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Fr. Mario Bianco (1916 - 2007) Print E-mail
Written by Fr. Piero Trabucco, IMC   
Friday, 18 May 2007
Fr. Mario Bianco, IMC
1916 - 2007

Mario Bianco, born on 25th November 1916 at Valdellatorre (Torino), joins the IMC school of Favria Canavese (TO) in the month of November 1931. In his personal file there are no writings to reveal the motivations which convinced this boy of 25 years of age to enter the Institute. We find only two short writings from his Parish Priest of Valdellatorre who vouchsafes for young Mario’s attitudes for study, his inclination to become a religious and his good moral conduct, held up to that moment. The town medical doctor himself certifies Mario’s healthy physical make-up, even thug he points out in him a somewhat weak constitution. He regularly attends his secondary school and then, in 1936, becomes a postulant at the Certosa of Chiusa Pesio. He does his Novitiate at Varallo and professes his temporary vows for the first time on 2nd November 1939. His educators are unanimous in pointing out his easy going nature, good and sociable, though not too much visible (“typical of a Piedmontese peasant”). He achieves sufficiency in his studies, but after some hard work. He shows a greater bent for manual work than for study. During the Novitiate year he shows seriousness and balance in everything. He is being portrayed as “judicious, of few words and more action”. The Novice Master, at the end of the Novitiate, affirms that the young novice “had to fight hard against himself and though he may not have been successful as he wished, nevertheless he endeavored with personal gratification. Of a good open nature and sincere”. The evaluation made by the Administrator of the Novitiate is more complimentary: “During the whole year he always behaved very well, without any blame or posture worth mentioning. He can be trusted to be quite successful even in his moral simplicity”. During theology some limiting personality traits become clearer (closed in on himself, shyness, little initiative and bursts of anger). The Superiors then give him a year of test in order to enable him to better himself. At the end of that test the Rector affirms that the young professed member has demonstrated capacity to work hard on himself and “determination” in carrying out his duties. These words constitute a green light towards Perpetual Profession and Priestly Ordination. He makes his perpetual vows on 2nd November 1943 at Uviglie where he had done many of his theological studies and where he will be ordained to the priesthood by the Bishop of Casale, Mons. Giuseppe Angrisani, on 18th of June 1944. It is still war time and every departure for the missions is suspended. In the mean time he is asked to be the tutor of the two sons of the Ethiopian Negus, Merid and Samson. That went on for just a few months because the end of the war brings to him the good news of his assignment to Africa. Let us now follow his missionary adventure through his own memoires, whose title is “A Valtorrese Adventurer with the Gospel”.

Mozambique: first love

He leaves Alpignano on 19th February 1946. With Fr. Gallea and some other confreres assigned to Mozambique, he starts a long and adventurous trip to Lisbon, passing through France and Spain, travelling by trains which still bear many war wounds (windows without glasses…). After a short stay in Lisbon, his assignment is Fatima where Fr. Giovanni De Marchi was placing the foundations of the IMC presence in Portugal. Fr. Bianco jots down in his diary: “The shrine is just emerging from its foundations; the place which will become the esplanade is just a land depression where some little grey grass grows with difficulty for sheep and cows, and where spiky thistles abound. The village is inhabited by peasants who spend their life trying to scrap some food from a little piece of stingy soil, away from the noise of cities and where all know each other. How did Fatima, Mohamed’s favorite daughter, do to give her name to such a village, lost on a rocky plateau, just covered by a thin mantle of soil?”. The Missionaries learn Portuguese with the help of Donha Soledade who contributed a lot in the writing of Fr. De Marchi’s book on the Apparitions: “It was a Lady shining more than the son”. They celebrate the Eucharist every day in the little chapel of the apparitions and can get to know several relatives of the little shepherds.

At the end of April they leave Fatima for Lisbon where the ship “O Colonial” is waiting to carry them to Mozambique, a trip which will last two months. Fr. Bianco does not fail to note that Missionaries are placed in first class, since all “is paid by the Government of Salazar who holds the catholic religion as part of the colonial power, in keeping with the old motto: To spread the faith and the empire!”. The long and tedious days on ship were sometimes interrupted by the storms and the many stops in the African harbors: Santo Tomé, Luanda, Namibia… Fr. Mario observes everything with attention and his written observations bear the typical missionary style. For example, he notes: “Cape City is a truly earthly paradise… but not for everyone!”. Our travelers set off again and reach Port Elizabeth, East London, the harbor of Durban where four years earlier our confreres, prisoners of the British, had disembarked. The stop in Maputo allows our travelers to meet some Italians who had run way from prison camps or survived shipwrecks. The ship reaches also Beira and ends trip along the African Continent in the fortified Island of Mozambique.

For our missionaries sit is the beginning of their African adventure. Fr. Bianco jots down with plenty of details places, people, curious meetings, confreres, social and political situation of the Country. The method by which he evaluates everything is, as always, in keeping with that apostolic ideal which has made him leave everything to go to far distant lands. After the apprenticeship period he receives the awaited assignment. Fr. Mario is appointed to the Mission of Mepanhira: he is enthusiastic about it. In his well detailed descriptions he does not fail to emphasize the brotherhood which united the missionaries: «I felt immediately well to be with the two priests and the broche who lived there happily: the same faith, the same ideal did unite us as brothers in one tight bond of friendship. In the evening, after supper, under the light of our camp lamp we used to tell each other our stories and secrets ». We find the same positive impressions regarding the local people. He tries o know ever more the Makua culture: he queries the elders, takes notes of their customs, collects various material which he will put down in writing afterwards.

