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l k $ v 'i % ,f nt o ays 4 tt IS las ’no 03 li. 2 if [L 90 fori TO' d h oil k ;ds it) iitf lb irl hi on -rti 911. bo- /C\ bo n£ 9ri trN ’to 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. ATLANTA Established 1894 Distributors and Underwriters of Investment Securities Since 1894 4 The Robinson-Humphrey Company.Inc RHODES-HAVERTY BULDG., ATLANTA 1, GEORGIA Jackson 1-0316 Long Distance 421 your tump turn Savings— Set aside your accumulated cash funds with this specialized Savings Association . . . where your money consistently earns higher-than-average earnings . . . without worry work or risk on your part. Every six months, you’ll receive a check for the extra dollars your savings have earned. Open your account this week! (Liberal Dividend Rate — Insured by F.S.L.I.C.) Mutual Federal Savings & Loan Association 205 Auburn Ave., N. E. Atlanta. Ga. JAckson 3-8282 Each Account Insured Up To $10,000.00 SAVE BY MAIL “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 ESTABLISHED 1898 Complete Banking and rrus.t Facilities The Liberty National Bank & Trust Co. SAVANNAH, GEORGIA MEMBER FEDERAL OEPOSll INSURANCE CORPORATION 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. It costs so little to serve the best! Ldnd 0’ LsKbs cream Butter the flavor never varies 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. rHE^_ Citfiontoa HOTEL • FREE PARKING • TV & AIR CONDITIONING • FAMOUS MIAMI BUFFET • ICE & BEVERAGE STATIONS, EACH FLOOR • COFFEE MAKER, EACH ROOM LUCKIE AT CONE ST. A Good Address In Atlanta Preptrc And Saw WONDERFUL MEALS IN MINUTES? AVAILABLE AT LEADING GROCERS 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.” HAPEVILLE GREATER ATLANTA WHERE SAVINGS PAY’ TRI-CITY FEDERAL SAVINGS & LOAN ASSO. 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