How do you adequately thank someone who had such a positive influence on your life?

I not speaking about my parents.  Of course they had a major role in my development. I’m speaking about someone who was a teacher, a mentor, a friend, a role model, and a priest.

I first met Fr. Camilus Thibault, A.A. as a gangly fourteen-year-old entering Our Lady of Lourdes Seminary (OLLO) in the tiny town of Cassadaga, NY in September 1964.  My very first impression was: “Wow, this guy is really bald.”  Yet, Fr. Camilus had an infectious smile and a very engaging personality.  Despite the pandemic of homesickness felt by myself and so many of my fellow freshmen who were away from home for the first time, Fr. Camilus made so many of us feel right at home.

(The Orants of the Assumption are one of the five main branches of the Assumption Family, founded in 1896 by Fr. François Picard, one of Fr. d’Alzon’s first disciples. This past September, 80 Iraqi and Syrian refugees were welcomed at the Orants convent an hour outside of Paris in Bonnelles, France. One month later 20 Afghanis arrived. The sisters have joined hands with Habitat and Humanism [a French NGO], State and local government agencies, and many volunteers, to give these war-weary, malnourished, and desperate refugees hope and peace.)

by Sophie Lebrun

Sr. Monique, superior of the local community, tells me, “September 9, the day that the first refugees arrived was quite a day; all at once, our convent, rather calm the past few years, became a beehive of activity. Having arrived from Germany, the refugees were haggard after a long and daunting trek from Syria and Iraq. The local prefect and mayor were here to welcome them as well as the bishop, firemen, the Red Cross…. After a few days you could hardly find place to walk in the lobby; it was chock full of clothes and other items donated by neighbors and townspeople.”

The Oblates Sisters arrived in Beni-Paida (Belgian Congo at the time; today the Democratic Republic of the Congo) on December 23, 1935. Two days later, an infant was left on their doorstep. That was the beginning of an orphanage that has survived to this day. The following is an interview with Sr. Françoise Bichunchuma, an Oblate Sister with detailed knowledge of this facility.

By Sr. Zoé Vandermersch, O.A.

ZV: Could you tell us a little about the arrival of the Oblates in the Congo and the beginnings of their orphange?

FB: In 1929 the Assumptionists arrived in the Belgian Congo, in the Vicariate of Butembo-Beni in the eastern part of the country. Soon thereafter, they felt the need for sisters to collaborate with them especially for an effective promotion of women. Fr, Henri Piérard, the superior of the Assumptionist mission, asked Mother Berthe-Marie Paré, the superior general at the time, to send some Oblates to help out.  Immediately, three sisters began preparing for the mission --- Sisters Marie-Laurentine and Philomène (Belgians) and Sister Marie (French). On board the ship that would take them from the Belgian port of Antwerp to the Congo, they spent their time learning Kiswahili, the local language. They arrived in Beni-Paida on December 23, 1935. Two days later, On Christmas day, a baby orphan was brought to them. That is the humble beginning of the orphanage.  From the earliest days the sisters have continually welcomed between sixty and eighty children.  For lack of means that number has diminished in recent years to between twenty-five and thirty-five.