Frm Mepanhira he then goes to Maua. He recalls: «Maua is placed at the foot of a big U shaped rock having two spikes which seem to embrace all the buildings. Here we are two priests and a brother, Remo Cardinali, carrying out the same activities and applying the same method we had in Mepanhira, in cooperation with three Sisters who are in charge of the girls’ boarding, a first aid dispensary, and they take care also of the kitchen. We live in perfect harmony. The place is fantastic, the air is cooler though it is unfortunately plagued with tsetse fly capable of transmitting the sleeping sickness or tripanosomiasi». Fr. Mario’s stay in this beautiful mission does not last long: «For some time now I have been afflicted by malaria, falciparum type, the worst, which attacs the brain and causes dry pleurisy at the same time. When I was breathing I could hear the sound of the air going through, but I endured: I did not want to leave Africa and the missions which I loved so much. I try one final experiment, but it was useless. […] “Fuge coelum sub quo aegrotasti”, is a saying of the medical school of Salerno. Thus I decide to return home. The brother loads me on a small lorry and we go; we pass under the arch made by the branches of the forest trees but soon the stars reappear. Among them I see the Southern Cross, perhaps for the last time. I am filled with great sadness: now that I have come to know the language, the people’s culture, after so many sacrifices, I must abandon everything, slimmed, having a fever, feeling without strength, just at the time of my life when I should be stronger and more useful...».

He leaves Niassa and Mozambique and returns home. He spends a time of convalescence at the Mother House and at his own family home. The home climate is very helpful for him and after a few months he regains strength and enthusiasm for a new mission. He goes back again to Portugal: «I spend a short period at Fatima – he recalls – at the seminary, among wind mills, here so numerous, walks at the places where the little shepherds used to go, afterwards I am sent to Carregado, 22 Km away from Lisbon, situated with the Tago river banks on one side and on the other with an area of low barren hills where I am entrusted with a parish. There live peasants who grow vines and olive trees. Christian people who have lost their faith ». Even here Fr. Bianco continue to say that he finds himself well and happy: «I felt well in that area, us missionaries always operates on the first line. The time for leaving arrives since the Community decides to give back to the Patriarch of Lisbon the three parishes. I ask to return to the mission, but not to an unhealthy place. As a consequence I am being assigned to Colombia. It is September 1956».

Colombia: the new mission

The space available for this report does not allow us to follow the Fr. Mario Bianco’s Colombian adventure step by step, as it is being narrated in his diary with a wealth of details. I will limit myself to the main stages of his mission in Colombia:

- San Felix: it is his first assignment in Colombia. «I notice in the people a strong religiosity and a great respect for us, it seems like being always among friends, they smile at us and they feel honored when talking with us... We love each other and rightly so. Fathers live poorly just as they do, they teach in the seminary to about sixty boys and at the same time they care for the well being of the town: they have built a water system which brings water to all the houses, they have enlarged the parish house with class rooms and a parish hall, they have built in cement the facade of the church, adding two beautiful bell towers and bought a clock which marks the hours and two big bells by the lively sound».

- Puerto Salgar: He has been there just a few days when, during a check of the church after a periodical earth tremor, he falls from a six meter height and breaks his leg. A true calvary begins for him, made of badly done surgical operations, painful physical therapies. «I was able after two months, between strong pains and determined will, to walk again and live ».

- La Paz: «Later on I am sent as parish of a little village called La Paz, placed at the foot of the eastern Cordigliera, one thousand meters on the sea level, a most beautiful place: at the back there are the mountains growing ever taller, in front there is the lengthy valley of the Maddalena river running in the middle while the evening air is mild». The people in the area are not very religious and violence is ever present. Nevertheless, after having spent six years in this parish, he writes: «At the beginning they received me with mistrust, but when they realized that I was not using any discrimination between liberals and conservators things changed… What marvelous days I spent among those good people!»

- Cartagena, Guaduas, Tambo, Guacamayas, Caldono… These are the names of villages and parishes which appear in the last pages o his diary and let known and unknown faces be seen, stories of ordinary missionary life, chronicles of facts, many of which were violent. Here and there he does not forget to remark his intimate belief, unchanged during his 50 years of mission in Colombia: «I belief that deep in the soul of the Colombian people and of the whole Latin America flow currents of fresh waters of humanity and religion which the sophisticated and materialistic Europe has caused to wither».

- Manizales is his last stop. I let the Missionary Agency “Misna” narrate to us his death which took place on 15th February 2007:

“Fr. Mario Bianco, Consolata Missionary, has died at the age of 90. The death was caused by a sudden heart failure. He together with another Italian Missionary had been attacked on 4th February in Manizales, West-Center area of Colombia”. This has been reported to MISNA by Fr. José Luis Ponce de León, secretary general of the same congregation. He explains: “I have just talked with our confreres in Colombia and according to them the death of Fr. Mario is connected to that aggression”. After the bandits’ attack, the Italian missionary was maltreated and forced to remain tied up on the ground for about 4 hours: “He was already afflicted by a cold – the Consolata secretary adds – and he had been diagnosed with a bronco-pneumonia the previous Tuesday. Though he had been immediately hospitalized, he passed away yesterday evening at 10 p.m., local time”.

Fr. Ponce de Léon puts together for MISNA the facts that took place at the Seminary in Manizales: “It is a big building and it is most likely that the bandits were acquainted with it. On Sunday 4th February, late in the afternoon, they waited for some people present in the building to leave before going into action”. After having tied up Fr. Bianco and a woman employee, “they have also attacked Fr. Francesco Mellino, 83 years old, Italian, who had arrived shortly after” he goes on explaining. For a few hours – until one o’clock at night – the bandits looked for money and valuables. Fr. Bianco had been in Colombia for more than 50 years and, among other things, he had been also the Parish Priest of Manizales.

His body rests in the cemetery of Manizales (Colombia).
Fr. Piero Trabucco, IMC
Last Updated ( Thursday, 17 May 2007 )