Bishop George Biguzzi, Long Time Bishop of Sierra Leone, West Africa Passes to Eternity
From the Website of the General Direction of the Xaverian Missionaries in Rome
On Monday 01 July 2024, at 04.15 am, our brother bishop Giorgio Biguzzi died at the hospital in Parma, Italy. He was 88 years old, having been born on 4 February 1936 in Calisese, municipality of Cesena and capital of the province of Forlì-Cesena (in Emilia-Romagna, Italy).
Having completed the Novitiate at San Pietro in Vincoli, he made his first religious and missionary profession on 19 October 1957.
He continued his theological training in Parma (1957-1960) where he made his Perpetual Profession and was ordained a priest on the same day (16 October 1960). After a few months spent in the Xaverian community of Udine (1961) and two months with his family, he was assigned to the United States Circumscription (1962), where he remained until 1973. In the USA, after studying the language in Petersham, he held various positions : vice-rector of the Xaverian community of Franklin (1962-1969) and provincial councilor. During this period he attended Master’s in Education studies at Marquette University, obtaining his Master of Arts in Education. From 1970 to 1974 he was at Holliston where he held the position of rector and subsequently of Master of Novices.
In 1974 he was assigned to Sierra Leone, where from 1975 to 1977 he was rector of the Minor Seminary of the Diocese of Makeni (Sierra Leone) and at the same time held the position of regional vice of the Xaverian Circumscription of Sierra Leone. From 1977 to 1983 he was Regional Superior. In 1983 he was delegated to the XI General Chapter. For a year (1984) he was parish priest in Lungi. In 1984 he was recalled to Italy as Master of Novices, in Ancona, until 1987, the year in which he was elected bishop of Makeni, Sierra Leone. During his service as Novice Master, he participated in the International Conference on Formation held in Guadalajara, Mexico (1986). On 6 January 1987 he was consecrated bishop by Saint John Paul II in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Rome.
From 1987 to 2012 he was residential bishop of the Diocese of Makeni, Sierra Leone.
In 2013 he was assigned to the Xaverian Circumscription of Italy where he carried out various services: pastoral ministry in Brescia (2013-2017), rector of the community of San Pietro in Vincoli (2018-2021) and pastoral ministry (2017-2023). Due to his increasingly precarious health, he resides for almost an entire year at the “Fraternità San Lorenzo” nursing home in San Pietro in Vincoli. On April 29, 2024, as requested by him, he was assigned to the Xaverian Community on the 4th floor of the Mother House.
Dearest Father Gabriele, the Lord, who chooses small and useless things for his plans, has called me to be a Witness of the Risen Christ in the Church of Makeni. It is a task before which I feel lost and which, however, I see as a call to more generous service and a more intense love for Christ and for our brothers. I rely on your prayer and that of your brothers to be able to respond to this call and live as a bishop more radically that missionary charisma that Monsignor Conforti received as a gift from God for his children.
With episcopal ordination the legal relationship with the Congregation changes, but the spiritual belonging and the emotional bond which, precisely at this moment, I feel stronger and deeper remains intact.
The Congregation was a loving mother to me in my priestly and religious-missionary life. I intend to remain an affectionate and devoted son in service “of the cause that binds us into one family”. To all my brothers I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for the good, help and affection that I have always received. I pray to everyone with my best wishes for a Holy Christmas. May the birth of the Savior revive in us that distant devouring fire from which his Church originated. Yours most affectionately in Christ, Fr. Giorgio Biguzzi, left (autograph letter addressed to the Superior General Fr. Gabriele Ferrari, 23 December 1986)
…I am sure that this fact will not change your relationship with the Xaverian Family and with your brothers. I can instead predict that this will qualify these relationships which are and will always be characterized by brotherhood and common consecration to the mission… I wish you too once again light and courage from Above to guide the diocese of Makeni. It’s not an easy job, I’m aware of it and so are you; but I am sure that the collaboration of all the brothers and particularly the Xaverians will make your commitment easier. Thank you also for giving me the opportunity to see Sierra Leone once again. I’m happy to come and accompany you. A final thank you: for the work in the novitiate, done with intelligence and love. Thank you. Yours sincerely, Gabriele Ferrari, Father General. (part of the response letter from the Superior General, Fr. Gabriele Ferrari)
Rest in peace.
