John Heigl naît en 1933 à Buffalo, N.Y., USA. Son père tient une boucherie où John aide durant ses jeunes années.

À la fin de son éducation élémentaire à l’école de la paroisse, John étudie à l’école secondaire et continue au séminaire diocésain. Un des directeurs encourage son intérêt pour la mission en Afrique et John va étudier la philosophie dans notre séminaire à Franklin, Pennsylvanie. Il fait son noviciat deux ans plus tard à Alexandria Bay.

John étudie la théologie à Thibar puis à Carthage. Il est apprécié pour son optimisme et son esprit de service. Les responsables mentionnent son sérieux et idéalisme. Ils relèvent même une touche de candeur. “Il est parfois possible de lui faire des blagues et il tombe dans le panneau.” Ceux qui connaissent John ont raison de penser qu’il fera beaucoup plus de blagues aux autres, au long de sa vie, qu’il n’en sera victime lui-même.

À l’occasion de l’Encyclique Fidei Donum de Pie XII, la province nomme beaucoup de ses nouveaux prêtres à l’animation et formation. John convient très bien avec son sourire et sa qualité de contact. Il est nommé à Metuchen, New Jersey, et ensuite à Washington DC où il est directeur des vocations pour la province. Son enthousiasme et affabilité séduisent les jeunes. Même le moins amical de ceux qu’il rencontre pour la première fois est rapidement désarmé par sa personnalité attractive, faite de politesse, d’humilité, d’attention et de bonne humeur, le tout accompagné d’un large sourire.

II atterrit finalement en Tanzanie, diocèse de Tabora, début 1966. Il commence immédiatement l’étude du swahili. Il n’arrêtera jamais d’étudier la langue, cherchant toujours à se perfectionner. Il est nommé directeur de l’apostolat des laïcs par l’archevêque Mihayo. Il est aussi prêtre assistant de Kitangali. C’est l’époque animée de la Déclaration d’Arusha et de l’Ujamaa, une période de la Tanzanie caractérisée par un grand optimisme relatif à la justice et au développement.

Il est nommé assistant régional en 1970, puis il sert comme régional de 1972 à 1979. “John est le régional de la plus grande région de la Société. Il réussit très bien, étant un homme d’action mais aussi capable de déléguer”, se rappelle un des membres de son équipe. Il met tout son cœur dans la mise en application du Chapitre de 1974 et commence l’animation vocationnelle pour notre Société. C’est ainsi que le premier cycle de Kahangala s’ouvre en août 1980 !

Après une dure journée de travail, John aime se relaxer en prenant sa VW Beatles. Il conduit dans Mwanza, joue à la canasta le soir avec les membres de sa communauté, etc. À la fin de son mandat de régional, il insiste pour retourner dans les rangs et est nommé curé à Ussongo.

John et son équipe ont fourni une ligne de conduite en un temps de changement en Tanzanie. Alors que certains voulaient la suppression progressive de la présence missionnaire étrangère, John a fait face à des choix difficiles, sans perdre l’impulsion. Il a eu la tâche aigre-douce de transmettre beaucoup de postes de mission au clergé local. Cela représentait une réussite et en même temps un sacrifice. Plusieurs nouvelles initiatives furent prises pour suivre l’esprit des fameuses tâches initiales du Chapitre de 1974.

John passe trois ans à se dévouer dans la paroisse “de brousse” d’Ussongo, visitant les succursales et servant les gens : une nomination de rêve pour des confrères de sa génération.
Puis, il lui est demandé de retourner aux USA comme provincial. Il trouve très difficile de prendre cette tâche de responsabilité au service des communautés. Il cherche à rajeunir la mission de la province par de nouvelles initiatives, mais il sent peu d’élan de la part de ses confrères. Problèmes et tensions le contrarient. Son idéalisme se rebelle. Il montre des signes de fatigue. Cela devient trop difficile à supporter. Avant la fin de son mandat, il demande un temps de repos et de recyclage. C’est une expérience difficile pour tous ; ses relations avec la province ne seront plus jamais les mêmes.

En 1988, il retourne à Iboja, diocèse de Kahama, Tanzanie, servant là-bas jusqu’au milieu des années quatre-vingt-dix. À l’époque, il s’inquiète de la santé de ses parents. Étant l’un des deux enfants, John demande la permission de rester auprès d’eux. Pendant ce congé prolongé, il réalise un bref service pastoral dans son diocèse d’origine, où il retournera peu après pour de bon.

Dès le milieu des années quatre-vingts, pendant ses trépidants voyages au service des confrères, John commence à parler de son désir de consacrer plus de temps à la prière ; il pense avoir “une âme contemplative dans un corps d’actif”. Cette aspiration au silence et à la prière marquera le reste de sa vie.

Cet idéal de davantage de contemplation, il tente de le vivre en s’engageant dans la communauté de l’Arche de Jean Vanier à Mobile, Alabama, pendant un essai de six mois, en 1995. La nécessité d’être toujours disponible aux membres de la communauté, tant pour un service physique qu’émotionnel, ne lui laisse pas le temps de prier comme il le désire. Malgré son attachement aux jeunes, il quitte l’Arche.

John demande à retourner en Tanzanie pour réaliser son idéal d’une communauté témoignant par la contemplation. Il s’établit à Zanzibar pendant plus d’un an. “Pendant mon séjour à Zanzibar”, écrit-il dans un Petit Écho de 1997, “j’ai souvent entendu les mêmes questions. ‘Pourquoi vouloir établir une communauté de prière en milieu musulman, alors qu’il y a tant de travail à faire ailleurs ? En fait, après six mois passés ici, j’ai peu de résultats à exhiber comme fruits de mon travail, de mes projets, de l’argent dépensé”. Son rêve est partiellement réalisé, sans qu’il puisse persuader un confrère de faire communauté avec lui. “Je me suis fait quelques amis en cours de route, mais quoi de plus ? Rien vraiment...
... Mateo Ricci et ceux qui ont continué son œuvre savaient pourtant bien où trouver la réponse : dans la prière. Sa mission était de se faire des amis ; c’était son apostolat. C’est aussi le mien à Zanzibar, par grâce de Dieu.”

Connaissant John, nous pouvons imaginer que le problème n’est pas de se faire des amis. Le plus difficile est de trouver des compagnons. Peut-être que le temps n’est pas encore venu. Il n’a jamais réussi à fonder une communauté. Déçu, il retourne pour de bon dans son pays natal l’année suivante.

Il demande à travailler hors communauté dans une paroisse de son diocèse. Il est curé de l’église Ste-Marie à Silver Springs, N.Y., jusqu’à sa retraite en 2008. Son service est très apprécié, tant par le diocèse que par les paroissiens. Il continue ensuite à célébrer la messe et à s’occuper des gens d’une des chapelles de la paroisse. Ces derniers lui offrent une petite voiture qu’il aime conduire lors de ses visites pastorales.
John confie au Supérieur délégué qu’il se sent bien spirituellement. Il continue à être fidèle à la prière et à la lecture spirituelle. Cependant, il reconnaît que sa santé est défaillante. En mars 2011, il a un sérieux problème de santé : il est atteint de leucémie.

“Je suis en paix, en paix avec les membres de ma famille, avec la Société et les confrères, avec les paroissiens. Je n’ai pas de regrets et j’ai toujours été heureux d’être Missionnaire d’Afrique. Je prie souvent, dis mon bréviaire et célèbre la messe chaque jour.” Il décède à Buffalo le 4 juin 2011, à l’âge de 78 ans, en présence de sa sœur.

John Heigl fut un excellent Père Blanc. Toute sa vie, il chercha à réaliser à la lettre le charisme de notre fondateur, avec une dévotion plus qu’ordinaire, ainsi qu’une générosité et un idéalisme au service de l’Évangile et des Africains. Sa présence était joyeuse et sa vocation solide. Il cherchait à encourager ses confrères, donnant l’impression que son interlocuteur était important pour lui et qu’il avait sa pleine attention. Son expression souriante et son humour impénétrable nous encourageaient, sa présence accueillante et son idéalisme nous stimulaient.

Bob McGovern

Père Marcel Girbal

1924 - - 2011

Marcel a vu le jour en Aveyron, France, le 23 juillet 1924 à Saint Geniez d’Olt, dont les habitants s’appellent les Marmots, suite à une légende du Moyen-Âge qui met en scène deux enfants et une marmotte. Son père, Henri, est maçon. Sa mère se nomme Laurentine Calmet. Baptisé quatre jours après sa naissance, il est confirmé le 31 mai 1935. Il grandit avec son grand frère Laurent, et sa grande sœur Henriette. Une de ses nièces, Mireille, lors de ses funérailles, a souligné ‘la joie de vivre et le caractère aveyronnais affirmé de son tonton.’ Dans sa chambre, il a une carte de l’Aveyron avec cet encadré : “L’Aveyron, c’est l’émotion des grands espaces : des plateaux de l’Aubrac s’étendant à l’infini, aux chaos rocheux du causse de Larzac, aux superbes gorges et vallées du Lot, du Tarn et de l’Aveyron, ici la nature a du caractère.” Cela a sérieusement déteint sur Marcel.

Il fait son école primaire chez les Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes, puis le secondaire à Rodez et Espalion. En 1942, il rentre au grand séminaire de Rodez pour 2 ans de philo et une année de théologie fondamentale.

