The Very Beginning. 

St. Joseph to FIC.

 

Bro. Nicholas Y. spoke readily about the very beginning of the Congregation in Ghana. He entered the Brothers of St. Joseph (as the diocesan Congregation was called) in 1957 as a pre-postulant. He hails from Nandom parish. He entered the postulancy in 1960 and did his novitiate from 1963-1964. Part of their formation was with the catechists; they followed their timetable and shared their kitchen. 

He says: “When I was in the second-year novitiate, the St. Joseph Congregation started dying off. The pre-postulants, the novices and the professed brothers were running away secretly.” Their time table was quite rigorous: 5.00am rise followed by rosary, Mass and cleaning; this was followed by a period for physical education after which they had breakfast (coco or TZ) followed by classes (conference and instruction). At 10.00am they went for manual work consisting of building activities, farming or anything that presented itself. Farming was very necessary, because they were supposed to feed themselves and so the main crops were maize, yam and beans. At 11.45 they went for particular examination followed by lunch and siesta until 2.00pm when they said the rosary in common followed by manual work till 5.30pm. Then it was time for washing down followed by supper and night studies at 7.00pm (some were teaching each other!). Between 8.00 and 9.00 they had recreation (indoor games) followed by “curfew” at 9.00pm. They were allowed four letters a year and could go for a home visit at Christmas (2 weeks) and Easter for those who had money to pay for the transport. 

Bro Leander adds to this: “The ‘running away’ was because we were not well catered for; it all depended on the Father in charge.”                                                       

He experienced 4 priests in charge: Fr. Leblanc – very strict, terrible food; he also organized the trade training: jack-of-all-trades, but master of none! – Fr. Rochon – he came from a rich back- ground and material circumstances improved: meat every Sun- day and he introduced formal education. He was followed by Fr. De Serres who was about the same, followed by Fr. Rest when we went back to real poverty, because he depended on the Diocese. And then our own Bishop, Mgr. Dery, who started searching for a change. For many it was quite clear. There was little vision and lit- tle sense of charisma among the Brothers of St. Joseph. They had learnt to do a bit of everything but there was no real educational policy. Too much depended on the priest in charge. 

Neither Bishop Dery nor the brothers saw any real future for the Congregation. Bishop Dery looked for a Congregation of Brothers to train the St. Joseph Brothers or absorb them. He contacted the Generalate of the FIC Brothers in Maastricht, and early in 1965 the then General Superior Bro. Avellinus Janssens, Bro. Stefano Meurkens who was Assistant General Superior, and Bro. Oventius van Dooren who was working in Sierra Leone where the General Superior and his Assistant had just finished their visitation, came to Ghana, to Wa, to meet the Bishop and see the set-up of the congregation of the Brothers of St. Joseph. 

After ample discussions with the Bishop and his Councillors it was agreed that the FIC Brothers would come to Ghana. While this happened it was made clear to the St. Joseph Brothers that they had a choice: either stay and become FIC or leave the religious life. About 20 of the St. Joseph Brothers (in fact, all but two) decided to stay and continue with their novitiate for FIC. 

In October 1965 two brothers came from Holland to train the group: Bros. Oventius van Dooren and Maarten Bouw. As the visas for Bros. Oventius and Maarten were delayed, Bros. Remund Pennings, then Assistant General Superior, and John van Winden, who was working in Sierra Leone at the time, took the lead and started with the 20 novices on the 8th of September 1965, and thus the first Ghanaian members entered the congregation. The beginning with FIC was tough. Bro. Oventius, the new novice master, was very strict. “We feared him”, Bro Leander said. “But we stayed, and mostly it worked out fine. We were twenty to join the FIC, and now we are left with five (Nicholas, Jerome, Denis, Peter and Leander). Five who still remember the beginning.”