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Former Insurance Executive
Ministering To Lepers
By James C. O’Neill
(N.C.W.C. News Service)
ROME - Msgr. Gerard Baker
is a happy family man -- six
sons, two daughters and 50,000
lepers.
The French call him “le
grand mendicant.” A Canadian
paper describes him as a
“Catholic Dr. Schweitzer.” And
Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, with an
obvious reference to his family
and his white hair, terms him
“a modern Abraham.”
But no nickname can capture
his forceful, cheerful and com
pelling personality. A brief
phrase cannot sum up the one
time Dutch insurance execu
tive who left the comfort of his
home in Nijmegen, Holland, to
work among the world’s largest
leper colonies in the Came-
roons, Africa.
Vocations to the priesthood
run in Msgr. Bakker’s family.
In fact, they practically gallop.
Three of his sons are Jesuit
priests and one of his ^grand
children is studying for the
priesthood in Holland.
The tall, heavy-set and hand
some prelate was in Rome re
cently to attend ceremonies in
which his youngest priest-son,
Father Leo Bakker, S. J., re
ceived a doctorate in sacred
theology.
But the brief Roman visit was
by no means merely a family af
fair. The 71 year-old Mon
signor, more often than not
smoking his favorite stubby
Dutch cigars, became a familiar
figure in the waiting rooms of
the Church’s top administrative
offices and at a dozen head
quarters of religious orders
and congregations.
Msgr. Bakker’s activity
stemmed from both his native
energy and from his office as
delegate for the six bishops
of the Cameroons to work for
the country’s leper colonies.
It is a task he came to late
in life but nevertheless one
which he has done well.
Before World War II Gerard
Bakker was the director of a
prosperous insurance company
in Nijmegen. “We had it good--
Is that not how you say it?”,
he asked in his fluent English.
“We had all the things which
a man could wish in this life.”
With the war and the German
occupation of The Netherlands,
life changed. The Bakkers’
three oldest sons were put into
concentration camps. “One
newspaper,” the priest said,
“reported that my wife was a
bomb victim. This was not
true. She was a war victim,
yes, but it was her heart after
so much. She died on November
6, 1944. We had been married
for 28 years.”
The then 54-year-old busi
ness man considered what to do
with the rest of his life.
Jottings . . .
(Continued from Page 4)
While some of its educators are decrying their own systems*
a distinguished Catholic historian from Britain applauds
it and says that its uniqueness now needs harnessing toward
the producing of a genuine American Catholic culture. That
unique educational system has been built on the vision and
sacrifice of those Catholic men and women who might have
gone after personal glory in their chosen fields of endeavor
but relinquished personal laurels for eternal values. They
gave their talents, little and great, to God and the things
of God and the monument is the Catholic educational system
of the United States, “unique in world history.”
* * *
Our Lord was a teacher. (The first Catholic intellectual,
if you will.) Christ said: “My teaching is not my own, but
His Who sent Me. . .He who speaks on his own authority
seeks his own glory.” The most intellignet and talented
people I have known have worn the Roman collar or reli
gious habit. They are college presidents, history and
English teachers, editors, librarians, administrators, poets,
translators, theologians and philosophers. In most cases
by their very dedication they are hidden from worldly
plaudits. They are known to God and to a few grateful
students. They pass on their knowledge and wisdom which
appears to be compounded when founded in religious dedi
cation. It is not an end in itself.
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“Should I marry again? Why?
I had my family. I decided to
finish my 30 years with my
company. But I went on retreat
and I read the words: ‘The
Master is here and calls you.’
And I knew what I wanted to
do.”
True to his decision, he wait
ed out his 30 years. In the
meantime he decided that he
wanted to work with leprosy
patients as a priest.
“During the war I had the
Red Cross in my home to help
the wounded. When I decided
to study for the priesthood, I
also thought I should devote
myself to those who needed
help most. Who are more mis
erable than the lepers?”
Thus, when he came to Rome
in 1949 to study for the priest
hood, he came as a candidate
for ordination for the Camer
oons Diocese of Doume. He
lived at the Dutch College in
Rome and studied at the Gre
gorian University. Ordained at
the age of 63, Father Bakker
headed for Africa after a brief
visit home.
