The Crimson Lily in our Midst

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Acknowledgements It was only when Fr. John Rooney came among us and produced his books, ‘Shadows in the Dark, The Hesitant Dawn, On Heels of Battles, Into Deserts, On Rocky Ground, Of Ground Broken’ etc. that we began to realize that not only may we Mill Hill Missionaries have been part of history but that actually as a Society ‘we have a history’ and his writings have inspired this effort to remember all those special people who have been part of it. The first part of this book, the history, is written by Fr. John Rooney and is taken from his book ‘Of Ground Broken’. Thank you John.

A special thanks to Fr. Hans Boerakker and Mr. Peter Turnbull, Mill Hill Archivists at Freshfield, who have been so kind in putting together on DVD the photographs and much of the information in this book.

Fr. Piet Koomen’s memory, collected information and his great interest in all things Society have been indispensable in bringing this book to any sort of completeness.

I would like to thank all of you who responded to the request for some bio-data through letter and e-mail, and were so kind as to contribute many fresh details to your story. Thank you.

Finally I am most thankful to Mr. Ayaz Aziz for the many hours he has spent in front of the computer typing, creating, cleaning, cutting and editing. Without his expertise I cannot imagine how this effort would ever have taken shape.

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Forword ‘The Crimson Lily in Our Midst’: the title chosen by Fr Tom Rafferty for this chronicle of the Mill Hill Missionaries who served in what is now northern Pakistan and adjoining territories, simply means ‘St. Joseph’s Missionary Society in Our Midst.’

The ‘crimson’ or red sash worn by the Mill Hill Fathers has always been the traditional colour to signify a missionary, and indicates total self-giving and loving service among all God’s people. The ‘white lily’ is associated with St. Joseph, whom the Mill Hill Missionaries are proud to have as their patron. Their only desire is that through St. Joseph’s intercession, and the labour of their hands, they may in turn have something pure to present to God in His Kingdom.

This short history of those who have served in one particular area, depicts in microcosm the courageous efforts of Mill Hill Missionaries in many other parts of the world.

Although this book for the main part concentrates on the struggles and successes of the past, it nevertheless points to an equally bright and optimistic future for the local Pakistani Church, with its many lay people, priests, and religious. These gallantly continue the mission of Christ in what so often proves to be a very difficult region.

Fr Brendan Mulhall, Vicar General, Mill Hill Missionaries

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In mid July 1865, Fr Herbert Albert Vaughan arrives in London. He has left Brazil some weeks earlier. At the time, he was a member of an apostolic association of priests, known as Oblates of St. Charles. They were based originally at Bayswater and continued there until they more or less died out as a group in the mid-1960s. The association had been active since 1854, but was not actually formally founded until 1856. The founder was Charles Edward Manning who had recently been made Archbishop of Westminster. It was Manning’s summons that had brought Vaughan to London.

Vaughan had persuaded the Oblates to sponsor a project that was close to his heart, namely the foundation in England of a foreign missionary college. With their agreement, he had gone to the New World to seek funds for his foundation. When he received Manning’s summons, he had collected just over £11,000 and had gathered pledges for about the same amount again. He was not yet satisfied with the amount collected and wanted to visit Argentina and Australia in search of further support.

Manning’s letter, recalling him to London, came therefore as a surprise and a disappointment. It also filled him with misgivings. Had Manning and the Oblates withdrawn their support for his missionary project? He need not have worried.

Manning’s purpose was to instruct him to begin work immediately. This he did and, the following March, he was able to open his college at Holcombe House, Mill Hill, a village north west of London.

He was the sole professor and had only one student.

Contemporary records fail to name this student, but we may guess that he was an Irishman named Cornelius Dowling. Dowling was the first Mill Hill Missionary to be ordained, but, by the time of his ordination in 1869, Vaughan still had not persuaded Rome to grant 13

his fledgling group a place to work. Dowling and his subsequent companions had to kick their heels in England and make themselves generally useful until Rome saw fit to move.

Vaughan’s dealings with Propaganda Fide were pleasant enough and discussions in Rome often raised his hopes; but the Secretary of Propaganda Fide, Cardinal Barnabo, was in no rush to make up his mind.

Meanwhile Archbishop Martin J. Spalding of Baltimore had been pressing Rome to make some sort of permanent provision for the Afro-American Catholics of the American South.

These had recently been freed from slavery and their pastoral care was proving a headache to the Church in North America. Through the Jesuit, Fr Michael O’Connor, formerly Bishop of Pittsburgh, Spalding learned that Vaughan’s priests were looking for employment. So, he approached Vaughan with the proposal that they should take responsibility for the care of the Afro-American Catholics in Baltimore. Dowling led the first group of missionaries to take up this work in December 1871.

In August of the following year, Dowling died, The Mill Hill Missionaries continued, however, to be responsible for the work until 1893. In that year, a breakaway group was formed with the purpose of working exclusively among the AfroAmericans. This society is now known as the Josephites of America.

An important quality in Mill Hill’s American involvement was a certain malaise. Was this work fully in accord with the aims of their foundation? Was it really foreign missionary work? Vaughan had his doubts and continued to hope that his group of priests would find work that was undoubtedly foreign missionary. Such work would not become available until 1875.

What concerns us now are those happenings between March 1866 and 1875 which helped define the identity of the Mill Hill priests. They have had two official titles: St Joseph’s Society for Foreign Missions and St Joseph’s Missionary Society.

They have been known, however, at various times by different nicknames, The Josephites, The Mill Hill Fathers, and The Mill Hill Missionaries. The Mill Hill Missionaries is now accepted as an official title; but you still find them described sometimes in some North American learned journals as English Josephites.

It is doubtful nevertheless that Vaughan in 1866 saw his foundation as the beginning of what is known in Canon Law as a Religious Institute. It might be said that he had before his mind two models, one non-Catholic and the other Catholic.

The non-Catholic model was that of the CMS (Church Missionary Society) and the SPG (Society for the Propagation of the Gospel). These are fundamentally lay societies that fund, train and dispatch missionaries to various parts of the world. The clerical and lay missionaries they send out are seen as members of the society, but also as its employees. When Vaughan established St. Joseph’s Society for Foreign Missions, he saw it in the broad CMS and SPG perspectives. The bulk of the members 14

would be lay persons, involved in providing the missionary support structures which the work demanded. This concept had undergone a number of transformations. The members have been known at various times as Zelators, Friends, Promoters and Supporters. The present day section for England and Wales has now become completely transformed and is known as APF-Mill Hill.

The Catholic model was that of the Irish Major Seminaries such as Maynooth, Carlow and All Hallows. These trained Irish priests for service all over the world. The products of these seminaries promoted alumni associations, but they had no intention at all of becoming part of a religious institute. It will be seen that, in Madras especially, this vision of the Mill Hill Missionaries persisted right up till the 1920s.

The Mill Hill Missionaries themselves had progressed beyond this understanding, but they had difficulty persuading others to accept their own sense of special identity.

Early Concerns One of Vaughan’s early priorities was to recruit a proper training staff. He tried at first to recruit the services of orders of priests who specialized in seminary training. It soon became evident, however, that these orders might produce good priests; but they would have failed to nurture among them any sense of common bonding.

He turned then to individual priests who might be willing to work alongside him for a few years. Eventually Vaughan’s own trainees might be able to take over. Notable among those who accepted this invitation were Peter Benoit, George Braun and Bernard Chevillion. When eventually St. Joseph’s Society was founded, these three volunteer trainers became candidates for membership.

It is nevertheless not clear at all that, in early 1871, Vaughan realized that he was founding a new religious institute. His public statements at the time indicate that his overriding concern was something different. He spoke more of the establishment of an association similar to those of the CMS and the SPG. As late as July 1872, he described this in The Tablet: This is an association of clergymen and zealous men and women, who are united together in a determination to carry out, so far as they can, the work of the Apostles and to spread Christianity among the yet unconverted races of the earth.

The first published statement that there was a special society of priest members is in The Tablet, 8th November 1873.

This statement is from the hand of Canon Peter Benoit.

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Peter Benoit was born in Belgium in 1821. In 1845, he was ordained priest and volunteered for the English mission in the Diocese of Salford. His career was distinguished, and at the time he enters our story, he was Provost of the Cathedral Chapter. In July 1871, Bishop Turner of Salford died and Benoit was locally favoured as successor to the see. Manning of Westminster wished, however, to promote Vaughan to the post. So, at Turner’s funeral, he sought to meet Benoit and persuade him to withdraw from the election. Benoit not only complied, but also pledged his support in favour of Vaughan. When Vaughan learned what was afoot, he wrote to Pope Pius IX, pleading to be passed over. He cited his responsibilities at Mill Hill as strongest argument against his appointment. Pius IX required him to accept the nomination to Salford, but retain control of St. Joseph’s College. Its day-to-day running could be entrusted to a suitable vicar. Vaughan conformed and invited Benoit to be his vicar at Mill Hill.

Benoit’s decision to accept led to a partnership which was to last until Benoit’s death in August 1892. He was the ideal partner. His gentle, good-natured, common sense acted as a supplement to the more mercurial Vaughan. In September 1871, he became rector of St. Joseph’s College, Mill Hill.

His statement in The Tablet, referred to above, described the process by which students were selected and became members of the society. The candidate had to undergo a period of postulancy after which he could be elected to temporary or trial membership. At his acceptance, he made a temporary commitment and was invested with the cassock and the red sash. The red sash was actually the uniform of Rome’s Propaganda College, but Vaughan and Benoit endowed it with a broader meaning; what was described as “the emblem of their future sacrifices and as a badge of their future glory”. One year before the completion of their studies, the students could make their final commitment and be accepted as full members of the society. After this, they became eligible for major orders.

Benoit’s statement describes the Society as “The Society of the Sacred Heart”.

The actual name is not here a matter at issue. What is important is that by 1873 Vaughan and Benoit had already decided that those trained at St. Joseph’s would form a religious institute.

The document, MHFA-CB-13, which records the details of every student accepted, indicates that, for some time, the students were given a choice of the sort of commitment they wished to accept. Some opted for the Society Oath. Others chose the Propaganda Oath. No contemporary document gives any explanation for this choice.

Two years before Benoit’s 1873 statement, Vaughan had already begun to draft rules for the new Society. These were distributed among the members and discussed at length. Four years later, they were approved and formally promulgated as Rules and Constitutions 16

at the First General Chapter, held at Baltimore in January 1875. The Society is described as follows: St. Joseph’s Society of the Sacred Heart for Foreign Missions is a congregation of secular Priests established propagate the Gospel among the un-evangelized races Europe.

to beyond

The Baltimore constitutions give the lay Society, described above, a different standing: All persons contributing alms for the education of the missioners or for the propagation of the faith by the missioners of the Society are affiliated as members of St. Joseph’s Society and participate in all its merits and good works.

Whether you state that the Baltimore Chapter of 1875 established the Society or merely recognized that it already existed is a matter of purely technical concern. The society from a practical standpoint, could now present candidates for ordination.

Actual Roman approval of its establishment was a long slow process which was not formally completed until 25th April 1908. Up till that time, the Society was approved for practical purposes, but was still under trial.

The Mill Hill Missionaries remained committed to the work among the AfroAmericans until 1893. Initially, however, this work had been accepted, faute de mieux.

At the time there was nothing better to do, and their call to Madras in 1875 has always been regarded as their first real missionary assignment.

Afghanistan In June 1878, Benoit went from Mill Hill to Rome to seek a decision concerning the Borneo mission. Fitful negotiations had been going on concerning this since 1870. While, however, Cuarteron of Labuan continued to delay replying to letters from Propaganda Fide, nothing could be done. Benoit failed to bring this decision any nearer. Both Benoit and Vaughan agreed that the future of the Society demanded that it be granted overall responsibility of some mission area. They were happy enough to send men to Baltimore and Madras. Yet, in both these places, the survival of the Mill Hill priests as a group depended on the good will of the local ordinaries. Both Spalding in the USA and Fennelly in Madras had been sympathetic to keeping the group together; but there was no guarantee that their successors would be similarly sympathetic.

Benoit returned to Mill Hill empty-handed. He must have wondered whether 17

the fledgling society could possibly survive the seemingly ingrained Roman delays. In January 1879, the situation changed. The Mill Hill priests were suddenly recognized as possible solvers of a problem that faced the Church in Northern India. This concerned the provision of chaplaincy services to the British army.

The British Army in North-West India: Before we address the matter of Mill Hill involvement, we should understand why there was such a heavy British Army presence in North-West India.

We remind ourselves, first of all, that British predominance over the French in India had been effectively ensured by the Treaty of MĂźnster that brought an end to the European Thirty Years War. There was a continued French presence at Pondicherry, but this was not regarded as threatening. At the turn of the 19th century, three factors changed British attitudes. The first was the boast of Napoleon that he would establish a new French empire, stretching from Mysore to Cairo. The second was the employment of French mercenaries in the Indian princely armies after the end of the Napoleonic wars. The third was the burgeoning influence of the French in the MiddleEast. These factors were a worry to the British. They did not discount the possibility of a French invasion of India from the North West.

Other sources of worry to the British were the suspected intentions of Russia, for Russia had a continuing diplomatic interest in Central Asia. This part of the world used to be described as Iran, Afghanistan and the five southern Soviet Republics. Russian diplomatic concern was directed mainly at the maintenance of the security of her own borders. The British were not convinced that this was the sum total of Russian concern. Any sign of increased Russian diplomatic activity in Central Asia was viewed, therefore, with utmost suspicion.

Despite these two basics fears, there were some among the British political establishment who thought that the safest border for British India was Russia. This view was never actually put to the test. In 1907, the Anglo-Russian Agreement cleared up British and Russian disagreements. At the time we discuss at present, this agreement was far in the future. The British in India employed two strategies to counteract what they envisaged as the French and Russian threats. The first is described as buffer policy and second as the fragmentation or forward policy.

The first policy demanded that North-West India be bordered by a reliable, friendly and stable state. The British aimed to enter into defense agreements with such a state so that it would act as a buffer between India and any would-be invader.

The first state to serve this purpose was the kingdom of Oudh. When Oudh annexed, the Maharajah Ranjit Singh’s Kingdom of Lahore succeeded to the role. The need to annex Oudh arose from 18

British overriding concern for internal stability. They were normally quite happy to leave the princely states undisturbed, so long as such stability was maintained. On the death of a rajah, the activities of the rival claimants to the succession could put an end to internal stability. The British response was to annex the state; a drastic but effective policy. Oudh was annexed in this manner.

Guaranteeing the stability of Lahore brought the forward policy to the fore. For Lahore was always under threat from Afghanistan’s ambitions in the Northern Punjab. Indeed, the eldest son of the King of Afghanistan usually bore the title: “Prince of Peshawar”. Iran, on Afghanistan’s other border, was also involved.

The Caliphs, especially in the time of the Ghaznavids, had always encouraged ambitious princes in the region to expand eastward. Iran followed more or less the same policy, but saw that her interests were best served by keeping Afghanistan as unstable as possible.

The forward policy understood that India’s security depended on active control of its borders. In simple terms: if you want a neighboring enemy not to invade your territory, keep him fully busy defending his own borders. This policy led to the annexation of Sindh, the conquest of Lahore and the execution of a series of wars with Afghanistan. British pursuit of this forward policy meant that they had to maintain large garrisons in the Punjab, Balochistan and in the territories now known as the North-West Frontier Province.

A preliminary to the forward policy was one which was very close to that of Iran, but fundamentally the same as the forward policy. This has been described as the fragmentation policy. What it meant in effect was that Afghanistan should be divided into three mutually suspicious states: Kabul, Kandahar and Herat. If these could be kept squabbling among themselves, they would have little energy to spend on opposition to the British. By the time the Mill Hill Fathers came on the scene, the fragmentation policy was in decline.

The Church Concern: Kenneth Balhatchet’s “Missionaries, Empire and Society….” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (1978) demonstrates that the British army in India was normally at least 50% Catholic. Mill Hill sources 1879-1881 indicate that about one fifth of the soldiers in their area were Catholic. Whichever assessment we accept, there were large numbers of Catholic soldiers in the new active service areas. They needed chaplains. Provision of these was a burden shared by the Jesuit-run Vicariate Apostolic of Bombay, and the Capuchin-staffed Vicariates Apostolic of Agra and Patna.

Provision of military chaplains was a heavy strain on these vicariates. Their task was complicated by the army’s unwritten policy against the employment of Irish priests. The graduates of the 19

Irish seminaries were thought to be anti-British and possible sources of political disaffection among the troops. The priests provided by Agra and Patna were Italians.

They had little appreciation of the background from which the ordinary soldiers came and their command of the English language often left much to be desired. The soldiers were justifiably dissatisfied and complained bitterly.

Complaints of this sort turned Rome’s attention to Mill Hill. The matter was brought to the attention of the Holy Father, who gave orders that Vaughan was to be approached immediately. Monsignor H. O’Callaghan of the English College in Rome was chosen as the go-between.

Invitation and Choice: O’Callaghan wrote to Vaughan on 18th January 1879. The letter is worth reproducing in full and runs as follows: Cardinal Simeoni has been ordered by the Pope to provide at once for the spiritual wants of the English soldiers engaged in the war with Afghanistan. He has therefore desired me to write and offer you a district in that quarter to be formed into a Prefecture. He wishes to know if you are able to send three our four priests, Irish if possible, who may be able to attend also to the natives, but obtain recognition from the English Government as army chaplains and corresponding pay, or at least a capitation grant such as is proposed for Cyprus where the number of soldiers is at present too small for a special chaplain. His Eminence offers you this new mission, believing that the English Gov’t intends to make a permanent occupation of some kind. The Vic Apostolic of Agra (Capuchin) has been requested to make provision for the moment and has sent some Italians, but the Cardinal wishes to have English missionaries or Irish if possible as before said. If no subsidy can be got from the Eng. Gov’t I believe the Cardinal will endeavor to make some other provision for the temporal part. He wishes to know without delay, by telegraph, whether you are disposed to accept.

He seemed to be disappointed that nothing had been done about Borneo after Dr. Benoit’s visit to Rome and fancied that you were working only among the American Negroes, but I was obliged to contradict him very flatly, and assure him that your men are doing wonders in the Madras Vicariate. ….

To Vaughan this was sweet news. After consulting with Benoit, he telegraphed his agreement. Rome desired swift action in the matter, but letters were still being exchanged in late March. By the beginning of April, however, the first group of five missionaries had been chosen. On 9th April, Vaughan sent them a moving farewell, containing 12 paragraphs of advice on how they should conduct themselves. His own 20

feelings as to the nature of the mission come out in the 9th and 10th paragraphs:

9. Seek to win and influence the natives, as far as possible; and remember that the Holy See has sent you as missioners to the native races, as well as for the time being as chaplains to the army of occupation.

10. Learn all you can of the needs and character of the natives. Make notes of what you learn and transmit the information to the local superior or to the Superior General.

Vaughan’s primary concern was the establishment of a native mission to Afghanistan. The army commitment might be predominant for the time being, but would be continued only if a local mission could be maintained at the same time. In 1879, seven priests were assigned to the mission, one group of four and a second group of three. In the first group were Frs. George Browne, John Endover, Richard Burke and John Allen. It is significant that only one of these is identified by his given name.

This is Richard Burke. He was neither English nor Irish, but an American from northern New York. He had been ordained in 1878 and was to serve in India until he was transferred to Baltimore in 1887. Endover was a Dutchman whose proper name was Jan van Eyndhoven. Allen was also a Dutchman, from Tilburg, properly called Jan Aelen. He was to have a long and distinguished career in India. The names of these men were anglicized to make them more acceptable to the British authorities.

Browne’s Anglicization of his name is perhaps the most curious. It turns out to be an alias of an alias. He was born in the USA on 26th August 1836, under the name of George Rimsel, and was of German-American provenance.

He was ordained priest for the Archdiocese of New York and was held in such estimation that he was appointed to teach at Archbishop Hughes’ experimental seminary at Fordham, New York. There he broke his vows and attempted a marriage.

In 1873, repentant of his sins, he went to Rome to seek absolution and rehabilitation.

Vaughan met him in Rome and, impressed by his penitence, invited him to come and teach at Mill Hill. He arrived there on 26th August 1873. As part of the rehabilitation process, he changed his name to Braun. At the college, he led such an edifying life that he was accepted as a temporary member of the Society in 1875. He did not, however, make his final commitment to the Society until 1879. Vaughan and Benoit expressed their confidence in him not only by appointing him to Afghanistan, but also, on 9th April 1879, by making him superior of the mission.

This first group left London on 17th April and proceeded via Rome and Brindisi to Madras. Propaganda had been initially opposed to their going to Madras, but Vaughan’s insistence that they 21

go there shows some sensitivity. It was important that their first steps in India should be guided by friendly colleagues who knew something of the local ropes. They arrived in Madras on 17th May. It was then decided that the group should split up. Allen and Burke would head for Quetta, Brown and Endover would go to Peshawar.

The party traveled together as far as Bombay.

The Quetta men then set off for Sukkur via Karachi. The others took the train for Lahore and Jhelum, at that time the end of the line. They arrived on station at a time when it seemed the war was at an end. Their status with the army was thus unexpectedly changed. It was necessary that they apply to Simla for cantonment appointments. Thus, Endover was sent to Landi Kotal in the Khyber Pass. Browne went to Kurram. Burke remained at Quetta and Allen went to Kandahar.

The four priests had expected to be marching with the troops, but their assignment to cantonment duties meant that they had to adjust to a special life-style. In this they had the guidance of two documents. The first, written by Vaughan, has been mentioned already. In July 1887, Vaughan was to expand on this document, but this re-draft was not available to the Afghanistan group. What was available, however, was a document issued by Bishop Stephen Fennelly on 14th October 1869. This itself was a re-hash of a set of instructions issued by Patrick Carew in February 1839. Basically the three documents provide general guidelines for the military chaplain in his relation with officers and other ranks. He must distance himself to some extent from others in order to have opportunities for prayer and study. At the same time, he must be affable and approachable. He should, for example, never be a member of the mess, but might attend such mess functions as were suitable. In other words, he might be present at mess dinners, but must eschew mess booze-ups. In general, the Mill Hill priests succeeded in this. They were generally popular and sometimes admired. The Karachi Civil and Military Gazette was thus to remark: “If our priests make converts as easily as they make friends, their mission will be successful�.

Pastorally, the first priority was to make personal contact with each of the Catholic soldiers and their families. Masses had to be arranged and catechism instruction organized. Endover, in a letter of 11th July 1879, describes how they went about this. At the time he wrote, he was managing only three public Masses per week, but he had hopes of improving on this. To make the best contact possible, he had visited all the regimental headquarters and arranged that lists of all the Catholics in each regiment be sent to him. On the basis of these lists, he might be able to plan his pastoral strategy.

Unhappily he was not to have any opportunity of doing this. For, within a week of writing this letter, he was struck down with dysentery and blood poisoning. Yet, in the short month he had been with the troops, he had earned their affection and regard. Both officers and men rallied to his care. At this distance in time, it is possible to be 22

amused at some of their attempts to help him. The officers of one mess, for example, sent over iced champagne for his comfort. How much good this did him might be questionable. By the 17th of July Endover was dead. He was buried with full honours and, in the absence of a priest, an officer named Fallon read the service. Later, the soldiers raised a stone over his grave with the simple inscription: Rev. J. Endover M.A.. – Roman Catholic Chaplain, Landi Kotal.

Died July 17th 1879, aged 26 years. R.I.P. “Brevi Consummavit” The soldiers may have lacked a little in Latin, but nothing in good will. Landi Kotal was soon to claim another victim, in less romantic, but perhaps sadder, circumstances.

On the death of Endover, Browne sent instructions for Burke to come and replace him. Allen wrote from Kandahar to object to the move.

Browne rejected his objections, but for the wrong reasons. He suspected that Allen did not want to lose his companion. This was not the case. Burke’s behaviour, on arriving in Landi Kotal, began to reveal the source of Allen’s objections. He acted very oddly and took to wandering about aimlessly. One day, he wandered off and did not return. Nobody had the slightest notion where he had gone and it was feared that he might have been killed by a wild animal or a marauding tribesman. Six months later, he turned up in Madras, mentally confused and in poor physical state.

Van der Klugt’s The Opening Door explains that Burke had become the victim of the effects of sun stroke, a condition then recognized locally as Ghabhrana. This condition is similar to what is now described as M.E., with additional feelings of confusion, uncertainty, fear and an anxiety that can sometimes border on terror.

Illnesses such as this were recognized at the time, but little was known about possible treatment. By sheer luck perhaps, the Fathers in Madras chose one that worked up to a point. They treated Burke as a poor lad who had become confused, kept him occupied with not very demanding tasks and waited. He was soon able to take charge of a mission station. There were some later lapses into problematic behaviour. This led to some disagreement among the Fathers. Some felt that his treatment at this later stage was unduly harsh. When, however, he returned to the USA in 1888, he was well enough to do the ordinary work of a priest.

By the time Burke had wandered off, three more priests had come out from Mill Hill. Frs. Thomas Jackson and Gerard Raatger travelled out from London. In Madras they were joined by Fr John Temme. Temme was German and had been 23

working for some time in the Telegu mission. Raatger was Dutch. For the purposes of this appointment, he changed his name to Rogers. Jackson was from Lancashire, born in Rochdale.

New Hostilities: Initially, the arrival of the new men meant that there was a redistribution of personnel in the cantonments.

Unfortunately, the record fails to make precisely clear what the new division of work was. Temme seems to have replaced Burke at Landi Kotal. Rogers and Jackson stayed with Allen at Quetta and Kandahar.

This situation changed when Ayub Khan delivered a humiliating defeat to the British at Maiwind. Hostilities then broke out afresh. Jackson was with the troops at Maiwind and again at Kandahar. He was mentioned in dispatches and praised for his gallantry at both these engagements. Browne went with Lord Roberts’ army to Jalalabad and Kabul.

It is evident that the troops thought Jackson’s gallantry should be rewarded with a military decoration. Van der Klugt reports that he was recommended for the VC. When, however, the army failed to send him his campaign medal, Jackson wrote from Borneo to inquire. The omission was rectified and he was awarded the Kandahar Cross with clip.

Browne was delighted to discover a group of Armenian Christians at Kabul. Lord Roberts wished to demolish a part of the city which contained their church, Browne interceded with Roberts and had a new site allocated to them. No priest had visited these Christians for many years and Browne happily said Mass for them.

The New Prefecture?

With the final close of hostilities, the issue of the new prefecture surfaced again. The January 1879 letter of O’Callaghan had stated quite clearly that a prefecture would be established and entrusted to the Mill Hill Missionaries. When, in April 1879, Vaughan had pressed the matter with Propaganda, the reply he received was that a precise definition of a territory was not yet opportune. Browne went out therefore as superior of an independent, non-territorial mission. In July of that year, when Browne and the first group passed through Bombay, Bishop Meurin had advised that they seek a base in the Punjab, not in Afghanistan itself. He suggested that Lahore might be the best centre. Meurin seemed to have been unaware that the Italian Capuchins were then negotiating the establishment of the Vicariate Apostolic of the Punjab, with headquarters at Lahore. This was officially erected in 1880.

It has been made clear that the continuation of Mill Hill involvement 24

with the army was dependent on the establishment of a native mission. The Roman offer had been made on the assumption that the British intended to annex Afghanistan.

With the end of the war, it became evident that they were not likely to do this. The advantages to be gained by annexation did not measure up to the costs of maintaining an army of occupation.

Vaughan wrote to Jackson with the question: In the event that the British declined to annex the territory, would a new mission still be viable? Jackson replied that he saw no likelihood that annexation would be attempted. In the current climate of feeling in Afghanistan, sending a Christian missionary into the territory would be tantamount to signing his death warrant. In the unlikely event of British annexation, missionaries might be able to enter the country. Results would be very slowly achieved. The best hope of success would lie in the provision of good schools.

Meurin of Bombay suggested a way out of the problem. A new prefecture should be established in Balochistan with headquarters at Quetta. We suspect that his motive for this suggestion was a lack of enthusiasm for inheriting responsibility for the cantonment stations at Quetta, Sibi and Kandahar. The Mill Hill priests did not think much of this suggestion. Balochistan, apart from the military stations, provided little outlet for priestly or missionary work.

Another factor which affected the situation in the Afghanistan mission was Cardinal Simeoni’s decision in 1879 to take firm action in the matter of the Borneo mission. A letter was dispatched to Labuan. This letter granted Monsignor Cuarteron permission to leave Borneo. This was in effect a dismissal, but with a sort of sugar coating. Cuarteron agreed to leave and the way was open for the transfer of the Borneo mission to the Mill Hill Missionaries.

Vaughan then wrote to Benoit for suggestions as to who should become the new prefect in Borneo. It was tacitly accepted that the Afghanistan group must provide this superior. At first, Allen was the preferred choice. Browne objected to the loss of this trusted priest. Jackson was then favoured for the appointment. Benoit objected to Jackson. On 15th March 1880, Vaughan decided to override the objections. He simply submitted Jackson’s name to Rome, and, at the end of the same month, the appointment was made official. Jackson had first to clear up his affairs in India and obtain release from the army. He did not arrive in Borneo until August 1881.

By the time Jackson had departed for Borneo, the whole continuance of the Afghanistan mission was in question.

Towards the end of the year, Vaughan was asked to go to Rome and seek a settlement of the disputes. Browne and his companions hoped that some of their hopes might be salvaged by this means. They were encouraged in this hope by the appointment in 1881 of a replacement for Jackson. This was Fr Alexander Prenger from Holland.

Vaughan had decided, however, that the Afghanistan mission should be closed.

He went to Rome to propose that this be done. The priests that remained there would 25

be re-deployed so as to bolster the Madras mission. Browne was recalled to London.

Allen, Rogers and Temme were assigned to Madras where they re-assumed their own names. Prenger was assigned to the Borneo mission. With a clear end in view, they began to settle their affairs and obtain release from the army. Each one proceeded to his new post as soon as he was free. Prenger was the last to leave and did not reach Borneo until 1883.

The Afghanistan mission started with great promise. It was pursued courageously and sometimes with gallantry. It seemed to end with a flicker. Yet, in 1887, the Mill Hill Missionaries were to return to the Punjab and the Northern Territories. They were to serve there for more than a hundred years.

Re-Start in the North: The departure of Browne and his team in 1881/2 returned the military chaplaincies to their pre-1879 state. The troops were unhappy with the services provided by the Italian Capuchins. The army authorities did not like non-British chaplains to be in the active service areas. The Capuchin superiors in Rome were aware of the situation and sought to change it as soon as possible.

They chose a two-pronged solution. The more drastic course of action was the replacement of the Italian by the Belgian Capuchins. It was felt that the Belgians would make a better job of learning the language. They also had some experience of the English mission and could be expected to have some awareness of the backgrounds from which the troops came. To meet the demands of the active service areas, the Mill Hill Missionaries were to be invited to take charge of the northern part of the Diocese of Lahore. Although this was a secondary part of the Capuchins’ strategy, it was necessary to complete the move before bringing in the Belgians. Once the Mill Hill Missionaries were in place, Bishop Symphorian Mouard was appointed successor to Bishop Tosi. In 1889, the replacement of the Italian Capuchins commenced.

The transfer of the northern section of the diocese to the Mill Hill Missionaries was agreed in June 1887. Then, the Superior General of the Capuchins and Bishop Vaughan signed a letter of intent. The following month, this agreement was endorsed by Rome. A new prefecture apostolic was erected and named the Prefecture Apostolic of Kafiristan and Kashmir.

Kafiristan and Kashmir: The terms Kafiristan and Kashmir were not defined precisely. Failure to make this precise definition may have arisen from diplomatic considerations. The terms were used to 26

indicate two areas of the world which did not at the time have any very clear political definition. Kafiristan referred generally to the tribal territories around Peshawar and could be considered to extend into Afghanistan as far as Kabul. Kashmir did not refer to the lands that were then controlled by the Dogra Sikhs. It did not include Jammu in the south, but extended northward so as to cover the area that has been known at times as little Tibet.

The prefecture embraced four main stations at Rawalpindi, Murree, Nowshera and Peshawar. Attached to each of these were recreational facilities for the benefit of the troops. There were also three schools.

The Jesus and Mary (J & M) Sisters operated a school and Orphanage at Murree. They also managed a school at Lalkurti in Rawalpindi. The third school was actually closed at the time of the Mill Hill take over. It was St. Thomas’ School for boys at Murree.

The Catholic population of the prefecture in 1887 was estimated at 5,000; but this number could change from month to month. The core group was the troops. Their numbers waxed or waned according to the current military situation. The more stable parts of the population were the Tamilians, sometimes called the Madrassis, and the Anglo-Indians who worked as servants and clerks to the army.

The general population was not as homogeneous as it is today. The Muslim population was large, but seems not to have been as large as later Muslim apologists would have us believe.

Pressure was being applied at the time to persuade the peoples of the tribal territories to embrace Islam. This pressure was exerted from Kabul and is thought by some to have been political in inspiration. The Kings of Afghanistan claimed sovereignty over the territories of the tribal maliks. This term means literally ‘Tribal Kings’. The Kings of Afghanistan may have planned to use Islam at a later date as a lever to gain actual control. How far the Islamization process had progressed in 1887 is very difficult to assess. The remainder of the population was Sikh and Hindu. The majority of these lived and farmed on the plains around Jhelum. A sizeable number lived in the towns and were employed in Government service or in business.

Communications in the area were poor. Population was thinly distributed throughout a system of not very accessible valleys. Most of the villagers lived isolated lives with little contact with other valleys or peoples. The languages used were many and various. Missionaries might achieve some reasonable contact with the local people only through a familiarity with two or three of the main ones, viz. Hindustani, Punjabi, Kashmiri and Pushtu.

Rome argued that the population distribution was such as to provide ample opportunity for indigenous missionary work. The name chosen for the prefecture indicates Rome’s perception of where this missionary expansion might take place.

Mill Hill’s acceptance of responsibility for the new prefecture was motivated by these considerations. Military chaplaincies were accepted as means of entry. They were considered an important, but less permanent, part of the work.

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Staffing: Unlike those in Madras, the Mill Hill priests who moved into Rawalpindi would be working entirely on their own. It was not therefore desirable to assign only young men. There must be at least a leavening of more mature priests. The first group contained only one newly ordained priest, Fr Francis van Mansfeld. He was to work in the mission for just under sixteen years. Ill health forced his return to the Netherlands in 1903.

Ignatius Brouwer was brought from Madras to lead the group. The American mission was required to provide two members of the team. These were Frederick Schmitz and Jan de Ruijter. De Ruijter was 34 and Schmitz 42 years old. Of these, Schmitz had had the more chequered career. Before joining the Society, he had served in the Prussian army, where he held the rank of Captain. He had been assigned to the American mission, but found the work uncongenial. So he requested and gained release from the Society. Just before being assigned to Rawalpindi, he had asked for re-admission. The reason for his assignment to the new mission may have been his previous military background.

The fifth member of the group was Dominic Reijnders. Like Schmitz, he was forty-two years old and had been ordained for some years. His assignment to this group was, however, his first missionary appointment. He had worked previously in a parish in England.

A Fr L Lequeux of the Paris Foreign Missionaries elected to remain at Peshawar. He retired to France, two years later.

In 1888, a further seven missionaries were added to the group. These were Daniel Kilty, Gerard Wiersma, Peter Oud, John Broomfield, Edward Reveley, John Waterreus, and Brother Robert Coleman. Most of the priests were newly ordained. The exceptions were Wiersma, transferred from America, and Kilty. Kilty had been with the first group assigned to Borneo, but did not get on with his companions. He had applied for a transfer to the Telegu mission and between 1884 and 1888 had worked in the archdiocese of Madras.

In 1889, two priests, Dominic Wagenaar and Joseph Cunningham, and one Brother, Henry Rogers, were assigned. In 1890, three more priests were sent out: Michael Donsen, Robert Winkley and Henry Hanlon. Between 1890 and 1895 no more Mill Hill Missionaries were assigned to the prefecture. We will see presently the reason for this.

The Team: On the face of it, the persons listed above could have been expected to knit well together. This did not happen. If we seek reasons for this failure, we can recognize three important factors.

The first of these was the attitude of the recruits from America. The American mission was vigorously opposed to the pruning of its personnel for the benefit of the 28

Punjab mission. The members in America made such noisy protest that Cardinal Howard was dispatched from Rome to rebuke the Society for its neglect of the American province. The three members drafted from America were Schmitz, de Ruijter and Wiersma. They were all to return to America with in a short time.

Schmitz was assigned to military chaplaincy work at Nowshera. His background might have suggested that he would handle this work well. It soon became evident that he had developed an aversion to matters military and, further, that he was suffering from two great obsessions. The first of these was a constant anxiety about being robbed. He surrounded his chaplaincy with so many security devices that his charges could hardly get near him. The second was the fear that the Russians would successfully invade the Punjab. He himself and all the other prisoners would then be shipped off to end their days in Siberia.

De Ruijter did not evidence any such peculiar behaviour. He was actually a cheerful and popular priest. His only weakness was a penchant for traveling, which earned him the nickname of ‘the strolling priest’. He was assigned to Murree and quickly cleared the debts of the mission. A skilful handyman, he repaired the church, the house and school with his own hands. He was, however, desperately in love with the mission in the United States. He was so anxious to return that he thought he might resort to bribery. He offered to give the Society £ 500 to endow a scholarship at Mill Hill in return for an appointment to Baltimore. The offer was not accepted, but by the end of 1888 he had managed to have himself sent back to America. Shortly afterwards Schmitz followed him. We know little of the reasons for the return of Wiersma to America. The contemporary diaries do not address the issue.

A second factor may be seen in the way the work was divided. The early mission engaged in three distinct types of work. Members assigned to a particular type of work did not have much contact with others engaged in other types.

Thus the chaplains were fully occupied with the army, the school men were kept busy in school and those assigned to mission extension work were often isolated from the rest. There was not a great deal of cross-group understanding.

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The third factor was finance. The main financial resource for the prefecture consisted of the income of the army chaplains. They received, with allowances, about Rs150 per month. They retained Rs50 for their own personal expenses and handed over the balance to the Prefect. They thought that the sums they handed over should be sufficient for the expenses of the priests at work in mission extension, but it was said that, to survive in the Punjab, a Mill Hill priest needed private means.

Brouwer never made the others aware of the heavy financial burden placed on his shoulders by the June 1887 agreement with Lahore. This bound the prefecture to accept the debts incurred by the Capuchins in the territory they had taken over.

The Mill Hill priests had thought at first that this consisted of the debt on St. Thomas School. This amounted to about Rs12,000. What they did not realize was that it also included money held formerly in trust for two young orphans, but had been used to fund the school. This meant that Brouwer had very quickly to settle debts in excess of Rs25,000. The reason he was always short of money was that he had to make regular payments to Lahore.

These three factors work together to produce a certain malaise among the group. Brouwer was recognized as able; but his impatience of character did not help dispel this malaise Education: We have seen earlier, in reference to the Jackson letter on prospects in Afghanistan, the advice given to Vaughan in respect of education. It was Jackson’s view that the way to the hearts of the people of the northern territories was through education. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Mill Hill priests considered it a matter of great importance. They were directly involved in only two areas of education. A continuing concern was the religious instruction to be provided in the army schools. This matter was handled by the chaplains. A matter of more direct concern was St. Thomas’ School, Murree.

There was general agreement among the Fathers at the time that there was need for a good Catholic Boys School in the Northern Punjab.

Brouwer was of the same opinion, but he had a further motive for ensuring that the school was re-opened. He wanted some means of recouping the moneys to be laid out in the settlement of its debts. If it was to perform this task, it needed to be well equipped. This entailed further expense. It needed also to attract a good number of feepaying pupils. Brouwer accepted the need to subsidize the school until such time as it could become self-supporting and begin to clear its debts. Unhappily, it never reached this stage of development. It was a continual drain on the finances of the prefecture. In 1895, after Brouwer had been replaced as Prefect Apostolic, Vaughan questioned the suitability of spending so much money on the education of the rich. The new prefect 30

addressed the issue by referring it to the judgment of the missionaries. They were in favour of continuing the school. So, it limped on for a few more years. Eventually, the financial burden of keeping it afloat proved too much. The eventual sale of the property brought in less than a quarter of the money expended on it.

The J&M. Sisters were also in the throes of financial difficulties. They were responsible for the maintenance of orphans, mainly the children of soldiers who had died in action. The army was under obligation to pay for the maintenance of these orphans and the level of subsidy provided was always a bone of contention. In the early 1890s, the subsidy was Rs10 per month per child. In Murree, it actually cost Rs16 per child for food alone. There were added costs for clothing and schooling. By 1894, the sisters decided they could no longer carry the financial burden. They closed the orphanage and the prefecture inherited the task of looking after the children. Indeed, one of the reasons for keeping St. Thomas’ School open was the necessity of having a place where destitute boys could be housed.

Preparations were made to engage new sisters for the Rawalpindi school.

Bishop Mayer in Madras was asked to lend his aid. He approached the Irish Presentation Sisters to see what they could do. Happily they were in a position to help, and it was agreed in 1895 that a group of Presentation Sisters under the leadership of Mother Ignatius could set out for Rawalpindi as soon as possible. The group arrived in September and was able almost immediately to start work.

To understand why the Presentation Sisters were able to come so quickly to the Punjab, it is important to understand something of the organization of the Presentation Sisters at that time. It was somewhat unusual. When, after the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, Nano Nagle started to set up her schools in Ireland, she had to make sure that they did not fall foul of the current anti-Catholic penal legislation. For this reason each convent was established as a completely independent unit. The first such group to arrive in Madras had been those Sisters invited by Bishop John Fennelly in 1843.

Sister Ignatius, née Margaret McDermott, arrived with her Sisters in Vepery in 1891.

She found that there were already two other Presentation communities in Madras. On the principal that ‘two’s company; three’s a crowd’, she feared that the introduction of a third independent community might be a source of rivalry and disagreement. No such rivalry had actually occurred. In 1895, when she was approached by Mayer, she was more then half convinced and easily agreed to volunteer for new work in the Punjab.

The arrival of the Presentation Sisters was to put in place what became the standard educational pattern in the Mill Hill mission in the Punjab and Kashmir. The J&M. Sisters were responsible for the education of the girls from better-off families.

The Presentation Sisters looked after the daughters of poorer families. The priests saw to the education of the boys.

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Missionary Extension: Brouwer took on himself the task of initiating basic evangelical work. He began first by exploring the districts around Rawalpindi. His first opening came at a place called Haripur, near Abbottabad. He visited the place regularly and soon assigned it a catechist, who happened to be a convert from Protestantism. At first, matters proceeded very well and a good number of catechumens were enlisted. Once the place seemed to be getting onto its feet, Wagenaar was assigned as resident priest.

Within a few years, however, two tragedies were to fall on this mission. The first concerned a young man called Hewlet Dutta. Brouwer was so impressed by Dutta’s intelligence that he sent him to study medicine at Guy’s Hospital in London. He had visions of a steady stream of such young men who would be trained abroad and return home to benefit the local Catholic community. Dutta was of undoubted intelligence, but he managed to get himself into a torrid love affair with a woman in London. The pair entered into a suicide pact, bungled the suicide attempt and ended up in prison. The Lahore Civil and Military Gazette made a meal of this story and caused the mission much embarrassment. The event, incidentally, killed off Brouwer’s dream. Sending young men abroad for training was not such a bad idea. The Dutta affair ensured that it was tried only once.

A more directly serious embarrassment to the mission at Haripur was the defection to Islam of the catechist. Local wrath at this was high. The catechist was banished from the community and a new catechist was appointed. The community did not, however, recover from the blow to its izzat. ‘Izzat’ may be understood according to the oriental concept of face or the Sicilian idea of respect. Local honour demanded some sort of purging of the shame. The obvious candidate for the purge was Wagenaar, the only foreigner and the resident priest. He was minded to stay and ride out the storm, but eventually closed up the mission in despair. It is arguable that the mission might have survived simply by replacing Wagenaar. The Mill Hill priests did not, at the time, have sufficient local understanding to consider such an option.

When Kilty arrived on the mission, Brouwer recognized in him a priest who might pioneer the missions in Kafiristan and Kashmir. Kilty went first to Peshawar to investigate what might be possible in Kafiristan. He met a blank wall of opposition from the army. The army wanted no innocent wandering missionary getting himself murdered in the tribal territories. European honour would then demand a military expedition to avenge the murder. Such expeditions might be, militarily speaking, glorious but also expensive. They must be avoided. Kilty then turned his eyes to Kashmir.

The office of the British Resident in Kashmir 32

was as eager as was the army administration in Kafiristan to bar Kilty’s entry. They could not argue that he would be in danger of being murdered. So, they resorted to the time-honoured civil service ploy of shuffling the application papers from desk to desk.

Kilty was meanwhile stuck in Rawalpindi, unable to move. He seemed ill at the time and Brouwer considered ordering him to see a doctor. Kilty decided, however, that he must go over the local Resident’s head and apply directly to Simla. When he returned from Simla, he looked much healthier. Brouwer did not press the matter of the medical examination. Somewhat surprisingly, the government in Simla approved Kilty’s request. He was permitted to reside at Leh, near Ladakh, for a period of two years.

He set off and was soon able to establish himself there. Reports of his progress with the language glowed. Everything seemed at first to go well. Then news began to filter through to Rawalpindi that Kilty was unwell. Brouwer thought that at least a routine investigation was necessary. He was getting ready to leave when he received a letter from Kilty: “Do not trouble to come to me. By the time you could reach me, I will be either cured or dead”. Brouwer set out immediately for Leh. At Murree, the first stage on the way, a message awaited him. On 23rd April 1889, Kilty had died “of exhaustion, due to liver abscess”.

To grasp what happened next, one has to take into account the Victorian mystique of martyrdom. Kilty became something of a hero and many a quiet tear was shed over his passing. The story of his death was received with greater emotion than had been the announcement of the death of van Eyndhoven’s at Landi Kotal. For the mission his death was a misfortune. For Brouwer, it was a deeply personal blow. He had failed to order Kilty to take a medical examination. If he had done this, might not the priest still be alive?

It was important nevertheless that Kilty’s initiative should not be lost. So, in September 1890, Hanlon and Donsen were sent to re-open the mission. Brouwer recognized that the mission at Leh could hardly survive without a backup station. On his way back from helping Hanlon and Donsen to settle in, he chose Baramulla as a likely location for such a mission. He was unable, however, to open the Baramulla station until more than a year later.

By the time Hanlon and Donsen had arrived, winter at Leh was already setting in. They spent the winter months studying Kilty’s notes and addressing themselves to the study of the language. With the clearing of the snows in 1891, Hanlon set out on his travels while Donsen remained on station. Both priests were good letter writers and sent home vivid accounts of their experiences. Of these, the most celebrated was Hanlon’s “Journal of a Missionary Journey in the Shayok and Nubra 33

Valleys”. This was serialized in the St. Joseph’s Advocate. It was later translated into French and appeared in Les Missions Catholiques. The missionaries set themselves to study the geographical, social and religious environment of the people of Ladakh.

These are reported in detail and are illustrated with photographs and drawings. They managed too to gain entry into the Gompas or Lamaseries in order to discuss ideas of religion with the local monks.

With ordinary folk, they began at first with discussions of general topics. Thus they discovered the Tibetan fascination with maps. It was a short step from the maps to historico-religious and Gospel charts. With heavy hearts, they learned that the people of Ladakh had little notion of a godhead. They could find no acceptable name for God. Every name they tried had connotations which made it unhelpful. Hanlon’s unhappy final judgment was: Upon reflection I have come to the conclusion that the conversion of the people of Ladak (sic) and Nubra is humanly speaking a forlorn hope…

He reached this conclusion on the basis of their lack of God-concept and the strength of the hold that the lamas had over them.

In early 1893, Hanlon was moved to Murree to act as companion to Reijnders, who was not too well at the time. He never returned to Leh, for his services were suddenly required in Uganda.

Donsen continued on his own until 1895. Decision to close the station at Leh was however postponed until 1898. The reason for the delay was economic. Kashmir law forbade foreigners to own land. The only means by which a long- term mission might be established in Leh was to bring in a local catechist who could hold the land in the mission’s name. Negotiations with the MEP in Bhutan had been initiated for the purpose of engaging such a catechist. By 1897, it was obvious that these negotiations could never succeed. The MEP could find nobody suitable. So, in 1898, the mission at Leh was finally closed.

When Kilty died, Brouwer had vowed that no priest would be left on his own in Leh for any significant length of time, and certainly not during winter. After Hanlon’s departure, the mission was able to remain open because, by that time, the station at Baramulla had been opened. Donsen was instructed to continue at Leh for the meantime, but spend his winters at Baramulla.

The first start in Baramulla was made from a station that was made up of tents.

Once a presence had been established, Brouwer went to seek audience with the Maharajah. He brought with him gifts and a letter of greetings from the Pope. The Maharajah was suitably impressed and approved the mission. This approval made it possible for the mission to rent suitable property. Brouwer then had high hopes for the 34

mission; but the first two missionaries, Winkley and Cunningham, did not share these hopes. They felt that the only hope of establishing a Christian community would be to take in orphans who might be educated and eventually settled in the country.

While the missionaries worked out of rented property they were considerably restricted in what they could do. The restriction was removed in a way that sounds too improbable to be true. It arose from the financial embarrassment of the current Rajah, Prabat Singh. The rajah sought to straighten out his finances through the sale of the Royal stamp collection. A bank in Lahore offered Rs100,000 for the lot, but Prabat Singh did not think this offer acceptable. He turned to the Protestant minister and the Mill Hill priest, Fr Simons. The minister agreed to dispose of the stamps but asked for a 10% commission on the sales. Simons stated that the task would be so laborious that a proper commission would be something in the region of 20%. He offered, however, to accept 5% if the rajah would sanction the grant of a large tract of land to the mission. The rajah agreed and the mission’s land problems were thus solved.

Simons’ action was considered by some members to have been sharp practice.

Reijnders, however, stood by him and came to his defense.

Troubles: By 1893, troubles were piling up for Brouwer. We have implied that Mill Hill was displeased by his handling of Kilty. It was also annoyed at his failure to keep the recruits from the American mission. He still had not resolved the financial problems of the mission.