En 1946, on le trouve à Carthage, pour son noviciat et sa 2e année de théologie. De fait, en 1946-47, il a fallu organiser deux noviciats : l’un à Ste-Marie, de Maison-Carrée, avec 77 novices et le second, à Carthage, avec 69 aspirants. Il terminera sa théologie à Thibar où il prononce son Serment missionnaire le 29 juin 1949. Le 1er février 1950, il est ordonné prêtre à Carthage, par Mgr Charles Gounod, avec 49 confrères.

De 1950 à 1958, il missionne en Haute Volta : deux ans à Kaya, cinq ans à Ouagadougou, à la paroisse N.D du Rosaire de Kologh Naaba qui vient d’être fondée, le 8 août 1952. Il y sera un an vicaire puis quatre ans curé. Lors de la célébration du cinquantenaire de la paroisse, en 2002, les deux chantres qui proclament l’histoire de la paroisse sortent le nom du Père Girbal, aussitôt après celui du Père Bouchet Jules, le fondateur.

Nommé à Boulsa, il y fera un an et rentre en France en 1958 pour un congé d’une année complète. Il reste en famille chez sa sœur Henriette à Drancy et chez son frère Laurent au village natal. Suivent trois ans d’animation missionnaire en Rouergue, à Paris, rue Friant, et en Normandie.

Après sa grande retraite à Villa Cavaletti, à Rome, en janvier 1963, il repart en Haute Volta et passe 3 ans à Ouahigouya. Il doit ensuite rentrer définitivement en France pour raisons de santé.

En novembre 1966, il est nommé à Toulouse pour faire de l’animation missionnaire dans les diocèses de Midi-Pyrénées. Aux OPM, il travaille en équipe avec prêtres et religieuses de plusieurs Congrégations. Il aime cet apostolat et s’y investit à fond, 7 ans durant. En septembre 1972, il est élu conseiller provincial.

De 1974 à 1994, il exercera divers ministères dans le diocèse de Pontoise. D’abord 7 ans à Mours comme aumônier des lycées et collèges des secteurs de Beaumont et de l’Isle-Adam. Avec les jeunes, il organise des camps d’été inoubliables tantôt dans les Alpes, tantôt dans les Pyrénées, et cela jusqu’en 1991. En septembre 1980, il est supérieur de la communauté de Nesles-la-Vallée et en charge des sept villages du Sausseron avec deux autres confrères PB. En juin 1987, il fait la session retraite de Jérusalem.
En août 1987, il est curé de St-Gratien, toujours dans le diocèse de Pontoise où il aide de nom­breux laïcs à prendre en charge la vie paroissiale : catéchèse, célébrations liturgiques, préparation aux divers sacrements. Il s’y fait une foule d’amis qui ont témoigné lors de son retour à Dieu, près de vingt-cinq ans plus tard.

En février 1995, il revient à la Villa St Régis de Mours, comme responsable de la communauté où une trentaine de confrères assurent de multiples ministères et services. Il assume sa responsabilité jusqu’à fin 2001, date de son premier AVC et devient alors simple résident. Pendant trois ans, il travaille dans le parc avec un zèle quelque peu difficile à contrôler.

Le 1er novembre 2004, il pose son bagage à Tassy où là aussi, il va se dépenser à l’entretien du parc et de la forêt. En 2010, deuxième AVC : il perd la parole mais il la récupère presque totalement avec l’aide d’une orthophoniste. Est-ce avant ou après ce second accroc de santé ? Dieu seul le sait, il rédige un petit curriculum vitae où il note : “Maintenant, je travaille dans le parc de Tassy. Je prie pour vous tous. Je garde le souvenir des membres de ma famille et des centaines d’amis sans qui nous, missionnaires, n’aurions jamais pu réaliser la mission que le Seigneur nous a confiée.

Je pense que j’en suis à ma dernière étape : dans le silence, la prière et l’amitié des confrères du troisième âge, dans l’action de grâce et la joie.”

Il subit un troisième AVC le dimanche 4 avril 2011 : il récupère sa mobilité mais pas la parole. Apparemment, il comprend ce qu’on lui dit, mais il a parfois des réactions inattendues : un confrère veille sur lui, très attentivement, parfois à distance pour ne pas l’énerver.

Le jeudi 13 octobre, il prend son petit-déjeuner avec nous, arrivant au réfectoire avec sa casquette qui lui donnait un air de vieux loup de mer. Son café avalé, selon son habitude, il va prendre l’air, accompagné de son ‘ange gardien’. Assis près du parterre de fleurs qui jouxte notre maison, il tombe foudroyé par un quatrième AVC.

Malgré notre stupéfaction, lui-même n’a probablement pas été totalement surpris ; en témoigne cette prière trouvée sur sa table et intitulée ‘Un jour, ton jour’. Il a dû la lire plus d’une fois car le papier a perdu sa blancheur originelle à cause d’une manipulation fréquemment répétée.

Marcel était un chercheur de Dieu : dans sa chambre encore, juste au-dessus de son bureau, il avait agrafé cette prière de saint François d’Assise : “Seigneur, que devienne toujours plus lumineuse en nous la connaissance que nous avons de Toi.”

Une paroissienne de St-Gratien m’a envoyé un texte rédigé par Marcel, alors son curé, qui s’intitule ‘Mon Credo’ : “Moi, je n’ai rien d’autre à faire qu’aimer et me laisser aimer. Aimer celui qui est tout pour moi et qui vit avec moi… Je n’ai rien d’autre à proposer à chacun que d’aimer et se laisser aimer.”
Il cherchait Dieu et, en même temps, il se savait recherché par Dieu. Dans sa chambre, encore, il avait affiché un poster qui portait une citation de François Varillon : “Quand j’essaye d’imaginer Dieu, je le vois en prière devant moi. Je n’irai pas jusqu’à dire qu’il est à genoux devant moi, mais qu’il me tend les mains en me disant : Je te prie d’exaucer mon désir.”

Le Père Girbal n’a pas cherché Dieu que dans la prière et la lecture de la Bible ; il a su découvrir Dieu dans les splendeurs de la nature et dans le cœur des gens. Sa nièce, Mireille, au début de la messe d’obsèques, a souligné cette double recherche de Dieu d’abord dans la prière, mais aussi dans la nature et dans les autres : “Tu prenais un peu de temps, chaque année, pour venir réfléchir sur l’Aubrac paisible, sous ta tente avec ton bout de fromage et ton saucisson : cela te suffisait. Ici, à Tassy, tu prenais plaisir à entretenir le parc où tu puisais cette force que te donnaient la nature, les arbres, le feu, le calme, la méditation. Je sais que tu voulais remercier le Seigneur : ce que je fais aujourd’hui à ta place…

…Le Seigneur t’a appelé à travailler pour de nombreuses équipes de prêtres, de catéchistes, de chrétiens et tu as été témoin de son infinie bonté, tant en Afrique qu’en France. Oui, ‘merci à Dieu’ pour tous les amis rencontrés et sur lesquels tu pouvais compter, sans oublier ta famille.”

Espérons que, là-haut, Marcel va pouvoir, en compagnie des anges et des saints du ciel, chanter à tue-tête les louanges de ce Dieu qu’il a aimé de tout son cœur.

Charles Sarti

Père Luigi Geranio

1926 - - 2011

De nationalité italienne, mais vivant en Suisse, Luigi est né le 1er juin 1926 à Dongio dans le canton du Tessin. Ses études à Lugano, au petit et au grand séminaire, lui ont permis de nouer des amitiés durables dans l’Église locale.

En 1947, il rejoint la communauté des Missionnaires d’Afrique de Fribourg et fait une 2e année de théologie à l’université. Suivent le noviciat à Maison-Carrée, puis deux ans de théologie à Thibar où il prononce son Serment missionnaire le 1er octobre 1950. Il sera ordonné prêtre à Carthage le 24 mars 1951. Il demande alors d’être envoyé en Guinée ou au Mozambique, mais “quelle surprise quand il apprend qu’il ira enseigner le latin à l’Institut Lavigerie de St-Maurice, en Suisse !”

Ce temps d’enseignement ne dure qu’une année. En juin 1952, il reçoit sa nomination pour le Tanganyika Territory (Tanzanie) qu’il rejoint l’année suivante après avoir passé un séjour de 4 mois en Grande-Bretagne pour perfectionner son anglais et s’initier au British way of life, comme c’était la coutume en ce temps-là.

Dès son arrivée à Kala, dans le diocèse de Sumbawanga, alors diocèse de Karema, il apprend le kirungu, une langue parlée le long du lac. “Aucun livre n’était à disposition”, écrit-il. “J’ai été invité à me débrouiller. J’allais rencontrer les gens, équipé d’un carnet où j’écrivais ce que j’entendais, après quoi un confrère me fournissait les explications nécessaires. Pendant 9 ans, j’ai utilisé exclusivement le kirungu”.

Plus tard, quand le swahili sera déclaré langue nationale, il s’appliquera à l’apprendre, muni cette fois d’outils plus performants. Pendant ses années à Kala (1953-1959), il entreprend la réfection du toit de l’hôpital et la construction d’une route reliant Kala au plateau où se développera Sumbawanga. Il n’a pas le temps de terminer ce projet, mais le gouvernement en reconnaîtra l’utilité et le reprendra à son compte.

