A well-judged and long-term commitment

It is an option “which has the mark of good judgement” and which aims to be around for a long time. That is the plan. I now submit the details for the scrutiny of confreres especially the younger ones.

Giving bread to poor people or offering them a few coins, paying school fees, are all honourable reactions to the needs of people we know in the circumstances of our apostolate. We have all done so in one form or another. The recipients will be very grateful and they will call down God’s blessings on the good benefactor and may even decide to return and visit him from time to time when they need more help because they will always need more help. However, what happens when, one day, the benefactor leaves?

Thinking about this, I can imagine another way of helping people. It would be something well thought-out, more efficient, with the dream of resolving at least part of the problem in the very long term.

I dream of an option, of a commitment, that mobilises the whole Society as one, with the firm resolve to effectively relieve the burden of poverty. It would also give those who cannot help themselves anymore, the power to retake control of their lives and to break the vicious circle of poverty, while retaining their human dignity.

What I am suggesting is not new. Confreres have already had some experience of it before individualism took over. They opted for a bold community reflection, in order to get out of the vicious circle of a purely automatic and mechanical distribution of funds. The ‘I received, I give’ mentality risks creating an ‘addictive fan club’ or to put it bluntly “dependents.” Do not the Africans say, “The hand that gives is always above the hand that receives?”

If two three or five confreres, after a community consultation process, came together to see how they could serve the people better, then they, through their own solidarity, can engage the solidarity of the Society and start a small trade school for example. It would not matter if those helped were Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, African Traditional Religion. By training the young people in the area, they would move beyond their own circle of ‘fans.’ They would give the young people the skills to help them participate in the development of their country and make a living at the same time. This is liberation because they are no longer under the stigma of a poverty they did not choose.

I feel deeply that what we have always wanted to say is ‘empowerment’, which is awkwardly translated in French as ‘capacitation’. This aims to open up the possibility for somebody or a group of people to develop themselves through self-improvement and at the same time improving their immediate environment. Training is a very effective way of bringing about this empowerment. To teach poor people to get the best out of their environment thanks to adapted agricultural techniques (agricultural school), to train young people in a village to build decent and solid houses which improve living conditions and to make a living by working as masons, carpenters, mechanics, electricians, and tailors. The people going to work in these areas will develop their region and achieve a better quality of life for their family. What we will then miss is the queue of people sitting in our offices asking for help and sometimes submitting to our reprimands because they have no choice if they are going to get a few pennies from us.

Why do I insist on trade schools? Because there is a cruel lack of well-trained young people with these basic skills in many of the countries where we are present in Africa. This directly affects all development. Chinese businesses and projects even bring their own Chinese workers. Sometimes businesses find it difficult to find qualified workers to carry out infrastructure and basic works such as plastering or plumbing. Vocational or trade schools are rare and the Universities, who are only producing semi-intellectuals, are proliferating. Thousands of graduates are thrown onto the work place and they are not qualified for anything. If this state of things continues, Africa risks falling back into under development. This is not good news.

If Providence has ordained that some gifts have passed through our hands, if we are really committed to the Proclamation of the Good News in Africa, then we can participate in the “miracle of charity” by choosing to help the poor in the most efficient way. We can dream of how we can help them become agents of their own well-being and even their own happiness. We may not be able to eradicate poverty, which has existed since the dawn of time. On the other hand, we have proof that the lives of some peoples have clearly improved over the last number of decades despite having experienced periods of extreme poverty. Do we not have confreres who give because they themselves suffered a lot from poverty and now they have made the choice to let the poor profit from the generosity of their benefactors? These are noble sentiments. However, the result is not always what is intended because it creates an attitude of dependency and it is easy to make friends with the money of the benefactors.

Des jeunes en apprentissage à Sharing Centre à Kampala

For us, Missionaries of Africa, “the preferential option for the poor” could be best served, as the Treasurer General has proposed, by an internal Office for Development. It would help us to put forward community projects, which would really help the poor thanks to a judicious discernment of the projects we want to carry out. This would also involve an impact report on the project. We would gain because we are doing things together. The outcome would respect the dignity of people and have a lasting impact on their milieu. It is one thing to have money; it is another thing to know how to use it well!