Complaints had been received from the Fathers concerning his management of the funds that were available. The Dutta case was presented as just one example of his hare-brained schemes. The priests were particularly irritated by his habit of asking advice on subjects. They would take the greatest care in responding to these requests.

He would, apparently, listen carefully to the advice given and then ignore it completely.

Matters had come to such a pass that Reijnders, the local spiritual director, felt constrained to write to Vaughan on the subject.

Vaughan seemed at first to ignore the letter. So, Reijnders invited Hanlon to canvass the opinions of the Fathers on the mission and send the results of his canvass to Vaughan. In 1894, Vaughan took action. He wrote to the Prefect of Propaganda Fide to request Brouwer’s dismissal. Brouwer was dismissed, but remained in the North for a further five years. He then returned to Madras and spent the rest of his life at Rentachintala, happy and respected. He never seems to have complained about his dismissal nor about the fact that he had to remain in the north for so long after his fall 35

from grace. It is edifying to meet a superior who might have been bossy, but was prepared also to take orders.

Reijnders: Brouwer was replaced almost immediately by Dominic Reijnders. Reijnders was very loath to take over the reins. On 3rd April 1894, he wrote to Vaughan to argue that he should not be appointed Prefect. He pointed out that his health was poor and that his command of the local languages left much to be desired.

Vaughan recognized, however, something else that Reijnders possessed. He had the trust and affection of the Fathers. The local situation demanded a man of peace. Reijnders’ appointment brought an almost tangible sense of relief to the mission. He might be in poor health, but this was counterbalanced by the willingness and cooperation he inspired in the members.

He was almost immediately to have a very serious test of his diplomacy and firmness. This arose out of difficulties in the American mission. The details of the troubles in this mission are reported and described in my book, Struggling to be Prophets. In May 1893, these matters came to a head with the split of the membership in America into three groups. The largest group decided to leave the Society and join American dioceses. The smallest group elected to remain in the Society. The middle group, under the leadership of John Slattery, broke away from the Society to form a new Society, to be known as the Josephites of America. This Society still exists and works in America. Its headquarters are in Baltimore.

The Josephite break-away had been preceded by the establishment of the Mill Hill Society’s first two seminaries in America. John Christian Aelen’s special Dutch assignment was the establishment of a Mill Hill seminary at Roosendaal. He was engaged in this between 1890 and 1903. In 1894, a group of Mill Hill priests, gathered in Baramulla, happened one evening to start discussing the possibility that, with Roosendaal established, it might be likely that the Dutch section of the Society might also break away to form a new Netherlands-based group.

In December of that year, Brouwer commented on this discussion in a letter to his friend, Fr Keizer, in the Netherlands. Brouwer opposed the idea of secession. His letter gave the impression, however, that the plans of the secession group were already quite far advanced. Keizer thought the matter important enough to consult Vaughan, then Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. Vaughan, still smarting from the 1893 Baltimore debacle, reacted with vigour. He wrote a stiff letter to Reijnders, demanding that the ring leaders be disciplined. The unfortunate focus of Vaughan’s wrath was Waterreus, understood to be the prime mover of the secession group.

Reijnders then showed his mettle. He refused to 36

let Vaughan’s anger stampede him into hasty action. Instead, he made discreet inquiries and was able to reply to Vaughan that the matter was not all that serious. To use an American way of putting it, it was just a case of a couple of guys shooting the breeze in a jam session. Some justification for Vaughan’s reaction may be found in the fact that the information stemmed from Brouwer and that, of the seven priests who left for America under Brouwer’s administration, only two remained in the Mill Hill Society after the 1893 break-away. Vaughan was always a forgiving sort of person and soon recovered from his wrath. His vicar general at Mill Hill, Fr Henry, had a much longer memory. The unfortunate Waterreus lived out the rest of his live in the Society under an official cloud.

Reijnders did not condemn the basic approaches that had been initiated by Brouwer, but disagreed with him in the matter of missionary outreach in the Rawalpindi area. He did not see much future in piecemeal attempts to convert surrounding villages. There might be hopes, he thought, of gaining individual converts. These should be encouraged to form a new Christian Community of their own. To this purpose, he acquired 28 acres of land near Rawalpindi, hoping to turn it into a Catholic village of market gardeners and artisans.

Events overtook this plan. During the years 1895-7, wide-spread famine afflicted India. The only province to survive unscathed was the Punjab which by then had begun to taste the benefits of the successful Punjab irrigation scheme. The missions in the Punjab were expected to accommodate the overflow of orphans that were the famine’s unhappy crop. To house these, Reijnders acquired a property in Rawalpindi City. Soon after the orphans were installed, a group of 200 fanatic Muslims attacked the house and burned it to the ground. Happily the orphans were saved. The only place to house them then was the new Catholic Village which had just been named Yussufpur. When the orphans grew up and married, many of them settled in Yussufpur. It operated as a prosperous Catholic colony until the world flu epidemic of 1919. All except one of its population died in the epidemic. The property was sold eventually to finance the beginning of the native mission in Rawalpindi, now known as the City Parish.

In respect of the Leh mission, we have seen that Reijnders played a waiting game. In 1898, the mission was closed when hopes of getting a catechist from Bhutan had died. Some moves were also made in the direction of Jhelum. The surviving sources fail, however, to give us a very clear picture of what was actually done.

Towards the middle of 1899, Reijnders’ infirmities caught up with him. On 27th June, he died at Murree. His co-worker, Sister Ignatius of the Presentation Sisters had preceded him to the grave, just two weeks before. The immediate cause of death was a severe heart attack. His priests judged that the real cause of death was his deep sense of failure. The infirmities of his body blocked the achievement of the dreams he had for the mission. Yet, because of his 37

gentle and kindly peacefulness, the Mill Hill Punjab mission entered the twentieth century with a sense of purpose and direction.

Hesitantly Forward: On the death of Reijnders, Fr Edward Reveley took over the administration of the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir. He was invited to succeed Reijnders, but declined. For he felt unable to handle the problems the Presentation Sisters encountered after the death of Sr. Ignatius. The post was then offered to Fr Dominic Wagenaar. He took charge in 1900. He chose to address two priorities that he considered important. The first of these was the establishment of some sort of native Christian community. The second concerned medical care. Unhappily, Aelen’s successful push to improve the staffing of the Madras mission meant that other missions had to do without the staff they might need. Wagenaar was always short of personnel and never had enough priests to bring about any real expansion in the work. During this period there were never more then 14 priests at work at any one time in the prefecture.

A Native base: We have seen that Reijnders had managed to achieve some sort of mission presence in Kashmir.

Wagenaar simply continued Reijnders policies in respect of Kashmir. He hoped that acceptable results might appear eventually.

He had different hopes for Rawalpindi. Reijnders had acquired 28 acres of land about 8 miles outside the city, on which he had planned to establish a colony of Catholic artisans. We have seen that the orphan boys, first housed in Rawalpindi City, had had to be moved there in 1898. At that time, the planned colony had not yet materialized. The land had still to be cleared and irrigated. The Presentation Sisters and the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (FMM) had made provision at Lalkurti for the care of the girl orphans.

The new expectation was that, once the orphans were old enough, they would choose to intermarry. Houses were built for them at the new colony and the village was named Yussufpur. If the young couples accepted these houses, they became tenants of the Prefecture. About 40% of them elected not to take up this option and went to settle elsewhere after marriage. The remaining 60% took up the offer. Thus, by 1910, Yussufpur had begun life as a Catholic village, populated by artisans and market gardeners who rented land from the 38

mission. The village might be expected to grow and mature at its own pace.

When Donsen left Leh in 1898, he became the first resident priest at Yussufpur. Unhappily, in 1899, his health took a turn for the worse and he had to be invalided home. He was succeeded by Fr F. Kuhn who was to serve in the village until 1912. He was assisted by Brother Nicholas. The Brother instructed the boys in trades.

Those boys who were too young to begin a trade were educated in a small school run by the priest.

The village prospered until 1919. Then disaster struck.

The world influenza epidemic of that time visited the village. The whole population save one man perished. The Catholic Directories indicate that, well into the 1920s, there were priests officially responsible for Yussufpur. They were charged also with responsibility for Rawalpindi city. It is likely that their primary duty was to act as chaplains to the Holy Family hospital.

In 1914, possibilities of local expansion arose unexpectedly in Rawalpindi City. For no apparent reason, 400 Punjabis enrolled themselves as catechumens. About half of these persevered and became Catholics.

This illustrates a curious factor in mission work. Statistical analysis of baptismal records indicates that there is a time lag between the establishment of a mission and the achievement of the first significant results. This time lag varies between 25 years and 40 years. The enrolment of 400 catechumens 28 years after the establishment of the Prefecture might therefore be considered statistically normal. In the Punjab context, it is perhaps surprising. Local circumstances would have led one to forecast that no significant local results would be achieved before 1936 at the earliest.

Wagenaar’s delight at this Punjabi development was clouded by the outbreak of the First World War. The War Office in London then demanded that the Mill Hill military chaplains be transferred to service on the European front. At one fell swoop, Wagenaar lost a large number of his priests. The Prefecture’s staff was reduced by one third. Further, those priests who had been engaged in directly missionary tasks had to be drafted into the Indian chaplaincy service to fill in the local gaps. The new Punjabi catechumens were thus denied the care and attention they needed. Wagenaar was so disheartened by this turn of events that, in 1916, he resigned his charge. Fr Robert Winkley was appointed successor. He was one of those who had been withdrawn to Europe, at the instance of the War Office. He was unable to take up his appointment until he was released from the army in 1918.

Matters Medical: Aelen was only one of a number of missionaries at the time, who were anxious that the church should become more involved in medical work. They were inspired by what the non39

Catholic missionaries of the time called the Zenana Missions. Wagenaar differed from some of the others in that his plans were more sharply focused. He was concerned specifically with the medical care of women. The Capuchin missionaries in Lahore had made an attempt to address this issue, but their efforts seemed to have failed. This did not discourage Wagenaar. He resolved to try to meet the problem.

To this purpose, he turned to European journals. He published appeals in them for women doctors who would be willing to come to India and work for women. He wrote: Experience gathered over a period of time has convinced me that in this part of India it is only through the women that the Church can exercise its influence on the people and their children; particularly it is indispensable to have women doctors for the women of Rawalpindi…

Knowing that great good is accomplished in many of the non-Catholic missions of India, I am convinced that it is my duty to establish a similar work, but Catholic in character, in my diocese… I have just had an audience with the Holy Father; when I submitted my plan to him, His Holiness cordially approved of it.

A retired Scottish doctor, Agnes McLaren, came across one of these appeals in the English Review. She decided to do something about it and wrote to Mill Hill to discover how she might contact Wagenaar. Mill Hill replied that he would be present at the General Chapter, due in 1904. Arrangements would be made for him to meet her.

Agnes McLaren, daughter of Duncan McLaren, a wealthy draper and one time Lord Provost of Edinburgh, was born in Edinburgh in 1837. Her stepmother, Duncan’s second wife, was Priscilla Bright, sister of John Bright, the Victorian political and social reformer. The Brights inspired Agnes first to become involved in Dr. Guthrie’s Ragged School Movement and later to take up the feminist cause. She was one of those feminists who sought to bring Florence Nightingale’s work one step further. They strove to gain for women the right to qualify as doctors. Agnes herself qualified at the University of Montpelier and practiced medicine at Cannes. When she enters our history, she had already retired and was living at the Cap d’ Antibes.

At Cap d’ Antibes, she practiced an unusual form of charity. She provided convalescence holidays for sick missionaries. They were put up at the hotel next to her house. In return they were asked to offer daily Mass in her private chapel. It was as such a guest that Wagenaar came to meet her in September 1904.

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The plan they formed was to establish a hospital for women run by women at Rawalpindi. There was to be a local committee in Rawalpindi, responsible for the dayto-day management of the hospital. Another committee would be set up in Europe to raise funds. This committee became known later as The London Committee or The Acton Group.

The full story of how this medical project developed in Rawalpindi is told in my study, On Rocky Ground {PCH monograph no.5, Christian Study Centre, Rawalpindi (1987)}. Two general points that are outcomes of this McLaren/Wagenaar initiative need to be noted. Both concern a young Tyrolean girl, called Anna Dengel.

Dr McLaren sought to persuade young ladies to qualify in medicine and go out to work in India. Anna was her first recruit.

They never actually met. They only exchanged letters. Yet Anna Dengel was eventually to accept the mantle of leadership of the project.

She had become aware of the work carried out by a group of German lady doctors, known as The Medical Helpers of Würzburg. The Würzburg ladies were laywomen, but they lived in community like nuns. Anna wished to establish a similar organization for the English-speaking world. This led her to found at Pittsburgh Pa. the Association of Catholic Medical Missionaries.

She felt that this association should eventually become a religious congregation. For this to happen, a change in church law was demanded. The relevant law was Canon 139 # 2, which forbids priests to practice medicine or surgery. This canon was applied by extension to all religious. Nuns were permitted to nurse the sick, but could not practice as doctors or midwives. Anna Dengel worked unremittingly to have this law changed. The crowning of her work was a document issued on the instructions of Pope Pius XI on 11th February 1936. Its title was: “An instruction of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide to Religious Institutes of Women regarding the Assistance to Mothers and Infants in Mission Lands.” Congregations of Sisters were encouraged to change their rules and constitutions so as to permit their members to practice medicine.

Anna Dengel’s association was able then to become a religious congregation. They were known in Rawalpindi as the Holy Family Sisters.

The school of nursing established by them in Rawalpindi served as a training school for many religious sisters from all over India. The initiative taken by Dr McLaren and Mgr Wagenaar in 1904 had led by the middle of the century to a great expansion in the medical work conducted by the church in the Indian subcontinent.

Anna Dengel’s associates started or staffed four hospitals which have been associated with the Mill Hill Missionaries’ Punjab mission. The first was St Catherine’s, Lalkurti. The second was Holy Family, Rawalpindi City, which was moved after the Second World War to Satellite Town, Rawalpindi. The third, St Joseph’s Srinagar, was staffed by the FMM sisters. The fourth was at Jalalabad in Afghanistan. The Jalalabad 41

hospital was funded by Fr Blatter, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago. The Mill Hill Fathers were not the founders of the movement, though they were involved in almost every stage of its early development. Their main contribution was to bring together the people who were able to make it happen.

Robert Winkley: When Robert Winkley succeeded Wagenaar in 1916, he hoped that once the World War was over, more staff might be made available to the Prefecture. He could hardly have foreseen a situation where German missionaries would become personae non gratae. He was aware of course that the German Jesuits of the Bombay Mission had been replaced by the American Jesuits for the duration of the war. Yet he had every expectation that the old missionaries would return at the conclusion of hostilities. What actually happened was that the Americans had to remain until they could be replaced by Spanish Jesuits in 1922.

The factor that affected the Mill Hill Punjab mission was the seizure by the allies of the former German colonies. These had had flourishing missions, staffed by German missionaries. The British and French authorities would not accept the German priests and demanded their replacement. The authorities at Mill Hill, in common with other missionary institutes, were faced with the responsibility of re-staffing at short notice the former German missions. The specific area of Mill Hill involvement was West African Cameroon. The society did not get round to attending the needs of the Punjab mission until 1925. Even then, the best assistance that could be given would be to bring the number of priests back to the level of 1913.

Winkley meanwhile could do little more than mark time. The London Committee had pinned their hopes for the future of the medical project on the newly qualified Dr Anna Dengel. It was only after protracted negotiations with the British Colonial Office that she was permitted to come to Rawalpindi in 1922. Winkley’s efforts were aimed largely at seeing that the medical project did not collapse. Further, Dr Dengel, once she had arrived, needed a good deal of help and support to ensure that the project could begin to grow again.

The Punjabi development limped along with the cooperation of the chaplains at the Holy Family hospital. Winkley’s tenure of the prefecture had therefore the stature of a holding operation. Meanwhile he worked quietly to improve the mission’s financial position.

His successor was to know the benefit of this, for he was able in the 1930s to finance significant expansion in the activities of the prefecture.

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Joseph O’Donohoe: Monsignor Winkley died on All Souls Day, 1930. Fr Joseph O’Donohoe then took charge as Pro-Prefect.

Confirmation of his appointment as Prefect was delayed however until 1933. The hold-up seems to have arisen because persons responsible for the various steps in the procedure of appointment happened to be busy at the time with other work. O’Donohoe did not, however, allow this lack of confirmation of his appointment to stand in the way of his plans.

A first priority for him was the establishment of new native stations. The arrival of Fr Blatter in 1930 brought him the first challenge. Blatter wanted to force the Prefecture to open a mission in Kabul.

O’Donohoe was in favour of this initiative; but he could not persuade the North West Frontier civil administration to agree. There was a repeat of the old argument that the government could not afford the cost of punitive expeditions to avenge the murder of missionaries. Strangely, all that could be achieved was a permit to establish a hospital at Jalalabad.

O’Donohoe then decided to concentrate on Rawalpindi and Peshawar. In 1931, land was acquired adjacent to the Holy Family hospital, Rawalpindi City. A mass centre and school were opened. By 1936, a resident priest was appointed. The mission compound seemed ideally arranged. There was a church, a school and a hospital next to one another.

As soon as the Rawalpindi City station was established, he turned his attention to Peshawar. His plan was to establish a small Catholic village on the outskirts of Peshawar city. He bought 10 acres for the purpose and sent the recently ordained Fr Nicholas Hettinga to start the new mission there. The mission was to be called St John’s. The Frontier administration objected to a European living in the native city and insisted that Hettinga should return each night to the cantonment station. On those nights, when he did not get home on time, the police picked him up and gave him a bed for the night in Peshawar Jail.

While the establishment of St John’s was under way, it became evident that the diocese of Lahore wished to redefine its boundaries. It had recently persuaded Rome to divide the diocese and send Roman Dominicans to open a new prefecture, based at Multan. The Capuchins wished a further reduction in the size of the Diocese of Lahore. O’Donohoe then offered to take over Jammu, Sialkot, Jhelum and Gujrat. This plan would have given the Prefecture a good native base, set in a neatly defined geographical unit. Bishop Hector Catry of Lahore agreed to cede Jhelum and Gujrat, but balked at giving up Jammu and Sialkot. For the Sialkot mission, the site of the first Capuchin mission in the Punjab was much loved by the older Capuchin missionaries.

Catry offered instead the Sargodha district. O’Donohoe agreed. A minor problem 43

arose when the Capuchin order asked to be reimbursed the moneys it had spent on the buildings at Sargodha. The provisions made by the late Mgr Winkley made it possible for O’Donohoe to come to an acceptable financial arrangement.

The completion of these arrangements gave the Prefecture a chance to begin to build a solid native base. The new commitments divided the Prefecture into four discrete sections. The Rawalpindi section was seen to embrace the stations at Lalkurti, Westridge, Rawalpindi City, and Murree. From 1938 onwards, the Rawalpindi City mission was used as the base for expansion into the Jhelum and Gujrat districts. The Frontier section embraced the two missions at Peshawar and the stations at Nowshera and Risalpur, along with the outpost at Jalalabad. The Kashmir section had stations at Baramulla and Srinagar. Sargodha was cut off from the rest by the Salt Range. It showed great possibilities for expansion; but plans to expand work there had to be suspended because of the Second World War.

Schools: The first formal statement by the Mill Hill Punjab mission that education is an integral part of missionary witness is found in the decennial report to Rome of 1950. It should not surprise us, therefore, that the early missionaries seem to have considered schools as important, but not for everybody. Indeed in Europe of 1900, the right of every child to a basic education was not universally recognized.

In 1900, there were only four Catholic schools in the Prefecture. St Thomas’ school was a boarding school for boys. Up till the establishment of Yussufpur, it served also as accommodation for orphans. The J&M. School at Murree catered for the daughters of Catholic army officers and of better-off Catholics. The Presentation school at Rawalpindi catered for the children of army personnel of other ranks and for the better-off Goans. The Presentation Convent also had accommodation for 40 orphans. Fr Kuhn’s school at Yussufpur provided basic education for the orphans who were later to be taught trades.

In 1903, Fr Simons opened a school at St. Joseph’s, Baramulla for the 7 orphans under his care. He was the first to open his doors to non-Catholics. The school did well and was able to open a secondary section in 1911. A boarding section was added to the secondary school, some years afterwards. By 1910, St Thomas’ school, Murree was defunct. But, in 1917, the Presentation Sisters agreed to open a school in Murree, for boys up to the age of 12 years. Once the boys were too old to stay at Murree, they were encouraged to continue their education at St Joseph’s, Baramulla. In 1913, the Presentation Sisters opened their first school at St Michael’s, Peshawar.

The Catholic children who could not 44

find places in these schools were to be found in the army or ‘station’ schools. The Church’s involvement in the station schools was the work of the military chaplains who saw that the Catholic children were taught catechism. It is evident too that by the mid-1920s the Mill Hill Fathers had established St Joseph’s school at Lalkurti and that this school had both English and Urdu sections.

In the late 1920s, there was a further development. After the hospital was moved to Rawalpindi City, the old St Catherine’s hospital site came into the possession of the prefecture. It was decided then that the FMM should occupy the buildings and use them for an orphanage and also as a school of Indian girls. The accommodation hitherto provided by the Presentation Sisters for the orphans was then vacated. The sisters decided to use this for a vernacular section to their school. This led to friction with the FMM. Meanwhile, Fr Lavery, who had been in charge of the Urdu section of St Joseph’s, decided to move the Urdu school to Rawalpindi City, his school was called St Patrick’s. The school was not very well run. So, in 1936, the Presentation Sisters agreed to move their vernacular school to the site and re-found the school as St Theresa’s.

The better-off Hindu families began to send their daughters to these schools.

Hindu families and some Muslims began also to send their sons to the boys’ schools.

This development was very gradual. After the fact, three justifications for the acceptance of these non-Catholic pupils were given. They helped finance the schools.

Their presence ensured the maintenance of high standards. The values imbued by the schools might later attract the pupils to Christianity; or at least make them sympathetic to it.

O’Donohoe’s administration brought a new dimension to work in the schools.

He felt that the mission should also provide some sort of tertiary level instruction. The Holy Family hospital was already providing such tertiary level education at its school of nursing. O’Donohoe desired also that there be liberal arts colleges. So, between 1936 and 1939, he caused four colleges to be founded. There were three colleges for girls, managed by the Presentation Sisters: St Xavier’s, Peshawar; St Anne’s Rawalpindi, and St Patrick’s Srinagar. The Mill Hill priests established and ran St Joseph’s College for men at Baramulla. All four colleges were affiliated to the University of the Punjab.

Very soon these colleges began to experience problems. The troubles at St Joseph’s were diagnosed at first as being a matter of overcrowding. There were too many institutions on the one compound. To alleviate this, the boarding school was transferred to a new site in Srinagar. This became the first Burn Hall public school. It was established in 1942.

The problems were, however, much more fundamental than mere overcrowding. O’Donohoe had failed to realize that there just were not enough feeder schools to make even one of these colleges a viable proposition. The two colleges in Kashmir had soon to be handed over to the government. The Rawalpindi and 45

Peshawar colleges took longer to die; but die they did.

The Second World War: By 1939, it looked as though O’Donohoe had managed to get the prefecture on course to success. It was eager and poised so as to advance with confidence. Three disasters were to strike in quick succession, that were to change the whole picture.

The first was the outbreak of the Second World War. There was no repeat of the War Office demand of the First World War. The military chaplains were not recalled to Europe. They were removed instead to other parts of India. The prefecture lost their services just as effectively. Assessment of the precise extent of the losses in personnel during the Second World War is hampered by the unavailability of Catholic Directories for the period.

The second was the defeat of the British in Malaya and Burma. The Japanese were assisted in their campaign by the Indian Independence Army under the command of Chandra Bose. Chandra Bose’ followers saw the war as a means of gaining Indian independence by force. This combination of circumstances made the British administration very jittery. Part of their reaction was the decision to intern all enemy nationals. Bishop Cialeo and his Roman Dominicans were rounded up and put in prison camp. The situation in Lahore was in chaos at the time, since the younger Belgian Capuchins were still trying to respond to their call-up papers. The Apostolic Delegate simply appointed O’Donohoe administrator of the Diocese of Multan.

O’Donohoe had to send Fr C. Meyer and five Mill Hill priests to take charge of the diocese. The team chosen for Multan was among the best native workers. Their departure brought the indigenous work in the Mill Hill Punjab mission more or less to a halt. They were not able to return until 1946.

The third disaster involved O’Donohoe himself. A Sister had been detailed to assist him as secretary. Shortly afterwards, she left the convent and O’Donohoe helped her to set up a business to support herself. Scandal mongers and gossips blew up the matter to such proportions that O’Donohoe was publicly compromised. The relationship was probably innocent, even though it was unwise. The upshot was that, in 1944, O’Donohoe decided to resign both his post and his priesthood. The reaction of his colleagues was dismay and wrath at the loss of their revered superior. We note for the record that, thirty years later, O’Donohoe made his peace with the Church and the Society. He returned to Mill Hill six months before his death and went to his end, sad, broken, but at peace.

Charles Meyer: 46

With the departure of O’Donohoe, Fr Charles Meyer came from Multan to take charge of the Prefecture. He remained in charge until the prefecture was elevated to the status of Diocese of Rawalpindi, and Nicholas Hettinga, its first bishop, arrived to take up the reins.

Pakistan: In 1947, the Prefecture of Kashmir and Kafiristan was raised in status to the Diocese of Rawalpindi. Fr Nicholas Hettinga was nominated first bishop. He was on leave at the time. So he had himself ordained in the Netherlands before arriving to take up charge of the diocese in January 1948.

The new diocese had the same boundaries as the previous prefecture; but it was an open question whether they would remain that way. The frontier decided at the partition of India and Pakistan was not then precisely defined in the north. The final definition depended on whether Kashmir would opt to join India or Pakistan.

The Maharaja’s decision in October 1947 to join India threw the state into turmoil. This is at the root of much of the political upheaval that has been suffered by Kashmir since that time. It would only be a matter of time before the changed situation in Kashmir would demand that it be cut off from the Diocese of Rawalpindi and made into a new prefecture. The districts around Jammu were added to Kashmir and the new ecclesiastical unit was named the Prefecture of Kashmir and Jammu. The Jammu section had been staffed previously by the Capuchins.

This section deals with those parts of the work which were done by the Mill Hill Missionaries in Pakistan. To understand these, it is necessary to have some grasp of the population movements that were a continuing feature of the forty years that we survey. What resulted from these was somewhat similar to a medical operation which replaces a patient’s blood supply. The success of the operation demands delicacy and skill. What took place in Rawalpindi was that the bulk of the previous Catholic population departed and was replaced by a very different population. The process by which this happened was not always either delicate or skilful. There was much trouble and travail, but at times hope.

Population Movements: We can identify seven sets of happenings which influenced these movements. Some of them were painful and were carried through in an atmosphere of despair. Others may have been difficult, yet had about them at least some aura of hope.

The most painful of all were the disturbances that rocked both India and Pakistan at the time of partition. Pakistan had been set up to become a sort of Muslim 47

homeland. Decision on the boundaries had been somewhat haphazard and arbitrary.

There arose a deep sense of insecurity on both sides of the divide. There were Muslims in India who wished to move to Pakistan and Hindus in Pakistan anxious to move to India. Those who moved had to surrender homes, property and security that had been built up over generations. The moves were carried out in an atmosphere of angry hysteria. The civil administration lost control of the situation. Terrible atrocities occurred, such as have left India and Pakistan a legacy of hatred and suspicion.

The new governments had to decide what had to be done about the abandoned properties and what compensation should be paid to persons who felt forced to move. They achieved some sort of breathing space by issuing government bonds of indemnity for property that had been lost. It was to be some time before these bonds could be encashed; but they were made negotiable. They could thus be traded in return for abandoned property or disposed of at discount in order to gain ready cash.

In this dangerously volatile situation, there were three groups that could, to some extent, stand aloof from the turmoil. These were the Christians, the Mazbi Sikhs and the Balmikis. They remained as tenants on the abandoned farms. In due time, they hoped, new owners would come and their positions would be regularized. New Muslim owners did arrive; but they felt that their primary obligation was to provide roofs and employment for their poorer Muslim brethren. The Christians, the Mazbi Sikhs and the Balmikis were evicted. Some of the latter two groups chose to become Muslims and achieved the status of Musali. Others became Christian, for Christianity was beginning to be recognized as a bastion of safety in an increasingly insecure world. Some who were evicted gravitated towards the towns. There they constituted a new under-class that was poor and insecure.

The non-Catholic Christians were less fortunate than the Catholics. The Edinburgh Conference Comity Agreement of 1910 meant that many arrived without their pastors.

The Catholic catechists gathered the Catholics into mutual support groups that were known as baradaris. A fair number of non- Catholics were attracted to these baradaris and, in time, they themselves became Catholics. The baradaris became anchors that helped the new Catholic community in the diocese to become very closely bonded At the same time there was an outflow of Catholic population. This was of three main types. The first was that of the British army. The Pakistan army that replaced it was predominately Muslim. Some local Catholics remained, but in such small numbers that their care was assigned to catechists only. The diocese’s commitment to the provision of military chaplains was greatly reduced. The second outflow was that of the Goan and Madrassi personnel who had been employed by the army in a number of capacities. Many of these elected to return to their hometowns and villages. Perhaps the saddest group was the Anglo-Indians. Under the British, they had been a privileged class. Their privileges could hardly be expected to continue.

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There were emigration schemes to aid them. Thus, large numbers of Anglo-Indian Catholic families were able to move out and re-start their lives in other parts of the Commonwealth.

Catholic influx did not result only from evictions. There were other economic factors at work. The more gradual of these was the increased introduction of mechanized farming. Care of the land became less labour-intensive. Landowners needed thus to reduce the labour force and the Christians were the first to be let go. There were also four natural disasters that accelerated moves away from the farms. These were four major floods in 1950, 1954/55, 1968 and 1973. The 1950 floods were so serious as to demand a national state of emergency; but the floods that had the most serious impact on the diocese were those of 1954/55, and 1973.

In addition to the above, there were two wars between India and Pakistan in 1965 and 1971. The 1965 war occasioned an outbreak of anti-Christian feeling in the country. The government of Pakistan countered this with a propaganda campaign, highlighting Christian bravery in the fighting. This and a number of other factors ensured that the 1971 war was not accompanied by a similar outburst. What is of more impact on our present theme was the growing conviction among agriculturists that the border areas were places to avoid, if you aimed at long-term security. People from the border areas swelled the numbers of those seeking refuge in the towns.

A political decision, dated 1964/65, was expected to influence the Catholic population of the diocese. This was the plan to build the new national capital at Islamabad, adjacent to Rawalpindi. It was hoped that the influx of civil servants would include a leavening of the better educated Catholics. This did not actually happen.

The government of Pakistan used a two-pronged strategy to cope with the phenomenal move to the towns. The first, chronologically, was an effort to slow up the exodus from the villages. The other aimed at improving employment prospects in the towns.

To slow down the exodus from rural areas, the irrigation scheme, started by the British in the 1890s, were extended. The Diocese of Rawalpindi became involved in only one of these extensions, the Thal Development Scheme. Tracts of land were made available to the diocese for the building of two Catholic villages. Thus in 1948 and 1949 the Catholic villages of Josephabad in the district of Khushab and Mariakhel in the district of Mianwali were begun.

The industrialization programme that was introduced to improve employment prospects in the towns has been criticized. Heavy industry, it was said, was overconcentrated in Karachi; a place that was not rich in the sort of natural resources that might be exploited. Development of light industry was all that was available in the north. Two special initiatives by the diocese enabled the Catholic community to gain benefit from the industrialization programme. They will be mentioned later in this section.

From our present position, it is possible to recognize what was 49

going on during these years. Hindsight tells us which were advantageous and which were not. For those who went through the changes everything was a risk. There was no guarantee, but just a simple hope, that decisions that were made were the right ones.

First Initiatives: Hettinga arrived in Rawalpindi when the partition problems were at their height. He saw that immediate action was needed to secure the safety of the children under the mission’s care. The most pressing need was the safety of the orphans at Baramulla, and of the boys at Burn Hall School, Srinagar. These latter were, for the most part, sons of Catholic and Muslim families from the Northern Punjab and North West Frontier Province.

Hettinga first tackled the problem of the orphans. They were all to be brought out of Kashmir.

The girls were to go to St. Catherine’s, Lalkurti Bazaar, Rawalpindi. They would be cared for by the FMM sisters. The boys were to go to St. John’s, Kohati Gate, Peshawar, under the care of the Mill Hill Fathers.

The arrival of these orphans meant that the curricula of both these schools had to be adapted. At St. John’s, in addition to the ordinary academic curriculum, the boys were to be trained in carpentry and plumbing. Each boy must be able to leave school and the orphanage with a marketable manual skill. St Catherine’s had meanwhile to concentrate on domestic science and hygiene. The norm for the girls was that they would leave the convent to marry or go into service. They must be prepared as desirable matches. They were taught in addition dress-making and embroidery to as high a standard as they were capable.

The boys at Burn Hall, Srinagar, were by no means destitute. While they were at school, their parents considered them as wards of the mission. The political situation in Kashmir was so volatile that they must be moved quickly to a safer place. Hettinga chose to move Burn Hall School to Abbottabad. The school was at first accommodated in rented premises. By trading in indemnity bonds, the diocese was able to acquire a permanent site for the school and build it up.

The actual carrying out of the transfers was not without danger. An error was made in respect of Burn Hall when one of the priests was directed to shepherd a group of Muslim boys back to the North West Frontier Province. He chose to go by the long route via Delhi, Lahore and Peshawar. The Archbishop of Delhi was so horrified that he ordered them back to Kashmir. Somehow or other, the youngsters were moved to safety. The generally uncertain situation brought other dangers to children. Some became separated from their parents and got hopelessly lost. How many of these children lost their lives is anybody’s guess. A good number ended up in the care of the mission. The number of orphans that needed nurture seemed to swell by the week.

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The FMM sisters and the Mill Hill missionaries were hard at it. The situation of the Presentation Sisters and J&M. Sisters became meanwhile very critical. The girls who had come to their schools had come from the sort of families that were either fleeing the country or seeking opportunities to emigrate. The sisters feared lest their schools might collapse for lack of pupils.

Muslim families of good standing were anxious to have their sons educated by priests.

Not all thought their daughters worth educating. For them to change their attitude would demand a radical change of thinking.

In this context, it may be surprising that Hettinga’s decennial report to Rome in 1950 affirmed that education must remain a central plank in the Church’s Christian witness. He thus declared his policy. He would build on the foundation that O’Donohoe had laid. He would, however, change its focus. There would be trade schools as well as academic institutions.

New Stations: At the outbreak of World War II, twelve stations were active in the Pakistan end of the diocese. During the war, some of these had to be closed. By 1948, the stations at Peshawar City, Gujrat, Mandi Baha-uddin, Sargodha and Chak 36 had not yet been reopened; but three new stations had been started at Cherat, Ghora Dhaka and Risalpur.

These latter were army stations that were still needed. In 1948 itself, the Sargodha station was divided into three: Sargodha Town, Chak 36 and Josephabad. Shortly after this, Gujrat was re-opened and the village of Mariakhel founded. In 1949, the stations at Jhelum and Abbottabad were started. Industrial development led to a demand in 1954 for a new station at Wah, some miles from Rawalpindi on the Grand Trunk road towards Peshawar. At the same time, the Kohat station was established. Nowshera was closed as a head station for a time. In 1955, the district of Dera Ismail Khan was transferred from Multan to Rawalpindi. St Helen’s mission was established there, the same year. After 1955, new stations were established as and when population movements demanded them.

Three factors made this expansion possible. First St. Joseph’s College, Baramulla, had been closed and its staff transferred to the stations on the Pakistan side of the diocese. Second, Bishop Hettinga was able to recruit extra priests from Goa. It was hoped that Goa would be a sure source of diocesan priests until such time as a sufficient number of indigenous priests became available. These hopes were dashed when Goa was absorbed into India. Goans who had already arrived in Pakistan were welcome enough. New intake from Goa was no longer welcomed by the government.

The third factor was that entry of new missionaries was not very difficult to arrange.

The immigration policy of Pakistan in respect of Commonwealth countries other than 51

India was relatively benign. Between 1947 and 1956, the number of Mill Hill priests assigned to Rawalpindi grew from 29 to 39, an increase of nearly 35%.

Education: Normally the establishment of mission stations precedes the opening of schools. Between 1946 and 1955, this was not always the case in the Diocese of Rawalpindi. Thus the stations at Jhelum and Abbottabad were established only some time after the schools had been opened.

Transfer of the local mission headquarters from Nowshera to Risalpur came about because the new school openings in Mardan placed the local mission headquarters on the periphery of the mission’s work. This is perhaps indicative of the priorities that we have already attributed to Hettinga.

He managed to persuade the authorities at Mill Hill that the mission was ripe for expansion and that educational work was integral to this expansion. This is indicated by the pattern of appointments to Rawalpindi between 1947 and 1978, as appears on the Table 2 on the next page.

During this period, the number of schools in the diocese expanded steadily.

Table 1, on this page, lists the numbers of schools in which the MHM were either managers or teachers.

Table 1 MHM Managed Schools, 1946-69

Date

No. of High

Date

No. of High School

School & Colleges & Colleges 1946 3 1960 14 1949 4 1962 19 1952 7 1964 19 1954 6 1967 17 1956 6 1969 17* 1958 11 *After 1969 there is no specific information in the Mill Hill directories for this statistic.

Table 2 Pattern of Appointments (1947 -1978) Date

No. of MHM

No. of MHM

Priests with

No. of Associates

Priests

Brothers

additional

or lay Missionaries

Degrees 1947

29

4

52

1949

34

4

1952

37

6

1954

36

7

1956

39

8

1958

43

2

7

1960

47

2

9

1962

50

3

10

1964

51

3

10

1967

50

3

11

1969

43

4

10

13

1971

40

3

10

3

1974

36

2

10

13

1978

29

1

7

1

These tables need interpretation. Before doing this, we had better look at two pieces of information that they do not provide.

The first is the contribution of the Sisters. So far, we have noted only the contribution of the FMM. We have noted too that in 1948 the schools run by the J&M. and the Presentation Sisters were in crisis. Experience was to show that they need not have worried. After a short period of hesitation, there was no lack of applicants for their services. The Presentation Sisters had worked hitherto in very close contact with the MHM. When the Catholic villages needed schools and Islamabad was established, the J&M. moved closer to the MHM in a cooperation that proved very fruitful.

The cooperation with the Presentation Sisters was much closer in that they shared the MHM aims more deeply, especially in the area of tertiary education. The Presentation Sisters ran three colleges for girls at Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Sargodha.

It was the responsibility of the priests to ensure that the young men reached a comparable standard of education. We have seen how St John’s, Peshawar, and St Catherine’s, Lalkurti, had been developed together. Unless there was a similar cooperation at the level of higher education, a situation would arise where the girls would be better educated than the boys of the community. When the time came for them to marry, there might be pressure on the girls to seek husbands outside the Catholic community.

Bishop Hettinga sought therefore to establish at least one Catholic college for young men. He did not wish to make the same mistake as had been made with St. Joseph’s, Baramulla. There was therefore an early stress on the provision of a broad based catchment area from which the planned college would take its students. It was his intention that the school established at St. 53

Mary’s Lalazar would be upgraded eventually to perform this college function. It was discovered, however, that the Pakistan Ministry of Education was unsympathetic to such a development. So the diocese’s ventures into tertiary education had to change tack.

This was done through the establishment of St. Pius’ Technical School at Sargodha, under the management of the Mill Hill Fathers and Brothers.

This school went a stage further than St. John’s School, Peshawar. It aimed beyond competence to excellence. As it reached out towards this goal, aid had to be obtained from outside Pakistan. Volunteer craftsmen came out from Germany to teach in the school. The school’s best products were sent to Germany for further training so that, by the 1980s, St. Pius School had graduated to become SIT (The Sargodha Institute of Technology), managed and run entirely by local staff. SIT enabled the Catholic community to share in some of the benefits of the government’s industrialization policies.

Table 2 indicates that MHM involvement reached a peak between 1964 & 1967, but then began to decline. There were two factors at work here. The sadder of these was the malaise that hit the Church after Vatican II. Many priests decided to review their personal commitment and recruitment began to fall off. The falling-off in numbers is explained therefore by the fact that there were no longer as many priests available. The other factor was a change in attitude among the MHM. There was a feeling among the members that it was somehow wrong for a priest to be working in a school when so many other pastoral demands were on the increase. By the end of the 1970s, MHM involvement in schools had decreased considerably.

Happily, the maturing Christian community had brought to the fore a corps of fine Catholic laymen who where quite capable of taking on the work that had been done previously by the priests.

The 1972 nationalization of the Urdumedium schools was at first experienced as a disaster to the diocese. It was certainly a crisis. Bishop Simeon Pereira had come into the diocese from Karachi and would soon succeed Hettinga. He entrusted the task of responding to this crisis to an education committee under the management of Fr P. Grimbergen MHM. The task took a long time; but by 1986, Grimbergen, with the cooperation of the personnel of the diocese, had built up a Catholic School system parallel to the national system.

Medical Work: In medical matters, the first four years of Bishop Hettinga’s ministry were concerned with the completion of the new Holy Family Hospital. O’Donohoe had negotiated for the site for this in 1936, but the war had interrupted the completion of 54

the original plan for a 500-bed hospital. After Independence, this plan was scaled down and the hospital that was actually built was for 250-beds. This was later extended to accommodate another fifty beds.

By 1952, this hospital was completed. The next few years were dedicated to providing rural health services based at the Christian villages of Mariakhel and Josephabad. The Presentation Sisters looked after a little maternity hospital and clinic at Josephabad and the J&M. Sisters provided the same services at Mariakhel. When Islamabad was established, the J&M. Sisters provided a health visitor for the bastis of the city.

In 1960, the Medical Helpers of Würzburg were invited to do in Sargodha what the Holy Family Sisters were doing in Rawalpindi. Their name has been mentioned already in connection with Anna Dengel. They agreed to come. At first they used the buildings that had been prepared for St. Paul’s High School; but they were soon able to move out and occupy the women’s hospital that they had built quite near the mission. After working nearly a quarter of a century in Sargodha, they handed the hospital over to the Sisters of St John of God. They judged that their work could not continue without local recruits.

The next medical development followed from what might be considered as a fortuitous experience. In the early sixties, a recently arrived Mill Hill priest, Fr Frank O’Leary, was working at St. Mary’s Lalazar. One day, wandering around one of the bazaars in Rawalpindi city, he came upon an old woman, dying by the wayside. Passers-by did not want to become involved and studiously ignored the old woman. O’Leary felt responsible and took charge of the old lady. He realized then that he had no place to take her. It was only with difficulty that he found a place where he could accommodate the woman and look after her until she died.

He realized that the old woman was not unique in her plight. So, he asked Bishop Hettinga if he could try to do something about the problem. O’Leary enlisted the help of the FMM Sisters and gathered together a group of interested people from many different backgrounds. These formed the St. Joseph’s Hospice Association. The Association was able to build on a site, provided by the mission at Westridge, a hospice for the incurably ill and the unwanted dying. The first stage was completed in 1964. The accommodation was filled up the day after it was opened and, almost immediately, extra building had to be under-taken.

This hospice is still active in Westridge. Fr O’Leary, however, realized that the work he had stumbled on was more important than just Rawalpindi. He asked and obtained the permission of the Society to work for the spread of the hospice movement to other parts of the world. This led to the establishment of the movement known as Jospice International.

The 1960s might be characterized worldwide as a time of youthful commitment. It saw the rise of the V.S.O., the Peace Corps and other 55

similar movements. It was all very reminiscent of Wordsworth’s enthusiastic words in 1809: Bliss was in that dawn to be alive, but to be young was very heaven. In Germany and the Netherlands, there were groups who sought to find an outlet for their services on the missions. We have mentioned already the group of young trade instructors who came to aid the St. Pius X Technical School. There was also a group of young medical personnel who were anxious to help.

Bishop Hettinga was able to harness their enthusiasm for the build-up of new medical services in Gujrat. Their work resulted in the establishment of the Holy Rosary Hospital. The participants were keen and hard-working, but it soon became obvious that their contribution to the work must become more structured. Otherwise it might become just a flash in the pan.

Institutes like the Mill Hill Society had to come to terms with this new form of mission commitment. The volunteers realized that their temporary link with the Society was a protection to themselves. At the same time, some desired a closer association. Many of the older members of the society viewed this prospect with horror. “After all,” they mused, “it might open the doors of membership to female women of the opposite sex”! Table 2, 1971’s solitary lay missionary entry may look rather forlorn. Tony Hoeymans, the lay missionary listed, tells us how far the Society had reached at that time in facing this problem. She had the status of contract member.

It was to be sometime before the Contract Members achieved the status of Associates.

The statistics in this column of the Table 2 indicate how the Rawalpindi mission served as a testing ground for this new type of membership in St. Joseph’s Society.

Another such helper, who never actually became an associate member in the Society, was Miss Maude Kenny, a retired surgeon from one of the London Hospitals.

She came in response to an appeal from the hospital established by the Medical Helpers of Würzburg. She worked for about fifteen years in the hospital and had the reputation of being a little difficult at times. What was, however, most important was the trust that her patients put in her.

Social Work: The floods, the wars and the population movements noted above brought in their wake much privation and suffering. So, for much of the forty years we survey, the mission was involved in food distribution. The food was provided by Caritas and the Catholic Relief Services. Other charities provided funding for other projects like improvement in housing and water supplies. Thus, for example, after the 1972 floods, it was possible to rebuild the whole village of Josephabad. There were in all seven housing colonies built in different parts of the diocese. The function of the Mill Hill Missionaries in these circumstances was merely that of a channel for identifying needs 56

and supervising aid. Here we speak of those social programmes which were initiated by the missionaries themselves.

The first was the setting up of credit unions. This was largely the work of Fr Piet de Vreede. He recognized that the poor were generally caught in a vicious circle of debt. This was especially the case with the rural poor. So, he was at pains to persuade the Catholics in the villages and also in Sargodha to band together in credit unions. Steady work over more than twenty years brought very good results. The credit unions were able eventually to set up their own private bank and it was noted that the number of local Catholics running their own businesses, is higher in Sargodha than anywhere else in Pakistan. The unions in the Catholic villages have saved most of the people from the predations of the chettyars or money lenders. The credit unions were a second initiative that enabled Catholics to benefit from the government’s industrialization programme.

A second type of social work was the special project of Fr Jaap van der Klugt.

This concerned drug abuse. Van der Klugt was stationed in Peshawar in the North West Frontier Province. This, along with Afghanistan, has a climate that is ideal for the growth of plants producing mild drugs such as Bhang. The poppy that is used to produce heroin also grows well. Afghanistan became a Mecca for youngsters throughout the world in search of cheap drugs. A number of these young people ended up in jail in Peshawar or in the custody of the mission. Perhaps the only benefit of the Russian Afghan war was the fact that this drug source was closed off to the young people of Europe and America.

Before the war, van der Klugt’s task was to try and rescue the victims, restore contact with their families and, very often, bury them.

Even before the end of the war, van der Klugt had already noted that heroin addiction was not simply a European and America problem.

There were a good many Pakistani addicts. The local establishment was anxious to sweep the problem under the carpet and pretend that it did not exist. So, van der Klugt decided to institute his own rehabilitation programme. He hit upon an unorthodox solution which might have scared off the less courageous. He first transformed the patient’s condition from a heroin to an opium addiction. He then set about curing the opium addiction, a much simpler task. He also made it a rule that he would accept no patient on referral. The person who wanted treatment must ask for it himself and show a firm desire for cure.

This drug rehabilitation programme achieved an unusual level of success. It also persuaded the Pakistani establishment to face up to the fact that there was a drug problem in the country. Perhaps the most eloquent tribute to its success came at Fr van 57

der Klugt’s funeral. Stationed in Nowshera at the time he had been brought to Peshawar hospital where he died suddenly and unexpectedly on the morning of Sunday, 3rd July 1988. In accordance with local custom, his body was brought home to his former parish house in Peshawar and he was buried the same afternoon. It is estimated that 5000 men of all faiths walked in his funeral procession.

New Missionary Outreach: It is sometimes said that missionaries can become the victims of their own success. This is seen to happen when a mission is successful and success outstrips the young church’s ability to provide full pastoral care. The missionaries have to stay on, doing what they regard as maintenance work. There is a blessing in being able to enjoy the fruits of success, but also a sense of guilt that they should be somewhere else, starting something new.

By the 1970s, some of the work in Rawalpindi had reached a stage that might be described as maintenance. Yet, there remained more challenges. This section reports Mill Hill response to three of these challenges.

The most glaring challenge was that of witnessing to Christ in Muslim society.

The fact that conversion among Muslims is a rarity does not excuse the missionary from his duty of witness. The Second Vatican Council had made people realize that achieving understanding between peoples of different religion is a legitimate missionary aim. The non-Catholic Churches had established an institute for this purpose in Hyderabad, Deccan. It was known as the Henry Martyn Institute. Their sister Churches in Pakistan had also established a similar institute at Rawalpindi, called The Christian Study Centre. After the Second Vatican Council, they invited the Diocese of Rawalpindi to share this work. Bishop Hettinga then gave them the services of Fr Matthew Geijbels, who was to work at the institute until he retired in1987.

In 1981, he was joined by Fr John Rooney, who worked at the Centre until August 1988.

