FATHER ERMENEGILDO CRESPI

1936 – 2006

Father Ermenegildo was born on June 20, 1936 in San Zenone degli Ezzelini (Treviso – Italy) the son of Giuseppe Crespi and Margherita Silvestri, and was one of 12 children. Both he and his brother Luigi became Consolata Missionaries. He entered the Congregation in 1948 in Vittorio Veneto. In 1958 he made his religious profession and in 1963 he was ordained to the priesthood.

He spent a year as the assistant director of the prep school (liceo) in Varallo Sesia and then was assigned as director of the minor seminary in Gambettola. He was passionately devoted to the missionary enterprise and shared this zeal with his young charges. In a message of solidarity to Father Domenico Fiorino when Father Michele Stallone was martyred in Kenya (1965) he wrote: “The Lord wanted Father Michele Stallone’s life. His blood is like nurturing rain that will irrigate the dried earth of the Marsabit desert … and the desert will bloom! […] Father, what a lesson for our young people. We share your suffering and that of all our missionaries at the loss of this great apostle. At the same time we are proud that this life has been asked of our Congregation. This is a clear sign that the missions are especially loved by the Lord. May the loss of Father Michele’s life nourish even more “gospel goodness” in the hearts of “his friends.”

The work of an educator is all-consuming and stressful. When the results are not what one hopes for it can be excruciating. This was Father Ermenegildo’s experience. He was not slow to critique his work or the work of his community. At the same time he was committed to dialogue and collaboration with his confrères in an effort to create the best possible climate for formation.

After eight years of extraordinarily strenuous work in Italy (seven in Gambettola) he felt burnt out. Looking back on his work he wondered if it had been worth it – he answered in the affirmative: “yes – and I say this with my heart on my sleeve: I worked with commitment, faith and enthusiasm …” But he believed that the time had come to go to the missions for the sake of his priesthood and his missionary vocation.

In 1973 he was assigned to Canada and would work in Montreal for 23 years. He was parish vicar and then pastor at the Consolata Parish (1973-1992); Episcopal Pro-Vicar (1975-1982); President of the Italo-Canadian Pastoral Workers’ Conference of Montreal (1975-1983); Delegation Councilor (1976-1984); Delegate Superior of Canada (1984-1990).

He loved the Congregation and sent his congratulations to Father Mario Bianchi when he was re-elected Superior General in 1975: “Thank you, Father,” he wrote, “for having accepted this cross for the sake of our religious family.” In December of the same year he sent a Christmas card to Father Bianchi and speaks enthusiastically of his work: “we work so hard every day that we risk exhaustion as we try to do everything. But thank God there is harmony and consensus … it is undoubtedly true that Our Lady, the Consolata, works with her missionaries.”

One of Father Ermenegildo’s accomplishments was to break down the Congregation’s isolation from the diocese. This is why he was appointed President of the priests who worked in the Montreal Italian community and later Episcopal Vicar. Because of him people know and love our Congregation. The priests and bishops we encounter respect us and compliment the good work we are doing in Canada.

Father Ermenegildo was a man of enthusiasm, an extrovert. His spirituality found expression in the charismatic movement: he was its director in the Montreal diocese. On December 8, 1976 he wrote a beautiful letter to Father Mario Bianchi that is full of the fire of the Spirit that burned within him: “We give thanks a thousand times to God for the wonderful work he is doing amongst us priests: I and the other signatories of this letter seem to have entered a new phase of our spiritual life. For several months there has been a charismatic prayer group in our parish … and we are involved – in spite of ourselves. Possibly this is the path the Lord is opening up for us to serve him more completely, to make our pastoral work flourish. We have rediscovered prayer, community life, serenity and the joy of feeling loved by God. We know the joy of being instruments of the Holy Spirit who works in all. There is no reason to say it … but we are not caught up in false enthusiasm!”

When he speaks about parish work he says: “We will launch our pastoral program beginning in Advent. We do this every year but this year we have prayed about it more and since the publication of Evangelii Nuntiandi along with the Diocesan Pastoral Plan we are more than ever dedicated to proclaiming the Word. The community in our care will become the privileged place for listening to, accepting, proclaiming, interpreting and living the Word of God. I will not tell you what Our Lady, the Consolata, is doing in our midst: we witness conversions, awakenings, fervor – never before seen.”