En 1959, Luigi est nommé à Matayi, puis à Chiwanda, près de la frontière zambienne, où il travaille pendant 30 ans. Les catholiques s’y trouvent très dispersés, en situation de diaspora. De plus, les relations avec les protestants ne sont pas bonnes, la polygamie est encouragée par la très anticatholique secte Mwakalenga, dite “religion d’Abraham”, pour laquelle il n’y a pas de salut en dehors de la polygamie.

Durant ces années à Chiwanda, il se lance dans de nombreux projets pour le développement du pays, à commencer par les écoles, inexistantes ou totalement dépourvues d’équipement. Souvent, il faut écrire sur le sable, faute de matériel. Les besoins dans le domaine de la santé ne sont pas moindres, surtout en raison de la bilharziose, dont lui-même est atteint en marchant des heures dans les marais.

En 1984, Luigi se rend compte que le poste de Chiwanda va perdre de son importance et probablement rester sans prêtre. En prévision de cet avenir, il aménage une maison pour les Sœurs de Marie Reine de l’Afrique, une congrégation locale qui prendra la responsabilité de plusieurs activités de la paroisse en 1987.

À partir de ce moment, Luigi travaille davantage au nouveau centre administratif de Tunduma où il fait creuser un puits, construit un hôpital avec maternité et une maison de communauté. Victime d’un infarctus en 1994, il doit interrompre ses travaux et est rapatrié en Suisse. À la grande surprise de ceux qui lui disaient “l’Afrique pour toi c’est fini !”, il retourne en Tanzanie.

Il sert alors à Laela, tout en supervisant des constructions à Mpanda, Kala, et Chala. En septembre 1998, devant être opéré du cœur, il revient en Suisse. Cette fois, la remise sur pied est longue, mais en octobre 1999, il peut regagner la Tanzanie. Pendant 3 ans, il collabore avec Caritas-Sumbawanga pour des projets de forage de puits ou de captage de sources. En octobre 2002, Luigi est le dernier Missionnaire d’Afrique à quitter le diocèse de Sumbawanga.

Revenu définitivement à Fribourg, il consacre son temps à l’animation missionnaire au Tessin, à des traductions ou à des tâches administratives pour les publications suisses en langue italienne ou pour la revue Africa du secteur d’Italie. Avec l’aide d’amis du Tessin, il continue à soutenir divers projets en cours à Sumbawanga, notamment des adductions d’eau potable dans les villages ou les écoles. Il a aussi à cœur de trouver des bourses d’études pour des religieuses en vue d’approfondir leur formation.

En septembre 2003, invité par des amis, il fait encore une visite à Sumbawanga. Il en revient réconforté par les témoignages d’amitié qu’il y reçoit. Ces visites se renouvèleront plusieurs fois.

Le 11 septembre 2011, Luigi se rend au Tessin pour y accomplir du ministère et visiter sa sœur âgée. Il est invité à se joindre aux prêtres du diocèse qui célébrent, comme lui, le 60e anniversaire de leur ordination. Luigi a annoncé son retour à Fribourg pour le 20 septembre, mais dans la matinée du 19, le vicaire général de Lugano nous apprend que Luigi est décédé la veille au soir. Ses funérailles, présidées par l’évêque de Lugano le 21 septembre, réunirent une trentaine de prêtres et de nombreux fidèles dans l’église de Dongio.

Toute la vie missionnaire de Luigi a été orientée vers la pastorale en Tanzanie. Les dernières réalisations à Sumbawanga nourrissaient souvent ses conversations à Fribourg. Pendant des années, il a dû rester attentif à l’état de son cœur. Malgré ce handicap, avec son bon sens et son rire jovial, il est parvenu à surmonter toutes les épreuves et à vivre jusqu’à son dernier jour son idéal missionnaire.

Jean-Marie Gabioud

Père Henri Vincent

1914 - - 2011

Le Père Henri Vincent est né le 21 février 1914 dans la paroisse de St-Charles de Montréal. Il est l’aîné de 9 enfants. La famille habite dans un quartier populaire pauvre. La présence des Religieuses et des Frères qui dirigent les écoles avait créé dans la paroisse une ferveur chrétienne. Ses parents vivaient dans un climat religieux, et ils ont transmis ces valeurs à leurs enfants. Le petit Henri a été habitué à aller à l’église souvent, à prier. Plus grand il sera servant de messe. Comme il est le plus vieux de la famille, il sera amené très jeune à aider ses parents, à s’occuper des plus petits. Il fait ses études primaires à l’école St-Charles à côté de chez lui. Pour ses 6 années d’études secondaires, il va au Collège de Montréal en étant externe. Pour les 2 années de philosophie, il est au séminaire de philosophie, cette fois comme pensionnaire.

En 1935, il demande son admission chez les Pères Blancs d’Éverell, près de Québec. Il dit que c’est cette Société qui peut satisfaire ses rêves d’apostolat. Après ce postulat d’une année, il doit quitter le Canada pour le noviciat de Maison-Carrée en banlieue d’Alger. Ils sont 120 novices de différentes nationalités. Là, c’est le choc des cultures. Sa simplicité désarmante et son sens de l’humour l’aident à passer à travers cette expérience sans grosses difficultés.

En septembre 1937, il commence la théologie au scolasticat des Missionnaires d’Afrique à Thibar, en Tunisie. L’année suivante, comme un nouveau scolasticat Père Blanc ouvre à Eastview, près d’Ottawa, il est rapatrié pour poursuivre les 3 dernières années de théologie à cet endroit. C’est là que le 9 juin 1939, il prononce son Serment missionnaire. Le 23 juin 1940, il est ordonné prêtre par Mgr Alexandre Vachon, archevêque d’Ottawa, dans la chapelle des Sœurs Grises de la Croix.

Inutile de dire que le Père Vincent était content de terminer ses étapes de formation. Le travail intellectuel ne l’attire pas tellement, ce qu’il aime c’est la pratique. On le considère bon organisateur, ayant un esprit pratique. Sous un extérieur un peu quelconque, dira un formateur, il cache beaucoup d’esprit surnaturel. On souligne son caractère enjoué qui l’amène à s’entendre avec tout le monde. Mais il devra surveiller sa tendance à l’originalité, à la distraction, ce qui pourrait lui attirer des désagréments dans l’avenir.

Il est nommé pour le vicariat apostolique du Rwenzori en Ouganda, qui deviendra en 1953 le diocèse de Mbarara. Toute sa vie missionnaire en Afrique va se passer dans ce diocèse. Après un voyage périlleux à cause de la guerre, il arrive enfin en Ouganda fin décembre 1940. Sa première nomination est celle de vicaire à la paroisse de Butiti. On lui confie la direction de la seule école primaire de la paroisse. Pour l’aider à apprendre la langue, on lui demande de s’occuper aussi du dispensaire. À la fin de son expérience dans cette paroisse il écrit : “Cela dura 5 ans, le temps d’user 5 supérieurs, une moto, et de briser quelques dents…”

De 1946 à 1957, il est à la paroisse de la ville de Virika. Il est gestionnaire des écoles de 5 paroisses. En 1957, un gros changement survient dans son travail. Il est nommé dans le district de Mbarara. Il est obligé alors d’apprendre une autre langue. Il commence par être vicaire à la paroisse d’Ibanda pendant 3 ans, puis 3 ans à Kitabi, et 1 an à Nyakibale. Ces différentes expériences l’ont préparé à de plus grandes responsabilités. En 1965, il est nommé curé de Rubindi. L’année suivante, en septembre 1966, il est à la paroisse de Rushanje, une paroisse en fondation dans les montagnes. En plus de son travail de curé, il se lance dans le développement, élevage, captage de source, etc. Pendant environ 9 ans, il va vivre heureux dans ce travail près des gens. Il écrit : “Ce genre d’activités, en plus d’être bénéfique pour l’hygiène mentale, me permit de créer des contacts bienfaisants pour l’apostolat, même avec ceux qui ne partagent pas les mêmes convictions…”

En 1975, il est curé de Mushanga, une paroisse florissante. Il y continue le même genre de travail. En 1980, il redevient vicaire, cette fois à Kagamba. Tout en prenant régulièrement ses congés, il demeure là jusqu’en 1994. Avec le travail et les années de labeur, il sent bien que sa santé n’est plus la même, et qu’il a plus de difficulté à s’adapter aux nouveaux développements. Il prend alors la résolution de rentrer définitivement au Canada. Il a été très heureux de son expérience en Afrique. Ses rêves et ses ambitions se sont réalisés.

Il avoue que partout et toujours il a été conduit par la main de Celui à qui il s’était confié. Il a commis des erreurs à cause de ses distractions, de ses oublis, de ses jugements hâtifs, mais dans sa grande humilité, il acceptait les reproches en disant qu’il avait oublié, qu’il s’était trompé. Et il recommençait en faisant attention, sans rancune et sans complexe. Dans les années ‘80, il a beaucoup souffert des tensions dans le pays, où il y avait beaucoup d’injustice, de corruption, de torture. Discrètement, il a toujours essayé de mettre en pratique ses principes de justice et fraternité.