A response along more traditional lines began 1979/80. This was the first Mill Hill entry into an apostolate which had been handled by the Franciscans since 1967. It involved approaches to the tribal people on the Sindh/Rajistan borders. There were four tribes involved: the Bagri, the Marwari Bhils, the Kutchi Kohli and the Parkari Kohli. By 1972, the work was becoming too heavy for the Franciscan personnel who were available. So the 58

Bishops’ Conference of 1972 was asked to intervene. The Bishops decided that the Archdiocese of Karachi would take responsibility for work among the Bagri, the diocese of Multan would do the same for the Marwari Bhils and the Franciscans in Hyderabad, Sindh, would handle the work among Parkari and Kutchi Kohlis. By 1976, Bishop Bonaventure of Hyderabad realized that new help would be needed. With the sanction of the Bishop’s conference, he sent out an appeal to every diocese in the country. He argued that the apostolate to the tribal peoples was a national responsibility. If this was so, it should be staffed by priests from all the dioceses. The only response he received to the appeal was from two MHM in Rawalpindi. They volunteered to come and join him. Bishop Pereira of Rawalpindi eventually agreed to allow them to go. Thus in 1977, Frs. Jacob Kirchler and Brendan Mulhall, were able to begin work among the Kohli. (They were followed much later by Frs. Mark Connolly and Joe Whelan, but these would be directly appointed to Sindh by Mill Hill).

The matter was brought to the authorities in Mill Hill and they agreed to keep a minimum of six priests in Sindh, and that associate members would also be available to help. The Diocese of Multan invited the Spiritans to look after the Marwari Bhils from Rahim Yar Khan, in the Multan Diocese and from Sukkur, in the Hyderabad Diocese. The Columban Fathers were also approached. They too agreed to provide personnel. Today, the Church’s tribal apostolate is handled by the Spiritans, the Columbans and the Mill Hill Missionaries, working in close consort.

59

In the early 1980s, one of the youngest members of the Mill Hill Missionaries in Rawalpindi, Fr Thomas Rafferty, began to dream a dream. He reminded the members that Mill Hill’s first call had been to Afghanistan and surrounding Northern Areas and that that call was still valid. He proposed to gather a group of lay missionaries, local Punjabis, who would witness to Christ simply by living Christian lives among the Muslim communities of the North West. His plan was sanctioned and on the 3rd of July 1988, the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, patron of Pakistan, this community was initiated from Nowshera, under the name of the Missionaries of St. Thomas.

When, however, Bishop Pereira was translated to Karachi, his successor in Rawalpindi, Bishop Anthony Lobo, desired that the group should be formally founded as a religious congregation. So, in September 1994, the Missionary Sisters of St. Thomas the Apostle (MST) were formally recognized. It is believed that St Thomas’s first missionary journey brought him to the court of the Indo-Bactrian King Gondulphares at Sirkup. Sirkup was an ancient city, sited near Taxila, just ten miles from Rawalpindi. The Missionary Sisters of St Thomas bring to five the number of indigenous religious congregations founded by Mill Hill Missionaries in the subcontinent.

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61

John Van Eyndhoven

John van Eyndhoven was one of the first Mill Hill missionaries to be sent as chaplain to the British Forces in the North West Frontier Province. He arrived together with Frs. Browne, Aelen and Burke in 1879.

John was assigned to Landi Kotal, and took up this position on the 28 of June, but not before his name had been anglicized to ‘Endover’ in order to be more acceptable to the British authorities. th

In Landi Kotal he had just begun to set in motion his pastoral plans when unfortunately he became very ill and died on the 17th of July.

Fr Browne wrote to Mill Hill, that ‘He had been sick for only three days. He died of dysentery and blood poisoning, brought on by the excessive heat and the continual strain on his energies by the heavy labours of the hospital’.

He was buried with full honours the day after he died. In the absence of a priest, a Quartermaster Fallon read the burial service.

Some years ago Fr Jos van Erp went in search of his grave in Landi Kotal with the express intention of beautifying it. The famous words, “Brevi Consumavit” remain on his headstone to this day.

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George Browne

George Browne was born in the USA on the 26th August 1836, under the name of George Rimsel. On appointment to the mission to Afghanistan, he would anglicize this name to Browne, in order to fit in better with the British milieu as army chaplain.

He was ordained priest for the Archdiocese of New York.

However, he joined Mill Hill on the 26th August 1873, and made his final commitment to the Society in 1879. Frs. Vaughan and Benoit expressed their confidence in him not only by appointing him to Afghanistan, but also, on the 9th April 1879, by making him Superior of the mission.

The other three who were assigned with him to the Afghan mission were Frs. John van Eyndhoven, Richard Burke and John Aelen.

Eyndhoven was sent to Landi Kotal, in the Khyber Pass, Burke remained at Quetta, Aelen went to Kandahar, and he placed himself at Khurram, near Peshawar.

The situation changed in the cantonments after July the 27th 1880, when Ayub Khan delivered a humiliating defeat to the British at Maiwind, Afghanistan. Hostilities then broke out afresh.

Browne accompanied Lord Roberts on his famous march from Kabul to Kandahar to reinforce the British troops there, and gives detailed daily accounts of what happened. His document is of the highest historical value. The long letter in which the account is related was written in a kind of diary-form to Fr Benoit, the Rector of Mill Hill, and is dated Oct. 2nd – 63

Oct. 12th 1880. It tells of the 334 mile march which was covered in twenty three days. This was one of the greatest military achievements of the period.

Fr Browne in his travels was delighted to discover a group of Armenian Christians at Kabul. Lord Roberts wished to demolish a part of the city which contained their church, Browne interceded with Roberts and had a new site allocated to them. No priest had visited these Christians for many years and he happily said Mass for them.

Fr Browne’s subsequent fortunes make less happy reading. He had within him something of the elements of the tragic hero. His hopes of ecclesiastic promotion were doomed to disappointment. He hears from Fr Benoit in June of 1881 that the Madras problem has been temporarily settled- “Fr Colgan is the Administrator, Fr Mayer the Vicar General,” and finally advises him: “We thought of sending you to Madras but that is impossible now. You should return to us as Professor of Philosophy.”…. It must have seemed an unexciting prospect after the alarums and excursions of the battlefields of Afghanistan!

By July Fr Browne is in Lahore, on his slow and reluctant return to civilization! On October the 10th, 1881, the Superior of the mission to Afghanistan is in Mill Hill; and on October the 24th we learn that he has been given ‘faculties’ by Cardinal Manning for the Diocese of Westminster. And there we leave one who endured much and accomplished much to push forward the frontiers of the Church.

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Archbishop John Aelen

Archbishop John Aelen was born at Waspik, in the Diocese of Boisle-Duc, Holland on December the 25th, 1853.

John Aelen, having studied in the diocesan seminary, joined St. Joseph’s Missionary Society at Mill Hill, London, and was ordained at Mill Hill, on December the 21st 1878.

Shortly after his ordination, the Superior General and Founder, Herbert Vaughan, commissioned the young priest to serve with the British forces under Generals Roberts and Stewart, who were at that time engaged in the Afghan campaign. Fr John Aelen was mentioned in the dispatches and received the Afghan medal with the Ahmed Khel Clasp.

On the conclusion of hostilities in 1880, he was appointed to the mission of Madras for work among the Telegu people, where he remained till his return to Europe in 1889.

He was then chosen by the founder to open a Missionary College, in his native Holland. This college would serve as a preparatory seminary for Mill Hill. This he very successfully achieved at Roosendaal, N.B., Holland.

65

In 1895, he was sent by the Superior General on visitation of the existing mission fields of St. Joseph’s Society; this entailed a journey round the world.

In 1901 Fr Aelen was appointed Titular Bishop of Themisonium, receiving Episcopal consecration on Feb 2nd 1902. In July of the same year he was appointed Coadjutor, cum jure successionis to Archbishop Colgan of Madras, where he succeeded in 1911.

On retiring from this charge in 1928 the Holy Father appointed him Archbishop of Nicopolis and Assistant at the Pontifical Throne. In the same year Archbishop Aelen celebrated, on December the 1st, his Golden Jubilee in the sacred priesthood.

At the death of Archbishop Aelen on the 11th of February 1929 in Madras, St. Joseph’s Society lost its oldest priest in years of membership and one who had done much valued work both at home in the training of aspirants to the foreign missionary priesthood and on the foreign missionary field.

By his great zeal for God’s glory and the salvation of souls, his strenuous devotion to apostolic work and by his self-sacrificing perseverance, Archbishop John Aelen will ever be remembered as a great and devoted missionary.

Solemn Pontifical Requiem Mass was celebrated by the Superior General, Bishop Biermans, in the college chapel at Mill Hill, on Thursday the 14th of February 1929, for the happy repose of the Archbishop.

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Richard Burke

Fr Richard Thomas Burke was born in Canandaigua, on January the 1st 1854. He received his boyhood schooling in the Canandaigua Academy and when sixteen years of age entered St. Hyacinth’s Academy in the province of Quebec, Canada.

In 1873, he sailed for England; where after five years study at St. Joseph’s College, Mill Hill in London he was ordained at Mill Hill by Herbert Vaughan, then Bishop of Salford, on December the 21st 1878.

Fr Burke was then appointed as one of four priests to go to Afghanistan as missionaries to the people of that country.

April 1879, found him acting as chaplain to the British troops during the Anglo-Afghan war, showing exceptional bravery during this conflict, he was awarded a Victoria Medal by the British Government.

When, in 1880, Gladstone, Premier of Great Britain, ordered the removal of British troops from Afghanistan, the missionaries were obliged to leave also, receiving instructions to proceed to Borneo.

The Bishop, however, deemed it advisable that they not all be allowed to go. So, instead, Fr Burke began his task as a missionary in India.

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After five years in India, Fr Burke was recalled, and in 1884 was appointed Missionary Apostolic to the Maoris of New Zealand.

This mission was not undertaken, however, and instead he spent seven years at St. Augustine’s Church at Washington D.C., where as a result of his labours, 500 converts to the Catholic faith were made.

In 1892, his organization was dissolved and he became rector of St. Mary’s Church, White Bear Lake, Minnesota, from 1893 to 1895.

He was assistant rector at St. Stephen’s, St. Bridget’s, Perpetual help, and St. Columba’s in Buffalo from 1896 to 1902, when he became Pastor of the Church of the Most Precious Blood at Angola, New York, and in 1912, Pastor of St. Mary’s Church, Holley in the Diocese of Buffalo.

His pastor-ship of twenty-five years there was the longest in the history of the church, and when in 1937 the infirmities of age made necessary his retirement sincere regret was felt not only in his parish but throughout the community in which he had played so active a part.

During his pastorate he cleared the parish of $7,000 debt and made many necessary improvements. Holy Cross cemetery was purchased in 1880 but had deteriorated during the ensuing years. He added new property to the cemetery and beautified the entire grounds, erecting the beautiful cross which is the outstanding feature and lasting memorial to him.

On retirement he made his home in Batavia. For his last two years he was a patient in St. Jerome’s Hospital, where on the eve of Memorial Day, June 1941, he entered quietly into rest.

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Thomas Jackson Fr Tom Jackson was one of the second set of missionaries appointed to the Afghan mission.

His companions were Frs. Gerard Raatger and John Temme. He arrived in Quetta in time to celebrate Christmas 1879 with the troops. He wanted to give the liturgy some festive look with more than two candlesticks. As he was short of candlesticks, he used whisky bottles instead.

Born at Preston in 1844 of humble parents, Thomas Jackson’s first experiences of the world were difficult and stern. Labour troubles were frequent and, being employed in a local spinning mill, as were most of his relatives, the future missionary shared in the sufferings and privations which strikes inevitably bring in their train. But these trials were only a preparation for a higher vocation, which, however, did not manifest itself for many years, for it was not until September the 28th 1879 that Thomas Jackson was ordained priest, after completing his course of studies at St. Joseph’s College, Mill Hill. Three days after his ordination he was on board ship bound for Karachi.

Chaplain in the Afghan Campaign: Arrived at last at Quetta with two companions, Fr Jackson found that the absence of credentials prevented him from going any further.

After three months delay he at length got on his way to Kandahar, Afghanistan, then threatened by a powerful rebel army under Ayub Khan.

A march of seven hundred miles brought the intrepid missionary to Kandahar, where he was appointed Chaplain to the Catholic troops, in 69

which capacity he won the love and admiration of officers and men alike.

By his tender sympathy with the sick and wounded and his genial manner to all, Fr Jackson became a general favourite, but it was especially at the ill-fated battle of Maiwand that he showed those heroic qualities which elicited instant praise from the Commanding Officer. In his dispatch of August the 26th 1880, General Primrose referred to Fr Jackson in the following terms: “I can not overvalue the services rendered on the 16th and on many occasions by Fr T. Jackson, who was always in the foremost of the fight, attending upon and offering every assistance to the wounded, both European and native.”

The ‘Evening Standard’ of October the 19th 1880 also referred in a leading article to the bravery of the Mill Hill Fathers. Of Fr Jackson it said “Rev. Thomas Jackson, a missionary priest from Mill Hill, appears to have behaved with great courage and fortitude. He accompanied the advance guard under fire at Khushki-Nakhud, was present in the thick of the combat, and shared in the retreat through that terrible desert, where the very officers, in some cases, broke open the medicine chests and drank the medicines to save themselves from perishing of thirst. Every encomium is due to these heroes of the church militant.

Yet another eulogy of Fr Jackson comes from an officer of high command in India, whose letter was inserted in the ‘Globe’ on October the 11th 1880: “I never saw a man more earnestly devoted to his work and duty. He is one of the best and bravest men I ever met. On every march he walked the whole way in his long black gown amongst the European soldiers, talking to and encouraging them. During the action on the 27th I saw him walking about in the thickest of the fire quite unconcernedly.”

With such testimonies as these before us we cannot wonder that several of the soldiers who were with him declared that Fr Jackson has earned his V.C. over and over again, but Fr Jackson never received that honour.

Fr Jackson was at Kandahar when that city was relieved by Lord Roberts, after his memorable march from Kabul. Fr Browne another Mill Hill hero was on that march and met up with Fr Jackson there. He describes the meeting: “Fr Jackson did not at all expect me, thinking that Fr Aelen would come down instead of myself, as I had been so sick at Kabul. When I met him he did not at first recognize me as I was dressed in my suit of Khaki, and when I hugged him as only one Josephite can hug another, he thought he was in the embrace of a Ghazi. I went with him to his tent where he had grapes and water-melon in readiness.”

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Every year afterwards Fr Jackson sent a card of grateful remembrance to the distinguished soldiers, to whom he owed his life.

Prefect Apostolic of North Borneo: To the sincere regret of the British troops, Fr Jackson had to leave India in 1881 to take up the important and onerous duties of Prefect Apostolic of Labuan and North Borneo. The soldiers showed their esteem for the man who had served them so well by giving him a substantial present, with which he could begin his new work.

At Kuching, Fr Jackson met his three fellow-missionaries, who had just come out from Mill Hill, and together they began their difficult task.

In the pioneer work that followed, Fr Jackson took a large share. Scarcely any part of the extensive Prefecture had been visited before by a Catholic Missionary, and long journeys through trackless jungles and along the numerous rivers had to be made in order to find suitable places for mission stations. When we remember that Borneo lies on the equator, that it numbers among its inhabitants tribes of head hunters, and that comparatively little of the vast island had then been explored by any white man, we can form a faint idea of the labours and difficulties which met Fr Jackson and his fellow pioneers. Yet throughout it all a Loving Providence watched over him. Fevers, starvation, exhaustion, perils by water, perils by land, all were overcome successfully. Unarmed, he went among savages and was never molested, and though frequently called upon to minister to the victims of small-pox and other contagious diseases, he escaped unscathed.

Labours in America and England: After some years of these arduous labours, when he had laid the foundation of future success and more missionaries had arrived to help in the ever extending work, Fr Jackson set out for the United States to collect the funds that were urgently needed in Borneo. In this mission he was eminently successful, his total collection reaching the handsome figure of pounds 10,000. With this sum the work was extended still further; new missions were opened, new schools were built and entrusted to the Missionary Sisters of St. Joseph, whom Fr Jackson had introduced into Borneo in 1885.

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Ill health, occasioned by his laborious life, caused Fr Jackson to return to Europe in 1896, and after some years spent in the colleges at Mill Hill and Freshfield, he was appointed Chaplain to St. Joseph’s Home for Children at Patricoft, near Manchester, which was under the care of St Joseph’s Missionary Sisters. For nearly fourteen years he devoted his time to these little ones to whom he endeared himself, as is shown by the sheaves of letters he received from those children who had gone forth from the school into many lands to make their way in life.

But in those years of comparative retirement, Fr Jackson’s energies were not lost to the missionary cause. In many of the cities and large towns of the North of England, Fr Jackson’s voice was heard from the pulpit or the platform urging devotion to the Foreign Missions, and the lantern lectures which he gave on Borneo and Afghanistan were always listened to with attentive interest. At the Catholic Truth Society Conference, held in Blackburn in 1905, Fr Jackson gave a paper on “English Catholics and Foreign Missions”, which was published in pamphlet form by the Catholic Truth Society.

Last Days: In 1914, Fr Jackson’s active career came to an end owing to a stroke, and it was deemed advisable to place him under the care of the Alexian Brothers at St Mary’s Home, Newton Heath. There his indomitable cheerfulness and his inexhaustible fund of anecdotes made him a welcome patient, and rendered the care which the Brothers bestowed on him a most pleasant duty.

But the end was not far off. After recovering from several relapses, Fr Jackson’s condition began to give cause for special anxiety in the early part of 1916. Many of his old friends, including his Lordship, Bishop Casartelli, the Rev. Fr Henry and Sir Daniel McCabe, called to bid him a last farewell, and on Saturday, the 1st of April 1916, Fr Jackson gave back his noble soul to God. In a life full of incident and of great deeds, his varied career as Military Chaplain, Missionary in Borneo, Preacher in the United States, and Missionary Lecturer in England, Fr Jackson was widely known and respected for his self sacrifice and manifest sincerity in the work of extending Christ’s Kingdom on earth.

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John Temme

Fr John Temme was from Germany, and one of the early recruits of Herbert Vaughan.

He belonged to the second group of missionaries appointed for the Afghanistan mission in 1879. The other two of that group, Jackson and Raatger, picked him up from Madras, where he was originally assigned.

After his arrival he was appointed as military chaplain at Landi Kotal.

In June 1881 he was sent to Quetta to take over from Jackson.

After spending sometime in Landi Kotal, and after years of temporary dwelling places and wayside tents there is a note of quiet thankfulness from John, ‘I live in a house now’.

He must have been there till the 5th of January 1883, when the Quetta mission was handed over to the Bombay Jesuits. One reason for that was that it was discovered, that Quetta was not part of Afghanistan.

Then he retuned to his first love, the Telegu mission of Madras.

Eventually he retired to his native Scharmede near Paderborn, Germany, where he died on the 5th of Otober1929.

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Gerard Raatger Fr Gerard Raatger was born at Rossum, Holland on January the 1st 1849. He studied at Culemborg and at Mill Hill, and was ordained on September the 20th 1879.

Less than two weeks after his ordination, he set out for his mission in India and there he gave the best years of a long and arduous life to the service of God. The untiring zeal with which he worked, and his energy, which overcame all obstacles and brought his efforts to a successful issue, was ever remembered by those who worked with him. The long years of toil and prayer which he spent in India; cannot fail to have left their mark on Fr Raatger’s mission in that country of so many million souls.

As newly ordained priest he was sent on the Afghan mission in 1879, in the second group. His posting was at Landi Kotal and Khurram.

The military and political situation was very fluid. The foothold of the priests, and the Church they represented, was not very secure.

As the initial Mill Hill mission to Afghanistan began to fold, already in September 1880, we see that Fr Raatger and Fr Aelen were transferred to the mission in Madras. Herbert Vaughan did not like missionaries returning home in a hurry.

The secure base, which Mill Hill had in the Indian sub-continent, was Madras, but every transition from one mission to another brings its own difficulties. In May 1881 Fr Raatger writes in desperation to Fr Browne: “I am loafing about. Nobody can employ me. What am I to do?”…. it was not in the nature in the Mill Hill Missionary to ‘loaf about’, they were always anxious to be up and doing something useful… it is pleasant to record that Fr Raatger found plenty of further missionary work to do, and outlived most of his contemporaries, dying only on the 5th of November 1932 at Delden, Holland, in his eighty-fourth year.

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Alexander Prenger

Fr Alexander Prenger was born in Millingen, Holland on January the 10th, 1856.

On August the 31st 1877, he came to Mill Hill to complete his studies. Here he was ordained four years later on 18th of December 1880.

At the special request of the Holy See, some of the Fathers of the of St. Joseph’s Society were sent as chaplains to attend to the sick and wounded soldiers during the Afghan war. Fr Prenger was one of these, and appointed as replacement for Fr Jackson. He left for Afghanistan on October the 10th 1881.

When, however, in 1882 he arrived at the Afghan frontier, the war was practically over, and all the British troops had been withdrawn from Afghanistan. But as matters were still in a very disturbed state among the Afghans, it was decided to keep a large body of troops at Quetta, Balochistan, which guarded the northern end of the Bolan Pass, and which was only about six miles from the Afghan Frontier. Fr Prenger had ministered to the troops at Quetta for about a year, when the British Government decided to make that place a permanent military station, and in this way it was included in the Vicariate-Apostolic of Bombay. Two Jesuit Fathers were sent to live there, and Fr Prenger was sent to Borneo.

When Fr Prenger arrived in Borneo the mission was only beginning. The buildings which had been put up in the places already selected for the mission stations were only rudimentary sheds, made of palm leaves, and entirely void of any furniture. The superior was only able to give each missionary the means to procure just enough food to keep 75

him from starving. Fr Prenger was always delicate, and was subject to constant fevers and other forms of sickness, so this kind of life was especially trying for him, but he never lost that cheerful, buoyant spirit, which those who knew him as a student at Mill Hill would remember as one of his many loveable qualities.

After gaining some experience of Borneo missionary life by living with the older Fathers, he was ordered to start a station of his own among a people called Dusuns, at Putatan, a place on the north-east of British North Borneo.

When he went to Putatan, there was not a Christian in the place.

The aborigines there were addicted to drunkenness and many other vices.

They were very much under the evil influence of the Malays and a tribe of Sea-gipsies and renowned pirates, called Bajans. They did not at all like to see a Christian Missionary coming to settle in their territory. For many years Fr Prenger had much to suffer from these people. They hindered his work in every way they could. They spread all sorts of lies about him, and even presented petitions to the Governor of North Borneo, begging that he might be driven out of their district.

One of the reasons for this, which they put before the Governor, was that Fr Prenger was a wizard, who by his magic prevented rice from growing, and had brought sickness into their country. The good Father only laughed at these troubles and went bravely on with his work, visiting the people all around his district, giving medicine to the sick, until in the end he quite won the confidence of the natives, even of those who were unwilling to listen to Christian teaching, or give up their pagan customs.

He soon began to gather the children about him and started a school. Of course, he had to teach himself. He put up a temporary chapel, and when he had converted a number of people he kept the Blessed Sacrament there, and even had Benediction.

He taught the children to sing the Latin Hymns, and translated a number of English hymns into the native language. His great relief from active work was to study, spending in this, sometimes, a good part of the night. He made a profound study of the Dusun language, of which he made a vocabulary and a grammar. He also wrote many prayers and a catechism in that language, thus smoothing the way for the missionaries who were to come after him.

He also wrote a long and interesting account of the Dusuns and other tribes, which he knew. Some parts of this work were read by very Rev. Dr. Casartelli, the learned Rector of St. Bede’s College, Manchester, 76

to the members of the International Congress of Orientalists assembled at Geneva in 1894, who were so pleased with it, that they had the whole paper - making a pamphlet of 52 pages - printed and circulated at their own expense.

Just when Fr Prenger was beginning to see some fruit from his great labours, he was in 1891 suddenly called home by his Superiors to teach Theology at Mill Hill. This call was an evident sign of the high opinion the same Superiors had formed of his virtue and learning. He obeyed at once, but the parting from his people nearly broke his heart.

He had not been long at Mill Hill before he began to implore the Superiors to allow him to go back to Borneo. His request was for sometime unheeded, but when the sad news came that Fr Rientjes, who had taken Fr Prenger’s place among the Dusuns, was drowned, the Superiors could no longer resist his earnest request to return to his people, now suddenly left without a pastor. In May 1892, he joyfully returned to Borneo, although he knew very well, from his past experience that his return meant for him sickness, persecution, and a life of semi-starvation amongst a rude and half-savage people.

Despite these difficulties, what Fr Prenger’s life and its aims were, are very well stated in some of his own words, where he says: “The Borneoans best known to me are the Bruneis, Bajans, Jambunans and Dusuns. The last-named will claim most of our attention, as they are the tribe to whom I am most devoted, and with whom it has been my lot to live and associate for many years. To improve their truly wretched condition, to drag them out of the slough of un-civilization, to raise their material and moral status - this is my life’s work, which can be done only by subjecting one’s self to their mode of life, and as far as possible, becoming one of their number.”

Few men have ever formed a higher or nobler aim, or kept more closely to it, than did Fr Prenger, through the twenty years of his life as a missionary priest.

He died in Borneo on the 15th of March 1902. May he Rest in Peace!

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Ignatius Brouwer A native of Friesland, Holland, Fr Brouwer began his studies for the priesthood in the seminary at Culemborg, but wishing to follow a missionary career, he entered St. Joseph’s College, Mill Hill and was ordained a priest on the 18th of November 1877.

Appointed to Madras, he spent a few years there until his health gave way, and he had to return to Europe. At Mill Hill he spent some time teaching Theology, but when the Holy See handed over the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir, India, to St. Joseph’s Society in 1887, Fr Brouwer was appointed the first Prefect Apostolic.

Together with three other Mill Hill men he arrived in Rawalpindi on the 14th of September 1887. The first thing he did was man all the chaplaincy places: Rawalpindi, Murree, Nowshera and Peshawar.

He inherited a substantial debt on the ailing St. Thomas College in Murree, and so he was usually short of money. The problem regarding these things stayed with him till the end of his administration in 1894.

Gradually he lost the confidence of his priests and also of the Mill Hill Superiors. He is said to have been a hard taskmaster for himself and expected that others would ask the same of themselves. There was always the urge to do something more than manning chaplaincies.

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Fr Brouwer himself, in 1889, started a local apostolate in Haripur, under very difficult circumstances. This apostolate was later continued by Fr Wagenaar, but it did not bear fruit.

During his time, Leh in Ladakh and Baramulla were started as mission outposts. Things, however, did not always run according to his hopes. Leh eventually, had to be discontinued.

He must also have had pleasant moments; for example when on the 13 of June 1890, on the Feast of the Sacred Heart he laid the foundation stone of the original church in Westridge, Rawalpindi. The stone is still there to be seen, but much of the writing on it is washed away. th

In 1894, he resigned his onerous position but continued to work in the Prefecture until 1899, when he was transferred to his first mission, Madras. There he continued his priestly and missionary work right to the end until God called him to Himself. Fr Ignatius Brouwer, died in the Seventy Sixth year of his age on the 14th of June 1926.

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Francis van Mansfeld

Fr Francis van Mansfeld was born on the 10th of January 1864, at Bergen op Zoom, Holland.

He was a member of the first party, of Mill Hill Missionaries, which arrived on the 14th of September 1887 in Rawalpindi to take charge of the newly instituted Prefecture Apostolic of Kafiristan and Kashmir. He was the youngest priest among them, having being ordained on the 5th of March 1887.

He was posted at Nowshera together with Fr Schmitz. The others of the original party were Fr Brouwer and Fr Reijnders, who stayed in Rawalpindi, and Fr de Ruijter, who was sent to Murree.

It was not necessary as yet to send a Mill Hill priest to Peshawar, as Fr Lequeux, MEP, there was staying on for a while.

Fr van Mansfeld was to work in the N.W.F.P mission for just under sixteen years, when ill health forced his return to the Netherlands in 1903.

He died in Holland on the 15th of November 1941.

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Frederick Schmitz For the new Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir the American Mill Hill Mission was required to provide two members to make up the team. Fr Frederick Schmitz was one of these.

Born in 1845; thus he was 42 years old when he was assigned in 1887.

Before joining the society, he had served in the Prussian army, where he held the rank of Captain. He was assigned to military chaplaincy work at Nowshera. But within a year was back serving in America.

Jan de Ruijter Fr Jan de Ruijter was also assigned in 1887 from the American mission with Fr Schmitz.

He was a cheerful and popular priest. His only weakness was a penchant for traveling, which earned him the nickname of ‘the strolling priest’. He was assigned to Murree, and quickly cleared the debts of the mission. A skilful handyman, he repaired the church, the house and school with his own hands.

He was anxious, however, to return to the mission in Baltimore, United States. By the end of 1888 he had managed to get back to America.

Gerard Wiersma Gerard Wiersma was the third member drafted from the American mission.

He was born on the 12th of May 1852, at Geronterp, Friesland, Holland. He came to Mill Hill on 31st of August 1877 and was ordained priest on 24th of September 1881 and departed for the Baltimore, USA mission.

In 1888, he was sent to the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir, but the same year sees him back in the USA. 81

Dominic Reijnders Fr Dominic Reijnders was born at Zevenaar, in Holland on March the 5th 1845.

He began at a rather advanced age his studies in the Seminary of Culemborg, and after going through his Humanities and Philosophy, went on to Rijsenburg to finish his theological course.

He was ordained priest on the 14th of April 1878, in the Cathedral Church of Utrecht.

Now came a momentous turn in his life, for while still a student he gave ear to the invitation of Cardinal Vaughan, then Bishop of Salford, who had come to Holland to seek priests for his diocese. Fr Reijnders answered this invitation. Let us hear the testimony of eye-witnesses to his work in England.

“Fr Reijnders was appointed to the Colne mission about July, 1878. The Catholics in the whole district were entrusted to his charge and numbered at that time about 300, scattered over five or six villages at a great distance from his residence. The Chapel wherein the religious services were conducted was a miserable attic separated by a wooden partition from a lumber room: one staircase led to both apartments. The Blessed Sacrament was not safe, and every Sunday evening Fr Reijnders brought it home with him. And here also no other place could be found than a garret, where Fr Reijnders has erected a small altar with his own hands. The complete poverty in which he lived procured for Fr Reijnders the privilege of dwelling night and day under the same roof with his Divine Master”.

Fr Reijnders worked and prayed, and by his prayers he drew God’s blessing upon his work, his mission grew and developed. However, his 82

zeal for souls reached even further. In March, 1887, he asked to be admitted into St. Joseph’s Society at Mill Hill, and was accepted as member on the 13th of August 1887.

Fr Florissen, one of his former colleagues, writes: “he was always ready to fulfill his duty at whatever cost, and he was never seeking himself in anyway, but always ready to sacrifice health and everything, if he might only labour for the greater glory of God. I admired him always, but I loved him for the beautiful words which he spoke when he took his departure for India, when we expressed fear that his delicate health would not be able to stand the tropical climate, he replied: “Well, I shall work till I die, and then God will reward me”.

He started for the Punjab (British India) in the year 1887. On his arrival he was appointed Vicar-General to the Prefect Apostolic, after which he successfully held the offices of Military Chaplain and Rector of St. Thomas’ College, Murree, until in 1894 he was nominated Prefect Apostolic. The elevation of this dignity did not bring any change in this truly humble priest. He considered himself as the servant of his priests.

During his tenure of office he sent out one of his Missionaries to erect an Orphanage for the native children at Rawalpindi. Unhappily, this work of Christian charity, vehemently opposed by local fanaticism, had to be abandoned. But before this Fr Reijnders had already succeeded in establishing there, a girls’ school under the direction of the Presentation Sisters.

When terrible famine was scourging the country, when death made havoc everywhere and mercilessly mowed down the lives of so many parents, the moment had come to show what Christian charity was able to do. Two schools-one for boys under the direction of the Mill Hill Fathers, and one for girls, under the Sisters’ direction, were erected.

Fr Reijnders fulfilled the precept of the Apostle Timothy: “Work as a good soldier of Jesus Christ”. The good priest died on June 27th 1899, and was buried with military honours in Murree, on June 29th, the feast of SS Peter and Paul.

He died in the midst of his labours and in the fullness of his life.

May he Rest in Peace!

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Daniel Kilty Fr Daniel Kilty was born in Liverpool, on May the 19th, 1855.

He was thus only thirty-four at the time of his death.

He received his first education in his native town.

In 1874, Daniel asked for admission at St Joseph’s Foreign Missionary College, Mill Hill, but his education was not sufficiently advanced to allow him to enter upon the study of Philosophy. At that time there was no Preparatory School in connection with St. Joseph’s College, so he was at first only admitted on trial, and was occupied in the menial duties of the household. Here, his zeal and humility gained for him the esteem of his Superiors, who soon sent him to the Apostolic School of the Jesuit Fathers, at Poitiers in France, to complete his classical education. After two years he returned to Mill Hill, and there pursued the higher studies of Philosophy and Theology.

Towards the end of the year 1880, Fr Kilty was raised to the Priesthood, and on April the 11th, 1881, started out for the New Mission of Borneo. He worked on this difficult mission, among the Dusans of North Borneo, for three years, and at the end of that time was transferred to a new field of labour, namely: the Telugu mission of Madras, in southern India.

Having worked with great zeal and earnestness among the Telugus, principally at Rentachintala, till 1887, his health began to fail, and he was allowed to return to Europe for a few months.

On December the 6th 1887, when his health was sufficiently restored, Fr Kilty set out for the third and the last time for a new mission the Prefecture Apostolic of Kafiristan and Kashmir.

On his arrival in the Northern Punjab, he asked, and obtained permission, to penetrate into the almost unknown country of Kafiristan; 84

but despite his most strenuous efforts, he could not succeed in this attempt.

He therefore asked permission to act as pioneer Missionary in Kashmir; and in this he was more successful.

He reached Leh, the capital of Ladakh, in Kashmir. After a brief stay there, he returned to the Punjab, to inform his Prefect Apostolic, Fr Brouwer, of his prospects in that country. He seemed already then to be suffering from the disease which finally carried him off, for, according to the testimony of his very Rev. Superior, who writes: “When Fr Kilty made his first journey to Leh, and back again, last summer, he looked the very picture of a man at death’s door. However, in a few days he picked up strength in such a way that one could hardly have believed him the same man.” His zeal, his self-control, his courage, his strong constitution, -all these factors were at work.

He again returned to Leh, and began to settle himself in. His first care was to study the language and habits of the people he had come to live among. In this he was very successful, but alas, he was not to work long in this strange and barren land.

Soon the symptoms of a fatal disease made themselves seriously felt; for, writes Doctor Karlman, who attended Fr Kilty in his last illness: “The liver disease is said by deceased (Fr Kilty), to have existed for three months prior to his first application for medical treatment, on March the 23rd 1889.”

Writing on that date to his Prefect Apostolic, about his serious illness, Fr Kilty says, “Don’t trouble to come to me. By the time you could reach me, I shall be either cured or dead”. These words were only too true!

The mountain passes from the Punjab into Kashmir were still impassable at that time of the year; so that even had this message been communicated to his Superior by telegram, he would have been quite unable to reach Fr Kilty before his death, which occurred on Easter Tuesday, the 23rd of April 1889, in consequence of exhaustion, due to a liver abscess.

Fr Brouwer, who received the sad news just after he had set out on his way to Kilty, sang a Requiem Mass for the repose of his soul at Murree, assisted by Frs. Wiersma, Waterhouse, Reveley and Broomfield.

The Prefect Apostolic was so much affected at times during the Mass, that he was hardly able to continue the Holy Sacrifice.

In Leh, to this day, the memory of Fr Daniel Kilty lives on.

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Peter Oud Fr Peter Oud was born on the 15th of February 1863 at Westwoud, North Holland. He had three brothers and three sisters.

He started his studies at Hageveld, and came to Mill Hill on 30th of August 1883.

Peter was ordained on the 17th of December 1887 at St. Thomas, Hammersmith.

After a few months of his ordination, he was sent to the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir, India on the 2nd of February 1888.

He was one of the early missionaries to this place, as the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir had only been established the year previously in 1887.

He was appointed to Nowshera but soon became ill and was withdrawn from India in 1889.

We find him in the USA, Richmond Virginia, when the separation of the Josephites from Mill Hill took place in 1893. He opted to stay with Mill Hill.

After one year in New Zealand, he was appointed to the staff of the Roosendaal College, where he became the rector on John Aelen’s appointment as coadjutor Archbishop of Madras in 1902. Fr Oud remained rector there for 10 years.

He died on January the 18th 1946, in Holland at the age of 82.

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John Broomfield Fr Broomfield was born in February 1840, in Co. Cork, Ireland.

At an early age he joined a teaching Order and spent 17 years there as a teaching Brother.

He joined St. Joseph’s Society, Mill Hill, and was ordained priest on July the 8th 1888.

Soon after his ordination he was appointed to the Punjab mission.

When the Prefecture Apostolic of Kafiristan and Kashmir was established in 1887, the first four Mill Hill Missionaries were assigned. In 1898, the second group of seven missionaries arrived. Fr John Broomfield was one of these, along with Daniel Kilty, Gerard Wiersma, Peter Oud, Edward Reveley, John Waterreus, and Br. Robert Coleman.

He was then in his late 40s. His first appointment was to be the assistant at St. Thomas’ College, in Murree. He became Principal there in 1890, but in 1891 he was transferred to Nowshera.

Owing to ill-heath he returned to Europe in 1892, and departed for the New Zealand Mission after a few months recuperation.

There Fr Broomfield was most devoted to his people, covering every day large areas of ground to minister to the poor, to whom he was attached in an extraordinary degree.

Everyone who knew Fr Broomfield had the greatest respect for him, and his passing away on the 16th of April 1909 touched the hearts of all labourers in the four different missions, Taupo, Rotorua, Thames and Coromandel.

At the last-mentioned place he was taken sick on Good Friday with pneumonia, from which he never recovered. He retained consciousness until the last, never ceasing to pray.

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Edward Reveley Fr Edward Courtney Reveley was born at Dinapore, British India, in the year 1860, and had therefore many connections with the land which was afterwards to be the scene of his priestly labours. He came of a soldiering family, and it was a Reveley, a relative of his, who was the first officer killed in the Indian Mutiny.

At an early age Edward Reveley was brought over to Europe. His father died on the voyage home, and his mother subsequently settled in Bruges. It was in that ancient Belgian city that his mother became a convert to the Church, and young Reveley, then but a child was brought up as a Catholic.

To his early education in France and Germany he owed that facility in the languages of those countries which aided him in life, and in many other branches of learning, where his attainments were of no mean order.

Wishing to become a missionary priest, he mentioned his desire to a Canon in Bruges. The Canon happened to be a personal friend of Fr Benoit, then Rector at Mill Hill. The result of the negotiations was that Edward Reveley entered the Apostolic School at Kelvedon in 1882, whence he passed on to Mill Hill in the following year. His studies were completed in 1887, and on August 10th, of that year he was ordained priest, and appointed to the professorial staff at St. Peter’s College, Freshfield, where he remained for one year, leaving for the Punjab in September 1888.

Fr Reveley’s work in British North India was chiefly confined to 88

the care of the Catholic soldiers stationed at Rawalpindi, Nowshera, Westridge and Murree.

After more than twenty years spent in the labour and heat of the Punjab, Fr Reveley returned to Europe for a few months, going back to his mission in 1912.

Three years later, on the resignation of Fr Wagenaar, the Prefect Apostolic of Kafiristan and Kashmir, Fr Reveley was appointed ProPrefect an office which he retained until his lamented death. He was always the man behind the throne, and whenever the position of authority was vacant, he was asked to fill it. Already in 1899 he had been in the running to become Prefect Apostolic, but had declined.

Fr Reveley died at Peshawar on the 24th of April 1916. He had been ailing for some time, and about the middle of March he was taken to the hospital at Peshawar, where he received every care and attention. But the enlargement of the heart and dropsy from which he suffered could not be arrested. The end came five weeks after he had entered the hospital.

The following day the funeral took place with full military honours, the ceremony usually accorded to a Major being performed.

Placed on a gun-carriage, the body was conveyed from the hospital to the church, where a Solemn Requiem Mass was sung by Fr McGrain, assisted

by Fr Janssen and Fr Rombouts. Then the procession wended its way to the cemetery amidst a striking and very sincere manifestation of respect on the part of the crowd that had assembled. There the final Absolutions were given by Fr Rombouts, and the body of Fr Reveley was consigned to the earth while the “Last Post” was being sounded.

Fr Reveley’s death was a severe blow to the Punjab Mission, for its numbers have been depleted to provide army chaplains in various theatres of the Great War, and now it was once again bereft of its Superior.

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John Waterreus

Fr John Waterreus was born on the 20th of October 1857, in Scheveningen, Holland.

He began his ecclesiastical studies in the seminary of his native diocese in Holland, and afterwards proceeded to Mill Hill, where he was ordained on December the 17th 1887.

Six weeks later he set out for the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir, North India--then recently erected--and his work was to reestablish St. Thomas’s College at Murree, which he did with great success despite many and great difficulties.

After spending two years at Murree, Fr Waterreus was appointed to Peshawar, where his work consisted almost entirely in looking after the large contingent of British soldiers there. In his capacity as military chaplain, he laboured continuously for the spiritual and social welfare of 90

the soldiers, and won the esteem and affection of both officers and men.

During a Frontier campaign in 1897, he took upon himself the care of four additional stations, and under the burning heat of the sun he traveled round his enlarged area looking after the people without ever a thought of his own ease and comfort. But the deadly climate began to tell on his constitution and the malaria concentrated itself so tenaciously in his leg that amputation was threatened. Consequently he was moved to the healthier climate of Murree, but a cure being impossible there, he had to leave the mission in the 1900s to seek a cure in Europe.

On the way home, however the disease grew worse and he could get no further than Cologne, where he had to spend some time in hospital.

Finally he got to Utrecht and there in two operations his leg was amputated.

Being an invalid he was allowed to stay with his relatives in Scheveningen, but his days were not passed in idleness. An indefatigable translator of Standard English works in Dutch, Fr Waterreus was known to a very large circle of Catholics in Holland and his services were often called upon by Catholic magazines and newspapers. For many years, too, he gave the retreats to the English Mill Hill students in Roosendaal.

Fr Waterreus’ life was one of great suffering, cheerfully borne, and his strong constitution enabled him to bear a great amount of pain. But from the beginning of 1919, his strength began to fail, and when he received the Last Sacraments in March it was feared that the end was near.

He died in Scheveningen, Holland, a place on the North Sea water front, on the 2nd of May 1919.

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Br. Roger Coleman was born on the 31st of December 1854 at Southport, County of Lancashire, in the Archdiocese of Liverpool, England. His parents were John Coleman and Ann Sharrock.

He joined St. Joseph’s College, Mill Hill on the 15th of February 1887, and took the Temporary Oath in 1888.

On the 14th of September 1888, he got his first appointment for the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir.

In October of the same year he was sent to St. Thomas College Murree.

Br. Roger Coleman died in Aug 1890, in Murree at the age of 36.

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Dominic Wagenaar Dominic Wagenaar was the third Prefect Apostolic of Kafiristan and Kashmir, from 1899 till 1914.

He was appointed to this post after the death of Fr Reijnders, and at the time he was chaplain in Nowshera.

He was ordained on the 25th of February 1889, and immediately appointed to the Punjab.

Fr Brouwer by this time had started the apostolate in Haripur and Fr Wagenaar continued this work till 1893, when it had to be abandoned due to too much local opposition.

When he was appointed Prefect Apostolic, Mother Ignatius PBVM had recently died and he felt he could help by doing something in streamlining the Congregation of the Presentation Sisters. Fr Wagenaar’s concern with their rule of life was not always welcome.

Fr Wagenaar attended two Mill Hill General Chapters and following each of them there was a new development. After the 1904 chapter he met Agnes McLaren, who had read his appeal for a hospital for women in Rawalpindi. Through her Anna Dengel (Founder of the Medical Missionary Sisters) was trained to be a doctor for the hospital in Rawalpindi, which in the meantime had been started and put in the care of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary in 1912.

After the 1914 chapter Fr Wagenaar resigned as Prefect Apostolic and returned to Holland, where he established a house for sick and retired missionaries, the predecessor of the present Vrijland. Also the formation of Mill Hill Brothers was formally started there, and he was rector of that institution from 1918 till 1924.

He had as assistants’ men from the Punjab Mission, such as Cornelius Simons and Caspar Looman. His immediate successor as rector of Vrijland was Richard Kemperman.

Fr Dominic Wagenaar died on 5th of July 1942.

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Joseph Cunningham Joseph Cunningham was ordained on 22nd of April 1889.

After his ordination he was appointed to the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir. He arrived in 1889, together with Fr Wagenaar.

We find him in Baramulla sitting in front of a tent with Fr Winkley in 1891. With the advent of these two priests the Baramulla missionary activities began.

At first the mission had no land and the two priests and their catechist had to make do with three tents pitched on common ground.

They used one tent for their living quarters and the other two tents were used as kitchen and utility.

Fr Cunningham wrote to Fr Brouwer his superior in Rawalpindi, that survival was demandingly harsh and challenging, requiring of them more than hopes and hard living. He further stated that successful access to the people would best be brought about by the setting up of an orphanage for boys. Since destitute girls were also there, he requested for a religious sisters congregation to assist in this venture.

Later Fr Cunningham was back in Murree and then Peshawar till 1911. After this due to failing health, he had to retire back to Mill Hill and eventually to Freshfield, England.

He died on the 12th of March 1942.

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Br. Henry Rogers was born on 30th of March 1864 at Madras; his parents were Henry Rogers and Catherine Wood.

He came to St. Joseph’s Society, first at St. Peter’s College, Freshfield in 1886, then to Mill Hill in 1887, and received the Cassock on the 8th of December 1888.

In September 1889, he was sent to the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir, and was appointed to St. Thomas’ College, Murree, where he served till his return to England in December 1890.

In 1891 he left the society and was admitted by the Brothers of Charity, Burkley Hall, near Rochdale, England.

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Michael Donsen Fr Michael Donsen was born at Flushing, in Holland, on April the 20th, 1866.

He received his early ecclesiastical education at a Dominican College in his native country.

There already he distinguished himself by an earnest application to work, by a life of study, and by the great patience and courage he showed in all that he undertook.

He came to Mill Hill, in the summer of 1884, and he was raised to priesthood five years later, on the 21st September 1889.

He was destined for the Punjab Vicariate. ‘En Route’ for his mission he visited Rome, and had the singular privilege of receiving Holy Communion on Maundy Thursday from the hands of His Holiness Leo XIII. On his arrival in the Northern Punjab, the Prefect-Apostolic appointed Fr Donsen and Fr Hanlon to the mission station at Leh, Kashmir, vacated by the untimely death of Fr Kilty.

They settled down at Leh, and began forthwith to labour with astonishing success. But the climate and privations began to show on Fr Donsen’s constitution. He was recalled to the head station, Rawalpindi, where the establishment of an orphanage for boys and girls was entrusted to his care.

Again he set to work for he was a man of truly apostolic zeal and courage and was blessed with success in this endeavor. In one of his letters to Mill Hill, at that time Fr Donsen writes: “Just a few lines to let you know we have at present twenty-four children just arrived from faminestricken districts”.

After nine years of hard work Fr Donsen’s health broke down so completely that it was thought necessary to send him to Europe to regain his strength.

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For the next six years he was on the staff of St. Joseph’s College, Roosendaal, where his vast missionary experience greatly helped him in the work of training young men for their future missionary careers.

When in January, 1905, a new field for labour in the Congo was accepted by the Society; Fr Donsen obtained permission to join the first band of missionaries, under the leadership of Fr O’Grady, whom he eventually succeeded as Superior of this mission.

On this mission, Fr Donsen offered his life to God wholeheartedly and the sacrifice was accepted within the space of two years. For the last three months there were negotiations and plans for the foundation of another mission station for two resident priests. Fr Donsen made a journey of some two weeks in a canoe to inspect likely sites, and to make little arrangements with the Government official in the vicinity. He returned to Bokakata much fatigued.

On August the 18th, he left Bokakata once more, in company with Frs. van de Linden and van Haeren, for Baringa (the site chosen), a village on the river Maringa. He was ailing whilst on the small steamer that plies between Bokakata and Baringa, but nothing caused anxiety to the Fathers travelling with him. He saw to the preliminary installation of Fathers, and returned about half way back to a town called Basankusu, where, although sick, he began to prepare the Christians for confirmation, the Bishop being shortly expected. He rapidly became worse, suffering from some form of dysentery or tropical diarrhea, and three days later he left Basankusu in a native skiff for Bokakata, where he would be at least at home among his own Fathers. He stayed there pending the arrival of a small boat bound for Coquilhatville, where the nearest medical practitioner resided. On its way down the Congo the boat put in at Lulonga. He was very emaciated, and in spite of the great efforts he made to speak, his voice became at times quite inaudible, and a new trouble broke out - a severe pain in the region of his liver.

In Coquilhatville he was treated with great kindness, especially by the good Trappist Father resident there. In spite of everything, he sank gradually, but he still had strength to dictate a last letter, to which he was able to append his signature. In this he gladly grants pardon to any who may stand in need of such in regard to him, and in humble terms solicits forgiveness from all those whom perchance he may have offended.

On Sunday, September the 29th 1907, he breathed forth his soul, in sentiments of complete resignation to the will of God, to that same Father and God whom he had served so zealously, 97

Robert Winkley

Since 1916, Mgr. Robert Winkley was Prefect Apostolic of Kafiristan and Kashmir, the mission in which he spent his whole priestly life of forty years.

He was born on the 19th of February 1860; at Chipping, near Preston, England.

As a youth Robert Winkley felt drawn to the Foreign Missions and subsequently applied to St. Joseph’s Society.

The early days of his training for the Missionary Priesthood were spent in the preparatory school at Kelvedon, Essex. Leaving Kelvedon he came to Freshfield, where a house had been acquired by the Society and so Robert Winkley and C. Aherne, were the first students of St. Peter’s College.

He entered Mill Hill in 1884 and five years later was ordained priest. After his ordination he received his appointment to the Punjab mission from Herbert Vaughan, then Bishop of Salford and Founder of the Society.

Fr Winkley arrived on his mission with Fr Donsen and Fr Hanlon.

The first years of his missionary career were spent in Kashmir. After a short spell in Westridge, Rawalpindi, he went there with Fr Joseph Cunningham to start the Baramulla mission. In Srinagar he built the first Catholic Church that ever existed in that country.

