Father Giuseppe was born on August 4, 1915 in Paullo Milanese the son of Leone Gabbini and Adele Sangalli.  He had a thriving shoe-store when he left everything to join the Institute as an adult.  It was 1946 and he was 31 years old.  He made his profession in 1950 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1954.  He was sent to Fátima in Portugal where he taught geography in the seminary for one year (1954-1955) and learned the language.  But this was not really the work he was fitted for.  He was assigned to hospitality work at the House of the Consolata where he sold religious articles.  He relished and found priestly fulfillment in direct contact with people.

He started in a small way and soon became one of the major merchants at Fatima.  During these years he built the prestigious Hotel Pax and the large religious articles store adjacent to the hotel.  He worked diligently with these two businesses – the profits of which supported our students and our work in the foreign missions.  He carried out his priestly work in Fatima and the surrounding area; for several years he was a chaplain at Melroeira-Ourém.  One day on his way to Melroeira-Ourém to celebrate Mass he had an accident with his motorcycle and was injured.  He was carried home in an ox-drawn cart. 

He had great devotion to Our Lady of Fatima.  Very early each morning he would go to the Chapel of the Apparitions to celebrate Mass and to pray. 

He was outgoing and made friends easily.  Soon he had an enormous network of friends who still speak of him with admiration. 

In 1970 he came back to Italy and for one year was in charge of construction of the seminary at Boario Terme.  Until 1990 he worked in the financial administration section of the Institute in Turin.  In 1990 he was named the director of the Koelliker Clinic which was being enlarged and restructured and on its way to becoming a hospital of regional and even national repute.  While involved in this work he was zealous in spreading knowledge of the missions among people who came to the hospital.  In 1998 he retired to the House of Alpignano.

On the morning of June 5 he was found dead.  He had suffered heart failure while asleep.  His funeral was held on Wednesday, June 6.  Father  Silvano Cacciari celebrated the Mass assisted by the Father General and the Regional Superior. 

In his homily Father Cacciari referred to Father Gabbini’s adult vocation along with the organizing ability, spirit and sense of family that marked all his activities.  The General Council along with confrères, sisters, relatives, friends from Rome, Turin, Rivoli and Fátima attended the services.  Many workers from the Koelliker Clinic were also present.

His body was interred at the cemetery of Alpignano.

Father Giuseppe Villa

TESTIMONIAL

A life-long friend

I became a friend of Carletto Gabbini in the last years of the war.  There was a difference of only a few years in our ages.  We shared many experiences together: Catholic Action, St. Vincent DePaul Society, political and social work, assistance to the needy, amateur dramatics…  He was the best actor in our troupe – he was attractive and enthusiastic, he could speak in a way that penetrated one’s soul.  Even as a businessman he had a distinct personality.  Then, all of a sudden at the age of thirty-one he disappeared from his hometown – Paullo.  I well remember the sensation his disappearance caused, especially when people learned he was going off to be a missionary! 

We followed different paths but I always kept in touch with him.  I went to visit him when he began his studies at Certosa di Pesio;  I attended his ordination in July 1954, visited him in Fatima and saw him again at the Koelliker Hospital where he did so much for the sick and suffering.  I remember that he wanted to go to the missions but after contracting a rare form of malaria in Mozambique he preferred to stay with the sick – “these are my friends now” he said.  I went to visit him at Alpignano and recall how content he was with all he had done for the sick and for missionaries at his clinic.  He spoke often of these things.

Our meetings were brief – but a telephone call on a feast day (especially St. Charles) was enough to revive our friendship and my acquaintance with the Consolata  missionaries.

Angelo Grioni