On Sunday, November 4, 2024, the 60th anniversary of the death of the Servant of God Father Bernardo Aquilino Longo, which took place in Nduye (Congo), the parish community of Curtarolo, Father Longo's relatives, and the Dehonian Congregation will join together to commemorate the life and works of the missionary.
The Servant of God, Father Bernardo Aquilino Longo was born in Pieve di Curtarolo (Padua – Italy) in 1907, entered the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and was ordained a priest in 1936.
Two years later he arrived in the Upper Congo, in a region he described as ‘home of the Walesse, pygmies and elephants’. From 1950, he worked in Nduye, which was to become his mission, his love and his martyrdom. A missionary with a generous and dynamic heart, poor among the poor, he multiplied initiatives in support of evangelisation and for the human and spiritual promotion of the people.
In the maelstrom of the Congolese revolution, he decides to remain among ‘his flock’. Surrounded by the rebel ‘Simba’ guerrillas, inspired by the Maoist doctrine and animated by anti-religious and anti-ecclesial hatred, he says: ‘We accept death as an act of love, for the salvation of these people and the pygmies’. Struck in the chest by a lance, he died at the gates of Mambasa on 3 November 1964.
The General Dehonian Postulation wanted the Cause of the Servant of God, Father Bernardo Aquilino Longo, to proceed by the way of martyrdom. For this reason, the Diocese of Padua carried out a ‘Supplementary Inquiry’ during the year 2023, aimed at gathering new evidence to prove the martyrdom of the Servant of God, placing the tragic death within the complex historical, social, political and religious context in which it occurred.
On 3rd November 2023, in the parish church of Santa Giuliana in Curtarolo, the Bishop of Padua, Monsignor Claudio Cipolla, closed the diocesan phase of the cause for the martyrdom of Father Bernardo Longo. The acts, documents and testimonies collected during the inquest were transferred to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, in the Vatican. These acts and documents were studied there and on 5th June 2024 it was decided to change the title from virtues to martyrdom. At the moment, the Position on martyrdom is being written in order to hand it over to the Dicastery and proceed to study the martyrdom of Father Bernardo Longo.
On Sunday, November 4, 2024, the 60th anniversary of the death of the Servant of God Father Bernardo Aquilino Longo, which took place in Nduye (Congo), the parish community of Curtarolo, Father Longo’s relatives, and the Dehonian Congregation will join together to commemorate the life and works of the missionary.
Representing the Congregation will be the Superior General, Father Carlos Luis Suárez Codorniú, together with the postulator, Father Ramón Domínguez Fraile, Father Silvano Ruaro and Father Renzo Busana, missionaries respectively in Nduye and in Gbonzunzu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
