IN THE SPOTLIGHT

NEWS IN BRIEF

BROTHER WOUT VAN DEN HOUT

In the past and today, there are quite some brothers with creative skills. They make paintings, drawings, sculptures, or beautiful craftwork. It gives a different, sometimes unknown insight into the makers. This feature places a selection from this work in the spotlight. For the fourteenth contribution to this column, we visited Brother Wout van den Hout.

Brother Wout van den Hout’s love for drawing started on December 5th, the day of the visit of Saint Nicholas, when he was a sixth grader at the St. Thomas School in Goirle. When the Holy Man visited his class, Wout realized readily that it was Brother Justus van den Boom. Already at this time Wout wanted to become a brother. “If you want to become a brother you must improve your drawing skills.” Wout took this as a challenge and encouragement and did his best to follow up on it. Brother Justus taught him drawing and later at St. Stanislaus Teacher Training College he was instructed by Brother Meinulphus van Grootel. Wout was talented and his desire to make beautiful work grew.

In 1963 - he was already a brother at this time - Wout left for the mission in Namibia. While there he read an article in the weekly magazine Elsevier about remote learning at the Famous Artists School. It had branches in New York, London, Paris and Amsterdam-Osdorp. This was just what he was looking for. Brother Walter got permission from his superiors to enrol. From Namibia he had to submit for three years an assignment every six weeks to the office in Amsterdam-Osdorp. At that time, it was sent by “snailmail” not email.

Brother Wout enjoyed drawing and he drew a lot. However, to combine that with his profession as a teacher, often resulted in drawing till midnight in his classroom. Regularly students asked him to draw something for them. Many a personal poetry booklet was enriched with a drawing by Brother Wout. “Often they asked me to draw an animal”, shared Brother Wout with us, “and I liked animals too and the most beautiful one, in my opinion, is the horse.” Others discovered Brother Wout’s talent as well. The editorin-chief of the diocesan paper ‘Angelus’ in Namibia Brother Wout van den Hout in his room at the residential care facility Joannes Zwijsen.

asked him to make illustrations for his paper and Wout responded joyfully.

For real models there was no time and no money, so Brother Wout looked for pictures in magazines to copy. The series of portraits of Namibian women in traditional clothing came about this way. Brother Wout prefers to work with oil pastels. He also drew the sketches for the mosaics depicting the stations of the cross in Döbra in Namibia. A lengthy article about this work can be found in Brothers CMM, nº 1/2014. Twice he participated in a group exhibition in Windhoek and in Walvis Bay.

For Brother Wout, drawing is a form of service. For this reason, he often gave away his drawings free of charge to his friends and acquaintances. “To create something beautiful is rewarding and to give something beautiful to someone is also rewarding.”

Herero woman (oil pastel). Himba woman (oil pastel). Himba woman (oil pastel).

Horse (oil pastel). Card with butterflies. Brother Wout made this for his sister (oil pastel).

Mantle Madonna (from a series of pen drawings).

Shepherd’s dog (oil paint). One of the stations of the cross in a mosaic in Döbra, Namibia.

Good Samaritan (collage of coloured, shredded paper). Card at the occasion of a jubilee (pencil drawing). Frontpage of ‘Angelus’, the diocesan paper of Windhoek with an illustration of Brother Wout (pen drawing).

FROM PADANG TO PROVINCE OF INDONESIA

On May 21, 2022, the jubilee year (100 years) of the Brothers CMM in Indonesia was officially opened. This certainly cannot be seen in isolation from the predecessors who were inspired by the spirituality of mercy and brotherhood when they set foot on the archipelago.

Padang

It all started in the city of Padang, on West Sumatra. On May 21, 1923, the Brothers Paulus Jacobs, Severinus Aarts, Hermenigildus Fromm, Theodatus van Oers, and Claudius Kok started their mission in Indonesia. They opened two primary schools: the European Primary School and the Dutch Chinese School. The influence of the Brothers CMM was great, especially in the areas of education and youth work. There was a liturgy group, a drama group, a choir, a music band, a sports team, a library and an English group. In 1924, the brothers’ school received a government grant and was recognized as the best school of the time.

In 1928 the Brothers CMM opened a MULO (junior high school) in Padang. After the Second World War this school developed into the ‘SMA (senior high school) Don Bosco Padang’. The situation in Indonesia at that time was not easy. In all parts of Indonesia, also in the city of Padang, there were riots. There were almost no Dutch brothers left in Padang, while there was scarcely any vocation among Indonesian boys. In December 1976 the CMM community in Padang was handed over to the diocese.

From Padang to Manado, Tomohon, Medan…

Meanwhile, the Congregation’s work had expanded to other parts of Indonesia. Already on September 4, 1924, the Brothers Ernest Adriaanse and Radulf Bax set foot in Manado and Tomohon. In Manado they took over the education at the Dutch Chinese School. In 1927 the brothers also started working in Medan, with Brother Hermenigild Mimpen as director of the Dutch Chinese School of Medan. The first five brothers in Indonesia, Padang1923.

… And on

Gradually more and more communities in different parts of Indonesia were founded, and more and more Indonesian young men joined. At present there are about 120 brothers in Indonesia. They live and work in the Archdioceses of Medan, Semarang, Makassar and Kupang and the Dioceses of Manado, Sibolga, Banjarmasin, Tanjung Selor, Amboina and Larantuka.

There is good hope that the Congregation in Indonesia will continue to develop according to the expectations of the Founder, Bishop Joannes Zwijsen. “The joy and hope, the sorrow and anguish of the local church, of the universal church and of all people will also be ours” (Constitutions I, 177).

Brother Yonas Paso CMM, Indonesia

Source: Frater CMM di Indonesia. Sebuah Sejarah dari Tahun 1923 sampai Tahun 1997 (CMM Brothers in Indonesia. A History from 1923 to 1997), by Brother Pieter-Jan van Lierop CMM, 1997.

Brother Rosario de Jesus Martins and some pupils.

Before Covid-19 Casa de Apoio was always rather busy.

EXTRA LESSON IN BRAZIL

Worldwide the Congregation is being confronted with all sorts of material and spiritual needs. The brothers, together with others, are trying to alleviate these. In the twenty-first edition of this feature, we present one of the activities of the brothers in Brazil.

One of the core tasks of the Brothers CMM is youth work and education, especially for underprivileged youth and children. ‘Casa de Apoio ao Estudante’ (House for the Support of Students) in Belo Horizonte was founded by our brothers in the Region of Brazil for the benefit of children who attend public primary schools, where the quality of education is ‘inferior’ to that of the - much more expensive - private schools in Brazil. In Casa de Apoio, these pupils can receive ‘school reinforcement’ or tutoring.

The children are supervised by several professionals hired by the Congregation and some volunteers. Besides tutoring in the regular subjects, other activities are offered, such as computer classes, educational games, sports and painting.

It is interesting that the ‘Brotherhood Campaign’ promoted by the Catholic Church of Brazil this year has “Brotherhood and Education” as its theme, with the motto: ‘Speak with Wisdom, Teach with Love’ (Proverbs 31, 26). This motto is an invitation and an inspiration to the congregational schools and other forms of apostolate in which we may accompany and teach children and young people.