We need to be daring, taking a risk to do things differently even if that will deprive us of personal “success.” What is within our reach is showing our good intentions for the poor we want to help. That is the best “preferential option for the poor.” There are many confreres who have good ideas and who are ready to share them. There are also those who receive a lot and who would like to do something good which is sustainable and which lasts. What we have to do is to be open to one another and exchange ideas frankly, even if it means talking about money.

Where are we going to find personnel for these “lovely projects”? This false question will lead us to a false answer. With whom can we do it? It will certainly involve a combined effort among ourselves.  

A confrere to whom I submitted this text told me, “Beginning a school for the poor or a training centre will require regular resources, and what if one does not have them?” So then, let us not start from here. However, that does not stop us from looking for resources if we know people or organisations that could help us efficiently. The basic idea is to use wisely and rationally all those resources and make them a tool of the apostolate fot the Society as a whole rather than letting them remain in the hands of individuals.

To your pens, give us your ideas; tell us of your experiences.  

This question came top of the list of some of the suggestions made to me when I was asked to write an article in the Petit Echo to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of our foundation.  At my age, why do I spend most of the day with my eyes glued to my computer? Why, at my time of life, juggle all these photos, doing my best to get software programmes such as ‘Power Point’ and ‘Movie Maker’ to digest them?

According to the traditional formula of the death notices of confreres, I am 76 years of age of which 40 years of missionary life in Tanzania.  The question, “at your age?” should not imply that “it’s no longer an age for” or “you should not be embarking on such adventures when you are beginning to disintegrate.” Is it so extraordinary to be doing missionary promotion work in the final years of one’s life? Missionary today, missionary always, did we not learn that at the novitiate? Sometimes, I have the impression that some of our young confreres look on me as if I had escaped from Jurassic Park! Me, I am still young especially when I find myself in the middle of a pile of photos making a video that will allow us to relive the sagas of our young and old missionaries, past and present.

I believe that I caught the missionary vocation promotion bug from the very beginning of my White Fathers’ career. I love photography and I often strolled around the streets of Bruxelles with my camera in my pocket. To sleep well at night, before I go to bed, I slowly read some comic books. I also look at ‘You Tube’ regularly, my favourite films being Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy and of course a good western from time to time.

Lavigerie understood very well the importance of the written media and the power of photography for the future of the mission. In the bric-a-brac of the first caravans, he insisted that the confreres take with them those curious cameras of ancient times. They were funny black accordion-shaped boxes mounted on tripods and equipped with a black umbrella (watch out for sunlight). The idea was that if you want help from benefactors, send us pictures that tell us what you are doing. Let us interest the people of our own countries in our work in Africa. The maxim of our founder was followed. Deo Gratias.

If we want to recruit, let us show our apostolate through remarkable pictures. The young people of the time of our Founder were hooked thanks to the astounding snapshots (made with glass negatives) produced by these antiquated cameras. The photographs of our bearded confreres perched precariously on the back of a camel or a stubborn donkey were all the rage at the time. In my own case, it was a film in the style of BIZIMANA of the celebrated Fr. Roger De Vloo (+1993) which introduced me to the White Fathers.

In the 80s, I spent four years in Belgium doing missionary promotion work aimed at young people. At that time, it was still the era of the slide-show. We did not know anything about videos as a tool for promotion work. However, it would not be long before the age of the video arrived. I was 40 years old and I wandered all over the country with my projector and slide show. There were also photographic exhibitions based on the photos which appeared in our magazine Vivant Univers. During the summer holidays of 1988 about fifteen young people from my home parish came with me to Tanzania to spend a month in our missions. It was called Operation PETITS OUTILS or SMALL TOOLS and it was an unforgettable adventure. In brief, I did not wait for old age to arrive to launch myself into the adventurous world of modern media.

Verviers:1986 Missionary Exhibition for young people.

It was only when I returned from Tanzania in 2006 that I worked at a computer. I was appointed to Namur to look after our house at La Plante. A kindly confrere initiated me into the secrets of computing. One of my own brothers introduced me to the labyrinth of Powerpoint possibilities. For the rest, I just got on with it: it is by forging that one becomes a blacksmith. As La Plante was where the Photos-Service was located, it meant that the photographic archive of Vivant Univers/Vivant Afrique was easily available and all I had to do was to dip into it. Thanks to Gus Beeckmans for his incredible work of digitalising the archive and to Vincent de Decker (+1988) for his famous photographs.