Au Canada, il demande pour faire partie de la communauté de la rue St-Hubert à Montréal. Il veut rester actif selon ses capacités. Il fait du ministère occasionnel, il aide dans la communauté et au Centre Africa. En 1997, il fait la session à Rome pour les confrères de 70 ans et plus. Il continue de voyager comme il l’a toujours aimé. C’est difficile de l’arrêter.

En l’an 2000, il prend tout à fait sa retraite en célébrant son 60e anniversaire d’ordination sacerdotale. En 2004, avec l’aide de confrères et de sa famille, il écrit ses mémoires dans un livre de 200 pages : “La piqûre de l’Afrique”. Il demeure dans cette communauté jusqu’en 2009. On lui trouve alors une place à l’infirmerie des Pères Capucins à Montréal. Il y reçoit les soins appropriés à son état. Il continue de s’occuper en lisant beaucoup, surtout tout ce qui regarde la marche de notre Société Père Blanc. Il n’a pas peur de remettre en question les écrits des confrères et les décisions des Chapitres. Même le cardinal Lavigerie n’y échappe pas. Beaucoup s’intéressent à ses prises de position, et cela l’encourage à continuer à exprimer ses idées.

Au début 2011, son état s’aggrave. Il se déplace difficilement. Ses jambes le font souffrir. Le 16 septembre, on le conduit à l’hôpital St-Luc de Montréal pour soigner une plaie qui ne guérit pas à une jambe . Il décède subitement dans la nuit du 17 septembre.

Les funérailles ont été célébrées le 24 septembre 2011, en présence de l’urne funéraire, en l’église Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix à Montréal. Les cendres ont été déposées au cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges à Montréal, dans le lot familial.

Le Père Julien Cormier, provincial, a présidé la messe, et Mgr Robert Gay, évêque émérite de Kabale en Ouganda, a prononcé l’homélie. Il a fait ressortir quelques-unes des grandes qualités de notre confrère : “Pour nous, ses confrères, notre Henri Vincent a été comme une pierre intégrale de la province canadienne. Ici, comme en Afrique, son dévouement, sa bonne humeur, son ouverture d’esprit, son sens de l’accueil enrichissaient nos communautés. En Ouganda, on savait que si Henri faisait partie d’une communauté, tout visiteur y serait le bienvenu…”

De l’Ouganda, des messages de condoléances sont parvenus au Père provincial. Mgr Paul Bakyenga, archevêque de Mbarara, mentionne que le Père Vincent a laissé l’image de quelqu’un qui avait un grand sens de l’humour, un ami de tous, quelqu’un qui a aimé notre pays. Une Sœur ougandaise, Paskasia Kinkuhaire, qui l’a bien connu, parle de lui comme d’un homme du peuple, très sincère, honnête, qui ne craignait pas de dire la vérité. On lui avait donné le nom de Rugamba­mazina, ‘Celui qui dit vrai’.

Lauréat Belley

 

PROFILES

Father Jos Van den Broeck

1925 - - 2011

Jos (his official name was, in fact, Marcel) was born on the 31st May 1925 at Berlaar, in Belgium. He did his secondary schooling at Saint-Gommaire College in the nearby town of Lierre. His older brother became a secular priest in the diocese of Antwerp. In 1946, Jos entered the White Fathers at Boechout. After his novitiate at Varsenare, he studied theology at Heverlee from 1949 till 1953, the year of his priestly ordination on the 5th April. He had taken his Missionary Oath the year before, on the 19th July 1952.

Appointed to the Belgian Congo as it was known at that time, Jos flew with Sobelair on the 25th April 1954 towards Baudouinville. For his first appointment, he was professor of the junior seminary at Lusaka. As early as his first letter to the Belgian Provincial, Jos wrote what was to become the leitmotiv of his life. ‘To the extent that the boys sense you love them and want to make them happy, you will also have influence over them and will win their trust, after which you can really ask them anything.’ In 1957, Jos was appointed to Mpala as Director of Schools. He lived close to the people and was very popular among the Batabwa, who considered him one of theirs, calling him ‘Tusanga’.

In late 1960, he came to Belgium on home leave and followed the Long Retreat at Villa Cavaletti. When he left again in February 1961, the problems of the early independence were still very much in evidence. In January 1962, Jos was appointed to Lyapenda as Director of Primary Schools and the boarding school. In the meantime, he had drafted the plans, financed and built the Institute of Good Hope (later it would bear the name of ‘Institut Marungu’. It consisted of an ‘Orientation Programme’ with classrooms, offices, a stockroom and an 80-bed dormitory.

On the 1st September 1966, the Institute opened its doors and the founding Director, accompanied by his Assistant, Father Jean Boulanger, welcomed their first pupils. He succeeded in inculcating a genuine family spirit and a truly fraternal feeling in his school. It was to influence former pupils for good and would extend the reputation of the Institute particularly throughout Shaba (Katanga). The boarding school was soon to lodge 300 pupils. Former pupils described Jos ‘Vande’ in everyday language, as a man with authority, a great organiser, an able resourceful person with a brilliant imagination, full of understanding and with a deep social awareness. In 1975, the policy of ‘zairianisation’ dealt a cruel blow to his presence at Lyapenda and Zaire.

Already in his final letters sent from Lyapenda, Jos stated to the Belgian Provincial that once back home, he wanted to begin work immediately, preferably in education, but not as a teacher. It is true he was only 51. Therefore, as early as 1975, he involved himself in Individual Technical Teaching for boys considered ‘problem’, at Roulers. At ‘Onze kinderen’ (Our Children) House, he was firstly a co-worker, (teacher of religion), then from 1977 its Director.

There, Jos succeeded admi­rably. He won the trust of the boys and managed to draw them into his education plan for them. For nine years, Jos was to give the best of himself. It was not therefore surprising that in the farewell speech given on the 29th June 1984 they were to say, ‘In addition, we remember you as a man and a priest, a very demanding director for yourself. You gave yourself body and soul, day in, day out, taking the side of the weak. In doing so, you made your mark on our school. You expected the same commitment on the part of your co-workers and little by little, we followed your example. Your truly breathed out the fire in your soul on this school and unstintingly you appealed for more understanding and attention for each pupil in his tangible originality.’

They cherish in him the image of a man who believes in the individual value of each person and in his unlimited possibilities. As soon as he suspected the slightest talent or least ability, he managed to encourage it and by the trust he invested in it, he enabled each one to grow and develop to the fullest. This applies to the staff members as well, and all the more for his young ones. They will miss him very much.’

At Christmas 1985, Jos returned to the community at Rue de Linthout, Brussels. His mandate was clear: reception service in the morning and in the afternoon, working with Volens, an NGO established by Belgian society and recognised for international solidarity and cooperation for development. He looked after the accounts, kept the lists up-to-date and did the correspondence. In the meantime, Jos spent a great deal of time at his favourite leisure pursuit of stamp-collecting, thus becoming the official philatelist of the Society. He therefore followed in a tradition that went back to Cardinal Lavigerie. Every year, he spent several weeks at the Generalate to update the enormous stamp collection of the Society. Once he was appointed to Antwerp, in July 2001, he devoted himself full-time to philately.

.
April 2006

The last stage of his life was no sinecure. Jos started increasingly forgetting. On the 1st November 2008, he left Antwerp for Varsenare. His mind was more and more confused. His confreres needed to help him, as on occasion he did not even know where he was. Nevertheless, he did not look unhappy. He reverted to his childhood, but one that was rather happy. When his physical powers also declined in March 2011, Jos was entrusted to the care of Avondrust, the rest home where he was well looked-after. Jos quietly passed away in his sleep on the 15th September 2011. He was 86 and had spent 59 of them in missionary life.

Jef Vleugels

Father Marcel Pauwels

1927 - - 2011

Marcel was born on the 17th January 1927 at Berchem, on the outskirts of Antwerp, Belgium. He did his secondary schooling at Notre Dame College Antwerp, but the final year, ‘Poetry’, was spent at the St. Stanislas College at Mons. He did his first year of philosophy at the major seminary of Malines. Then, in September 1947, he entered the White Fathers at Thy-le-Château. We note that Marcel was the nephew of Father Marcel Pauwels (+1978), the grand-nephew of Father Henri de Langle (+1968), and a distant cousin of Yves Pauwels, currently in Mali. After his novitiate at Varsenare (1948-1949), Marcel left for Canada and studied at Eastview, where he took his Missionary Oath on the 26th June 1952. He then left for Monteviot in Scotland for his final year of theology and his ordination on the 11th June 1953.

On the 20th April 1954, Marcel took the Sobelair flight for Africa, destination Bukoba, Tanganyika Territory. He was firstly a curate in Kagondo parish. Then, at Bugene, he was involved, in spite of himself, in a virulent rivalry with Protestant schools. From 1957 till 1961, he taught at Rubya Seminary. In 1961-1962, Marcel did a year of catechetics at Lumen Vitae.

He then returned to Rubya Seminary, firstly as a professor then as Director. Thanks to the Second Vatican Council and also thanks to the message of peace and reconciliation of the new President Mwalimu Nyerere, mwalimu Marcel changed quite naturally into a champion of ecumenism, inviting and visiting Protestant pastors, dining and praying with them. His knowledge of the local language in addition to Kiswahili greatly helped him. Even years after his departure from Karagwe, people still called him ‘Padri Mpole’, the gentle Father.

