Father Giambattista Zantedeschi

Father Giambattista Zantedeschi

(9th Superior General of the Institute of Charity)

by

Domenico Mariani

Translated by J. Anthony Dewhirst

‘Lord, give us priests!

Lord, give us holy priests!

Lord, give us many holy priests!

Lord, bless our families, so that they may be centres of priestly and religious vocations!’

Has anyone not heard, orally or mentally these invocations which Father Zantedeschi used to make in every Mass he said, and which expressed his deep longing as pastor and General of a Religious Institute? Today he is imploring God and obtaining from him the fulfilment of his desires.

Giambattista Zantedeschi was born on 30 October 1919 at Fumane (Verona) of Angelo (1882 – 1964) and Elisa Quintarelli (1886 – 1949), the sixth child of a fine home blessed by God: Domenico, Sante, Giovanni, Carmela, Ernesto, Giambattista, Santina, and Antonio. (Giovanni, Santina and Antonio are still living). One can easily surmise that many grandchildren and great grandchildren came from this family. To be precise there were 23 grandchildren and 40 great grandchildren of whom Father Zantedeschi was very fond and to whom he enjoyed giving the Sacraments.

His father was a share - cropping farmer, his mother was home - maker. The family income was not a large one, but it was sufficient to feed the many mouths and make for a peaceful life.

He was baptised on 9 November 1919 and confirmed on 2 September 1926 in the parochial village church. Giambattista completed the course at the elementary school at Fumane, and in the autumn of 1931 was looking for the next step to take. At the suggestion of a priest friend, his parents decided to send the twelve year old Giambattista to the Institute of the Sons of Don Calabria. The latter had started a new religious Congregation of the Poor Servants of Divine Providence at San Zeno al Monte, in Verona in 1908. The boy’s priestly vocation was sound and, as it were, innate in him. Antonio relates that ‘from childhood he would gather together his brothers and cousins to copy a procession and, placing himself behind a chest as if it were a pulpit, he would preach fervently just like the parish priest did in church’.[i]

But Giambattista’s candidacy for the Sons of Don Calabria did not have a positive outcome. On the day he went to Verona with his parents to present himself, the priest responsible for accepting aspirants was absent; and they knew that the College of Aspirants was full.

There was hardly any possibility of Giambattista being accepted.

They returned home disappointed. They consulted the parish priest, Don Leone Pachera (+ 1933), a great friend of the Rosminian Fathers, who thought of finding a place for Giambattista at Rovereto in the Aspirantato of the Palazzo Rosmini; and this is what eventuated. The family still preserve some verses composed by the young man on his departure for Rovereto

“I depart for Rovereto, Parto per Rovereto

To the college I must go;in collegio io devo andar;

I am happy to do this,io me ne vo’ contento

But I must leave you, my mother.ma te, mamma, devo lasciar.

I must leave my mother,Devo lasciar la mia mammina

So near yet so far.tanto lontana, come vicina:

But I still wish you well as always.ma ti voglio bene ancora, come prima,

I will write you a noteti scriverò sempre un bigliettino

To console your little heart.per consolare il tuo cuoricino.

And the response I ask of you,E la risposta la vorrei pur da te,

Dear mother, is not to forget me.cara mamma,non ti scordar di me.

From you Father I must depart Da te, babbo, io me ne parto

And leave the countryside,e abbandono la campagna,

Because you know what my future is,perché tu sai il destin qual è:

Not to be close to you.di non star più vicino a te.

But bear in mind both these facts,Ma pensate tutti e due insieme

That your son is making a good start,che il vostro figlio si mette bene,

And if he is going far from you,e, se lontan da voi me ne andrò

He will never forget his mother and father.di babbo e mamma mai più mi scorderò.

