Carlo Marchini Prize 2023

Brescia (Italy). On 21 October 2023, at the Capretti Congress Center Auditorium in Brescia, Lombardy, the Carlo Marchini Onlus Association, dedicated to supporting children in Brazil, will award the Carlo Marchini Prize, established in 2019 in favor of Brazilian missionaries close to the Salesian Family, “in recognition of the precious work carried out by them, which bears witness to the Church’s commitment to the promotion of the poorest.”

The recognition will go to Sister Giuseppina Carnovali, Daughter of Mary Help of Christians of the Brazilian Province of Our Lady of the Amazon (BRM), who has been working for many years in the Alto Rio Negro, an indigenous area where the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians are celebrating this year 100 years of missionary presence. In this reality so poor in human and material resources Sister Giuseppina has been carrying out her mission for many years in favor of the most disadvantaged, as an educator committed to promoting life.

The mission of Sister Giuseppina

Sister Giuseppina Carnovali born on 10 March 1941 in Rescalda, Milan. At 20 years of age, full of vigor and enthusiasm, she entered the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and she went through the formative stages with an ardent desire to be a missionary beyond the border. On 5 August 1963, in Contra di Missaglia (Milan), she made her first religious profession, realizing her dream of becoming a Salesian Sister, consecrated to God for young people. As a young Sister she qualified in Religious Education and as an educator she worked in elementary schools. She is still a Sister in temporary vows when she leaves for Project Africa, with the destination Mozambique. There, in the city of Naamacha, she makes her Perpetual Vows on 5 August 1971, at the age of 30.

After a few years of missionary service among the much-loved Mozambican people, she returned to Rome to study Missionary Pastoral Theology at the Urbaniana University, receiving a new assignment from the Mother General. In July 1977, she left for Belém do Pará, in northern Brazil, her new mission field. In 1979, Sister Giuseppina was assigned to the missions of Rio Negro, in Amazonas, where she shared life with the indigenous populations in the various communities, serving as Animator, Bursar, assistant, and teacher, always with enthusiasm, dedication, and responsibility.

She always had particular attention for those most in need, welcoming them with kindness, with a smile on her lips, a delicate and firm voice, an attentive and perceptive but maternal gaze, always ready to help. With her missionary zeal, she has developed many and varied activities: from ensuring that there is no shortage of food parcels for the poorest indigenous families (complex work in areas where obtaining rice, beans, powdered milk and sugar is difficult and expensive), to development of craft workshops, to guiding young people into the world of work, for example working in radio and installing solar panels.

A missionary who lived with her in various communities describes her like this: “Sister Giuseppina is a very delicate person, with a sensitive heart, a missionary dedicated to what she does, very organized, precise, apostolic, attentive to everyone, to the indigenous people and above all to children She knows how to please and to whom she always offers something, even just a glass of water to see them happy. She is a religious woman with a simple and profound spirituality, with an ardent and confident faith, and with great devotion to Our Lady.” (Sister Rosy Lapo).

Sister Giuseppina currently lives in Manaus in the Santa Teresina Community due to poor health. However, her missionary heart continues to burn and to seek creative ways to be at God’s service for the poorest.

On 21 October, together with her, other missionaries will also be celebrated, who will receive the “Friendly Heart” Prize, awarded annually by the Cuore Amico Fraternity Onlus Association:

• “Religious” section: Sister Adele Brambilla (Pie Madri della Nigrizia), in Jordan since 1984
• “Religious” section: Father Antonio Polo (Salesian Priest), engaged in Ecuador since 1970;
• “Lay” section: Maurizio Barcaro, who has been helping children and young people in Haiti since 1994.