He closes by asking Father General to join him in thanking the Lord for all his gifts. Among these gifts is the newly inaugurated (December 8) Mission and Vocation Promotion Center: “it is yet another act of confidence in the value of our work; it is an act of loyalty to the spirit of our Founder and to the name of Our Lady, the Consolata, who works wonders in our midst.”

In 1994 Father Ermenegildo was assigned to the Argentina Region. This transfer he later wrote “was extremely painful. I had to fit in, become ‘inculturated’, and come to grips with a new mentality. It really put me to the test and I can only thank God who led me by the hand.” (Letter to Father Trabucco, October 15, 2001).

Once in Argentina his pastoral enthusiasm produced abundant results in Nuestra Señora de Pompeya in Merlo. After six years he was transferred to the parish of Machagai and here too the transfer was not without pain. Those who had come to know and love him were not willing to see him leave. They did everything possible – petitions with many signatures – to make superiors change their minds.

This love for Father Ermenegildo is clear from a letter the Parish Council wrote to the Regional Superior: “We ask that you reconsider Father Ermenegildo’s transfer. We were six years without a pastor and we welcomed Father Ermenegildo with so much hope. He has not disappointed this hope: his many works have shown his tireless service and his unconditional commitment to the accomplishing the Church’s mission. His presence in the parish of Nuestra Señora de Pompeya is absolutely necessary. He is not only efficient and creative in his apostolate but he has earned the sincere appreciation of adults as well as the affection of children. Our community needs him to continue his work – we love him.”

On April 2, 2000, he wrote to Father Trabucco, the Superior General, from Machagai: “I am happy to say that I face this new challenge in a spirit of faith and serenity, well aware of the need for continual conversion – it is the new foundation of my life as a Consolata Missionary. I thank the Lord for this flexibility. The “old” man would find a thousand reasons to object […] I am involved with working in the Machagai’s field and settlements. Our pastoral program includes such Church movements as the “Cursillo” and the Charismatic Renewal. These are effective instruments for the new evangelization.”

His work in this parish was short-lived. In late 2001 he handed the parish back to the Bishop. He wrote in Da Casa Madre: “we folded our tents, said farewell to the people and rowed off, happy, to the other shore. It is a part of the vineyard that we have cleared, plowed, planted, furnished with an infrastructure and now return to the diocese of Saenz-Peña. Today Machagai’s twenty-five settlements possess a small rural school, a first-aid clinic, a chapel and a priest who visits them monthly. He celebrates feast days, teaches catechism and Christian Initiation, and visits families and the sick. Many other small projects and welfare activities are in progress.”

Father Ermenegildo recalls the enormous amount so many of our confrères accomplished there and concludes: “After fifty years the Consolata Missionaries are giving up this parish – satisfied with what we have done. Humanly speaking there is nostalgia and regret, this is only understandable. All the same we know we have worked hard in the spirit of the Gospel. ‘We are useless servants who have only done their duty.’ Allamano’s teaching makes this departure less painful and helps our transition to new areas where there is still work to be done.”

On October 15, 2001 he wrote to Father Trabucco thanking him for the Canonical Visitation. It was a chance, he said, to renew his “allegiance to our Consolata Missionary spirit. “ He felt motivated and fulfilled in his pastoral work and always has something good to say about his confrères. He felt “privileged” to work with his collaborators. He writes, “I have discovered that prayer and the need to for renewal and motivation make me more docile to the promptings of the Spirit … ‘like a child in his mother’s arms.’ I feel Our Lady’s tenderness very strongly. My passion for the Sacrament of Reconciliation makes me feel my ministry of consolation.”

In 2002 Father Ermenegildo assumed responsibility for Nuestra Señora de la Consolata parish in Buenos Aires but his stay was short. At the end of the year he was sent once more to the North American Region. He did pastoral and missionary promotion work in Somerset until 2005 when he was elected Regional Superior.