In 1964, Marcel was appointed parish priest of Bukoba town and head of diocesan catechetics for schools. His competence in the subject was such that in 1967, he was appointed professor of ‘Catechesis and Pastoral Work’ at the major seminary of Kipalapala, Tabora. He was to remain there until his home leave in 1970. Belgium then called him for home service. It was a bitter pill to swallow. To the Provincial, he wrote, ‘Unfortunately for me, I do not belong to the generation of those who decide for themselves what they will do! Perhaps it is a leftover from the old Ignatian formation which formed or deformed us at Varsenare’. He concludes, ‘In short, I would rather stay here a thousand times over, but if you take the responsibility for taking me out of here, I will board the plane blindly, as St. Ignatius demands!’

After his home leave and Long Retreat at Villa Cavaletti, Rome, Marcel was appointed to Leuven to accompany our Belgian candidates. In April 1971, he replaced Father Paul Kerkhofs, who set off again for Burundi. At that time, there were twelve candidates in the First Cycle: six French-speaking and six Flemish-speaking. They all followed courses at the university. ‘He is very much appreciated by Father Roelens, with whom he forms the team and is very highly regarded by the students with whom he has relaxed and informal contacts,’ wrote the Assistant Provincial. At that time, the Rue Vital Decoster residence was moved to the Rue Frederik Lints. In September 1975, Marcel was able to return to Tanzania.

From then on, appointments were to succeed one another. He became parish priest of Bushangiro (Rulenge), and a year later parish priest of Bugene, as well as diocesan head of catechesis. This task obliged him to run all over the diocese. ‘Lots of travelling and the roads are what they are,’ he wrote in March 1977. That same year, he returned to the same duties at Bushangaro, then at Bugene. Then in January 1979, he did the same at Biharamulo.

In April 1980, Marcel was appointed to the parish of Chemchem, diocese of Singida, where he lent a hand while diocesan head of catechetics. For Marcel, as for generations of White Fathers, the catechist was the indispensable bond for the missionary, the basis of evangelisation for the peoples of Africa. Without catechists, the mission was ‘kazi bure’, worthless.

However, Marcel was not content just to teach catechism, how to read the Bible, how to pray. Forming apostles was also for him to form men: a matter of life, no more, no less. Agricul­ture, livestock farming, family hygiene, modern building techniques, rural development, were choice activities of his. At his 25 years of priesthood, as a gift, he asked for an enormous crate of bicycles for catechists in the parish of Bushangaro. One day, he came back from a journey followed by fifteen or so donkeys he had bought cheaply on the way. These poor donkeys had a hard time when they had to learn to draw a cart, a plough or carry loads.

In the meantime, Marcel was elected Regional Councillor. In January 1987, he continued the same pastoral work, but from the parish of Ilongero, where he became parish priest. It was high time for Marcel to slow down a bit. In March 1987, he took part in the Jerusalem Session-Retreat and in 1990, followed the Pastoral Year at the PISAI. In August 1991, we find him appointed to Singida itself, as parish priest and head of catechist training. In September 1996, he moved to the diocese of Tabora, as head of the Catechetical Centre. He was to work there until his return to Belgium in 1999.

Appointed to Belgium in April 1999, Marcel joined the community of Cogels-Osylei at Berchem. In fact, it was not a return for good, but as his Provincial said, ‘a prolonged rest.’ In September, he followed the over 70s Session at Rome. In November 1999, he left again for Tanzania, equipped with a new hearing aid, as he was becoming increasingly hard-of-hearing. In October 2002, he was appointed to Belgium, this time for good. He joined the Evere community. A short interim at ‘t Kiel as chaplain only lasted a few months and he returned to Evere.

As can clearly be seen, a passion for catechetics runs like a connecting thread throughout his life. Teaching the Word was the programme of his entire missionary life. Proclaiming and teaching the Word of Jesus was his life. One confrere said, ‘We were together in Singida. He was a very warm, motivated, enthusiastic man, incapable of half-measures and completely devoted to the people and his catechists.’

In 2010, Marcel fell seriously ill. His Calvary was to last a year and four months. The way he bore his illness, unable to rise from his bed of suffering, gradually weakening, made a deep impression on all of us. What he had always taught he now lived serenely and peaceably. He passed away - the right way of putting it - on the 30th June 2011, about 12.30.

The Funeral Mass took place on the 6th July in the Main Chapel of St. Joseph’s Home at Evere, followed by burial in our cemetery at Varsenare.

Thank you, Marcel, for your faith, for your life’s gift, for your uncomplicated manner and your smile, for your patience in sickness. May you now rest in peace.

Jef Vleugels

Father Gilles de Rasilly

1924 - - 2011

Gilles, born on the 23rd March 1924 and baptised two days later at Daon in the Mayenne, Diocese of Laval, France, was confirmed on the 15th March 1934 in the parish of Menil. He was the tenth in a deeply Christian family of thirteen children. Later, he came across a letter from his aunt, Marie du Boberil, a missionary in India, which deeply moved him. ‘How lucky you are to have children! [...] I pray the Lord to choose some of them to be at his service.’ Her prayer was granted, as Gilles followed his brother Bernard into our Society.

His calling was even a little precocious, since one day he said to his grandmother who was reading him the White Fathers’ Magazine, ‘This is marvellous! This is what I am going to do later!’ He was only five years old! He studied at the College Saint-Maurille, Angers, from 1933-1941, until the baccalaureate in Latin, Greek, and Mathematics. He was very grateful to his parents who had made sacrifices to provide the boarding-school fees for six of their sons at the same time.

His subsequent studies were to follow an unusual course due to the war and illness. In occupied France in 1941, his father received a free travel document for him ‘to go to study in an Agricultural College.’ On his way to Tunisia, where he was to do his two years of philosophy, he passed through Lyons, where his brother Bernard was. He discovered his first White Father community and was further impressed, he wrote, by their singing of the Sancta Maria. Arriving at Thibar in early October, he joined some eighty philosophers and about a hundred theologians. However, in the autumn of 1943, almost all the students were called up; the Scholasticate became a British Casualty Clearing station.

Called up with the class of 44, Gilles was sent to Algeria, to Marengo near Blida, to prepare for Cadet Officer School. The training was very tough, with insufficient food. The accommodation in a hangar for drying bricks caused him to have an attack of jaundice, then tuberculosis of the lungs that a routine X-ray uncovered in February 1945. He was hospitalised at Médéa then at Rivet, having undergone a pneumothorax. He was declared unfit for service, repatriated to Bordeaux and demobbed in July 1945.

Then came a residential stay at Billère, where Gilles did his first year of theology. Then, from September 1947, he went to Kerlois with a dozen or so sick confreres. There also, a Father guided them for what was their second year of theology. In September 1948, his pneumothorax still obliged him to remain in Europe and he was sent to Marienthal in Luxembourg for his third year of theology. Finally, he was reckoned in good health and he was able to reach Maison-Carrée for the Novitiate in September 1949, then onto Thibar for the last year of theology. At last, on the 12, 13, 14 and 15 September 1951, he linked together Missionary Oath, subdiaconate, diaconate and priesthood. His various professors appreciated in him his lively, clear, methodical intelligence, capable of plumbing the depths, and underlined his aptitudes for painting and drawing. One remark alone pointed up his shyness that could appear as coldness and a slight tendency to independence.

Gilles was able to caricature his work just as well as his own self.

Appointed to the Vicariate Apostolic of Bobo-Dioulasso, after a month in family in Anjou and a stay in Paris, where his brother Bernard had just been appointed Provincial, he proceeded to Marseilles on board the Banfora. After 24 hours in the train, he disembarked at Bobo on the morning of the 6th January 1952. Without delay, he took the Transafricaine Coach to Bamako. He was asked to learn Bambara, and Dioula, which is close and used as the lingua franca at Bobo. At Faladyé and Ouolossébougou, he benefited from the lessons of the veterans, Fathers Réau, Guérin... he was soon curate at Bobo, under the watchful eye of Father Déchelette, who introduced him to town apostolate and Catholic Action. A person without sight helped him to prepare catechism and sermons in Dioula. Father Sainsaulieu also showed himself to be a worthy mentor, so much so that they were able to translate the small catechism from Bobo; this was to be the first book printed in Dioula.

He was in full swing in catechism classes when Bishop Dupont asked him to become either Administrator of the Cathedral or Director of Private Schooling and Military Chaplain. He opted for teaching and exercised this function from 1954 till 1958. It comprised 36 schools and 116 classes to visit. He did not neglect the 3,000 trained colonial infantrymen in a camp near the mission; he enjoyed visiting the troops and their families in the evenings. In 1957, Bishop Dupont entrusted him with the building of the cathedral. Gilles was to have the pleasure of attending its consecration by Cardinal Zoungrana, in 1964. Meantime, Bishop Dupont, as a practical man and seeing that Gilles had a car, appointed him Vicar General. He then set off for six months home leave, leaving his young Vicar at the head of the diocese and besieged by multiple problems. It led to an enormous fatigue and repatriation for health needs.

After resting up in his family, attending a few sessions and a health cure at Vichy spa, his long silhouette filled out a little and he was preparing to return to Upper Volta. His brother Bernard, who was recovering from an illness, had been appointed Secretary General at Rome. Gilles, as a concerned younger brother, wrote to the General Council that his brother was still too weak to take on this task. He received the reply: ‘You are right concerning Bernard. We were lacking in imagination. We have simply changed the first name. You are henceforth appointed Secretary General and we are waiting for you in Rome!’