His missionary journeying took him as far a field as Leh in Tibet, and on one occasion at the invitation of the Grand Lama; Fr Winkley had the privilege of inspecting the interior of the famous Buddhist Monastery 98

at Himis. As Chaplain to the British Troops in the Punjab, he served in many expeditions, Tochi Valley, Chitral, Malakand and others.

Though, under obedience, devoted to military services as Chaplain, it was in the spirit and with the feelings of a missionary priest that he ministered to the troops. Nor did he forget the local people, but was ever eager to do all in his power for them.

When the First World War hostilities began in 1914, Fr Winkley was in London for the General Chapter of St. Joseph’s Society, and in response to the urgent appeal of the Ecclesiastical Authorities for priests to minister to the troops in the early stages of the war, Fr Winkley volunteered for service in the battle-fields of Flanders. There he did excellent work – ministering to the suffering and dying – work that needed the energy, the courage and self-sacrifice that truly befits the Missionary priest. His bravery did not pass unrewarded for he was the proud possessor of many medals, won, not only in Indian Frontier campaigns, but during the world war of 1914 to 1918.

He was in Europe still when he was appointed to succeed Fr Wagenaar as Prefect Apostolic, but only when the war was over did he manage to get back to Rawalpindi.

He continued the medical mission, which had been started by his predecessor. The first lady doctor arrived in 1922 in the person of Dr Anna Dengel.

He also managed to secure a sound financial base for the prefecture. The local apostolate came off the ground by his having a chaplain resident at the newly built Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi City.

Fr Winkley may have been short of priests till 1925, when for the first time the number of priests again reached the same as in 1913, but things seem to have been ticking over quietly during his administration.

On Sunday, November the 2nd 1930, Rt. Rev. Mgr. Robert Winkley, while still Prefect Apostolic of Kafiristan and Kashmir, died in Rawalpindi, in the seventieth year of his age.

His grave is next to the Cathedral in Rawalpindi.

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Bp. Henry Hanlon Bishop Henry Hanlon was ordained on the 21st of September1889, and in 1890 along with Fr Michael Donsen and Fr Robert Winkley arrived in the mission of the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir.

After the death of Fr Kilty in Leh, Ladakh, it was important nevertheless that his initiative should not be lost. So, in September 1890, Frs. Hanlon and Donsen were sent to re-open the mission. By the time they had arrived, winter at Leh was already setting in.

They spent the winter months studying Kilty’s notes and addressing themselves to the study of the language, and the geographical, social and religious environment of the people of Ladakh. Their studies are reported in detail and are illustrated with photographs and drawings.

With the clearing of the snows in 1891, Fr Hanlon set out on his travels. He traveled around the Shayok, Nubra and Ladakh valley studying the Lamaist Buddhism. Meanwhile Fr Donsen remained on station.

In early 1893, Fr Hanlon was asked to come back to Murree to act as a companion to Fr Reijnders, who was not too well at the time, and later he was appointed to pioneer the Mill Hill’s first group of missionaries from Zanzibar to Uganda. Although, Fr Hanlon’s transfer to Uganda was expected to be a temporary one, he however, never returned to Leh, as he was soon appointed Vicar Apostolic of the Upper Nile in Africa.

Fr Donsen continued on his own until 1895, but in 1898 the Mill Hill Missionaries decided to close down the Leh Mission.

Bishop Henry Hanlon died on the 18th of August 1937.

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Cornelius Simons Fr Simons was well known in the Southern part of Holland, where he laboured for twenty-two years as an enthusiastic promoter of St. Joseph’s Missionary Society, gaining for it great support.

Fr Simons was born at Zierikzee, on March 15th, 1865.

He was ordained priest on July the 25th, 1895.

On November the 28th of the same year he sailed for the mission of Kafiristan and Kashmir in Northern India.

A very large portion of his seventeen years of missionary activity was devoted to laying the foundations of the Baramulla mission, Kashmir, and the construction and maintenance of St. Joseph’s School in Baramulla itself.

In 1912, Fr Simons returned to Europe and by his sermons and appeals in various parts of Holland he obtained considerable financial support for the newly founded college of St. Joseph’s Society in Tilburg, Holland.

He also did great things for the financial support of another foundation, namely, the House of Lay Brothers and Hospice for Missionaries at Vrijland.

Later transferred to the college at Roosendaal, he laboured hard from 1925 to place that college on a sound financial basis. Many bitter disappointments were his share, in all his work for procuring material aid for the Society’s houses in Holland, but he never for a moment allowed anything to discourage him or diminish in any way his great energy.

Sickness came to him while travelling. He was endeavoring at the time, to secure more material help for the education of missionary priests.

At his own request, he was taken to his sister’s house, where he died on February the 12th 1934, after but a few days illness.

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John Mullan Fr Mullan was born in 1864 at Errigal, Co. Derry, Ireland.

In 1894, he was ordained a priest of St. Joseph’s Foreign Mission Society, by His Eminence Cardinal Vaughan.

The following year he was sent out to Northern India and shortly afterwards was appointed chaplain to the British Troops, whom he served in Rawalpindi, Westridge, and Nowshera.

It was in this difficult field of labour that he earned the title “The Father O’Flynn of India”.

His name was a household word for all that was good, and Catholics and non-Catholics alike were always glad to meet him. He had a breadth of views in dealing with human feelings which endeared him to all, and in his generosity he was ever willing to do anything at all to help others.

During the Great War, he served in Mesopotamia, and was in Kutel-Amara during the memorable siege of the town. Here, he was wounded, and on the capture of Kut, was taken prisoner and spent thirty months in Turkey under very harsh conditions.

A non-Catholic Christian who was present at Kut during the siege said that Fr Mullan was a Father to them all. His cheery spirit helped them 102

greatly to keep up their morale. How could they give way to despairing thoughts when the white-headed priest was ever to be met with a cheery smile on his face, and encouraging words to hearten them?

As a result of the hardship of the siege, the forced marches following it, and the distress of his captivity in Turkey, his health broke down, and he was granted sick leave in 1919.

In 1922 he again took up his duties as a chaplain in India, but his health finally broke down in 1927 and he returned to England. Though in poor health, his cheery spirits never flagged; he was always smiling, always kind.

His priestly labour extended over a period of 38 years, and his death was a peaceful and happy passing to the great reward which awaited him. He died at St. Peter’s College, Freshfield on the 27th of September 1932, in the seventieth year of his age.

Every man has his place and purpose in God’s creation, but it is only the chosen few to whom it is given to spend their lives in bringing happiness, consolation and help to others. This was the dominant note of Fr Mullan’s life: God gave him a wonderful power to do good, and he used it to the full.

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William Hood

Fr William Hood was born in Leicestershire, England in 1868.

He was one of the first English boys to join St. Joseph’s Society.

After completing his Philosophy course, he was sent to teach at St. Peter’s College, Freshfield.

He spent three years there, and then returned to Mill Hill for his Theology.

He was ordained priest on September the 21st, 1895.

The following month he sailed for India and arrived in Madras in November.

His first appointment was at Nellore Seminary where he taught Philosophy and Rubrics, later passing on to St Mary’s Madras.

He came to the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir in 1899 on transfer, and returned to Madras the same year.

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The next charge was the chaplaincy of all the railway stations between Madras and Bellary.

In 1901 Archbishop Colgan, sent him to England to beg funds for the Mission. On his return to India in 1902, he remained at the Cathedral for two years and was then appointed to St. Peter’s Royapuram.

He was a very able writer and edited the Catholic Watchman from 1904 until 1906. During the latter years of his life he wrote regularly for the Catholic Leader of Madras.

In 1909 he took over the parish of Royapettah and worked there up to the day of his death. During those years he built a presbytery and two fine schools, one for the Indian children and the second for the AngloIndians.

A week or two before his demise he suffered several severe heart attacks. Two of these were during the celebration of the Holy Mass.

Speaking to visitors after one of these attacks he said, “What a beautiful death it would have been, had I passed away at the Altar after consuming the Precious Body and the Blood of our Lord”.

The end came very suddenly. He took ill at noon on the 21st of September 1927 and died before medical aid could reach him.

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Winand Rombouts Fr Winand Rombouts was ordained on the 22nd of December 1894.

He was first fruit of the Roosendaal Missiehuis, Holland, and was sent to the Punjab Mission, where he laboured for about thirty years.

He arrived in his mission, the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir in 1895, and became one of the outreach team of two which went into the Jhelum area. The second member of the team and his companion was Fr Francis Kuhn.

In those days non-English missionaries used to anglicize their names to make themselves more acceptable as chaplains to the occupying British troops. This man’s name was made into Rumbolds and he served most of his time in Rawalpindi Cantt parish until the late 1920s.

Then followed a period as professor at Mill Hill and Roosendaal, after which he retired to Vrijland “to make his soul” as he called it. One presumes he meant by this to prepare himself to meet the Lord. This he did with the same enthusiasm and almost youthful ardor as he had always worked at any task given him.

He is remembered no less for his genuine piety and zeal as for his mastery of English and music.

Fr Winand Rombouts died at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Arnhem, Holland, on the 8th of April 1952, after having been in indifferent health for some months. Serious heart and lung trouble developed about a fortnight before his death, making his removal to hospital necessary.

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Francis Kuhn Fr Francis Kuhn was from Germany. He was ordained priest on the 25th of July 1895.

He came to the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir in 1897.

In those days the Church was looking for ways and means to start the local Apostolate. Fr Francis got involved in this Apostolate.

Together with another priest, Fr Winand Rombouts, he began outreach in the Jhelum area.

In 1898, he was in charge of an orphanage that had been started in Rawalpindi, but because of local opposition had to be moved some 8 miles outside the city to the site of a Catholic Village which was just beginning to materialize. The village was called Yussufpur.

When Fr Donsen left Leh in 1898, he became the first resident priest at Yussufpur. Unhappily, in 1899, his health took a turn for the worse, and he had to be invalided home. He was succeeded by Fr Francis Kuhn who was to serve in the village until 1912.

He was assisted by Brother Nicholas. The Brother instructed the boys in trades. Those boys who were too young to begin a trade were educated in a small school run by the priest.

The village prospered until 1919. Then disaster struck. The world influenza epidemic of that time visited the village. The whole population perished. Only one man survived. And today no remnants of the village remain.

Fr Francis Kuhn died in his native country, Germany, on the 5th of April 1932.

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Br. Nicholas Schuijtemaker

Br. Nicholas Schuijtemaker was born on 13th of July 1862, at Wervershoof, a small village near Hoorn, Holland.

From his very early childhood he showed a deep-seated piety, and a remarkable love for the House of God. He came to Mill Hill in September 1886 and by the end of the year he was sent to Freshfield.

He was appointed to the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir in 1891.

After some time at St. Thomas’ College, Murree, and at Baramulla, Br. Nicholas became assistant to Fr Donsen and then to Fr Kuhn, in Yussufpur. There he instructed the boys at the orphanage in trades, husbandry and carpentry.

The boys who were too young to begin a trade were educated in a small school run by the priests.

For twenty- two years he worked in the Society, always doing his duty faithfully, cheerfully and zealously. The orphanage flourished under his untiring patience and kind care.

He died on 27th of September 1908 at Yussufpur, Rawalpindi and is buried there.

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Br. Martin Loos was born on the 23rd November 1869 at Zwaag, province of Noord Holland. His parents were Heertje Loos and Thecla Koning.

He joined St. Joseph’s College, Mill Hill on the 4th of October 1887, and took the Temporary Oath on the 4th of July 1890.

In June 1891, he received his appointment for the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir. He served there in St. Thomas College, Murree until he left the Society in 1895.

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Joseph Boland Fr Joseph Boland was born at Hull, England, and was ordained priest at St Joseph’s College, Mill Hill, London, in the year 1896.

After ordination he was appointed to the Punjab Mission, Northern India, and laboured there most zealously for twenty-eight years. During that time he acquired a great reputation as a scholar and linguist.

He arrived in the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir after the administration of Fr Brouwer. Most of his time was spent in Srinagar, from 1906 till 1924.

Srinagar as a mission station had been started in 1898, so Fr Boland’s ministry there consisted of the pastoral care of the growing Christian community.

He returned to England in 1924, and up to a few months before his death he held the post of chaplain to the Mother House of St. Joseph Sisters at Patricroft, Manchester.

Fr Joseph Boland’s death came with tragic suddenness, on Sunday June the 10th 1928. He died whilst in the act of purchasing a railway ticket at Elstree Station, near Mill Hill.

A Solemn Requiem Mass, for the repose of his soul, was celebrated at St. Joseph’s, Mill Hill, and the remains were laid to rest by the side of the revered Founder, Cardinal Herbert Vaughan, under the shadow of the College Calvary.

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Joseph Bougle Fr Joseph Bougle was born at Young Street, Manchester, England, on the 5th of November 1863.

He studied at St. Peter’s College, Freshfield and at St Joseph’s College, Mill Hill, and was ordained in 1897.

In the same year he left for the Punjab Mission of Kafiristan and Kashmir.

There he laboured zealously for 25 years, remaining the whole of that time in India without a break.

He was in the usual chaplaincy places, in the North West Frontier Province and in Westridge.

Life as chaplain was not always that rosy. One of their duties was burying the dead. In those days many young men, young women and many children died, which because of their youth must have caused great grief.

The army authorities also considered that it was part of the Chaplain’s duty to keep the soldiers from drinking too much alcohol. The Church provided Temperance Centres to combat the problem. The buildings are still to be found in such stations as Nowshera, Westridge, Ayubia and Cherat.

Good Catholic Irish soldiers were expected to become members of the Royal Irish Branch of the Total Abstinence - League of the Cross, rather than drown their sorrows.

In 1922 his enfeebled health made it necessary for him to return to England, and until 1924 he served at St. Joseph’s, Westham. From there he went to St. Peter’s, Lytham, where he worked as curate for 8 years.

Shortly before his death, he took up the duties of Chaplain to the Sisters at ‘Roselyn’, Old Swan, Liverpool, where he died suddenly, after a very short illness, on the 8th of November 1932.

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Adrian van de Deyssel Fr Adrian van de Deyssel was ordained on the 10th of August 1890.

For the first six years of his priestly life he was on the staff of the newly founded college in Roosendaal, Holland.

In 1897 he was appointed to the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir.

Most of his ministry was in and around Rawalpindi. He resided in what is now the Bishop’s House.

The Presentation Sisters had arrived in the Prefecture a couple of years before hand to take up their great school Apostolate. They found great support from Fr van de Deyssel.

In 1912 he returned to Holland, where he resumed his original labours in Roosendaal. He became the rector there, and held this position until 1924.

In 1924 he was elected to the General Council in Mill Hill, and while there he also taught Moral Theology at the college.

He died in 1946 at the age of 78.

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Caspar Looman Fr Caspar Looman was born at Schiedam, Holland, on the 3rd of October 1873.

He was ordained a priest at Mill Hill by Cardinal Herbert Vaughan on the 18th of July 1897.

After his ordination he was appointed to the Punjab Mission.

The anglicized version of his name was Lommans.

Loo-man may not have sounded so well to the British ear.

In Dutch Loo (pronounced as ‘low’) means woodland.

It is recorded that after being in Rawalpindi he spent most of his time in Nowshera, Cherat, and Peshawar.

When he was in Nowshera the Prefecture Apostolic made a deal with the then Army Authorities, that three Catholic Churches were to be built, one in Nowshera, one in Cherat and one in Risalpur.

In the first two places mentioned they would be built by the Church, and the third church in Risalpur, by the Cantonment Authorities.

The Church stuck to the agreement and had the Nowshera and Cherat churches constructed in 1905/1908. Fr Caspar Looman supervised the construction.

Its centenary was joyfully celebrated in 2005 on the 2nd/3rd of April. The same day that Pope John Paul II died, but just a week before he left this world he issued his Papal Blessing for the Holy Name Catholic Church, Nowshera.

It took the Church Authorities up to 1930 to get the Cantonment Authorities to keep their part of the deal and build St. John’s Church at Risalpur.

Prior to Fr Looman’s departure in about 1918 he was in Murree for a couple of years.

Fr Looman seems to have spent the rest of his life in Vrijland, Holland, where he died at Arnhem on the 15th of July 1954.

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Richard Kemperman Fr Richard Bernard Kemperman was born on the 11th of February, 1882, in Silvolde, Utrecht, Holland.

He entered Mill Hill in September 1902, and was ordained on the 17th of September 1905.

The same autumn he left for the Mission in Punjab. He arrived there on the 3rd of January 1906.

He was in Rawalpindi-Cantt from 1908 till 1910, Westridge from 1911 till 1917 and in Nowshera from 1918 till 1922.

Whilst in Nowshera he had the marble altar for the church designed and constructed by a firm from Jaipur, out of Quetta marble, at the cost of Rs20,000/-. This price did not include the marble sculpture of the Last Supper, that is the centre-piece at the base of the altar, which cost an additional Rs500/-. Apparently some churches in the Philippines look a lot like the old type of army church that still remain here in Pakistan. Fr Bertus Driever, having previously worked in the Philippines, came to the conclusion that Fr Kemperman must have built there according to what he had seen in the Punjab.

He was also stationed for some time in Ghora Dhaka, where he built a large stone and cement Church in Gothic style, in 1910. This church is still being used in the present day.

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In January 1923, Fr Kemperman was appointed to Roosendaal, Holland, and in 1924 he became professor in Tilburg.

In June, 1925 he took up duties as Superior of Vrijland.

In 1928, he decided to go to the Philippines and arrived in Iloilo on June the 14th.

For two years he stayed in Arevole and then became parish priest of San Pedro in 1930. After the tragic death of Fr Stubenruss he also supplied in Patnongon for about 18 months.

In March 1935, he was appointed parish priest of San Jose and served the parish until July the 3rd, 1938, when he left for a full year vacation in Europe.

On his return, in 1939, he went back to San Pedro.

In 1942 he succeeded in persuading the guerrillas not to burn down the convent. However, after some of the Fathers had been murdered by the Japanese, he reported to the military authorities on Christmas day 1943, and was interned in the convent of San Jose.

After a short time he was transferred to the interment camp in Iloilo and finally ended up with other Mill Hill Fathers in the interment camp in St. Tomas, Manila.

The hardship of the interment camp ruined his health to such an extent that after the war he was found to be suffering from cancer. All treatment was unsuccessful.

He died in the convent of Tanza in Iloilo on May the 20th, 1946, at the age of 64 years, and was buried in the church of Areole.

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Lambert de Ruijter

Fr Lambert de Ruijter was ordained on the 19th of September 1908, and appointed to the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir, Northern India.

He would prove to be a man of staying strength and spent all his missionary years in either Baramulla or Srinagar.

He was greatly involved in the local apostolate in Kashmir, but in 1930 we see Fr De Ruijter as the dynamic educationalist and administrator that he was, when he was appointed in Baramulla to assist in the growth of St. Joseph’s School.

In his short three years tenure at the school, he introduced many novel activities, such as camping, boy scouts, sports etc.

He remained in this office till 1933, but owing to ill health he was advised to move to Rawalpindi for treatment.

He was also back in Rawalpindi when he died on the 15th of May 1945.

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Hubert Jansen Fr Hubert Jansen was born on October the 7th 1885, in Baarlo, Holland.

After his elementary studies he did his classical course in the seminary in Weert.

In 1904 he entered the Missiehuis in Roosendaal.

In 1907 he went to Mill Hill for his Theological studies.

There he was ordained priest on July the 26th 1910 by Bishop John Vaughan, the brother of the Founder, Herbert Vaughan.

He was then appointed to the mission in the Punjab and arrived there on November the 27th 1910.

He laboured in Yussufpur, Peshawar, Nowshera, Cherat and Westridge.

His main task was to be Chaplain to the English Forces, stationed in North India.

He got on very well with the officers and was loved on account of his way of entertaining them. But slowly on it all turned out to be drinking parties, so much so, that it was necessary to take him out of the Punjab in 1924.

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After some leave he was appointed to the Philippines, and arrived there in August 1925. He stayed for a short time in Areola.

For Christmas of the same year he was sent to San Jose, Antique as Parish Priest. For some time things went quite well, but afterwards he started again to drink too much.

He knew how to amuse high society. He was a great friend of Tobis Farnier, at that time a young Governor in San Jose, and with different other political figures.

This, however, was not for the good of his pastoral work, so he was taken out again and was on home leave during 1935/1936.

In 1937, he was sent to Patnongon. Here he stayed for two years and in May 1939 he was made Parish Priest of Areola, where he worked without interruption until the end of March 1942.

In June of the same year he was interned in Santo Tomas in Manila. The hardship of internment finished his energies and he left the Philippines very soon after the war in 1945.

After some time at home he went to the United States. There he died in Grand Islands on October the 22nd 1955 at the age of 70 years.

In his last will and testament he remembered the Philippines and left the mission of the Mill Hill Fathers there a large share of his savings.

As far as the record goes, he was the first Father in the Philippines who owned a car, and what a car it was. How often was “Milord Jansen�, as the Fathers fondly called him, repairing his car on the roadside? But in spite of that it gave great amusement to them all.

May he rest in good Peace!

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John McGrain

Fr John McGrain was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 5th of March 1881.

He was ordained on the 23rd of September 1911, and appointed to the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir.

Fr McGrain arrived on his mission on the 6th of November 1911, together with Fr Joseph Devlin.

He ministered in Rawalpindi, Yussufpur, Peshawar, Kohat and Nowshera.

After 1929 there is no mention of Fr McGrain, but fifty years later Sr. Teresa Joseph PBVM did, in the course of a conversation inquire about him. Unfortunately no satisfactory answer was forthcoming. It was then realized that Sr. Teresa and Fr John came from the same country, Scotland.

He died in his native Scotland on the 8th of December 1955.

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Joseph Devlin

Fr Joseph Devlin was born on the 6th of May 1886, at Druneagh, Northern Ireland.

He joined Mill Hill, and was ordained priest on the 23rd of September 1911.

Fr Devlin arrived in the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir on the 6 of November 1911. th

He was to spend his entire priestly life in this mission, and served in about every station it was possible to serve in.

Already in 1912 we see him in Lalkurti Rawalpindi. From there he moved to Westridge, and then a long spell, from 1914 to 1922 he ministered to the Catholic village of Yussufpur.

Fr Devlin was there when in 1919, disaster struck. The world influenza epidemic of that time visited the village. The whole population, save one man perished. Yet well into the 1920s, there were priests officially responsible for Yussufpur.

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Next in 1923 we see Fr Devlin in Nowshera, and in 1925 in Baramulla.

He spent six years in Peshawar, and from 1933 to 1940 he was in Murree.

His next challenge was the relatively new parish of Sargodha, where he worked till 1948.

His last years where spent serving in Murree.

He died and was buried in Rawalpindi on the 23rd of February 1952.

May he Rest in Peace!

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Leo Barry

Fr Leo Barry was ordained on the 26th of July 1910.

Fr Barry served in Yussufpur, a catholic settlement south of Lalazar Rawalpindi in 1913. Then in Westridge, Rawalpindi in 1916. In 1917 he was in Nowshera and in Cherat in 1918/1919.

He died on the 16th of January 1943, in South Africa. He may have been on chaplain duty there He was 61 years at that time.

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William White Fr William White was born at Burnley, Lancs, England on the 31st of January 1885, He was ordained at Mill Hill on the 17th of May 1917.

Fr White was a ‘late vocation’. As a young man he worked for some years in an office, and he loved to recall those ‘rugged’ days and his meager pay.

That those lean years had a profound effect on his later priestly life was evident in his sincerely, humble and frugal disposition which enabled him to appreciate the slightest act of kindness that came his way.

Here, too, was engendered a deep human sympathy for suffering and an ardent desire to alleviate it, not counting the cost to himself.

His lively sense of humor too, must have blossomed during those difficult years and with it a deep spirit of poetic prayer, such as he gives us in his booklet ‘Stray Moments’: Joseph, void of all ambition, Shunning wealth and worldly power, Thou who found in labour blessing, Guide us in life’s working hour.

The Master called him, and being no ‘rich young man’ he could give himself unreservedly to his priestly calling wherein he was destined to serve the cause of Christ for almost 50 years.

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The fact that he had to begin his studies all over again and mingle with boys much younger than he, did not in the least hamper or perturb his humble spirit, for he had ‘learned obedience’ in the fashion of the Great High Priest. He loved to talk about these early days, and one could gather that they too were replete with deep spiritual significance for him.

After his ordination he was appointed to the Punjab Mission, at Rawalpindi where he served as an army chaplain. He volunteered for service in the Middle East and returned to Rawalpindi after the end of the First World War. He continued his fruitful work until the end of the Second World War. With the creation of Pakistan and the withdrawal of British Troops in 1947 he was appointed chaplain to the Presentation Sisters at Murree, where he endeared himself to the Sisters and children alike.

In addition to his work as chaplain he devoted himself to collecting the historical data of the diocese. Here he admirably succeeded and the result was both accurate and refreshingly varied.

In his last years, Fr White was in indifferent health and was finally constrained to relinquish his charge in the beloved Murree Hills and descend to the plains.

All wondered whether he would survive the grueling heat of the plains. But none had reckoned with the indomitable spirit of resignation to God’s will. As he held the record of the Mill Hill Fathers who had spent the most years in the area, he was free to do with his time whatever he chose – he could retire at home or stay in the mission. To the edification of all he decided to stay in the land of his adoption, at the Parish House of the Murree Road Church, Rawalpindi.

He would have celebrated his Golden Jubilee in 1967, but God had other plans for him and called him to Himself on the 1st of February 1967, two days after he celebrated his 82nd birthday.

He was buried in the Rawalpindi Lalkurti Cemetery.

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Wilfrid Bolton Fr Wilfrid Bolton was ordained in 1917, and was appointed to the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir.

He served there in places like Risalpur 1917, Kohat 1922, Peshawar 1923, and Nowshera from 1923 to 1926.

In 1926 he left the Society, nonetheless his Superiors helped him financially until he obtained the indult of secularization.

Wilfrid Bolton then earned his living by teaching in different parts of Europe and finally lived somewhere near Stockholm, Sweden. A priest of Stockholm sends word to Mill Hill that he is living an exemplary life as a Catholic layman.

As far as Mill Hill knows he did not contract marriage. Nor did he show any signs of hostility against the Church or against his faith.

In 1965, the Bishop of Stockholm, wrote to the then Superior General, Fr Gerard Mahon, whether he would take him back and look after him in his old age, and thus Fr Mahon gave him permission to reside at Herbert House. Whether any further conditions or agreements were made, we do not know.

Fr Mahon was informed that Wilfrid was reinstated into the priesthood whilst in Stockholm, by Bishop Taylor, and that he was staying there as a chaplain to some Sisters. When he came to England Fr Mahon ‘ex-gratia’ allowed him to stay in Herbert House with the understanding that this would be till the end of his life. But Wilfrid Bolton was never readmitted to the Society. Therefore he does not appear in the list of members of the Society.

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Joseph O’Donohoe

Fr Joseph O’Donohoe from Coothill, Co. Cavan, Ireland was ordained on the 6th of January 1918, and was appointed to the Prefecture Apostolic of Kafiristan and Kashmir.

From 1920 to 1925 he served in Westridge, Rawalpindi, and after that he was transferred to Ghora Dhaka, where he worked till 1930.

When Monsignor Winkley died on All Souls Day 1930, Fr Joseph O’Donohoe then took charge as Pro-Prefect.

A first priority for him was the establishment of new native stations. He decided to concentrate on Rawalpindi and Peshawar. In 1931, land was acquired adjacent to the Holy Family hospital, Rawalpindi City.

A Mass centre and school were opened. By 1936, a resident priest was appointed. The mission compound seemed ideally arranged. There was a church, a school and a hospital next to one another.

As soon as the Rawalpindi City station was established, Mgr. O’Donohoe turned his attention to Peshawar. His plan was to establish a small Catholic village on the outskirts of Peshawar city. He bought 10 acres for the purpose and sent the recently ordained Fr Nicholas Hettinga to start the new mission there. The mission was to be called St John’s.

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While the establishment of St John’s was under way, it became evident that the Diocese of Lahore wished to redefine its boundaries. It had recently persuaded Rome to divide the diocese and send Roman Dominicans to open a new prefecture, based at Multan. The Capuchins wished a further reduction in the size of the Diocese of Lahore. Mgr. O’Donohoe then offered to take over Jammu, Sialkot, Jhelum and Gujrat.

This plan would have given the Prefecture a good native base, set in a neatly defined geographical unit. Bishop Hector Catry of Lahore agreed to cede Jhelum and Gujrat, but balked at giving up Jammu and Sialkot. For the Sialkot mission, the site of the first Capuchin mission in the Punjab was much loved by the older Capuchin missionaries. Catry offered instead the Sargodha district. Mgr. O’Donohoe agreed.

The completion of these arrangements gave the Prefecture a chance to begin to build a solid native base. The new commitments divided the Prefecture into four discrete sections. The Rawalpindi section was seen to embrace the stations at Lalkurti, Westridge, Rawalpindi City, and Murree. From 1938 onwards, the Rawalpindi City mission was used as the base for expansion into the Jhelum and Gujrat districts. The Frontier section embraced the two missions at Peshawar and the stations at Nowshera and Risalpur, along with the outpost at Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

The Kashmir section had stations at Baramulla and Srinagar. Sargodha was cut off from the rest by the Salt Range. It showed great possibilities for expansion; but plans to expand work there had to be suspended because of the Second World War. Mgr. O’Donohoe’s administration brought a new dimension to work in the schools. He felt that the mission should also provide some sort of tertiary level instruction. The Holy Family hospital was already providing such tertiary level education at its school of nursing. Mgr. O’Donohoe desired also that there be liberal arts colleges. So, between 1936 and 1939, he caused four colleges to be founded, all four of which were affiliated to the University of the Punjab.

By 1939, it looked as though Mgr. O’Donohoe had managed to get the Prefecture on course to success. It was eager and poised so as to advance with confidence. However, disasters were to strike which would change the whole picture; the Second World War, the defeat of the British in Malaya and Burma, and the diverting of Mill Hill priests to Multan 127

Diocese to keep it running for the Italian Dominicans, who had been incarcerated.

The greatest disaster involved Mgr. O’Donohoe himself. A Sister, who had been delegated as his secretary, left the convent and Mgr. O’Donohoe helped her to set up a business to support herself. Scandal mongers and gossips blew up the matter to such proportions that he was publicly compromised. The relationship was probably innocent. The upshot was that, in 1944, Mgr. O’Donohoe decided to resign both his post and his priesthood. The reaction of his colleagues was dismay and wrath at the loss of their revered superior. He had been the greatest of leaders.

Thirty years later, however, Joseph O’Donohoe made his peace with the Church and the Society. He returned to Mill Hill six months before his death and went to his end, sad, broken, but at peace.

He is buried in the Society cemetery, and at his own request the grave bears the simple inscription ‘Joseph O’Donohoe. May He Rest in Peace.’

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Patrick Connolly Fr Patrick Connolly was born in Dublin, Ireland on November the 29th 1873.

His early studies were with the Christian Brothers, and at the London Oratory School.

Finding himself called to the Missionary Priesthood he entered the Mill Hill Preparatory College at Freshfield, England and after a four years course proceeded to St. Joseph’s College, Mill Hill, London for Philosophy.

He returned to Freshfield in the summer of 1896 for the study of humanities, until midsummer 1898. He then returned to Mill Hill to take up his Theological studies, and was ordained priest on November the 17th 1901.

His first appointment after ordination was to the teaching staff at St. Joseph’s College Roosendaal, Holland.

From there he was transferred to the Organizing Branch of the Society and preached with remarkable success for many years. Every Sunday saw him appealing in a different parish on behalf of Foreign Missions, and many of the Mill Hill branches throughout England owed their beginning to his zeal.

On retiring from the organizing work, he became chaplain to the Missionary Sisters at Patricroft, Manchester.

Towards the end of 1918 he received his appointment to the Punjab Mission, and sailed for India in January 1919.

Fr Pat, as he was properly known, came to the Punjab Mission in his mid-forties, an age when most men in the East are looking forward to retirement. He had already spent a busy life in teaching and preaching at home and yet arrival on the mission in 1919 showed that Fr Pat was as 129

keen and undaunted as ever. With courage less noticeable in many younger men, he set himself to the task of learning the language of the country, and succeeded in mastering it.

Fr Connolly’s first active work was at Murree for one year.

He was than transferred to the North West Frontier Province, where he spent two years in Nowshera. Nowshera however, for him was merely a half-way house, since his actual charge was Risalpur where he had to carry on without a Church and do what he could to keep alive the faith of those who were not too keen on the practice of their religion.

From this charge Fr Pat was sent to Peshawar in 1923, and this again meant, that although he lived in Peshawar his duties took him to Cherat which is forty miles distant in one direction, and to Landi Kotal in the Khyber Pass, which is thirty miles distant in an entirely opposite direction.

So on alternative Sundays he served either Landi Kotal or Cherat. Yet no excuse was ever brought forward, no date missed, and severe illness was often brushed aside for fear his flock should miss the chance of attending Holy Mass and receiving the Sacraments. But for Fr Connolly oftener than not, a few sandwiches had to suffice from mid-day Saturday until mid-day Sunday, when he returned to Peshawar.

Fr Pat had a highly strung Irish temperament, and anyone knowing India, especially its Frontier roads at the time, would readily admit that it was no paradise for one with nerves. In spite of this, his many journeys were made with an Indian driver as the sole guardian of his bodily safety, and it is fervently hoped that the bruising which Fr Connolly sustained during those journeys may be well rewarded by the Good Lord.

A severe accident in 1926 occasioned his return to Europe and after a short rest he took up professional duties at New House, Burn Hall.

After a few months in the classroom symptoms of diabetes manifested themselves and the disease developed with extraordinary rapidity. He was moved to St. Andrew’s Hospital Dollis Hill, London in July of 1927, and then to St. Mary’s Convent, Shanklin, Isle of Wight on August the 8th.

The hardships of his Indian Mission coupled with the shock of the recent accident left his system without the necessary vitality to cooperate with the insulin treatment and he passed away peacefully on the 16th of September 1927.

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Robert Malden Fr Robert Malden was a native of England. He joined Mill Hill, and was ordained priest on the 25th of July 1913.

After ordination Fr Malden was sent for further studies and obtained a M.A degree.

He came to the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir in 1919, and served in Rawalpindi, Cherat, Nowshera and Risalpur until 1931.

In 1935, he was appointed to the teaching staff, at Brixen, Italy.

In the Mill Hill Colleges, there was invariably an international staff. For example if there were Hungarian Sisters looking after the domestic side of the college, they would need a German speaking priest as their Spiritual Director. A Dutch man could be appointed to one of the English colleges, for the simple reason that he was proficient in playing the church organ.

When the Second World War broke out Fr Malden’s status in Brixen changed dramatically to ‘enemy alien’. Rather than have himself arrested and interned he took to the hills and hid himself for the duration of the war in the mountains of Tyrol. In 1945 he appeared in Brixen again.

Fr Malden died there on the 25th of December 1947.

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Charles Meyer

Fr Charles Meyer was born at Harrogate in the great country of Yorkshire, England, a fact of which he was rather proud and would not let you forget it.

After his schooldays he was attached to a drapery firm, to learn his father’s business. There they soon discovered his aptitude for figures and exactness in keeping books, qualities to which he owed his appointment as stock-taking clerk – a responsible position for any one so young.

But God’s grace and his own ideals made him bid adieu to drapery and led him to Freshfield to become a missionary.

In due course he was ordained on the 25th of July 1915.

He then received his first appointment - for which he seemed predestined as College Procurator. He spent two years at Mill Hill and in the same capacity two years at Burn Hall before going to the Punjab Mission in 1919.

There he worked as a zealous missionary, in Rawalpindi, Nowshera, Cherat, his affability and kindness winning him many friends.

Fr Meyer’s leadership and administrative qualities must have been evident, for in 1943, the Holy See appointed him Apostolic Administrator 132

of the Multan Diocese, for the duration of the Second World War. This was because the Italian Dominicans there, including Bishop Cialeo, had been interned.

Fr Meyer, however, had to return to Rawalpindi in 1944 to start administering the Prefecture Apostolic of Kafiristan and Kashmir, where the then Prefect, Fr Joseph O’Donohoe had left abruptly.

He held this position till the Prefecture Apostolic was made into the Diocese of Rawalpindi in 1947, and Fr Nicholas Hettinga was appointed its first Bishop.

Fr Meyer was recalled to Mill Hill in 1948 and entrusted with the office of General Oeconomus of the Society.

He seemed to be in good health, but in 1952 he contracted jaundice, and an operation became necessary. It was found that he suffered from cancer of the Pancreas, a disease for which there was no medical or surgical help. The doctor gave him six months to live, but a kindly providence and his strong will to live carried him over eighteen months.

Fr Charles was a great cricket fan – but he was much more than that. He was also a good priest of solid unostentatious piety. Reduced almost to skin and bone, he struggled out of bed every morning to say Mass; even on the very morning of his death he answered the timekeeper’s call – but two hours later he was dead. The end came suddenly.

He died on the 28th of September 1954.

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George Stewart Fr George Stewart was born on the 6th of January 1890, at Dublin, Ireland. He was one of ten children born to Henry and Jane (McLeer) Stewart.

He studied at Elementary school until the age of sixteen and thereafter worked for two years as a bookbinder.

In September 1908 he was admitted to the minor seminary of the Mill Hill Missionaries at Freshfield, near Liverpool, England where he remained for six years to complete his secondary education.

In October 1914, he was promoted to the major seminary at Mill Hill on the outskirts of London, where he studied Philosophy and Theology.

He was ordained priest on the 11th of July 1920, by Bishop Bull, Auxiliary Bishop in Westminster, at St. James’ Church, Spanish Place.

After his ordination he was appointed to the Punjab Mission and left for India on the 10th of October 1920.

Fr George was in Srinagar, Kashmir from 1929 till 1933. In 1931, he built a presbytery in Srinagar with the assistance of the city’s residents and some eager visitors.

Before this period, he had been in Rawalpindi and after it he was in Nowshera till 1936. Then we find him serving in Westridge.

He remained in North India for sixteen years until he was recalled to Ireland for organizing work.

In 1950 he was transferred to Glasgow for similar work which lasted till 1961, when he became chaplain to Bethania, West Bay, Dunoon and remained there till his retirement to Dartry House, Dublin, Ireland in 1973.

He died on the 12th of November 1975, aged 85, at Mt. Carmel Hospital, Dublin.

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Fr John Clarke was ordained priest on December the 2nd 1917.

In 1920, he was appointed to the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir.

By 1930 he had returned to Europe on sick leave, and had asked permission to leave the Society.

He got his release on January the 16th 1931, and was incardinated into the Diocese of Leeds.

On August the 17th 1945 he was incardinated into the Archdiocese of Westminster.

He died on May 5th 1963.

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John styles

Fr John Styles was a native of Liverpool, England having been born there in 1896.

Before he began his studies for the priesthood, he was a clerk in a Solicitor’s office for four years.

He studied at Roosendaal, Holland and Mill Hill, London and was ordained priest on the 20th of July 1924.

From 1924 to1947 Fr Styles worked in the North West Frontier Province of what was in those days, part of the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir.

It was soldier’s country. Every town was a garrison home for at least one or two regiments. Mill Hill provided the chaplains for these forces, so they had to live among the kidnappings, ambushes and skirmishes.

Such was the life of Fr Styles, and we still have to admire all those chaplains for their courage and enthusiasm in their ministry to the troops.

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Over and above his military duties, Fr Styles, somehow or other, found time to render valuable assistance to the local Christians and founded many a new community. These he never forgot, and after his retirement from the mission, never a year passed without sending a donation for projects in the North West Frontier.

In Rawalpindi he began a Goan Club for those of that community attached to the British Army.

In Peshawar he gave a new front to St. Michael’s Church, and inside built an organ loft and provided it with an electric organ. The priest’s house too, he made more inhabitable.

In Kohat he acquired land for the church and at the same time negotiated for church land in Razmak.

His greatest achievements were however, in Nowshera and Risalpur. Today in Risalpur stands one of the finest, if not the foremost church in the former Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir, now known as the Diocese of Rawalpindi. This was no mean success and was entirely due to Fr John’s tact and persuasive powers with the General commanding the region. For years the chaplains had received no allowances, and in lieu thereof, Fr John requested the erection of a new church.

The General was good as his word and today the Church of St. John the Evangelist stands as a shining example of Mill Hill perseverance.

With the creation of Pakistan in 1947, Fr Styles went back to Mill Hill, and became involved in the pastoral ministry.

He died in his native England on the 30th of April 1968, when he was 71 years.

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Herbert Hirst Fr Herbert Hirst was born in Burnley, England on January the 23rd 1895.

After taking evening classes at Burnley Technical Institute, he proceeded to Freshfield in 1914.

The First World War broke out in that same year and in 1916 he joined the army.

A few months later he was in the thick of the fighting in France. It is perhaps a tribute to his character that a year later, in 1917, he received his commission as an officer in the army.

After demobilization in 1919, he went to Roosendaal, Holland for Philosophy and was ordained at Mill Hill on July the 27th 1925.

He was sent to what was known then as the Prefecture Apostolic of Kafiristan and Kashmir.

However, the grim tragedy of the war had taken its toll of him in body and in mind. He had to return to England in 1929, a sick man.

He never fully recovered his health but nevertheless, after a period of convalescence, he was able to take up duties on the organizing staff at Herbert House, Freshfield, and later in 1943, as procurator at Burn Hall.

His health however continued to deteriorate and for a long time he was almost helpless with phlebitis. This in turn seriously influenced his nervous system so that, to his sorrow and great distress he found he was practically incapable of useful work. He was a sad case indeed.

As a young student and priest he was active, energetic, cheerful and generous to a fault and endowed with a fund of deep, simple piety.

This stood him in a good stead to the end. In spite of all his sickness and disabilities, he retained great devotion to the Mass and Rosary. Only a short time before he died, it was discovered that he had cancer in the lungs. He had a peaceful and edifying death, conscious almost to the end, which came on the18th of May 1961.

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James Moss “Old soldiers never die, they only fade away”….. or so it seemed to those who knew and remembered Fr James Moss.

He was on home-leave, but alas, he would not return, and add some more years to his already thirty-nine of service on the Missions? He had booked return passage for March 1967, but God ordained otherwise.

His death on the 1st of October 1966 was sudden. Yet he would not have been unprepared, for how often in his life, had he come to the assistance of others in their last moments… those soldiers on the North West Frontier of India where life was so uncertain, and even more so in the Burma Campaign when again as a chaplain, he had unflinchingly shared the dangers.

Fr Gerry Mallett, who had Fr Moss as an assistant in the Chaklala St. Mary’s School wrote on how ‘Jimmy Moss’ got his M.B.E: “Jim was a brave man. He was with an advance clearing station in Burma that was overrun by the Japs at night. His unit, a group of some six men, voted for surrender but, as senior officer present, Jim would not allow this. He led the men, crawling in the darkness, through and around the pockets of enemy, to safety.” His bravery and devotion to duty on the field of battle, was recognized by the British Government.

While enjoying the hospitality and kindness of his close family friends, the sister of Mgr. Ireland, he was taken suddenly ill and died a few minutes of his entering hospital.

Mgr. Ireland’s sister wrote: “Fr Jimmy’s death was a terrible shock, but though very sad, I cannot grieve, for I see the hand of God in it 139

all. The doctor said that with more time, he thought he could have done something, but Father would have been an invalid for the rest of his life.”

Bishop Hettinga echoed similar sentiments of thankful praise for the mercy of God in his panegyric to a capacity congregation during the concelebrated Requiem Mass offered for Fr Moss in the Cathedral of Rawalpindi, on the 5th of October 1966. Perhaps it was only then that all fully realized that they had lost on earth such an excellent priest.

His Lordship; while reviewing Fr Moss’ history as a missionary priest, ordained on the 19th of July 1925, said his days as chaplain to the forces, as parish priest in various stations, as confessor to the Sisters, his term of office as Society Superior, his work in the schools, stressed that there were two personal memories of Fr Moss which he would like to put on record.

He remembered his own early days as a young priest when trying to establish an orphanage, he had to face many difficulties, financial and otherwise, and it was from far away from Burma that financial aid and encouragement came. In more recent years as Bishop, he had been so grateful to Fr Moss when he rapidly accepted, at the age of 60, to go alone to Sangota Swat, a new distant and isolated station where priests, if not entirely unknown, were not welcome. Possible danger and certain loneliness did not deter Fr Moss.

Sr. Mariam Murphy mentions Fr Jimmy Moss in her book, in connection with the beginnings of the Presentation Sisters in Risalpur: “Fr Dolan was the parish priest at Nowshera, so Risalpur, ten miles further on, came under his jurisdiction. We, Sisters were to stay in the parish house while he and Fr Moss (who turned up in a top hat to honour the occasion) went elsewhere.” This wearing of the top hat must have given special joy to the Presentation Sisters, but what Jimmy Moss was actually doing was wearing the clerical outfit of his native Preston of those days Obedience and a firm sense of duty were his hallmark. He was so strong in his faith, perhaps the legacy of his home-village, Orell, where the faith had been preserved in those days of persecution. And his personal devotion to the Holy Spirit from Whom surely he had derived the courage he had displayed on so many occasions.

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Peter Swinkels

Fr Peter Swinkels was born at Schijndel, Holland on the 21st of October 1895.

He was ordained priest at Mill Hill on the 18th of July 1926.

His appointment was to Nellore India, where he worked for about eight years.

He began his missionary career in Madras and was transferred to Kashmir.

Fr Swinkels only technically belongs to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, previously the Prefecture Apostolic of Kafiristan and Kashmir, because at partition time, 1947, Kashmir, ecclesiastically was not officially separated from Rawalpindi. This official separation from Kashmir only took place in 1952.

After the division of the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Fr Swinkels went on home-leave on the 20th of May 1956.

At home, he was going down to the church to say Mass on the 4th July of 1956, when he was thrown off his motor propelled bicycle (bromfiets) and seriously injured. He was taken to the Hospital but died the same morning.

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Robert Ellison Fr Robert Ellison was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England in 1902.

He began his early education at St. Bede’s Grammar School and came to Freshfield in 1916.

He was ordained priest at Mill Hill on the 18th of July 1926, and was appointed to the Punjab Mission India, better known in those days as the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir.

After working in Rawalpindi and Peshawar he was sent to the wild and troubled North West Frontier. For eighteen months he visited and said Holy Mass in all the camps from Razmak to Parachinar.

Fr Ellison was always most approachable and understanding; he made everyone his friend. His kindly wit and scintillating humor lightened many a dull moment in lonely outposts, but above all, his obvious sincerity impressed all with whom he came into contact.

From his early days in the mission he showed a keen and knowledgeable interest in construction, and he was eventually allotted to work of that nature.

He built what is now called the ‘Old’ Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi City. In these days this building is in use by St. Mary’s School.

When the Asian flu epidemic of 1918 forced the closure of Yussufpur village its land was sold, and the proceeds was used for the construction of the Holy Family Hospital.

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Fr Ellison was also responsible for the construction of the Murree Presbytery, which served as a holiday resort in the hills for the missionary priests working in the arid and dusty Punjab Plains.

The new and spacious teacher’s quarters at the Jesus and Mary Convent, Pindi Point, Murree, was his next assignment.

After this we see him in Kashmir, building the first sections, and the clock tower of the magnificent Presentation College in Srinagar, which events proved were to be his last edifices.

Fr Ellison returned to England shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War and served as an R.A.F chaplain until illness occasioned his retirement.

He then served for some years as procurator to Burn Hall, and later at Lochwinnoch, and was eventually appointed to Herbert House, Freshfield.

The Sisters there were witness to his unfailing courtesy and willingness to help at all times; from the repairing of the frying-pan to the planning of a new convent.

No-one realized that his health was failing, and that he was in fact seriously ill with pulmonary carcinoma. His sufferings became apparent only a few weeks before his death on the 30th of June 1965.

During his last days he was aided and comforted by the devotion of his fellow priests and the sisters, and as a reward of his missionary labours his Divine master gave him the great grace and consolation of having his brother-missionaries around his bedside in the last moments of his life.

Fully conscious to the end, he died just as Fr Rector was giving him the final absolution. The real “Bobbie� was known only to a few who laboured with him in Kafiristan and Kashmir, where as a missionary and craftsman he worked so hard for the future of that lovely land.

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James Lavery Fr James Lavery was born on the 16th of January 1902 in Benwell, in the diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, England.

He studied at the St. Joseph’s colleges in Freshfield, Roosendaal and Mill Hill, and was ordained priest in Mill Hill on the 17th of July 1927.

After ordination he was appointed to the mission in the Punjab, India, where he laboured for the next 37 years until his retirement in 1964.

He started an Urdu medium school in Lalkurti, Rawalpindi in the late twenties, which in 1931 traveled with him to Rawalpindi-City to the grounds of the Holy Family Hospital.

In the Holy Family Hospital there was a residential bungalow for a priest, which is now part of St Patrick’s School. From there Fr Lavery continued the school, which became the forerunner of what is now St. Patrick’s and St. Teresa’s.

He had his share of army chaplaincies, in Nowshera, Risalpur Cherat, but in all places he looked towards and got busy in the grass roots apostolate.

On his retirement, he continued being pastorally active in England, and was chaplain, at Marlow, Seaton and Guernsey, until he retired to Herbert House, Freshfield.

He died on Monday the 1st of June 1987 in Fr Frank O’Leary’s “Jospice International” in Thornton, Liverpool, after a long illness.

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Patrick Stenson Fr Patrick Stenson was born on 13th April 1903, in Blackburn, in the diocese of Salford, England.

After attending St. Alban’s High Grade School, for six years he went to Freshfield, then Roosendaal, and then Mill Hill.

He was ordained priest in Mill Hill on the 17th of July 1927.

After ordination he was appointed to the Punjab Mission (Rawalpindi), where he worked for the next 45 years.

His fellow priests called him Paddy. With so many years on the mission he was their link with the past.

Paddy spent his early ministry with the British army as chaplain in places like Razmak and Ghora Dhaka. He loved the sight of soldiers marching to church on a Sunday.

He once had a race with Fr Hettinga; Paddy on horse back and Fr Hettinga on his ‘Tonga’. It is said that Paddy lost the race, because he hadn’t been out much with his horse after the winter.