In February, 2003, he began to suffer serious health problems and was forced to rest for two months. He says of this time: “During this time I felt enormously frustrated. It was as if I had been unexpectedly thrown from my horse and could not carry out my plans. My work came to a full stop. My feverish running here and there came up against an obstacle. I had never given much thought to my health – I was convinced that I would enjoy good health forever.

“This forced inactivity introduced me to the world of the sick. It is difficult to describe my surprise and embarrassment at being surrounded by the care and affection of my confrères and relatives. During those days I was especially aware of the closeness of many friends, acquaintances … people with whom I had shared the joys and hard work of the apostolate in Canada, Argentina and Italy.

Thinking back on this experience – from the onset of my illness to its final departure – I felt the presence of a caring, kind, discreet and sweet mother not just with my heart, but through my senses as well. It was our dear Lady, the Consolata. Father Allamano was right when he said ‘… what would this very tender Mother not do for us her sons?’”

On June 20, 2003, the Consolata Parish in Montreal celebrated its 50^th anniversary. Even though we had handed the parish back to the diocese years earlier, devotion to Our Lady, the Consolata, was still strong. It was a very emotional time for Father Ermenegildo. He had spent the most productive years of his priestly apostolate in this parish. “The jubilee,” he wrote in Da Casa Madre, “is a confirmation of the good pastoral work we have done. The parish community is devoted to Our Lady, the Consolata, and has not forgotten her missionaries. ‘They will proclaim my glory to the people’ is our motto. In Montreal this ‘glory’ is the precious legacy we have left in the parishes of St. John Bosco, Mary, Mother of Christians and Notre Dame de la Consolata. While attending the celebration I was struck by certain of our traditions that the parishioners had adopted for themselves: hospitality, openness, love of the Eucharist and the Word of God, filial affection and trust in Our Lady, the Consolata, care for the little ones, the vulnerable, the aged, the sick and missionary concern (prayer, witness, interest, zeal for vocations). One hears on all sides the spontaneous and sincere exclamation: “Blessed are our missionaries!”

In 2004 he wrote of his missionary experience for the periodical Amico: “you know that the missionary is one who bears the Word – that is Jesus. But I have always felt that I was being borne by this Word. This is what moved me; it was like the wind that fills the sails of a boat, the spark that starts the motor … it will not leave you alone. It stirs you up inside – it is alive and wants to be proclaimed everywhere.”

In his last message to Da Casa Madre he spoke about the Congregation’s solidarity with those who had suffered from hurricanes in the United States (Summer 2005). He was planning several ‘Missionary Days’ and it was “only logical that faced with these terrible events we should extend our hand to those stricken communities. We must think of projects to show our solidarity. And this is what we did. Our gestures were humble but we have seen them multiplied ad infinitum – the broken world is like the broken bread of the Eucharist.”

Shortly after this Father Ermenegildo’s health problems reappeared: he was diagnosed with leukemia and had to undergo chemotherapy. He survived the first cycle of treatment but his heart gave out during the second cycle. On May 4, 2006, he returned to Our Father’s house.

He was waked in the Consolata Church where he had lived for so many years. His funeral was held in the same church on Saturday, May 6. Father Ermenegildo was laid to rest in the Consolata Missionary tomb in the Cotes de Neiges cemetery.

Fr Sergio Frassetto, imc

TESTIMONIALS

“Love alone remains” (I Cor 13,8)

I would begin this testimonial to my brother with that family meeting where we first hit on this phrase of Paul. Faith and hope will come to an end but love never because love is God.

Our large family (12 children) was always blessed by the unity and affection we shared – this included our in-laws, nieces and nephews and everyone who got to know us. Father Gildo was a tireless support of this loving communion.

Among the many positive aspects of my brother’s life that he shared with others I would focus on his concern that our family live according to Gospel standards and that the family be united through the sacrament of Matrimony. He suffered when one or another of our nieces or nephews failed to marry the people they lived with.

The Word of God was his daily bread and he shared it willingly. He helped everyone to read, understand and live it. The daily celebration of the Eucharist and adoration of the Eucharistic presence in our midst were the high points of his day.