He was launched into it for six years (1958-1964). Besides the secretariat, he also looked after, but not alone, the Archives, the CIPA, (Centre for Information on Pastoral Activity in Africa), the Petit Echo. We have kept the memory of his delightful caricatures with which he brightened it up. His duties required him to take a study tour of four months in 1962, covering east Africa, from which he brought back a thorough documentation for CIPA. He also contributed to preparing for the Roman Secretariat for Non-Christians.

After his long retreat at Clamart, he returned to what had become Burkina Faso. He was to bring his Dioula up to date at Orodara. Bishop Dupont had appointed him parish priest at Banfora, when, changing his mind, he entrusted him with the foundation of a Catechists’ Training Centre. Gilles did the plans for the buildings. He drew up plans for accommodation, a hall for student catechists and another for the training of their wives. After taking part in the 1967 Chapter, he was appointed Secretary of the National Cate­chetical Commission. Every year, he would go round the dioceses of Burkina Faso, while ensuring the duties of Secretary General of the Catechetical Commission for francophone Africa and publishing, for eight years, the ‘CALLAO’ bulletin.

Whether it was the first language test or simple lifestyle,
Gilles could send-up anything in his caricatures.

Appointed Vicar General once again in 1968, and at the same time Procurator, he had to face up to the nationalisation of primary schools, find new fields of action for Sisters and also for their financing. Funding arrived from Canada, England, and especially Germany. He wrote that only the CCFD always refused, as it concerned Sisters. Development projects were not lacking. One of his nieces, Aude de Rasilly, a dietician, spent a month drafting a file on feeding for infants between six months and three years old, with a doctor offered by Misereor. After the departure of André-Paul and Joannès, the building Brothers, Gilles, besides the plans and fundraising, had to take charge of operations. He had to run seven building sites at the same time, look after residences, churches and chapels, novitiates and classes, and premises for people with physical disabilities. To this were added initiatives in the use of audiovisual material and adult learning.

On the spiritual level, the 30-Day Retreat and the Jerusalem Bible and Retreat Session in 1984 came as a breather. As an adept of Renewal, he ran many meetings for training for and taking charismatic prayer in Burkina Faso as well as in Paris, where he spent two well-deserved sabbatical years from 1986 till 1988. He called it, ‘the best time of my priestly life’.

His Regional stated that he had an extraordinary capacity for work. ‘He was head at National, Regional and Diocesan level. He was on all the commissions; which was very valuable for international relations with all the organisations. He worked alone, highly regarded for all his qualities. People called on him, but he had no friends. In community life, he tended to crush others a bit.’ No doubt this was due to his deep shyness.

On his return to Africa in 1989, Bishop Sanon sent him to Banfora to prepare the creation of the new diocese. From there, he went to Toussiana in 1995 and finally to Koudougou on the 30th December 1997, as Secretary of the West Africa Union of Major Superiors, for which he launched a link-up newsletter. However, heart trouble had already alerted him in 1996. Health problems came one after another; an operation for cataracts in both eyes at Nantes in 1997; a triple heart bypass in 1999 at the Paris Broussais Hospital and surgical removal of a benign tumour of the prostate. In 2002, a fall on a stair meant a broken right hip and traumatism of the upper thigh.

In 2004, in the night of Wednesday of Holy Week, he decided to return to France at the age of 80, after 52 years in Africa. His desire was to implement at Bry-sur-Marne the counsel of Jesus, ‘Watch and pray.’ This did not prevent him from finding countless jobs on the spot until the terrible Charcot’s Syndrome finally overcame this workhorse. He was taken to the Paris Pitié-Salpétrière Hospital, where the Lord came to call his faithful servant on the 2nd June 2011. On the 8th June, his close family and confreres surrounded him with their prayers in the church at Bry-sur-Marne. He was buried in the cemetery of Bry-sur-Marne.

Armand Duval

Father John Heigl

1933 - - 2011

John was born in 1933 in Buffalo, New York, USA. His father ran a butcher’s shop where John helped out during his teen years.

After primary education in the parish school, John finished high school and began college at the diocesan seminary. There, his attraction to the missions of Africa was encouraged by one of his directors and he transferred for Philosophy to our seminary then in Franklin, Pennsylvania. Two years later, he joined the novitiate at Alexandria Bay.

Theology followed first in Thibar and then in Carthage. He was appreciated for his optimism and spirit of service. At the same time, his mentors did not miss his underlying seriousness and idealism. They even pointed to a touch of innocence. “Occasionally, it is still possible to pull his leg and he falls for it.” Those who knew John later might think that John in the course of his life pulled other people’s legs much more than anyone fooled him.

The US Province assigned many of its new priests to vocation and formation work. John, with his ready smile and gift with people, fitted in admirably. He was assigned first to Metuchen, New Jersey and then to Washington DC, where he was Provincial Vocation Director. His enthusiasm and affable personality certainly appealed to the young. Even the least friendly of those who first met him was quickly disarmed by his attractive personality, comprised of politeness, humility, attentiveness and good humour, all aided by a wide smile that could light up a room with his boyish looks.

At long last, early in 1966, he landed in the Diocese of Tabora, in Tanzania. He quickly threw himself into the study of Swahili. He never really stopped working on the language, always trying to perfect it still more. There, he was appointed Director of the Lay Apostolate by Archbishop Miha­yo. He also served in Kitangali as a curate. It was the heady time in Tanzania of Ujamaa and the Arusha Declaration, a time of great optimism about the value of “Justice and development.”

By 1970, he was asked to be Assistant Regional. From 1972 to 1979, he served as Regional Superior in Tanzania. “John was then the Regional of the biggest region of the whole Society and he managed it very well as he was a man of action, but also knew the art of delegating,” one of his team members remembers. “He put his whole heart into the implementation of the 1974 Chapter and started the work of vocation promotion for our own Society, so that in August 1980 a First Cycle could start at Kahangala!

After a day of hard work, John would relax by taking his VW Beetle and drive around Mwanza, play canasta in the evening with the others of the community and enjoy a drink.”
He was adamant to return to the rank and file after completing his term as Regional and was appointed curate at Ussongo.”

In Tanzania, John and his team provided leadership in a time of change. In a period when some were calling for phasing out foreign missionary presence, John faced up to tough choices without losing momentum. His was the bittersweet task of handing over many of the beloved mission posts to the local clergy. This represented both an achievement and a sacrifice for those involved. At the same time, several new initiatives were taken in the spirit of the famous “Pioneer tasks” Chapter of 1974.

John spent three years doing the proverbial bush work in Ussongo parish, attending to the people and visiting the outstations, a dream assignment for confreres of his generation.

He was asked to return again to the US, this time as Provincial. He found it very tough to take up the task of leadership and the care of communities. He looked for new initiatives to rejuvenate the mission of the Province, but sensed little momentum. Festering problems and tensions bothered him. His idealism rebelled. His fatigue began to show. It became too much. Even before the end of his term, he asked for a break, for rest and renewal. Was it perhaps a case of burn-out? It was a painful experience for all and his ties to his home Province were never the same again.

In 1988, he returned to Tanzania, to Iboja in the Diocese of Kahama, serving there until the mid-nineties. By this time, the health of his parents became a concern. As one of only two children, John asked permission to spend more time near them. During a prolonged home leave, there was a short interlude of pastoral work in his home diocese where he would soon return for good.

From the middle of the nineteen-eighties, John, in the midst of his hectic travels in the service of his confreres, began to speak openly of a desire to spend more time in prayer, the sense perhaps of being “a contemplative soul trapped in an activist’s body.” This aspiration to quiet and prayer would mark the rest of his journey.

He first attempted to live this ideal of more contemplation in the midst of continuing service in the community of Jean Vanier’s l’Arche in Mobile, Alabama, for a six-month trial in 1995. The need to be continuously available to the very great physical and emotional needs of those he served did not leave the space he desired for quiet prayer. Despite his attachment to the kids, he left l’Arche.

John asked to return to Tanzania, but this time to pursue his ideal of a contemplative witnessing community. He finally established himself in Zanzibar for over a year. “During my stay here in Zanzibar,” he writes in the 1997 Petit Echo, “I have often heard the same question: ‘Why start a prayer community among Muslims when we have so much work on the mainland?’ Unfortun­ately, even after six months here, I have little to show for the work, planning, money spent, explanations given to local Catholics, more explanations given to immigration officers, etc.” His dream was partially realised, but he was unable to persuade any confreres to join him in community. “I have made some friends along the way, but what else have I done?
Matteo Ricci and those who followed in his footsteps knew where to look for the answer. They looked to prayer. Matteo Ricci’s mission was to make friends, that were his apostolate as, by the grace of God it is mine here in Zanzibar.”

Knowing John, we can imagine that making friends was not a problem. Finding others to embrace the “openings” proved more difficult. Perhaps the time was not ripe. He was never able to establish a community. John felt disappointed. By the following year, he had returned to his home country for the final time.