After the Independence of Pakistan in 1947, Paddy continued to work with the local church. He was in Peshawar-City, Nowshera, Risalpur, and Murree.

In 1972, he returned to England for good and took up residence in Herbert House, Freshfield. He continued to do supply work in his native Lancashire, until failing eyesight made this impossible for him.

He died in Herbert House, Freshfield, on the 8th of January 1991, at the age of 87 years.

Fr Patrick Stenson was a man of prayer, always faithful to the Divine Office in his unostentatious way, even in the rough conditions of Frontier life and in the extreme conditions of heat and cold in Kashmir.

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Leo Turnbull Fr Leo Turnbull was born on the 13th July 1902 at 29 Moncreiffe St, Bolton, Lancs, England. He was one of six brothers and four sisters.

His father was Charles Turnbull, a newsagent and tobacconist, and his mother was Mary Campbell. Mary's mother was Jane, nee Hanlon, an aunt of Bishop Henry Hanlon.

Fr Leo's brothers Thomas and Henry were also Mill Hill Missionaries. His younger brother Joseph is the father of Peter Turnbull, assistant archivist for Mill Hill, and supplier of most of the material for this book.

Fr Leo Turnbull was ordained on the 20th of July 1930, and appointed to the Prefecture Apostolic of Kafiristan and Kashmir, North India.

Fr Leo had his share of the usual assignments for those days: Westridge, Ghora Dhaka, Kashmir, Murree, Rawalpindi, and Risalpur. He belonged to that set of priests, who do all the work out in the field, away from the centre of power.

Sixteen years on the mission in the Punjab so undermined his health that he was invalided home after the war and had to spend the next two years in hospital.

It however, was no self-pitying invalid that joined Freshfield’s staff in 1948. In fact he seldom mentioned his health, and students and 146

Fathers soon found that Fr Leo was a formidable opponent at most games, indoor and outdoor. He became Sports Master, imparting to the students something of his own skills and interest.

Fathers who followed him as Sports Master when Fr Leo became Procurator in 1950 were always keen to turn to him for help and advice, although this advice was not forced on them. Many an older priest can seem rather forbidding to a younger man straight from Mill Hill, but new arrivals in Freshfield soon found that Fr Leo was equally at home in the company of old and young. He did not need to pretend to share the interests of others – their interests were his interests. One who knew him as a student says that he was the most popular student in Mill Hill, though he never courted popularity, going his own quite way.

Many business men leave their affairs in a muddle if death should catch them unaware, but the Father who took up the threads of the Procurator’s work after Fr Leo’s death, found every ledger, every letter, every item of business carefully attended to and up to date. The Rector and everyone else knew that any job entrusted to Fr Leo however trivial, would be attended to promptly, without any need of a reminder.

The same meticulous care that went into his work and his games went also to his religious duties. It is easy to plead other duties as an excuse on arriving late at prayers, but Fr Leo was always there on the dot, and as he came in, he often pinned a card on the chapel notice board asking for prayers for the souls of some members of the Society, or relations or friends of someone in the house.

“A conscientious priest, a friend of all in the community.” Each of us would like to think that this could be said of us at death, and it can be said in all sincerity of Fr Leo Turnbull. He died suddenly, in the night of February the 25th 1964, surrounded by his fellow priests, and while receiving the Last Sacrament from the Rector. Before retiring that night, he had joined the Brothers in a game of billiards.

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William Murphy

Fr William Murphy was born in Liverpool on July the 30th 1900.

He studied in the Mill Hill colleges of Freshfield, Roosendaal and Mill Hill itself.

He was ordained priest on the 19th of July 1931, and was appointed to the Punjab Mission, North India, where he was to spend almost 40 years labouring in the Vineyard, half of this time before Partition (1947) and half following.

Fr Bill Murphy was in Peshawar, Nowshera, and Kohat for many years, also in Westridge with its summer outlet to Ayubia.

Before Partition, Fr Murphy lived at Dera Ismail Khan for some time, from where it is said he was spreading the light of the Gospel from the Dak Bungalow. Maybe Bill invented the pun himself. He was a great exponent of the English pun.

It was during this time, that Bill became known as a person, to whom a poor man, a widow or an orphan could always turn.

In the Fifties, Bill was in Risalpur. Babu Nazir William, who was his catechist at the time, used to tell how Fr Murphy went out of his way to get anyone, who was half qualified, a job with the government, and that Fr Murphy was helpful in so many other ways.

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Fr Murphy once said to Prince Philip, who was on visit to Pakistan, that he was proud to serve in the army of the Lord, and had been proud to serve in the 5th Battalion of the King’s Liverpool Regiment.

Bishop Hettinga knew that Fr Bill, personally, did not need too much to survive. He sent Bill to set up the new Wah Parish with nothing.

Fr Murphy, he considered, would know where to find things.

For the last years he was in Murree, where his main task was running the Mill Hill House and looking after the spiritual welfare of the Jesus & Mary and Presentation Sisters. Bill left an impression on all who met him.

Owing to ill health he was unable to return to Pakistan when on home-leave in 1969, but once he recovered sufficiently he continued to work in his native England.

While on supply in Preston, he stayed overnight at Herbert House, Freshfield where he became ill, was taken to hospital and underwent an operation for hernia. However, he died of heart failure. It was the 11th of December 1973.

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William Moran

Fr William Moran was born on the 5th of April 1906, in Prestwich, in the Diocese of Salford, England.

After four years at St. Bede’s, he went to Freshfield, then on to Roosendaal, and later Mill Hill.

He was ordained priest in Mill Hill on 19th of July 1931, and appointed to the Punjab Mission, North India.

He worked in the Prefecture Apostolic of Kafiristan and Kashmir till 1947, when ill health forced him to return for good to his native country.

Oral tradition tells that he was normally referred to as Bill Moran.

He was the classmate of other great men such as Joe Dolan and William Murphy.

Fr Moran was stationed in Rawalpindi, Kohat, Razmak, Nowshera and Baramulla.

In 1949, he took up residence in Herbert House, Freshfield, and from time to time undertook pastoral work.

A short time before his death, he suffered a stroke and was transferred to Southport and Formby District General Hospital in Southport, where he died on the 3rd of September 1990, at the age of 84.

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Joseph Dolan

Fr Joseph Dolan was born in Notting Hill, London, on the 10th of September 1905, into a family of six children. He had two brothers and three sisters.

He went to Freshfield for his Secondary Education from 1919 until 1925.

He studied Philosophy in Roosendaal, from 1925 to 1927, when he went to Mill Hill for the study of Theology.

He was ordained priest in Mill Hill on the 19th of July 1931.

On his ordination he was appointed to the Prefecture Apostolic of Kafiristan and Kashmir.

Fr Dolan spent almost 30 years working in the Punjab, during which time he was active in Nowshera, Risalpur, Rawalpindi-City, Razmak, Cherat and Kohat. From 1941-1946 he served as a chaplain during the Second World War. After Partition in 1947, he spent time in the Nowshera parish, where he had a catechist by the name of Francis. Francis’ daughter became a FMM Sister, Sr. Clare Francis, with whom Fr Joe Dolan corresponded by letter till the very end of his life.

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In 1962 he returned to Britain for reasons of ill health, but continued to minister as chaplain in such places as the Carmelite Monastery, in Bramshott and from 1963, he served as chaplain in Croft, Darlington. He spent some time also as chaplain with the Presentation Brothers in Reading, and with the Franciscan Missionaries of St. Joseph in Eccleshall.

He retired to Herbert House in 1972, and in July 2001, Fr Joe celebrated the 70th Anniversary of his Ordination.

Fr Dolan often suffered from great pain and had difficulty breathing. He bore his suffering humbly and was always very grateful for any help or kindness he received. He was a gentle and gracious man to the end, a person of quiet and pleasant personality and was very much appreciated by the Herbert House Community.

During his last few days the great pain seemed to leave him completely. He died very peacefully on the 8th of May 2002, at the age of 96. Until his death Joe was the oldest member in the Mill Hill Missionary Society.

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William Carty

Fr William Carty was born on 6th of March 1906 in Sunderland, in the diocese of Hexham, Newcastle, England.

He studied in the Mill Hill colleges of Freshfield, Roosendaal and Mill Hill.

He was ordained priest in Mill Hill on 20th of July 1930. His first appointment was to Freshfield, followed in 1932 by his appointment to the Punjab Mission where he worked till 1966.

His main place of work in all those years was the Rawalpindi-City parish, which was the Punjabi parish in Rawalpindi at the time. It included all the surrounding areas, but gradually places like Jhelum, Wah, Attock (Campbellpur) were separated from it.

The present church in the old Holy Family Hospital grounds was built by Fr Carty.

He was also the Urdu expert in the Diocese, and the examiner for ecclesiastical Urdu. Passing these exams in the language meant that a priest would get faculties to hear Confession and an increase in his allowance.

Fr Carty was also the Diocesan representative on the commission, which produced the Urdu Ritual in 1958.

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During the Second World War, Bill Carty was one of the priests sent to Multan to stand in for the Italian Dominicans who had been interned.

His last few years were spent in Peshawar Cantt., but soon after the 1965 Indo/Pakistan war, Bill left and went to his own country.

In 1966, he went to the U.S.A, to do supply work, after which he helped with the organizing in Freshfield, England.

In 1978 he retired to Burn Hall and in 1980 to Herbert House, where he still helped out in the organizing office.

A week before his death he fell ill, but apparently there was nothing serious to be worried about. However, Fr William Carty died on 9th of February 1988, in Herbert House, Freshfield, at the age of 81 years.

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Alfred Bull Fr Alfred Bull was born in Manchester, England on the 2nd of February 1904. His father was a foreign correspondent. He had two brothers and three sisters.

He studied in Mount St. Mary’s, Chesterfield, for seven years, before he began his formation with Mill Hill in Freshfield in 1923.

In 1926 he went to Roosendaal in the Netherlands to study Philosophy.

After two years he came to Mill Hill for the study of Theology.

He was ordained priest on the 17th of July 1932 by Bishop J. Biermans, who was then Superior General.

After his ordination he was appointed to Rawalpindi, India, and left for the Punjab on the 15th of October 1932.

In Rawalpindi, he quickly became known as ‘Johnny Bull’. Apart from Rawalpindi he laboured in Murree, Nowshera, and Risalpur.

We also see him assigned to Chak 36 S.B. This was soon after the Sargodha parish area was handed over from the Lahore Diocese to Rawalpindi.

Before he retired from the mission, in the first half of the sixties, he was again at Risalpur. He had a hearing problem and people used to refer to his hearing aid as a ‘machine’.

In July 1964 he was appointed to organizing work in Freshford, Ireland. He liked to get around on his motorbike, see places, and meet people in the course of his work.

In September 1980, he retired to Herbert House in Freshfield, England, and took over the maintenance of the rose garden and the lawn, and in 1992 was very happy to be able to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of his priestly ordination with relatives, friends and community there.

Father Alfred Bull died in Southport Hospital, England on the 11th of January 1999, at the age of 94.

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Herman Thijssen Fr Herman Thijssen was born in Haarlem, the st Netherlands, on the 1 of September 1903.

He studied at Mill Hill colleges in Tilburg, Roosendaal and Mill Hill.

He was ordained priest on the 17th of July 1932 in Mill Hill and appointed to Nellore, India.

Not a year had passed than he was transferred to Kashmir for health reasons. This was a wise decision, as Fr Thijssen eventually reached the ripe old age of 79.

After Partition in 1947, he migrated to the Rawalpindi-side and once there, he was simply called ‘Thijs’.

Starting, managing and building schools were his special charisma, and it was not long after his arrival in Rawalpindi City that he got St. Mary’s School up and running.

He also started St Mary’s School, in Peshawar, and was highly involved with Burn Hall School, Abbottabad.

When the Mangla Dam, Jhelum was being built, he was appointed there as parish priest. This was a new realm of activity for him, but his efforts were highly appreciated. With the income from this new ‘parish’, he was able to build a new priest’s house in Jhelum. Building the house was easier for Thijs than getting Fr Peer Verhey, the priest in Jhelum, to vacate the old house. Thijs loved to have an audience for his stories about days gone by, and for his analysis of the current affairs of the Diocese.

He retired to Oosterbeek, Holland in 1972, and in 1979, he was transferred to Vrijland.

He died in Vrijland on the 23rd of September 1982, after a long illness.

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Bp. Nicholas Hettinga

Bishop Nicholas Hettinga was born on the 8th of July 1908 at Itzega, in the archdiocese of Utrecht, the Netherlands.

He was educated at the Episcopal College in Roermond, and at Roosendaal and Mill Hill.

He was ordained priest on 9th of July 1933 and appointed to the Punjab Mission.

There, his first appointment was to Peshawar City, where he laid the foundations of the Peshawar City Parish.

In 1947, the Prefecture of Kashmir and Kafiristan was raised in status to the Diocese of Rawalpindi. Fr Nicholas Hettinga was nominated as first bishop. He was on home leave at the time. So he had himself ordained in the Netherlands before arriving to take up charge of the Diocese in January 1948.

Bishop Hettinga arrived in Rawalpindi when the Partition problems were at their height. The new diocese had the same boundaries as the pervious prefecture; but it was an open question whether they would remain that way.

He saw that immediate action was needed to secure the safety of the children under the mission’s care. The most pressing need was the safety of the orphans at Baramulla, and of the boys at Burn Hall School, Srinagar.

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Bishop Hettinga first tackled the problem of the orphans. They were all to be brought out of Kashmir. The girls were to go to St. Catherine’s, Lalkurti Bazaar, Rawalpindi. They would be cared for by the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary Sisters. The boys were to go to St. John’s, Kohati Gate, Peshawar, under the care of the Mill Hill Fathers.

The boys at Burn Hall, Srinagar, were by no means destitute.

While they were at school, their parents considered them as wards of the mission. The political situation in Kashmir was so volatile that they must be moved quickly to a safer place. Bishop Hettinga chose to move Burn Hall School to Abbottabad.

So the beginning of his life as bishop coincided with the beginnings of Pakistan as a new country. It was also the beginning of a local Church at the end of the colonial era. Bishop Hettinga set about the building up of the indigenous church through education. He had many plans, but never seemed to have the necessary funds to bring them into being.

In the fifties he had planned to start a minor seminary in Rawalpindi-City, but it did not get off the ground. Yet, before his death he had ordained the first local priests for the Diocese.

Later when foreign aid became available, Bishop Hettinga tapped that source for the social development of the Christian Community. The Holy Family Hospital was moved to its new location in Satellite Town, Rawalpindi. The Rosary Hospital in Gujrat and the Fatima Hospital in Sargodha were set in operation.

The forerunner of the present Sargodha Institute of Technology was set up in conjunction with the Mill Hill Brothers.

Bishop Hettinga attended all the sessions of the Second Vatican Council. This helped him greatly to make Rawalpindi known to a world wide audience.

With the fall of the military sponsored government after the 1971 Pakistan/India war, a new era of democracy and people power was ushered in. The Holy Family Hospital was taken out of the hands of the Church. This was a source of great sorrow for Bishop Hettinga. He lost the ‘Mother’ of all hospitals.

Leading the Church into new and changing times was not always an easy task, but with his trust, courage, hope and daring Bishop Hettinga managed.

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He never fled from the problems around him. When there were floods in Josephabad, he went there to see for himself. Of that visit there is the famous photograph of Bishop Hettinga, sitting in a ‘Karaha,’ (a huge frying pan used by the farmers to boil the sugarcane juice) being floated about the village, as he observed at close quarters, the people’s lot.

The last months of his life were very difficult for him, as he became aware of his failing health. He had never imagined that there was something that could beat him In the end he underwent a prostate operation, and very soon yet another was necessary – this time for a clot on the brain. Bishop Nicholas Hettinga died in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on 26th of December 1973 at the age of 65.

His grave is to one side of St. Joseph’s Cathedral, Rawalpindi. He was ‘Qaid-e-Kalisia’ of the Diocese of Rawalpindi, and is revered as ‘saint’ by the people.

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Fr Alexander Andrews was ordained in 1933, and was appointed to the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir.

After his arrival he went together with Fr Nicholas Hettinga to St. Joseph’s School, Baramulla, Kashmir. Fr Hettinga was soon transferred to Peshawar.

With the earnest efforts of Fr Andrews, a boarding was established there in 1934, thereby opening the doors of enlightenment to learners from outside the state. With their advent the school gained admirable prominence, as it soon became known throughout the entire area for its academic excellence.

In 1937, Fr George Shanks arrived at Baramulla to assist Fr Andrews in setting up St. Joseph’s College. The college proved to be a phenomenal success, thereby making a reality of a long and cherished dream of the Mill Hills.

In 1941, Fr Andrews left Baramulla to become an army chaplain in Rawalpindi, leaving Fr Shanks as Principal of the college.

He served in Rawalpindi until 1948, when he left the Society, and went to the USA. 160

George Shanks Mgr. George Shanks was born at Cullercoats, Whitley Bay, England on the 23rd of February 1909.

After his ordination on the 17 of September 1933, he was appointed to the double task of teaching at Burn Hall and following a course at Durham University. th

In 1937 having taken a good honours degree at Durham, he was assigned to the Punjab Mission, in Kashmir.

In those days at Baramulla the mission ran a vernacular High School for the boys, an English medium boarding school and an Intermediate College. Fr Shanks was appointed to the staff and there he worked for ten years. Taking over as principal from Fr Alexander Andrews in 1941, he raised the college to degree standard by 1943.

During those early years Fr Shanks hankered for village work but his talents as a teacher were considered too valuable in the college.

Fundamentally what a teacher teaches is himself and students are acute in their perception. The great influence he exercised over his pupils and the very real affection in which they held him, rested on his qualities of character and personality. The students saw in him a priest who was good and manly and kind.

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Fr Shanks and Fr Mallett were stationed in Baramulla, when on the of October 1947 unruly Pathan tribesmen reached that town, and 161

ransacked the hospital run by the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. At least six people in the hospital were killed. During the coming days there was also danger from the air, when the Indian Air Force counter attacked.

A reporter of the ‘Standard Times’, Sydney Smith, happened to be in Baramulla and he wrote a month later: “I want to tell a story that Fr Shanks will never tell. For ten days I lived in Baramulla, in St. Joseph’s Hospital ward, 50’ x 20’, with 77 refugees, under attack by tribesmen. The Hero, Fr Shanks, who was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne, became our leader and comforter, as we were harassed day and night by tribesmen and shelled by the Indian Air force. I saw him hiding Hindu and Sikh girls and defying the loot mad Pathans. He stood at the door of the room where the women-folk were put for the night, saying to raiders ‘Over my dead body’.

He rolled up his sleeves and dug air-raid shelters”….

They were eventually rescued on the 5th of November by Pakistan Government Forces, but the incursion of the Pathan tribesmen into the Kashmir State, put an end to this period of Fr Shanks’ priestly life; which he sometime referred to as that of the Joyful Mysteries, and which now gave way to the Sorrowful ones. The work of ten years was smashed in the material sense, though the spiritual results of it continue and will continue to the end of time.

After a period of home-leave Fr Shanks was appointed Headmaster to Burn School, Abbottabad. This school founded by Fr Herman Thijssen in Srinagar in 1943, had been re-established in Pakistan after the partition of British India (1947).

In 1952 the Prefecture Apostolic of Kashmir and Jammu was formed, Mgr. Shanks becoming its first Prefect. The next ten years were marked by suffering. He felt the heavy responsibilities of this new and difficult task from the beginning. The constant worries wore down his nerves. Almost from the moment of his appointment he felt incessant pain, ‘pins and needles’ in his legs, which became numb, and made walking difficult. Early in 1953, he fell ill with T.B. of the lungs and was confined to bed for nine months. He suffered quietly, without self pity, meanwhile setting about the work of organizing the Prefecture.

A number of Christians lived in Jammu, the winter capital of the State. Originally an outstation from Lahore and later from Srinagar, 162

Jammu never had a resident priest until 1952 when Mgr. Shanks opened a mission station there. It is now a flourishing mission with two very busy resident priests. The Presentation Sisters had opened a school there and were finding it difficult to cope with all the applications for admission.

Next Mgr. Shanks turned his attention to the Kashmir Province; where he re-opened the college at Baramulla. A few years later, however, it had to be closed again from lack of funds. In Srinagar he opened a new Burn Hall school in 1956, which flourished.

During these years of worries and discouraging difficulties in the Prefecture, Mgr. Shanks’ health deteriorated. Slowly his breathing became difficult and it was found that he was suffering from emphysema. His legs swelled and his heart began malfunctioning under the constant strain of difficult breathing. It was not unusual to find him lying back in his chair hardly able to talk.

In April 1962, he was advised to take a few months rest at home.

Initially this did him good, but the unusually dull and moist weather in England began to tell on him and by November his condition had become worse. He himself felt he could not survive and he made a firm, unshakeable decision to return to his mission to die there. His passage by plane was booked and he was driven to Mill Hill to fly the following day.

He arrived in an exhausted state and within half an hour was admitted to St. Andrew’s Hospital, Dollis Hill. There his condition took a serious turn and he received the Last Sacrament.

The smog settled over London and all hope of his recovery faded, Mgr. Shanks prepared for death. He prayed incessantly and on the morning of December the 13th 1962 he told his friends, he would not detain them much longer. He died at 8:00am Thus a great man went to his reward, a man full of charity and love.

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Gerard Mallett In a letter of 1967 Fr Mallett wrote: “I shall be in the mountains at Ghora Gali from 1019 December attending the Rover Wood Badge. This would probably finish off the work started by the Cub Wood Badge and kill me. I wish to be buried in Scout uniform, my three wood badges being reverently placed in my coffin. A ‘scouts own’ should be held at the graveside and on my gravestone there should be engraved the scouts Fleur-de-lis and the words: ‘There’s one born every minute’. Our regret is that we do not have more priests like Fr Mallett born every minute.

If he was not exactly buried in his Scouts uniform, he certainly died as he would have wished. On Sunday morning 20th of June 1970, he left the village with a small group of scouts for what was to be his last camping expedition. He died of heat stroke within a few hours.

Fr Mallett was born in England on the 4th of December 1913. He joined Mill Hill, London, from St. Edmund’s College, Ware, and his first appointment after his ordination in 1938, was to St. Joseph’s College, Baramulla, Kashmir.

He was there until 1947, when along with Mgr. George Shanks; he narrowly escaped death after the college had been occupied by Pathan tribesmen during the fight for Kashmir. He was, in fact, next on the list to be shot, but fortunately an officer of the tribesmen, who had been educated by the Presentation Sisters in Peshawar, intervened at the last moment.

Thus Fr Mallett was granted another twenty-three years of priestly life which he spent wholeheartedly in the service of the Youth of Pakistan, beginning in St. Mary’s School, Chaklala, Rawalpindi.

So many people remembered Fr Mallett with gratitude and affection for what he did for them during their school-days. A firm 164

believer in the value of Scouting in the training of character, he was himself an important member of the Pakistan Scout Association.

After the Vatican Council there was a kind of ‘vox populi’ in the Diocese, called Viribus Unitis. Fr Mallett was the chief editor and the main contributor. The rest of the editorial staff was Fr Henk van Grieken and Fr Karel Heideman. It voiced the new thoughts of the Vatican Council.

Fr Mallett was no expert in the Urdu language. In 1965 the Urdu vernacular was introduced in the liturgy. Down in Dera Ismail Kahn Fr Gerry said to his assistant, Fr Piet Koomen: “you say the Mass and I’ll hear the Confessions, as you know Urdu better, but I know the sins.”

After so many years in the towns, his last few years were spent in a village, Chak 36 SB, near Sargodha. For him this was a new environment, a new challenge. He knew so little of the local language, yet his services were in no way limited. He gave the same love and affection to the village pupils that he had given to the more well-to-do students of the town. And he worked so hard with his parish priest to launch an appeal in England to further the general welfare of the village. Success was theirs – or rather God’s – for as Fr Mallett wrote. “I feel that this place has God’s special blessing – nothing to do with me, God forgive me, but our trust in St. Joseph is being rewarded….”

The concelebrated Requiem Mass and funeral was held in Rawalpindi on 29th of June. Apart from his Bishop and fellow priests, it was a matter of pride and consolation that so many of his former students, some now Government officials, were present to pay their last respects to a great friend and teacher. And those who could not attend extended their sympathy.

As one young physician, a Muslim wrote: “Fr Mallett taught me moral values, social ethics and the code of life of a gentleman. He would always exhort us to be good, truthful and kind. His teaching and precepts have been my guide during all these years. And they have helped me to attain my hopes of being a physician”.

Fr Gerry Mallett’s death was rather sudden, but as a priest and scout, he was always prepared, and the good deeds he did in his life live on. He was buried in Rawalpindi cemetery.

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Gerard Luif The summer of 1970 was not easy for the Diocese of Rawalpindi. Scarcely had it recovered from the shock of the sudden death of Fr Gerard Mallett in late June than it suffered a further great loss on the 6th of August with the death of Fr Gerard Luif. Perhaps it is only afterwards that we remember that God tries the hearts of those He loves.

Fr Luif was born in Hilversum, Holland on the 22nd April 1909, and was ordained priest in Mill Hill, London on the 8th of July 1934.

The first few years he had spent in the Colleges at Tilburg and Freshfield were to be a most valuable experience and training for his future work.

In 1938, he was appointed to the Punjab mission, where for thirty two years he furthered the cause of education, though his services and influence extended far beyond the classroom.

He was an exceptional man by any standards. He had all the virtues and not a few talents, while his work encompassed so much good to so many people: the villagers in the Christian settlements, the poor children in the Orphanage, the pupils in his schools, the few Christians in his parish, the countless Muslims in his district.

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The foundation of all his varied activities was his solid piety. He never made work or fatigue an excuse from his spiritual duties; never neglected his daily Mass whatever the number of his congregation, whether few or none. As the insidious disease, leukemia, sapped the strength of his once stalwart frame, he died still clutching his Rosary.

He was a scholar. The books he brought out from home were treasured possessions, not mildewed relics from student days. He read widely and usefully. His firm grasp of the local languages was the key to his contact work, while his intimate knowledge of Islamic Theology made him a respected learned resident in the Muslim community. In Christian Theology, he was familiar with the new approaches and changes. There was little need of ‘renewal’ in his personal life.

His last six years were spent in what was certainly the most difficult and arduous station in the Diocese. He was alone in Dera Ismail Khan, a place with all the drawbacks of isolation, great heat, very few Christians, and physical dangers. It was here he had to face his most heartbreaking trial, when, after pouring out so much charity and service for others, he was labeled by some local officials as an undesirable foreigner and his immediate expulsion recommended. Thank God common sense and justice prevailed; the expulsion order was cancelled and Fr Luif resumed his work.

In spite of the Bishop’s offer of an immediate change he preferred to stay at his post. That he viewed all the slander and ingratitude in the light of the Gospel was some measure of his sterling qualities.

Fr Gerry Luif stayed in Dera Ismail Khan till leukemia had wasted him and he was too sick to continue. Fr John Nevin led the expedition to get him to Rawalpindi and the Holy Family Hospital.

Fr Gerry Luif died on the 6th of August 1970.

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Anthony Geerdes

Fr Anthony Geerdes was born on the 3rd of April 1910 in Schiedam, in the Diocese of Haarlem, the Netherlands.

After studying at the Gymnasium in Schiedam, and St. Willibrordus College in Katwijk, he went in 1925 to the College in Tilburg, in 1930 to Roosendaal, and in 1932 to Mill Hill, London.

He was ordained priest in Mill Hill on the 12th of July 1936.

After his ordination he was appointed to what is now Rawalpindi, Pakistan, where he worked till 1975.

For short he was called ‘Tom’ Geerdes. His first years on the mission were in Baramulla, Kashmir, but during the Second World War he was one of the Mill Hill priests who were sent to the Multan Diocese to replace the Italian Dominicans who had been interned. Fr Geerdes looked after the Layallpur (now Faisalabad) Parish.

Soon after Partition in 1947, work had begun on building the main church in Sargodha. There were only walls to be seen for some years. It was Fr Tom Geerdes who eventually completed this task in 1952.

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He also built St. Helen’s School, in Dera Ismail Khan in 1958, and added living space to the church building there.

Two years later Fr Tom started St. Edmund’s School in Bannu, on government property. The government also supplied a place to live, where he had a small church constructed. After Fr Tom, Fr Jac Copray was in Bannu for a while until 1964.

Fr Geerdes was assigned to Peshawar City as parish priest, and there supervised all the activities of the church compound. St. John’s School reached Matric level combined with technical subjects. Workshops were built and equipped to qualify the school for these same subjects.

From Peshawar he was transferred to Wah in the late sixties. Fr Geerdes once organized an inter parish Legion of the Mary seminar there, which was hugely attended.

In 1975 he went to Birmingham, England to work with the Pakistani/Indian Christian Community, and spent many years in this Apostolate.

In 1986 he was forced to retire because of failing eyesight and he took up residence in Huize Vrijland, Holland. He was there for only two years when he died on the 22nd of August 1989.

Fr Tom Geerdes was a most gentlemanly person. His involvement in the mission also shows that he was ready to do new things and move on.

There were not too many situations which would upset him. Tom kept his composure at all time.

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Piet de Vreede

Fr Piet de Vreede was born in Pijnacker, in the Diocese of Haarlem, the Netherlands on the 6th of July 1913.

After studying in the Colleges of Tilburg, Roosendaal and Mill Hill, he was ordained priest in Mill Hill on the 11th of July 1937 and appointed to the mission of Kafiristan and Kashmir, later the Diocese of Rawalpindi.

Apart from a short period of teaching in Burn Hall, Abbottabad, he worked on the mission from 1937 till 1982 with great expertise and dedication in the pastoral field.

In the early forties he was in Gujrat parish. Missionaries in those days used to tour the villages by bullock cart, on which they loaded all their equipment. The pace was too slow for Fr Piet, so he used to cycle ahead and let the caravan catch up in its own time.

Fr De Vreede was a fluent speaker of the Punjabi Language, and was acquainted with ancient Punjabi literature.

In 1963 he was elected delegate to the General Chapter.

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Socio-economics and cooperatives were part of his apostolic life.

He developed these talents in Sargodha, Josephabad and Mariakhel, bringing great progress and financial security to the local Christian communities.

When he was the Director of Catechists he initiated the yearly retreat for them, and looked into the matter of their social security.

The church in Mariakhel was constructed under Fr Piet’s supervision, and is a masterpiece of adaptation to the local culture and situation.

The last years that he was in the Diocese he spent in Burn Hall School, Abbottabad, as the man controlling the money.

In 1982 he returned for good to his native country, where he made himself useful as Archivist in Roosendaal.

In 1987 when he celebrated his Golden Jubilee as a priest at the communal Jubilee celebration in Roosendaal on the 15th of August he preached the homily.

He returned to his old mission in 1987. He came to represent, together with Fr Joost Beemster, Mill Hill at the Centenary Celebrations of the Diocese of Rawalpindi. He managed a lap of honour, so to speak, by visiting all the parishes in the Diocese, but on his return to Rawalpindi he began to feel unwell, and died suddenly of a massive heart attack. It was the 19th of September 1987.

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Michael Doyle

Fr Michael Francis Doyle was one of six children. He was born on the 21st of August 1912 in Faithlegge, Co. Waterford, Ireland.

He studied in Vaughan House, Waterford, Ireland from 1925 till 1926.

He continued his secondary education in Burn Hall and Freshfield, England, and again in Burn Hall from 1929 till 1931.

His Philosophy studies were done in Roosendaal, Holland from 1931 till 1933, after which he moved to Mill Hill, London for Theology.

He took the Perpetual Oath in 1936 and was ordained priest in Mill Hill on the 11th of July 1937.

In the same year he was appointed to the mission in Kashmir. He taught in St Joseph’s college Baramulla; took Fr Tom Geerdes’ place in Rawalpindi City and then went to Sargodha.

During the Second World War he was seconded as chaplain to the British Army and served in the Middle East until 1943. Then he was recalled for service in India, Assam and Burma.

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In 1947 he returned to Ireland because of ill health. He stayed in Herbert House, Dublin and from there he did parochial visiting and hospital work.

In 1948, he was appointed Officiating Chaplain to the Forces at Harrington Barracks, a post he filled till 1958. He also was C.F. in Dover.

In 1962, he became Chaplain and priest in charge of St. Mary’s Folkestone. This entailed teaching, visiting the old and infirm as well as chaplain duties in the Convent School.

His career as a missionary was different from the majority of Mill Hill missionaries. He spent many years as chaplain to the Forces and their families. He was pastor to many and was much appreciated.

In 1977, Fr Michael retired to Herbert House, Dublin a man with great stories and a deep concern for others.

He died peacefully on the morning of the 11th of April 2005 at the age of 92 years.

The funeral Mass was in Dartry House, Dublin and his mortal remains were laid to rest in his home parish in Co. Waterford.

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Sjoerd de Jong Fr Sjoerd de Jong was born on the 31st of August 1909 in IJmuiden, in the Diocese of Haarlem, the Netherlands.

He studied at the Colleges in Tilburg, Roosendaal and Mill Hill.

He was ordained priest in Mill Hill on the 8th of July 1934.

After ordination he was appointed for further studies in Rome to take a degree in Canon law. He obtained the doctorate in Canon law “magna cum laude.” In those days it was the policy of the Society to have a Canon lawyer in every mission. Sjoerd was the Canon lawyer sent to the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir. In 1938, he was appointed to Rawalpindi, where he worked till 1972.

During the Second World War he was in Multan as part of the team of Mill Hill priests from Rawalpindi, which was replacing the interned Italian Dominicans.

When the Prefecture became the Diocese of Rawalpindi in 1947, he was the man behind the Episcopal throne of Bishop Hettinga. Bishop Hettinga’s way of working must have scared Fr Sjoerd many a time, but he always was his Vicar General. He looked after the money of the Diocese, did the property matters of the Diocese, attended the court cases, and helped missionaries to get customs clearance of their luggage on arrival in Pakistan. He was also the parish priest of the English speaking part of the Lalkurti parish.

In 1972 Fr Sjoerd decided to retire while still healthy, and felt he could do so then with Bishop Simon Pereira in place as Auxiliary to Bishop Hettinga.

From 1977 he was in Roosendaal as Archivist and Documentalist, and as the person who was very welcoming to missionaries on homeleave. In the early 1980s he retired to Vrijland, where he died quite suddenly on 30th of December 1985.

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Arnold Neyzen Fr Arnold Neyzen was born in Vinkeveen, in the Archdiocese of Utrecht, the Netherlands, on 11th of April 1911.

He studied at Tilburg, Roosendaal and Mill Hill.

He was ordained on the 9th of July 1938 and appointed to the mission in Rawalpindi. His early years were spent in Chak 36 SB and Josephabad, both villages within 30 miles of Sargodha.

Health problems necessitated his transfer to school work in Abbottabad, and by 1965 he was the principal of Junior Burn Hall School.

When he was in Abbottabad, he made everybody very welcome, especially those missionaries who, during the summer, wanted to spend some holiday time there.

He was then also the owner of a motorcycle, and apparently, motorcycles were his great love. There is the story, that he and Fr Tiny Terpstra had a motorcycle race around the village of Josephabad. When the dust cleared, Fr Neyzen was declared the winner.

A severe nervous depression in 1969, forced Fr Neyzen to return for good to the Netherlands and he was appointed to the college in Tilburg. He died there on the 23rd of January 1972, when he was only 60 years of age. He had been a priest for 33 years. .

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Arthur Johnson

Fr Arthur Johnson was born on the 19th of September 1917 at Darlington, Tyne and Wear, England. His father was Joseph Johnson, a clerk, and his mother was Agnes Eden. He had one brother.

He was ordained on the 29th of June 1944 and appointed to the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir.

In the beginning he worked in Chak 36 S.B. near Sargodha.

In 1947 tracts of land were made available by the new Government to the now Diocese of Rawalpindi for the building of two Catholic villages. Thus in 1948 and 1949 the Catholic villages of Josephabad in the District of Khushab and Mariakhel in the District of Mianwali were begun.

Fr Arthur Johnson was sent to Josephabad to lay the foundations and mark out the whole territory, a task he performed with taste and precision.

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With no structure as yet assembled, Fr Johnson lived in a tent. The people who would form Josephabad soon learned that many and varied types of snake were previous occupants of their land. Fr Johnson coming off his bed one morning and slipping into his sandals found to his horror that he had, with his left foot, just pushed a snake’s head through the opening at the top of the sandal. He did not withdraw but held the snake firmly in place until help arrived. He feared more the axe that bore down on the head of the snake than the snake itself. He retained his foot intact.

Later the people called on Bishop Hettinga to come to Josephabad and rid them of the pestilence. Like St. Patrick, Bishop Hettinga did just that and banished the snakes from the land. To this day only one type of snake is to be seen in the area, and is harmless.

Each month Fr Johnson, on preset date, would head off on his bicycle towards Sargodha. At the same time the priest in Sargodha would have set out for Khushab. They would meet at Shahpur, turn one of the bicycles upside down and listen to each other’s Confession through the spokes of a wheel. Then they would cycle home again.

His last years were spent in Burn Hall School, Abbottabad where he acted as housemaster and teacher of English, and also directed plays.

His Silver Jubilee party was celebrated in Abbottabad in the garden which he had designed himself. He looked after the extensive grounds there, and mowed the grass of the playing fields with a lawnmower pulled by a pair of bullocks. His village days may have given him that idea!

Apart from smoking the pipe, fishing was one of his great enjoyments, and every summer headed off for trout fishing in the Kaghan Valley.

A short time before his death he was on his way home for holiday, and had reached Karachi Airport, where he did not feel well, so he returned to Rawalpindi.

He died in Abbottabad on the 3rd of January 1974. His grave is in the Rawalpindi cemetery.

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Brian Clarke Fr Brian Clarke was born on the 14th of December 1917, near Aranmore, Co. Galway, Ireland.

In 1933 he went to Freshford, Co. Kilkenny to study for the missionary priesthood, then on to England to study Philosophy and Theology.

He was ordained on the 29th of June 1944, after which he received his appointment for the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir but was unable to get there until the Second World War had ended.

In 1950, we see Fr Brian in Josephabad, where he worked till he was appointed as Principal to St. Mary’s School Murree Road, Rawalpindi. Then he was transferred to Senior Burn Hall School, Abbottabad.

He left Pakistan in the early 1970s.

In 1974, Fr Brian was appointed to Ireland, where he was involved for many years in vocation promotion and in raising funds for the missions.

Fr Brian retired at Dartry House, Dublin, and at almost 90 years of age he was still able to get around, but with some difficulty.

He died on the 25th of June 2008 in St. James’ Hospital, Dublin.

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Bartholomew Kaptein

Fr Bartholomew Kaptein was born on the 1st of January 1916 in Heemstede, in the diocese of Haarlem, the Netherlands.

He studied in Hoorn, Haelen and Roosendaal, and was ordained priest in Roosendaal on the 9th of July 1944.

In 1945 he was appointed to Rawalpindi, India.

His father was a well-to-do agriculturist. In the fields behind the home every spring season there would be rows on rows of tulips, narcissus, and hyacinths of the most varied colours. As a young boy Fr Bart worked there with the servants and the labourers, because the whole family was busy with flowers and bulbs all the year round.

He was what used to be called a ‘late vocation’: he went to the minor seminary of the Mill Hill fathers in Holland at the age of 16 (the age of 12 was normal). He was ordained during the Second World War, and so had to wait for two years before leaving his home country for what is now Pakistan.

Some of the colour of the flowers of Holland must have rubbed off on his personality. He was a very colourful character indeed, a man with great faith in people and in the Church, the people of God. He brought this

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colour especially to Rawalpindi City, Peshawar Cantt, Sargodha, Chak 36, Wah and Kohat.

Fr Bart Kaptein was the last of the Mill Hill Fathers to arrive before Partition. He was the last official chaplain to the army and served in Razmak in 1947.

He provided Chak 36 with a school, Kohat parish, which he started, with a fine church and parish house, but – more than building in bricks – wherever he went, he tried to organize help for the poor through societies like Vincent the Paul, - and always called on people to pray together and be God’s people.

In 1981 on his way home from Kohat for Sabbatical he suffered a heart attack in Jerusalem. When he recovered sufficiently he returned to Pakistan and had himself placed at Abbottabad, for he had a new ideal: to bring the Gospel to Hazara. God, however, thought otherwise and took him to Himself on the Feast of All Saints the 1st of November 1983.

Fr Bart Kaptein was buried on All Souls Day in the Lalkurti, Rawalpindi cemetery, when all the graves were lit up in anticipation of the Eternal Light. He had a fabulous sendoff – colourful to the end.

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Henk van Grieken

Fr Henk van Grieken from the Netherlands was born on the 4th of December 1919.

He was ordained on the 9th of July 1944, and appointed to the Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir.

Fr Henk spent many years in the Rawalpindi City parish, first as assistant, and then as parish priest. There his great talents as a liturgist, artist, musician, and linguist became evident and beneficial to the community.

His last appointment was to Gujrat from 1967 till he left to take up a pastoral job in Holland in 1969.

Whilst in Holland he left the Church ministry and married.

After that he earned his lively-hood by serving as an Urdu translator in the courts. He was also a member of the parish council in the town in which he lived. He died some years ago.

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Francis Scanlon Most of us will probably be remembered as much for our foibles and idiosyncrasies as for our virtues and sheer strength of character. Not so with Fr Francis Scanlon.

When we try to gauge the overall impression he has left, one comes to the inevitable conclusion that Fr Frank is remembered “for his courage, his wisdom, his vision, his sense of humor and his high principles.”

As Principal of the prominent Burn Hall Senior School, Abbottabad he was very well known throughout the country, in spite of his natural shyness and his tendency to withdraw from the lime light.

Fr Frank was no pusher, he was very reserved. He rarely spoke in public, even to the students of his school, and yet he was a man of great inspiration, a man who loomed large in people’s lives and left them something of permanent value through his noble example and his firm, sympathetic guidance.

Yet Fr Frank did nothing to enhance his image. On the contrary, in almost every conversation he belittled his efforts and often purposely stressed the weakness of his institution. He was a great one for playing it down. But all along he exuded strength of character and enormous sympathy for others. He commanded a crowd with his unassuming silence.

When he rose to speak, on those rare occasions, every word had an impact.

As for sympathy – he characteristically made it a point to ask his many servants if there was anything he could bring back for them from 182

England. He would come back laden with little gifts and attentions for rich and poor alike. No wonder he was esteemed and admired by all.

For twelve long years he was Society Superior, - a very natural choice. It was somewhat unfortunate that he was at the same time the most natural choice to run a boarding school in the very outer-reaches of the diocese, a school from which he could hardly get away.

The fact is that Fr Frank overburdened himself with work. He ran his school almost single handed, he had nobody in the office to help him.

He much preferred to work till deep into the night. He slaved away for his students and in a sense gave his life for them.

As soon as the holidays began he went on his rounds among the Fathers and Brothers. Every one of them admired and felt his very sympathetic approach, and all would say that Fr Scanlon was a “thorough gentleman�. Most memorable of all: he never spoke, not even to his best friends, about any of the Fathers who had confided in him. In this he exercised complete control and utmost charity.

He was a priest, but spent his whole life without a parish, without a preacher’s audience. For years on end he would climb up the creaking wooden stairs, morning after morning, ever more slowly, to the attic chapel and there in the often oppressive heat, he would say his Holy Mass, all alone. That was his sacrifice. That was where he gave glory to God and derived his strength.

Fr Frank was really a holy man. Above all he taught his students, and the world at large, that there are other ways of influencing the lives of others than by preaching. He was indeed a very noble person.

His life began in the humble surroundings of the North East of England in 1914, his priestly life on the 9th of June 1940, and all ended where it had begun, in Burn Hall, Co. Durham. Nobody knows how much he suffered or for how long. He must have had great difficulty keeping on his feet. The deep grooves in his face and his swollen fingers were the only tell-tales.

He had gone on leave from Abbottabad and died in his native England on the 9th of February 1972 at the age of 58.

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John Boerkamp

Fr John Boerkamp was born in Duistervoorde, Twello, in the Archdiocese of Utrecht, the Netherlands on the 29th of August 1906.

He studied in the colleges of Tilburg, Roosendaal and Mill Hill.

He was ordained priest on the 12th of July 1936 and appointed to the teaching staff of Tilburg College.

In 1946 he was appointed to Rawalpindi, North India.

So his presence in what is now the Diocese of IslamabadRawalpindi goes back to before 1947.

On April the 20th 1946, Fr John Boerkamp arrived in Srinagar and was appointed to assist the school staff in the Senior Cambridge School.

He was posted at Baramulla as a missionary while being simultaneously designated as Vicar General for Kashmir until Kashmir became an independent Prefecture in 1952. In addition, he was also appointed as Mission Superior of Kashmir.

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Fr Boerkamp was Principal of the Senior Cambridge School, during Partition. But afterwards we see him back for a short time at Abbottabad in Burn Hall School, when the Srinagar Burn Hall School had to be transferred there. Fr Thijssen opened the new Burn Hall School at Abbottabad in 1948, ably assisted by Frs. Boerkamp, Scanlon and Mallett.

As the level of hostilities decreased in the Kashmir area, the Mill Hill Fathers decided to reopen the Burn Hall School at Srinagar. Hence, Mgr. George Shanks, Prefect Apostolic of Jammu and Kashmir requested Fr Boerkamp to re-establish the Burn Hall School. It would take some years and much hard work, but re-establish it he did.

In 1963 Rome made Fr Boerkamp the Prefect Apostolic of the Prefecture Apostolic of Jammu and Kashmir, after the death of Mgr. George Shanks, he was the second and the last Mill Hill Prefect Apostolic of Jammu and Kashmir, and continued in this position till 1978, when the Prefecture was handed over to the Indian Capuchins. Mgr. Boerkamp then retired to Simla, India.

In 1983 he eventually retired to his native country, in Vrijland. He had a heart operation on the 22nd January 1984 and died on the 5th February in St. Josef Ziekenhuis, at the age of 77 years.

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Dermot McCann Fr Dermot McCann was born on the 31st March 1911 at Ballinacrad, in the Diocese of Meath, Ireland.

He was educated at the Salesian Agricultural College in Warrenstown, Co. Meath, the Presentation College in Bray, and in the Mill Hill Colleges at Freshfield, Burn Hall, Roosendaal, Mill Hill and Lochwinnoch.

Fr McCann was ordained priest in Glasgow on the 26th of June 1942.

His first appointment was to do the “Colonial Course”, after which he was Procurator in Mill Hill and then in 1944 in Freshfield.

In 1946 he was appointed to the Punjab Mission, India where he worked till 1962. He was in Mariakhel, Mianwali for a short spell, but most of the time he was secretary to Bishop Hettinga. He was normally referred to as the ‘old McCann’ as later another McCann, Daniel, was referred to as the ‘young McCann’.

In 1962, he was appointed to organizing in Freshford, Ireland.

Later on he held a Chaplaincy, which meant not living in the Society house, but he continued to work for the missions through fund-raising.

In 1975, he retired to Dartry House, Dublin, where he died on the 9th of April 1978 at the age of 67 years.

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Folquin Terpstra Fr Folquin Terpstra was born in Sneek, in the Archdiocese of Utrecht, the Netherlands on the 24th of September 1918.

He studied at the colleges of Hoorn, Haelen and Roosendaal.

He was ordained priest on the 11th of July 1943.

His first appointment was to Nijmegen for study. As soon as the war was over, he was appointed to the Punjab Mission. There he worked till 1962. He was a very tall man, and was always referred to as ‘Tiny’ Terpstra.

Fr Terpstra had a share in the pioneering work done in Mariakhel and Josephabad. In 1947 land for these Catholic Christian villages had been set aside by the Government.

However, if in 1939 the Sargodha/Gujrat areas had not been handed over from the Lahore Diocese and attached to the Prefecture, based in Rawalpindi, these places would not have been the responsibility of the Mill Hill Missionaries. By reason of their railway apostolate Mill Hill men always did get as far as Kundian Junction, which was not too far from the Thal Desert, but Mariakhel particularly was off the beaten track and in unknown territory.

In 1962 after a short time home in Holland he was appointed to the Mill Hill Mission in Sarawak, Kuching. He came home sick in 1970.

He then volunteered as hospital chaplain in the archdiocese of New York.

While convalescing from surgery in Los Angeles, he took a turn for the worse and died there on the 14th of December 1973, at the age of 55.

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Patrick Byrne Fr Patrick Byrne was born in South Shields, England in 1918, ordained in 1944 and came to the mission of Rawalpindi in 1947.

His first assignment was to Burn Hall School, Abbottabad. This school was a new venture for the Mill Hill Missionaries in the newly created country of Pakistan. It had a very humble beginning; but like all beginnings, to be successful, it demanded great courage, effort and sacrifice. In this enterprise Fr ‘Paddy’ took his full share, and even today “Burn Hall, Abbottabad” is a household name throughout Pakistan.

In 1949 Fr Byrne received a new assignment to join Fr Thijssen in starting St. Mary’s Cambridge School, Rawalpindi. Again it was an assignment that demanded courage and sacrifice in the face of numerous difficulties especially with regard to accommodation. Again in this Fr Byrne’s sense of humor and determination helped to pave the way of success.

The last assignment of Fr Byrne was to set St. Mary’s Academy, Lalazar on a solid footing. This time he was alone but again his courage, devotion and determination were equal to the task.

In his homily during the Requiem Mass, Bishop Hettinga dwelt on Fr Byrne’s early life and missionary activity: “Fr Byrne’s father died when Paddy was an infant. What a wonderful person was his mother who after years of striving and hardship was so ready to let her only child join a Foreign Missionary Society and go where the Lord had need of him. It meant separation from him….that she might not see him again before she died….but she readily let him go.

In this tremendous sacrifice of his mother lies the secret why Fr Byrne was such a great missionary in Pakistan. On one of my visits to England, I visited Fr Byrne’s mother. She was poor but had tremendous faith and Christian spirit. She asked me one question which I shall never forget: ‘How is my Paddy doing?’ My answer was: ‘Mother your son is an excellent teacher and a fine priest. I am very happy with him.’

