Question 2.23

2.23 Sometimes there is the sense that there was a sort of miracle in your journey.

I was fortunate to be mentored by spiritual fathers of great quality. In Nancy or in Senegal, the priests who accompanied me insisted a great deal on the importance of the interior life. Archbishop Tchidimbo, who was confined and tortured in a prison for many years, was always in my heart. A seminarian is first and foremost the work of the priests who have accompanied him. God gave me the gift of being mentored by pastors who were truly connected to Christ.

On July 20, 1969, the day of my ordination by Archbishop Tchi-dimbo at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Conakry, I was the only ordinand. Over the years, all my fellow seminarians from Guinea who were with me in Bingerville, Nancy, and Sébikhotane gradually left the seminary.

On that summer day in 1969, after so many accidents and tribulations, political upheavals in my country, travels, sorrows, and joys, I was the sole “survivor” of this adventure. Why did God pay so much attention to me? Why had God pampered me by giving me the supernatural strength to stay the course? Why did God want me to be the last priest ordained before the arrest of Archbishop Tchidimbo in December 1970? It is very difficult for me to answer these questions. One after the other, my companions left, and I found myself alone before the altar of the cathedral.

In fact, I have never doubted my vocation. Although there were events that made me sad, they were never anything but small wounds that never shook my love for God. I remained faithful because I truly loved God as much as a poor sinner can love him, given his own limitations. In my heart I always had the assurance that God loved me. In our lives, everything is the gift of his Love. How then could I remain indifferent to such a great mystery? How could I not respond to the Love of the heavenly Father by dedicating my whole life to him?

On July 21, 1969, I said my first Mass in the Cathedral of Conakry. Not until the following Sunday, July 27, was I able to celebrate my first Eucharist in the parish of Saint Rose of Ourous. You can easily imagine my emotion and that of my parents and of all the residents of my village. The joy was extraordinary. I had the feeling that this was a just reward for all the Holy Ghost Fathers who had suffered so much for us. However, it was the will of Providence that they could not participate that day because of the persecutions by Sékou Touré.

The Holy Ghost Fathers who gave their lives in Guinea, under such difficult conditions, did not die in vain. On that July morning, we began the day with a procession from the cemetery to the church, after a long time of prayer before the graves of the first missionaries.

During the weeks afterward, following a program established by Archbishop Tchidimbo, I had the joy of celebrating several Masses in various parishes in the Archdiocese of Conakry, and then I left for Rome.