A FAMILY LED BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE IN THE CITY OF PROVIDENCE 

Father Angelo was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1926 into a family from which four of six children entered the priesthood or religious life.  His parents, Luigi, a native of Canosa di Puglia in the province of Bari, and Julia, a native of Caianello in the province of Caserta, were married in 1912 by arrangement of their families, a practice that was not uncommon for the times.   Luigi was a hardworking man who purchased homes to be renovated and sold for a profit.  He had a “nose-to-the-grindstone” mentality, feeling obliged to provide his family with sufficient food on the table, a roof over their heads, and savings for the education of the children.  He built the family a house in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood, which was home to many Italian, Polish, French and Irish immigrants.  While Luigi was a committed Catholic who made it to Mass each Sunday, Julia was the source of inspiration behind the D’Agostino children’s zeal for the faith.  Julia was frequently seen making the mile-long trek down Atwells Avenue to Holy Ghost Church, a parish staffed by the Scalabrinian priests in the heart of the Federal Hill Italian neighborhood.  As much as the kids were influenced by weekly Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, nightly prayers, and stories about the lives of the saints that Julia shared with them, they were equally inspired by the sheer joy emanating from their mother during religious services and as she went about her daily chores.   

Father Angelo, who did not feel drawn to a life of service to the Church until his late twenties, watched two older siblings and his younger brother leave the household in answer to God’s call.  Sister Savina D’Agostino, FMM, joined the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary and remains active, health permitting, at age 95.  Father Lorenzo D’Agostino, SSE, who died in 2000, was ordained a priest for the Edmundite order and served as a professor and administrator at St. Michael’s College in Burlington, Vermont.  Joseph D’Agostino, the baby of the family, took vows as a Christian Brother and devoted 27 years of his life to the order in the field of education.  He was then granted dispensation by the Church from his vows, entered into a valid sacramental marriage, and became the father of two children.  In addition to the members of the D’Agostino clan who gave their lives to Christ through religious vocations, there was also the late Anthony, a successful plumbing contractor, husband, and father of eleven, who lived in Kansas City.  Finally, there was Carmella D’Agostino Knoeber, an employee of the Social Security Administration, wife, and mother of six daughters, who lived in Salina, Kansas.  

Angelo excelled academically, thanks in part to a severe asthmatic condition that he dealt with from early childhood.  While most boys in the neighborhood were out playing baseball or other games in the streets, Angelo kept busy by reading, gardening, or building model airplanes, since he had no choice but to avoid activities that required physical exertion.  He earned undergraduate degrees in chemistry and philosophy from St. Michael’s College in 1945, a medical degree from Tufts University in 1949, and a master’s degree in surgery from Tufts in 1953.  Angelo was known to joke, “I have more degrees than a thermometer.” 

A NEW DIRECTION 

In 1954, while serving as chief of urology at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., Angelo attended a retreat sponsored by the Knights of Columbus at Georgetown University that inspired him to take a new direction in life.   Angelo, while living away from his mother and her constant encouragement to remain faithful to Christ and the Church, had not abandoned his duties as a Catholic.  He continued to make weekly Mass an important part of his life, and frequently egged on fellow Catholic students in medical school to remember their Sunday obligation.  Attempting to keep the flame of faith burning, Angelo chose to make the aforementioned retreat that was being led by a popular cleric.  He walked away, after prayerful discernment, feeling that God’s will for him was to be ordained a priest for the Society of Jesus, the members of which are known as Jesuits.  He felt that his medical background would be put to good use at one of the order’s missions in a foreign land.  Much to Angelo’s surprise, as is often the case when a person with a vocation believes he can choose his own path, God had different plans for him.  The Jesuits asked him to consider the field of psychiatry.  The Society of Jesus was calling upon Angelo with great hope to lend credence to their conviction that the traditional notion of religion and psychiatry being at odds with one another was unwarranted.  Angelo obediently accepted the challenge.   

While studying for the priesthood, Angelo jumped headfirst into the world of psychiatry.  He did his residency at Georgetown University, a school run by the Jesuits, from 1959 to 1965.  He attended Washington Psychoanalytic Institute from 1962 to 1967.  In 1964, Angelo hit a bump in the road when he was diagnosed with lupus, but he must have offered his difficulties up to God in union with the sacrifice of Jesus, because he was never known to complain or even discuss his condition.  He overcame any hurdles and was ordained a priest in 1966.   Father Angelo spent many years of his priesthood reconciling the Catholic faith and psychiatry, just as the Jesuits had asked of him.  He taught psychiatry at Georgetown and at George Washington University.  In 1972, he founded the Center for Religion and Psychiatry at Washington Theological Union to promote dialogue.   

