Victor Guazzelli

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[edit] Early Life

Bishop Victor Guazzelli was born in Stepney on 19 March 1920 of Italian immigrants. His father, Cesare Guazzelli, worked as an iceman. Two of his three sisters died from childhood pneumonia.

At the age of nine, Victor told his father he wanted to enter the priesthood. Cesare gave his blessing, and in 1935 Victor left for the English College in Lisbon. Whilst attending the seminary,World War II broke out and Victor was unable to return to London until 1945, by which time he was already a priest. His father had passed away during his absence.

Now fluent in Portuguese and Italian, Victor took up a post at St Patrick’s, Soho Square, before being recalled to Lisbon as bursar, and to teach Church History and Scripture.

In 1958 Victor came back to the staff at Westminster Cathedral, as Pope John XXIII and the Vatican Council tried to modernise the Catholic Church. It was a movement that would see Vatican II and the replacement of the Latin Mass with English.

Guazzelli was made Bishop of Lindisfarne in 1970 – sees often bear no relation to where the bishop actually has his ministry. But things changed in 1976 when Cardinal Hume divided the country into pastoral areas. Guazzelli was made bishop of East London, with the deprived boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Hackney. Guazzelli came home, making his base in Pope John House in Poplar – not far from where Cesare pushed his ice cart 50 years before.

The bishop’s willingness to support just causes (no matter how unpopular with the Church establishment) came to the fore. In 1975, he discomfited fellow bishops by becoming president of peace movement, Pax Christi (which opposes the current war in Iraq). In May 1982 he condemned the Falklands War and called for British troops to return. In 1983, he backed Bruce Kent, one of his own priests and General Secretary of CND. The Pope’s man in London described Kent as an ‘idiot’, remarks Guazzelli furiously condemned as offensive. That year, Guazzelli was the only English Catholic bishop to join a big CND demonstration in Trafalgar Square.

Now he turned his attentions to an East End in the throes of change. The Isle of Dogs was a huge building site for Canary Wharf, an increasingly bitter strike was being played out at the News International plant at Wapping, and the parties of the far right were mobilising against immigration into the East End.

Guazzelli, from his Poplar base, saw a way to bring together residents and community leaders and make their voice heard. He invited all to have their say at the new East London Pastoral Area (ELPA). There were workshops, training days, and discussion sheets printed, with cartoons explaining Vatican II. People came up with their own version of the liturgies, and all was mixed in with increased involvement in community groups and trades union activity.

As the physical and social fabric of the East End was stretched to the limit, the role of the parish priest was to change too – with less emphasis on ‘maintaining’ the parish, more on going out on ‘missions’. Guazzelli gathered a ‘hit squad’ of priests to conduct intensive six-week missions in the parishes.

Meanwhile, the tireless bishop was active as a member of the Latin American Desk of the Catholic Relief Agency Cafod, visiting Brazil in 1981. He was also the English representative on the Apostleship of the Sea – the mission to seafarers.

He stayed on at Poplar after retirement age but, after a haemorrhage, his life saved by the nuns at Pope John House, he decided to return to Westminster Cathedral. He kept working to the end – leisure time was filled with stamp collecting, playing Bach on the organ, and a round of golf. The Lindisfarne connection came in handy: he became an overseas member of Shooters’ Hill Golf Club, on the basis that his see was an island!

But if he followed gentle pursuits, his edge never left. Guazzelli predicted the end of compulsory celibacy for priests and despaired of Anglican vicars who went over to Rome because of women’s ordination. ‘If this was their reason ... forget it,’ he said in 2000. ‘We can't tell what will happen in the Catholic Church in 10, 20 or 50 years’ time.’

Victor Guazzelli died on June 1.