I must stay in those regions with my, Lassù in quei paesi coi miei compagni devo

companions.star,

Far from you, whom I will never neglectLontan da voi, che devo abbanonar.[ii]

After three years of grammar school Giambattista was sent to Pusiano (Como) for the fourth year of high school, but on 30 August 1936 he was already at Calvario di Domodossola, ready to enter the Noviciate. The novice master, the Irishman, Fr Hugh Honan, received him into the community on 7 September. The Socius was Father Andrea Alotto; and the ordinary confessor of the novices would be Father Clemente Rebora..

On 5 September 1938 Giambattista took his first religious vows, and his final vows on 30 July 1942. He would take his coadjutor vows on 30 August 1953 and those of Presbyter on 1 January 1966.[iii]

Having completed his Novitiate he was sent for educational studies, going to the state Institute of Rovereto, where, in July 1941, he obtained the customary Diploma di Abilitazione magistrale. This immediately allowed him to work in a new undertaking of the Institute in that year: the education of unruly boys at Santa Maria di Fabriago (Ravenna). Young Father Mario Matteo Bevoli was appointed Rector and Mons. Antonio Galassini had the job of administration. 196 delinquents were entrusted to them. There were six Rosminian brethren, (also two external teachers and a cobbler), and eight Sisters of the Holy Family of Castelletto del Garda.[iv]Maestro Zantedeschi would have the office of assistant head and teacher in the school, and he held these offices until the end of 1945. It was difficult work from the point of view of lack of food (wartime years), general shortage, lack of hygiene (parasites!), and the violence of the times. In fact, in November 1944 the house was bombed by the allied troops, and the following month it was occupied by the Germans. A group of boys – more than 120 – were entrusted to Maestro Zantedeschi and transferred to the house at Bagnacavallo: but even here there would be five deaths, confusion, repatriations, a new move to Urbino and finally, in May, the return of the survivors to Fabriago where the adventure ended.[v]

After this arduous but formative experience, Giambattista Zantedeschi was sent to Rome for his philosophical and theological studies. His Rector was his old novice master, Father Hugh Honan, a highly intelligent and very gentle man. He went to the Lateran Athenaeum. The Rosminian clerics were a large and united group, studies were serious and intense; fun and youthful initiatives were not lacking (there were their famous plays); concerts where Zantedeschi had always the part of first tenor; the in - house magazine entitled Ad Portam Latinam’; the football matches; the games of boccia with famous men such as De Gasperi etc). They were also times of important democratic choices, such as the referendum of 1946 or the famous election of 1948 (which saw the Comitati Civici enter the field and the clerics, in the guise of candidates, sent to hold meetings in the south of Italy).[vi]

On 4 March 1950 Giambattista Zantedeschi was ordained priest with eight other brethren in the Church of San Giovanni a Porta Latina by Archbishop Mons. Alfonso Carinci. His mother unfortunately had died in the previous year. The following day he celebrated his first Mass in the house Oratory. Father General Bozzetti, his superiors and brethren we were present, and surrounded by his father and seven brothers and sisters, he gave his first priestly blessing to all those who had helped, looked after and loved him.

In September he was given his first task as Father Superior of the house of the aspirants, or little seminary of Rovereto, at whose door he had knocked as a boy nineteen years previously. But after only two years he was entrusted with the office of Censor of Discipline or Vice-Rector, in the Collegio Mellerio - Rosmini of Domodossola, the most impressive of the Rosminian colleges. He remained there only one year (1952 – 53), but he was remembered by past pupils as a ‘just and good man’.

In the Decrees of 1953 – 54 Padre Zantedeschi was appointed Rector and Master of Novices at Calvario, the successor of Padre Pio Bolla, with the help of the Socius, don Narciso, Bortolotti (then don Luca Laner and don Emilio Comper). Calvario, with a good number of Novices and Scholastics (especially in the summer period) would become with him a cheerful house like that of Vittorino da Feltre[vii]. Serious study; lively liturgies; work; mountain excursions; plays; the setting up of the magazine Nuvole (which would later be called Notizie calvariane and finally Speranze), are only some examples of that intense, youthful vitality which was present at Calvary in those years.