JOY AMID SUFFERING 

A trip to mainland China with a group of doctors in 1978 gave rise to the idea that Father Angelo might one day be able to offer his priestly service to the Jesuits in an area outside of psychiatry.  While there, rumors were being circulated that the Society of Jesus would open a medical school in Shanghai.  Father Angelo, still a physician at heart, volunteered to assist at the school.  Though this specific request of his was denied, it put his superiors on notice that a break from psychiatric work might be good for him.  Within a short time, Father Angelo was sent to Thailand for a one-year period to minister to Indochinese refugees as the director of a medical facility.  After a short stint back in the States, it was off to Africa where he served as the Coordinator of the Jesuit Refugee Services for two years.  From Nairobi, Kenya, Father Angelo directed the joint efforts of Jesuits from around the world who voluntarily placed themselves in harm’s way.  These brave men established programs in Sudan, Ethiopia, Zaire, and Tanzania in keeping with their mission to “accompany, serve and defend the rights of refugees and forcibly displaced people.” [1]   

When Father Angelo returned to the United States during the mid-1980’s to resume his psychiatric practice and teaching, he found it “sterile” compared to the work he had taken up among the suffering poor in Africa.[2]  He longed to return to one of his order’s foreign missions, where he found great fulfillment in caring for the needs of desperate people.  He was able to convince his superiors to reassign him to East Africa, where Father Angelo became the director of a retreat house and practiced psychiatry in a much different environment.  D’Agostino also accepted an invitation to sit on the Board of Governors of a Kenyan orphanage.  When it came to his attention that children who had tested positive for HIV were being rejected from the orphanage, Father Angelo made a pitch to his fellow Board members to build or acquire a special facility so that they could be given a home.  After much discussion, the Board voted against accommodating HIV-positive orphans.  This rejection, which for a brief moment seemed like a crushing defeat for Father Angelo, became the event that motivated him to go beyond anything he had envisioned doing when he was ordained – founding a home for HIV-positive children.  

A PLACE TO CALL HOME

On September 8, 1992, Father Angelo opened the first home for children with HIV in Kenya.  He had received support from Mwai Kibaki, the current President of Kenya who was the Minister of Health at the time.  Based in Nairobi, “Nyumbani”, which means “home” in Swahili, has become a place where innocent children who have been the recipients of heavy crosses find love, compassion, and true friends that remain at their sides through the good times and the bad.  The home’s residents consist of children whose parents have died because of complications associated with HIV or AIDS, and those who, because they have been infected with HIV themselves, have been abandoned by their parents or guardians.  In response to Our Lord’s call to love the least among us, Father Angelo gave his all to ensure that the children were treated with dignity and knew that they were cared for.   

One of the initial fruits of his labor was a facility that provides shelter, food, education, antiretroviral therapy, and much more to nearly 100 children, from newborns to those in their early twenties.  Infants are cared for until a clear assessment of their HIV status can be made.  The reason for this is because newborns whose mothers are infected with HIV often play host to antibodies within their system that yield false-positive results for a prolonged period.  Nyumbani matches the children who ultimately prove to be free from the virus with parents willing to adopt them.  The orphans who remain with the home are given “the best nutritional, medical, in particular, anti-retroviral therapy, psychological, academic, spiritual care available and live at Nyumbani until they become self-reliant”.[3]      

MAKING UP FOR THE “LOST GENERATION” 

The AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa has wreaked havoc on an entire generation since beginning its stranglehold in this part of the world in the 1980’s.  Between 1990 and 2000, the number of people infected with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa increased from 7 million to over 25 million.  This accounts for over 60% of all people worldwide who carry this deadly virus.  Over 15 million children from this area have already been orphaned because of HIV/AIDS, with the number expected to spike to 40 million over the next two decades.  With Nyumbani having the capacity to house only about 100 orphans, Father Angelo was well aware of the fact that countless children in Kenya were in need of help.   

In 1998, Father Angelo launched “Lea Toto”, or “to raise the child”.  The goal of this outreach program is to provide home-based care to HIV-positive children throughout Nairobi, including basic medical treatment, spiritual guidance, counseling, and other services.  Lea Toto has been proven to save money that would have been spent on hospital care, while allowing the children and their caretakers to live more positively and comfortably in their homes. 

