Question 1.12

1.12 Have you stayed in touch with the Holy Ghost Fathers from this period?

Certainly, the most influential priest used by God to reveal to me my vocation was Father Marcel Bracquemond. He still lives in France. In 2012, I invited him to join us for the centennial celebrations of the parish in Ourous, and, in August 2014, I visited him in his retirement home in Brittany.

He was unable to accept my invitation to attend the centennial in Ourous because of his age and the long roads, which are still very difficult to travel. But I did receive the following letter from him: “I received, via my religious superiors, your charming invitation to the celebration of the centennial of Saint Rose parish in Ouros, of which I have fond memories of having seen your courage as a server fetching the cruets, while menaced by a snake on top of the credence table. This courage is perhaps what brought you to the attention of the Holy Father Benedict XVI. The expulsion in May 1967 separated us. . . I had other assignments. Now, at the age of eighty-six, still blessed with enough good health to help in the parish ministry in Brittany, a thoroughly delightful region, I apologize for turning down your invitation, because of the hundreds of miles of roads separating Ourous from Conakry and on account of the attitude of some now-influential Christians during the unhappy circumstances that preceded the expulsion. … Nonetheless, I wish to tell your uncle Samuel Coline, whose marriage to Marie Panaré I blessed, that I remember her often in my prayers, and I ask that a dwelling place may be granted to her in Christ’s kingdom. Cardinal Sarah, I assure you of my prayers: may you continue for a long time to be as courageous as when I knew you, and may God’s will be done to the extent of the authority that the Church bestows on you.”

How could I forget this young priest who was the first to speak to me about the seminary and my vocation? How could I forget that he helped my parents plan the long journey toward my new life, a journey that has never stopped since then. …