The Servant of God Father Petro Balzi (Padre Pedro Balzi) was born in Lausanne (Switzerland) on December 21, 1926 and died in Teresina (Brazil) on October 5, 2009. A priest of the Diocese of Bergamo (Italy) and a member of the Missionary Community of Paradise, as fidei donum, he dedicated a great part of his ministry to the mission in Latin America – Bolivia and Brazil. An Apostle of charity, adorned with an exemplary spirit of poverty, he carried out in the pastoral mission the oblation of his life "for the glory of God, the honour of Mary and the salvation of souls". He sought in every circumstance the Will of God, entrusting to Divine Providence all his great evangelizing work.
He received a solid christian formation from his family, in an austere environment rich in human values. Italian immigrants in Switzerland, his parents Pietro Balzi and Maria Piantoni had two other children, one of whom was a Canossian religious, Mother Benilde Balzi. As a child, he moved with his parents to the town of Ponte Nossa, in the Diocese of Bergamo where he found in the Marian Sanctuary of his new parish, the soil for the sowing of his priestly vocation.
At eleven and a half years of age (1938) he entered the diocesan seminary. Still a seminarian and moved by a special missionary zeal, in 1949 he was one of the first three to present himself to the newly founded "Missionary Institute of the Diocesan Clergy of Bergamo", the Missionary Community of Paradise founded by the Bishop Adriano Bernareggi. Ordained a priest on June 3, 1950, he worked for one year in Mariano di Dalmine, while finishing his previous missionary formation. He was then sent to the inaugural mission in the Italian Polesine region, in the Diocese of Chioggia, and developed an intense and fruitful apostolate, with strong social repercussions, in areas hit by catastrophic floods. Appointed parish priest of Contarina, he shared his daily concerns and pastoral dedication with other tireless missionaries, among whom was Blessed Sandro Dordi.
In 1964 the Servant of God left for Bolivia as fidei donum, to join the newly founded bergamasc mission in La Paz. He was named parish priest of Santiago Apóstol, on a vast outskirts of the Bolivian capital, and made the name of the place - in aymara Munaypata, "hill of love" - the motto of his pastoral work. He learned the local dialect and accompanied the small communities scattered throughout the Altiplano; he organized religious assistance, coordinating the missionary group of priests, religious and laity; he designed and built, with the help of benefactors, works of excellence, such as the John XXIII Hospital. Of all he received, he reserved the minimum for himself and gave material aid and all his efforts to the poor community of his parish. Solicitous for the whole Church in Bolivia, he encouraged local vocations, spiritually guided members of the clergy and increased the pastoral activity of diocesan groups. He maintained a prophetic stance in the face of the political crisis in the years of the Dictatorship, even being arrested for intervening in a possible massacre of civilians. He defended with clarity and coherence a vast project of social promotion of the Bolivian people, respecting their culture and guaranteeing them the right to assume their own history as a “worthy maker of their own future”.
At the age of 60, Fr. Pietro Balzi decided to "restart" his mission, the result of an inevitable inner call. Invited by Bishop Miguel Câmara, then Archbishop of Teresina, he left Bolivia in silence to dedicate himself to the lepers in the capital of the State of Piauí (Brazil). Willing to form a "leprosarium" and live in it until the end of his life, the Servant of God soon realized that the pastoral care of the lepers required another solution. For this reason he built the Mary Immaculate Center where the sick would be assisted as outpatients after having been reported by their local social services. In the first months since his arrival, in March 1987, Fr. Pietro collaborated in the Parish of Our Lady of Fatima.
Always in 1987, the “occupation” occurred of a large, poor area of the city called Vila da Paz. Interpreting in this another sign of Providence, he asked Bishop Miguel Câmara permission to establish himself in the new area. With the same spirit of poverty and evangelical willingness, he organized the religious and social life of a complex territory. He became the "Parish Priest of the Poor" in an area considered at the time the most violent in the city. He suffered persecution and was repeatedly misunderstood, though never losing his missionary vigor. He entrusted to the protection of Our Lady of Peace (Nossa Senhora da Paz) all the works that he accomplished in Brazil, "by the grace of God", as he liked to repeat. His initial apostolate was decisive for the creation of the Parish of Our Lady of Peace. The Parish Church, also thanks to the zeal of its pastor, received in 1997 the title of diocesan Sanctuary. Other than the Parish, so as to give dignity to the population of the area, the Servant of God built schools, playschools, clinics etc. and founded the “Nossa Senhora da Paz Foundation” so as to coordinate the various activities. And so as to fight chemical dependency, "the terrible evil of drugs" that he had faced since Bolivia, Fr. Pietro Balzi decisively supported the Fazenda da Paz Therapeutic Community, of which he was also a diligent spiritual director.
The Servant of God died at 82, victim of a bone cancer. He accepted the illness as the "crown of his priesthood" with great spirit of offering. He converted that three-month Calvary into a mystical experience of faith. He called "God's caresses" the sufferings that he “should" go through. For him, death had the purest transparency of eternity: that is why he walked towards death comforting those who were near him. On his deathbed, in the poorest room near the sacristy of the Parish Church, he wanted to make sure that he died without possessing anything, no human resource. Instead he died surrounded by the filial love of his community and of the clergy of Piauí, in addition to the solidarity of friends all over the world, including his benefactors.
The solemn funeral, presided by Archbishop Sérgio da Rocha, gave proof of the fame of holiness that accompanied the Servant of God during his life and which, since his death, has grown spontaneously. Buried initially at St. Jude Thaddeus Cemetery in Teresina, his mortal remains were later transferred to the Chapel of Via Crucis, built by him in the Vila da Paz. Members of the parish community and of other places claim to have received special graces by visiting his tomb and by invoking him privately. Graces obtained from God for the benefit of children, young people, the sick and the afflicted, to whom Fr. Pietro Balzi gave special attention