In front of the altar in the crypt of the General House is an inscription recounting the laying of its first stone on 28 May 1950. It is worth mentioning and looking back on its history.
The diary of the Generalate and Petit Echo No. 9 of 1952 recounts the details of this event.
As soon as the 1947 Chapter decided to transfer the Generalate to Rome, the General Treasurer and the Procurator General began the search for a suitable site to purchase. Although we already owned a building in Via Trenta Aprile, it was for a specific purpose: to house the student priests and the General Procure. It could not accommodate the many organisations and the large staff of the Mother House. Several proposals were examined but rejected.
On 30 July 1947, a house with a gatehouse, farmland and an 11,800 m² garden belonging to the sister of the late Cardinal Pompili was brought to our attention. The Treasurer General and the Procurator General visited the site, accompanied by a trusted engineer. They all agreed that this property would be ideal for our purposes. With the authorisation of the General Council, they signed the contract to purchase it on St. Francis Xavier’s Day in 1947. The plans were drawn up very methodically, with a view to a convenient layout of the premises while avoiding anything smacked of luxury. The work progressed smoothly thanks to the management of competent engineers with up to 200 workers under their command or supervision. The construction got underway on 19 April 1950. And R.P. Côté had the honour of striking the symbolic groundbreaking blow. The laying and blessing of the foundation stone took place during the African Pilgrimage to Rome on Pentecost Sunday of the Holy Year 1950. Eleven months later, the roof was completed. All that remained was to fix the interior, starting with the upper section. The ground floor and upper floors comprise 85 bedrooms, not counting the rooms reserved for the community, the secretariat, the archives and the library. The basement includes seven bedrooms for pilgrims. Although a lift is available for the confreres, it is rarely used, as the staff are still very energetic and fit. In the chapel, the main altar occupies the central part. Twenty-four other altars are erected in the crypt or the upper gallery. An additional private oratory is provided for the Superior General and two others in the infirmary and sacristy, in addition to the one installed in the house, now called Piccola casa, reserved for the nuns.
Once the Generalate was well organised and dry, and the Sisters’ assistance in the kitchen, laundry and linen room was assured, the decision was made to move from the Maison-Carrée to Rome.
First came the furniture. Three containers filled with furniture, cupboards, tables, paintings and boxes of documents were loaded onto a Danish cargo ship bound for Naples. A second shipment of 240 boxes or trunks filled with the personal belongings of the ‘displaced persons’ and 15,000 volumes from the library was entrusted to a Swedish cargo ship. The three containers loaded at Maison-Carrée arrived successfully at the property on 19 August 1952. A few days later, the 240 boxes were delivered. Everything was unloaded in the presence of an agent from the Ministry of Finance and locked in our garage. After three days of close police surveillance, the containers and crates were opened by a customs inspector, assisted by three soldiers, and everything was declared exempt from import tax, except for a radio set, which was retained for examination. The unpacking of the crates and containers could finally begin. But in Algiers, while waiting for these two large shipments to be loaded and dispatched, the departing Fathers spent their last days in Africa saying goodbye to the various houses and shrines to which they had special attachments. Thus, on 17 July, the members of the General Council went on a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Africa. A farewell ceremony was also organised at the Mother House, with emotional speeches.
And on 2 August, the exodus began. The Superior General left Algeria for Vichy, where he spent 21 days on a ‘rest cure necessitated by so much fatigue and devotion’. Three days later, a group of seven confreres embarked, but a strike by Italian railway workers delayed their arrival in Rome. It should be noted that by 15 August, some of the staff of the Maison-Carrée had already arrived to reinforce the Procurator General’s Office staff. After the chanted Mass, part of the community proceeded to St. Mary Major. The property was dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary that day.
The assistant generals flew from Algiers on 23 August to meet the Superior General in Vichy on his feast day. They arrived in Rome on the 31st, and since the telegram announcing their arrival had not been delivered, no one was waiting for them at the station. A taxi dropped them off on Via Aurelia, but they came up against a double door. The community was in recreation, and the brother porter, who was not expecting anyone, had joined the community. Upon hearing the repeated knocking on the glass front door, a shadow appeared, and he hurried over. One can imagine the confusion in the community, which had just given such a pitiful welcome to its superiors.
The Assistant Generals spent the next day visiting the house, which they found very much to their liking. Other confreres arrived in the following days. And confreres visited the house on their way to Africa and stayed for supper. On 15 September, all services were fully operational or in the process of being organised.
