The Public Authorities including some members of the Government of Madagascar were also present.
Over ten thousand of the faithful filled the place where the Mass was celebrated and being so many overflowed into the surrounding area. The celebration which began at 8.00 in the morning and ended at 14.00 was marked by a typically African lively liturgy. Particularly significant were two ceremonies at the end of the celebration which according to local custom expressed the welcome given by the people and the diocese to the new Pastor: Bishop Vella was clothed in two cloaks as befits a royal person and seated on a special throne carried in procession among the people.
In a letter addressed to Bishop Vella, expressing his joy and emotion, Dr. Alessandro Cévese, the Ambassador of Italy in Madagascar, declares that: “The conditions of poverty and suffering in which a large part of the local population are living makes the work of the Church even more important. I am certain that the new Bishop will be not a only a spiritual guide which everyone needs, but will know how to respond to the needs of the people and speak on their behalf. I turn to him first of all as a fellow Italian in a land that has been able to benefit from the extraordinary support of so many of my fellow countrymen, religious and lay, who have chosen as their land of adoption the great island of Madagascar.”
In his letter, Fr Vito Luigi Perrelli, Provincial of ISI, recalled the beginnings of the Salesian missionary presence and that of Fr Vella arrived “in Madagascar, full of youthful energy and with the passion of the motto of Don Bosco: Da mihi animas coetera tolle. In his heart he carried the sun of the land of Sicily and the fire of the volcano, Etna, which from his youth made him full of vivacity. Indomitable in his capacity for work, without sparing himself, but always with great cheerfulness and a smile that won hearts.”
In fact there has been great appreciation of the work that Bishop Vella and the other Salesians Italian and Malagasy have accomplished first at Ankililoaka, then at Betafo, and in what is now his diocese of Ambanja, and above all in that truly missionary frontier territory at Bemaneviky.
Published 21/12/2007