Thanks to Powerpoint software programmes, I began by illustrating the psalms and parables as an aid to prayer.  I produced different presentations featuring our annual celebrations and various other occasions. For the 125th Anniversary of the Anti-Slavery Campaign of Cardinal Lavigerie, I produced a series of videos at the request of Richard Nyombi, some in English, some in French and even some in Swahili. I did the same thing for some Justice and Peace events. When discussions began around the subject of the 150th Anniversary of our foundation, the first digital versions of the very old films of Fr. De Vloo (Africa Films) became available. The idea then came to me to put all this to music and to produce cinema standard videos. It worked! Philippe Docq put them out on YOU TUBE. All that, at my age, for missionary promotion.

The years have passed like a gust of wind. At the end of my mandate in Namur, I was appointed to Bruxelles, rue de Linthout. It is from there that I am writing this article. From time to time, I go to Rome to give Dominic Arneault, our archivist, a helping hand. I work in the photo library surrounded by the most beautiful visual souvenirs of our Society, a real paradise! Our job is to digitalise all the old photos and bring them out from obscurity and put them at the disposition of all. It is a truly worthwhile programme for our 150th Anniversary.

Manu in his office

My work in the archives and the production of videos does not mean that I am a computer geek. For me, it leads me regularly to prayers of praise and meditation. What our ancestors (men and women), these pioneers of a heroic time accomplished still inspires me. Looking at these old films and these old photographs, I regularly think of them; the poor means at their disposal, their apostolic zeal, their love for the African people and their devotion to the most vulnerable. Pope Francis keeps reminding us, time and time again, of our duty to go to the margins of the world, leave our safe zone, and care for the poorest. There is nothing new under the sun! Our ancestors long before Francis followed this road to the peripheries.

Our forebears, Fathers, Brothers and Sisters did not have a smartphone to capture the news at a glance, as everyone does today. Luckily for us,  coming behind them, they left photos and films from the very first days of the mission: unique testimonies of their faith in Jesus Christ.

What I hope is that we do not allow these marvels of the Gospel to rot on the shelves of our archives. Now that the best of these films and photos have been digitised, I recommend that those in charge of our Formation Houses make use of them in order to show our young men what it was like to be a missionary way back then. All that needs to be done would be to show a little video, from time to time, just to illustrate a history lesson on our Missionary Society. Let us also profit from the occasion of the 150th Anniversary of our institute to share these media stories with our African friends. I am sure they would be enchanted, as they were at Ouagadougou for example, to see the magnificent film of Fr. De Vloo’s incredible report in 1956 on the consecration of Bishop Yougbaré, the first Bishop from Burkina Faso.

Happy Anniversary.

Fr. Alain Fontaine is at present working as Provincial Secretary of PAO in Ouagadougou. This year, he celebrates 50 years of Missionary Oath (24/06/1967 – 25/0672017)

50 Years ago

50 years ago, on the 24th June 1967, the Feast of St. John the Baptist, I took my first Missionary Oath in the novitiate of Gap in France. Two further temporary commitments followed before I took my permanent Missionary Oath on Holy Thursday, 1972 in my native parish of Chaville.

All had begun in October 1964 when I entered the postulancy of the Missionaries of Africa in Mours. I had just finished my studies at the Ecole d’Optique de Paris (EOA) with a view to becoming an optician. However, I was already in contact with the Missionaries of Africa in Paris. Africa was calling me! I was encouraged to train for the priesthood but I preferred to begin my missionary life as a Brother in order to give myself some time to think about it. I had no experience of seminary life and I felt that I needed to learn more about what was involved. I also wanted to have an African immersion and know if I could live there as my health was never very strong.  

Alain Fontaine at the novitiate in Gap on the 11th September 1965

On the 11th September 1965, I took another leap when I entered the novitiate in Gap high up in the French Alps. It was a change of scenery in more ways than one; the place itself was completely different from any other place where I had lived and then there was the almost monastic atmosphere of the novitiate itself.  I stayed there for two years and it was a real spiritual experience.

Mission in San, Mali

However military service loomed, so I opted to do it as an overseas volunteer and planned to go to Mali for two years to work as a primary school teacher in the Diocese of San.  The climate and political situation at the time of Moussa Traoré’s coup d’état in 1968 was a seriously testing time for me. In fact, it was proposed that I continue my studies in Strasbourg instead.  I then returned to Mali, still as a Brother and taught for three years at Saint Paul’s Junior Seminary in San Diocese.