He asked to work outside community in a parish in his home diocese. He was pastor of St Mary Church in Silver Springs, N.Y. until his retirement in 2008. His service was much appreciated both by the diocese and by his people. Afterwards, he continued to say Mass and care for the one of the parish chapels. The people gave him a compact car which he enjoyed driving to and from pastoral visits.
In regular communications to the Delegate Superior, John confided that his spiritual state was one of consolation. He continued to be devoted to prayer and spiritual reading. John confided, however, that his health was failing. By March of this year, it had become a serious concern.

“I am at peace and happy with my situation; at peace with my relatives and family; with the Society and confreres; with the parishioners. I have no regrets and have always been pleased to be a Missionary of Africa. I pray often, say my breviary and celebrate Mass every day.” He died at the “Roswell Park Cancer Institute” Buffalo, USA, in the presence of his sister, on Saturday the 4th June 2011, at the age of 78 years.

John Heigl was an excellent White Father. All his life, he longed to fulfil to the letter the charism of our Founder, more than ordinary devotion, idealism and generosity in the service of the Gospel and Africans. He was a joyful presence with a solid sense of our vocation. He tried to encourage his confreres, often giving you the feeling you were really important to him and that you had his full attention. His smiling voice and somewhat inscrutable humour and welcoming presence encouraged us and his idealism challenged us.

Bob McGovern

 

Father Marcel Girbal

1924 - - 2011

André Marcel was born on the 23rd July 1924 at Saint Geniez d’Olt, France. The inhabitants are called ‘marmots’, further to a mediaeval legend characterised by two children and a marmot. Marcel’s father was a mason. He was baptised four days after his birth and received Confirmation on the 31st May 1935. He grew up with his older brother Laurent, who died in 2004 and his older sister Henriette. Mireille, one of his nieces during the funeral underlined the joie de vivre and the assertive Aveyron character her uncle possessed. In his bedroom Marcel had a card from the Aveyron with the advert: ‘Aveyron is the feel for open spaces: the Aubrac plateaux stretching into infinity, the rocky chaos of Larzac limestone plateau, the superb gorges and valleys of the Lot, the Tarn and the Aveyron. Here, nature has character.’ All this had seriously rubbed off on Marcel.

From his early childhood, he cherished the memory of his Sister Philomena (of the Sisters of Nevers). He did his primary schooling with the Brothers of the Christian Schools, then his secondary at Rodez and Espalion. In 1942, he entered the major seminary of Rodez for two years of philosophy and a year of fundamental theology.

In 1946, he was in Carthage for his novitiate and his second year of theology. He was to complete his theology at Thibar where he took his Missionary Oath on the 29th June 1949. He was ordained a priest with 49 other White Fathers on the 1st February 1950 at Carthage by Archbishop Charles Gounod.

From 1950 till 1958, he was on mission in Upper Volta. He was two years at Kaya, five years at Ouagadougou, at the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary at Kologh Naaba. He was to be a year as curate and four years as parish priest. During the fifty years celebration of the parish in 2002, the two cantors who proclaimed the history of the parish brought out the name of Father Girbal and immediately afterwards the name of Father Bouchet Jules, the founder.

Appointed to Boulsa, he did a year there and returned to France for a full year of home leave, from 1958-1959. He was in family with his sister Henriette at Drancy and in the family of his brother Laurent in their home village, followed by three years of missionary promotion in the Rouergue, Paris Rue Friant and Normandy.

After his Long Retreat at Villa Cavaletti, Rome, in January 1963, he returned to Upper Volta and did 3 years at Ouahigouya. However, he had to return home for good due to poor health.
In November 1966, he was appointed to Toulouse for missionary promotion in the Midi-Pyrenees dioceses. In the OPM, he worked in a team with priests and Sisters of several Congrega­tions. He enjoyed this apostolate and gave it all he had for 7 years. In September 1972, he was elected Provincial Councillor.

From 1974 till 1994, he carried out various ministries in the Diocese of Pontoise. Firstly, he was 7 years at Mours, chaplain to secondary schools and colleges. With the youth, he organised unforgettable summer camps, sometimes in the Alps, sometimes in the Pyrenees even up to 1991. In September 1980, he became Superior of the community of Nesles-la-Vallée and in charge of seven Sausseron villages with two other White Fathers. In June 1987, he left for Jerusalem and the Biblical Session and Long Retreat.

In August 1987, he was parish priest at St Gratien, still in the Diocese of Pontoise, where he helped many laypeople to take charge of their parish life: catechism, liturgical celebrations, preparation for various sacraments. He made himself a host of friends who bore testimony to it on his return to the Father almost twenty-five years later.

In February 1995, Marcel returned to Villa St. Régis at Mours as head of the community, where thirty or so confreres were providing multiple ministries and services. He carried out this task until late 2001, the date of his first stroke and became a plain resident. For three years, he worked in the grounds with a zeal that was somewhat hard to control.

On the 1st November 2004, he unpacked his bags at Tassy, where he was also to stretch himself in the maintenance of the grounds. In 2010, he had a second stroke. He lost the power of speech, but he recovered it almost completely. Was this before or after his second health setback? God alone knows; he drafted a brief curriculum vitae, in which he noted, ‘Now I am working in the grounds of Tassy. I pray for you all. I cherish the memory of my family members and of the hundreds of friends without whom, we missionaries would never be able to accomplish the mission the Lord has confided to us. Now, I think this will be the last stage: in silence, prayer and the friendship of the third age confreres, in gratitude and joy.’

He suffered a third stroke on Sunday the 4th April 2011. He recovered his mobility, but not his speech. Apparently, he understood what was said, but he had sometimes unexpected reactions. A confrere looked after him, sometimes at a distance, so as not to upset him.

On Thursday the 13th October, he took his breakfast with us, arriving in the refectory with his cap on, which gave him the look of an old sea dog. Once he had gulped down his coffee, he went, as usual, out for some fresh air. Seated near the flower bed adjoining our house, he was struck down by a final fourth stroke.

Despite our bewilderment, he himself was probably not entirely surprised. This prayer found on his table entitled, ‘One day, your day’ is proof of this. He must have read it more than once as the paper had lost its original bloom because it had frequently been handled.

Marcel was a seeker after God: again in his bedroom, just above his desk, he had stapled this prayer from St Francis of Assisi: ‘Lord, May the knowledge we have of you become ever more luminous in us.’
A parishioner of St Gratien sent me a text written by Marcel, who was then her parish priest, and which is entitled, ‘My Credo’. He had it copied for her: ‘As for me, I have nothing more to do than love and be loved. Love the one who is all for me and who lives with me... As for me, I have nothing more to offer to each one than to love and allow oneself to be loved.’

He sought God, but at the same time, he knew himself to be sought after by God. In his bedroom, again, he had hung a poster that bore a quotation from François Varillon: ‘When I try to imagine God, I see him in prayer before me. I would not go so far as to say that he is on his knees before me, but that he stretches out his hands to me saying, ‘I beg you, fulfil my desire.’

Father Girbal sought God not only in prayer and in reading the Bible. He knew how to discover God in the splendour of nature and in the hearts of people. Mireille, his niece, at the beginning of the Funeral Mass underlined this dual quest for God, firstly in prayer, but also in nature and in others. ‘You took a little time off each year to come to reflect in the peaceful Aubrac in your tent with your slice of cheese and sausage; it was enough for you. Here at Tassy, you took pleasure in maintaining the grounds where you expended your energies, giving them to nature, the trees, the fire, the calm, the meditation. I know you wanted to thank the Lord; I do it now today instead of you.

‘The Lord called you to work for countless teams of priests, catechists, and parishioners and you bore testimony to their infinite kindness in Africa as well as in France. Indeed, ‘Thanks be to God’ for all the friends made and on whom you were able to rely, without forgetting your family.’
Let us hope that up there, Marcel will be able to sing at the top of his voice, in the company of the angels and saints of heaven, the praises of this God he loved with all his heart.

Charles Sarti

 

Father Luigi Geranio

1926 - - 2011

Italian by nationality but living in Switzerland, Luigi was born on the 1st June 1926 at Dongio in the canton of Ticino. Doing his schooling at Lugano in the junior and major seminary enabled him to make enduring friendships in the local Church.

In 1947, he joined the community of Missionaries of Africa at Fribourg and did his second year of theology at the university there. Following his novitiate at Maison Carrée, Algeria, he did two years of theology at Thibar and Carthage, Tunisia, where he was ordained a priest on the 24th March 1951. He then asked to be appointed to Guinée or Mozambique, ‘What a surprise when I learned that I was to teach Latin at the Institut Lavigerie in St Moritz!’

This teaching period was to last only a year. In June 1952, he received his appointment for Tanganyika Territory (Tanzania), which he reached the following year after a 4-month course in England to perfect his English and be initiated into the British way of life. As soon as he arrived at Kala, in the diocese of Sumbawanga, at that time called the diocese of Karema, he learned Kirungu, a language spoken the length of the lakeshore. ‘There were no books available. I was told to work it out for myself. I therefore went to meet the people with a notebook and I wrote down what I heard, after which a confrere provided me with the necessary explanations.

For 9 years, I only used Kirungu.’ Later, when Kiswahili became the national language, he set himself to learn it, this time equipped with more efficient tools. For his years at Kala (1953-1959), he undertook the repair of the roof of the hospital and the building of a road linking Kala to the plateau, where Sumbawanga was to develop. He did not have the time to complete this project, but the government saw its usefulness and resumed work on it at its own expense.