His first mission wasAbong-
mbang and the nearby lepro-
sorium of Kwoamb. “I took one
look at the church and burned
it to the ground. It was dirty
and full of infection.”
In its place Father Bakker
began building a modern
church. His old friends in Hol
land helped. In three years
his mission area became a show
place of the country and attract
ed the very real interest of not
only his bishop but also of the
others of the Cameroons.
He was asked by the bishops
to become their delegate for all
the lepers of the country. They
pointed out to him that at his
station he was helping 800
lepers but that there were
50,000 who needed his help.
Speaking of his original
mission, Msgr. Bakker
said; “I work closely with
my lepers. I gave injections
talked with them, taught them,
baptized and buried them.”
Yet, at the Bishops; request,
he took on the added task of
finding the financial and voca
tional help needed by the much
greater community than the
mission in which he had spent
his first three years as a
priest?/ 11 '- - -
In the eight years he has
been a priest, Msgr. Bakker
has provided for 12 churches.
“That was my goal, 12 church
es in memory of the Basilica
of the Twelve Apostles where
I was ordained in Rome. Ten
of them are now finished and
I have the money for the other
two.”
The churches are located
near leper hospitals. In some
cases Msgr. Bakker has also
provided for schools where
none existed.
His activity did not go un
noticed. He was made a papal
chamberlain in 1959. “The ap
pointment was made on May 15,
the 43rd anniversary of our
marriage. I wondered at the
time if they knew that in Rome.”
In addition to working for the
lepers of the Cameroons,
Msgr. Bakker also devotes his
efforts to helping the missions
of the entire country. His tra
vels have taken him to Canada,
France, Germany and of
course Holland.
His next scheduled trip, af
ter returning to the Cameroons,
will take him to Australia and
Indonesia where his son, Father
Rob Bakker, S.J., is a parish
priest at Djakarta. The United
States is also on his list but
he is not sure when he’ll make
the trip.
“My dream now is to build
a ‘Leper Republic’ like your
Boystown.” There patients and
those who have been cured
but who find it hard to go back
to the cities because of dis
figurement can .live under
their own laws and be govern-
LEPER PRIEST VISITS SON - The shepherd of 50,000
lepers in the Cameroons, Africa, Msgr. Gerard Bakker
(left) chats with his son, Father Leo Bakker, S. J., at
ceremonies in Rome during which the young priest re
ceived a doctorate in sacred theology. The 71-year-old
Mon signor, who was ordained at the age of 63, has three
priest-sons. Once the directgr of a prosperous insur
ance company in Nijmegen, Holland, he has already built
ten churches for lepers and two more are under con
struction. - (NC Photos)
ed by their own elected offi
cials, he explained.
It is an ambitious project
and a particularly big one for
a man over 70. But as Msgr.
Bakker says, “My motto has
always been—Deeds not Words
--That is how you say it, no?
Deeds not Words.”
Sharing
Our Treasure
(continued from page 4)
At peace with himself, he radi
ates serenity to others.
“This especially impressed
me at the time because I was
under much pressure and fre
quently on edge. After getting
out of the service, I had taken
my B.A. at the College of Wil
liam and Mary in Williams
burg, Virginia, majoring in ac
countancy and being honored
with membership in Phi Beta
Kappa. I was working as an
auditor for the government and
was often on the road.
“I was taking tranquilizers
for my nerves, but the real
remedy, I sensed, was a deeper
one: a living faith in God and
a closer union with Him through
prayer and a religious life.
If the Catholic religion gave
such serenity to Mr. Gallant
why couldn’t it do the same for
me? I got down on my knnes
and prayed for guidance. The
next day I called at St. Mary’s
Rectory in Norfolk and asked
for a course of instruction.
“Up to that time I had never
been in a Catholic church or
rectory. Father William P.
Connelly, the assistant pastor,
had me come three nights a week
for three months. As the in
structions proceeded, I per
ceived the divine character of
the Catholic religion, its divine
origin, and the authority con
ferred by Christ upon the Apos
tles and disciples to teach all
nations. He promised to be with
them all days even to the con
summation of the world. Only
the Catholic Church goes back
to the days of Christ and the
Apostles.
"I was received into the
Church on January 26,1957, and
made my First Holy Commun
ion. Confession was a bit hard
at first, but has since become
a source of great spiritual joy.