In France towards priesthood

It was during this time in Mali that, in consultation with my Spiritual Director, I decided to resume my studies with a view to becoming a priest. I felt ready. It was also a delicate time for the Church in France, as, after Vatican II, many priests were leaving the ordained ministry. My superiors, at the time, proposed that I prepare for the priesthood by studying at CERM (Centre d’Études et de Recherches Missionnaires). This centre was one of the first missionary consortia which came into being as a result of the Council. The Centre accepted students from the Paris Foreign Missions, Salesians, Montfort Fathers, Spiritans, and the SMA Fathers and some other groups. I was the first White Father to prepare for the priesthood in this Institute.

We followed courses at the Institute Catholique de Paris, the Seminary of the Paris Foreign Missions on rue de Bac and the Major Seminary of St-Sulpice d’Issy les Moulineaux. After three years of intensive study, I was ordained deacon in June 1977 at Boulogne Billancourt by Bishop Jacques Delarue, the first Bishop of Nanterre. He proposed that I receive a double incardination on this occasion to show that it was my home Church that was sending me on mission. A year later, in the Church where I was baptized, confirmed and took my Missionary Oath, I was ordained priest on the 28th May 1978.

Return to Mali

After ordination, I returned to the Diocese of San in Mali to work in the parish of Mandiakuy. I learnt Bomu and got acquainted with pastoral work. It was at this moment that the Équipes Notre Dame, a movement promoting family spirituality was started. The movement soon extended to many dioceses in Mali including Segou, Bamako and Kayes.

After this initial pastoral experience, I was asked to return to the Junior Seminary of St. Paul to take charge and to facilitate handing it over to the local clergy. I stayed there for five years.

Toulouse

In 1988, the French Province appointed me to Toulouse in the south of France for missionary promotion work. I did not know this big city and began by getting lost. One night, I spent many hours looking for the house. I worked for five years at the service of the Pontifical Mission Societies and got to know the pastoral situation of the Church in the south of France.

Rural Radio in San

Between the end of my stint promoting missions and my return to Mali, I was asked to do some training in media, specifically the setting up of a rural radio station in San Diocese. For a whole year, I learnt about computers, information technology and just how to go about getting a radio station started.  It was a completely new domain for me and I threw myself into it enthusiastically. I worked on this project for six years. It was the first private Catholic radio station in Mali. Three of us were involved; Fr. Alexis Dembélé, the Director, a layman who trained at the Centre for Research and Education in Communication in Lyon and myself who had trained in Paris. It was not very easy in the beginning but we did eventually reach our cruising speed and Radio Parana is still going strong and in 2019 will celebrate its 25th birthday.

In 2000, I was granted some sabbatical time out, which I intended to organise as I pleased. However, I was asked to immerse myself in Ignatian Spirituality at a centre in Paris so as to be able to organise retreats and to spiritually accompany people. From there, I was sent to Jerusalem to be a spiritual director at a retreat for French speaking African priests.

Alain Fontaine taking his Missionary Oath

Centre Foi et Rencontre at Bamako

Then I was asked to move to the Archdiocese of Bamako to collaborate with Josef Stamer at setting up the Centre Foi et Rencontre and IFIC. I worked for 10 years on this project, bringing my expertise in IT and the logistics of planning training courses at the Centre. I also helped with the launching of IFIC. It required a huge effort of communication as we looked for ways to inform all the French speaking Bishops of Africa. During this period also, I served as Provincial Secretary of Mali and participated, at the same time, in the whole process that eventually led to the creation of the Province of the PAO for Francophone West Africa.

Burkina

In 2011, I was asked to replace Pierre Bènè as Provincial Secretary of PAO based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. This is where I find myself today and I am already in my 7th years at the service of the Province.

What can I say about these 50 years of missionary service, in Mali, France and Burkina Faso (40 years in Mali and 7 in Burkina)? First of all, I would to like express my sincere appreciation. I consider myself very lucky. All the appointments I received, some of which I did not expect at all, have greatly enriched me.

Really the Society took care of me and despite a path that some will call “a bit of a mix and match”, I was advised with great skill and offered what I could do. I was trusted and I am very grateful to all my superiors. Maybe I could have done more but they knew how to take me as I am with the abilities that were mine, without pushing me too much. I do not have in my C.V any grandiose constructions, top jobs, great responsibilities… I’ve always preferred – and I think it suits me better – less senior positions where I can work more effectively. I never asked for a specific appointment. I preferred to let the Spirit call me and lead me where he believed I would be best able to serve the Mission but not in a passive compliant way.  

