NOVI LIGURE. Africa and that parish in Burundi belonging by ecclesiastical right to the diocese of Tortona remain in his heart even now: half a century has passed since the beginning of that adventure.
When we talk about Murayi with Don Livio Vercesi, an 80-year-old parish priest from Novi, we face a journey back in time and in the soul. Don Livio tried to transcribe his sentiments in “Murayi 1971-2021: a Tortona parish in the land of Africa” (Puntoacapo editrice) but the impression is that words alone cannot convey the experiences of Don Livio that in Murayi he had a particular diocese: «One of our borders was a bank of the Nile. An immense and uncontaminated territory like the Rift Valley. I still remember the first trip. Few clothes in the suitcase, just a change and a three-day trip. We started with intercontinental flights, stopover in Addis Ababa and arrive in Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi and prologue to a long journey by jeep “explains Don Livio Vercesi who arrived in that patch of Africa following a request from the bishop of Tortona who was contacted by a noble of the Watusso people.
Not a mission in the Christian sense but a “fidei donum” that Don Livio carried out with passion and love that became a journey shared with the local population: “Colonialism in Africa perhaps brought structures but not culture and tradition. We did not impose anything, the local social and civil structure was not affected, we announced the word of God aware that God had arrived there well before us. Over time, the parish of Murayi has become a church of 40,000 faithful ”.
An experience that over time has become support and cooperation, not only religious because to support that distant parish of the Tortona diocese, the link with Italy has been maintained where an association has arisen in Novi in the last 20 years (Listen to Africa) which supports projects to improve the quality of life of the Murayi parish.
Perhaps the subjects have changed, not the method indicated by Don Livio and a few others half a century ago: «When we arrived, we decided to leave with the school. Not teaching but personal hygiene education. Cleaning the children was the first step in preventing disease. The teaching was particular: the first year children wrote on the earth, the second year ones had a cardboard blackboard and a piece of chalk only after the ballpoint pen and the notebook arrived. Also for the support of the local population we have chosen to do something concrete: ad hoc projects prepared by Italy with material sent in containers and with personnel who worked on the spot to see the results achieved. Not big works but small necessities such as drinking water or small infirmaries. Typhus and diphtheria reigned, educating the boiling of water cases decreased “concludes Don Livio who as a man of faith has only one regret:” I did too little, I could have done much more “.