Father Gabriele was born at Corno Giovine in 1927, the son of Luigi Soldati and Luigia Lucchini.  He was the third of four children – all of whom were called to religious life:  Franco, a Consolata missionary, Pietro, a Jesuit, and Luisa Piera, a Consolata sister.  He entered the Institute in 1940, made his religious profession in 1948, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1952.  Until 1958 he worked as an assistant and teacher in the houses of Montevecchia and Bevera in Italy.  He then left for Tanzania where he tasted life at Kisinga and Iringa, working as a teacher and assistant pastor.  After only two years he was called back to Italy and assigned to the house at Rivoli to be in charge of publications and editor of “Missioni Consolata.”

From 1962 to 1964 he attended the “School of Journalism and Audio-Visual Aids” in Bergamo, and in 1967 he was awarded a doctorate in journalism.  His thesis was “Il socialismo africano in Présence Africaine” (African Socialism in Présence Africaine). 

In 1969 he was elected a General Councilor and placed in charge of the General Office of Mission Promotion.  His term ended in 1975 and he spent a year working with the media in the General House in Rome.  In 1976 he was appointed the director of “Missioni Consolata” and “Da Casa Madre.”  He held these jobs until 1983.  He moved to Rome and was in charge of the Institute’s audio-visual office from 1984 to 1990.

He suffered a stroke that left him half-paralyzed and unable to speak.  For years he persevered in exercises that eventually restored his ability to walk and speak.  In 1999 he retired to the house at Alpignano.  On July 8 he went to Our Father’s House.

Father General presided at his funeral.  Present were Father Gottardo Pasqualetti, Regional Superior, Msgr. Franco Peradotto, Rector of the Sanctuary of the Consolata and three nuns who were first cousins.  Also present was his cousin, don Vittorio Soldati, don Achille Lumetti and many relatives, parishioners and friends.  His remains were laid to rest in the cemetery of Alpignano.

At his graveside he was remembered as a missionary “in heart and mind” always cheerful and serene during his painful sickness;  he was an expert in audio-visual communication and leaves a void behind him;  he was tireless – and worked literally day and night;  he never said no to anyone and found time and energy for everyone.  He was a missionary to the core.

Father Giuseppe Villa

TESTIMONIALS

Day and night in his little car

His father, Luigi Soldati, died of tuberculosis in 1932 – but there was no time for mourning.  His mother, Luigina, took her tailor husband’s sewing machine and began immediately to make clothes to feed her children:  Franco – 11 years old, Pietro – 9, Gabriele – 5 and Luisa Piera – 2,  all  born in Corno Giovine (Milan).  Their mother did not remain with them long – she died of exhaustion in 1944.  Before dying, Luigina entrusted her children to God – they had all decided to become missionaries:  Pietro a Jesuit, Franco, Gabriele and Luisa Piera, Consolata Missionaries. 

Of the four  Soldati children only Franco, a missionary in Kenya, is still alive. Pietro and Luisa Piera have joined their parents, Luigi and Luigina in paradise.  On July 8 at Alpignano Gabriele died at the age of 74.  He was well known to the readers of “Missioni Consolata.”

After two years of mission work in Tanzania, Father Gabriele Soldati, returned to Italy where he filled many positions.  He was a General Councilor of the Institute, a writer, a journalist, a speaker, a projectionist in the south, a screenwriter, a producer and a director of documentary films.  He performed all these tasks with precision, professionalism and passion.  One example is the very moving video “The Miracle of the Crutches” on the handicapped children of Tuuru in Kenya.  Father Gabriele was a self-taught film-maker.

He was my boss at “Missioni Consolata” in Turin from 1980 to 1983.  I would leave him in the office until 11 PM.  At six the next morning I would be on my way back to the office and would meet him just leaving it – he had spent the whole night at his typewriter. 

