Society of the Missionaries of Africa - History Series N° 15 Henri Marchal 1875-1957 An Apostolic Approach to the Algerian World Gérard Demeerseman, M.Afr. Translated by John MacWilliam & Peter Smith Edition: Petit Echo Father Henri Marchal. Tip.: Instituto Salesiano Pie XI,Via Umbertide, 11, 00180 Roma Tel. 06.78.27.819 - E-mail: [email protected] Finito di stampare: gennaio 2016 2 Foreword In September 2013 I suggested to Fr. François Richard who was then visiting Paris to read the biography of Father André Demeerseman that I had just written. As he handed back the manuscript, he advised me to mention another confrère for the series of blue booklets, on his- torical subjets. Since the life of Fr. André Demeerseman coincided with that of Father Henri Marchal, I suggested his name: he was Assistant General for 35 years and remains an emblematic figure in the North African mission. We quickly agreed that we should offer the confrères this impor- tant model of an 'apostle'. I arranged with Father Jean-Claude Ceillier that I would read several of Fr. Marchal's writings and contact the Chancery of the Diocese of Nancy before drafting this booklet entit- led "Henri Marchal : an apostolic approach to the Maghreb world." The sources at my disposal were first and foremost his obituary : Le révérend Père Henri Marchal (Menin, Imp. Verraes-Pattijn, 1959, 32 p.); Sagesse et Apostolatby André Demeerseman (Maison-Carrée, Imp. des Pères Blancs, 1960, 195 p.; chapter III of the book by Joseph Cuoq: Lavigerie, les Pères Blancs et les Musulmans maghré- bins(Society of the Missionaries of Africa, Rome, 1986, pp. 94-110). To these internal sources I added Oissila Saaïdia's: Henri Marchal, technique d’apostolat auprès des Musulmans (in L’altérité religieuse, un défi pour la mission chrétienne, Paris Karthala, 2001, pp. 121-137); Henri Marchal, un regard missionnaire sur l’Islam (in Annales Islamologiques, 35, 2001, pp. 491-502; Clercs Catholiques et Oulémas Sunnites dans la première moitié du XX° siècle (Paris, Geuthner, 2004, pp. 229-248). Further to that, I have referred to other documents produced by Fathers François Dornier1, Jean-Claude Ceillier2 et Jean-Marie Gaudeul3, to the latter two of whom I express my fraternal gratitude. Gérard Demeerseman 3 Young White Father in North Africa 1900-1912 The Years of Training Henri Joseph Auguste Marchal was born on Tuesday 21stSeptember 1875 in Vého, a little village of 300 souls in Jorraine, hidden away to the east of Lunéville. An earlier native of the same village was the Abbé Grégoire, an emblematic figure of the French Revolution and father of the first article of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. We know almost nothing of the childhood or school-days of little Henri. Because of the war, the parish records could not even give us the date of his baptism. His father, Joseph Ernest and his mother, Florine Claire, née Jollain, had six children of whom four died in infancy. Henri, the fifth of these children, knew only his brother Charles who was four years his senior, and who died at the age of 33. The family home, profoundly Christian, tenderly and thoughtfully encouraged Henri's wish to become a missionary priest. We can presume that Henri completed his secondary schooling at the junior seminary of Renémont-Jarville, in the southern suburbs of Nancy. It is almost impossible to say more, since the archives of the Diocese of Nancy do not retain the lists of pupils of the junior semina- ries, their results or their reports. In 1893 young Henri, then aged 18, entered the major seminary at Nancy. Each year, this imposing building situated in Rue de Strasbourg welcomed about thirty new students. It offered a solid intellectual and spiritual training spread over five years. This ensured its reputation ever since Mgr Lavigerie, who was bishop of Nancy from 1863 to 1867, had expressed a desire to have a 'scholarly clergy'. Reverend Henri Marchal spent two years there studying philosophy as well as the start of his theology studies. At the end of those two years, on 7th July 1895, he received the tonsure even though he was about to 4 leave the diocese of Nancy to join the White Fathers. Feeling that he had a missionary calling going back over several years, it was on 9th June 1895 that he wrote his formal request for admission to Mgr Livinhac,the Superior General. “Ever since I was a child”, he wrote, I have dreamt of the missions; please, My Lord, let this dream become a reality”. This application was supported by a letter from the superior of the seminary : “He is an excellent young man who has long thought of Africa. We have noted his piety, his talents and zeal to work; he has a rather sombre and melancholy character. Once he is engaged in something his spirits rise and he blossoms out to show all his good qualities. I recommend him to you and ask you to welcome his request.”4 This application was accepted, much to the joy of Reverend Marchal. He replied to Mgr Livinhac in these terms : “May I sincerely thank you for such a gift. From now it is God alone and for ever. What joy !” After his holidays, Reverend Marchal went to Marseilles whence he would take the boat to Algiers and then on to Maison Carrée where the novitiate Sainte-Marie was entrusted to Father Pierre Viven as novice- master. After