My missionary journey, first as a brother and then as a priest, did not represent any promotion whatsoever for me. It was the mission that mattered and the call to give the best service I could, so that the Good News would find its way to the peoples of Africa there where I was to be sent.  That is why my first Missionary Oath in 1967, 50 years ago, really corresponded to the yes I wanted to say to the Lord for his Mission in Africa. What followed was a vocation that developed in my response to the various calls I heard and that had been verified by those who accompanied me. At the end of these fifty years I say a sincere thank you to all those who supported me in one way or another, to all those with whom I shared missionary work, those who supported me despite all my shortcomings, in community life and to all those who became my brothers in this wonderful family that is the Missionaries of Africa.  To the Lord Jesus, always my companion on the road, to his Mother who looked after me so well, I express my sincere gratitude.

Our Society is working very hard to make our places of mission as safe as possible for the most vulnerable especially children. Reading over some texts of our Founder, we can discover that this work has its roots in the actions and determination of our Founder. (1) In the domain of preventing sexual abuses, Cardinal Lavigerie was probably ahead of his time. (2) In a letter, dated the 30th October 1883, to Father Bridoux, Vicar General of the Society of the Missionaries of Africa, Cardinal Lavigerie reminds him that, in the matter of prevention,

Continue reading ““Some found my precautions too harsh …” (PE nr. 1093 – 2018/07)”

In 2015, I swapped the school activity that occupied me from morning to night with a much more flexible responsibility at the Centre for Arabic Dialectal Studies. Then, I was offered an opportunity to take part in the Transition Session for Missionaries of Africa and Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa in Rome due to begin in September 2016. I immediately accepted feeling a bit confused that after 3/4 of a century of life, I still had a lot to learn! Indeed it was to be a turning point. It was a new experience as I found myself with a group of MSOLA whom I had known way back in my early years of training. We were all of the same generation. While in a school one does not feel old because one group of young people is replaced by another every year but now I expressed the surprise I felt at the time, “But I am the same age as my mother!”  It provoked me into looking at my future. It was a new experience for me to stand before my ‘future’ when I thought I had gained a lot of ‘experience’ in life. As St. Paul says: “I continue my pursuit towards the goal…in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3, 14). So I was happy with this time of reviewing, prayer, reflection and sharing, especially working in small groups where there was a richness of diversity among the M.Afr and MSOLA participants. In this we perceived the wonders of God and His discreet but active presence in our hearts according to the different missions and circumstances of life, all done in an atmosphere of peace, rest and leisure with the help of our experienced guides.

Melika in the Raspail garden of Tunis

I seized the moment of grace when it presented itself!  What could I wish for now? Now, the Lord has offered me this year (2017) to live near my older sisters and to know them better. Their smile, their patience, their fidelity to prayer, their love of Africa, their missionary zeal… and their joy… in a setting that seems austere to me after a life of activity and relationships.

Melika with Massika (training of an instructor at the Centre for Arabic Dialectal Studies).

At the Centre where I am now, my activities are more adapted to my strengths. I still feel ‘in transition.’ But I recognise the need to persevere. I do a little mental exercise: I try to project myself into the future and ask myself:  What do I need to change? What help should I look for?

What is life like in this new nursing home environment?  What qualities does this new “novitiate” demand of me? I am no longer living in the framework of a classic community; my daily life is now shared with laypeople. At first, it is good to keep in contact with the world, discover the ‘peripheries’ nearby. Yes, discovering a new field of apostolate can motivate me, but I still need to prepare myself for it.  Will there be others in the same situation ready to share our difficulties and doubts? Not all nursing homes are the same. Adaptation is necessary. What is the Lord asking me in this situation? By faith, we know He is there! But a great deal of spiritual help is needed to accept daily life and its annoyances, to maintain the availability, the generosity and the good mood! A lot will depend on how I coped with the previous stages of my life.