All this ended on 6 August 1958 when Padre Zantedeschi was ordered to depart for Venezuela, with Father Josito Gattoni and Father James Connolly, as missionaries to the Italian and English speaking emigrants there. The first indications of a possible mission in Latin America goes back to 1955, with the actual request of a Bishop to Father Bozzetti for teachers in a college. But things became definite when Mons Raffaele Forni, Apostolic Nuncio, passed on a formal request to Padre Gaddo for at least three men, (of which one should be Dutch or English), for the settlement of 95000 Christians in Maracaibo (87000 Italians, and 8000 Irish - Americans). Negotiations took place, the undertaking was accepted and the persons were selected and sent to Rome for a course at the Pontifical College for Emigration. On 6 August, after they made their sad farewells, the Italian ship ‘Franca C.’ took the three pioneers on board at Genova for their great adventure. The destination was Guaira, the port of Caracas. A detailed Diario di viaggio (diary of the voyage) and of the first days spent by our brethren at Maracaibo exists, written by Josito Gattoni,[viii] It reveals the composure, the courage, the common sense, and the spirit of sacrifice of Father Zantedeschi and his companions on this difficult start to their mission. To say that they started with nothing is the honest truth. There was a little church, just built, and three small, hot rooms. But they had no money, no friends, no real grasp of the language (except for Father Gattoni who was born in Argentina) and local traditions. But they were not discouraged and rolled up their sleeves. The year following their arrival they started an elementary school with about one hundred pupils. This grew, in a few years, to 500, then to 600 and finally 1300 pupils of the Colegio Italo – Venezolano A. Rosmini of Maracaibo, and a further 900 students at Cabimas. Father Zantedeschi had immediately grasped a great truth; that to attract the mind and attention of parents and families it was necessary to work on their children, to help to make them men of tomorrow. And he was successful. He was a conscientious and farsighted ‘father’ regarding Rosminian work in Venezuela (colleges, parishes, male and female novitiates, retreat houses etc.). This became well established and eventually numbered about 40 Fathers and Sisters. Deeply rooted, it spread to the laity as Christian collaborators — the well known ‘Ascribed Members’.

Padre Zantedeschi first returned to Italy after seven years (1965); Pope John XXIII had died the year before. His first meeting with his brothers Sante and Antonio with Angelina (his sister in law) was only in 1975.

Father Zantedeschi was 61 years old (of which almost 23 were spent in Venezuela) when he was elected Superior General of the Institute of Charity, in the General Congregation at Calvario on 5 April 1981.

Immediately after his election, I accompanied him on his first journey, as General, to Venezuela and the United States (30 April – 5 June 1981). I appreciated the tenacity with which, during the journeys and waiting in the airports, he studied English. I will not describe the welcomes he received in the land of Simon Bolivar; to say ‘warm’ would be a euphemism. Everywhere there were visits, farewell feasts, talks, gifts, tears. It seemed to me to be a genuine parting of a father from his children, from his friends and from his loved ones. Even in the United States, in Florida, in Illinois, where his visit was for many their first acquaintance with him, Father Zantededeschi drew admiration for his simple and informal manner, for his primitive English and for his fatherly attitude which sprang from his every word.[ix]

After this Fr Zantedeschi made 23 overseas trips with his Secretary:

In April 1982, to Ireland and England,

In October 1982, to Tanzania,

In January – April 1983, to Venezuela, USA, Great Britain and Ireland,

In October 1983, to New Zealand,

In February 1987, to Tanzania,

In October – November 1987, to Ireland, Great Britain and USA,

In February – March 1988, to Africa (twice), England and Ireland,

In October – November 1989, to Great Britain and Ireland,

In January – February 1990, to Venezuela and USA,

In October 1990, Ireland and Great Britain,

In October 1991, to Great Britain and Ireland,

In January – February 1992, to Tanzania and Kenya,

In February 1992, to India,

19/8 – 31/10 1992, world tour: New Zealand, USA, Venezuela and Italy,

In February 1993, to India,

In April – May 1994, to Ireland and Great Britain,

In September – November 1995 to Venezuela and USA,

In February –March 1996, to Tanzania and Kenya,

In September 1996, to India,

In November – December 1996, to Ireland,

In February – September 1999, to Venezuela.

