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Fr. Marcel Schlewer, M.S. |
What is your family background?
My ancestors are Alsatians. My father was the seventh of fourteen children of a Lutheran family. He is a native of Strasbourg. While out of work after apprenticing as a wheelright, he joined the army and entered military service in the Algerian Sahara, in a dromedary squad. My mother came from a Catholic family from a rural area, 18 miles west of Strasbourg.
My parents met at Colomb-Bechar in the Sahara where my mother was visiting her sister who was married to an Algerian. Thereupon I was born in Africa, in the Sahara, where I was baptized. My parents returned to Alsace a month after my birth. But the war caught up with us in 1940. We had to settle near Grenoble. My father joined the French Resistance in the underground forces at Vercors. That is how I came to grow up in Sassenage, northwest of Grenoble, with my five brothers and sisters where I went to primary school and received my religious education.
When did you first hear the message of La Salette?
It was in 1946, the centenary year of the apparition. My mother went to La Salette on a pilgrimage. And then, when I was a child, we went there several times to hear the powerful preaching of the Missionaries of La Salette. I was also friendly with the family of Fr. Louis Pons, M.S.
What is the story of your La Salette vocation?
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Marcel (back row, second from left) did military service in Algeria in 1960 |
It is in 1949 that Fr. Camille Georges, M.S., later missionary on the Island of La Reunion, came to ask me whether I wanted to become a missionary. I waned to do that! My parents allowed me to leave for the Apostolic School, because we made more space in our house for the birth of my third sister. Thus I continued on my journey, making my novitiate Corps and then my first cycle of studies in Tournai, Belgium, and then in Fribourg, Switzerland.
But my La Salette vocation was strengthened especially when I made my two years of military service in Algeria during the War of Decolonization. This was for me my second novitiate! It is there that I really made my choice of faith in Christ crucified and risen, and of the life with the Virgin Reconciler of La Salette. It was not difficult to see, in the savagery of this war, why Mary was crying at La Salette!
What do you think about the faith in France?
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Fr. Marcel (bottom left) with Archb. Michel Sabbach, a native Palestinian, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, in 1989 |
This war in Algeria opened my eyes to the reality of the world. If the great majority of French were Catholics by their baptism, most no longer cared about their religion. My comrades were massively indifferent to the Church. One could count on the fingers of one hand those who came to Mass when one was offered. This really was a shock to me!
It is at that time that I began asking some real questions: Am I a believer? An apostle? What can I do to cause peace? What do I think about war, torture, mass executions? By chance, seminarians from Algeria had, in the company of Fr. François de 1'Espinay, a chaplain of exceptional caliber. Through his letters and retreats, he helped me find the true answers to all the questions I was asking. He helped me to live as a Christian, among seminarians, in solidarity with our comrades, young Frenchmen and some Algerians.
It was in Algeria that I really chose the vocation to La Salette. My four years of theology in the Dominican convent at Arbresle, near Lyon, allowed me to deepen all these questions on which I has been working.
How are the Missionaries of La Salette bringing reconciliation and peace on the global level as "ambassadors for reconciliation''?
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Cover of Fr. Schlewer’s book on La Salette |
I never cease to explore this question in my personal studies and in my ministry with fellow Christians in my openly Catholic action team. As a pilgrim in Palestine during the last twenty-five years, I have discovered a connection with the Palestinian people. I’m not a committed supporter against those who do evil in the hope of a just peace! A struggle prompted by a Franco-Palestinian solidarity, which does not preclude working with some Israelis who also want peace in justice and truth. Without justice and truth, there cannot be peace.
This commitment is not over and above the Gospel and its practice. It is central! My ministry brings me to work with Christians (and some non-Christians!) who work for peace in our neighborhoods and suburbs in all areas: the economy, politics, international concerns, foreign affairs and support for the undocumented...
What is the future of our congregation in France?
It will be according to God’s will… and what we will do to enliven our fraternal and apostolic charism. Thank you and the Region of Angola for having sent us Fr. Paulino Nguli, M.S., who shares his ministry between our community of Echirolles and the Shrine at La Salette. If we succeed in building an international La Salette community, then I am no longer very concerned about our own future!
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Fr. Marcel in the Sinai in 1980 |