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Registered et the GPO, Perth, for 1 No. 3126. Perth, Thursday, January 30, 1964• ,transmission by post as a Newspaper.)
CONGO RAMPAGt LEADS TO MISSION MDR, BURNINGS
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LEOPOLDVILLE, The Congo: MISSION AUTHORITIES IN THIS AFRICAN CAPITAL REPORT THAT THE SITUATION IS GROWING WORSE IN KWILU PROVINCE. THEY HAVE EXPRESSED FEARS THAT THERE MAY BE MORE MURDERS OF MISSIONARIES. Latest reports say that people of the districts of Gungu =native town of the pro-Red Congolese politician Antoine Gizenga — and Idiofa are in open rebellion against the provincial government. Three Belgian missionary priests, all Oblates of Mary Immaculate were killed on January 23 at Kilembe mission in,the Kwilu province. Two Protestant missions in the area—at Mukedi and Kandale—which were staffed by Americans and Canadians, have been burned. Two Protestant missionaries, whose names are not known here, have been killed. Idiofa, the See city of the diocese of that name, is reportedly surrounded by communist-led guerrillas. The United Nations and the Belgian Embassy are sending planes to the area to evacuate European women and children from the city. The Congolese government declared a state of emergency in Kwilu on January 21 and has sent troops into the province. The three priests who were murdered and whose bodies were mutilated are Father Gerard Defever, 0.M.I., 43, superior of the Kilembe Mission: Father Nicolas Hardy, 0.M.I., 45, a teacher at the Kilembe Mission school, and Father Pierre Laebens. 0.M.I., 44, chief mechanic of the Idiofa Mission, who was in bed recuperating from an accident suffered near the Kilembe Mission. Three other priests of the mission—Father Lode Sebrechts, 0.M.I., a Belgian, Father Van den Berghe, 0.M.I., a Dutchman, and Father Paul Macrea, 0.M.I.. a Congolese — have disappeared. The first two were away from the mission at the time of the attack.
Left Town An indication of the coming trouble at Kilembe Mission took place on Januaary 20, when government administrators decided to leave the town. They took some of their belongings to the mission superior and asked him to guard them. On January 21, many People from the nearby Village of Munga came to the mission and asked the superior to protect from the terrorists them active in the area. On the night of January 2 2-23, four were at the mission priests — Fathers Defever, Hardy Macrea, and Laebens. At 11 p.m. c ame to the two terrorists mission and threw a Molotov cocktail into Father Defever's bedroom, but it did not start a fire. Father Defever gave an alarm and the two terrorists fled. Later they came to mission fora second the time and Father Defever asked them what they wanted. This time the assailants were riccompanied by a band Df fifty guerrillas. tr4'
They attacked Father Defever who again gave an alarm. Fathers Hardy and Macrea left the house. Father Macrea was hit by a torch, then disappeared into the bush. Fathers Defever and Hardy were then killed by the terrorists who were armed with steel bars, knives, hatchets and bows and arrows. The assailants then went to Father Laebens' room, dragged him from his bed and murdered him. Afterwards, they dismembered the three priests' bodies, burned the mission and set fire to the government administration building. Nine Sisters of the Congregation of the Holy Family, a French community ,had heard Father Defever's outcry of alarm and taken shelter in the mission school. When they left it on the morning of January 23, they found the bodies of the pfiests. The nuns sent a message to American and Canadian Protestant missionaries at the Mukedi Mission eight miles away. The Protestant missionaries came and helped the 'Sisters to escape. Later the Protestant mission was evacuated with only three of 13 missionaries remaining there. The rest were taken out in a United Nations helicopter. The nuns were flown here in a plane chartered by the Belgian Embassy.
