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 Dec. 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.
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| Fr. Ed in his later years as director of Salesian Missions |
Thousands of missionaries around the world
knew him and hundreds of thousands of their benefactors knew him as “Father
Edward.” To his confreres he was simply “Fr. Ed” or “Fr. Capp,” and to his
family “Eddie.”
Edward Cappelletti was born in the Bronx on
Oct.11, 1921, to Italian immigrants Alfredo and Giacinta Cappelletti, originally
from Tuscany. He was the last of four children. The family belonged to St.
Thomas Aquinas Parish, where Eddie was baptized on Oct. 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 Eddie 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 Sept. 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. Ed was
graduated from Don Bosco College in Newton on June 20, 1943, with a B.A. in
philosophy, summa cum laude.
Upon graduation Bro. Ed 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. Ed 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 studied 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. Ed 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. Ed 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. Ed
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, in support of trade schools. 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.
Ed himself.
The success of Salesian Missions became a
Congregation-wide phenomenon, of advantage to missionaries and the youths they
served across the globe. Fr. Ed constantly credited the excellent, dedicated
lay staff. 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. Ed and Sara Tarascio, the office manager for many years. In 2008 Don
Bosco Catholic University in Campo Grande, Brazil, awarded Fr. Ed 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. Ed 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 Sept. 24 he moved to St. Cabrini
Nursing Home in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
On Dec. 11 visitors at Cabrini 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 a confrere 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. Ed’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.”
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| Fr. Ed with the late Fr. Jack Trisolini, American missionary to Korea, in New Rochelle, July 2007 |
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. Timothy Ploch, provincial of the San
Francisco Province and a former provincial in New Rochelle, praised Fr. Ed 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.”
Fr. Ed was waked in the chapel of
Salesian HS in New Rochelle on Monday, Dec. 16.
The Mass of Christian Burial was
celebrated at Holy Name of Jesus Church in New Rochelle on Tuesday, Dec. 17, with a sizable representation of Salesians, the entire staff of the mission office, some family members, and other friends present. Fr. Tom Dunne presided and gave a eulogy.
Fr. Ed’s body will be
cremated, then interred in the Salesian Cemetery in Goshen on Thursday, Dec.
19.
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