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How many times, in his turn, had Fr Byrne been asked that identical question by parents who had entrusted the education and direction of their sons to his care, ‘How is my son doing’ was a question which Fr Byrne could always readily answer without reference to registers or files. For him his students were not mere numbers. He knew them by name; knew their qualities; knew their potentials and their shortcomings.

He was never slow in pointing out weaknesses to them and in his own fatherly way leading them on to improvement. Hundreds of pupils and their parents reaped untold benefits from association with this devoted missionary teacher.

I have no doubt, that Christ the great teacher whom Patrick as a young man had volunteered to follow, endowed him with charismatic qualities which made him ‘out of this world’ in dealings with students.

They could never forget him. They might have been away for years pursuing higher studies in England or America, yet one of their visits would be ‘up the hill’ to the Academy to see Fr Byrne. There they would be sure of a warm welcome by one who had not forgotten. Around that cultured desk they would be at home as they laughed about incidents during their Academy days, reported their present progress and the welfare of their families, in all of which Fr Byrne had a genuine interest.

Saddened as I am by such a great loss to my Diocese, yet I am heartened by the thought that Almighty God allowed one of my men to do so much good. Never have I seen so many fathers of Muslim students attend a funeral of one of my priests. Never have so many parents come to me in deep grief and on the point of weeping say: ‘We can never repay what he did for our sons and for us.’ It was not only the well-off who came, but there were many many of the poor too, who had been helped by Fr Byrne’s kindness in most unobtrusive ways.

In our sorrow and sadness on this day, let us not just sit back and mourn. Fr Byrne would want us to get up, to set out again with courage to continue the work he has started and to pray for more teachers of his caliber to lead and direct the youth of this country.

I would like to sum up my thoughts on this day with the prayer of Field Marshall Ayub Khan, who on hearing of Father’s death came within the hour to his bed side. There in front of us all he prayed aloud: ‘God bless the soul of this man who has done so much for the youth of our country.”

On the 24th of October 1972 Fr Patrick Byrne died in St. Mary’s Academy, Lalazar Rawalpindi, after suffering a heart attack.

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Matthew Geybels

Fr Matthew Geybels was born to Henry and Joanna (Halfers) Geybels on the 25th of January 1922, at Weert in the diocese of Roermond, the Netherlands. He had five brothers and one sister.

He pursued his secondary education, between 1935 and 1941, at the Mill Hill minor seminaries at Tilburg and Haelen.

The military occupation of the Netherlands during the Second World War, meant that ‘Tjeu’ had to study Philosophy also at Haelen, and then began his Theological studies in Roosendaal.

It was at Roosendaal that he took the Perpetual Missionary Oath on the 18th of May 1946. He completed his Theology at Mill Hill and was ordained priest there by Cardinal Griffin on the 6th of July 1947.

Fr Geybels was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

He taught in the Burn Hall School, Abbottabad. He also was asked to do B.A at the University of Punjab, after which he was appointed as principal of St. John’s School in Peshawar, and assistant chaplain to the American Army Base at Baraber

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After eighteen years in Pakistan, he was recalled to the Netherlands and took up organizing work at Haelen. There he also served briefly as a member of the seminary teaching staff.

In 1969 he enrolled as a student of Missiology in the Theological Faculty of Louvain University, where he graduated with ‘grand distinction’ in 1970.

During his studies at Louvain, Fr Tjeu assisted the Mill Hill major seminary at Roosendaal, Holland as a teacher of Comparative Religion He was then appointed to the teaching staff at the seminary in Hyderabad, India, but having been refused an entry visa, he left once more for Rawalpindi, where he worked in the Christian Study Centre and was one of the pioneers in the field of inter-religious dialogue.

Fr Geybels remained at Rawalpindi till 1987, in spite of the strain of ill heath that finally brought him to the Dutch Region.

His extensive knowledge of Islam and his commitment to the Muslim-Christian dialogue equipped him to teach at the Theological Faculty of the University of Tilburg between 1988 and 1991.

In 2002, at the invitation of the Dutch Muslim broadcasters, he participated in a televised colloquium between the representatives of the different religious and humanistic traditions. This was an important experience for Fr Geybels.

From the beginning of 2003, he had problems with his health and was admitted several times in hospital. On Friday, June the 27th he had a serious heart operation followed by two more.

He died in the afternoon of Monday July the 7th 2003, His Requiem and burial took place on Friday, July the 11th at Vrijland Oosterbeek.

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Frank Clerkin

Fr Francis Clerkin was born in Monaghan, Ireland on the 20th of September 1918.

He studied in Freshfield, Burn Hall, England, Roosendaal, Holland, Mill Hill, London, and Lochwinnoch, Scotland.

He was ordained priest in Glasgow on the 29th of June 1944.

After a year at Liverpool University, he was appointed to Lochwinnoch.

In 1948 he came to the Mission in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, from where he was recalled in 1964.

He held some teaching assignments, but spent a considerable number of years in Wah, Cement Factory and Cantt. During his time the Wah-Cantt. church was built. It must have been at that time also that Fr Frank learnt the way of thinking and speaking of the common man.

In 1964 he returned to Europe and the next four years (1964-1968) saw him in the North American Region, where he was engaged in hospital chaplaincy work, vocations and promotion. It was at this time, that he had to have a serious brain surgery.

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In 1969 he returned to Pakistan, and became the Principal of St. Patrick’s, Rawalpindi-City. Previous to the nationalization of schools in 1972, he had already placed the Principal’s position of that school in lay hands. At this time also Fr Frank started to minister in the Westridge parish, where he took up residence.

After this Fr Clerkin was back in Wah-Cantt. During this time he held a yearly pilgrimage in honour of St Thomas the Apostle, Patron of Pakistan, to Sirkap, Taxila, on the 3rd of July. It was usually very hot, but spiritually refreshing.

In the end Fr Frank started to become quite critical of things, the situation and the people. It was thought then, that it would be better for him to return to his home region. In 1980 he was recalled for organizing work in the British Region.

In 1982 he suffered a stroke, which left him partly paralysed. He recovered sufficiently to allow him to do some further Chaplaincy work, and in 1989 retired to Herbert House, Freshfield.

Whilst on holiday in Newcastle, Co. Down, Ireland he died suddenly whilst saying Mass, on the morning of the 13th of August 1989 at the age of 70.

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Gerard Verheij Fr Gerard Verheij was born in Zeddam, in the Archdiocese of Utrecht, the Netherlands on the 9th of February 1915.

He studied in the colleges at Tilburg, Roosendaal and Mill Hill.

He was ordained priest in Roosendaal on the 14th of July 1940.

His first assignment was to the teaching staff of Tilburg College, followed in 1946 by an appointment to Roosendaal.

In 1949 he left for the mission in Pakistan, where he laboured in St. Mary’s Murree Road, Rawalpindi City, Risalpur and Jhelum. He was always called ‘Peer’ Verhey.

In the early seventies he was involved in providing people in the Jhelum parish with low-cost housing.

Fr Verheij suffered for years from asthma, which was eventually also the cause of his death. So he did not roam around too much, except in the place where he had his life and work.

He had a brother Bernard, who was also a Mill Hill Missionary.

Fr Verheij died on the 27th of March 1973, at the age of 58, and was buried in Jhelum cemetery. Fr Len Steger, who was his assistant at that time, prepared a beautiful resting place for him.

May he Rest in Peace!

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Michael Grant

Fr Michael Grant was born in Mullinavat, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland on the 19th of May 1918, into a family of seven children. He had three brothers and three sisters.

In 1935 he went to Freshford, Co. Kilkenny to study for the missionary priesthood, then on to England to study Philosophy and Theology.

He studied Philosophy in Burn Hall, Durham, from 1940 till 1942.

For the study of Theology he went to Lochwinnoch in Scotland from 1942 till 1945.

His final year of Theology was in Mill Hill where he was ordained priest on 14th of July 1946.

After his ordination Fr Grant was appointed to further studies at Cork University, Ireland, where he obtained a B.A degree.

He was appointed to Pakistan in 1949. There his field of work was in education. He taught at Peshawar, and as Principal of St. Patrick’s in Rawalpindi City, being the good Irishman that he was, he introduced a school uniform that was green in colour. He may have forgotten, however, that the price of that outfit was beyond the means of the average Christian in Dhok Ilahi Bakhsh, for whom St. Patrick’s School was meant. He also taught for many years at St. Mary’s School, Rawalpindi.

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Poor health necessitated his return to Europe in 1969. The following year he was appointed to Freshford to work in the Organizing Department, on mission and promotion of the Society.

In 1975, Fr Grant was Rector of Dartry, Dublin. He served two terms as Rector there, which was a demanding job made all the more difficult by the uncertainties surrounding the function and future of the Dartry Complex.

In 1982 Fr Michael was back again to mission promotion work in Freshford and then in Kilkenny.

Due to failing health Fr Grant was admitted to hospital in the year 2000. He died on the 15th of February 2001 in Aut Even Hospital, Kilkenny, at the age of 82.

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Daniel Breen

Fr Daniel Breen was born on the 5th of March 1916 at Doon, Kiskeam, Co. Cork, Ireland.

After studying at St. Brendan’s College, he went to Freshford, Co. Kilkenny in 1936, then to Roosendaal, Mill Hill and Lochwinnoch.

He was ordained priest on the 29th of June 1943 in Glasgow.

Fr Dan Breen’s first appointment was to St. Peter’s College, Freshfield, Liverpool, followed by the second in 1947 to St. Joseph’s College, Freshford. In 1949, he was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

In Pakistan from the very early fifties, Fr Dan was in Mariakhel.

Where he had goats banned from the village, so that trees might be allowed to grow.

He was also there, when in 1956, Dera Ismail Khan was disconnected from the Multan Diocese and added to the Rawalpindi Diocese. Fr Dan was resident in Dera Ismail Khan for a while.

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In the sixties, he had moved to Sargodha and was running St. Mary’s PAF School. His presence in Sargodha was very fortunate, as Fr Dan was an excellent cook and host, and his domestic skills made living, especially for the German instructors of the SIT, that little more pleasant.

The St. Mary’s School was eventually handed over to the PAF, and after that Fr Dan supervised the various schools in the parish. When Fr Simon Almeida left Sargodha, Fr Dan was appointed Principal of St. Paul’s School.

Fr Dan used to go to Lahore now and then to meet his many friends, especially the Irish Brothers at St. Anthony’s. He liked to socialize, and had all the qualities one would expect to be present in a true Irishman.

The last few years he spent in Murree and the Bishop’s House, Rawalpindi till 1976, when ill health made his return to Ireland necessary.

From then on he did a lot of pastoral work in Co. Kerry, but in May of 1993 he suffered a stroke, from which he never recovered.

He died on the 2nd of August 1993 in St. Joseph’s Home, Killorglin, Co. Kerry, at the age of 77.

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Daniel McCann

Fr Daniel McCann was born on the 7th of June 1924.

He was educated at the Mill Hill Colleges of England and Holland, and was ordained on the 10th of July 1949.

Fr Daniel’s first appointment was for higher studies in Glasgow University, where he obtained a M.A. degree.

After that he was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He was referred to as the ‘young McCann’, as there was an older version in the diocese at the same time, Fr Dermot McCann.

Fr Daniel McCann was appointed secretary to Bishop Hettinga and remained so till 1965, when he was appointed Principal of St. Michael’s Cambridge School, Kharian Cantonment. This was to be his last appointment in Pakistan.

Fr McCann left Pakistan for a position on the organizing staff in Glasgow University.

He eventually left the Society in the early 1970s.

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Jan Klaver Fr Jan Klaver was born on the 1 January 1916 in Wijde Wormer, near Purmerend, the Netherlands. He had seven brothers and three sisters.

He studied Philosophy in Roosendaal from 1934 till 1936. On the 15th of September 1936 he went to Mill Hill to study Theology. On account of World War II he had to return to Roosendaal for the final year of his Theology studies.

He was ordained priest in Roosendaal on the 14th of July 1940, by Bishop Hopmans, Bishop of Breda.

After his ordination Fr Klaver was appointed to the staff in Hoorn, and during this time also qualified in M.O. English.

In 1950, after ten years in Hoorn he was appointed to Rawalpindi, Pakistan, where he worked for the next forty years, mainly in education, in places like Abbottabad, Kharian and Peshawar. He was the last Mill Hill Principal of the famous Burn Hall School, Abbottabad before it was handed over to the Army in 1976/77.

For a short time he looked after the Mill Hill Holiday House in the mountain station of Murree, but then he found his vocation in St. Helen’s School, Dera Ismail Khan, a remote area in the North West Frontier Province. He upgraded the building there and made the school very presentable.

His education work was mainly among the Muslim community. Fr Jan had many friends among them, especially with the more influential.

His heart was in Pakistan, but he left to retire only because he had run out of breath. Fr Jan believed, that the type of work he did was good for the Kingdom.

In 1990 he was recalled from Pakistan to the Dutch region for retirement in St. Jozefhuis.

Fr Jan Klaver died on the 2nd of March 1998 at the age of 82 years. st

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Karel Heideman

Fr Karel Heideman from Holland was born on the 17th of February 1923, He was ordained on the 9th of July 1950, and was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

In 1956, Fr Heideman was in Jhelum, and then he was transferred to Sargodha, when Sargodha Institute of Technology had just started to be built.

After Sargodha, he became parish priest of the English speaking, Cathedral parish at Rawalpindi.

In 1965, he was appointed to Mariakhel as parish priest, and from Mariakhel he was then transferred to Rawalpindi City parish.

He left Pakistan in 1975, and returned to Holland, where he became involved in pastoral work. He was always greatly interested in the Charismatic Movement.

Today he resides at Missiehuis ‘Vrijland’, Oosterbeek.

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Joseph van Erp Fr Joseph van Erp was born on the 26th of August 1921 in Oss, in the Diocese of ‘s Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands.

He studied with the Norbertine Fathers in Heeswijk until 1945. He then studied Philosophy in Haelen, and Roosendaal until 1947.

Joseph continued his study of Theology in Mill Hill from 1947 till 1951.

He was ordained priest in Mill Hill on the 8th of July 1951.

Fr van Erp had two older brothers, Henry and John who were also Mill Hill Missionary priests.

After his ordination he was appointed to the mission in the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. All his days on this mission were spent in the pastoral ministry. Parish visiting was his special charisma. He was a Punjabi speaker and loved the simple life of the average Christian.

Early on he was in Sargodha and Mariakhel. In June 1960 he was recalled to work as Procurator in Roosendaal for a year and a half and in January 1962 he returned to Rawalpindi to continue his missionary work.

He was in Gujrat when Rosary Hospital was being built. After that we see him in Peshawar City, then finally in Islamabad.

He was in Islamabad when he got a severe stroke, which forced him to retire to his native country in January 1981. He continued his priestly ministry in Oss, the place of his birth.

On the 16th of January 1994, Sunday morning he celebrated the Eucharist and preached to the congregation of about 150 people. He was not feeling well, so he was taken to the hospital in Oss. Heart problem was suspected and he was admitted to Intensive Care.

Fr Jos van Erp died on the 18th of January 1994.

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Thomas Keogan

Fr Thomas Keogan son of Thomas and Elizabeth Keogan was born on the 10th of June 1924, in Lisduff, Co. Cavan, Ireland.

He was ordained on the 8th of July 1951, and after further studies was appointed to St. Joseph’s College, Freshford, Co. Kilkenny, where he taught English, Latin and Comparative Religion.

Fr Tommy Keogan was an excellent teacher, but always had his eyes set on the missions. In 1974 he got his wish and was appointed to Malaysia, where he worked until 1980.

His sister, Sr. Oliver Keogan, Presentation Sister, has laboured all her life in Pakistan, and for this reason it is supposed Fr Tommy had a vested interest in the place.

So, he came to Pakistan in the early 1980s specially to work in the Priest’s Holiday House of Murree, and as chaplain to the Presentation and Jesus and Mary Sisters communities there.

After three years in Murree he returned to Ireland to continue serving the Society there. He is now retired at Herbert House, Dublin.

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Norbert Turner

Fr Norbert Turner was born on the 29th of March 1917 in Colne, Lancashire, England.

He was ordained a Mill Hill Missionary priest on the 9th of July 1950.

He had interrupted his seminary training so as to be part of the Second World War, Normandy D-Day landing force, which was to set the liberation of Europe into motion. The Dutch priests of the Society have always been very grateful to one such as Fr Turner.

After his ordination, he did some further studies and was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Fr Turner acted as a teacher and House Master in the senior Burn Hall School, Abbottabad, but for some time he was recalled to do a spell at Freshfield seminary, in England (1961 to 1965).

In 1971, Fr Turner was appointed to Bishop’s House, Rawalpindi as Vicar General and archivist. He sorted out all the old papers and filed everything systematically. His work was so good, that even the white ants could easily access all the information.

He retired from the Diocese of Rawalpindi in 1977 and returned to his native land. There he continued to work however, and in 1983 he became Vice-Rector and Bursar in Herbert House, Freshfield. In 1988 he retired from active service.

Fr Norbert Turner died on the 15th of May 1992. He had suffered most of his life from asthma. He was a most noble man.

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Jan Schrader Fr Jan Schrader was one of seven children born to Anton and Gertrude (Nijhuis) Schrader.

He was born on 25th of September 1926 at De Lutte in the Archdiocese of Utrecht, the Netherlands.

At the age of fourteen, Jan was accepted as a student in Mill Hill minor seminary at Tilburg, from where he was moved to Haelen in 1944 to complete his secondary education. He studied Philosophy in Roosendaal from 1946 until 1948 and then went to Mill Hill for his Theology studies from 1948 to 1952.

He took his Perpetual Oath on the 5th of May 1951 at Mill Hill, and was ordained to the Priesthood on the 13th of July 1952.

After his ordination, Fr Jan Schrader was appointed to the Rawalpindi Diocese in Pakistan where he was to spend most of the rest of his life.

His first mission was Jhelum, where he spent one year doing parish work and was then moved to Sargodha for another year. In February 1954 he was appointed to Burn Hall School, Abbottabad as Bursar, and it was here that he was to live and work almost continuously for over 35 years. In between he spent some years in Nowshera and Islamabad. Apart from parish work he was involved in teaching, administration and interreligious dialogue.

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In 1982, Fr Jan was in Islamabad when he suffered a stroke which necessitated his return to the Netherlands. Although he was somewhat incapacitated, his indomitable spirit enabled him to make a reasonable recovery, so much so that the doctors allowed him to return to Pakistan in March 1983, and once back he went to Abbottabad parish, after the death of Fr Bart Kaptein there.

He was to struggle on with his ministry in Abbottabad until June 1999 when he returned to the Netherlands and was appointed to the Dutch Region.

In June 2002 the General Superior and Council wrote to him on occasion of his Golden Jubilee of Priesthood “You have given your life totally and generously in the freedom of obedience, celibacy and simplicity of life, in the service of the Lord. The little nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love, the people helped, the work accomplished, the long hours, the forgetfulness of self, the carrying of the cross, the way you have used God’s talents, the many times of prayer, the Lord indeed knows”.

Fr Jan was found dead in his room on the 22nd of August 2004. His Requiem Mass and burial took place in Vrijland.

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Jac Copray

Fr Jac Copray from Holland was born on the 5th of April 1927.

He was ordained at Mill Hill, on the 13th of July 1952.

After ordination he was appointed to the staff of St. Joseph’s College, Freshford, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland. From there he was transferred to Freshfield, England.

After that he was asked to go to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, where he was appointed to the teaching staff of St. Mary’s, Murree Road, Rawalpindi. He worked there till his appointment as Principal to St. Edmund’s School, Bannu.

In 1964, Fr Jac became Principal of Junior Burn Hall School, Abbottabad, where he stayed till the school was sold and handed over to the Army.

He was then assigned as Principal to St. Mary’s, Murree Road, Rawalpindi.

In the late 1970s, he returned to Holland, and became the Bursar of the Dutch Region, a post he held till he retired to Vrijland.

At the age of eighty years he still plays organ for the Church.

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Igo Van Goozen

Fr Ignatius van Goozen was one of the six children of Michael and Helena (van Twaalfhoven) van Goozen. He was born at Apeldoorn in the Diocese of Utrecht on the 26th of August 1927.

When he was sixteen, Igo joined the Mill Hill minor seminary at Hoorn and completed his secondary education at Haelen. In 1948 he began his Philosophy studies at Roosendaal and proceeded, two years later to Mill Hill to study Theology.

He took his Perpetual Oath on the 7th of May 1953, and was ordained by Cardinal Griffin at St. Joseph’s College, Mill Hill on the 11th of July 1954.

After ordination Fr Igo van Goozen left for Rawalpindi in Pakistan, where he was to labour for more than forty years. He made a deep impression wherever he ministered, Gujrat, Risalpur, Nowshera, Jhelum, and Sargodha.

When it became impossible for him to continue his missionary service, the Superior General wrote to him: “that it will be difficult for your colleagues, friends, parishioners and even the occasional visitors, such as me, to think of Rawalpindi without thinking of you.”

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Fr Igo was known for his dedication to the pastoral ministry and for his readiness to take fresh initiatives; he involved himself in housing schemes, parish insurance policies and other methods of raising the living standard of the poor people.

Fr Igo, regretfully, had to remain in the Netherlands at the end of his home-leave in 1997. At this painful moment, he was able to acknowledge that he had used his energy and his talents for the good of the Pakistani Catholic Community, and to express his belief that the Lord would make his efforts bear fruit in due time. In a letter of appreciation, the Superior General wrote to Fr Igo: “You were joyful in your work.�

In the end Fr Igo who had suffered so much ill health, had to endure frequent sessions of dialysis.

His death on the 27th of October 2003 was a blessed release for which he had been praying. The Requiem Mass was celebrated at Vrijland.

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Rene van Eyndhoven

Fr Rene van Eyndhoven was born in the Netherlands on the 2nd of January 1929.

He studied at the Mill Hill Colleges in Holland and England, and was ordained priest on the 11th of July 1954.

After ordination he was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He was assigned to Abbottabad and served there till he was recalled to join the organizing staff in Roosendaal.

In 1962, he became the rector of the college in Tilburg. This was his last appointment before leaving the Society in the late 1970s.

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Clemens van Pinxteren

Fr Clemens van Pinxteren from the Netherlands was born on the 23rd of November 1929. He had an older brother Hans, who was also a Mill Hill Priest.

He was educated at the Mill Hill colleges, both in Holland, and England, and was ordained priest on the 10th of July 1955.

After his ordination he was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. All his ministry was at two places: Peshawar City and Sargodha.

Whilst in Peshawar he was involved in the reconstruction of St. John’s High School, and also as an English teacher in St. Mary’s English Medium School, that had been started by Fr Thijssen.

In 1961 Fr van Pinxteren was appointed parish priest in Sargodha and Principal of Sargodha Institute of Technology (SIT). He developed SIT on more modern lines and had it recognized by the Board of Technical Education, Lahore. In those days at SIT there was considerable foreign staff from Germany and England.

With the outbreak of the war between Pakistan and India in 1971, Fr van Pinxteren left the diocese for good and tried to settle down in Holland.

Eventually he left the service of the Church, and died relatively young. He was buried by his friends.

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Herman Hermans

Fr Herman Hermans was born in Holland on the 31st of December 1924.

He received his education at the Mill Hill Colleges in Holland and England, and was ordained on the 10th of July 1949.

Fr Herman’s first appointment was for higher studies in Holland, then he was on the organizing staff of the Mill Hill College in Haelen.

In 1955 he was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan for one term only, and was assigned to Burn Hall School in Abbottabad.

He then returned to Holland and was on the staff of the Mill Hill College, in Tilburg.

He left the Society in the early 1970s.

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James van der Klugt Fr James van der Klugt was born 20th March 1932 in Voorhout, in the Diocese of Haarlem, The Netherlands.

Fr Jaap, as he was known, and Fr Piet Koomen hail from the same parish in Holland; they were baptized in the same church, had their education in the same school and imbibed the same missionary spirit.

Jaap studied in the colleges at Hoorn, Haelen, Roosendaal and Mill Hill.

He was ordained priest in Mill Hill on the 8th of July 1956.

After ordination he was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi in Pakistan, where he spent the whole of his priestly life.

Initially Fr Jaap was for a short time in Jhelum Parish, when he was appointed to the village of Josephabad. The living conditions in Josephabad were still very Spartan at that time. There was no drinking water, no electricity and no money.

In the mid sixties Fr Jaap had the fine parish church of St. Joseph constructed there. Before that there was a chapel in the parish house with verandah-space outside for the larger gathering. With not many amenities in village life, already in those days, Fr Jaap was getting the reputation of being a doctor.

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When he was transferred to Peshawar he became acquainted with the ‘hippy’ phenomenon and was very helpful to them in life and death. Fr Jaap realized that a new problem was on its way: drugs.

At the back of the parish house in Peshawar, he renovated a couple of rooms, in which he made arrangements for the treatment of people caught up in the web of drugs. Till his death he spent all his spare time helping and curing the drug addicted.

Fr Jaap was a man, who had the special gift of being with the sick, the dying and the dead. He was also a man, who was always at home; and if he was not there he was bound to be returning soon.

On the occasion of his Silver Jubilee in 1981 the Superior General wrote to him, among other things: “I think that Rawalpindi is the most demanding of all our missions. All the more credit to you, then for the way you have carried on over the years doing a solid job of work and keeping up such a good optimistic spirit. I should mention too, your keen interest in the history of the ‘Pindi’ Mission and the very worthwhile contribution in this respect which you made to the Centenary.” (‘The Opening Door’ History of the Diocese of Rawalpindi, by James van der Klugt and Michael Conroy) The last two years of Fr Jaap’s life were at Nowshera, and he ran his drug detoxification centre from there. After his sudden death, Fr Tom Rafferty continued this drug apostolate until, almost a year later; Fr Greg Rice could take over the running of the drug programme permanently.

In Nowshera, during the early hours of the 2nd of July 1988 Fr Jaap suffered a severe stroke. It was some time before this was discovered and the fact that the house and his room were locked did not help matters. He was taken to Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, but on the 3rd of July he had another stroke and he died at 2:10am. It was the feast of the St. Thomas the Apostle, Patron of Pakistan.

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James van Schagen The death of Fr James van Schagen in Oudorp, Alkmaar the Netherlands, closed another chapter in the history of the Diocese of Rawalpindi. His colleagues with whom he had worked, the many friends he made in the mission, the Pakistani students who profited by his learning, all will remember him as a man of principle, extraordinarily cheerful and enthusiastic, a man with sympathetic understanding of all human problems.

In Mill Hill, Jac was the classmate of some great people in the making, like Bishop de Wit and Bishop Mahon.

After his ordination in Roosendaal, Holland on 14th of July 1946, Fr Jac was sent to Burn Hall College, Durham, England. Many of the students whom he taught became seasoned missionaries, and no doubt, remembered him with affection.

In 1953 he went to Cambridge for further studies before his appointment in 1956 to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

With his teaching experience and qualifications it was obvious that his main work would lie in the field of education. Fr Jac therefore spent the greater part of his missionary life in Burn Hall School, Abbottabad, as a Teacher, Housemaster and Principal.

Yet he was always interested in the pastoral work of the mission, and at the time was happy to be appointed to Peshawar in charge of the mission there, while being at the same time Principal to St. Mary’s 215

Cambridge School. So, though a school man, he was able to be also an enthusiastic pastor.

In 1970 he became Society Superior, and in this task he wanted to be full-time, based in Rawalpindi City. But when Fr Francis Scanlon died, Fr Jac was appointed to succeed him as Principal of Senior Burn Hall.

Added pressure came when serious trouble broke out at the school; strikes among the teaching staff, and court cases. All this undoubtedly affected his health and in 1972 he had to relinquish school work and went to Islamabad as parish priest.

The trouble which he thought to be located in his back began to travel further, and in January 1974 he returned to Holland on sick leave, firmly intending to return to Rawalpindi.

The specialists diagnosed multiple sclerosis (MS), incurable and in his case, entailing a slow death. Fr Jac began to read up all the literature he could find on this subject and in the meantime played draughts in local competitions, on one occasion even beating the national champion.

Soon he became completely paralyzed. He knew precisely the course his disease would take and when the end would come. Yet he was never frightened, never discouraged. He was always smiling, always extremely enthusiastic and interested in the mission projects and problems.

Those who visited him during the last three years of his illness, before he went to God on the 24th of December 1976, at the age of 55, will never forget the magnificent character of this priest in his suffering and pain.

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Br. Hans Vester Br. Hans Vester grew up in Doesburg, Holland. His parents were Henricus Vester and Helena van Mill. His father was a Goldsmith and had a jeweler’s shop, in which spectacles were also sold. When he died at the young age of 57, his brother Kees took over the shop.

Two curates of the parish regularly visited their home in search of a ‘new priest’. At a young age Hans joined the minor seminary of the Diocese in Apeldoorn. He rather wanted to become an engineer and had followed the secondary educational course for that, with the additional subjects of Latin and Greek.

Due to the Second World War the seminary was shifted to a girl’s hostel in Ootmarsum. Here a professor from Nijmegen tested Hans and concluded that he was not able to follow the seminary course, but that he had a greater aptitude for technical studies.

So, Hans called it a day, and felt that anyway he would eventually take over his father’s shop. He tried this, but again thoughts of the welfare of people and to be able to help them came back strongly to him.

He joined Mill Hill in old Vrijland, together with Jos Trimbach, as an electrician. In those days Vrijland had workshops, and he became an instructor in forging and welding. There were other workshops for farming and market gardening.

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He did maintenance work in Vrijland from 1951-1954. In 1954, he was transferred to the college in Hoorn, where he looked after the maintenance together with Br. Lucas Frans Jozef Gunsch. He specialized in welding. He also visited parishes with Fr Groeliker in search of vocations, using a film about the missions.

In 1955, Br. Hans Vester took his perpetual Oath as a member of St. Joseph’s Missionary Society.

After that he was appointed to Courtfield in Wales to help in the Green House and was quite happy there.

The next year 1956, his brother Frans was ordained a Mill Hill Missionary priest.

In 1956, Br. Hans was appointed to the Pakistan mission and found this to be the life he always wanted. With his special talent to get things organized he was able to start a Technical School in Sargodha. To begin with he visited factories in order to see what the needs were. Eventually he was asked by the Government to organize a school.

The Technical Training was to be a three year course, the idea being that, for 15 years the school would be run by foreign personnel and after that would be taken over by local management.

In 1963, Br. Hans went back to Holland to visit his family. In the mean time the school was being looked after by a priest, and so on his return he found that the school had been thoroughly changed and that his services were no longer required. This he found very disappointing.

The Bishop appointed him Diocesan Buildings Inspector and he looked after a variety of building projects. It gave him a chance to see many places and meet many people.

Then he got the idea of running a co-operative workshop. This he started in a garage, which was fitted out with a workbench for wood and metal work. It worked so well, that some priests took up this idea and initiated something similar in their parishes.

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Br. Hans got his second home-leave, which lasted for six months, and on his return he stayed in Pakistan till the early 1970s.

In Europe he was appointed to Mill Hill, England to start the “Book Services Bookshop” for the mission areas. Orders were received from all over the world and books were supplied with a 15 to 10 percent cut in price. Fr Hanrahan, Superior General, expressed his appreciation, and even Memisa Rotterdam used the services of the Bookshop.

He was very happy with the type of work and had it well organized. When the physical strain of handling loads of books became too much Fr George Saraber became his assistant, and they had a good working relationship. Fr George Saraber ran the bookshop after Br. Hans returned to Holland.

His brother Fr Frans returned from Uganda a sick man, and had to undergo a serious operation. However, he recovered well. In those years Hans was the great moral support for his brother and Fr Frans readily acknowledged this.

Fr Frans was asked to become Parish Priest in Appeltern and bring an assistant. Br. Hans became the assistant. He acted as driver and contact person. He had a car at his disposal, bought with his own hard earned savings. The parish was a double parish and he took his brother from place to place.

During a visit of Fr Frans to Uganda, Br. Hans’ real brothers Piet and Henk came to cook for him. When they saw that he had a serious problem in walking, they persuaded him to retire to St. Joseph’s. He had suffered a brain hemorrhage.

After that he took up residence in Vrijland. However he would never recovered from a second brain hemorrhage and died on the 28th of March 2011.

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Br. Jan Niele was born in Alkmaar, Holland on the 7th of March 1930. He was the 7th out of 13 children. His mother died when he was nine years old. His father re-married and one more child was born. Two of Br. Jan’s sisters became Religious and a brother a Franciscan priest.

During the Second World War his eldest brother, Floris, was studying for the priesthood with Mill Hill but left the seminary, and joined the underground movement. He died in combat.

The Mill Hill magazine came to their home and at an early age by reading this magazine Jan felt more and more a desire to become a missionary and to work as a volunteer among the poor and the underprivileged.

He went to a Technical School in Alkmaar and studied woodwork, bricklaying and architectural draughting. After this he worked as an apprentice to a builder in Egmond a/d Hoef.

In 1948, he joined Mill Hill in Arnhem, Vrijland. At that time Mill Hill had plans to move to Oosterbeek to build a new Brothers House. Near the end of the War, as it is well known, heavy fighting took place in and around Arnhem. The property at Oosterbeek had been partly destroyed and the brothers got the task of re-building the estate. This was for Br. Jan an opportunity to gain a lot of practical experience in construction.

Br. Jan Niele took his Perpetual Oath on the 18th of May 1955, and in August of the same year was appointed to Burn Hall College, England.

In 1956, together with Br. Hans Vester, Br. Jan came to Pakistan to start what is now the Sargodha Institute of Technology (SIT) in Sargodha.

They were the first Mill Hill Brothers to be appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi.

His first task was to design and build the workshops, classrooms and the hostel of the Technical School. Br. Jan became the Head of the Woodwork department. He had to work out a syllabus taken from Dutch, German and English books, and adjust it to the level of Pakistani requirements. Also he composed a fundamental drawing-course as basic training for all students of the school.

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Meanwhile, Br. Hans Vester had successfully set up the Electrical department, which at a later stage would be taken over by Br. Gerrit Lansink. Br. Lucas Gunsch joined the school in 1960 to start the Metal department, but unfortunately, within a year he was to meet with a fatal accident.

After two years the school was visited by representatives from Miserior. They were deeply impressed by what had been achieved and took it upon themselves to complete the building and to arrange for teachers from Germany for the various departments. Also they supplied all the equipment needed for the classrooms and workshops. Their contribution was a blessing for the school because, without it the school would not have been what it has become.

In 1958 with the obvious increase of the administrative work Br. Jan was appointed Vice Principal. This meant that it was his task to look after the staff, personnel, time tables, exams, etc. Also the bookkeeping became his responsibility.

Apart from all this Br. Jan was asked to design and construct various other building projects in the Diocese, such as: a School in Rawalpindi, Murree Road, the First part of the Technical School, Sargodha, a School in Chak 36, St. Paul's High School, Sargodha, a Bungalow for foreign staff members employed by the school, and Flats for staff members and personnel also employed by the school, Sargodha, the Modernization of the Cathedral in Rawalpindi, Classrooms, hall, chapel and rectory in Kohat.

In 1972, Br. Jan departed for Holland, and eventually left the Society. In 1973 he immigrated to New Zealand, and got a job as junior draughtsman in an Architectural firm. He enrolled himself in a Polytechnic Institute and obtained New Zealand qualifications. This enabled him to apply for a vacancy advertised as Head of a Draughting Department, with responsibility for design, working drawings, specification writing and site supervision.

In 1980 he joined an Interior Design Office in Christchurch and became involved with various projects in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Sydney and Christchurch. He started as Chief Draughtsman and became in the end overall manager of the factory in Christchurch.

In 1990 Jan retired, stayed a few years more in New Zealand and then returned to Holland, where he lives today.

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Joseph Hopfgartner Fr Joseph Hopfgartner was born on the 22nd March 1929 in Luttach, in the diocese of Bozen/ Brixen, Italy. In Tyrolese, Joseph becomes Pepi.

Pepi studied in Brixen and from there went to Mill Hill. He was ordained priest in Mill Hill on the 7th of July 1957.

After ordination, Fr Joseph Hopfgartner was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, where he worked till 1965. His appointment was for Mariakhel.

In Mariakhel Fr Hopfgartner took great interest in the school and the parish outstations. He was a very good speaker of Urdu. During his holidays he cultivated the friendship of the ruling family of the Chitral State. He also managed to become friendly with the King of Afghanistan., Zahir Shah, who made Fr Pepi his special guest and gave him a tour of Afghanistan. Fr Joost Beemster was also on that tour.

In 1965, he was appointed to Coesfeld, Westfalen, Germany and later to Munster for vocation and promotion work in the recently initiated Mill Hill setup there.

For many years he was very active in communication work and was editor of the missionary magazine ‘Kontinente.’ On account of his involvement with ‘Kontinente’ and his interviews with famous people like Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, Karl Rahner and others, he became quiet well known in Germany.

He also obtained much financial help from aid agencies for projects in many of the Mill Hill missions. In 1982, he was appointed administrator of the house in Munster.

In the morning of the 18th of November 1989 he was found dead in his bed in Cairo, Egypt, where he was on visit.

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Joost Beemster

Fr Joost Beemster was born on the 11th of May 1933, in the Diocese of Haarlem, Venhuizen, the Netherlands. He has nine brothers and 4 sisters. His father Gerard was a gardener.

He completed his Secondary Education in Hoorn and Haelen, from 1946-1952.

He took his Perpetual Oath on the 6th of May 1957, and was ordained on the 13th of July 1958 at Mill Hill.

After ordination he was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He spent almost 12 years there, the first six of which were in Peshawar Cantt, as a teacher at St. Mary’s and at the same time helped out in St. Michael’s parish. He was the Principal of St. Mary’s Peshawar for some time.

His next tour brought him to St. Patrick’s, Rawalpindi as Principal, and Parish Priest in Westridge. In 1969 he was the in charge, for about one year, of the Sargodha Institute of Technology, in Sargodha. He left Rawalpindi Diocese in 1970.

From 1970-1976 he was a Member of the General Council; Director for Asia/Australia.

In 1976 he went for parish work in Bussum, The Netherlands.

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In 1980 he was appointed to Calcutta, India. In 1981 to Missio, Aachen, Germany: India desk.

In 1985 he was Co-Regional, Dutch Region, in 1985 Regional Representative to Dutch Region, in 1988 Chapter Delegate, Dutch Region, in 1988 he was re-elected as Regional Representative to the Dutch region.

Then in 1991, he was appointed to Sabbatical, in Jerusalem, and in 1992, to pastoral work in Alkmaar, the Netherlands.

In 1993, he went to St. Jozefhuis, to study the future of the Dutch Region, and in October of 1993 became Student Pastor to foreign students in East-Netherlands.

In 1994, he was Chapter delegate, Dutch Region. And in 1996, he was appointed as Regional Bursar, to the Dutch Region. In January 1995 as Archivist to the Dutch Region In 1996 he was appointed as hospital chaplain, Rijnstate Ziekenhuis, and from April 2001 -2004, Vice Regional, Dutch Region.

At present Fr Joost Beemster is Archivist of the Dutch Region and part time employed as chaplain to the Arnhem Hospital.

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Alois Prader I was born on the 18th of February 1932, at Natz, South Tyrol, Italy.

My education began at my home village, then I joined St. Joseph Missionhaus at Brixen, and after philosophy at the Vincentinum Seminary, Brixen I proceeded to St. Joseph College, Mill Hill to study Theology.

My class was ordained on 13th of July 1958. We were 29 in all.

Three of us were sent to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Fr Joost Beemster, Fr Hugh Lee and myself.

As was customary I left for Pakistan towards the end of November (1958). The departure of the ‘Asia’ from Genoa was delayed by a few days due to a strike. It took 12 days to reach Karachi.

In Karachi I met up with Fr Joost Beemster, and after two days we traveled by train in the company of Fr Nol Neyzen, who introduced us in some detail to all that we were seeing.

Bishop’s House in Rawalpindi had about half a dozen resident priests. Bishop Hettinga was absent. Fr Sjoerd de Jong gave me my first appointment to Chak 36 S.B. under Fr Bartholomew Kaptein.

We soon left for Sargodha, as Christmas was approaching. Fr Kaptein gave me some tuition in the Urdu language, and very soon, for three or four days at a stretch, I was going from village to village saying Mass and baptizing, whether I understood anything or not.

My duties were 3 years in Chak 36 S.B., 13 years in Sargodha, 17 years in Mariakhel. Short stays were in, Gujrat for 2 years and Josephabad for 4 years.

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In 1961 the German Team of WĂźrzburg came to staff the Fatima Hospital, Sargodha.

In Sargodha parish house, in 1963 there were a dozen foreign personnel: 5 Fathers, 2 Brothers, and 7 German lay volunteers for Sargodha Institute of Technology. My responsibility was the pastoral care of the parish, and to continue the touring of the villages three days a week.

Together we built some churches: in Noorigate, 16 Risala, and the Parish Hall, and we also had a good harmonious working relationship with the Presentation Sisters and the Fatima Hospital Sisters. My hobby was to keep at a low level the unclean species of swine in the Remount Depot.

In Josephabad I took over from Fr Owen Murray. However, after all the touring during the week, and the four Masses on Sundays, after putting up buildings for schools, and quarters for the cook, I was somewhat disappointed with the cooperation of the people there. I made it clear to Bishop Simeon Pereira that I would not go back to Josephabad after my home-leave. So to my beloved Mariakhel I returned.

In Gujrat after continuous tension between Parish and Hospital staff, a complete new staff was suggested, and I had to lead the team of Australian Mercy Sisters, a new cook, and a new catechist. However, after two years the Franciscans Fathers asked for a base in the Rawalpindi Diocese. They chose Gujrat, as it was nearest to Lahore.

Mariakhel was my longest, most happy time, between pastoral work, and trying to improve the financial state of the farmers, through new mechanized farming, and better storage, supply of seeds, and fertilizers.

The future of the Christian Villages is pretty doubtful, and at times one cannot see how they will survive. One reason is the dividing up of the land among the sons, then the fact that much of the land has been acquired

by Muslims.

In the summer of 1997, Mill Hill asked me to take over as Rector of Brixen, Italy. I accepted the appointment. After six and a half years I was released from this responsibility and settled in Herbert house as Vice Rector, where I do the shopping, and act as a taxi driver. We get many requests from parishes to help out on the weekends. Also we take on Mission appeals in the diocese, and life goes on.

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Brother Gerard Lansink

Br. Gerard Lansink from the Netherlands was born on the 21st of January 1931.

He took his Perpetual Oath on 19th of March 1958.

In 1960 he was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi Pakistan.

There he joined the staff of the Sargodha Institute of Technology.

Br. Lansink, forever a calm, thoughtful, and competent person acted as Hostel in-Charge, and also as vice-principal of the Institute.

In 1986, he was appointed to the Bishop’s Office, Rawalpindi, where he served for a couple of years.

Br. Gerard Lansink left Pakistan in the late 1980s, and returned to Holland.

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William Naylor Fr William Naylor was one of the five children of William and Lily (Oakes) Naylor, three boys and two girls.

He was born at St. Helen’s in the diocese of Liverpool on the 30th of March 1933.

When he was sixteen he went to the college in Burn Hall where he obtained his Higher School Certificate in 1950.

In that same year he went to Roosendaal in the Netherlands for his Philosophy studies and proceeded, two years later to Mill Hill to study Theology.

He took his Perpetual Missionary Oath on the 6th of May 1955, and was ordained priest by Bishop Craven at St. Joseph’s College, Mill Hill, London on the 8th of July 1956.

After his ordination Fr William Naylor was asked to go for further studies. He went to Cambridge Technical College to study Chemistry and Physics, and in 1957 he moved to Cork University to study Science.

In 1959 he was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

From then until 1965 he taught at Burn Hall in Abbottabad and St. Mary’s in Rawalpindi.

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In 1965 he was appointed to the staff of the house in Lochwinnoch, Scotland and the year after moved to Burn Hall.

In 1968 he was appointed back to Pakistan but this was cancelled and he was reappointed to the staff of Lochwinnoch.

In the early 1970s he was appointed to do pastoral work in the Archdiocese of Liverpool after recovering from viral pneumonia. For a long time he was Parish Priest in Widnes, Merseyside, but in the mid 1990s he moved to St. Patrick’s Church in Wigan.

Fr Bill was not many years on the mission, but he did visit most of the Mill Hill missions during his holidays. He would visit Mill Hill parishes and the local seminaries with his video camera in hand. Later, back in his own parish, he would try and arouse missionary awareness among his parishioners and elicit financial support from them for the diocesan seminaries in some of the mission areas.

In July of 2003, Fr Bill was taken to the local hospital after a slight heart attack. Then on the 7th of November he collapsed at the altar during the morning Mass at St. Patrick’s in Wigan. He was rushed to the hospital by ambulance but was declared dead on arrival. He was buried in the cemetery at Herbert House, Freshfield.

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Patrick Doyle Fr Patrick Doyle was born in Torloughmore, Athenry, Ireland on the 15th of April 1925.

Paddy went to the seminary in Freshford for his secondary education from 1940 until 1944.

He studied Philosophy in Burn Hall from 1944 till 1946. In 1946 he came to Mill Hill for the study of Theology He was ordained priest there on the 8th of July 1951.

After his ordination Fr Paddy Doyle was appointed to the Staff in Freshford, Ireland. While there he also helped with vocation promotion and was responsible for recruiting many young students for the missionary priesthood.

In 1959, Fr Paddy received an appointment to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He did but one tour of some six years in the mission, and went on leave just after the 1965 war. All of this time he spent in Abbottabad, Burn Hall School.

In 1966 he was asked to do organizing and mission animation work in the Irish Region.

In 1977, he was appointed Rector of Herbert House, Freshfield, England. His great quality was that he treated everybody with deep respect and never gave the slightest impression that, because of their infirmities, they were in any way inferior.

When his term of office expired in 1983, he was appointed to organizing and A.P.F / M.H.M. promotion work in the Archdiocese of Westminster.

In January 1993 he was appointed to the Irish Region and became the guest master at Dartry House, Dublin. He had a gift for making people welcome and was a friend to many.

He died in Mount Carmel Hospital in Dublin in the morning of the th 16 of September 1995. He was a ‘quiet spirit.’ 230

Tony Hoeymans

Miss Antoine Johanna Maria Hoeymans (Tony) was born on the 13th of April 1930 in Aalst, Waalre, the Netherlands.

Having completed her secondary education Tony entered the nursing profession, and from 1948 to 1953, completed her General Nurses training and Maternity Nursing at St. Anna’s Hospital, Geldrop. She also completed the Religious Course for nurses. She obtained a Certificate of Sewing and a further Certificate in Social Studies from 1955 to 1957.

She came originally to Pakistan in 1959 to work in Sialkot, and was sponsored by YCW. By 1963, however, Bishop Hettinga had attracted her to work in the newly built Rosary Hospital in Gujrat. There were other lay missionaries in Gujrat, Chak 36, and Abbottabad in those days.

On account of her association with the Mill Hill Society, in the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Miss Tony Hoeymans became an associate member on the 29th of January 1976 and remained so till the 29th of January 1984. During this time, she continued the running of Rosary Hospital, Gujrat.

In 1985, Tony Hoeymans returned to her home town in Holland, where she died some years later.

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Br. Lucas Gunsch

Br. Lucas Gunsch was born in Schluderns, South Tyrol on the 13th of May 1926.

He was finally professed on 15th of August 1953, and remained at Mill Hill till 1956.

After this he was appointed to Tilburg and in 1957 was sent to Brixen.

In 1959, Br. Lucas arrived in The Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, to work with the other brothers in what is now Sargodha Institute of Technology (SIT).

He was a most amiable person. He spoke the Dutch language quite well.

Br. Lucas Gunsch died at Sargodha in a motorcycle accident with a tonga on the 11th of April 1960, and was buried in the Rawalpindi cemetery.

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Owen Murray

Fr Francis Owen Murray was born on the 21st of December 1923 in Hartlepool, Co. Durham in England. He was the son of Owen and Gertrude (Hall) Murray. He had three brothers and one sister.

Owen, after his secondary education, was in Ushaw College for his Philosophy from 1941 till 1943.

He continued in Ushaw for his first two years of Theology and in 1945 moved to Mill Hill to complete his Theological studies.

Owen took his Perpetual Missionary Oath on the 25th May 1947 and was ordained Priest in St. Joseph’s College, Mill Hill on the 11th of July 1948.

Fr Owen Murray’s first appointment was to Glasgow University, where he studied for three years and obtained a B.A. degree.

In 1951 he was appointed to Africa, Tororo Diocese as a teacher in Tororo College. He then moved to the TTC in Nyondo and later in Ngora as a tutor.

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In 1960 Fr Owen was asked to teach for a year in Freshfield, England. The following year he was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

He first did some language studies in Dalwal and in 1962 he became Principal of St. Mary’s School in Chaklala; concurrently he also served as the chaplain to the Holy Family Hospital and as Parish Priest of Westridge. Later he also was Principal in St. Patrick’s.

Fr Owen was a brilliant linguist. He came to Pakistan fluent in eight African languages, and proceeded to take on all the main languages of Pakistan. He spoke each one perfectly. Once, before he left to do a thirty day retreat in Rome, he studied the language and when his plane touched down in Italy, he descended from it speaking fluent Italian. At one stage, every morning he studied Chinese at the breakfast table.

Fr Owen also served in Peshawar, Gujrat and Josephabad. He worked in Pakistan for 33 years.

In 1994, Fr Owen Murray was appointed to Nairobi, Kenya, and asked to teach at St. Peter’s Seminary, Mukumu and the TTC in Eregi.

In 1997, he was appointed to the British Region. He stayed in Hartlepool. In 1999, during an evening Mass, he suffered a severe stroke which greatly affected his speech and his movements, and forced him to move to St. Bridget’s Nursing Home in Hartlepool.

In 2004 Fr Owen moved to Herbert House in Freshfield.

He died on the 19th of September 2006, peacefully in Southport Hospital, at the age of 82.

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Francis O’Leary Fr Francis O’Leary was born in Crosby, England, on the 18th of June 1931, into a family of three children. He had a brother and a sister.

