Xaverian Missionary Bishop, George Biguzzi, Steps Down in Sierra Leone, West Africa

The arrival of Christian missionaries in Africa over two centuries ago had a profound effect on the continent, sometimes somewhat controversially. It has been said that when the missionaries arrived, the missionaries had the bible and the Africans had the land. The missionaries invited the Africans to pray. When the Africans opened their eyes, they had the bible and the missionaries had the land! However in Sierra Leone this month, there is one missionary who is leaving behind much more than the bible.

When the Catholic priest, Father Giorgio Biguzzi, arrived in Makeni, the northern provincial capital of Sierra Leone, in 1974, he found a bustling well-ordered town. The streets were paved, there was constant electricity and running water, the shops were well stocked. Indeed there was nothing he missed from his days growing up in Italy. He could even buy his favourite Italian ice cream! Now as he steps down from serving as Bishop of the Makeni Diocese, he leaves a town which is slowly recovering from years of rebel war and neglect.

Born in Cesena, Italy in 1936, Bishop Biguzzi was ordained a priest in the order of Xaverian Missionaries in Parma in 1960. Prior to his arrival in Sierra Leone he worked in the United States where he obtained a Masters degree in education at Marquette University, Milwaukee. After teaching at the Catholic secondary school in Makeni, he returned to Italy for a while to work with the Xaverian Fathers, and then in 1987 he was called to become the second Bishop of the Makeni Diocese.