An Italian PIME missionary, he ministered for 65 years in numerous parishes in Hong Kong. Since 2005 he had been running an online School of Evangelization in Mandarin and Cantonese. In 2019, he had brought together artists and producers in a great musical about Matteo Ricci that attracted thousands of people.
Hong Kong () – After 65 years dedicated to the mission in Hong Kong, Father Gianni Giampietro, Italian missionary of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), died yesterday at the age of 89. A long apostolate that kept him active until the end in the community of Saint John the Baptist in Kwung Tong, where he still lived, but also at the forefront of online pastoral care: in 2005, in fact, he created a Online School of Evangelism through which he organized catechism and evangelization over the Internet in Cantonese and Mandarin, paying special attention to the Chinese of the diaspora who had difficulties finding communities that spoke the same language.
He was born in 1934 in Marsicovetere, in the Italian region of Basilicata, and was ordained a priest in 1958. That same year he arrived in Hong Kong, then a British colony. During this long period of time, he ministered in numerous parishes: St. Margaret’s Church in Happy Valley, St. Cecilia’s Church in Diamond Hill, Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Wan Chai, Our Lady of China in Tai Kok Tsui, the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damien in Tsuen Wan, and the Resurrection Mass Center in Kwun Tong, before spending his final years at Saint John the Baptist.
But the p. Giampetro is also remembered in Hong Kong for promoting the spirit of the liturgy of the Second Vatican Council at the Diocesan Commission for the Liturgy, of which he was also director. Despite his advanced age, he had always remained very attentive to the languages of the young: with them he had promoted in 2019 a musical on the life of Father Matteo Ricci, the great Jesuit evangelizer of China during the Ming dynasty. A work that was the fruit of more than two years of work, in which the missionary had involved famous producers, directors and actors from Hong Kong and Singapore, and which, when it was staged, attracted tens of thousands of spectators.
“Ricci helped me to see the presence of God in the Chinese people,” Fr. Giampietro. “Ricci listened and learned from the Chinese without confusing faith with European cultures. From him I learned to have great esteem for Chinese culture. Like Matteo Ricci, I wish to dedicate my life to the Chinese and remain on this earth until my death.”
The same school of evangelization was born through Christian music. “Many Hong Kong youth have relatives abroad,” he recounted, “sometimes almost the entire family. Through their contacts, these young music enthusiasts discovered that other Chinese youth were doing the same, especially in Australia and New Zealand. After a few years of contact through the Internet, it was decided to organize a concert with all these groups here in Hong Kong. Modern Chinese songs, but imbued with a Christian spirit. It was a great success. So much so that our Hong Kongers later went to Canada From there the format of the EV Concert (Evangelization Concert) was born: performances, songs, sharing, testimonials. It was simply about evangelizing, but through music, with the young and for the young.”
Thanks to these contacts, Fr. Giampietro and his collaborators realized that in many Chinese diaspora communities there were no catechists or other people capable of accompanying those who wanted to prepare for baptism. This is how the online evangelization school was born: a two-year course that includes teaching the Catholic catechism in the first year and a specific evangelization activity in the second. Material is provided each week for a total of about three hours of study: “It is not always easy for priests to accept this solution. They would like to physically see people every week,” Father Gianni explained, “but in some cases it is not possible, especially for reasons of work or travel. I remember a case in Australia. The person in question was in prison for illegal immigration. He had met pastoral agents who visited the prison. But how could he have participated in the parish catechumenate? Not to mention all those whom parishes and catechists cannot reach.”