Under his direction, “Missioni Consolata” grew in size, color and content.  It went to 64 pages initially and then to 72.  Above all it grew in quality.  It went from being a newsletter to a monthly, family missionary magazine of broad appeal.  Father Soldati originated the idea of special monograph issues on the great religions of the world, China, Africa, Twenty Centuries of the Gospel, etc. These issues were used in high-schools to teach students about the world at large. 

At the end of every month, on Friday evening, Father Gabriele would take off for Rome in his little car (Fiat 500) ready to face any eventuality.  He would drive on the secondary roads because his little Fiat was loaded with packages, had 150,000 kilometers on the odometer – and could not maintain expressway speeds.

If his old wreck of a car did not break down (something that could never be discounted) he would arrive in Rome at dawn to edit “Da Casa Madre” the 32-page newsletter for the Consolata Missionaries.  He worked on Sunday so that he could be back in his car that evening.  On Monday morning in Turin he would be there to ask: “What are we doing today?”

In 1991 Father Soldati suffered a stroke.  He became a “child” , but thanks to his strong will and the help of friends he became an “adult” again.  He had to learn to write and do arithmetic all over again – and he did.   In the last ten years he remarked to many people – “Thank God for the stroke, it gave me a chance to pray. But by itself praying can be exhausting.  Now I will say a rosary for you …”  Thank you, Father Gabriele.

Father Francesco Bernardi

Missioni Consolata, Oct.-Nov. 2001

Letter of Father Giuseppe Inverardi to Father Franco Soldati

Dearest Father Franco,

I don’t really feel it is necessary to offer my condolences on the death of Father Gabriele.  For those of us who are mature in both life and faith, death is our Paschal Event.  With death life is transformed into eternal life.  But it is difficult for me not to share some memories with you –  I have wonderful and grateful recollections of Father Gabriele.  He was a man who worked tirelessly – literally day and night – particularly when he was the director of “Missioni Consolata.”  He never said no to anyone.  He found time and energy for everything that was asked of him.  He was creative, serene, good-natured, companionable, understanding and prayerful.  He took mission work to heart.  He was always a Tanzanian – he talked about Kisinga constantly with nostalgia and longing.  He would have gone back there in an instant – even on foot.  Kisinga was always Kisinga!  It is still a challenging place.

Others will say many things about him – he was loved and admired by so many both inside and outside the Institute.  For me it is enough to share a moment’s memory of Father Gabriele with you.  I feel genuinely obliged to thank God for this man’s life, for this man’s example and for his tireless work in the field of communications.

I greet and embrace you in the Lord.

Father Giuseppe Inverardi

Very Human

I was still in short pants when Father Gabriele Soldati came into my life.  I was in the second year of middle school at Montevecchia when he began his missionary apostolate as an assistant at the seminary.  He struck me immediately as a dynamic and resourceful man as well as a good-natured teacher.  His missionary zeal was soon recognized and admired in Brianza.  I am a native of Bevera and I still meet many older people who ask about him and tell me anecdotes about him.

I met him again in the early 1970’s when he was a General Councilor and in charge of the Institute’s Mission and Vocation Promotion.  He acted as a point of reference on the national level for the Federation of the Mani Tese (Outstretched Hands) movement.  At that time I was a regional promoter for the association.  Those were rough and difficult years;  I was torn between the directives of the missionary institutes and the young protesters who objected to the more traditional forms of assistance to the poor of the third world.  His measured style saved me from the wrath of lay and religious zealots.  I very much appreciated his humanity.

The time then came for me to go off to the missions and our paths diverged.  In the early 1980’s I returned to Turin to take up direction of the  CAM.  The magazines “Missioni Consolata” and “Amico” are part of the Center.  We were able to work together in an uncomplicated atmosphere of  mutual respect and affection.  Father Soldati was the director of “Missioni Consolata” at that time.  He wasn’t satisfied with that assignment – his zeal for mass communication led him into documentary and video production.  Proximity to this great worker who traveled up and down Italy increased my affection for this father and friend.