the initial 8-day retreat came the clothing-ceremony and Reverend Marchal exchanged his black cassock for the white gandou- ra over which he wore the burnous and the rosary around his neck. It was at the novitiate that the young brother got to know Father Paul Voillard who was attached to it as director. That year the novitiate welcomed 17 novices, among them two Dutchmen and one Luxembourger. Life was quite austere with a 4.25 am rising and long periods of silence. In addition to prayer-times, the day included morning lectures by the novice-master with the aim of helping the novices to fit the mould of the Society of the White Fathers. There were also two hours of daily manual work to keep the house and grounds tidy and a time of studies in order to assimilate the structures of the Society in which the novices hoped to live their lives. There were also language courses. Brother Marchal, without any hesitation, launched himself enthusiastically into the study of Arabic, a language that he continued to learn when he arrived at the scholasti- 5 cate in Carthage in 1896. At that time the superior of that house was Father Hippolyte Bazin who later became the apostolic vi- car for French Sudan. It was there that Brother Marchal completed the theology studies which he had already started at Nancy. The staff of the scholasticate are unani- Ordination in Carthage on 19th March 1899, feast of saint Joseph. mous in recognising the moral and intellectual talents of Brother Marchal. He received minor orders on the feast of the Annunciation, 25thMarch 1898. On 23rdSep- tember of the same year he made his missionary oath and was ordai- ned sub-deacon the next day. The collective assessment of the priests who taught him can be sum- med up as follows : “An excellent scholastic according to all his reports; above ave- rage intelligence, very good character, very pious and calm, the best scholastic of the year. Good at Arabic; he would make a good teacher of theology or of Arabic; dreams only of the Sahara; much liked by his confrères for his gentleness and gaiety.”5 On Saturday 18th March 1899, the vigil of the 1st Sunday of the Passion, Brother Marchal was ordained deacon. He received his priest- ly ordination a year later on Saturday 31st March 1900 which was also the vigil of the 1st Sunday of the Passion. The First Appointments (1900-1905) Having completed his theology studies, Father Marchal was availa- ble for his first appointment. On 15thApril he was sent to the Diocese of Carthage, to the junior seminary, known as the “Institution Lavigerie”. This was at La Marsa, in the buildings of the Archbishopric. He taught Latin and Arabic there during what was a temporary appointment, while awaiting something more permanent. 6 So it was that at the beginning of July 1900 he rejoined the Scolasticate at Carthage which he had left just three months earlier. He taught theology there and even Arabic. On 3rd October he wrote to the superiors at Maison-Carrée: “It is now three months since Providence brought me gently back to the starting-point after leaving me a moment in which to hope for several years of pilgrimage in Jerusalem. But I have alrea- dy tasted the good life of the Scolasticate and the Good Lord has blessed me with so many graces that I cannot complain about being here again; on the contrary, it is what comforts me most and leaves me happy and full of gratitude towards Divine Providence, since here everything points to God… If it were not for my duty of obedience, I would not feel at peace here because what I am doing and the responsibilities I have here require a training that I only have at the level of my own desires" 6 So it was that the young professor set about assuming his functions without, however, giving up the Arabic language.For that he was allo- wed to go to Tunis to attend certain discussions organised by a recent- ly-founded cultural association called Khaldounia. Its aim was to broa- den the general culture of the students of the Zitouna. On 2ndMay 1903 Father Marchal wrote to the president of this association to thank him for letting him attend several of these sessions. This letter leads us to believe that the father’s health was not at its best and that he had wisely taken steps to limit his activities to his prin- cipal function, all the more since he was never without things to do. As the months passed, however, Father Marchal felt more and more tired on account of the serious troubles he had with his stomach. The super- ior of the community, Father Alexis Maillot, felt it his duty to inform the superiors at Maison Carrée: “He can hardly eat anything anymore and what he does manage he brings up again within half-an-hour or an hour. I’m hoping that the holidays or a spell in France will do him good and that next year he will be able to start teaching again. I do want to keep him at the scho- lasticate even though the sedentary life here isn’t really to his taste and affects his health.” (Notice p. 4). The superiors preferred to bring forward this time of recovery and Fa- ther Marchal left Carthage in February 1905 for the village of Binson in 7 the Marne where the philo- sophy seminary was situa- ted. There he gave courses in Holy Scripture until the end of the academic year. It was there that he learnt in early July that his