Naturally, in addition to these overseas visits there had to be innumerable visits to the houses in Italy, both of the Sisters and the Fathers (at Christmas Father General is traditionally at Borgomanero, at Easter at Calvario and from the end of August – September he is at Stresa).

There were three Secretaries and companions, Father Ronald Catcheside (April 1981 – June 1986), Father Donal Sullivan (June 1986 – February 1989), Father Thomas Kearns (February 1989 – January 1997).

His Councillors in the Minor Council were constant, and frequently summoned:

Father Anthony Michael Hayes, Vicar of Spiritual Charity (1981 – 1988),

Father Dino Sartori, Vicar of Intellectual Charity, resident in Turin (1981 – 1997),

Father Thomas Kearns, Vicar of Temporal Charity (1981 – 1988),

Father Dennis P. Hare, Administrator General, resident n Great Britain, (1981 –1988),

Father Francesco Berra, Procurator General to the Holy See (1981 – 1988).

In 1989 there were four important changes:

Father Michael Hegarty became Vicar of Spiritual Charity (1989 –1995),

Father Luigi Cerana became Vicar of Temporal Charity (1989 – 1991),

Father Thomas Kearns became Administrator General (1989 – 1997),

Father Anthony Michael Hayes became procurator to the Holy See (1989 – 1995).

There were other changes in 1991 when Padre Vincenzo Sala (1991 – 1997) took the place of Fr Luigi Cerana, and finally in 1995 when Father Dennis P. Hare became Vicar of Spiritual Charity and Father Giorgio Versini Procurator to the Holy See.

The important events in the life of the Institute during the period of Generalate of Father Zantedeschi were many and involved significant irreversible changes.