Our Lady was the other great love of his life: the Madonna della Salute (the shrine in our hometown is dedicated to this title of Mary) and Our Lady, the Consolata. Without ever becoming a fanatic he spent many years working in the Consolata parish promoting devotion to Our Lady, the Consolata. It was a devotion that was realized in a coherent Christian life in one’s family and at work.

Another of my brother’s characteristics was his faith in the Holy Spirit: he firmly believed in the renewal of life through the action of the Spirit. He devoted himself body and soul, day and night, in his travels and work to the Charismatic Renewal Movement. He did a great deal of work with charismatic groups in Montreal and Toronto. I sometimes asked hm if it wasn’t all a little exaggerated. He always answered: “This movement of the Spirit is doing much good to individuals, families and parish communities.” Its results were indeed marvelous.

Father Gildo was a dynamic, enthusiastic and fervent missionary priest. His vocation took him to Argentina where he worked for eight years. Everyone remembers him and his work with gratitude. I always supported my own mission projects and got others to support them as well. As he would say, “the missions are everyone’s responsibility.”

It is comforting to hear people, priests and confrères say: “he was a genuine shepherd: he knew his sheep and they knew him.”

He was loved and appreciated by all who knew him even if he occasionally lost patience with those who were indifferent or slow to change their lives. Certainly the evident affection of the many Consolata parish people who attended his funeral was wondrous to behold.

Thank you, dear brother. Your priestly life was exemplary with love for all of us, your brothers and sisters and the many people who encountered Christ through you and your example.

Your departure from this world has passed the torch you lit to us. It is up to us to bring light to all we encounter on our journey. Farewell, Father Gildo, and thanks for everything. From heaven you bless your family and all those who knew and loved you.

Fr Luigi Crespi, imc

A genuine shepherd of souls

In 1973 Father Ermenegildo Crespi was the pastor of Consolata Parish in Montreal. This is an enormous ethnic parish (6,000 families) almost all of whom are Italian. A team of four priests worked with him. Father Ermenegildo and his co-worker Father Franco Cocco were dedicated to establishing and developing Charismatic Renewal groups and Marriage Encounter. On week-ends hundreds of couples took part in Marriage Encounter.

At the Monday evening Charismatic Mass there were frequently 1,000 people in attendance. Once a month there was a Sunday retreat in the school gymnasium – the parish hall was too small for the crowd that came.

Father Ermenegildo devoted long hours to spiritual direction for the many parishioners who sought him out. Many of worked heart and soul in parish projects such as the St. Vincent de Paul Society. Ours was a genuinely missionary parish. Each year we gathered money for projects in missionary countries.

Dozens and dozens of young people took part in week-end retreats and re-established contact with God and the Church. At one point we had more than 180 boy scouts – the largest group in the Montreal area. Some of our young people became priests or worked abroad as lay missionaries.

Love for our Founder led Father Ermenegildo to set up a small room dedicated to Blessed Joseph Allamano at the Church entrance. He was very much devoted to the Eucharist. Not too long ago he had a plaque prepared with this inscription: “O priest of God! Celebrate this Mass as if it were your first Mass, your last Mass, your only Mass!” He had the plaque placed in the sacristy of our chapel in Somerset. Along with his devotion to the Eucharist he loved Our Lady intensely and led many pilgrimages to Fatima, Lourdes, Medjugorje and other Marian shrines.

Father Crespi had a strong personality and often made decisions on his own – but he was always aware of this shortcoming and forced himself to consult with his confrères. He could be described with the Latin expression: “Fortiter et suaviter” – strong but with all the kindness of which human nature is capable.

In 1992 the Consolata Missionaries left the Consolata parish in Montreal and Father Ermenegildo was sent to Argentina. He came back to North America and for a few years he was the director of our missionary center in Somerset. On June 23, 2005 he was elected the superior of our Region. One month later while he was preaching a “Missionary Day” he fell to the floor. In the hospital he was diagnosed with advanced leukemia. Father Ermenegildo faced death, the great destroyer and began his painful ascent of Calvary. He found it difficult to live out what he had so long preached. His hope grew faint at times but his faith – never.

Fr Aventino Oliveira, imc