dream was about to come true: he was appointed to the Apostolic Prefecture of The House of Ghardaïa. the Sahara with residence in Ghardaïa. He immediately expressed his gratitude to Mgr Livinhac in the following terms: “I really don’t know how to express my thanks for your goodness to me and for your concern for my health. I trust that Our Lord will allow it to fully suffice for the task that you are entrusting to me. So it is that I am now turning all my thoughts and actions, as well as my prayers, towards the desert. Praying more, getting more used to prayer, going deeper into the supernatural and divine charity, those are things that I want to concentrate on more and more during the time I still have here... I know the Muslims well enough to have no enthusiastic illusions about the life that is awaiting me in the Sahara; if disappointments occur, I believe that it will be for the best since I am determined to work for results that I won’t see with my own eyes and that only others coming later will be able to harvest. But none of that can diminish either the joy or my resolve to work faithfully and to confi- dently prepare the future.” (Notice... p.4) We can see in these lines the lucid realism and the spiritual disposi- tion that Father Marchal possessed and which were precisely those that Cardinal Lavigerie had asked of his sons sent on mission to North Africa: to be “men of God” seeking acceptance by the local people through the exercise of apostolic charity and prepared to accept that there would be no immediate fruit. 8 Ghardaïa (1905-1908) Ghardaïa is a town 600km south of Algiers. It is the capital of seve- ral fortified towns built in the Mzab Valley. Its Muslim inhabitants be- long to two distinct communities: one of them is Sunni Arab of the Maliki jurisprudance whilst the other, the Mozabites, is of the Ibadite jurisprudance, marked by a form of extreme rigorism. When the White Fathers arrived there in 1884 they settle, out of prudence, in the Jewish quarter of the town, living in somewhat precarious conditions on ac- count of the mistrust, if not scornful hostility of the inhabitants. In tho- se days the leaders of the Ibadite commu- nity had forbidden any contact with the Fa- thers. It is said that if someone found them- selves obliged to offer a glass of water to one of them, he had to then break the glass become 'impure' ! When Father Marchal arrived at Ghar- daïa in October 1905 it was already a year since the Fathers had sold their house in Baba-Salah in the Jewish Quarter and sett- led at Bâb er-Ra'î in poor Arab houses. Among the confrères who lived there was Father Charles Guérin. Fr. Charles Guérin, Apostolic Prefect of the Sahara since 1901, and Father Louis David whose notes proved so va- luable for our knowledge of the newcomer's activities. Father Marchal was appointed headmaster of the little school in which French and Ara- bic were taught to Arab children and a few Mozabite ones. His first impression of the hovels that made up the mission was not exactly favourable; they had nothing in common with a proper White Father post. “So one of his first tasks was to bring to an end our camping by helping the Reverend Father Prefect to carry out a plan to provide lodgings more suitable to a White Father community” (Notice p.5). Without delay Father Marchal tenaciously set about getting to know the people, despite the lingering suspicion that they still held towards the fathers: 9 “By going out regularly every day, he increased his contact with the local peo- ple, starting with our immediate neigh- bours the Medabih, an Arab tribe who we- re more open to our influence than the austere Mozabites… We also continued going from shop to shop, at that time the only place where it was possible for us to meet the Mozabites. Once Father Marchal had himself tried this form of apostolate, he admitted that it was sometimes quite painful and even humilia- ting” (Notice p.5). Father David. Pastoral contact and encounter were the only way to be accepted in that milieu and had to be practised with prudence and perseverance no matter how one was received. The Fathers were not there to shake the dust from their sandals ! In a spirit of compassion for the poor of the neighbourhood, Father Marchal formed the idea of coming to their help without making them too dependant; Father David notes on this subject: “His charitable spirit took pity on the conditions of the poor of our neighbourhood. With the aim of helping them without offending their dignity, he came up with the idea of starting a workshop for the fabrication of goatskins which could then be sold, he thought, to the Saharan Companies. It didn't work. His guerbas didn't find any buyers because their price was too high. He had to abandon this unsuccessful enterprise.” (Notice p. 5). This setback in no way impaired the Father's drive. Since he had no shortage of ideas on which he was taking the time to reflect, he started organising evening classes for adults. This is how Father David speaks of this: “The long winter evenings were given up to courses for adults. The magic lantern that we had bought from Mazo was extremely useful in drawing local people to our house where they could mar- vel at the scenes taken from the Old and New Testaments that the Father showed” (Notice p. 5). 10