You need to login in order to like this post: click here
By Philip Matogo
Elio Croce was a Comboni Missionary. In fact, the biography on him by Filippo Ciantia, who served as the Medical Superintendent of St. Joseph’s Hospital Kitgum, implies that he was not just born. He was vouchsafed to a grateful world.
The book is titled Elio Croce: Comboni Missionary Brother, and it catalogues the greatness of this singularly great man.
From Moena to Uganda
The Comboni Missionaries sketch his story thus: Elio was born in Moena, Trent, on 3 April 1946. He entered the Florence novitiate, where he made his first profession on 9 September 1966.
He was then immediately sent to Pordenone for professional training and later spent a year in Sunningdale studying English. He took his final vows on 9 September 1974.
Meanwhile, he had been appointed to Uganda in 1971, where he would spend his entire missionary life.
When his death was announced, many impressive testimonies followed. Among them was that of Dominique Corti, who had known him since childhood.
“Who is Elio Croce? In Northern Uganda, everyone knows him,” she writes.
Corti remembers Brother Elio as the Comboni missionary from Moena who, in 1971, left the mountains and steep slopes of his native Trentino and transplanted himself under the equatorial sun, amid the elephant grass of the Ugandan savannah.
Moena, at 1,184 metres above sea level, and Gulu, at roughly 1,100 metres, may share a similar altitude. Yet their landscapes, cultures and ways of life could hardly be more different.
Corti, who herself grew up in Africa, remembers sharing millet meals with her nurse Liberata, learning among Acholi-speaking companions and eating flying ants cooked after the rains.
Yet among the many extraordinary missionaries she encountered, she could hardly imagine one who became as integrated into the Ugandan countryside and its people as Brother Elio.
More Than 45 Years of Service
According to Dr. Ciantia’s book, Elio served for more than 45 years in Africa.
He first worked as the technician in charge of Kitgum hospital and then, beginning in 1985, at Lacor Hospital.
Among the Acholi people, he selflessly put himself at humanity’s disposal.
He built hospital pavilions, dug wells and established technical and agricultural activities.
His work was profoundly practical. His missionary vocation was expressed not only through faith but also through labour and service.
And he was right there during decades of upheaval.
Serving Amid War in Northern Uganda
The war in Northern Uganda was humanitarily, socially and economically catastrophic, tearing apart the fabric of communities across the region.
Two decades of conflict between the Ugandan government and Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army left deep wounds whose consequences continued long after the fighting subsided.
Elio remained undaunted.
He buried the Acholi dead, travelling endless distances across the savannah in his white four-wheel-drive vehicle.
Elio’s old Toyota was, to all intents and purposes, a multipurpose car whose primary purpose was to help heal the wounds of Northern Uganda.
The vehicle became an instrument of service in a landscape marked by war, suffering and enormous human need.
More Than a Biography
Filippo Ciantia’s biographical book, Elio Croce: Comboni Missionary Brother, is not a hagiography.
It is more than biography.
It is essentially the chronicle of the extraordinary 45-year mission of an Italian brother who dedicated his life to the people of Northern Uganda.
Written by a doctor who worked alongside him for decades, the biography synthesises a life of adventurous faith, intense manual labour and heroic resilience in the face of war and epidemics.
Elio Croce left the mountains of his native Italy and spent most of his missionary life under the equatorial sun of Uganda.
There, among the hospitals, wells, savannah, villages, war and people of Northern Uganda, his mission became something larger than an assignment.
It became a lifetime of service.
About the Book
Title: Elio Croce: Comboni Missionary Brother
Author: Filippo Ciantia
Subject: Biography, missionary service and Northern Uganda
You need to login in order to like this post: click here
