Clement Vismara
Immediately after his ordination he set out from Venice (August 2) and arrived at Toungoo, Burma, in late September to study English and local dialects.
At Mong Lin the misery was great, the food poor and totally inadequate, and tropical diseases killed many of the missionaries (6 during the decade 1926-1936, all young people) so that in 1928 the General Superior of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) Father Paolo Manna, visiting Mong Lin, threatened the bishop of Kengtung that he would abandon the mission if other young missionaries died for lack of nutritious food or because they lived in huts of mud and straw.
Vismara identified the pagan and fatalistic conception of life as the blocking element of tribal society: men often do not work[6] and are addicted to opium, women and children are commonly abused, abandoned, sold[7] or killed.
Unlike other missionaries he tried, whenever possible, to maintain a healthy lifestyle: schedule of day, cleaning, suitable clothing, ordered eating, use of dishes.
In June 1941, while the Japanese planned to occupy Burma, Vismara was interned by the British army in Kalaw with twelve other Italian missionaries because they belonged to an enemy nation.
[9] Throughout 1957 he was in Italy for the only holiday of his life, shared among medical care, conferences, a pilgrimage to Lourdes, visits to construction sites[10] and, above all, a full month's retreat.
The school, started from scratch in 1958, counted 123 pupils in autumn 1960, 232 in October 1962, 400 in 1965 («two thirds of which pagans», he wrote).After a military coup in 1962, the new socialist government, inspired by the Soviet model, nationalized all private activities and severely limited freedom of expression and movement.
Despite the difficulties with the new regime, which prevented the arrival of new missionaries, and despite various ailments (prostate problems, an accident to a foot, and dentures) his work continued with an enviable stamina.
In 1979, aged 82, he went to Taunggyi by jeep to meet the superior of the PIME and, after returning to Mong Ping, after 14 hours of travel, he could write: I arrived home at 7:20 pm blanched, dusted, floured like a fish before putting in a pan.
That was his lifestyle and even aging he remained true to himself, he never got old...Father Clement was buried, as he requested, at Mong Ping in the square of the church he built in 1962, in front of Lourdes Cave.
The management of the Diocesan stage of the beatification process, from 1996 to 1998, was held by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milan, Italy, because of difficulties in Myanmar.
Monsignor Ennio Apeciti, President of the process, traveled to Burma, Thailand and Brasil, as well as in Italy, to interview those who knew Father Clement.
On March 15, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI signed the ”Decree of Venerability” for Vismara, deeming him a Christian who had practiced virtues of the Gospel in a heroic grade.
On Saturday, April 2, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI received in audience Angelo Cardinal Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and approved, among many other advancements of beatification causes, the official recognition of a miracle attributed to Father Clement's intercession.
