Costermano Native Reflects on Don Calabria’s Legacy and Missionary Work
Giovanni Calabria mostly recalls the surprise visits he used to make to the boarding school, to find the students. “He was approachable, always attentive, willing to listen. He enjoyed making us riddles or pranks. He would hide objects in his sleeve and challenge us to guess what they were. Once, he did it with a piece of codfish, and I was the only one to guess because I recognized the smell. He almost seemed upset.”
Aldo Pescetta, 80 years old, native of Costermano, has been a missionary in Uruguay for about 30 years for the Don Calabria congregation, but he returns to Italy every three years. “I still have my family in Costermano, my roots, and it is there, in my grandparents’ house, that my vocation was born.”
“In 1907, when Don Calabria was still in his early days, he used to take his young boys on vacation to my grandparents’ house. A relationship that left a profound influence on my family,” he recalls.
About the house and the family
On the facade of the house, in Baesse, Costermano, there is a plaque commemorating this period. And this year, the descendants, all belonging to the Lorenzini family branch, gathered in 70 to celebrate his return to the homeland.”
“But my life is now in Uruguay.” There, Don Pescetta takes care of the “ninos dèla calles”, the Spanish equivalent of street children in Brazil. “We have 40 of them, aged between 12 and 18. We try to help them learn a trade like mechanic, typographer, or carpenter. Mostly, they are orphans, illegitimate children, or abandoned kids because their parents are in prison. There are many. We take responsibility for educating them; the State supports us materially.”
Memories of Don Calabria and the school
But the episodes of his life he recalls most are those involving Don Calabria and the period spent in his school. Aldo Pescetta is one of the few still alive who had known the founder of the order. “At 12, I entered the salesian school in Verona, at the Nazareth Institute,” he says.
“At first, they didn’t want to admit me because I had parents, but then they decided to make an exception. As a sign of respect towards my parents, whom Don Calabria knew so well.” It was 1932, but Don Pescetta’s vocation was already very clear.
At the institute founded by Don Calabria at the foot of Torricelle, in Verona, Aldo Pescetta lives and studies. “I practically saw the order being born and grow. Among the students, there was a bit of everything; we had little time to have fun, mainly studying and not thinking about the future. Overall, it felt like living in a big family.”
Don Calabria often visited us; riddles were his way of keeping us cheerful. I returned to Verona in ’54 for his funeral. He was a person who dedicated his life to the most vulnerable and defenseless.”
After his studies, Don Pescetta went to Rome as a priest. In the 1930s, he worked in the capital. “I was in the neighborhoods, Tormarancio, Gordiani, Prima Valle. When they built the school in Primavalle, Mussolini himself came to inaugurate it. I only started being a missionary very late, at fifty years old. One of the Uruguayan bishops requested our presence in his country. Among many, they chose me as well. I spent three years in Spain to learn the language, then I moved there and stayed forever.”