In 1959, Luigi was appointed to Matayi, then to Chiwanda, near the Zambian border, where he worked for 30 years. The Catholics were very dispersed, in a situation of diaspora. In addition, relations with Protestants were not very good; polygamy was encouraged by the very anti-catholic Mwaka­lenga ‘religion of Abraham’ sect, for whom there was no salvation outside polygamy.

During these years at Chiwanda, he undertook many projects for the development of the country, beginning with schools, which did not exist or were totally deprived of equipment. It was often necessary to write on the sand as there were no other materials. The needs in healthcare were no less, especially due to bilharzia, with which Luigi himself became infected through walking for hours in the marshes. In 1984, Luigi realised that Chiwanda mission post was going to lose its importance and probably be without a priest. In anticipation of this future, he fitted out a house for the Sisters of Mary Queen of Africa, a local Congregation, which took responsibility for several activities in the parish in 1987.

From that time on, Luigi worked more at the new administrative centre of Tunduma, where he built a well, a hospital with a maternity wing, and a community house. Subject to a heart attack in 1994, he had to interrupt his works and was repatriated to Switzerland. To the great surprise of those who said of him, ‘Africa is finished for you’, he returned to Tanzania!

He then served at Laela, supervising the building at Mpanda, Kala, and Chala. In September 1998, he came back to Switzerland for a heart operation. This time, his recovery was slower, but in October 1999, he was able to return to Tanzania. For three years, he worked along with Caritas-Sumbawanga for well-drilling projects or catchment of water sources. In October 2002, Luigi was the last missionary of Africa to leave the diocese of Sumbawanga.

Once back in Fribourg for good, he devoted his time to missionary promotion in the Ticino, to translations and administrative tasks for Swiss publications in Italian or for the Africa Magazine for the Italian sector. With the help of friends in the Ticino, he continued to support various projects in progress in Sumbawanga, notably the channelling of drinking water into villages and schools. He was also keen to find study grants for Sisters in order to improve their education and training. In September 2003, invited by friends, he made a further visit to Sumbawanga. He returned from it reassured by the show of friendship he received. These visits were to be repeated several times.

On the 11th September 2011, Luigi went to the Ticino for ministry and to visit his aged sister. He was invited to join with the priests of the diocese who, as he was, were celebrating their 60th anniversary of ordination. Luigi had left word of his return to Fribourg for the 20th September, but on the morning of the 19th, the Vicar General of Lugano informed us that Luigi had died the evening before. His funeral in the church at Dongio, led by the Bishop of Lugano, brought together thirty or so priests and many parishioners.
Luigi’s entire missionary life was orientated to pastoral work in Tanzania. The latest achievements in Sumbawanga were the frequent subject of his conversations at Fribourg. For years, he had to be careful about his heart condition. Despite this affliction, with his common sense and jovial laugh, he managed to overcome all his trials and live out his missionary ideal until his last days.

Jean-Marie Gabioud

 

Farher Henri Vincent

1914 - - 2011

Father Henri Vincent was born on the 21st February 1914 in the parish of St. Charles at Montreal. He was the first of nine children. The family lived in a working-class neighbourhood. The presence of Sisters and Brothers who ran the schools created a Christian ethos in the parish. Henri’s parents lived in a religious climate and they passed down these values to their children. Little Henri was often used to going to the church to pray. When he grew bigger, he became an altar server. As he was the oldest in the family, he was led to help his parents while very young. He looked after the younger children. He did his primary schooling at St. Charles School near home. For his six years of secondary studies, he went to Montreal College as a day-pupil. For his two years of philosophy, he attended the seminary of philosophy, this time as a boarder.

In 1935, he applied for admission to the White Fathers at Éverell, near Quebec. He said it was this Society that could satisfy his dreams for the apostolate. After this postulancy of a year, he had to leave Canada for the novitiate at Maison-Carrée. There were 120 novices of different nationalities. It was a cultural shock. His disarming straightforward attitude and his sense of humour helped him to pass through this experience without major problems.

In September 1937, he began his theology at the Missionaries of Africa scholasticate at Thibar. The following year, as a new White Father scholasticate opened at Eastview near Ottawa, he was sent home to continue his last 3 years of theology there. It was there on the 9th June 1939 that he took his Missionary Oath. On the 23rd June 1940, he was ordained a priest by Archbishop Alexandre Vachon of Ottawa in the chapel of the Sœurs Grises de la Croix.

Needless to say, Father Vincent was happy to complete these phases of his formation. Intellectual work did not draw him very much; he preferred practical activity. He was reckoned a good organiser, with sense for practical. One of those in charge of his formation said he hid a great deal of his spirituality under a quite ordinary exterior. They emphasised his cheerful character, which meant he got on well with everyone. However, he would have to watch his tendency to be special and different and to distraction, which could draw him into disagreements in the future.

He was appointed to the Vicariate Apostolic of Rwenzori in Uganda, which in 1953 would become the diocese of Mbarara. His entire missionary life in Africa was to be spent in this diocese. After a perilous journey due to the war, he finally arrived in Uganda at the end of December 1940. His first appointment was to be curate in the parish of Butiti. There, he was given the charge of the only primary school in the parish. In order to learn the language, he was also asked to look after the dispensary. At the end of his experience in this parish, he wrote, ‘This lasted 5 years, the time to use up 5 superiors, one motorbike and to break some teeth...’

From 1946 till 1957, he was in the town parish of Virika to manage the schools of 5 parishes. In 1957, a major change took place in his occupations. He was appointed to the district of Mbara­ra. He was then obliged to learn another language. He began by being a curate in the parish of Ibanda for three years, then three years at Kitabi, and one year at Nyakibale. These various experiences prepared him for even greater responsibilities. In 1965, he was appointed parish priest at Rubindi. The following year, he was at the parish of Rushanje, a parish in its early days, in the hills. There, in addition to his task as parish priests, he became involved in development work, cattle-rearing and catchment of water sources, etc. For about 9 years, he was to live content in this work near the people. He wrote, ‘This kind of activity, in addition to being good for mental hygiene was a way of making contact beneficial for the apostolate, even with those who do not share the same convictions.’

In 1975, he was parish priest of the flourishing parish of Mushanga, continuing the same kind of work. In 1980, he returned to being a curate, this time at Kagamba. Taking regular home leaves, he remained there until 1994. With the work and the years of labour, he could easily feel that his health was not the same and that it was more difficult to adapt to new developments. He therefore made up his mind to return to Canada for good. He was very happy with his experience in Africa. His dreams and ambitions had been realised. He admitted that wherever he went, he was always taken by the hand of the One to whom he had entrusted himself. He made mistakes because of his distractions, of his forgetfulness and hasty judgements, but in his great humility, he accepted these reproaches saying that he had forgotten - that he had erred. He resumed paying attention, without bitterness or complexes. He suffered greatly in the 1980s because of the tension in the country, when he saw a great deal of injustice, corruption and torture. Discreetly, he always tried to put into practice his principles of justice and fraternity.

In Canada, he was asked to form part of the community at the Rue St-Hubert, Montreal. He wanted to remain active according to his abilities. He did some occasional ministry, helping out the community and at the Centre Africa. In 1997, he attended the over-70s Seniors’ Meeting at Rome. He continued to travel, as he always enjoyed it.

In 2000, he retired officially by celebrating his 60th anniversary of priesthood. In 2004, with the help of his confreres and family, he wrote his memoirs in a 200-page book, ‘La piqûre de l’Afrique’ (The Africa Bug). He remained in this community until 2009, when a place was found for him in the infirmary of the Capuchins at Montreal. He continued to busy himself by reading a lot, especially anything that referred to the progress of our White Father Society. He was not slow to question the writings of confreres and Chapter decisions. Even Cardinal Lavigerie did not escape scrutiny. Many showed interest in his stances and this encouraged him to express his ideas.

In early 2011, his condition worsened. He could move about only with difficulty. His legs made him suffer. On the 16th September, he was taken to St Luke’s Hospital in Montreal for a leg wound that would not heal. He died suddenly on the night of the 17th September. The funeral took place on the 24th September 2011, in the presence of the funeral urn in the church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix, Montreal. His ashes were placed in the cemetery of Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, Mon­treal, in the family plot.

Father Julien Cormier, Provincial, was the Main Celebrant at the Mass and Bishop Robert Gay, Emeritus of Kabale in Uganda, gave the homily. Based on the Word of God, he brought out some of Henri’s major qualities. ‘For us, his confreres, our Henri Vincent was like a keystone of the Canadian Province. Here, as in Africa, his dedication, his good humour, his open-mindedness, his welcoming attitude enriched our communities. In Uganda, we knew that if Henri was part of the community, any visitor would be welcome.’

Messages of condolences from Uganda were received by Father provincial. Archbishop Paul Bakyenga of Mbarara mentioned that ‘Father Vincent had left the impression of someone who had a great sense of humour, everyone’s friend, someone who loved our country.’ Ugandan Sister Paskasia Kinkuhaire, who knew him well, spoke of him as a man of the people, very sincere and honest, who was not afraid to speak the truth. For this reason, they gave him the name of ‘Rugambamazina’, the one who speaks the truth.

Lauréat Belley