Father Michael Bassano has served in Chile, Thailand, Tanzania and South Sudan; next is Bolivia
By Tom Maguire
Associate editor
He turned 75 on Dec. 22 but there is no retirement age for Maryknollers. His next ministry, in Bolivia, is somewhat of an unknown — a “come-and-see” — but it suits him.
“Adjust and adapt and be flexible as I have in the past,” he said.
Father Michael Bassano, MM, who served as a diocesan priest in Utica and Binghamton early in his vocation, exemplifies the mission of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers: “We live and serve around the world.” In that context he most recently served 10 years at a UN Protection of Civilians camp for internally displaced people in the Diocese of Malakal in northern South Sudan, a land of conflict where it’s hot all year long. He ministered in a church made of tin sheets, no air conditioning — “they don’t mind, they sing and they dance.”
On Feb. 12 Father Bassano and his Maryknoll colleague Deacon Paul Bork visited Bishop Douglas J. Lucia in Syracuse. The Maryknollers are grateful that the Diocese of Syracuse had donated to Father Bassano’s account so that he could purchase two sorghum-grinding mills to spare the women in the camp from being subjected to danger outside the camp.
Culture shock
Father Bassano, wearing his clerical shirt from Thailand, and Deacon Bork also lunched with the Sun at Subway. He noted the food and the water we have in this country. “When I realize people in the camp, what they DON’T have, it’s a culture shock” coming home, he said.
As a kid, the Binghamton native knew he wanted to be a priest. He attended St. John the Evangelist Church in Binghamton. “I said, ‘Jesus is my hero. I want to be like him,’” Father Bassano recalled.
So, he knocked on the door of the pastor. “He opens the door,” Father Bassano recalled. “I said, ‘I want to be a priest.’ You know what his first reaction was? ‘You’ll never make it,’ and he closed the door!”
Later, Father Bassano’s aunt told him that his mother, who wanted grandchildren, went to the pastor and told him not to encourage the boy. “Now, is that the truth?” the veteran missionary said. “I don’t know.”
After four years at Catholic Central High School in Binghamton, he told the pastor, “Hi, I’m still here, I want to go.” The pastor got him an interview and he wound up in the seminary, and ordination followed in 1975.
He served in churches in Utica, Binghamton and then Utica again. He said he was happy being a diocesan priest “but felt called to do something more. And so one morning I got up and all I heard were the words — can you believe it? — Go to Maryknoll.” He didn’t even know where Ossining, the home of Maryknoll, was, but he was accepted there and left the diocese in 1987.
Compassionate heart
He studied in Bolivia for five months, then served in Chile, Thailand, Tanzania and then South Sudan. He has ministered to people who were abandoned in the streets; some had leprosy that was cured, some had HIV; others were orphaned children.
Father Bassano remembers a boy who had been bitten by a poisonous snake and lost his left leg from the knee down. The boy “always asked the nurse to bring an extra cup of porridge for the Father, when I came,” he recalled. “So that became our tradition; every day we would share, almost like the Eucharist, sharing this porridge together, sharing our life as he was recovering.”
Pope Francis visited South Sudan in February 2023 and met with internally displaced people from Father Bassano’s camp. “He gave them a rosary, each one of them,” he said, “and I was also called to join in to go up with them, which I felt was a great honor for me.”
The missionary priest left South Sudan last September. The farewell ceremony for him lasted from 9 a.m. until almost 4 or 5 p.m. Attendees included triplets and their mother, who had told Father Bassano that her husband had abandoned her. She had asked Father Bassano to name the triplets, and he named them Miriam, Estella and Bakhita. “If I had some extra money we’d all bring money from the church to give to her for the milk and whatever she needed,” he recalled.
The wonderful triplets
At the farewell ceremony the triplets came up with their mother “and sang a farewell song for me in Arabic,” he said. “And that was the most touching thing.”
In Bolivia the enduring missionary will be with the pastoral group of Cochabamba. Possible assignments might include mentoring seminarians or pastoral work in a parish. Also new will be his returning home once a year, not once every three years.
Father Bassano’s colleague Deacon Bork said:
“Anywhere that Father Mike would go to be in mission he will be a blessing to those whom he will be with. There’s no question about it and his spirit of willingness to serve and to do God’s will always wherever he might be, is an inspiration to all of us.”