One of the final issues that Father Angelo dealt with before his death was the lack of men and women of working age in Kenya to look after the children and the elderly, as is natural throughout the world.  Since so many from this generation have died of HIV/AIDS, there was a gap that, if left unattended, will leave small children and senior citizens without parents, children, or guardians to look after them.  D’Agostino’s response to this tragedy was to devise plans for Nyumbani Village on a 1,000 acre site in Kenya’s Kitui district.[4]  Still a work in progress, the Village will utilize the energy of the young combined with the maturity of the elders to create newly blended families.  Set in an area with plenty of tillable land, the Village will provide its residents the opportunity to provide for themselves through agriculture, poultry, and dairy.  The children and teenagers will become beneficiaries of the knowledge of the elders, who in turn will be blessed to receive physical and emotional support from the youths.  There are also plans for vocational training to be offered within the Village. 

Under the watchful eye of Nyumbani’s executive director Sister Mary Owens, I.B.V.M., the Father Angelo’s final endeavor is beginning to take shape.  64 of the 100 houses planned for the Village have been completed as of early August 2008.  Of these units, 29 are occupied by Nyumbani Village families, while 13 are temporarily being utilized by staff members until their own housing is completed.  22 houses that have just recently had the final touches placed on them are reserved for Village families.  Other facilities that have been finished and are already functioning are a primary school, a clinic, a social hall, a police post, and a guest house.   

Father Julius Maingi, a diocesan priest, has been ministering to the Village and its outposts since October 2005.  According to Sister Mary, Father Julius is “extremely zealous” in providing spiritual and emotional care for the elders and children, and makes himself available whenever any resident needs to speak with him.  Until construction of the Village church is completed, Father Julius will continue to celebrate daily Mass in the social hall.  Each Sunday, residents are joined by many friends from the surrounding community.   

Nyumbani Village is well on its way to meeting the lofty goals that were set by Father Angelo.  While many children arrive appearing lost, malnourished and insecure, a few weeks among new friends in an environment of love and encouragement works wonders.  Sister Mary notes that, “They begin to blossom, plumpness and smiles appear on their faces, laughter resounds wherever they are, great eagerness to learn in school develops, and they enjoy playing sports of every kind.  They also start getting into mischief!”  Grandparents, on the other hand, often feel a bit homesick for the world they left behind.  They are always given the opportunity to visit their old homes. 

Sister Mary hopes that the Village will be self-sustaining within ten years.  If anybody is interesting in learning more about Nyumbani Village or would like to make a donation, please visit their website at www.nyumbani.org.   

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS 

Father Angelo has been credited with exceeding the expectations of anybody who might have assessed the challenge he was up against when proposing to establish a home for HIV-positive orphans.  Thanks to his medical background, he was keenly aware of goals that needed to be set and achieved if he would be able to curb the high rate of deaths among the orphans during Nyumbani’s first few years of existence.  A top priority was for the home to build a state-of-the-art diagnostic laboratory at the home.  Father Angelo accomplished this task, and Nyumbani now boasts a lab that provides specialized HIV testing services and monitors HIV/AIDS patients who are undergoing treatment.  

Another important objective of Father Angelo’s was to transform HIV/AIDS among the orphans from being fatal to merely chronic, much like diabetes.  In the more developed nations of the world, HIV is often easily reduced to a chronic disease when treated with the right medication.  Unfortunately, the poverty-stricken inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa, the very people who have been hit hardest by this catastrophic illness, are unable to afford the anti-retroviral drugs necessary to contain the virus.  Burying one child who succumbed to HIV/AIDS would be more than enough, let alone the dozens of youngsters Father Angelo saw laid to rest on a regular basis during the first several years at Nyumbani.  Attempting to save lives, D’Agostino sought affordable generic drugs to treat the orphans.  A prospective lead in India fell through, but Father Angelo picked right up by warming up to the Brazilian ambassador to Kenya, who had expressed interest in the works of mercy being carried out at Nyumbani.  Providentially, Brazil had just begun a program which distributed free anti-retroviral drugs to HIV/AIDS patients.  Initially, Kenyan law forbade the generic drugs from making their way into the country.  As Father Angelo knew from experience, nothing is impossible with God.  In answer to D’Agostino’s prayers, the Brazilian government side-stepped Kenya’s prohibition and delivered the generic drugs via diplomatic pouch.  While some may disagree with this way of accomplishing one’s goal, the results speak for themselves – there were no deaths at Nyumbani during the three-year period between the time the generic drugs began being administered to the orphans in 2003 and Father Angelo’s death in 2006.  Though D’Agostino was not trying to limit the profit potential of the major pharmaceutical companies, he was indeed calling them on the carpet to contemplate whether it was morally acceptable to place astronomical financial windfall ahead of proper stewardship of products that were able to save lives.  Imagine if Our Lord had chosen to heal only the blind, deaf, and lame who paid Him for it! 