Since embracing the Faith, I’ve
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had no need for any tran
quilizers. After making a mis
sion conducted by the Passion-
ist Fathers, I decided to devote
my life to the service of God
and the spread of His holy
Faith. I came to Notre Dame
to become a coadjutor Brother
in the Congregation of the Holy
Cross and thus share my pre
cious treasure with many
others.”
(Father O’Brien will be glad
to have converts send their
names and addresses to him
at Notre Dame University,
Notre Dame, Indianna, so he
may write up their conversion
stories.)
SEEK LIVE TV
COVERAGE OF
VATICAN MASS
DENVER, Colo., (ND) - A
spokesman for the American
Broadcasting Company said
here that the network would
bid for live TV coverage of
Christmas Eve Midnight Mass
from the Vatican.
Tom Moore, executive vice
president and head of program
ing for ABC-TV, made the an
nouncement following the re
cent success of interglobal TV
,via the Telstar satellite.
He said the network would
also bid for the coverage of
the May day celebration from
Moscow and Queen Elizabeth’s
birthday celebration from Eng
land. The bids would be made
to the Eurovision network,
which links 19 European coun
tries.
Danes Aid Lepers
COPENHAGEN, Denmark,
(NC) - Saint Vincent clubs
founded by Danish Catholics
have raised funds to aid le
pers in Vietnam, India and Afri
ca.
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Question Box
(Continued from page 4)
ized by the highest kind of
charity, the increase of grace
she must have experienced is
literally incomprehensible.
THE WORDS of Pius IX in the
Apostolic Letter defining the
dogma of the Immaculate Con
ception summarize this subject:
“WHEN THE FATHERS and
writers of the Church meditated
on the fact that the most blessed
Virgin was, in the name and by
the order of God himself pro
claimed full of grace by the An
gel Gabriel when he announced
her most sublime dignity of
Mother of God, they taught that
this singular and solemn salu
tation, never heard before,
shows that the Mother of God
is the seat of all divine graces
and is adorned with all gifts of
the Holy Spirit.
"... WHEREFORE, far
above the angels and all the
saints, so wondrously did God
endow her with the abundance of
all heavenly gifts poured from
the treasury of his divinity that
this Mother, ever absolutely
free of all stain of sin, all
fair and perfect, would possess
that fullness of holy innocence
and sanctity than which, un
der God, one cannot even ima
gine anything greater, and
which, outside of God, no mind
can succeed in fully compre
hending.”
* * *
Q. Reading through the Lit-
Beatification Cause
Advances
VATICAN CITY, (Radio, NC)
—A preparatory session of the
Sacred Congregation of Rites
has voted on two miracles at
tributed to the intercession of
the Venerable John Nepomucene
Neumann, fourth Bishop of Phil
adelphia.
While no announcement of the
results of the voting has been
made public, it is traditional
that miracles are approved at
this stage of a beatification
cause. The miracles must again
be voted on by the cardinals
of the congregation in the pre
sence of His Holiness Pope
John XXIII before the last major
step toward beatification is
completed.
The two miracles were the
cure of Eva Benassi of Sassu-
olo, Italy, in 1923 of acute
peritonitis, and the healing of
a fractured skull and multiple
internal injuries of James Kent
of the Philadelphia suburbs in
1949.
Bishop Neumann, born in Bo
hemia in 1811, served from 1852
until his death in 1860 as Bishop
of Philadelphia. Before be
coming a member of the Re-
demptorist congregation, the
Bishop worked among German
Catholics in Niagara Falls, N. Y.
He is buried in the crypt of
St. Peter’s Church in Phila
delphia.
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THE BULLETIN, August 4, 1962—PAGE 5
any of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
the question occurs to me:
There are so many titles by
which Mary is addressed -
Mother of God, the Immacu
late Conception, Seat of Wis
dom, Queen of Angels, etc.
Which is the most noble one?
A- The greatest single pri
vilege according to the Bles
sed Virgin was her election
to be the Mother of God. Hence
the title mother of God is the
most noble one by which she
can be addressed. As Pope
Pius XI once wrote:
“From this dogma of the
divine motherhood as from the
font of a hidden gushing spring
flows the singular grace of Mary
and her dignity, second only to
God.”
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