n the night of April 12, the Lord called home Fr. Franco Teodori, the oldest living member of the Xaverian Missionaries. He was 94 years old. His life of service to the mission spoke clearly of his dedication of following Christ in the family of Blessed Guido Maria
Conforti.
Fr. Teodori was one of the few living members to have met and lived with the Founder of the Xaverians, having entered the Motherhouse in 1925. He made his Perpetual vows in the hands of Blessed Conforti, and then he was ordained a priest in 1933, just two years after the death of Blessed Conforti.
Fr. Teodori was assigned to the China missions in 1936, working in Chengchow. But war broke out in 1937. Japan had in fact started a systematic invasion, bringing destruction and death everywhere. The Chinese were hoping that the Yellow River would be a natural barrier for stopping the Japanese, but it did not worked out that way. The Missions of the Xaverians was being assaulted, not by the Japanese, but by the refugees who had to escape a flooding of the Yellow River. In fact, the Chinese broke the dikes in order to stop the advance of the Japanese, but were unsuccessful. Tens of thousands lost their lives in this maneuver.
Fr. Franco Teodori and the other Xaverians continued their service until the appearance of the communist revolution in 1947, when many foreign missionaries were often imprisoned and tortured, brought to the tribunals of the people, and condemned to being expelled. Many of the Chinese Christians paid with their lives. Fr. Teodori left China in 1953, one of the last Xaverians to have worked in China.
In 1956, Fr. Teodori was secretary General, then Vicar General from 1966 to 1971. But it was in his stay in Rome, close to the Vatican walls, that Fr. Teodori found his second vocation: to find and compile all the articles, letters, homilies and writings of Blessed Conforti. He was an archivist, a dedicated researcher of hidden writings and unknown thoughts, and became editor of 28 thick volumes on Blessed Conforti. A masterpiece of patient research; and a precious contribution to the Xaverian congregation.
These 28 volumes report over 6,000 writings of Blessed Conforti, with notes and addendums by Fr. Franco, which are reported in some 25,000 pages, single-space. This work has been very valuable for the whole Xaverian congregation, especially in view of the process of canonization of our Founder.
Fr. Franco Teodori died in Parma, ten days after an injury he received from an accident in Rome: a motorcycle hit Fr. Franco, as he was walking to a celebration at St. Peter’s basilica. But his monumental work of research on his father and founder, Blessed Guido Conforti, remains forever in the Xaverian congregation.
(From Xaverian News)