(ANS – Rome) – Bro. Cosimo Cossu, a Salesian Brother and Missionary in Ecuador for some twenty years is one who witnessed the death of the future Blessed Maria Troncatti, who died tragically in a plane crash at Sucùa, Ecuador, on 25 August 1969. Bro. Cossu has often spoken about what he recalled and the role he played in the tragic circumstances in which the Salesian Sister died. Today, ANS offers the first part of his testimony.

Bro. Cossu's story focuses on the final two months of Sr Maria Troncatti's life. She will be beatified this coming 24 November at Macas, in Ecuador. Today's first episode reveals her deep devotion to the Virgin Mary and her complete dedication to the mission entrusted to her.

The Salesians and Sisters arrived in Sucùa in 1925. The little village, which originally consisted of a few huts, began developing around the Salesian work which, in time, would have a boarding school for boys, around 120 of them, and one also for some 130 girls; a church and hospital under the care of the Sisters. At the end of the 1960s, Sucùa had some 700 inhabitants.

At the same time, however, the relationship between the local Shuar and the large farm owners was going sour. The Shuar were gradually losing their land by fraud: the big landowners offered them low prices for land then used this same land for pasture and the meat trade. Sucùa was well-positioned; the small airport became a place for stockyards, a slaughterhouse and meat consignment.

Fr Jan Shutka, with the help of competent individuals, succeeded in gaining a presidential decree prohibiting the sale of Shuar land to the whites within a 500 km zone. This brought on a reaction from the landowners.

One the night of 4 July 1969, a three-story wooden building housing the three Salesians – the Rector, Fr Pedro Gabrielli, Fr Jan Shutka, and Fr Matej Krovina – and two envoys from the Ministry of Public Education who had come from Quito to inspect the final exams, was sadly raised to the ground. One Shuar family testified that it was whites who had lit the blaze. “I can assure you that experiencing a night like that, with flames going up 60 metres and heat that shattered the windows in the church 50 metres away was no joke”, Bro. Cossu said.

The local population was incensed by this episode and banded together to defend the Salesians, threatening reprisals. On the morning of 5 July a hundred or so of the locals were in the Salesian courtyard armed to the teeth and ready to wipe out the Whites. “Fr Shutka, distressed by the fire and aware that this was all aimed at him, heard one of the Shuar chiefs ask: ‘When do we begin, Father?’: and what he meant was when do we begin to get rid of the Whites from Sucùa. It would have been just a matter of hours for there to be no white man left in Sucùa”, the Salesian Brother said.

What did Sr Troncatti do? “Unbeknowns to us, since she was unable to walk, she had someone take her to Macas by car – about 25 km da Sucùa – where she had worked for years, and there she went to the Marian Shrine of the Virgin Most Pure to beg her for peace and to pacify her children at Sucùa. She offered her life for the people entrusted to her”.

In the light of what would then happen on 25 August following, this episode took on a particular significance, because the strong tensions between the two factions crumbled before Sr Troncatti's body.

The Salesian Sisters in Ecuador have a section on their site dedicated to Sr Maria Troncatti. On Saturday morning 24 November at 10:00 (GMT-5) it will be possible to follow the direct transmission of the Beatification on the same site. Cardinal Angelo Amato, sdb, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints will be presiding.

Pubblicato il 21/11/2012