became acquainted with Father Farina a Consolata missionary from Monte Orfano. Father Farina urged him to consider a missionary vocation. He left for the seminary … he was so good at academic pursuits that his superiors had him study psychology and become a spiritual director in the minor seminary.
Cardinal Fossati ordained him in Turin. His real ambition was to go to the missions. Destina-tion: Brazil.
We saw less of him while he was in the missions but he renewed old acquaintances when he came home for a vacation every three years. He was full of stories, accounts of what he had ex-perienced. He was eager to help out: saying Mass, preaching, hearing confessions …at Vestone and Nozza and other places as well. Thank you Father Marcello.
I remember you as a young boy so serious and reliable; as a young priest committed to your seminarians; as a mature priest, a shepherd, a missionary. In recent years you had to leave your aged mother in the rest home in Bagolino – I know it was not easy – but the missions called you and you responded.
I had so much respect for you – but even more I loved you. When the Lord tells you it is time for me to leave this life, please, ask Him to save a place for me next to you. Thanks. You have already done so much for me here on earth. I know that you will not stop praying for me in heaven – praying to Our Father, through Jesus Christ, Our Lord in the Holy Spirit, Love.
Thank Our Lady, the Mother of our common priesthood for the all the graces she grants me and for her affectionate care. She is exactly as the Gospel has presented her for two-thousand years: the humble girl from Nazareth, the wife of Joseph the carpenter and the mother of us all. “Do what he tells you,” she knows what her Son, Jesus, has in mind. Farewell, Father Marcello, and thank you!
Your Pastor, Don Battista
(From the Vestone, Brescia parish bulletin)