NEW YORK: 14
December
2013
-- Fr
Ed. Cappelletti would
be known to very many Salesians throughout the world, and
certainly to
many in the EAO Region who had benefitted one way or another
from his
extensive work with Salesian Missions. Fr Mike Mendl of SUE
Province
has kindly provided this extensive obituary notice which
contains not
only a description of Fr Cappelletti's life and work, but
mentions many
other figures equally known throughout the Congregation.
Fr. Edward J. Cappelletti, SDB, long-time
director
of Salesian Missions in New Rochelle and a pioneer of
fundraising
through direct mail, died shortly before 10:00 a.m. on
December 12,
2013, at St. John’s Hospital in Yonkers, N.Y. He was 92 years
old and
had been a Salesian for 73 years and a priest for 63 years.
Edward Cappelletti was born in the Bronx on
October
11, 1921, to Italian immigrants Alfredo and Giacinta Lemmi
Cappelletti,
originally from Tuscany. He was the last of four children. The
family
belonged to St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, where Edward was
baptized on
October 26, 1921, was confirmed in 1932, and was an altar boy.
One of
his early memories is of the “huge number of altar boys, over
80,”
serving Christmas Midnight Mass at St. Thomas.
Giacinta Cappelletti hailed from a mountain
village
called Massa Sassorosso, where the pastor had introduced
devotion to
Don Bosco. When she came to New York, she lived in the
Salesians’
Transfiguration Parish on Mott Street, in the heart of Little
Italy.
After their marriage, the Cappellettis moved to the Bronx.
Alfredo Cappelletti died when Eddie was
four.
Nevertheless, Giacinta Cappelletti was able to provide
Catholic
education for all her children—first at home and then in St.
Thomas’s
parochial school. In 1933, “to get me off the streets of New
York,” she
sent young Edward to board at the Salesians’ St. Michael’s
School in
Goshen, N.Y. “It wasn’t a bad school,” he told some Salesian
seminarians in 2013. “In fact, it was a nice atmosphere, and a
small
school of about 65 kids. The Salesians were fine men and were
like
family to me.”
At some point, apparently in ninth grade,
Eddie
nearly transferred to the Salesian Institute (now Salesian
High School)
in New Rochelle, like many of his classmates. But Fr. Ambrose
Rossi,
the provincial, invited him to try the high school seminary at
Newton,
N.J. Since his experience with the Salesians in Goshen had
been so
positive, he was willing. Mrs. Cappelletti gave her consent
provided
that Eddie be allowed to come home for vacations, contrary to
the
Salesian practice at the time. “She wanted to make sure I got
some dose
of the real world,” he recalled.
Thus, as a sophomore he moved into the high
school
seminary in September 1936, where “life was just like going to
a normal
Salesian school, except you had a conference once a week,” he
said. “I
fit in right away,” and “the teachers were very good to us.”
He was an
outstanding student. He admired Fr. Rossi’s energy and
inventiveness
and was also impressed by Newton’s director, Fr. Alvin
Fedrigotti, for
his culture as well as his Salesian spirit.
Ed was admitted to the novitiate, also at
Newton, in
September 1939, part of a class that included the future Frs.
Paul
Avallone, Salvatore Giacomini, Arthur Lenti, Larry Lorenzoni,
John
Malloy, Joseph Occhio, Armand Oliveri, Gennaro Sesto, Chester
Szemborski, and Leo Winterscheidt, and Bros. Dominic Casiraghi
and Roy
Vetari. They were guided by master of novices Fr. Joseph
Romani, and
they made their first profession of vows on September 8, 1940,
in
Newton.
At that time the novices were also
first-year
college students, loaded up with courses in English, Latin,
Greek,
Italian, education, and music. More English, Latin, and Greek
courses
followed later, along with religion, math, science, and a
major in
philosophy. Thus Bro. Cappelletti was graduated from Don Bosco
College
in Newton on June 20, 1943, with a B.A. in philosophy, summa
cum laude.
Upon graduation Bro. Cappelletti was
assigned for
his practical training to remain at Don Bosco Seminary to
teach the
aspirants (high school seminarians), as well as to teach logic
and
metaphysics to the professed Salesian students. When the
aspirants
moved to the Ryan mansion in the Montebello section of
Suffern, N.Y.,
in 1945, he moved with them. It was a happy year for him, as
he
recalled for some Salesians from the provincial house when he
took them
on a little tour through the property in December 2008.
