Fr Francesco Rapacioli, new PIME superior general
ROME: Fr Francesco Rapacioli, 62, a missionary in Bangladesh, is the new superior general of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), the missionary institute that publishes Asia News .
The institute elected him this morning during its 16th General Assembly, underway since 22 June at the International Centre for Missionary Activities in Rome, focused on the topic "All and only missionaries: identity, responsibility and freedom in the common missionary vocation".
Fr Rapacioli takes over from Fr Ferruccio Brambillasca, who has led the institute since 2013. After completing a second six-year term, he was no longer eligible for re-election. PIME's new general administration was also elected for the next six years.
Hitherto the regional superior for Southern Asia, Father Rapacioli was born in Paris in 1963 but grew up in the Italian diocese of Piacenza-Bobbio. He entered PIME after graduating in medicine and becoming a priest in 1993.
His first destination was the seminary in Pune, India, where he carried out his ministry until 1997, when he was transferred to Bangladesh, a largely Muslim country, working mostly in Dhaka.
After a six-year hiatus (2012-2018) as rector of the PIME International Seminary in Monza (Italy), he returned to Bangladesh where he set up groups for alcoholics and drug addicts in the capital in 2020 to help them take back control of their lives.
This was a concrete response to a major need in the country. 'Many of those who attend the groups are Muslims, but there are also Christians, Hindus and Buddhists,' he said in an interview with Mondo e Missione.
"Many participate because they feel the need to be among people who do not judge and who are interested in understanding. One comes across many difficult situations, devastating sometimes. But it is also beautiful to see that some manage to rebuild a life of relationships, work, study, and find peace.
'It is a true blossoming. I believe it is an authentically missionary project,' Fr Rapacioli explained. 'It touches something profound in people; it is a true spiritual experience. And even if it never becomes part of religious discourse, it is truly an inner journey.'
PIME was founded by Bishop, later Patriarch Angelo Ramazzotti in 1850, out of the experience of the Lombard Seminary for Foreign Missions. Pope Pius XI reset it in 1926 as the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, uniting it with the Pontifical Seminary of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul for Foreign Missions, established in Rome in 1871 by Mgr Pietro Avanzini.
PIME currently has about 400 missionaries from 17 different nationalities who carry out their ministry in 20 countries in every continent.
The latest endeavour, created in cooperation with other institutes set up in mission with the same charism as PIME, is taking its first steps in the Diocese of Tanjung Selor, Borneo (Indonesia).--Asia News
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