In this situation where initiatives and strengths are limited (?) ; it is necessary to remain positive. Certainly, many things are organized for the enjoyment of life. However, we can find ourselves in a situation where we feel humiliated, forgotten, neglected; it is a time of diminution. I would appreciate any help in recalling God’s gifts and graces, to see in them a call to go beyond myself, to follow Christ and to nurture my desire to meet Him. (A neighbour of mine has replaced the word ‘death’  in the “Hail Mary” with “pray for us now and at the time of the meeting” pointing upwards and not downwards)! Small things that can help me live. I hope to find a way that will keep me open to the world, to prevent myself from falling asleep too much, to retain a healthy curiosity about things that can make me feel alive: biblical reflection, high-quality reading, to be aware of the evolution of the world and, if the faculties allow it, to benefit from the progress and the contributions of technology (Internet, why not…).  No matter what hare-brained ideas I may have, I know that from the time of Abraham, it is God who provides! So, basically it’s trust! As Article 22 of our Constitutions says:

“In Christ, to begin again each day, to persevere in difficult situations, accept sufferings, departures, diminutions, everything becomes a source of Life.”

And let us not forget the joys and happiness of so many decades. May God be blessed!

A number of Ugandan, Congolese and Rwandan exiles in London have come together to form a group of disciples of Simèon Lourdel and Amans Delmas. They call themselves ‘The Mapeera Lourdel and Uganda Martyrs Dury Pilgrims Europe’. They began meeting a little over a year ago. Today, they number about 40 people, meeting regularly and praying together. Their aim is: to make known the story of the Martyrs of Uganda, to promote the beatification of Simèon Lourdel, to build a family spirit among themselves, and to offer support to the retired missionaries in Europe who gave their lives to bring the Gospel to their people in Uganda and other African countries.

For them, Simèon and Amans stayed with the martyrs and encouraged them in their time of trial. They then stayed on in the mission and died in Uganda. They did not suffer the same fate as the 43 martyrs, but they gave their lives for the Gospel and they should share the same glory.

Church of Dury (France)

This year they organised a second pilgrimage to Dury, the birthplace of their beloved Simèon Lourdel. Due to circumstances and to the difficulty of obtaining visas for those with Ugandan passports, four of the intending pilgrims could not join the group. We set out as a group of 8: 7 with their cases cramped into the Ford Zephyr which usually serves as a night taxi in London, and one who went ahead of us in the overnight coach service from Victoria. The group comprised of Mr Ricardo Mulinda and his three children, Edward who very generously drove the car, Simon and me. It was a much easier journey than those first missionaries made on the trails of Uganda 140 or so years ago, but it was still a cramped experience with 7 people in the car with their luggage on their knees!

Ricardo had organised the pilgrimage in advance, contacting and booking rooms for us in the Maison Saint Vaast, the diocesan guest house in Arras. He arranged for us to be met by Sr. Therese Broutin, Coordinator of the Missionary Commission for the Diocese, with Mr Marc Campbell, the Mayor of Dury and Abbé Jean-Claude Facon, the parish priest. When we arrived there, we were met by Sr. Therese and her friend with a “nice cup of tea” as only the French can make! After allowing us time to deposit our luggage in our rooms and take a short rest after the journey, Sr. Therese guided us on foot to the magnificent Cathedral of Arras. She had very kindly arranged for two of the Cathedral volunteer guides to show us the delights of the cathedral and tell us its history.

Pilgrims at the Baptismal Font of Dury Church

Upon our return to the Maison Saint Vaast, we were happy to find Fr. Bernard Lefebvre M.Afr waiting for us. He had been informed of our pilgrimage by none-other than Richard Nyombi in Uganda. I could not help but think how different the times are. When Simèon Lourdel arrived in Uganda, it took months to pass any communication between him and Cardinal Lavigerie in Algiers. Today, our pilgrimage from London to Arras is assisted by Richard Nyombi sitting in an office in Kampala and communicating with a third person in Paris!

On Saturday morning, Sr. Therese continued her ministry of missionary welcome by guiding us around the “Grandes Places” of Arras. After lunch, she accompanied us on our visit to the Bishop of Arras, Mgr. Jean-Paul Jaeger, who very kindly accepted to receive us.

The Bishop was most grateful to Ricardo and his group of pilgrims for their visit and for opening his eyes to the life of one of the sons of the Diocese of Arras and to the contribution he had made to the spread of the Gospel in Uganda. He was happy to hear of the efforts of the Church in Uganda to have this son of Arras beatified. Ricardo was able to present the Bishop with a letter from the Archbishop of Kampala in which he explained how the Church in Uganda finds it important that this first missionary should be beatified. He expressed his own desire to visit Arras and more particularly the birthplace of Simèon Lourdel. Bishop Jaeger would be more than happy to receive him. He hopes this would be the beginning of a new friendship between the two churches.