In 1942, Frank began his studies for the priesthood in St. Peter’s College, Freshfield. He continued his studies in Burn Hall.

In 1949, he went to Roosendaal in the Netherlands to study Philosophy, and came to Mill Hill in 1952 to study Theology.

He was ordained priest in Mill Hill, London on the 8th of July 1956.

After his ordination he was appointed to further studies at Glasgow University where he obtained an M.A Degree in 1960.

In the same year he received an appointment to Rawalpindi Diocese in Pakistan, where he was asked to teach at St Mary’s Rawalpindi City, and later at St Mary’s Academy, Lalazar His life was about to change, however, when on the 19th of November 1962 Fr Frank found an old lady, Mrs. Jacob, dying on the street in Rawalpindi. He had her taken to a little mud room and there was cared for by Fr Frank and a small group of people who later formed themselves into the organization known as St. Joseph’s Hospice Association. The good lady had a remarkable death and kissed the Crucifix for a long time before she died. She inspired her willing helpers 235

to turn their hearts towards the thousands of other people who were similarly abandoned.

So now, besides teaching Fr O’Leary began to take great interest in the lot of the disabled and terminally ill. This resulted in the foundation of St Joseph’s Hospice, Westridge.

Bishop Hettinga supported this venture whole heartedly and had it officially opened and blessed by Cardinal Alfrink, when he visited the Diocese at the end of 1964.

St Joseph’s Hospice was the result of Fr Frank’s pleading for funds, his trust in providence, his enlisting the help of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary Sisters and in establishing the local support group When Fr O’Leary returned to England, he began to think global and eventually founded ‘Jospice International.’ That little mud hut was just the beginning. Today this work of Jospice International has spread throughout: Pakistan, India, Honduras, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil and England.

Jospice International, with Father O’Leary as its Director, extended a helping hand to millions of people who had been weighed down by suffering of one kind or another.

Fr Frank O’Leary died on the 4th of October 2000, in Liverpool, England, at the age of 69.

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Edmund Foord Fr Edmund Foord was born in Ealing, London on the 20th of August 1914.

He was usually called Buff Foord.

He studied in Freshfield, Burn Hall, Roosendaal and Mill Hill.

He was ordained priest on the 9th of May 1940.

Fr Edmund’s first appointment was to the Upper Nile Vicariate in Uganda, where he worked till 1945, when he was made Procurator in Mill Hill.

In 1946 he followed the ‘colonial course’ and in the next year he left for Kodok (now Malakal, Sudan).

From 1948-1961 he did organizing work from Herbert House, Liverpool.

In 1961 Fr Edmund was appointed to the Rawalpindi Diocese, Pakistan. He was asked to teach in Burn Hall, Abbottabad, and finally at St. Mary’s Rawalpindi City. On one occasion he was seen reading the Urdu Bible, and declared that he could do so on account of the Arabic, learnt in the Sudan.

From 1967-1974 we see Fr Edmund in Courtfield, organizing. In October 1974 he was appointed to the Kisii Diocese, in Kenya.

Fr Edmund Foord died of cancer in the morning of the 16th of March 1982, in Nairobi, at the age of 67.

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Vincent Oates Fr Vincent Oates was born in Manchester, in the Diocese of Salford, on the 15th of September 1913.

Vincent studied in Freshfield, Burn Hall, Roosendaal and Mill Hill, and for a year in Lochwinnoch, Scotland.

He was ordained priest in Glasgow Cathedral on the 26th of June 1941.

Fr Oates’ first appointment was to Kisumu in Kenya where he worked for twenty years.

In 1961 he went as chaplain to the Carmelites at Bramshall, England, but in the following year was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Fr Vincent worked in Wah, but the better part of his time on this mission was spent in Murree as Chaplain to the Presentation Convent.

In 1968 he returned to Europe, taking up the appointment of chaplain to the Little Sisters of the Poor in Manchester. He subsequently served as a Chaplain to the Carmelite Monastery in Lipbook, Hants.

For a short time he was Parish Priest of Torpoint in Devon.

In December of 1986, Fr Oates was appointed as Chaplain to the Stella Maris Convent at Bideford, in Devon, where he died suddenly on the 16th of May 1987 of a massive heart attack.

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Toon Vaneman Fr Anthony (Toon) Vaneman was born in Zoeterwoude, The Netherlands, on the 16th of December 1927, into a family of sixteen children, nine boys and seven girls.

Of these, five became priests and two became religious sisters.

Toon’s brothers Jan, Johan and Joop were also Mill Hill Missionaries.

For his secondary education Toon went to the Colleges in Hoorn and Haelen from 1941-1947.

In 1947 he went to Roosendaal to study Philosophy. He studied Theology in Mill Hill from 1949-1953.

He was ordained priest in Mill Hill on 12th of July 1953.

After his ordination Fr Toon Vaneman was appointed to the Mill Hill College in Freshfield, England. He was on the staff there until 1961, when he received an appointment to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. There he served for the next 33 years.

On arrival, Fr Toon was informed of the new Urdu course for priests that had opened up in Dalwal, under the able guidance of Fr Tobias OFM. Toon was one of the first students there. In spite of the Urdu course, however, Fr Toon was called upon to be part of the staff of Burn Hall School at various times. This was one of Fr Toon’s great virtues that he was willing to go where he was asked and to take up at a moments notice any new appointment.

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In the mid sixties he got on to parish work, in Sargodha, Josephabad and Mariakhel. He was also the assistant of Fr Piet Koomen in the Rawalpindi-City in the late seventies.

At the occasion of Fr Toon’s Silver Jubilee in 1978, the then Superior General wrote to him: ‘I have the highest admiration for all of you in Pakistan – we certainly have no harder mission…. The result of your efforts may not be as striking nor as humanly rewarding as they are in other missions but I feel that everything you do and all you endure will bear abundant fruit in God’s good time’.

Fr Toon was an ascetic man, but his ascetics led him to a long period of bad health. His last illness was probably not of his own making, when he began gradually to lose his memory. The loss of the memory was the reason why, in 1994 he was recalled from Pakistan and was appointed to Vrijland, Holland.

Three years later he was admitted to the nursing home for religious in Heerlen. In December 2000, he suffered a heart attack and was given the Sacrament of the sick.

Fr Toon Vaneman’s condition suddenly deteriorated in the morning of the 8th of December 2000, and he died of heart failure. He is buried in Vrijland.

After Fr Vaneman’s death Fr Ben Pex, who was at one stage his assistant in Josephabad, assessed Fr Toon’s spirituality by quoting from the Sermon on the Mount: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Fr Ben found that Toon was too good for this world.

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Hugh Anthony Lee Fr Hugh Lee was born on the 19 of June 1931 in Co. Cavan in the Diocese of Kilmore, Ireland. His parents were Thomas Lee and Margaret Mary McCabe. He has seven brothers and three sisters. His brother Terry is also a Mill Hill Missionary. th

Hugh started his education at Cornasaus National School, Cootehill, Co. Cavan.

From 1946-1951 he studied at St. Joseph’s College, Freshford, Co, Kilkenny.

In September 1951 he went for further studies to St. Joseph’s Roosendaal, Holland. After that he joined St. Joseph’s Mill Hill in September 1954, where he was ordained priest on the 13th of July 1958 and assigned to Slingerlands, New York.

In July 1962, he was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, but had to remain in Albany till his replacement came in November of that year. Then he had his home-leave.

So, he arrived in Rawalpindi in late February 1963. From March 1963 to Dec 1963, he was at Chak 36 SB, Sargodha, except for the months of April and May when he replaced Fr Jan Schrader at Burn Hall. Fr Jan was hospitalized at the time.

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In December 1963, he was appointed as Housemaster at Burn Hall School, Abbottabad where he served until his home-leave in February 1968. After his home-leave he was appointed as Secretary to the Bishop.

In February 1972, Fr Hugh was appointed as Principal to the Kharian School, Jhelum, where he worked until his appointment in July 1973, as a School Accountant of St. Mary’s Academy, Lalazar.

Fr Hugh in 1974 was appointed to Islamabad. During this time he had the Islamabad parish church constructed. This landmark in Islamabad, Our Lady of Fatima Church, was blessed and opened in 1979.

Fr Hugh left to do mission appeals in the United States, in 1980, after which he returned and continued to serve in Islamabad until 1984.

From May 1972 to July 1984, he was also Bursar for the Diocese of Rawalpindi.

At present he is serving at St. Brigid’s Church, Curraghboy, Athlone, Co. Roscommon, Ireland.

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Jan Tool Fr Jan Tool from Holland was born on the 16th of February 1937 at Bovenkarspel in the Diocese of Haarlem, the Netherlands. He was the son of Jan Tool and Catherine Schoenemaker.

He had three brothers and three sisters.

He was ordained priest in London, on the 8th of July 1962, and was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

His first assignment was to Josephabad where he served for four years, and then in 1966 he did a short spell at Mariakhel, before he was appointed to Junior Burn Hall School, Abbottabad.

After that he was appointed to St. Mary’s, Murree Road, Rawalpindi, where together with Fr Grimbergen he developed Satellite Town parish.

In 1985, he was appointed to Nowshera, where he worked till 1986, when he was asked to go to St. Mary’s Academy, Lalazar Rawalpindi.

Fr Jan Tool spent 38 years of ministry of love and service in Pakistan during which he gave his life totally and generously in the service of the Lord. He had a flair for education, was gifted in catechetics, had a fluency in Urdu, and made a massive contribution to the education of young people in church and wider society in Pakistan.

Jan left Pakistan for his home country in the year 2003 and took up a position as chaplain in a home for people with special needs at Heel in Limburg.

A serious liver complaint made it necessary for him to be admitted to ‘Hospice Dignitas’ at Hoorn where he died on Friday 8th of June 2012.

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Herman Bruin Fr Herman Bruin was born in Holland on the 10th of October 1937.

He was educated at the Mill Hill Colleges both in Holland and England, and was ordained priest on the 8th of July 1962.

Fr Herman Bruin’s first appointment was to Mariakhel, where he worked till he left in 1966, because of ill health.

From Mariakhel he toured the outstations extensively, in spite of the area being undeveloped and still desert. He gave permanency to the Mianwali School by attracting a husband and wife team as teachers.

Eventually he left the Society and the Priesthood.

In 1999 he paid a visit to Pakistan. He had hoped to see more organized progress, but found much individual struggling. Fr Piet Grimbergen showed him and his wife around and they met some Mill Hill people. He was somewhat surprised to see how much the Mill Hill numbers had dwindled and that there were so few remaining.

At the moment Herman is in the process of writing his autobiography. He will first do this in Dutch, and the English text will follow later. We hope not too late.

Pakistan is never far from his mind. He regularly gives lectures, assisted by beamer pictures, about Pakistan. Recently he gave one to the farmers in the province of Groningen and talked about the Pakistani economy and political situation.

Herman plans another visit to Pakistan in 2008. We pray that some of us will be still around to greet him.

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Gerard Cahill

Fr Gerard Cahill was born on the 8th of February 1938 in England.

He was educated at the Mill Hill Colleges both in England and Holland, and was ordained priest on the 7th of July 1963.

After ordination he was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

He was first appointed to Dera Ismail Khan and in 1965 came to Josephabad, Khushab, where he laboured for five years.

In 1970, he was in Sargodha and in 1972 moved to Rawalpindi.

Whilst in Rawalpindi, he lived in Rawalpindi City, but served the Westridge parish.

In the early 1970s he left the Society and the service of the Church.

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Thomas Mittelberger Fr Thomas Mittelberger was born on the 21st of September 1938, at Voran in the Diocese of Trent.

He studied in Brixen and Mill Hill, and was ordained on the 12th of July 1964 He arrived in Pakistan in January 1965.

His first appointment was to Peshawar City parish as assistant to Fr Tom Geerdes. Fr Thomas was busy meeting all kinds of people and running the orphanage, the forerunner of the present St Joseph’s Hostel.

After his initial stay in Peshawar City he was transferred to Jhelum Parish. Early morning, on July the 4th 1967 Fr Thomas set out from Jhelum to go visit his Tyrolese colleagues, Fr Louis Prader and Fr Len Steger, but met with a fatal accident on the canal bank near Rasul.

The next day he was buried in the Rawalpindi cemetery.

“I supposed that most of us, at one time or another, have preached to our attentive congregations on the Providence of God. We have told them to accept with faith whatever God has determined to unfold in their lives. That perhaps this unfolding comes gradually over the years, perhaps with a sudden shock and intensity. God’s plan may even mean success and happiness but often it entails a test, a trial in some personal failure, a breakdown of health, the loss of a dear one in death.

We remind our faithful that it is not possible to fathom God’s ways – they are immeasurable – to leave everything in His hands; and that one day their sorrow will be turned into joy.

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All this is very true. We knew all the answers or at least we thought we did until 4th July when, with sudden shock and intensity, came the news of the tragic death of Fr Thomas Mittelberger. Once again we would gather for the solemn Requiem Mass in the Cathedral at Rawalpindi, but now so different from our last meeting there some few months ago, when we bade farewell to our oldest priest, Fr William White, who had died at the age of 82 in the fiftieth year of his Priesthood.

This time it was to be our youngest priest. Fr Thomas was only 28 years old and not yet three years a priest when his last missionary journey came to an end on a road so often traveled by his fellow priests. He was to die alone within a few hours of his accident, and as far as we know, he never regained consciousness. Surely here was our test of faith in the Providence of God.�

Like his life his obituary is a short one. Yet somehow during the Mass, with one of his fellow Tyrolese as chief celebrant, we felt assured that his story is not yet finished. We are certain that Fr Thomas Mittelberger will continue his work in heaven.

Fr Igo van Goozen the parish priest at Jhelum lost his first assistant, called Thomas. Some years later another Thomas, Thomas Manzur Khan, assistant to Igo in Jhelum, died in tragic circumstances.

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Piet Zonneveld

Fr Piet Zonneveld was born on the 02nd of February 1939 at Heemskerk, The Netherlands.

His parents were Jan and Cornelia Zonneveld. He has nine brothers and five sisters.

He studied at Hoorn from 1953-1957, Tilburg 1957-1959, Roosendaal 1951-1961.

He came to Mill Hill in 1961 where he was ordained priest on the 10th of July 1965.

After a few months of his ordination he was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. His first appointment was in Wah parish with Fr Bart Kaptein.

From 1966 to 1976 he was at Burn Hall School, Abbottabad, and in 1976 he was appointed to St. Mary’s School, Murree Road, Rawalpindi, where he worked till 1981.

In 1981, he returned to Europe and worked in Roosendaal, till 1990.

From 1990-2000 he was at the Brother House St. Joseph’s.

In 2000 he was appointed to Missiehuis Vrijland, where he is still working.

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Joseph McIntyre

Fr Joe McIntyre was born in England, on the 10th of February 1942.

He studied at the Mill Hill Colleges in England and Holland, and was ordained on the 10th of July 1965.

Fr Joe McIntyre was appointed to Kampala, East Africa, and had been there for some years when he was asked to go to the Rawalpindi Diocese, in Pakistan in order to strengthen the staff of the Senior Burn Hall School, Abbottabad. He continued as a teacher there for almost three years until Burn Hall School was sold to the Army.

After that Fr Joe went back to England and was involved in APF work. He eventually left the Society.

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John Taylor Fr John Taylor, the youngest of three sons, was born to William Thomas and Helen (née Jackson) Taylor on the 12th of August 1939 in Clitheroe, Lancashire, England.

His father was originally from a village near Settle in Yorkshire.

His mother had a small baker’s and Confectionery business. Soon after John’s birth, the 2nd World war began and his father was called up to serve in the catering corps in Egypt, leaving his mother to care for the business and family. All the sons learnt to share in the work in the bakery and house.

He was baptized on Sunday the 20th August, in St. Michael and St. John’s Church, a Jesuit parish and old outstation from the Jesuit College of Stonyhurst, seven miles away, in the Diocese of Salford. Herbert Vaughan had studied at Stonyhurst and was later bishop of Salford.

As a 7 year old boy, when sick with a painful swollen gland on his neck which was being treated with a hot medicinal poultice he had cried out in the night and his mother said to him, “John, Jesus had a lot of pain on the Cross. Can’t you put up with a little pain to get better?” Those words sowed the seeds of his missionary vocation and not only did he get better but for his 67 years he has never had any major sickness, thanks be to God! Having learnt to serve Mass, the sacristan, Miss Mary Hall, a Headmistress in a primary school near Stonyhurst, invited him to help in the sacristy. During these years he met various Jesuit missionaries on leave and had started reading the “Far East” missionary magazine of the Kiltegan Fathers and was deeply impressed by the missionaries stories and pictures in it.

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On hearing that John would like to become a missionary priest, the Parish Priest contacted two exclusively missionary congregations, the Missionaries of Africa and the Mill Hill Missionaries. Each invited John to write to them and give his reasons why he wanted to be a missionary. He chose the Mill Hill Missionaries, and wrote to the Rector in Freshfield, near Liverpool. Eventually he got a reply and an invitation to come to St. Peter’s College, the Apostolic School originally founded by Herbert Vaughan. There he completed four years of study in what was a rather tough life in those days in this minor seminary.

What helped him to persevere was reading the autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux and realizing that he could already be active as a missionary and involved in bringing people to Christ through following here “little way” of offering all his daily prayers and activities for the salvation of others, especially those that were difficult or painful.

He then went to the Seminary in Burn Hall, near Durham. Two years of Philosophy, Church History and Pedagogics followed in the Mill Hill Seminary of the Missiehuis in Roosendaal, the Netherlands. Then back for four years of Theology in St. Joseph’s College Mill Hill London: most of the subjects still being taught from text books in Latin.

While in Freshfield, one of the priests had noticed that he was able to play the piano a little – something his mother had insisted on him learning, having come from a musical family herself. This priest tutored him to play the organ so that there would be someone to accompany hymns in his class. He continued this service in Roosendaal and Mill Hill.

Another of the Clitheroe Senior School phase activities, namely acting, was also developed further in these years and perhaps his best use of these gifts was when he was chosen to be Oliver Twist in the musical “Oliver” which was performed in St. Joseph’s College at Christmas – there being a tradition to put on musicals or plays during the term.

After becoming a Perpetual Member on the 1st of May 1965 and ordained Subdeacon subsequently, he joined a Tyrolese classmate, Godfried Moltner (who tragically drowned off the coast of Chile, his first mission, within two years of ordination, R.I.P.), and hitch-hiked all the way to Lourdes (after crossing to France by a cheap student flight) to work in the City of the Poor, helping poor pilgrims who came to the Shrine. It was a grace-filled experience, Godfried being known in his class as a very saintly and practical person and John learnt much from him.

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The Superior General, Fr Gerard Mahon, invited his class when they were deacons (ordained in the autumn of 1965) to give their preferences regarding which mission they would like to serve in. John chose the Subcontinent: India or Pakistan. Just prior to his ordination on the 9th of July 1966 in Westminster Cathedral by Cardinal John Carmel Heenan in the centenary year of St. Joseph’s Society, he received an appointment to Rawalpindi, Pakistan, together with Len Steger and Antoine Streppel.

Fr Mahon arranged for them to follow an introductory course in Urdu at the Berlitz School of languages in central London. Unfortunately for the first few weeks, the teacher, an immigrant Pakistani, was not so familiar with the direct method and had no energy since he had another job stocking shelves in a supermarket during the night and sleepily tried to teach them Urdu. They eventually complained to the Principal who then employed an elderly Sikh gentleman who was an excellent teacher but did not follow the direct method, rather a traditional one, but they learnt a lot in the few weeks left, including the script.

They sailed to Karachi with Lloyd Triestino from Venice, through the Suez Canal, in late January 1967 arriving on the 1st of February. Fr Len had been given a motor cycle by benefactors as well as a large box of medicines. Getting the necessary import documents for the motor cycle gave them their first experience of the difficulties of bureaucracy and the huge import taxes (more than the motor cycle originally cost).

Accompanying them on the boat (Fr Antoine was to arrive by cargo ship months later) was Fr Jan Schrader who had brought out a car for his own use. An ambulance for St. Joseph’s Hospice, Rawalpindi, had also recently been imported. It was suggested that they load their luggage into this and Fr John was instructed to travel with the driver, while Fr Len would drive up with Fr Jan in his vehicle. The narrow ‘track’ from Karachi to Hyderabad of those days already gave the ambulance lots of trouble: a razor sharp discarded horseshoe sliced into the back wheel, then there were more punctures, it ran out of fuel and eventually they got left behind as Fr Jan sped on ahead to Rawalpindi.

It took part of four days, via Lahore, where Fr John met Fr Piet Koomen who was following a language course, and in Gujrat met Tony Hoeymans, a Mill Hill Lay Associate. Fr John Nevin, at that time chaplain to the Hospice as well as teaching in St. Mary’s Academy, Lalazar, was happy to eventually get the Ambulance, though it was already in a rather poor condition after the incidents on the way and the bumpy roads.

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Bishop Nicholas Hettinga welcomed the new arrivals. Fr Len was appointed to Josephabad to work with Fr Jaap van der Klugt who was constructing a new Church (and used Fr Len’s personal allowance to keep the cash flowing!!). Fr John was initially asked to assist in the Cathedral parish, spending every evening after Easter going round blessing houses in his broken Urdu.

One evening at tea, Bishop Nicholas mentioned that one of the Fathers was going to be late returning from home-leave and enthusiastically suggested to Fr John that this would prove a wonderful opportunity for him to get involved in pastoral ministry and get more familiar with the language and culture by looking after this parish, Gujrat, till this priest came. So, he was put on a train with instructions to get off at Gujrat, and take a tonga to Rosary Hospital in the Police Lines. This was in April and he stayed there till July (learning some Punjabi and how to cope with the summer heat) when he was asked to prepare himself to take over the teaching from Fr John Nevin, working with Fr Paddy Byrne the Principal of St. Mary’s Academy. In Gujrat, Fr John had the experience of working together with a lay associate, Tony Hoeymans and some other Dutch lay missionaries, as well as the encouragement of Fr Igo van Goozen who was attached to Jhelum.

When the school summer holidays came he was asked to stay in Bishop’s House while most went to the Murree Hills for a break. One morning he received the sad news that Fr Thomas Mittelberger had had a fatal accident when driving his motor cycle down the canal road from Jhelum and had been killed. He was instructed to send word to the Bishop and Society Representative in Murree and Abbottabad, as well as to Mill Hill London. He witnessed the funeral of one who had been ordained just a couple of years ahead of him and he realized the fragility of human life.

Teaching English and Geography to 8th, 9th and 10th class, dressed in a cassock and sash, proved a challenge, but was enjoyable. Fr Paddy Byrne was Principal and there were two Anglo-Indian Ladies who practically ran St. Mary’s Academy, Tess and May Flanagan, who were encouraging and pleasant to deal with. Since most of the students were Muslim, some fellow priests had suggested that the involvement of the Society in such elitist schools was a waste of qualified priests and missionaries and perhaps was permitted solely to make money to build and maintain the schools for the poor in the villages where there were Christians. While this support of the poor schools was seen as valuable, it was Fr van Schagen, who was teaching in a similar English-medium elitist 253

school in Peshawar, who helped Fr John see deeper motives through a correspondence he took up with him. He began to see the contact with Muslims in schools as a valuable missionary service through which important human values were caught by the students from the example of the Mill Hill Missionaries. A number of such students had gone into Government service and had a good influence for the benefit of the nation.

True human values though not called ‘Christian’ were what Christ stressed: generous loving service of all people regardless of religion, colour or social status; fidelity to the truth and goodness; work for justice etc. Such school work was later to be seen as valuable inter-religious dialogue.

While teaching he continued to assist in the Cathedral parish at weekends and took an evening Mass almost daily for the Presentation Sisters in Lalkurti, cycling over on a bicycle he had inherited from Fr Willie Carty whom had met him in London, after retiring from Pakistan, and who had taught him the Hail Mary in Urdu .

In early September, the following year, 1968, there was a retreat in Murree and during this the Society Representative, Fr Scanlon, approached him and said that he had received instructions from the Superior General that, due to one of the staff leaving St. Joseph’s College London, they had to get another one ready to take over to teach Liturgy.

He was to go to Rome and begin studies in Liturgy and Theology in early October. So, Fr John had to wind-up his affairs and go back to Europe.

He had his first experience of a long air-flight from Karachi, passing through Beirut and Cyprus (to get to Tel Aviv as there were no flights from an Islamic country directly to Israel) to have a short visit to the Holy Land, then Athens for one day and on to London. These were all very memorable experiences.

Then followed three years study in Rome: the first two years at San Anselmo, and then one year at the Gregoriana to obtain two licenses to teach Liturgy and Theology.

In September 1971, Fr John began lecturing at the Missionary Institute, London, as well as being a Group Father for students at St. Joseph’s College.

When Frank Scanlon agreed to let him go to Rome for studies in 1968, he had stated in his letter to Fr Mahon that he was letting him go on condition that at the earliest he would be sent back to Pakistan, his first love. This condition was honoured by the then Superior General, Fr Noel Hanrahan in 1977 after being reminded of it. So, after a short holiday Fr 254

John set off back to Pakistan in September. He should have had a sabbatical, but was told by Bishop Simeon Pereira that a Priests’ Renewal Course, organized by a team from Manila, was about to be launched that autumn in Pakistan and he could attend this. Actually this was later postponed for some political reasons and he eventually attended it in Multan in the spring of 1978.

In the meantime he had been appointed to Sargodha parish with additional responsibilities to revive the Liturgy commission in the Diocese and the country and give courses to junior sisters in the Pastoral Institute in Multan and Lahore, as well as occasional courses to the diocesan major seminarians in Karachi.

Fr John Nevin was the Parish Priest in Sargodha assisted by Fr Younas Azad, with Fr Piet de Vreede, semi-retired, looking after the finances mainly. Fr Ben Pex was Principal of the Sargodha Institute of Technology, Br. Gerard Lansink being one of the main supervisors of the workshops, himself a teacher in the Electrical department, and two lay men, also instructors in the Sargodha Institute of Technology as well as looking after the Hostel, and whom Fr Ben was trying to form as diocesan brothers, Rafiq and Amin, constituted the community there.

The six years or so in Sargodha were among the most memorable and enjoyable of his priestly and missionary life, with the supportive team under the lively and cheerful leadership of Fr John Nevin, the companionship of the Presentation Sisters and Fatima Sisters (the German Sisters of Würzburg who were later replaced by the John of God Sisters from Australia) and the involvement with the people in Noori Gate Basti, especially through the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and the assistance of the various catechists, especially the creative retired teacher, Miss Agnes Rangu Mall.

But this rural apostolate came to an end, somewhat, when Fr John Taylor was elected as Society Representative in 1983 and the members asked him to be in a more central place. He was transferred to Islamabad to assist Fr Hugh Lee a little in the English-speaking parish, but mainly Fr Jan Schrader in the Urdu speaking parish and the ‘bastis’ of the city and few attached outstations.

Within a short time, however, Fr Hugh left for Ireland, somewhat exhausted after building Fatima Church with all the restrictions which the Capital Development Authority imposed, and Fr Jan was asked to take over the parish of Abbottabad when Fr Bart Kaptein died on the 1st November 1983. Fr William John was appointed as Parish Priest and Fr 255

John continued there with him. They agreed to share the work of both English-speaking and Urdu (Punjabi) speaking parishes. Fr William was later to become the Vicar General of the diocese. Fr John also was asked to be chairperson of the St. Joseph’s Hospice Board and went over for the monthly meetings, encouraging the other members in their efforts to staff and to maintain the Hospice, under the direction of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary.

Bishop Simeon Pereira asked the two priests to take up the construction of the Urdu Medium School which had been planned for the plot next to the Church, as there was some dead-line regarding the time this plot had to be developed according to the regulations of the Capital Development Authority. The saga that emerged would fill many pages as they soon came head-on with corruption, and were faced with the danger of losing the plot. Eventually, however, all legal matters were ‘resolved’, and the necessary funds were raised for the school.

In Fr John’s service as Society Representative, re-elected twice, he had, among other things, to assist the personnel and thus he was able to help Fr Jaap van der Klugt transfer from Peshawar Cantt to Nowshera; Fr Owen Murree from Josephabad to Kohat, and Fr John himself took over Josephabad for some months in the summer and, with the help of the Presentation Sisters, cleared out the rooms of Josephabad to prepare for Fr Louis Prader to come and take over there. Later when Fr Jaap had a massive stroke and sadly died on the 3rd of July 1988, Fr John encouraged Fr Tom Rafferty to take over Nowshera as a possible base for the apostolate he wished to initiate into the Northern Areas. Fr Tom did this successfully with the assistance of his newly founded congregation of sisters, the Missionaries of St. Thomas. Fr John also supported Fr Gregory Rice who wanted to take over the Rehabilitation Services which Fr Jaap had begun and which Fr Greg later developed in a purpose-built centre on the outskirts of Peshawar. Keeping good relations with the local Pakistani clergy during these years was also one of Fr John’s priorities.

The Jesus and Mary Sisters, great supporters of all that was going on in the parish, decided that they did not have sufficient personnel to continue managing their English Medium Convent School and plans were made to hand this over to the Religious of the Virgin Mary from the Philippines. Fr John had to help in finding suitable accommodation and welcoming them. The Jesus and Mary Sisters, occupying their own house near the Church, continued to manage the Urdu medium school and assist the priests in the parish ministry.

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Mother Teresa of Calcutta came twice during these years to plead with General Zia to allow her sisters to come to Pakistan. On her second visit, she succeeded in this and their first centre was in Satellite Town. It was a great privilege to meet Mother Teresa and celebrate the Eucharist for her and her sisters and chat with her.

When Fr Owen Murray was having some difficulties in Kohat where he had been transferred, Fr John, having got free from his duties as Society Representative, and after a refreshing 8 months’ sabbatical course in Oakland California, and considering leading the Formation of the local candidates for Mill Hill that were been set up by Fr Tom Rafferty at Mardan, went there in June 1994 on a temporary appointment. He later suggested to the Bishop that he take over in Kohat. This was agreed to and Fr John was about to announce this to the parish the following Sunday when he got a phone-call in the night from Fr Vincent Oates who was attending the General Chapter in London as the delegate from IslamabadRawalpindi Diocese. Fr Vincent asked him if he would let his name go forward as a nominee for the General Council. Fr John expressed his reluctance, but was convinced by Fr Vincent that he should at least be open to God’s will.

Around 12 hours later while sipping tea with Fr Owen Murray, who had come to collect his personal belongings, he got a phone call to say he had been elected and would he accept. He first asked to speak to Fr Maurice McGill who had been re-elected as Superior General. He knew Fr Maurice from his time as a student and asked him honestly if he would feel happy with him on his General Council as he would not be offended if he preferred someone else and would gladly decline. But on being assured that Fr Maurice wanted him and that he should see God’s hand in the election, he accepted. He was told to be in London within three days to be present for the last week of the Chapter, but could return after a month or so to wind up his affairs. The sudden transition from pastoral ministry in Pakistan to the General Council was not easy. Fr John became the Councilor for Asia, Australasia and Associates.

During this period, he helped out during Christmastide in the Mariakhel outstations when on visitation one year and managed to arrange to help out in Pakistan for three months during the summer and allow Fr Piet Koomen to take home-leave, serving in Westridge while he was away. This kept alive his love and commitment for Pakistan.

However, it was only during his visits to India that he realized that there was a desperate need for someone to help with the fragile Basic and 257

First Cycle formation that the members there were trying to build up. So, when he was nominated to continue on the General Council at the Chapter of 2000, he indicated that his preference was to offer himself for this formation ministry in India.

After a short holiday – since the academic year in India had already begun in June – he flew out to Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh and on to Karunapuram, some 125 Km North East and 20 Km South of Warangal, the main city in this rural area, and joined the small group of students who were living in temporary quarters. A formation house was being constructed nearby.

In October 2005, Fr Vincent Oates, having completed his term as Rector in Herbert House Freshfield and supervised the rebuilding there, agreed to join the formation team in Karunapuram and took over a number of the Basic Formation classes. After just over a year he was elected Society Representative. Fr John had indicated that he did not want to have a third term and would happily retire from this job on the 1st of April 2007.

Fr John Taylor’s work in formation of future Mill Hill Missionaries continues to grow and be blessed. As he says himself: “All is grace and God chooses the weak to show His strength. Glory to Him, whose power working in us can achieve much more than we can ever ask for or imagine. Glory to Him, in the Church, and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever Amen! (Cf. Eph 3:20-21).”

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Antoine Streppel

Fr Antoine Streppel was born in 1940 just at the beginning of World War II. His mother died when he was 8 years old. His father was left with 9 children to raise. Some time later his father married again and one more child was born.

After primary school Antoine studied in the Mill Hill colleges in Tilburg, Roosendaal and Mill Hill.

He was ordained on the 10th of July 1966, and was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

In preparation Fr Streppel studied Urdu at the Berlitz School in London after which he went to Pakistan, where he served in Peshawar and in Mariakhel.

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In Mariakhel, he acted as chaplain to the school run by the Jesus and Mary Sisters. Fr Streppel gave religious instruction and Physical Training classes. He spent all the morning in the school. He also looked after Mianwali City, where he went on Sundays for Holy Mass.

It was a good learning period for Antoine, during which he developed a different outlook on life. People were mostly poor and illiterate but often they possessed a fount of wisdom, passed on from generation to generation.

He was confronted with basic life, and knew that it was good to be part of a culture so different from what he was used to, and to discover that there are so many ways of life and views on life, and that one is not necessarily better than the other.

In 1972, Antoine Streppel left Pakistan, and eventually left the Mill Hill Society.

In 1976 he married, a marriage in which to this day he remains very happy. In 1982 a daughter was born to them.

When he returned to Holland he studied at Nijmegen University and embarked on a teaching career. This he continued till 1995 when he had to stop working because of severe rheumatoid arthritis. That same year he also suffered a heart attack but recovered well.

From 1995 he did a lot of volunteer work in the educational and pastoral field. He also has written a lot of articles and book reviews for various magazines. Antoine still continues his involvement in writing, a labour that gives a lot of satisfaction to him.

At present he is being treated for skin cancer, but the outlook is good.

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Ben Pex Fr Ben Pex was born on the 31st of March 1941 at Rijswijk, Holland, and was christened Gijsbertus, Theodorus, Christiaan.

His parents were Gijsbertus Pex and Johanna Peters. He has one brother and two sisters.

Ben studied at Hoorn, Tilburg, Roosendaal and Mill Hill, and was ordained on the 29th of June 1967, at Mill Hill College, Roosendaal.

After his ordination, Fr Ben Pex was appointed to the Diocese of Islamabad/Rawalpindi, Pakistan, where he served till 1978.

From January 1968 he was for short spells in Swat, and Gujrat and in June of that year was assigned at Chak 59 MB, Josephabad, where he worked till his appointment in 1970, as assistant in Sargodha, and part time teacher at Sargodha Institute of Technology (SIT). In November 1971, he became Principal of that Institute.

In 1978, Fr Ben left Pakistan and went to the Catholic University Nijmegen, where he obtained a doctoral degree in Dogmatic Theology. In January 1980, he was appointed as lecturer of Theology at Mill Hill College, Roosendaal.

In 1987 he went for Sabbatical, and studied in India.

From 1988 to 1998, he was advisor to CMC/AMA, Pastoral Projects Asia. From May 1998 to May 2004, Fr Ben was regional 261

superior, and from 1999 to 2004, he was chairman to the Group IV Missionary Societies.

In October 2002, he was appointed as chairman of the Conference of Priest Religious (SNPR), and from November 2004 to March 2006, he remained as Coordinator of the inter-diocesan research on Migrant Parishes.

At present he is serving as a member of the Council of Churches, Board member of the Dutch Missionary Council, member of the advisory committee to the Bishops’ Conference, National Director of Missio/ Pontifical Mission Societies, member on behalf of the Diocese of Rotterdam in the Contactraad(Board) Inter-Religious Dialogue (CID), Board member of the Week Dutch Missionaries (WNM), and as a part time priest at Titus Brandsma Parish, The Hague.

Fr Ben Pex celebrates his 40th anniversary of priesthood this year 2007, and is only beginning now to search for ways to cut back on his heavy work load. We wish him the best.

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Frans Lampe Fr Frans Lampe was born in Amsterdam on the 15th of July 1928 in the Diocese of Haarlem.

He was the son of James and Gertrude (Ronte) Lampe. He had four brothers and one sister.

One of his older brothers was a Missionary Jesuit Priest in Indonesia.

Frans did his secondary education in Weert from 1943 till 1949 where he graduated with Diploma Gymnasium B. Only then he joined up with Mill Hill and went to Roosendaal for his philosophy studies from 1949 till 1951. In that same year he moved to Mill Hill for his theology.

He took his Perpetual Missionary Oath on the 6th of March 1955 and was ordained priest in Mill Hill by Cardinal Griffin on the 10th of July 1955.

Fr Frans was appointed to the mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He served in Befale, Waka, Bokakata and later in Bonkita.

When the troubles started in the Congo in 1964 and the other missionaries had to leave, Fr Frans opted to stay on to keep things going.

However, in 1965, Fr Frans was recalled to London and after consultation in Mill Hill went to Dublin to study chemistry. He obtained a B. Sc.

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In 1968 he was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi to help in the schools there. He arrived in June 1969 but stayed only for a few months, because later in that year, he joined the teaching staff at Freshfield, England, where he taught for 3 years.

In 1972, however, the college in Freshfield closed its doors and Fr Frans moved to the Netherlands Fr Frans began teaching in Canisius College in Nijmegen, run by the Jesuits. At first he only taught Religious Education but during that time he also obtained a M.O.B in Chemistry from the Catholic University of Nijmegen so that he was qualified to teach chemistry. He stayed there till August 1987.

He later became parish priest in Ottersum. He also retired there living in his own house. It pained him when he had to leave his house and move to Oosterbeek in 2006, but he was a sick man.

He had been diagnosed with cancer, but weighing all the options Fr Frans declined an operation. Gradually he weakened. He needed morphine to fight the pain.

Fr Frans Lampe died, on the 4th of December 2006.

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Br. Hein Spoolder was born in the Netherlands on the 15th of March 1943.

He joined the Mill Hill Brotherhood and took his Perpetual Oath on the 17th of March 1968.

In the same year Br. Hein was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

His first appointment was to the Sargodha Institute of Technology (SIT), where he taught students the art of construction in the very practical way of taking building work on contract in the local area.

Later on Br. Hein was transferred to Peshawar City parish to the technical workshops that were there, at the time.

By 1978, he had left the Society.

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Michael McKenna

Fr Michael McKenna was born on the 26th of August 1943.

Although he is British, his birth actually occurred in the hill station of Murree, Pakistan. He would also be a cousin of the famous actress Siobhan McKenna He was ordained priest on the 22nd of June 1969, and appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

In the beginning Fr Michael was in Mariakhel and after that he went to the Chak 36 SB and Sargodha area. In Sargodha he acted as a hostel superintendent in the Institute of Technology (SIT). He was there for quite a few years.

After that he was appointed to Islamabad and Westridge, where he served till about 1994.

In 1995 he returned to England and took up chaplaincy ministry.

At the moment he is in the Monastery of Our Lady of Hyning, Carnforth, Lancashire.

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Br. John Wester was yet a young man in his early 20s, when he volunteered and came out from Holland to the Catholic village of Mariakhel. He laboured there for nearly three years from 1969 to 1972.

He had come to help Fr Louis Prader set up more modern agricultural methods for the village, by using machines that would require less man power, by looking for new ways to improve the existing structures and by promoting his ideas and findings to the farming community.

His original missionary inspiration had come to him in his home town Hoorn, where he had worked on the Mill Hill College farm with the other Brothers.

For Br. John Wester three years was too short a period to be able to see the results he desired.

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Piet Grimbergen

Fr Piet Grimbergen was one of the seven children of Peter and Agnes (van Roosendaal) Grimbergen.

He was born on the 10th of August 1921 at IJmuiden in the Diocese of Haarlem.

Piet completed his secondary education at the Mill Hill minor seminaries at Hoorn and Haelen.

In 1939 he began the study of Philosophy at Haelen, and during the war years from 1941 till 1945 he studied Theology at Roosendaal. He was ordained at Roosendaal on the 9th of December 1945.

Fr Piet Grimbergen’s first task after ordination was to serve as a teacher at the Hoorn seminary, and then from 1946 till 1948, at the minor seminary in Freshfield, England.

This brief spell as a teacher was followed by study at Cambridge University. He graduated in 1952 as Bachelor in Arts.

Then it was back to Holland where for the following six years, he taught at Haelen, becoming Director of Studies in 1953.

In 1956 he completed his Masters Degree in Greek and Latin.

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In 1957, he was transferred to ‘De Rooie Pannen’, the ‘Red Tiled’ College, at Tilburg where from 1960 till 1966, he served as Rector.

In 1966 Fr Piet was appointed Regional Representative in Holland, an office he held for the next four years.

His first chance to go on the missions came in 1970 when he was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi Pakistan. There he served as Principal to St. Mary’s Cambridge School at Rawalpindi.

His life in Pakistan was briefly interrupted in 1976 when he was appointed Secretary General, a job he held only till 1977, when he returned to Rawalpindi.

The main focus of his missionary dedication was always education, and he was untiring in his efforts to improve educational standards and to give Catholic Schools a solid financial base.

He was also very successful in raising funds to finance his social housing projects, which were to improve the conditions of the poor, among whom he was living. Fr Piet wrote: “Never in all my 31 years here did I baptize a Muslim, but I hope and trust that I made many conversions by the grace of God--and that is what is done by so many sisters, brothers, priests, teachers witnessing to the values of Jesus Christ in deed and life”.

Fr Piet was to remain in Pakistan until May 2002.

On his return, to the Dutch Region, Fr Piet Grimbergen was soon to hear that he was terminally ill. He finally went to his rest early in the afternoon of the 3rd of September.

The Requiem Mass was held on the 6th of September 2002 at 11:00am in the Chapel of Vrijland and he was buried at the cemetery there.

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Michael Conroy Fr Michael Conroy was one of four children. He was born on the 14th of February 1925, in Denny, Sterlingshire, Scotland.

Mick studied at Tullamore, Co. Offaly and Freshford, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland.

His Philosophy was at Burn Hall, Durham, England and Theology at Mill Hill, London.

He took the Perpetual Oath in 1948, and was ordained priest in Mill Hill on the 10th of July 1949.

Fr Michael Conroy spent most of his life in education and youth work, going initially to Freshford. He then studied History and Economics at University College, Cork, and gained a B.A in 1953.

He was in Kisumu from 1953 to 1968, where he worked in schools and seminary.

He then went to Albany, in the USA for two years to do vocation promotion, appeals and to publish the Mill Hill magazine.

In 1971 he was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan where he was to spend the next 27 years teaching. First of all in Burn Hall Abbottabad, then St. Mary’s Academy, Lalazar and last of all in Sangota Public School, Swat, where he was also chaplain to the Presentation Sisters.

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Fr Michael Conroy was author and poet, delighting readers with his account of the Mill Hill Mission to Afghanistan (1879-1882) in ‘The Opening Door’, also with his book on the Missionaries of St. Thomas (MST): ‘Beyond All Boundaries’, but perhaps he is best known for his poetry. In ‘Moon Over Kashmir’ he writes: What need for idle tears, What cause for grief?

The number of our years, Is written on the leaf.

And whether they be long, Or all too brief We cannot right the Wrong, Nor halt the falling leaf.

In all the various schools in which he served, Fr Michael was always recognized as both, a keen sportsman and sports coach. He was a graceful player with stick and ball, whether hurling, cricket, hockey or tennis, and never picked up any injury. It was left to an open drain in a crowded Rawalpindi bazaar to do that. He twisted his leg badly in that drain and never recovered fully from the injury sustained; rather it seemed to progress into Parkinson’s, the disease that afflicted him at the end of his life.

Because of this he had intended to retire in 1997, but returned to Pakistan, and put in two more years in Swat. He finally retired to Ireland in 1999. Fr Michael was well loved and respected by his students and many old students from various parts of the world came to visit him in his retirement.

In 2002 his health deteriorated and he had to take up residence in a nursing home in order to get extra care. Three days before his death he was taken to Loughlinstown Hospital, Dublin, where he died of acute pneumonia on the 2nd of May 2006, at the age of 81.

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Gregory Rice

Fr Gregory Rice was born on the 12th of September 1939, in Denver, Colorado, USA.

As a young man, he was attached to the American Air Force that had its base at Baraber, Peshawar. It was at this time that Greg came in contact with the Mill Hill Fathers such as Fr Jos van Erp and Bishop Hettinga. He was so impressed by their life style and their mission that he decided to join them. So in 1968, we see Greg in St. Joseph’s College, Mill Hill, London, studying Theology.

He took his perpetual oath on the 13th of November 1971, and was ordained priest on the 25th of June 1972.

Fr Gregory Rice was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and on arrival was asked to go to Murree not only to serve there but to study the language. When he was ready he was appointed to Peshawar Cantonment.

In Peshawar he brought his considerable architectural skills into focus by helping Fr van der Klugt to design and to construct the new St. Michael’s Church.

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From 1980 till 1989 Fr Greg was in Westridge, Rawalpindi. There he continued not only to build up the Church, but the old Sacred Heart Church building itself received one beautiful face lift along with all the surrounding buildings.

Fr Greg had always been an admirer of Fr Jaap van der Klugt’s work among the ever increasing number of heroin addicts, and expressed a desire to be involved. In 1988, however, when Fr van der Klugt, who had his drug detoxification centre at Nowshera at the time, died suddenly, Fr Greg was on Sabbatical.

The new parish priest of Nowshera, Fr Tom Rafferty, continued the running of the centre, and in 1989 when Fr Greg returned he handed the Drug Abuse Treatment Programme over to him.

Fr Greg, having rented a building, took the full programme to the University area in Peshawar, and already began to form plans for the construction of a permanent centre. This materialized in Chamkani, outside the Rawalpindi side of Peshawar, and was opened in 1992.

Fr Greg continued to run this programme until 2006, and in all this time held himself available to assist in the surrounding parishes, especially in Nowshera, where faithfully every year he helped out with the Great Feast Days, and supplied when Fr Tom would be on home-leave.

In 2006, after handing over the Drug Abuse Treatment Programme (DATP) to Fr Roy Pierce he retired to the USA.

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Jakob Kirchler Fr Jakob Kirchler was born on the 17th of July 1948 in the mountains of South Tyrol, Italy in a village called St. Jakob.

His parents were Thomas and Maria (Stolzlechner) Kirchler.

He has five brothers and six sisters.

Jakob started his education at the Primary School in his village, and completed his secondary education in the Mill Hill Boarding School in Brixen, South Tyrol.

He did his Philosophy at Innsburck, Austria, and went to St. Joseph’s College, Mill Hill for the completion of his theological studies.

Fr Jakob was ordained on the 29th of June 1973, in the Cathedral of Brixen.

In October 1973, he was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi /Islamabad. There he worked in St. Mary’s School, Murree Road Rawalpindi, Gujrat, Islamabad, and Mariakhel; with responsibility for Dera Ismail Khan, Makarwal, Daud Khel and Mianwali.

In October 1978, Fr Jakob Kirchler was the first Mill Hill priest from the Rawalpindi Diocese to move to their new mission in the tribal apostolate, in the Diocese of Hyderabad. He took up residence in Matli in order to work with the Parkari Kohlis.

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In 1982, he left Pakistan and spent the next nine years in Europe studying Islamics including Arabic. He was also involved in the vocations and promotion ministry for St. Joseph’s Missionary Society.

In January 1992, Fr Kirchler went to the Sudan. For the first four years there he was involved mostly in teaching and running a Language School. Fr Jakob is himself a brilliant linguist. In 2005 when he returned to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, after an absence of 22 years to celebrate the centenary of the Holy Name Church in Nowshera, he delivered the homily on the occasion in clear and precise Urdu. After the Language School there followed a period of five years of pastoral work in Malakal, Southern Sudan.

From 2000 to 2005, Fr Jakob Kirchler served on the General Council of the Mill Hill Missionaries.

After a Sabbatical, Fr Jakob again returned to Southern Sudan, in a place called Tonga in the Diocese of Malakal, where he is still working along with the young Cameroonian Mill Hiller Elvis Shudzeka in a very isolated and ‘traditional’ place: there are no facilities, no electricity, no water supply, no medical services, no telephone, no Post Office. It used to be a huge mission, but now they must stay in a crumbling building among all the ruins caused by the war.

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Brendan Mulhall

Fr Brendan Philip Mulhall son of Nicholas and Helen was born on 30th January 1947, in Liverpool, England. He has 3 brothers and 1 sister.

Before joining the seminary, Brendan had worked in a factory for some years, training to become a technician in industrial instrumentation.

He was educated at the Mill Hill Colleges in England and Holland, and was ordained on 23rd of June 1973.

After his ordination he was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and was initially asked to join Fr Tom Rafferty in Josephabad for the few months prior to going to the Murree Language School.

His initiation into village life in Pakistan was somewhat dramatic at times. The flood waters in the village were receding and Fr Tom had decided to reconstruct roads, drainage and houses again. Some local Landlord objected and Fr Brendan unfortunately came face to face with his rage. However, he managed to settle the dispute Pakistani style by handing over a couple of bags of wheat.

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Thick black fog descended upon Josephabad that Christmas, and Fr Brendan in an effort to get to an outstation to say Mass, could not see the road and ended upside down with his ambulance in a ditch of water.

After the Language School, he was sent to Mariakhel and in a very short time became the in-Charge there together with his classmate Fr Jakob Kirchler. Things ran smoothly under Fr Brendan’s kind control.

By 1976, Bishop Bonaventure of Hyderabad, with the sanction of the Bishops Conference, sent out an appeal to every diocese in the country for volunteers to work in the apostolate to the tribal peoples in Sindh. The only response he received to the appeal was from Fr Brendan Mulhall and Fr Jakob Kirchler. Thus in 1977, Frs. Jacob Kirchler and Brendan Mulhall, were able to begin work among the Kohli in Sindh.

Fr Brendan would become the back bone of this new Mill Hill mission in Sindh, and would labour there, among the Kutchi Kohlis for the next 28 years.