Shortly after making their perpetual
professions in
September 1946, Bro. Cappelletti and his classmates were the
first
American Salesians who were able to go to Italy for
theological studies
after World War II. He was one of those who matriculated at
the
Salesian Pontifical Athenaeum in Turin (now the Salesian
Pontifical
University in Rome), better known as “the Crocetta” from the
district
where it is located. He greatly appreciated the learned and
holy
professors such as Fr. Giuseppe Quadrio (whose cause has been
introduced), Fr. Nazareno Camilleri, Fr. Ugo Galizia, Fr.
Domenico
Bertetto, Fr. Alfons Stickler (the future cardinal), Fr.
Eugenio
Valentini, and Fr. Pietro Brocardo. Once more he proved to be
an
excellent student, earning his licentiate in theology, cum laude, in June 1950.
His
dissertation was entitled “The Thought of Bernold of Constance
on
Ordinations” and was rated magna
cum
laude.
Bro. Cappelletti found “life in Italy after
the war
rather trying physically due to the many after-the-war
hardships,” but
it was “rewarding” to be at “the heart of Salesian life.” The
major
superiors still lived at the motherhouse in Valdocco at the
time. He
also coached basketball in the youth center attached to the
school of
theology.
Fr. Cappelletti was ordained in the
basilica of Mary
Help of Christians on July 2, 1950. He took as his priestly
motto, “The
Son of Man came, not to be served, but to serve” (Mark 10:45).
For the first nine years of his priestly
life he was
assigned to the Salesian high schools in Newton, Haverstraw,
Paterson,
and New Rochelle, mainly as prefect of studies (vice
principal). At the
same time he earned a degree in classical languages from
Fordham
University (1958). He aimed at constant improvement of the
programs in
each school, including winning Board of Regents approval of
Don Bosco
Juniorate in Haverstraw and state Department of Education
approval of
Don Bosco Technical High School in Paterson.
In 1959 Fr. Felix Penna, the provincial,
named him
director of Salesian Missions in New Rochelle, succeeding Fr.
A.J.
Louis. The office was located in the basement of the
provincial house
and had just four or five employees and a donor list of about
10,000
names. When he stepped down in 1997, the office had been
relocated
three times, twice to larger rented quarters in New Rochelle
and
Mamaroneck, finally in 1972 to its own large, three-story
building next
to the provincial house. There were as many as 135 employees
at one
time, before automation and computerization reduced the need
for so
many. The donor list grew to 1,350,000 names. Fr. Cappelletti
was among
the first fundraisers in the country to use direct mail to
make
appeals. Donors responded warmly to books of inspirational
poetry as
well as to sweepstakes. Over 1,000,000,000 booklets were
distributed in
40 years. He found ways to get the U.S. government involved,
particularly the Agency for International Development, which
could not
support proselytizing work but could support trade schools,
for
instance. He also attracted foundations, such as Kellogg, to
support
projects like agricultural schools. People also wrote in (or
phoned)
with personal problems that were addressed, often by Fr.
Cappelletti
himself.
The success of Salesian Missions became a
Congregation-wide phenomenon, of advantage to missionaries and
the
youths they served across the globe. Fr. Cappelletti
constantly
credited the excellent, dedicated lay staff—people such as
Sara
Tarascio, Fred Heckman, and Kay Santoro. He wrote later, “It
is my firm
belief that success is the reward, not so much of genius, as
of hard
work and perseverance, a little bit of luck, and the good
Lord’s
blessing.” There was also a small, hardworking core of
Salesians
assigned to the office, including Fr. Mario Tognocchi, Fr.
Earl
Bissonnette, Bro. Aldo Roman, Fr. James Chiosso, and Fr.
Joseph Ros.
In 1996 Pope John Paul II honored Salesian
Missions
for its work by bestowing the Papal Cross “Pro Ecclesia et
Pontifice”
on Fr. Cappelletti and Miss Tarascio. In 2008 Don Bosco
Catholic
University in Campo Grande, Brazil, awarded Fr. Cappelletti an
honorary
doctorate in humanities.
His one regret about all his years in the
mission
office was a certain isolation from the confreres of the
province,
especially the young ones. “I only dealt with three other
Salesians,
the three that worked for me,” he told the seminarians in
2013. That
never stopped him from doing whatever he could to promote
vocations,
which he remained interested in till the end of his very
active life.
In tandem with his leadership of Salesian
Missions,
Fr. Cappelletti managed the province’s development office for
25 years.
After his retirement from the mission office, he continued as
development director for a few years and in 2000 became
treasurer of
the provincial house community, serving until 2007. He
remained a
member of the provincial house community, constantly looking
for ways
to contribute to the life of the house. Following several
falls and
other health incidents, on September 24 he moved to St.