Evacuated The Protestant mission in Mukedi was burned, as was another one in Kandale. The seven missionaries and two children living in the latter were evacuated in two U.N. helicopters on January 24. They were accompanied by three nuns. It is not known from what mission the three nuns came.
ferrorist activity has been on the increase in Kwilu province for the past six months. Redhelmeted gangs armed with spears, bows and arrows and petrol bombs have attacked government buildings and destroyed bridges. The terrorists are led by Pierre Mulele, Minister of See PAGE 10
North-West Mission Is Destroyed By "Bessie" Cyclone "Bessie"—one of the fiercest on record—ripped through the Pallottines' La Grange mission station, one of the newest and most promising in the Vicariate of the Kimberleys, on the night of Monday, January 13, and in a matter of minutes the station was a scene of confusion and destruction. All comr iiications were disrupted and there was no access to the station by road or plane, due to the torrential rain which accompanied the storm. It is only now thot some details of the extent of the damage have been obtained at the Pallottine Missionary College, Kew. According to .a report in t h e "West Australian" ( datelined Broome, January 15), a local builder has estimated that it will cost as much as R.50,000 to replace the numerous buildings and property destroyed or damaged by the cyclone. All of the 15 windmills and most of the buildings on the 600,000 -acre mission station were totally destroyed. The walls and roof of the hospital alone will cost R.1,500 to replace. The school building, which was orginally a telegraph office, was flattened. while the living quarters of the priests and Brothers were wrecked beyond repair. A house in which one of the lay missionaries was living has completely disappeared. Twenty-one galvanised iron houses in which the native families lived cannot be restored and each of these is estimated to have cost £ 1,500 to erect. Constructed of two-inch steel girders, they were buckled like cardboard.
The roofs of the remaining buildings were damaged or ripped from their rafters. Many hundreds of square feet of iron have been swept away from the mission. A partially completed power station was wrecked and many miles of stock fences and communication wires and posts were torn from the ground. The Rev. Father Kevin McKelson. the Pallottine priest in charge of this mission with its 80 children and 200 natives, must in the meantime make do with the little • that is left. He hopes for some Government assistance to replace the school, but depends on the generosity of the Catholic people of Australia for the rest. The news of this devastation will come as a bitter blow to those generous lay missionaries, headed by John Scammel, from Oakleigh, who spent several years building and establishing this mission. Fortunately, Father McKelson had no deaths to report. Indeed, at the height of the storm there had been a happy new addition to the family of one of the natives, Ancvelina. As she waited, clasping her child, one of the walls of the hospital was ripped off by the wind. Fearing for their lives, lay missionary Margot Toohey evacuated them five minutes be-
fore the hospital was completely flattened. Persons wishing to help may communicate with Father K. McK el so n, S.A.C., La Grange Mission. via Broome, W.A.
Police Mass CATHOLIC POLICEMEN ARE BEING INVITED TO ATTEND THE INAUGURAL POLICEMEN'S ANNUAL MASS AND COMMUNION ON SUNDAY-, FEBRUARY 16. This first for Perth will be held at St. Mary's Cathedral at the 5 p.m. Mass on that Sunday. There will be a special preacher for the occasion. After the Mass there will be a function at Trinity College, Riverside Drive. The Administrator of St. Mary's Cathedral, Monsignor J. Hogan, said that he hoped that this Ma.,: would receive wide publicity through parish priests. An annual Mass for police officers has been a feature of diocesan activity in a number of Eastern States for many years and it is hoped that it will be so in Perth.
Representatives of 14 Religious Orders of Sisters of the Archdiocese are pictured here with Father Denis Murphy, M.S.C., S.T.L., L.S.S., professor of Sacred Scripture at the Sacred Heart Fathers House of Theological Studies in Croydon, Victoria. The Sis,ers are among 470 Brothers and Sisters who are taking part in a course of Sacred Scripture a t Trinity College. The course began last Monday and will conclude on Friday with a Mass for Religious teachers. Father Murphy, invite:.' by the Catholic Education Office to give the course, said that it5 purpose was to familiarise the teachers with the biblical theme in the new catechism used in the schools. Sisters in the photograph ( left to right) are: Sisters of Mercy (West Perth, Sisters of St. John of God ( Broome), Congregation of Our Lady of the Missions, Dominican Sisters, Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition, Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, Sisters of Mercy (Victoria Square), Brigidine Sisters, Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary ( Loreto Sisters). Back row: Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary, Presentation Sisters, Poor Sisters of Nazareth, Ursuline Sisters. Father J. Nestor, Assistant Inspector of Schools, said that the lectures given by Father Murphy were a wonderful commentary on the new catechism. He said that the approach from the Bible built up the same theme of Christian life as was demonstrated in the catechism.