On 20 September 1952, the community consisted of 39 confreres, including six brothers. The General Council was composed of Bishop Louis Durrieu, Superior General, Fathers François Van Volsem, Henri Côté, Leon Volker and Joseph Gelot. In addition to the Superior General’s private secretary, six confreres served in the general secretariat. Each assistant then had a private secretary.
The inauguration of the Generalate took place on 20 November 1952. Cardinal Fumasoni-Biondi, our Protector, blessed our chapel. He was surrounded by an impressive gathering of bishops, ambassadors, superiors general, religious sisters, the former proprietors of our land, architects and engineers, etc., and the student Fathers of Trenta Aprile, who were in charge of the singing. After the ceremony, the guests could visit the common rooms and offices and go up to the terrace to enjoy the view. The banquet began shortly before 1 pm, with impeccable service from the student Fathers and the coadjutor Brothers. Our house returned to its usual tranquillity around 3 pm, and everyone was free to engage in private study, an exercise that had not been done as a community.
It is likely that in future editions of the Guides for Visiting Rome, we will read, in a note about Agrippa’s Pantheon: ‘Since 1952, there has also been another rotunda on the Via Aurelia called the Rotonda dei Padri Bianchi, but this one has always been, from its origins, dedicated to the worship of the one true God.’ Also, in 1952, the relics of our six confreres murdered in the Sahara while on their way to Timbuktu were transferred to the crypt of the new Generalate.
Another community in Rome, called the International College of Our Lady of Africa, is located on Via Trenta Aprile. At the beginning of the academic year 1952, the College had 22 student priests of seven nationalities, plus the Superior, the bursar and a Brother. The sale of the house in Viale Trenta Aprile was decided in 1954, and in September of that year, after 27 years on the Janiculum, the International College moved to the slopes of the Vatican. They had the entire third floor, part of the second floor, and two large rooms in the basement at their disposal. The sisters attached to the College, from the Austrian branch of the Daughters of the Divine Redeemer, joined the Generalate, where the nuns had found another home. They remained at the service of the community until September 1965. The sisters of the Œuvre then took over until 2023.
The General Procurator’s Office was attached to the College in Via Trenta Aprile but formed a separate community. With the transfer of the general administration of the Society to Rome, the procurator’s office became one of the internal services of the Generalate. The staff was then reduced to a minimum: the procurator and a lay secretary, Dr Félix Rutten, aged 70. It should be noted that we lost a few square metres of our land when, in preparation for the 1960 Olympic Games, the municipality of Rome needed to build a new road, taking responsibility for constructing at its own expense the impressive retaining wall that now marks the new boundary of our property on Via Agostino Richelmy.
14 July 1964 is another date worth remembering. It was on this day that Cardinal Lavigerie took possession of what would be his final resting place at the General House. The Petit Echo n°551 of that year recounts the event. The exhumation from the crypt of the Cathedral of Carthage, where the Cardinal had been laid to rest in 1892, took place in the early hours of Tuesday, 23 June. The three wooden and lead coffins were opened, and two undertakers respectfully removed the Cardinal’s bones and placed them carefully in their respective places in a new zinc coffin. The workers welded the lid of the zinc coffin and then enclosed it in an oak coffin. A police officer affixed the control seals.
The remains of our venerable Founder were placed in the choir of the Primatial Church. A Mass was celebrated there by Bishop Perrin, the Cardinal’s fourth successor in the See of Carthage. After the absolution, the brothers and sisters carried the coffin to the hearse, asking the Founder to intercede in heaven for this beloved Africa, where he had hoped to sleep until the day of resurrection. Given the circumstances, this funeral ceremony was held privately but in an atmosphere of great emotion and filial piety.
On Wednesday, 24 June 1964, the Cardinal’s body was transported by an Italian liner to Naples. Upon arrival at the Generalate on Tuesday, 14 July. The Cardinal’s remains were received by Father Volker, who was surrounded by community members and several White Sisters. The Superior General gave the absolution in the chapel, and the coffin was then carried in procession to the crypt. The inscription on the stone slab covering the entrance to the tomb in Carthage was reproduced and now covers the entrance to the tomb where the Cardinal now rests.
“Love the Africans as a mother loves her children. Love Africa! Love Africa for its bloody wounds, for its cries of pain. Love Africa with its memories, legends, traditions of respect and faith… May my voice continue to be heard by you! It will soon be silent in this world, but from the depths of the grave, it will speak the same words to you.”
By: Georges Jacques, M.Afr.