• On 4 October 1986 the new Centre of Rosminian Studies opened at Durham, dedicated to the Venerable Bede. This undertaking had been considered for years, and willed by an Italian benefactor for the spread of the works of Rosmini throughout the world for English speaking people. Fathers Denis Cleary and Terence Watson, had already been teaching in Tanzania and New Zealand. After a period at Stresa and Huddersfield, they were entrusted with this Centre. So far have they have translated and promoted throughout the world (universities, seminaries, libraries, cultural centres and individuals) about twenty volumes of Rosmini, of four thousand copies each, attractively published. Recently they have established a website which provides translations throughout the world and is much used.
• From 10 October to 10 November 1988 a General Congregation was held in Rome for the revision of our Rule, according to the requirements of the Holy See. It was a demanding and delicate work, which involved the best manpower of the Institute. Many people, and the Roman Congregation of Religious itself, were satisfied with the outcome. The approval of the new Rule of Life on the part of the Holy See was given in a Decree of 8 December 1989. The task of the translation into English was entrusted to Father John Morris. The publication of the two editions and the corresponding Directory was entrusted to Father Dino Sartori and his helpers at Turin. Finally on 25 March 1990, Father General promulgated the text which came into force on 1 July 1990, the 135th anniversary of the death of our Father Founder.
• On 10 June 1989 Father Zantedeschi, decreed the erection of the first house of formation in India. On the 24 June Father Giorgio Versini and the young scholastic Thomas Mylaparampil took up residence at Vettuthura, in the little house obtained by don Luigi Cerana, with the help of the neighbouring Canossian Sisters. This marked the beginning of the Institute’s venture in India. How did such a step come to pass? In the summer of 1981 Providence had arranged for a young Indian to land in Italy, who declared that he had a religious vocation and wished to join us. The arrival of this young man at Calvario gave rise to other requests of postulants from Kerala, supported by their respective parish priests. Accepting these applications was not straightforward. One thought was to go to the place itself to discern the situation, but after some hard thinking, Father Zantedeschi took the decision to say yes. It was a prophetic intuition. At the present time the Indian Fathers number fifteen, and already, there are about 25 young men in training. With the Aspirants, Postulants and Novices the Indian Region of the Institute consists of about seventy people.
• 1994 signalled the beginning of the Cause of Beatification of Antonio Rosmini. There had been so much waiting, so many sufferings and prayers. Now, on 22 February 1994, Father General was notified by the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints that there was no obstacle (nihil obstat) to the beginning of the diocesan process necessary for Beatification. On 28 February Father Zantedeschi officially informed the Bishop of Novara, Mons. Renato Corti, and on 26 March he appointed Father Vincenzo Sala, Postulator. On 1 July 1997 the Diocesan Tribunal of Novara was established at Stresa: Father Zantedeschi, no longer General, took part in it whole - heartedly.
• On 30 October 1994 Father Zantedeschi reached the age of 75 and according to the Rule of Life (n. 172), he hastened to place his resignation in the hands of the Major Generalitial Council who had to decide whether to forward this to the Holy See or to refuse it. In 31 October the Council, meeting at Calvario, listened to the words of Father General who was fully disposed to accept either decision. After careful deliberation it was decided by a majority not to accept his resignation. He was in good health, he was highly thought of, and the bicentenary of the birth of Rosmini was approaching: he remained at his post. Father Zantedeschi saw in the decision the will of God and resumed his work.
• 1998 was the year in which, according to the directions in the Rule of Life (n. 187), he had to summon again a General Congregation. Father General was involved in setting up a temporary Preparatory International Commission under the presidency of Father Dennis Hare, his Vicar of Spiritual Charity. The latter summoned the four Provincials to Derrys Wood from 21 to 25 April 1996, who together with him, chose the five members of the commission: Father David Tobin (UK), Father Giancarlo Taverna (Italy), Father Joe O’Reilly (Ireland), Father Bill Miller (USA), and Father Firmati Tarimo (Africa): This Commission remained in action also with the new Father General, James Flynn.
• On 24 March 1996 Father Zantedeschi had the great pleasure of presiding at the solemn opening Mass for the celebrations for the Bicentenary of the Birth of Antonio Rosmini, with a joyful crowd coming from all over Italy. It was an eagerly awaited and organised occasion which resulted in numerous initiatives: new biographies; articles in periodicals; conferences; meetings; guided visits to places connected with Rosmini; illustrated exhibitions; school functions by the children etc. The event at Rovereto was both a family and civic one. This concluded with the lighting of a torch which was carried by motor cyclists to Calvario, where Father General and the town authorities officially received it.

It would however be restrictive to limit oneself to outlining the life of Father Zantedeschi simply on the basis of these events. There was the work always incumbent on him, namely the meetings of the Council every two or three months; there were the autumn meetings with the Fathers Provincial; the six – monthly meetings of the Superior Generals (USG) at Villa Cavalletti at Grottaferrata or at Ariccia dai Paolini; the participation in the General Chapters of the Rosminian Sisters (over which Father General must preside); personal meetings with individual Fathers, Sisters, Bishops and with the Pope himself[x]. And there were his writings, thousands of letters and decrees issued from Rome (in his fine large handwriting, so characteristic of him), the sixteen Christmas Letters entitled ‘Come with Me to the Manger’ ‘to his dear Fathers, Brothers, Adopted Sons and Daughters and Ascribed, and to his dear Rosminian Sisters of Providence’. In these he gave vent to his feelings as father, brother and superior, troubled at times, but always full of trust in God. Finally there were his conferences and homilies given on various occasions, several copies of which are kept in the Archives.