His Excellency Returns to Gabon!
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Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre surrounded by the Confirmandi. On his right is Father Groche, Superior of the Mission. |
When Father Groche invited Archbishop Lefebvre to come and bless the chapel he had built at Libreville and to confer the first Confirmations at the Mission, he did not have to try too hard to persuade him. However, His Excellency has said a number of times, "At my age, I can no longer make lengthy overseas flights. It is too exhausting. Lengthy ceremonies are also very trying. It is now up to my auxiliary bishops to do the work."
He made an exception for Gabon, for he had left part of his heart there. In his eighty-fifth year he returned to the country where he had landed fifty-eight years ago, then answering the appeal of his older brother, René. In those days, it took three weeks by boat, whereas today, the flight between Europe and the Equator takes somewhat less than seven hours.
Having to leave Gabon after thirteen years as a missionary was heart-breaking for him. "I was in a canoe on the lake just south of Labarene," he recalls, "when a small boat drew alongside, and one of its occupants handed me an envelope. I opened it. It was a letter from the Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers whom I knew well. He was asking me to leave the country that I loved so much, and to return to France to take over the administration of the Academy at Mortains. I could have wept." His Excellency added, "I had lost my parents. There was nothing left for me in France, and I had counted on continuing my life as a missionary in Gabon until my death. However, I obeyed, without saying anything to those around me, since I did not want any attempts made to stop me from leaving."
So it was wearing his white cassock with its violet-colored buttons, denoting the habit of the Holy Ghost Fathers, that he arrived on June 7th, shortly after midday at the new airport of Libreville, accompanied by four of his faithful chauffeurs and body guards.
A delegation from the mission welcomed him. Some of them had come to Ecône for the consecrations. Still able to speak Fang (the principal language spoken in Gabon) with fluency, His Excellency had a kind word for each one, asking questions, and letting them kiss his ring. They had not forgotten Father Marcel!
Representatives from the local television station were there for an interview. During the next three days, there were newscasts about the arrival of the Bishop whose thirteen years of missionary apostolate had left such an impact on this country!
Father Groche was delighted to be able to show His Excellency, with whom he had often kept in touch, that the work of the Good Lord undertaken some fifty-eight years ago was still bearing fruit.
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First Communicants parade through the streets of Libreville on the Feast of Corpus Christi, June 14, 1990. |
But it was on arriving at the mission, especially on Sunday, that His Excellency was able to appreciate all that Father Groche had been able to build up from nothing in just four years! Twelve hundred faithful crowded in and around the enlarged chapel to assist at the beautiful Benediction in this House of God placed under the patronage of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Noticeably happy to see such a crowd (the most notably French-speaking next to St. Nicolas du Chardonnet, our church in Paris), His Excellency confirmed fifty-nine children and adults, and exhorted the faithful with fatherly concern, to preserve that pearl of great price, the traditional Mass, to observe God's Commandments, to receive the Sacraments, and to pray.
There was no dancing and there were no tom-toms, but rather a choir well-trained by Father Karl and Gillaume. All present sang the Mass and the hymns in unison.
His Excellency also called to mind the memory of the saintly priests he knew, especially His Excellency, Bishop N'dong, the first native Gabonese bishop, who had died a short while before, and whom he himself had consecrated.
After the ceremony, the Archbishop stayed around so that all who wished might come and kiss his ring and exchange a few words with him. It was the first time one of our bishops had visited the mission and, at that, the Archbishop and Founder of the Society of St. Pius X himself! In 1988, Father Groche had accompanied fifty Gabonese men and women on a pilgrimage to Lourde and Rome, and then on to Ecône for the consecrations.
A group of ladies of the Society of St. Martha who take care of the House of God had prepared a meal for some 200 people in a hall that had been built underneath the enlarged section of the chapel. Movable partitions will be donated to house the different catechism classes.
During his week's stay in Gabon, the Archbishop was visited frequently by a number of the older people who long ago had known Father Marcel, to reminisce with him and the priests of the mission and the four friends who accompanied him, calling to mind even the minutest details, the names of the missionaries or people he had known, the various events, the establishments he had built: chapels, schools, carpentry shops, ship-building yards for the construction of dug-out canoes made from logs, bakeries, brick-building shops, plantations... it was very necessary to acquire resources for the missions. A thousand tales enabled His Excellency to once more see Gabon, where he had been professor, then Director of St. Mary's Seminary in Libreville, destined for his first job in the brush at N'djole, supposedly to rest up!
During his visit, the Archbishop was only able to visit Donguila, not far from Libreville, via a rather primitive roadway, where he had been stationed for three years. In the little mission cemetery, he knelt in prayer at the grave of his cousin who had died during an epidemic of yellow fever. Life in the brush, in those days, was far from easy.
There, where there used to be brothers, sisters, schools—where some eighty boys and girls were educated—one sees nothing but desolation: crumbling roofs, broken windows, tumble down and shabby buildings. All that now exists are a few classes conducted in an old, ramshackle workshop.
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After a week in Gabon, the Archbishop prepares to return to Ecône. Behind him are Fathers Karl and Guilleume. |
There are few missionaries, and the sisters living there are old. In N'djole, there is no longer any priest, except maybe at N'toum where there does happen to be a priest who is over 70 years old who still wears his cassock, but the others no longer wear the religious garb. Some others are living in concubinage.
However, in Libreville, the good work begun and harvested by His Excellency Archbishop Lefebvre still bears fruit, and thus the Mission of St. Pius X was established, destined to grow in leaps and bounds! Located in the very heart of the Gabonese capital, the mission already has a number of buildings, including the childrens' home, located in a very quiet neighborhood. In view of this growth, His Excellency said, "Soon they will no longer talk about the St. Pius X Mission, but rather the neighborhood of St. Pius X!"
Father Groche took advantage of the Archbishop's visit to ask him to bless and crown a statue of Our Lady of Fatima, and to formally receive nine young girls into the Society of the Immaculate Conception, the equivalent of the Eucharistic Crusade for boys.
But all good things come to an end! It was now time to take His Excellency back to the airport. Upon leaving, he promised, if the Good Lord permits him to live long enough, to return once more to the Mission and his beloved Gabon.
—André Gagnon
This article originally appeared in Fideliter, and was translated from the French for publication here.
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