Arrival and Start of the FIC Brothers

Two Precursors.

After the FIC General Council of 1965 had decided to accept integration of the Brothers of St. Joseph, arrangements had to be made to implement this decision.

Brother Oventius van Dooren was appointed Master of Novices by the Council, for according to Canon Law, the Ghanaian brothers who wanted to join the FIC had to make at least a year in novitiate in the new congregation. Maarten Bouw was the other pioneer to come with Oventius. Later he (Maarten) was appointed Superior of the Ghana community. The novitiate was to begin on September 8th , 1965. As the two brothers could not obtain a resident permit in time, the Vicar General, Brother Remund Pennings, was designated to leave for Ghana on a tourist visa to start things on schedule. Dulcidius (Wim) van Winden (in Ghana called John), who had been working as a builder for some years in Sierra Leone, was Remund’s travelling companion. Dressed in black suits with clerical collars, Remund and John left Holland on a KLM plane for a country quite unknown to them. For them it was not only an honorable assignment, but also an adventure to some extent.

Arrival in Accra

On their arrival at the Accra Airport, the travelers met the Dutch KLM manager in Ghana, one Mr. Rigter. The KLM manager shepherded them safely through the customs and invited them for a visit to his apartment. His wife and children being in Holland, he had enough room to accommodate the two brothers for the night. The next day, they would fly to Tamale. The unexpected service had made a complete success of the first stage of the journey.

To Kaleo

The next day, Mr. Rigter helped the brothers to check in for the flight to Tamale. Via a stop at Kumasi, they arrived at Tamale at night fall. The reception there was more official. The car of the Bishop of Wa was waiting for them at the airport. Bishop Dery himself could not be present as he was still attending the last session of Vatican Council II in Rome. That same evening they drove to Kaleo.

The journey to Kaleo took about eight hours, and so the travelers arrived at Kaleo around midnight. The entire parish house was asleep, except the Dutch father, Fr. John van Rest, who kept vigil by a glimmering oil lamp for the arrival of the two pioneers. A warm welcome and a coffee treat in the refectory of the White Fathers marked the final destination of the travelers. The brothers had only one wish left: a good shower and a good bed.

First Meeting

In the late morning of the following day, the two Dutch brothers paid visit to their future Ghanaian confreres, who were living in compounds which were sited where we now find the brothers house on the campus of St. Basilide’s Vocational School. The brothers, about twenty in number, heartily welcomed the Dutch guests in the customary Ghanaian way. Communication was spontaneous and things passed off in a cheerful atmosphere.  And of course, “pito” was not spared that afternoon.

The Brothers of St. Joseph

Since the founding of the Congregation of the Brothers of St. Joseph, various White Fathers had been entrusted with the task of formation of the postulants, novices, and brothers. The last at that post was Father Jan van Rest, who could now transfer the leadership to the FIC.

Among the St. Joseph Brothers there were already a few that had taken temporary vows. Furthermore, the group consisted of a number of novices and some postulants. Among the former were present brothers, Peter Saatuo, Denis Dery, Jerome Kombual, Leander Tengtule, Gerard Pagadaga and Nicholas Yangtibr. The latter were present brothers, Luke Bangnikon and Alexis Beleire.

Some FIC Fundamental

During the weeks following the arrival of Brothers John and Remund, the brothers were preparing themselves for start of the novitiate which was to begin on 8th September 1965. Everyday, Remund would give a kind of instruction in which he told the future novices something about the founders of the congregation, the establishments in and outside Holland, the FIC apostolate etc.

Furthermore, Remund supervised as much as possible, the daily routine of the group. They also regularly held some choir practice since the brothers were going to sing the Gregorian liturgical songs during the solemn Eucharistic celebration which was to mark the opening of the noviciate.

Meanwhile, Brother John van Winden, was energetically working at the building plans of the new brothers’s house. He was helped by laborers recruited from Kaleo town. John was not to complete this work, though, because of his and Remund’s stay was only temporary. When they returned to Holland by the end of September, the foundation had been laid. The building was complete later by a Dutch brother of the White Fathers’ Society, Brother Basilide.

Water Supply

As the FIC have now taken full responsibility for the material needs, of the new members, the problem of water supply had to be tackled as soon as possible. The sanitary facilities for the brothers were far from good because of lack of water. Solving the water problem was not all that simple. Among other things it meant that a borehole had to be sunk. A permit had to be obtained from the government in Accra before the drilling rig could be released to sink the borehole. Father van Rest and Remund therefore set out for Tamale by car, where they took a plane to Accra. Once there, they managed, after waiting for hours at the Ghana Water and Sewerage Ministry, to obtain the permit for the sinking of the borehole to start.

The Beginning of the Noviciate

September 8th was the day of the solemn ceremony of taking of the habit to mark the beginning of the noviciate. The week before, the brothers had made a retreat under the direction of the late father De Serre (WF), Vicar General of the Diocese of Wa. The ceremonies took place in the Kaleo parish church, many parishioners, relatives, friends and acquaintance of the brothers attended the Eucharistic celebration.

Father De Serre was the main celebrant and the concelebrated with many other priests from all over the diocese. In the way customary in the congregation, Remund handed the White FIC habit and scapular to each of the novices and after this, each novice received from the hands of the officiating priest, the profession cross. The time of probation had begun.

Goodbye

In the days that followed, the noviciate life was practiced. But it was the “real” master of novices-Oventius and his companion Maarten- whose arrival the new novices were looking forward to. It did not take long when news was received from Holland that the two brothers would arrive in Ghana on October 1st . For Remund and John, this was the signal to start thinking of packing their bags. Besides, their residence permits were expiring. The beginning had been made. It was now left to Oventius and Maarten to take up the challenging task of forming our first African brothers in an adequate way.

Remund and John left Ghana with mixed feelings; they were happy at the positive termination of their unique assignment, but also sad at heart at having to leave behind this promising group of African friends. Never-the-less the seed of FIC has been successfully sown in Ghana and it is expected to take roots and grow.