And then there was the moment of his great trial – the stroke.  We saw each other again at the Clinica Sanatrix  where my sister,  Sister Giovanna, was working.  She grew very attached to him and the three of us shared a friendship that was beneficial to all of us.  My sister and Father Gabriele were in constant contact.  When she died he spoke to me about her with tenderness and emotion – he was in tears.  I treasure the words he wrote to me on this occasion.

During his long residence in Turin we met often.  In the midst of sickness he kept his smile – he had the cheerful look of a thoroughly good man, honest and full of faith.  He would promise to say a “rosary” for each new project I undertook.  How happy he was when he learned that I had been chosen to set up the great missionary exhibition for the Year 2000 Jubilee.  To rejoice for others, to do good, to express compassion – this is a synthesis of his life as a missionary.  Wherever he went he spread the good news of the God who saves.

Thank you Gabriele.  Rest in peace and enjoy Paradise.

Father Giordano Rigamonti

EXCERPTS

In 1976 Father Gabriele Soldati assumed direction of  “Missioni Consolata.”  Previously he was not in the habit of saving his writings but from 1976 we have  monthly editorials and many articles which give us an insight into his human and spiritual side.

Missioni Consolata, February 1977:  “’Third World’ is a term we will no longer use in this publication because, like it or not, it has become discriminatory and humiliating.  This expression is not pleasing to our people, young and old, or to any other people.  The expression is offensive to our Christian faith.  If we look at the world from God’s point of view, there is but one world:  the great human family where all are children of the same Father, redeemed by the same blood of Christ, and co-heirs to the same great promise of saving love.  If we as Christians believe this, then there are no longer a ‘first’ or a ‘third’ world.  And if there is any sort of precedence – it belongs to those who suffer, to those who have nothing, to those who are the least.”

Missioni Consolata, April 1977:  In a comment on the massacre of seven missionaries in Rhodesia, Father Gabriele writes, “Those seven missionaries bothered people and they were eliminated … in times such as ours when we all light up like firecrackers when there is talk of justice or equality;  in which everyone (from intellectuals to infants)  chatters ceaselessly about liberation and human concerns  - there is only one honest word we can say:  disappointment.

That’s the way the world is:  on one side people theorize and on the other they die.  The acrobats of dialectic continue to manufacture words – and the young missionaries continue to give up their lives.  It is a question of choices.  There are those who fight injustice by painting slogans on walls, organizing mass demonstrations, shooting machine guns, issuing condemnations of the excesses of the right and the left.

Missionaries too make choices:  they witness the Gospel with their lives.  Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who hunger, blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are those who are persecuted for justice sake … they go off to live in hospitals, leprosaria, schools;  they spend their days in the most desperate corners of the world.

… We the living are consumed with curiosity about who did this crime;  they, the dead, if they could speak to us would have one thing to say:  we were the victims of hate.  When hate kills, innocence dies.  In the face of these innocent victims we are moved – not everything is lost for Rhodesia.  Innocence does not cry for vengeance,  it cries out for love.”

Missioni Consolata, May 1977: “ … Preaching the Gospel is becoming ever more dangerous, especially when one witnesses with one’s life – serving the poor, the hungry, the outcast, the handicapped, the lepers.  To work in silence and be grateful if the great and powerful let one live.

Marxist regimes accuse missionaries of being “imperialists”;  military dictatorships call us “communists.”  Missionaries today work and sacrifice with bated breath – with the continual fear that they will be arrested, tried, expelled and condemned and only because they witness and proclaim peace and love for one’s brothers.

This same wind is blowing here at home.  Under the guise of emancipation, freedom from clericalism, secularism, rejection of the Gospel is accompanied by religious intolerance, systematic dissent, smear campaigns … Where is the Church of Christ? the faint-hearted ask.  The Church of Christ is still there.  We should not look for her in mass demonstrations, marches, tabloid publications or political broadcasts.  We should seek her where there is persecution, where people suffer and die for the Gospel.  We will discover the Church as great and alive as she ever was.”