His life took a sudden turn during the Chapter of 2003. His name was put forward to be a member of the General Council. Fr Brendan agreed, and today he is the Vicar General of St. Joseph’s Missionary Society, residing now at Maidenhead, England.

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Patrick Murray

Fr Patrick Murray, the eldest son of Patrick Murray and Elizabeth Brennan, was born on the 13th of November 1950, at Greenogue, Donaghmore, Co. Meath, Ireland.

He has two brothers and one sister. His father Paddy came under the spotlight of fame for sometime because of his involvement in the training of the mighty race horse ‘Arkle’ from the Tom Draper stables at Greenogue.

Pat received an excellent primary education at Rolestown National School, Co. Dublin, and in 1963 for his secondary education he was at St. Joseph’s College, Freshford, Co. Kilkenny.

From 1967 his Philosophy studies were at University College Dublin, where he obtained a B.A degree, and then in 1970, he went for his Theology at St. Joseph’s College Mill Hill, London.

He was ordained on the 29th of June 1974, in his home church, St. Patrick’s, Donaghmore.

Fr Patrick Murray was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The next eighteen months in Pakistan would prove to be a very difficult time for him. On his arrival, the first letter that he received from home informed him that his best friend had died in a motor accident just outside Ashbourne.

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Fr Pat was then asked to join for a while, his fellow parishioner and neighbour from Ireland, Fr Tom Rafferty in Josephabad and there to study Urdu and pick up some experience of village life.

Soon he was to join the teaching staff in Burn Hall, Abbottabad, but already the nationalization of schools had taken place in the Punjab, and such ideas had begun to occupy the thoughts and hopes of some of the local staff at Burn Hall School. Students were incited to riot and make demands.

Fr Pat got caught in the middle of this disturbance and with the rest of the Mill Hill staff had to be escorted from the school under police protection. In the process he lost all his possessions.

Not being able to return to Abbottabad, Fr Pat was appointed to Jhelum. Soon, however, he was struck down by that great debilitating disease, Acute Hepatitis, with which he struggled for some time but his physical condition became weaker and weaker.

Fr John Nevin took him down to Fatima Hospital in Sargodha, where Fr Tom was now stationed. Fr Pat was cared for in Fatima Hospital for one month and was then sent home for further treatment. In Ireland a biopsy showed that his liver was badly damaged and he should not return to Pakistan.

Today Fr Pat serves as Irish Regional Bursar at Dartry House in Dublin.

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Els Verbeek Els Verbeek was born on the 8 of October 1935 in Holland.

Her parents were Edmund and Elisabeth (Bets Vรถlker) Verbeek.

She has 3 brothers and 5 sisters.

Her father was a medical doctor in Holland. They migrated to Alberta, Canada in May 1951, to a small town, but a huge farming area.

There Els lived with her Mom and Dad until they died in 1956/66.

After the death of her parents she moved to Calgary in 1967, and worked with her brother in his medical practice, until August 1968.

Els Verbeek started her education in Holland and completed it in her new home. She had her Business Education in 1960-1961, and got her senior matriculation in May 1969.

In June 1969 she went to Ghana, West Africa as overseas volunteer and taught Business Education in a secondary boarding school for girls until August 1971. Then she came back to the medical profession and did her R.N Nursing in University Hospital, Radboud, in Nijmegen, Holland.

She graduated in 1975.

In 1972, she met the Mill Hill Society in Holland and became a Mill Hill Associate in June 1975, and was supposed to go (promised since 1972!) to Uganda, but instead she was directed to Pakistan in June 1975, to Rosary Hospital, Gujrat until November 1975.

Because of complications due to an ambulance accident, she was recalled to Roosendaal Mill Hill Seminary and Regional offices until April 1976. In the meantime she received treatment for her wrist and hand in Amsterdam and Roosendaal.

Els went back to the Diocese of Islamabad/Rawalpindi in 1976, to Murree, for the language school and the study of Punjabi. She lived in the th

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Mill Hill Parish and Holiday-House all that summer. In September she went to Gujrat to help Tony Hoeymans again, while she went on holidays.

Then it was back to Rawalpindi, where she lived in Nazareth House at St. Mary’s, Murree Road. There she started work as a nurse in Satellite Town, Fr Jan Tool’s parish. She bought a secondhand Suzuki van (with the money received from patients of Nijmegen hospital and friends in Holland) to make transport easier to the various ‘Basties’ and the new housing colony.

Unfortunately, Els again became ill and finally she had to be admitted to Fatima Hospital, Sargodha. Dr. Ursula and Dr. Ilse diagnosed her, as having TB of the Colon and together with the terrific Sisters and nurses there, started treatment, which would have to last for two years.

The first three months was anti-biotic injections, very painful.

In April 1977, Els had to go home again, and this time for good, so it seemed, difficult as it was. She still has a handkerchief from the person who sat next to her in that plane to Amsterdam. Els had sold her Suzuki van plus many other things she possessed and had used the proceeds to purchase the ticket for that final flight home.

By the time the two years treatment were up, Els had developed other medical problems not least among them cancer for which she was operated. Therefore she was not allowed by Mill Hill to go back to Pakistan, because it was too risky for her health.

However, in December 1982, she did come back to Pakistan, but this time on her own initiative and stayed for about five months at Rawalpindi. Then she went to Abbottabad to work with Fr Bart Kaptein, as matron and English teacher, in a small Christian School, for Rs.500/per month plus room and board.

As matron, it meant 24 hours duty, to be with the children in the boarding. Most of the time there was no water, except when she pumped it up with a hand-pump. She heated up water with an electric heating rod for each child’s weekly bath. This might be fun, but for 23 children, a bit too much, really.

The first long winter-holiday Els spent in Rawalpindi with old Mrs. Crosse, as her companion and nurse, and for her own well being also.

She was in need of a change, as conditions in the school, had become nearly impossible for her.

The change did come on April the 1st 1985, through a request from Mr. Abdul Ali Khan, Principal at the Fazl-e-Haq College, Mardan, to Fr Grimbergen of the Diocesan Board of Education, for 3 missionary nurses.

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Els accepted the position, and started work in Mardan on the 16th of May 1985, as the only Matron and Nurse in the boys’ new boarding School, with 385 students.

She broke her left hip while on the job in February 1990 it took nearly 10 months before she got some healing, and was on bed rest all the time in St. Mary’s Academy’s 4th Bungalow.

Els had lost her job, but in January 1991, she went back to Mardan, at the request of Abdul Ali, and on her one condition that this time the Principal would sign a contract with her, drawn up by Fr Grimbergen.

Abdul Ali fully agreed to this. To this day the contract is still not signed.

In 1996 Els had to get a new hip, and with the permission of Abdul Ali she went to Brig. Dr. Cheema, in Rawalpindi, who performed the operation on the 8th of October. It was then that Els smoked her last cigarette, and never went back on them again.

She was healed enough to be able to start work again by June 1997. Abdul Ali died in that year, and sadly enough things started to change in her work place, changes that were not always for the good.

In 2001, it became clear to her that she must leave Pakistan, and in June 2002, she made the break. It was very difficult for her, as she had spent twenty-eight years of her life in the country.

She went to Canada, for her Health Pension and her family, and has landed in the friendly small city of Red Deer, a good place to live, in a seniors and subsidized apartment block, very close to the church, and in a good parish.

She still misses the closeness of the Mill Hillers, so she keeps in touch with them in Rawalpindi and with the MST Sisters in Nowshera.

She says: “Soon I might be able to get my left hip renewed, if so then you might see me again in Pakistan, as a Mill Hill Associate, in the Punjab and N.W.F.P in Rawalpindi Diocese.

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Joseph O. Whelan

Fr Joseph Whelan from Co. Wexford, in Ireland, was born on the 11th of July 1953.

He was ordained on the 29th of August 1978.

Fr Joe never belonged to the Rawalpindi Diocese, he was appointed to work in Sindh, in the Hyderabad Diocese, with the tribal peoples of the Kohlis. It was when he arrived first in Pakistan, he was asked to acclimatize by spending six months in the Rawalpindi Diocese.

Those six months he spent mainly in the Chak 36 SB parish, Sargodha.

Since then he has become one of the key players of the Sindh mission, and has served his people faithfully with great dedication down through the years.

In these days you can find him in Khipro, where he is busy with implementing the building plans for the Church, Community Hall, Convent and Parish House.

From Rawalpindi we pray for his good health and wish him the very best.

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Myles King Fr Myles King was one of the four children of Patrick and Margaret (Harte) King.

He was born on the 19th of June 1919 on Stockton-on-Tees in the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, England.

Myles started his secondary education in St. Mary’s College Middlesbrough, in 1931 and stayed there till 1936. From 1936 till 1938 he finished his secondary education in the Mill Hill College at Durham.

He started his Philosophy in Roosendaal in 1938 but the next year, because of the war, continued his Philosophical studies in Mill Hill. Again because of the war Myles and other students moved to Lochwinnoch for their Theology. He was there from 1940 till 1944.

In 1943 he took his Perpetual Oath and was ordained priest in Glasgow on the 29th of June 1944.

Fr Myles was appointed to the Upper Nile Vicariate in that same year and went to Kampala in Uganda. He was appointed to Achilet, near Tororo in 1944, where he stayed for about 18 months. He also taught at the teachers training college at Ngora, helping Fr John Reine. He came home sick in 1948 but was able to return again to Kampala later that year.

After his sick leave he was appointed to Nyenga Seminary.

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From 1954 he was helping Fr Doyle in Christ the King Church in Kampala from his own place at Nsambya, and in 1958 till 1964 he himself was appointed to Christ the King Church, replacing Fr Doyle. He was a great pastor according his fellow Mill Hill Missionaries, working with him in Uganda at that time. Regularly he gave talks on Radio Uganda. In 1964 he again came home sick.

In 1965 he was appointed to Courtfield on organizing work. In 1971 he was appointed again to organizing but this time from Herbert House.

In 1980, Myles was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan as Chaplain to the two communities of Sisters in the hill station of Murree.

In 1985 he returned to the British Region, but that same year accepted an appointment to the North American Region, to do hospital Chaplaincy.

In February 1989 Fr Myles retired to Herbert House but for many years he preached mission appeals in North America during the summer months. His missionary services in these varied ministries were much appreciated.

Fr Myles was suffering from Alzheimer with at times loss of memory and had to be moved to Marymount, Liverpool, a special home for those suffering from Alzheimer, run by the Sisters of Evron.

Towards the end he was also diagnosed with cancer, and was admitted to St Joseph’s Hospice (Jospice, founded by Fr Frank O’Leary) to receive palliative care.

Fr Myles King died on the 2nd of October 2005, at the age of 86.

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John Rooney Fr John Rooney was ordained on 12th of July 1959, and was appointed to Lochwinnoch, in his native Scotland, where he taught Mathematics, French, History, English and Elocution.

The best of this period was that when he was required to teach French by the direct method. The great challenge being, he was not allowed to speak a word of English during class.

In July 1961, he was appointed to Sabah, North Borneo. He was stationed at Tawau, Keningau, Penampang, Kota Belud and Tandek, in fact, he was co-founder of St. Edmund’s, Kota Belud and founder of St. Andrew’s Tandek (now known as Kota Marudu Mission).

In March 1970, he had the doubtful distinction of being the first Mill Hiller expelled from Sabah. He was then sent to the United States for further education. He gained an M.A in Theology and an M.S. (Master of Science) in Mathematics. For part of the time he was engaged in both Masters Degrees.

In 1972/73, he was appointed to Teacher’s Training, Kericho, Kenya, where he handled Mathematics education and Religious education.

It was here that he wrote his first book: Beginnings in Mathematics.

In 1975, his work in Kericho reached a crisis. One of the services provided by the college was regular medical check-ups at the local Hospital. He discovered that the women students, unknown to themselves, were being given pregnancy tests. The result of these being handed over to the college. He challenged this on the following grounds. The medical people did not have the women’s permission to do the tests. The College was not in loco parentium in respect of the women students and had no right to the information. Both were in breach of the women’s right to privacy. He took this matter up with the college and the medical 286

department and all hell was let loose. To cut a long story short, cum permissu superiorum, he decided to resign.

After the Kericho debacle, he was appointed to succeed Dan Duivenstijn as librarian in Mill Hill. During his time at Mill Hill, he wrote and published two books. The first was purely a private matter. He was trying to solve some personal problems and one of his ways of addressing the issue involved was making a translation of Thomas a Kempis’ de imitatione Christi. Someone saw a copy and insisted that it be published. It is now in its third edition in America.

The other was a response to a request that he would write a history of the Borneo Mission. Dutifully, he got down to business, but soon had a lot of doubts about it. He had begun to suspect that his mathematical bent was not of much benefit to the study and might actually harm it. He raised the matter with Fr Noel Hanrahan. He suggested that Fr John should tie the job with a course in history at university level. Fr John confessed that he didn’t like the idea, but went through the motions of obedience by applying to the School of Oriental and African Studies, hoping that this prestigious institution would reject his approaches. Mirabile dictum, they accepted him as a candidate for M. Phil in Oriental History.

Six months later, he thought he saw a way out. The University had then changed his candidacy to that of Ph.D. He went to Fr Noel and argued: That this was a sign that his work was on standard, and could he give up the university lark? Fr Noel replied that the next job he had in mind for him required a Ph.D. So, get on with it. The book, he then wrote was: Khabar Gembira. A History of the Catholic Church in East Malaysia and Brunei. This was his doctoral thesis.

By 1981, all this was finished. Fr John learned that any member who had been withdrawn from the mission could, after six years, apply for a return. He was offered, first of all a job of bilingual university chaplain in Duala, Cameroon. He agreed and started boning up on his French.

Everything seemed to be all done and dusted, when, out of the blue, Fr Hans Wijngaards approached him about a new job. He told him the story of Fr Matt Geijbels’ sickness. Would he agree to understudy Fr Matt with a view to taking over his work at the Christian Study Centre, Rawalpindi and, as a preparation, would he agree to do a degree in Arabic at the University of Cairo? Fr John agreed to the first part of this proposal, but not the second. That is why he landed up in Pakistan. The Christian Study Centre wanted a historian more than an Arabist.

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In 1988, Fr John was yearning to leave the Christian Study Centre for full time, exclusively pastoral work. He approached Bishop Simeon.

He offered him the position of reserve parish priest. What did that mean?

Well, the Bishop replied, when somebody makes a mess, he would move in and clear up the mess. Fr John was not madly in favour of this and wrote to Mill Hill for counsel. The upshot was he went to America for hospital chaplaincy work.

In this, he hadn’t been entirely weaned from academic pursuits.

While he worked as a chaplain, he wrote two books. One was a history of Mill Hill Missionaries in North America, entitled ‘Struggling to be Prophets’. The other was the outcome of his attempts to come to grips with the religious thinking of the Hispanics. For this he wrote a translation of St. John of the Cross’s Avisos y Sentencias Espirituales. The English translation was titled: Counsels and Maxims of the Spirit. This book sold out within nine months. He suggested to the publisher that he might do a revision. He responded: “I am taking my money and running.”

During the three years he was in America, the General Council wished him to go on writing history. They planned to set up a programme where he would do the oriental missions and Fr Bob O’Neil would do the African missions. He was withdrawn from the US to begin this work with a history of the Mill Hill Missionaries in the Indian subcontinent. This was entitled: Of Ground Broken, and to which we are entirely indebted to the introductory history in this book. Fr John expected that this would be followed by histories of the Mill Hill Missionaries in the Philippines and in New Zealand. Somehow or other, this did not happen.

Meanwhile, he has been occupied with work in the APF-Mill Hill and his writing has been restricted to articles. Recently, his work has been produced on disks rather than in books. He has, however, been for some years trying to finish a book on the General Chapters and has an ambition to write a history of missions to China, such as would take full account of political and social factors that influenced the success or failure of these missions.

May God grant Fr John a long life to bring to a conclusion all these, his ambitions and much more. For what he has accomplished we are very thankful indeed.

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John Wilmot

Fr John Wilmot was born on the 6th of October 1948.

He studied at the Mill Hill Colleges in England and Holland, and was ordained priest on the 30th of July 1977.

After his ordination he was appointed to the Congo.

In the early 1980s, Fr John was in the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and worked in Chak 36 SB parish, Sargodha. He did not stay too long there.

Now he is incardinated in a Diocese in the USA.

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Paul Mooney

Fr Paul Mooney a native of Glasgow, Scotland, was born on the 14th of October 1958.

He was ordained on the 26th of July 1987.

After ordination Fr Paul did a catechetical course in Ireland, and then spent a short time in the Diocese of Hyderabad, Sindh in Pakistan to work among the Parkari Kohils.

In the same year, 1988 he was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, and after studying Urdu in Islamabad, he spent some years as chaplain to the Technical School Hostel, in Sargodha.

He returned to Scotland in 1992, and worked there as Vocations Director.

Later Fr. Paul was appointed to the Philippines, again to work as Vocations Director, and was based at Iloilo.

He returned to England in 2005, and took up Mill Hill-APF ministry which to this day he continues to be involved in.

In 2006, Fr Paul was also appointed Vice Rector of the new Society Headquarters at Maidenhead.

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Vincent Oates

Fr Vincent Oates was born on the 16th of April 1948 in Manchester, England.

His parents were Thomas and Christina (Walsh). He has an older sister, Mary and a younger brother, Francis, and he is the nephew of the other Fr Vincent Oates mentioned in this book.

Vincent started his Secondary education from Burn Hall, Durham in 1960, and went to St. Peter’s, Freshfield, in 1961.

He studied Philosophy in Roosendaal, the Netherlands from 19671969.

In 1969 he joined St. Joseph’s College, Mill Hill for the completion of his Theological studies.

Vincent took his Perpetual Missionary Oath on the 1st of May 1972, and was ordained on the 2nd of June 1973, at Manchester.

After his ordination Fr Vincent Oates was appointed to Sarawak (Borneo) Malaysia, in the Diocese of Kuching.

When the ten year limitation on his missionary visa for that country was exhausted we see Fr Vincent, in September 1985, back in the British Region for Vocation Promotion work in Burn Hall, Durham.

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In March 1990, Fr Vincent was appointed to the Diocese of Islamabad/Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

He spent the first months in Murree for language study in Urdu.

Then in October, Fr Vincent was transferred to Nowshera to assist Fr Tom Rafferty. He soon discovered the vastness of this mountainous parish, in which he could spend weeks on outreach, while the other priest managed the established part of the parish and vice-a-versa. His travels brought him into varied and sometimes dangerous situations. Back in Nowshera he showed his talents for administration and organizing and played a great part in the formation and as a member of the Formation Team to the Missionary Sisters of St. Thomas (MST).

In 1994, he was elected as Representative for Pakistan at the General Chapter.

He was greatly missed at Nowshera, when in 1999, he was appointed as Rector to Herbert House, England. In his time there he was responsible for the building of the new house, which was opened on the 4th of May 2005.

At present Fr Vincent is involved in Formation work in India, Basic Formation and First Cycle (Philosophy) at Karunapuram, Warangal, Andhra Pradesh. Recently, also, he has been elected as Society Representative. We wish him well.

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Bertus Driever

Fr Bertus Driever was born on the 1st of August 1940 in Ulft, the Netherlands, and was baptized on the same day with the names Albertus Bernardus Maria

He is the son of Albert Driever and Dora Hartering (his parents are still alive and doing well; both were born in 1914). He is the eldest in the family, and has one sister and four brothers.

After Elementary education in his home village, Bertus, in 1953, went to the Secondary school run by the Mill Hill Missionaries in Tilburg.

From 1959 till 1961 he studied Philosophy in Roosendaal, and in 1961 he went to St Joseph’s College, Mill Hill, London, for the study of Theology.

Fr Bertus Driever was ordained on the 10th of July 1965 in Westminster Cathedral by Cardinal John Heenan.

That same day he received his assignment for missionary work in the Diocese of San Jose de Antique in the Philippines, there he worked in several parishes and taught in parochial schools.

From 1969 till 1976 Fr Bertus taught in the Diocesan Seminary and was also its Rector for three years.

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In 1989 Fr Driever was assigned to the British Region to work for the APF/Missio in the Salford Diocese. He resided in Freshfield.

At the end of 1995 he had a short vacation and then proceeded to Pakistan in the beginning of 1996. Fr Bertus’ initial assignment was to be parish priest to the English-speaking community in Fatima Church, Islamabad, attached to the local parish.

Unfortunately on his arrival this arrangement had been changed and instead he was assigned as Chaplain and Rector in Murree. The reason given for this was that the priest at Fatima Church did not want to vacate the presbytery, whilst working in the Seminary.

Fr Bertus did try to put some order in the Mill Hill, Murree House, and had it equipped to receive his many guests. With his Suzuki Alto, he was able to get fresh food, at a reasonable price, from the different markets in the wider area around Murree.

The Sisters appreciated the fact that they had daily Mass. He also at one stage had to guide four of the major seminarians, due to the fact that the seminary was closed for them.

When it was clear that there was no chance to take up his original assignment in Islamabad, he requested the General Council to reappoint him for pastoral work in the Netherlands. He was 56 years old at the time, still young. Had he been over 60 he may have been content to stay on in Murree.

Nevertheless, he did enjoy his short sojourn in Pakistan and his ministry was highly appreciated.

In February 1997 he took up his assignment as parish priest in the parish of St. Sebastian in Herpen, the Netherlands. He is still working there to the present day, and is involved in promoting interest in Missionary Work worldwide.

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Francis Hannaway

Mr. Francis Hannaway was in the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan for a very short time. He came on the invitation of Bishop Anthony Lobo to teach in St. John’s School, Peshawar.

Francis was there for three months originally on a Tourist visa and later came back for a couple of weeks, when he called it a day. This was in the year of 1996.

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Michael Ochwo

Fr Michael Ochwo was born on the 4th of November 1964, in Uganda, East Africa.

Before his ordination, as a part of his formation, he had spent some time in Pakistan on the mission experience programme (MEP).

The MEP programme has always been a sign of hope for the Mill Hill priests in the Diocese of Rawalpindi, and they are proud to have successfully guided such students as Michael Ochwo, Paul Nchoroge, Roy Pierce, Marco Villani, Sylvanus Sulumeti, and Hillary Awiti through their two years of mission exposure.

Fr Michael Ochwo was ordained on the 28th of August 1999, and was appointed back to the Diocese of Islamabad/Rawalpindi.

After studying Urdu and an introductory course he was assigned to St. Michael Church, Peshawar, where he worked till his appointment to Formation in the East African Region in 2004. He is there to this present day.

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Paolo Faedda

Associate Member Mr. Paolo Faedda, a native of Sardinia, Italy, came to the Diocese of Rawalpindi to work specifically with Fr Gregory Rice in the Drug Abuse Treatment Programme, at Chamkani, G.T Road, Peshawar.

However, his sojourn in Pakistan lasted but a short while. In the summer of 2001, he was studying Urdu in Murree, on completion he returned to Peshawar, but left again for Mill Hill in 2001.

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The Remnant The remaining five priests that we will read about probably rank among the greatest of the Mill Hill Missionaries that these Northern parts have seen. Of course they would be the first to deny any such acclaim but they have been called ‘The Strong Ones.’ Fr Piet Koomen, however, prefers to refer to them as the ‘Left-Overs.’

As men who have devoted their entire priestly life to their mission in Pakistan, they have lived through a period of great and difficult changes for the Country, the Church, and their Community. They have known the pain of loss in seeing their numbers dwindle year by year, down to these five remaining, and the subsequent piling-on of workload on their once upon a time strong shoulders. They have known a sense of hopelessness when they look around and see that the Mill Hillers coming behind them are no more.

Yet they struggle on in the knowledge that it is probably to them that the responsibility has been given to turn out the lights on what has been a heroic missionary era.

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Piet Koomen

Fr Piet Koomen was born in Lisse, in the Diocese of Haarlem, the Netherlands, on the 19th of November 1939. His family later lived in Voorhout.

Fr Piet Koomen belongs to an area in Holland, which became a traditional recruiting area, and has produced a good number of Mill Hill Missionaries. His father used to work for some “feudal lord” in his youth, who according to him was relieved of a fair bit of money, so that the Mill Hill College in Hoorn could be built. The Church was Piet’s family’s life, religious, social and cultural. They like the rest of the families in the area were very Catholic, and his father did not mind showing his children that the world was bigger than the village and parish they lived in.

Piet joined the minor Mill Hill Seminary in Hoorn, in 1952, at the age of 12, and was there for 4 years. Then he spent one year at Haelen and the next year in Tilburg.

From 1958, he did two years Philosophy in Roosendaal and from 1960, four years Theology in Mill Hill, London.

Fr Piet Koomen was ordained priest on the 12th of July 1964, in Mill Hill by Archbishop Heenan. His was the last class, with exception of the USA students, to be ordained in the Mill Hill Chapel. On the day of his 299

ordination he received an appointment for the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Fr Piet Koomen arrived in Rawalpindi, in February 1965, and was asked to serve in Dera Ismail Khan. So, one morning, he was put on a bus at 5:00am, which twelve hours later arrived at its destination. What he remembers most, of that journey was the sight of graveyards everywhere.

In September 1965 he was appointed to Bishop’s House, as secretary to Bishop Hettinga, and assistant to Fr Sjoerd de Jong for the English speaking population of the Lalkurti parish. Fr Piet was a learner all this time, but still felt like a fish out of water.

During the winter months of 1966-1967, he was chaplain to the Holy Family Hospital, and in February 1967 he went to Lahore until July, to study Urdu. Before arrival in Pakistan Fr Piet had done an introductory course in Urdu at the Berlitz School of Languages, London. Also he had private tuition in the language while at Dera Ismail Khan.

From August 1967 till January 1970, Fr Piet was assistant, at the Sargodha parish, and after home-leave in Holland, was appointed Parish Priest in Mariakhel from August 1970 till 1975. In Mariakhel he was involved very much in agriculture and the welfare of the farming community in that village, plus he looked after the many outstations and Dera Ismail Khan which had at the time, no resident priest.

In September 1975, Fr Piet was appointed Parish Priest in Rawalpindi City. After that in the winter of 1975-76 he did a spell of six months, as Principal of Sargodha’s Technical Institute in Sargodha, when Fr Ben Pex had gone on home-leave.

Back in Rawalpindi in 1977, Fr Piet for the first time became very ill. He was struck down with a very bad bout of Typhoid, which took about three months out of his life, and left him in a very weak state.

From February 1980 till August 1985 Fr Piet was Parish Priest in Nowshera. There he continued with teaching Catechism in the Risalpur School, a practice he had begun in St. Patrick’s Rawalpindi City and found 300

to be very beneficial for the Catholic scholars. Fr Piet personally thinks that the Nowshera episode was a fruitful time in his life.

After Nowshera he was appointed to Jhelum, and in the autumn of 1988 he went to Mill Hill for a short renewal course.

On his return in February 1989, he was appointed to the Westridge Parish, Rawalpindi, where he has been ever since, a victim one might say of these end times for the Mill Hill Missionaries in the Diocese of Rawalpindi, when there is no longer any young blood coming behind you to help you lift the load, and eventually replace you. Yet a longer time in the one parish has certain blessings, one of which is the longer time given to you to grow with your people and a feel for their true needs. Fr Piet in his time in Westridge has been a great builder of community and of centres where community can gather. He has managed to get a church and a primary school established in Naseerabad, and the same in Chak Jalal Din to enable a community-based religious development.

That is not all of course, there are many other positions that Fr Piet fills at the same time as being Pastor, and teacher. He has looked after the Mill Hill and Diocesan finances for years, and for the same number of years has been a part of the Priests Council. He has worked on the Marriage Tribunal and is the Mill Hill Society Representative.

With the number of Mill Hill Missionaries in the Diocese falling below six members, Mill Hill wishes to reduce Fr Piet Koomen to the status of Group Leader, but he will always be our Society Representative.

After forty seven years of devoted service to the Christians of Pakistan Fr. Piet retired to the Netherlands in July 2012.

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John Nevin

Fr John Nevin was born on the 8 of May 1937 in Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland. His parents were Michael Nevin and Kalthleen Buck. He has six brothers and one sister. th

He studied in Presentation Convent School, Maynooth, Maynooth National School for Boys, Lucan Technical School, Co. Dublin, and St. Joseph’s College, Freshford, Co. Kilkenny.

His Philosophical studies were at University College Dublin, where he obtained a B.A degree, and Theology at St. Joseph’s College, Mill Hill, London.

He was ordained on the 10th of July 1965.

At his ordination Fr John Nevin was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan and arrived in November 1965.

His first appointment was to Gujrat, where he was immediately initiated into the trials and pitfalls of touring the villages with very little knowledge of the language, a catechist who does all the talking for you and a bicycle subject the punctures. But Fr John was soon back to civilization teaching in St. Mary’s Academy, Lalazar, Rawalpindi by 1966, and at the same time was priest at the Bishop’s House, and chaplain to St. Joseph’s Hospice, Westridge.

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In 1968 he became Principal at St. Mary’s School, Murree Road.

From 1970 we see Fr John go full time into parish work in Sargodha. In 1973, he was appointed to St. Mary’s, Murree Road Rawalpindi, as Parish Priest where he worked until 1976, when again he was appointed to Sargodha.

In 1983, he returned to Ireland to visit his parents, as both were seriously ill. Then 1984 turned out to be a very difficult year for Fr John.

In that year he lost both his parents, and his brother Michael, who died suddenly. From his arrival in Ireland it was decided by the powers that be, to hold on to Fr John. He became Rector at Dartry House, Dublin and was highly involved in Formation.

In 1993, Fr John was again appointed to Pakistan, to Satellite Town, Rawalpindi, where he worked till his appointment to the Cathedral parish in 1996.

From 2000-2004, Fr John was at Fatima Church, Islamabad. In 2004 he was again asked to go to Satellite Town, Rawalpindi, where he is still working to the present day.

In all places and positions that Fr John has ever been, he has made a deep impression on his co-workers, and the people whom he served. His years of experience in Formation has made him a highly valued resource person in the Diocese of Rawalpindi, where despite his heavy schedule as pastor he is often called upon to give retreats, days of prayer and seminars.

Now at the age of 70, he has thoughts of retiring, but somehow they would not let him go.

Eventually in September 2008 he made the break and retired to Ireland. Soon however he was to take up ministry at St. Mary’s Church, Bellfast.

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Leonard Steger Fr Leonard Steger was born on the 8th of October 1939 in Geiselsberg, Olang, Italy. His parents were Thomas and Regina Steger, and he has 4 brothers and 5 sisters.

He started his studies at Geiselsberg, and then joined St. Joseph Missionhaus at Brixen.

After his philosophy at the Vincentinum Seminary, Brixen he arrived at St. Joseph College, Mill Hill to study Theology.

He took his Perpetual Oath on the 1st of May 1965, and was ordained at the Benedictan, Abbey, Gries, Bozen, Tirol on the 9th of July 1966.

After ordination Fr Steger was appointed to the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He arrived there in the company of Fr John Taylor and Fr Antoine Streppel. Bishop Hettinga asked Fr Len to go to Josephabad, to work with Fr Jaap van der Klugt who was at the time constructing a new Church for the village.

Then he was transferred to Jhelum, to take the place of Fr Thomas Mittelberger who had died in a road accident. There he was involved in ‘low-cost housing schemes’ with Fr Gerard Verheij. When Fr Verheij died in 1973, Fr Len continued the schemes on his own, and with the advent of Fr Igo van Goozen as new parish priest these schemes were extended to Kharian and Sarai-Alamgir. As a result in the present day nearly all the Christian families in Jhelum have their own houses. Fr van Goozen would complete all these building projects for in 1975 Fr Len returned to Josephabad for one more tour.

In Josephabad Fr Len felt at home as he comes from a farming background. What gave him most pleasure was to finally succeed in getting the electricity connection for the village.

Fr Steger has also served in Rawalpindi City, Peshawar Cantt, and Kohat. In all places he has shown himself the most compassionate of men, 304

reaching out to prisoners and the children of those in prison, to the marginalized and those in dire need. The sick, the blind, the lame, and those terminally ill have always had prior place in his heart, and he will take them personally to the place where he feels they will receive the proper attention, this is usually St. Joseph’s Hospice, Westridge, Rawalpindi.

In Rawalpindi City, he looked after the Holy Family Hospital side, and the many out-stations of the parish. He was also involved in special catechetical programmes and the production of booklets and pamphlets for the purposes of teaching such - an interest he keeps to this day.

Fr Steger came to Peshawar in 1985, and proceeded to bring into reality the long dormant idea of the Christian Housing Colony of Yusufabad. As Yusufabad began to take shape he realized that there may be artesian water deep below the surface of the land. With the help of St. Joseph and the Dutch Embassy he eventually persuaded WAPDA to drill down the six hundred feet to reach it. The drilling was successful and to this day the water of the artesian well continues to gush from the ground, serving the colony and irrigating the surrounding area.

In Peshawar Cantt Fr Len initiated a very good sanitation project.

The whole Cantonment slums got proper toilets and drainage facilities. He had a terrific assistant in this scheme, in Mr. Richard Williamson.

(Richard also built the St. Thomas Church in Gilgit for Fr Tom Rafferty).

The scheme was an example for many other places who copied the system of sanitation used. About 900 families Christian, Muslim and Hindu have benefited by this project.

Fr Steger because of his colouring and dress is not immediately recognizable as a foreigner, rather, invariably is taken for a local. So when he came to Kohat parish in 1993, he was always able to roam freely in the tribal areas of Parachinar, Miranshah, Mirali, Razmak, along the border with Afghanistan, and that in a time of war and refugees. In Bannu he built for the Christian Community there, St. Joseph’s Model School, the only Christian school in tribal territory.

In 2004, at an age when ordinary men are thinking of retiring Fr Len Steger took on the challenge of the biggest parish in the diocese, Christian population wise that is, Sargodha. There today he continues to work tirelessly in the service of his people. He is always thankful if some of the love of Christ is brought to them, and still makes his very own the Society motto: “To love and to serve.”

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Thomas Rafferty Fr Thomas Rafferty, one of the seven children of Thomas Rafferty and Mary Armstrong, was born on the 8th of June 1945, at Milltown, Ashbourne, Co. Meath, Ireland. He has three brothers and three sisters.

After primary education at Ashbourne National School, he joined the Mill Hill Missionaries at St. Joseph’s College, Freshford, Co. Kilkenny in 1958.

Secondary education completed, he went to University College Dublin in 1963 for Philosophy, and from there obtained a B.A degree.

Then in 1966, to St. Joseph’s College, Mill Hill, London, for his Theological studies.

He was ordained priest at his local church in Ireland, St. Patrick’s Church, Donaghmore, on the 27th of June 1970, by Bishop John McCormack, Bishop of Meath.

Fr Thomas Rafferty was originally appointed to Sabah, in Borneo, but at that particular time it was neigh impossible for a missionary to get a visa for the area and Fr Tom was asked to divert to Pakistan.

He arrived in the Diocese of Rawalpindi, Pakistan on the 10th of January 1971, in the company of Fr Michael Conroy. This was fortunate because it was Fr Michael, the experienced teacher, who was asked to go to Burn Hall, Abbottabad, while Fr Tom got his wish of being a missionary among the people.

His first appointment was to the Catholic village of Josephabad, Chak 59 M.B, Khushab, where Fr Toon Vaneman was parish priest.

1971 was the first year in which the Murree Language School opened its doors to Catholic students. In April, Fr Tom joined the school for the study of the Urdu Language and by the end of September was back in the village.

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In 1973, the prolonged and heavy monsoon rains caused massive flooding in the Punjab. Josephabad was marooned. Fr Vaneman was struck down by Typhoid and Hepatitis, and was subsequently sent back to Holland for treatment and rest.

Fr Tom now on his own, was by December ready to reconstruct the village, only this time in brick not mud. The entire infrastructure of the village, roads, bridges and drainage had to be attended to first. He employed the people of the village to make this happen, and within six months things were looking good. Then it was time to turn attention to housing, and in the next year 118 one roomed houses were built, each family receiving one ‘pakka’ room in their compound.

In the meantime, Fr Tom purchased a tractor and plough, the first ever in the village, and now with its speedy assistance, the people could get the crops in on time. Electricity for the village was next on his agenda and this was almost accomplished by the time he went on his first homeleave in 1975. It would be left to Fr Len Steger to make the final connection and turn on the lights.

On his return, in early 1976 he was appointed to Sargodha to take over, eventually, from Fr Louis Prader, who was due to go on home-leave.

Sargodha parish is a bit of a handful for one man, and in August Fr Tom came down with Acute Hepatitis. After two months in Fatima Hospital he was sent home to recover. It took one full year.

He came back to Pakistan in 1977, and this time was appointed to Gujrat as assistant, for the first two years, to Fr Owen Murray. For the next two years Fr Nasir Javaid was Fr Tom’s assistant. Gujrat parish is a hundred and twenty-five miles in length and to cover all the stations, he would spend four days in the week touring, and three days back in the parish house. While there Fr Tom continued his building routine with churches in Lalamusa and Sardarpura.

In 1981, he went to Kohat to replace Fr Bart Kaptein, who was in need of a sabbatical. Now close to the border with Afghanistan and at the height of the refugee crisis he became embroiled in the whole changing world of assistance and care. Care for the refugees not only shown by the people of his parish but he himself became an anchor for many of the foreign personnel employed by the NGOs. At the end of his four years in Kohat, Fr Tom was reminded that he should take a sabbatical. He chose to take the CPE course and to work as a chaplain in the Mater Hospital, Dublin and then to help out in the hospitals attached to the Mill Hill, St. Francis parish, New York.

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Back in Pakistan in 1987, Fr Tom was surprised and delighted that he had been set free from parish work in order to explore the possibilities for mission in the far Northern Areas of Pakistan. For this purpose he based himself at St. Michael’s Church, Peshawar, where Fr Len Steger was parish priest, but spent weeks on end roaming in the Himalayas searching for, and finding, pockets of Christians.

By the late 1970s already, as far as Fr Tom was concerned the writing was on the wall as regards the future of the great generations of missionaries. They would simply cease to exist, and no one would come from the West to take up the banners. With so much of the diocese left untouched by the Established Church, missionary outreach would grind to a halt. He began to wonder if there was a missionary dimension in the Pakistan Church at all, and could they do it.

Thus the idea of forming a missionary community began to grow.

He obtained all the necessary permissions and set the date with Sr. Iris Gill, of the 3rd of July 1988, Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, Patron of Pakistan, for the foundation of the community. This is the same date on which Fr James van der Klugt died and was buried in Peshawar. He had been parish priest in Nowshera. Fr Tom was requested to take over in Nowshera and to have it as the centre for the newly formed community.

The community took the name of the Apostle and became the Missionaries of St. Thomas (MST). It continues its missionary outreach in the far Northern Areas of Pakistan to this day and has added to the dictionary of places of the Diocese of Islamabad/Rawalpindi names like Chitral, Kalash, Daroosh, Bajaur, Timurgarrah, Chakdara, Saidu Sharif, Besham, Dassu, Chilas, Gilgit, Hunza, and Kungerab.

In the early 1990s Fr Tom began to look into the possibility of having candidates from Pakistan for the Mill Hill Missionary Society. In this he had the support of his fellow priests in the Rawalpindi Diocese, and for the next several years, despite serious set-backs, he struggled to get things and people into place. Eventually when the first two candidates were in the local seminary Fr Piet Koomen at the 1997 Assembly in London was told by the Superior General to stop and desist from this programme. Disappointing, no doubt, but some consolation is gleaned from the fact that Fr John Taylor and Fr Vincent Oates who were concerned in the above effort, now play a major role in the seemingly successful Formation Programme in India.

Despite a heart attack in 1998 Fr Tom continues to live and move and have his being in the vast Nowshera parish, taking it one day at a time.

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Roy Pierce Fr Roy Pierce, the son of Roger Pierce and Penelope Anna (Lee) was born on 25th of July 1969, at Dover, Kent, England. He has one brother, Mark.

From an early age, Roy was attached to the Royal College of Music, and over the years successfully achieved grades 1-8 in Violin.

On completion of his A Levels he was for a short time a student of Diagnostic Radiography, but left this to become a Customs Officer and as such served in Dover, London and Brussels. During this time he also managed to travel extensively and see the whole world.

He joined Mill Hill in 1994, and 1998 to 2000 found him on Mission Experience, attached to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, Kohat, Pakistan.

On June the 21st 2002, he was ordained priest, and returned to Pakistan where he continued to serve in Kohat until 2004.

In 2005, he became Director of the Drug Abuse Treatment Programme, at Chamkani, Peshawar. This centre is for the treatment of those addicted to the use of heroin.

In the same year, after the massive October the 8th earthquake, Fr Roy quickly organized, and lead his staff to its epicenter in order to extend care to many of its mutilated victims….

For some years now the ‘Remnant’ gathers for their annual retreat at Chamkani. It is an occasion that is looked forward to, as Fr Roy embodies Mill Hill hospitality, and for five short days in the year the Remnant is feted and celebrated.

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Hillary Awiti Fr Hillary Awiti was born in Kisumu, Kenya on 7th February, 1981. His parents are Isidore Awiti and Yuanita Atieno. He has three brothers and one sister.

When Hillary completed his O Levels, he worked for one year as a volunteer in the Kisumu Urban Apostolate Programme which was founded by Fr Hans Burgman, MHM. It was during this time that Hillary got to know more about Mill Hill Missionaries and their way of life. So he joined the Basic Formation Centre in Luanda Kenya, in 1999, and then proceeded to the Formation House in Jinja Uganda.

Between 2006 and 2008, he was involved in the Mission Experience Programme. Hillary chose Pakistan for his field of experience and once there he spent some time with Fr Roy Pierce in the Drug Abuse Treatment Programme. Later on he had Mission Experience with Fr Len Steger at St Francis Xavier Parish in Sargodha.

On the 21st March 2009, he took Perpetual Oath in St Joseph’s Formation Centre in Nairobi and after his ordination in Kisumu on the 10th April, 2010, he returned to Sargodha where he served until 2012.

During much of his time in Sargodha Hillary had interest in working with Youth, Sunday School Animators and Altar Servers.

In July 2012, Fr Hillary moved on to Sacred Heart Parish, Westridge, Rawalpindi. In Westridge, Hillary continues missionary work especially with the young in the parish and the minor seminarians in Our Lady of Lourdes Seminary, Lalazar. He also helps in the Parish Schools and with administration in St. Joseph Hospice, Westridge.

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Index Aelen (Allen) John (Archbishop): 10, 28, 30, 32, 57, 58, 60, 61, 65, 69, 81 Andrews Alexander: 155, 156 Awiti Hillary: 290, 305 Barry Leo: 117 Beemster Joost: 166, 217-220 Boerkamp John: 179, 180 Boland Joseph: 105 Bolton Wilfrid: 119, 120 Bonaventure (Bishop) OFM: 55, 272 Bougle Joseph: 106 Breen Daniel: 192 Broomfield John: 19, 80, 82 Brouwer Ignatius: 18, 21, 23-29, 73-75, 80, 88, 89, 105 Browne George: 10- 16, 57-59, 65, 69 Bruin Herman: 239 Bull Alfred: 150 Burke Richard: 10-14, 57, 58, 62 Byrne Patrick: 183, 184, 248 Cahill Gerard: 240 Carty William: 148, 149, 249 Cialeo O.P (Bishop): 40, 128 Clarke Brian: 173 Clarke John: 130 Clerkin Frank: 187, 188 Coleman Roger (Brother): 19, 82, 87 Colgan (Archbishop): 59, 61, 100 Connolly Mark: 55 Connolly Patrick: 123, 125 Conroy Michael: 209, 265, 266, 300 Copray Jac: 164, 202 Cunningham Joseph: 19, 26, 89, 93 Dengel Anna: 34, 35, 36, 50, 88, 94 Devlin Joseph: 114-116 Deyssel Adrian van de: 107 Dolan Joseph: 135, 145-147, Donsen Michael: 19, 25, 26, 31, 91-93, 95, 102, 103 Dowling Cornelius: 2 Doyle Michael: 167, 168 Doyle Patrick: 225, 280 Driever Bertus: 109, 288, 289 Ellison Robert: 137, 138 Erp Joseph van: 57, 197, 267

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Eyndhoven (Endover) John van: 10-13, 25, 57, 58 Eyndhoven Rene van: 205 Faedda Paolo: 292 Fennelly (Bishop): 6, 12, 22 Foord Edmund: 232 Geerdes Anthony: 163, 164, 167, 241 Geybels Mathew: 55, 185, 186, 282 Gill Iris (MST): 303 Goozen van Igo: 203, 204, 242, 248, 298 Grant Michael: 190, 191 Grieken Henk van: 160, 176 Grimbergen Piet: 50, 238, 239, 263, 264, 276, 277 Gunsch Lucas (Brother): 212, 216, 227 Hanlon Henry: 19, 25-27, 91, 93, 95, 96 Hannaway Francis: 290 Heideman Karel: 160, 196 Henry Francis: 29, 67 Hermans Herman: 207 Hettinga Nicholas (Bishop): 36, 37, 41, 44-47, 49-51, 54, 121, 128, 135, 140, 144, 152155, 169, 172, 181, 183, 194, 220, 226, 231, 248, 267, 294, 298 Hirst Hubert: 133 Hoeymans Tony: 52, 226, 247, 248, 276 Hood William: 99 Hopfgartner Joseph: 217 Jackson Thomas: 13-16, 21, 63-68, Jansen Hubert: 112, 113 Johnson Arthur: 171, 172 Jong Sjoerd de: 169, 220, 294 Kaptein Bartholomew: 174, 175, 201, 220, 243, 250, 276, 301 Kemperman Richard: 88, 109, 110 Keogan Thomas: 198 Kilty Daniel: 19, 24-27, 79, 80-82, 91, 95 King Myles: 279, 280 Kirchler Jakob: 55, 269, 270, 272 Klaver John: 195 Klugt James van der: 13/14, 53/54, 208, 209, 248, 251, 267, 298, 302 Koomen Piet: 160, 208, 235, 247, 252, 293-296, 303 Kuhn Francis: 31, 38, 101, 102, 103 Lampe Frans: 258, 259 Lansink Gerard: 216, 222, 250 Lavery James: 38, 139 Lee Hugh: 220, 236, 237, 250 Looman Caspar: 88, 108 Loos Martin (Brother): 104 Luif Gerard: 161, 162 Mahon Gerald: 119, 240, 242

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Malden Robert: 126 Mallett Gerard: 134, 156, 159-161, 180 Manning (Cardinal): 1, 4, 59 Mansfeld van Francis: 18, 75 McCann Daniel: 194 McCann Dermot: 181, 194 McGrain John: 84, 114 McIntyre Joseph: 244 McLaren Agnes: 33, 34, 88 Meurin (Bishop): 14, 15 Meyer Charles: 40, 41, 127, 128 Mittelberger Thomas: 241, 242, 248, 298 Moss James: 134, 135 Mooney Paul: 285 Mullan John: 97, 98 Mullhall Brendan: 55, 271, 272 Murphy William: 143-145 Murray Owen: 221, 228, 229, 252, 301 Murray Patrick: 273, 274 Naylor William: 223 Nchoroge Paul: 291 Nevin John: 162, 247/248, 250, 274, 297, 298 Neyzen Arnold: 170, 220 Niele Jan (Brother): 215, 216 O’Donohoe Joseph: 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 46, 50, 121-123 O’Leary Francis: 51, 139, 230, 231, 280 Oates Vincent: 233 Oates Vincent: 252, 253, 286, 287, 302 Ochwo Michael: 291 Oud Peter: 19, 81, 82 Pereira Simeon (Bishop): 50, 55, 56, 169, 221, 250, 251 Pex Ben: 235, 250, 256, 257, 294 Pierce Roy: 268, 291, 304 Pinxteren van Clemens: 206 Prader Alois: 220, 221, 241, 251, 262, 301 Prenger Alexander: 16, 70, 71, 72 Raatger (Rogers) Gerard: 13, 14, 16, 64, 69 Rafferty Thomas: 56, 209, 251, 252, 268, 271, 273, 286, 299, 301-303 Reijnders Dominic: 19, 26-31, 75, 76, Reveley Edward: 19, 30, 80, 82 Rice Gregory: 209, 251, 267, 268, 291 Rombouts Winand: 84, 101, 102 Rooney John: 55, 281 Ruijter de Jan: 18-20, 75, 76 Ruijter de Lambert: 111 Scanlon Francis: 177, 178, 180, 211, 249

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77, 78, 88, 95

Schagen van James: 210, 211, 248 Schrader Jan: 200, 201, 236, 247, 250 Schuijtemaker Nicholas (Brother): 31, 102, 103 Shanks George: 155-159, 180 Simons Cornelius: 27, 38, 88, 96 Spoolder Hein (Brother): 260 Steger Leonard: 210, 211, 248, 299, 300 Stenson Patrick: 140 Stewart George: 129 Streppel Antoine: 247, 254, 255, 298 Styles John: 131, 132 Sulumeti Sylvanus: 291 Swinkels Peter: 136 Taylor John: 245-253, 298, 302 Temme John: 13, 14, 16, 64, 68 Terpstra Folquin: 170, 182 Thijssen Herman: 151, 157, 180, 183, 206 Tool Jan: 238, 276 Turnbull Leo: 141, 142 Turner Norbert: 199, Vaneman Toon: 234, 235, 300, 301 Vaughan Herbert (Cardinal): 1-6, 9-12, 14-17, 21- 29, 58, 60, 62, 68, 69, 77, 93, 97, 104,107, 111, 166, 238, 239.

Verbeek Els: 275-277, Verheij Gerard: 189, 298 Vester Hans (Brother): 212-216 Vreede de Piet: 53, 165, 250 Villani Marco: 291 Wagenaar Dominic: 13, 23, 24, 30-35, 74, 84, 88, 89, 94 Waterreus John: 19, 29, 82, 85, 86 Wester John (Brother): 262 Whelan Joseph: 278 White William: 118, 119, 242 Wiersma Gerard: 19, 20, 76, 80, 82 Wilmot John: 284 Winkley Robert: 19, 26, 32, 35-37, 89, 93-95, Zonneveld Piet: 243

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