2012 Dinner Dance

On Nov. 3, 2012, at their annual dinner dance to be held at the Mazzini-Verdi Club, the Comboni Missionaries will honor one of their own, Fr. Angelo Biancalana.

Fr. Angelo, a Comboni missionary for more than 54 years, has influenced the lives of many, not only in the Chicago area, but throughout the world. He has officiated at many marriages, funerals, anniversaries, etc. in the United States but most memorably he did great missionary work in Uganda for 14 years with many of those years under the reign of Idi Amin.

He is currently assigned to the Comboni Mission Center in La Grange Park and is still very active in various undertakings, including serving as the English-speaking voice of Fr. Alberione in an upcoming documentary film of the founder of the Daughters of St. Paul religious order.

Fr. Angelo, a native of Carraia, a small Tuscan village outside of Lucca, Italy, entered the Comboni minor seminary at the age of 14 and was ordained on May 25, 1958. He said his first official Mass in Chicago at Santa Maria Addolorata Chuch. His first assignment in his missionary life was on the Pala Indian reservation in Southern California, after which he was called to do vocational work.

In 2008, he celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ordination at Ascension of Our Lord Parish in Oakbrook Terrace, which was attended by many friends and relatives from across the United States and as far away as Italy.

Wherever he has been, he has brought that passion for the priesthood and the missionary life that he first embraced as a child and he has won countless friends and admirers in the process, many of whom will be in attendance at the annual Comboni Dinner Dance on Nov. 3.

Proceeds will benefit the work of the Comboni Missionaries both in the Chicago area and around the world.

For tickets or more information, contact the Comboni Mission Center, 1615 E. 31st Street, La Grange Park, IL 60526. (Phone, 708-354-1999; fax, 708 354-2006; e-mail, cmcoffice@sbcglobal.net)