Founders and Leaders of the St. Francis Caracciolo Mission

November 2023

The St. Francis Caracciolo Mission in the Congo was established in 1984. It was originally staffed by the Italian Adorno Priest, Fr. Paolo Di Nardo, who was joined a few months later by Fr Thomas Barbona.

Fr. Thomas, also an Italian priest, had been living and serving in Ramsey, NJ at the Adorno’s St. Joseph House of Formation. (There, he had met the neighboring family, including Barbara Sanderman when she was a teen, and much later, asked for her help in supporting the African Mission.)

Fr. Paolo (d. 2013), Fr. Thomas (d. 2014), and Fr. Raphaël Mandolesi spent many years serving in Congo.

After his election as Superior General in 2006, Fr. Raphaël Mandolesi left for Italy and continues to serve there. In 2014 Fr. Raphaël was visiting the US and spoke about the Mission at a Caritas Concert at St. Joseph’s, High Bridge, with Fr. Jean Paul interpreting.

After Fr. Paolo Di Nardo left for Italy for medical reasons in 2013, the Mission became staffed solely by African priests, who have continued to run and serve the Mission since then. The first Superior of the African Delegation was Fr. Faustin Kambale Binywa. After his six-year term ended, he was succeeded by Fr. Jean Claude Musubao, who remains the Superior of the African Delegation today.