In fond memory of Fr. Val, a little over six months after he left us.
By Fr. Savio Angelo S. Sanchez SDB
Fr. Val, as he was fondly called, was born in Bellinzago Novarese, in the Piedmont region of Italy. As a young boy, he liked serving at Mass and dreamt one day of being able to offer the Holy Sacrifice at the altar. The missionaries who came to town recounted their fantastic experiences in the missions. Perhaps it was these who inspired him to go to the parish priest one day to tell him that when he grows up, he also wants to go to Africa. The parish priest simply responded by asking if he wanted to be eaten by lions!
Thanks to Fr Angelo Miglio, the Salesian priest who had visited the Barbero Family and invited the young Valeriano to consider becoming a Salesian. It was this priest who convinced him that the Madonna, the Help of Christians, had plans for him. The childhood dream of becoming a priest became a reality in 1967, eleven years after he joined the Salesians and made his First Profession in Pinerolo.
The 22-year-old cleric Valeriano departed aboard a ship from Genoa for the Philippines in October 1960. His mom was present to bid him farewell. Fr Val recalled that no words were spoken between mother and son, only a warm, painful embrace. In their dialect, she told him, "Come back," and handed an envelope with a few hundred lire inside. So off he went for a 27-day trip to Hong Kong, where he stayed for a few months before going to the Philippines. And all this time, he only had 10 dollars in his pocket, money given to him by the Missions Office before leaving Genoa. Fr. Val later wondered how those 10 dollars providentially turned into thousands and thousands over time to build churches and schools and pay debts!
"Dio solo."
The words spoken by the Servant of God Fr. Carlo Braga on the day of his Perpetual Profession on the 14th of April 1962 were etched forever in Fr. Val's heart and mind: "Dio solo" (God alone). I have heard him personally recount and speak about this encounter with Don Braga when he celebrated his Golden Jubilee as a priest in 2017. Those two words, I believe, can best summarise the life and legacy of Fr. Val. He lived and worked for God alone. Wherever he was assigned, whether in the Philippines or in Papua New Guinea, he tried to bring and or meet God there. His first assignment as a young priest was in the Youth Centre in Tondo, which is amidst the slums among the urban poor, a place that could be described as one of Manila's most infamous districts.
The Builder
Fr. Val was no doubt a "builder." It was through his efforts and hard work as Provincial Economer in the Philippines for nine years that the now international Salesian theologate and the iconic National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians, both in Parañaque (Manila) were built. In Papua New Guinea, it was he who put up the Archdiocesan Shrine of Mary Help of Christians, Emmaus Conference Centre, and the Don Bosco Technological Institute, all in Boroko, Port Moresby. Archbishop Francesco Panfilo, his good friend, has this to say: "People will talk about the buildings he erected: churches, classrooms, staff houses, dormitories, etc. Yet, what he leaves behind is that he was first a priest, a Salesian priest, and he was proud of it. He was a man of prayer, and his reflections were spiritually deep. He handled millions of dollars in order to erect those buildings, but I can testify that he was detached from money and material things. He was poor and very frugal in his lifestyle."
The Pioneer
On the 12th of June 1980, Fr. Val led the first group of Salesian missionaries to a new frontier, Papua New Guinea. He, Fr. Rolando Fernandez (a Filipino), and Br. Joseph Kramar (a Slovenian) arrived in Kerema and then in Araimiri on the 14th of June. It was the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Fr. Val always referred to this date as the "best omen."
Fr. Val recalled that when he was appointed Parish Priest of Araimiri, the geographical limits of his parish were described to him by someone as extending "from the sea to the mountains, from the beach of Kerema Bay to the Vailala river." It was in this vast area in the Gulf Province where the pioneer missionary saw anew the implication of the words "Dio solo." When Araimiri was temporarily closed in the mid-90s, Fr. Val went farther to the West to start a Salesian presence in Lariau. The Parish of Mary Help of Christians there had more than 30 outstations to look after.
The Caress of God
There are many anecdotes that we could cite regarding Fr. Val's experiences in the Gulf Province. A few years before passing on, Fr. Val recalled: "I was attacked with an axe. I was taken to court several times over land issues. I was threatened for the strangest reasons in the hope that I would give in to their demands… I contracted malaria many times and, as a last touch, also leprosy." But he also confessed of having witnessed the miracles of God all these years. Humbly, he admitted how he went quietly from village to village, perhaps not even converting anybody but simply being present to the suffering, the sick, the needy, the elderly, and the hungry. It was in this way, he said, that he tried to bring "the caress of God" to the people. Bishop Luciano Capelli believes: "The legacy he leaves is that of passion for souls, zeal for the kingdom, enthusiasm in one's work."
In time, this caress of God transformed hearts. Fr. Val narrated an incident that happened one day when he was walking on a bush path towards the school. He was met by an angry man who was coming from his garden. Fr. Val stopped and asked why he was angry. "I would never have thought that I was indirectly the cause," the priest quipped. The man told him straight: "You bloody missionaries. I caught three thieves in my garden, but I could not kill them because of what you teach. You see, I am a Christian, and you do not allow us to do what our fathers would have done."
A Smile from God
One of the many memorable encounters Fr. Val had was with a past pupil from Araimiri. Fr. Val expelled the girl from the school because she got pregnant. Many years later, the woman contracted HIV/AIDS, was thrown out from her village and was abandoned by everyone. Fr Val heard about her and arranged to meet up with her in Port Moresby. Now widowed, she could hardly be recognized. Fr. Val asked her to tell her story and it turned out that she actually got infected by her husband. Fr. Val gave her food and something too for her daughter, who was in the hospital. When Fr. Val bade goodbye, she noticed that the woman was very sad, so he went over to embrace her. And there was a smile. "For me, it was a smile from God," explained Fr. Val. A week later, the woman passed on.
Love and Gratitude
On the 14th of April, on the very same day when the Church honors Saint Valerian in a hospital in Novara, Italy, our dear Fr. Valeriano Barbero returned to the house of the Father. The Requiem Masses offered on the 18th and the 22nd of April in the very churches he built in honor of Mary Help of Christians, in Parañaque and in Boroko, respectively, and the big crowds who came for these gatherings are clear expressions of love and gratitude for the gift of his person. It is impossible to encapsulate in just a few paragraphs 60 years of missionary life: 20 in the Philippines and 40 in Papua New Guinea. Fr. Val was the Delegate Superior of PNG from 1994-1997 and then again from 2001-2004. He was the Delegation Economer from 1999-2012 and Delegation Councillor from 2004-2011. His last assignment in PNG was as Economer in Rapolo.
I am not the best person to write this tribute to a great Salesian missionary. But I have accepted the task in gratitude to Fr. Val, who was actually the one who accompanied me on my first trip ever from Manila to Port Moresby as a young neophyte missionary back in 2004. Think of a veteran initiating the neophyte and passing on the torch to him!
Fr. Alfred Maravilla reminded all the Salesians gathered for the Assembly of Confreres in November 2017 that "today we are standing on the shoulders of giants. Thanks to those who have gone before us for their vision and their missionary spirit." One of these "giants" who certainly deserves our love and gratitude is Fr. Val.
This year's Strenna puts before us the image of the yeast that makes the dough rise. There is no doubt that Fr. Val was like the yeast that selflessly, silently, and unassumingly gave rise to the Salesian work in Papua New Guinea.
On the 19th of April 2023, Fr. Val's mortal remains were laid to rest beside Suor Anna Barbero, his sister who was a nun, in the mausoleum of the Barbero Family in the cemetery at Bellinzago.
