Question 1.16

1.16 How did you stay in touch with your parents, who were still living in Ourous?

You have to understand that I did not go back home for the holidays, including the summer vacations. Guinea was in the midst of a revolution, and the trip was very expensive. After our country declared its independence, the Holy Ghost Fathers were practically forbidden to conduct social, educational, medical, or any other activities. They were all expelled from Guinea in May 1967.

The separation from my family became even more unfortunate. I could not write to them, for fear of jeopardizing my parents, who would have been suspected of having foreign ties. They could have been accused, then arrested, and perhaps put into prison for collaborating with foreign enemies, who, according to the government, were regularly plotting to overthrow the revolutionary government in Guinea. …

The only opportunities to hear news were Archbishop Tchidimbo’s visits to Nancy. He passed on information about the development of the situation in Guinea. Our bishop brought us letters from our loved ones; we could also give him private messages. But during those three years of seminary in Nancy, he could never give me a single letter from my parents, since they lived over three hundred miles away from the capital of Guinea! The time went by slowly without any communication with my family.

During the vacations, we worked on farms or in workshops to earn a bit of money, which allowed us to cover our personal costs. So it was that I worked on a farm not far from Nancy but also in Longwy. Archbishop Tchidimbo was uncompromising in his management of the money that we earned; he did not want us to keep even one cent of our wages.

One day, the eldest of us three Guineans failed to obey the bishop’s instructions and kept his money to buy a motorcycle! When Archbishop Tchidimbo learned that our classmate had used his summer savings for that purchase, he flew into a rage that was difficult to calm. What was worse, the bishop became angry with the whole group, including those who had followed his instructions, like myself. … Today I laugh about it, but at the time, I was completely depressed. We had no news from our parents, and, instead of encouraging us, our pastor had just stridently lectured us, without distinguishing the guilty from the innocent. I then went through a period of doubts. In my profound confusion, I vaguely considered the possibility of leaving the seminary. I went to see my spiritual director, Father Denis, to tell him about my disappointment. He declared to me, “Listen, Robert. I have known four bishops in Nancy, and each had his faults, which can be difficult, and his virtues, which are very edifying. You will not be a priest for the bishop’s sake but for Christ and for the Church. You must continue serenely, with complete confidence, with and for Christ, with your bishop or in spite of him. Certainly, he is the one who will call you to the priesthood, but you will be a priest for the Church. Today, you must get along with Archbishop Tchidimbo, and in the future you will have to learn to cope with his successor’s personality.” The only surprise was that Archbishop Tchidimbo’s successor, by a mysterious decree of God, turned out to be me. …

In any case, I stayed on at the seminary with joy and enthusiasm. It is true, Archbishop Tchidimbo was very strict, intensely upright, and endlessly demanding. He used to come visit us at the minor seminary in Kindia. I remember that he insisted on the importance of spiritual qualities, and especially good character, moral integrity, and honesty. I can still hear him thunder to the class: “The first reason to expel a seminarian is for duplicity, the second, for duplicity, and the third, for duplicity.” His stern language was somewhat frightening, but he wanted any man called to the priesthood to be upright and to have integrity. Saint Gregory the Great wrote in a homily, “Woe to the sinner who walks the earth by a double path.” The sinner walks along two paths when his conduct contradicts his words, for then, inevitably, what he is looking for belongs to the world and to its vices.

Archbishop Tchidimbo believed that honesty was an indispensable trait that a bishop could never compromise. He had been formed in Chevilly-Larue by the Holy Ghost Fathers, and he belonged to Father Libermann’s “valiant society”. Despite his severity, he meant a lot to me; he had a generous heart and was capable of being kind and very thoughtful.