With that visit over, we then had the pleasure of meeting the Mayor of Dury who had come, with his wife and a friend, to collect our group of pilgrims and drive us out to Dury. How astonished I was to meet this couple, Mr and Mrs Campbell, keen friends of Scotland who drive around the country lanes of Dury in a Jaguar car with a Saltire (Scottish national flag) on the lid of the boot!! They are also now the friends of the Pilgrims of Dury, London. They gave us a very warm welcome.

They drove us back to Dury and straight to the cemetery where many of the family of Simeon Lourdel, including his parents, are buried. Our group was happy to take some time and pray there for this family who gave their son to the Mission. Over the road from the Village cemetery is a cemetery of war graves from the World War 1. Here more than 300 Canadian soldiers are buried. We spent some time visiting their graves before moving on to the farm-house home of the Lourdel Family.

There we found a group of people waiting to welcome us, including two grandnieces of Simeon Lourdel who had come to meet us from their village some 30 kms away. There were also other members of the family who had come as well as the present owners of the house and farm. It was a joy to be welcomed in this way and to meet these good people who were ready to accommodate our return to the source of our faith.

Next we moved on to the school in which Simeon Lourdel received his primary education for 6 years. The benches and the décor of the classrooms may have changed, but the building is just the same. There are some interesting pictures on the walls taken at the time Lourdel was a pupil there.

At the Lourdel Farm, family members and Pilgrims in front of the house

The time had now arrived for the Sunday Eucharist, celebrated in this village church on Saturday evening. The Parish Priest, Fr. Jean-Claude Facon, coming straight from his third wedding that day, welcomed us with open arms. Bernard Lefebvre presided over the celebration and spoke about Simeon Lourdel and all that has flowed out of his gift of himself in Uganda and other countries of East Africa.

Many people came to the Evening Mass to welcome our group of Pilgrims. After the celebration, we returned to the school yard where the Mayor served us sandwiches and drinks. It was a very pleasant evening, meeting the family members and friends of the proposed “Blessed” Lourdel. These, in their turn, are happy that their Ancestor in the Faith should be still remembered and honoured. They too are encouraged in their faith by the witness of this group of Ugandan exiles who came all the way from London to seek out the birthplace of their relative.

This is surely a pilgrimage that will be repeated.

I have just been reading a number of articles in the Petit Echo of May 2018 (P.E. 05) on the ‘support of young confreres.’  This is a subject that touches me a lot as for my last 21 years in Zambia, I have lived in community with young confreres (stagiaires as well). Sometimes, I found myself with only young confreres or to put it the other way around I was the only ‘old man’ in the community. At the outset, I can say that I always felt comfortable with them, perhaps because I was on an equal footing with them. For me, they were adults like me and I expected them to behave like adults. This does not mean that I didn’t have (or have) anything to say to them. This is, precisely, what pushes me to sit in front of my computer and to write something on this theme of “supporting young confreres.” I am not posing as a specialist in this domain but I would like to address myself to them on one or two points that worried me a little when I was living with them.

If, when I was leaving Zambia in May 2015, these young confreres had asked me what advice or what words would I like to bequeath them, I would have said the following two things:

• First thing: Read, read, read
• Second thing: Ask, ask, and ask questions

You do not read enough! I do not see you reading. It is reading that will keep you attentive. The most helpful moment in my missionary life was the half-hour or hour reading at the end of the day. The topics I read about were not always high-brow. Maybe it was because that I was hard of hearing which forced me and still forces me to read. However, it is exactly that need to create a space for silence so that one can pick up, through reading, what the noisiness of the day prevents us from hearing.   

Ask… Ask questions… I believe that I can count on the fingers of one hand the times when a young confrere consulted me on this or that question. And yet, there were plenty of opportunities to ask questions. Is it a question of shyness? I do not think so. I do not believe either that the so-called ‘generation gap’ is to blame. Asking questions is simply a matter of wisdom. There are many proverbs supporting this viewpoint. In Zambia, one proverb says,“ Before fording a river ask somebody who knows (is it safe?)” or “he who asks questions will not let himself be poisoned by mushrooms!”

Finally, an old French expression comes to mind that says, “A word to the wise is enough”!