Father Albert Geusens
|
|
|
|
“I have always been a very happy Scheut missionary.” That’s what Father Albert Geusens said in an interview in 1991. In 1934, after completing his secondary studies, he entered the Congregation of Scheut (CICM). After his third year of theology, he was ordained a priest in 1940. After another year of theological study, he went to university to study Classical Philology — Language and Literature — for two years. These studies were intended to prepare him to teach Latin or Greek in a seminary somewhere in China. And then came the year 1946: he was asked to go to China.
Father Albert Geusens had to struggle in many ways throughout his life. During the Second World War, his father and two of his brothers were killed. Carrying those painful experiences with him, he left for China in February 1947 as a young Scheut missionary. In Beijing, he spent another six months studying Chinese. As a field missionary, he experienced five intense years in the Archdiocese of Suiyuan, in Inner Mongolia — a region four times the size of Belgium. He was stationed in Christian villages, settlements with several hectares of land that had either been purchased or granted by the Chinese government as compensation for the murder of foreign missionaries. The small farmers earned their living from that land and lived close to the church. Father Geusens served there as assistant pastor and teacher of Latin at the Minor Seminary.
At the end of 1948, he was transferred, and in early 1949 he began teaching at the College of Palakai, where he also served as assistant pastor. Meanwhile, the Communists were becoming a growing threat to the entire region, which they sought to take over. Shortly thereafter, the Communist armies occupied the area — the Communist regime had become a reality.
Around Christmas 1950, Father Albert Geusens was arrested following a so-called “people’s trial.” This was followed by eighteen months in a Communist prison. He was released in November 1952 and immediately expelled from China. Back in Belgium, he began working as a mission promoter for the Scheut Missions. But, as the saying goes, old habits die hard — and at the beginning of 1954, he was one of four pioneers to start a new mission in Formosa (now Taiwan). He began there as a parish priest and founded a new parish.
After a few years, he was asked to take over Hua Ming Press, the Catholic Church’s publishing house. Its purpose was to write, produce and print a type of parish magazine. These Catholic publications were distributed to mission posts and sent to the various dioceses throughout Formosa.
From 1958 until 1971, Father Albert continued this work. After twenty-five demanding years of missionary service, his health nearly gave out. Yuan Shi-lin, “the Wise Man from the Green Forest — as he was affectionately called — had to return to Belgium earlier than planned. There, he underwent major lung surgery. But rest was never his way of life: even in Limburg, he remained a missionary — teaching religion and serving as parish priest in Diets-Heur.
He continued as parish priest there from 1972 until 2001, when he retired to the Scheut Mission House. Father Albert Geusens, who had fought and suffered for his faith, passed away peacefully in 2005.
Missionaries of Zutendaalse side by side...
On the world map...
born in Zutendaal 1915
deceased in Scheut 2005 
first vow in Zuun 1935 
priestly ordination in Scheut 1940