Missioni Consolata, September 1977: “Worry? Pain? Sickness? Misfortune? Death?  Unfortunately these are the constantly recurring events of life.  But just as money, comfort, esteem and pleasure are not enough to make us happy so too if we will it, adversity, anxiety, trial and trouble cannot make us unhappy.  One can laugh and feel trapped in hell – one can cry and feel peace within. 

This sort of talk may sound absurd – but it corresponds to reality.  We would not dare talk like this if we didn’t have the confirmation of the Gospel.  The Word of God does not deceive.  It teaches us that we come from Him and we are going back to Him.  He is our beginning and our end.  In spite of all our worry we will never find peace or happiness without Him.

If our life is a short journey that starts with God and ends with God – why should we interrupt that journey?  Why should we live as if the tenuous thread of our life did not start and end with God?  How can we let days, months, years –sometimes a whole lifetime – go by without thinking of Him, without looking to Him, without loving Him?  This would be genuine unhappiness: boredom, desperation, distaste for life.

“Isn’t God here as well?” a missionary in central Africa wrote to his aged mother.  “When God is present life is beautiful.  If one works for God one does not tire.  And if one should tire, one need only gaze at a flower and think of Him.  It is better than a prolonged vacation.”

Missioni Consolata, May 1979:  “ … One often hears it said that the priesthood is less and less attractive if one continues to insist on celibacy and life-long commitment.  Unless it can be disengaged from its radicalism and absolutism the religious vocation with its three vows – poverty, chastity and obedience – is no longer understood or accepted by young people.  Is this really the case?  Actually we hold a diametrically opposed opinion.  We fret too much about young people and they are ever more tired and disgusted by our uncertainty, hesitation and fear.

…”The Redeemer of mankind, Jesus Christ, is the center of the cosmos and of history …”  These are the opening words of the encyclical Redemptor Hominis; they are a formula for the salvation not just of Christians but of all human kind.  They are staggering words.  But they provide a solution – at least for believers – to all our problems, even our vocation problems.  We must proclaim these words with the same vigor and assurance as the Pope.  We must speak about Jesus to young people.  Without Jesus the Gospel and its radicalism make no sense – they are absurd.”

Missioni Consolata, June 1980:  “Certainly missionaries more than anyone else rejoice at the Pope’s long, tiring and blessed adventure in Africa.  It is a chapter  written in indelible letters in the history of evangelization.  For missionaries it was a dream come true to see the immense crowds that greeted the Pope, that received him as if he were Jesus; people shouted, knelt and prayed – not following any prescribed rubrics – but simply overcome with faith.  What the missionaries saw was no dream;  there before their eyes was Christian Africa alive, exuberant, explosive.  This was an intimate joy for the missionaries;  they savored these scenes in the secret of their hearts, face to face with God, unseen by reporters, cameramen or television crews.  They knew that their work had not been in vain.

One hundred years ago Africa was largely unknown.  The first missionaries arrived on its shores by ship.  There was nothing – or almost nothing Christian in the dark continent;  there were no missions, churches, Christians or catechumens.  Many of these pioneers, men and women who came from Europe  motivated by love for Christ and for Africa died of sleeping sickness, yellow fever and malaria.  But others came to take their place.

The Pope’s journey to Africa was prepared by one hundred years of dedication, sacrifice and witness by tens of thousands of missionaries.  They paved the way for the Gospel, the Church and the Pope.”

Missioni Consolata, March 1983:  “…above all  God is love.  Love seeks unity with the person loved – hence the Eucharist.  ‘I will draw all things to me’ are the words of Jesus that reveal the Eucharist as the point of fusion between God and man, and man and God.  Jesus pronounced these words before mounting the Cross to proclaim the most explosive of truths:  the world, the whole world – mankind, peoples, the earth, the stars, galaxies, the cosmos are inexorably sucked into the saving vortex of God’s love.  God loves us.  This is the good news of Christianity – this is why Jesus commanded us to carry this message into the whole world;  this is why there are missionaries.  The Eucharist – the presence of Christ, the sacrifice of Christ, the eating of Christ – is the center of this vortex of love that sucks up and saves the world.”