Father Angelo has been extremely successful in eliminating the stigma attached to HIV-positive children, who had been terribly maltreated for many years.  Nyumbani has produced one of East Africa’s most popular music groups in its band Watoto Wa Mungu, which translates as “Children of God”.  This band holds the record at a local station for having one of its songs sit at the top of the charts for over five weeks.  Watoto Wa Mungu have made a number of music videos and have collaborated with several of the top artists in Kenya.  They have also performed for President Kibaki.  Because of the group’s success, many Kenyan teens have formed friendships with their peers who are infected with HIV.   

One of the happiest days in Father Angelo’s life came in 2004, when Nyumbani won a landmark lawsuit against Kenyan public schools, clearing the path for the admission of children infected with HIV.  Despite being represented by a sharp attorney, Father Angelo may have had more success influencing the judge by filling the courtroom with a busload of youngsters from the orphanage.  How could this woman sitting on the bench deny these smiling, innocent children the right to be educated?  This tactic, along with a barrage of prayers aimed at Heaven, proved to be very effective and resulted in a joyful celebration at Nyumbani. 

THE END OF HIS LIFE AND A NEW BEGINNING 

Father Angelo’s life came to an end on November 20, 2006 after having endured surgery related to diverticulitis.  He had been hospitalized for a week with extreme abdominal pain.  At his funeral Mass, President Kibaki insisted on addressing the crowd about this legendary priest who had become a national hero.  The quiet boy from Providence, Rhode Island, who had come to love East Africa, and was even able to occasionally satisfy his craving for home-cooked food at one of the restaurants in Nairobi’s Italian community, had set in motion a revolution of love that would lead thousands to treat the HIV-positive children of Kenya with dignity.  

While even the most faithful Catholic may consider the transition from earthly life into eternity an event one would prefer not to dwell on, Father Angelo had more than his share of having to comfort the dying during his years at the orphanage.  According to Sister Mary, Father Angelo made it a point to be frank, yet merciful, when speaking about death with the children.  In the early years of Nyumbani, when funerals were a regular part of life, Father Angelo would speak openly with the children about those who passed on as being their “angels” in Heaven.  Catholics are taught to be unafraid of death because those who “were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death…we were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.”[5]  Father Angelo buried the children in a cemetery on the grounds of Nyumbani so that their beloved companions would be able to visit their graves and better understand the connection between the Church Militant (those of us here on earth), the Church Suffering (the souls being purified in Purgatory), and the Church Triumphant (the souls enjoying eternal life with God).  As Sister Mary Owens put it, “Once when we were laying a child to rest in our graveyard, the child standing beside me asked: 'Will James get his breakfast tomorrow?'  I answered: 'Of course he will.  Jesus will look after him.' He continued: 'Is there ice cream in Heaven?'  I answered: 'There is everything you need in Heaven.'  The child was satisfied.  This was Angelo's spirit.” [6] 

Father Angelo D’Agostino is an inspiration to all for his loyalty to suffering children who, if not for his concern, may have been left to roam the slums of Nairobi.  We can only hope and pray that more of us will be moved by the Holy Spirit to devote ourselves to similar works of mercy, whether in own communities or a world away, as in the case of Father Angelo.   

SOURCES: 

1.      1. Interview with Joseph D’Agostino, younger brother of Father Angelo D’Agostino

2.     2. Interview with Sister Mary Owens, IBVM, executive director of Nyumbani

3.     3. Nyumbani website - http://www.nyumbani.org/

4.     4. Times Online; Obituary for Father Angelo D’Agostino; December 12, 2006 - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article1089075.ece

5.     5.  “Priest Tells of Progress Helping Orphans with HIV/AIDS in African Homes”, Smykla, Margaret, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 28, 2006