Cabrini Nursing
Home in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
In November the missions office decided to
commission a short biography of Fr. Cappelletti, to be
executed by
retired history professor and author Bro. Matthew Dunkak, CFC,
from
Iona College. With some of the Salesian Missions staff, he was
to
interview Fr. Cappelletti on December 11 at Cabrini. But they
found him
struggling for breath and too feeble even to press the call
button. He
was taken to the St. John’s emergency room, where Fr. Shaw
anointed
him. He was diagnosed with pneumonia and admitted. During the
night his
condition deteriorated rapidly into congestive heart failure,
leading
to his death within a few hours.
Fr. Cappelletti’s three sisters, Susan,
Julia, and
Ida, predeceased him. He is survived by numerous nephews,
nieces,
grandnephews, and grandnieces, and his Salesian family.
As soon as word of his death reached
Salesians in
Rome and Salesian provinces around the globe, tributes began
to arrive
in New Rochelle.
Fr. Pascual Chavez, Rector Major, wrote:
“The whole
Congregation is very grateful to Fr. Edward Cappelletti for
all that he
did through the mission office to help our missionaries make
their
dreams come true, the dream of Don Bosco, the dream of God,
who loves
and cares with predilection the poorest and most abandoned. On
behalf
of all the Congregation I say a big thanks from the bottom of
our heart
to Fr. Edward for his generosity and total devotion to the
missions,
and also our gratitude to St. Philip Province.”
Bro. Jean Paul Müller, presently the
Congregation’s
treasurer general and formerly director of the Salesian
mission office
of Bonn, wrote: “I personally have to thank Fr. Ed so much, as
he was
the one who guided me as I made my first steps in the mission
office in
Bonn. I was with him two weeks at New Rochelle, where he
trained me,
and I never I forgot his counsels, ideas, and vision. We were
often in
contact in recent years, and every time I visited New Rochelle
it was
for me like coming home to see him and talk with him. Without
the help
of Fr. Ed, his marvelous, humorous, and fraternal orientation,
we would
never have had the success we have now in helping and
supporting
youngsters around the world.”
Fr. Vaclav Klement, general councilor for
the
missions, was grateful to God and the New Rochelle Province
“for this
extraordinary Salesian and his witness of a priestly life
lived with a
strong missionary touch that affected, inspired, and animated
millions
of U.S. citizens, thousands of Salesians, and a multitude of
beneficiaries of our missionary efforts worldwide.” He cited
Fr.
Cappelletti’s zeal for vocations, his global outreach, and his
assistance in setting up other major and lesser Salesian
mission
offices.
The director of Salesian Missions in
Madrid, Fr.
Augustin Pacheco, recalled the great assistance rendered by
Fr.
Cappelletti in setting up the Madrid office: “He was someone
completely
given, body and soul, to the Congregation and, in particular,
to the
works of the Salesian missions. His guidance and generous help
at the
beginnings of this mission office enabled it to become
what it is
today.”
Fr. Timothy Ploch, provincial of the San
Francisco
Province and a former provincial in New Rochelle, praised Fr.
Cappelletti as “a Salesian giant for the New Rochelle
Province, for the
Salesian presence in the USA, and for the whole Salesian
world.
He is one of the few Salesians who can say that his
ideas, his
skills, his work, have had influences all over the world,
especially in
the poorest areas of mission lands and for the poorest young
people.”
From Ecuador the province treasurer, Fr.
Alfredo
Espinoza, said simply, “He was a man who did so much good and
gave
generously to benefit missions everywhere.”
Fr. Edmund O’Neill, director of the
Planning and
Development Office of the Southern African Province, wrote:
“In the
Salesian world and in that of fundraising he was truly a
colossus!
Africa owes a great deal to this man whose heart, like that of
Don
Bosco, encompassed the whole (Salesian) world.”
Hans-Jürgen Dörrich, an official
of the Salesian NGO
Don Bosco Mondo, wrote: “When I was a young Cooperator, Fr.
Edward
impressed me deeply by his way of combining a personal
relationship and
friendship with our Lord with a highly professional way of
organizing
his mission. He certainly was preparing the way of many young
people in
Africa, Asia, and Latin America to the Salesian society and to
priesthood. He supported the growth of the Salesian mission
for the
young in these continents immensely and channeled the
commitment of so
many Cooperators and people of goodwill. I always will
remember him as
someone who really had an impact on my way of working with and
for Don
Bosco.”
