HISTORY - A2

REDEMPTORISTS’ MISSION BAGHDAD

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HISTORY - A2

In 1964 Fr.Francis Van Stappen, arrived in Baghdad, and was engaged as a teacher of Church-History in the seminary of the Chaldeans in Daura. After his ordination, he had been a famous preacher of missions and retreats in Flanders. He was a very popular and social person, loved by the students and the people. He became superior of the mission, and also secretary of the apostolic nuncio, Mgr. Jean Rupp. He kept all his records up to date. Since his youth he had been collecting information about movies, and became an expert in cinematography. In connection with a cultural centre in Baghdad, where hundreds of youngsters used to gather, he edited a small magazine to introduce and discuss the movies that weekly were shown in that centre of the Carmelites. After the death of Fr.Demarey, he took over the responsibility for the mission, esp. during the years when the fathers were housed in a miserable house that belonged to the Carmelites. But his most famous and lasting activity was concentrated on catechism. He founded a league for the teachers, and he himself used to prepare the teachers every week, with conferences and practical exercises. He wrote more than 15 books in this field. Here are some of the titles: Explanation of the Gospel of Mathieu(1976), The Gospel of Luke(1980), The Acts of the Apostles(1982), 6 books about the Old Testament(1979), Explanation of the Lord’s Prayer(1984), The miracles, The Apostles, Explanation of the Creed(1977), Our Lady in the churches of Baghdad(1985), and also: The Vatican with an History of the Apostolic Nuntiature in Irak(1974), The History of the Redemptorists(1984) and a History of Spirituality. For the students of the seminary he wrote a church history in 5 volumes, and prepared a study on Mariology and on the church-missions. As he was going to move the community into the buildings of the Chaldean cathedral of Baghdad, he suddenly died, one morning when he was preparing to go and celebrate the H.Mass for the Chaldean sisters in Zafaraniya, November 6th 1991. He was buried with great solemnity at the side of Fr. Demarey (cfr.G+L 1985,21;1992,62).

1.02: A hired house in Baghdad (1970 - 1991)
Fr. Maurice Demarey may be considered as the founder of the mission. He had been rector and director of the Redemptorist college in Essen (1942-1947), prefect of the students and novice-master for the brothers in Beauplateau, and provincial (1961-1964). When the congregation accepted the invitation of Cardinal Tisserand, he was asked by the provincial Fr. G.De Ceuninck to take responsibility of this mission among the ‘Nestorians’. After his preparation in Paris, he went to Syria, and back in Lebanon, he acquired the needed funds to build a school with a church in the district of the Assyrians, and bought a precious plot of land for a future convent. He attracted the needed fathers (Fr.Bloemen, Fr.T.DeCock, ao.) as well as brothers (Br.Gustave and Br.Christian) for the mission, and defended its rights, against the distrusting provincial.
Twice he was knocked down by a heart attack (around 1962), but even so, after he recovered partially, he was courageous enough, to return to the mission, as an old sick man, to live there in the desert in difficult conditions. In 1965 he had arrived there in Daura, accompanied by Fr.Vincent van Vossel. Beside his engagements in the Oriental churches, he concentrated his lasts efforts on the French community that gathered every week in the sisters’convent at Bab esh-sharqi on the border of the Tigris. During these years, the apostolic nuncio, Mgr.M.Perrin, who was also Latin bishop of Baghdad, engaged him as secretary. In this function he was able to arrange for the Redemptorists that they were officially responsible for the religious care of all the foreigners, in their different languages. For the English and German speaking he attracted Fr.Albert Rutten, old missionary from the West-Indies, and for the French and Italians Fr.Jan Rolies. At a certain moment there were six Redemptorist fathers in Baghdad.
But again a painful misunderstanding happened, this time with the Chaldean Patriarch, who banished the fathers from his churches and from their house, which was build on his ground. The new Latin Bishop, Mgr. Ernest Niyari, Carmelite, took pity of the fathers, and granted them the use of a house that belonged to the Carmelites, on condition that they continued to work for the foreigners, and assist him in the religious care for the Latin community in Baghdad. Fr.Demarey died in the sisters’ hospital in Baghdad, after a short sickness, February 10th 1974, and was buried in their cemetery next to the old cathedral, in the centre of the city.