Father Lorenzo Ori came from the region of Emilia, the province of Reggio Emilia.   He was typical of that region that has given so many missionaries to our Institute.  He was cheerful and outgoing – although he was a great worker and builder, he never let work distract him from what he thought was important.  His life began on July 13, 1920 in the house of his parents,  Sisto Ori and Veronica Compagni.  He spent his early life there.  In 1933 he entered the Institute and attended middle and high school in the houses at Sassuolo, Favria Canavese, Varallo Sesia and Certosa di Pesio.  The war upset everything.  Students moved from one house to another fleeing hunger and bombs.  Seminarian Ori made his perpetual profession at Rosignano on October 2, 1944 and was ordained to the priesthood in the same place on August 15, 1945 by the Bishop of Casale Monferrato, Msgr. Angrisani.  From his ordination until 1953, he was a teacher, treasurer and involved in formation for our first students in Fatima, Portugal.  The boys who were minor seminarians then are now sixty-year old missionaries.  They remember him as a man whose humor and good nature won the trust and friendship of everyone.  He would cheerfully involve everyone in study and manual labor.  He taught music and his efforts conditioned young missionaries to be healthy and industrious.  During this time, however,  he longed for the missions.  He spent a year in England and then went to the diocese of Meru.  He worked in various missions with intelligence and dedication from 1955 to 1970.  He had uncommon gifts of organization and missionary spirit.  He hid a secret desire for many years – he wanted to build a church for the Christian community.  He began work on the church at Nkubu but could not complete it – he ran out of funds.  He turned to the Superior General, Father  Fiorina and asked for helFr.  Strange things happen when one least expects them.  He went to Mombasa for his annual vacation and found 10,000 shillings.  On the feast of the Consolata – to whom the Nkubu mission is dedicated – the Bishop of Meru solemnly blessed the church.  “It was an extraordinary celebration – there was a preparatory triduum, 500 baptisms and 50 weddings.  After three years of sweat and sacrifice I was satisfied.  I had realized my dream.”

This was the time of the 1969 General Chapter when we gathered to modernize the Institute’s teaching and methods.  Father Ori was worried and wrote to friends in Kenya,  “we hope that the chapter will update our Institute in the spirit of our Founder and the Second Vatican Council and not follow the latest fads …”  In every one of his mission appointments he left the memory of a priest devoted to individuals and their welfare.  He wrote in a letter, “1970 was the golden year of my life, the silver year of my priesthood.”  It was also a year of sorrow – he lost his friend, Father Luigi Eandi, who drowned in the Ketheno river.  We recovered his body, he wrote, with the help of divers.  A few days later he was buried at Egandene, the mission he had founded.  He felt great loneliness at the death of his friend.  But the missions are demanding and leave little time for catching one’s breath.  He continued his work with confidence.

In 1971 a new horizon opened before him:  the strip of land that borders Ethiopia.  Thanks to the work of Father De Marchi and the Superior General, Father Mario Bianchi,  the desire of the whole Institute was realized:  a return to Ethiopia.  This was something the Founder dreamed of.  Father Ori wrote to the Regional Superior, Guido Motter, informing him that he was invited by Father De Marchi to share his work in this new area: “I am ready to go to the ends of the earth with Father De Marchi.”  They ran into trouble quickly – the new mission had been poorly organized.  After five years Father Ori asked the Superior General for permission to “return to the beautiful and unforgettable missions of Kenya.”  The Superior General asked him to postpone this transfer until the General Council could think it over.  The Council decided that for the good of the missions he ought to remain in Ethiopia.  His departure was postponed.  From 1971 to 1977 he was the director of the school of the Galla Arussi;  he then went to Shashemane in the Meki Vicariate as the technical supervisor of the mission and school building projects.  His skill in this area was widely recognized and his services were in great demand.  He began to realize that his time in Africa was coming to an end and he asked to return to Fatima where he had begun his priestly work. 

Father Domenico Zordan, his friend, asked him to come and work with him in Dire Dawa.  “There are so many priests already in Fatima – even if Our Lady is there – it will not be a place of special blessing for you.  It’s not where you belong.”

His stay in Fatima was brief – in 1988 he returned to his beloved Meru where he worked in the missions of Mekinduri, Timau and Mojwa.  He was a paragon of intelligence, industry and great faith but he began to feel his age.  Years of working in the missions had taken their toll.  He needed a new incentive to his lagging strength and spent some time in Mozambique.  On June 22, 2000 he was assigned to the rest home in the Italian Region.  On October 2, 2001, he celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of his profession there.  Father Piero Trabucco wrote to him on behalf of the Institute, “Dear Father Ori,  Serene acceptance of the Will of God, of suffering and physical decline, is a precious gift.  I am sure you are offering this up for the Institute in this the 100^th anniversary of its founding.”  He spent his remaining days at Alpignano surrounded by caring confreres, nurses and doctors.

Then his heart came to a stoFr.  Father Giovanni Genta who had worked with him in the mission at Meru was near him in his final years.  He wrote of Father Ori, “His name was Peter and he served the Lord by building churches, cathedrals, chapels, schools and universities.  His name was Lawrence and he devoted his life to the poor and to the Institute he so much loved.”

On July 31, 2003, his heart stopped and his life came to an end.  His memory is still alive for all those who had the good fortune of knowing him.

Giovanni Tebaldi