Father Cyriel Stulens
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Like many others, Father Cyriel became involved in the Catholic youth movement and was among the last to follow the path to Scheut, from where he left as a missionary to Congo in 1966. His older sister Hélène and brother Joeke had preceded him in that same vocation.
At the beginning of his career, he ended up in a small bush village called Bokonzi, where there was already a modest mission post and where he could gain experience. A year later, he was stationed somewhat farther away to gain experience that was less deep in the bush.
In 1975, Father Cyriel was assigned to a new mission post in Binga — a vast plantation of 14,000 hectares, more than four times the size of Zutendaal. It consisted of trees and shrubs used for the production of palm oil, rubber, cocoa, and coffee. About 4,000 laborers worked there to ensure that the produce reached the factory and from there was shipped by boat. Beyond the plantation workers and their families, there were about forty villages, some up to 80 kilometers from the center, together home to more than 50,000 people.
Together with fellow missionaries and trained lay people, he devoted much time and effort to forming local communities, helping them to grow in maturity and responsibility — something he also emphasized at his other mission posts. Training sessions for catechists and local leaders were always a priority.
He also helped initiate small development projects in the villages, ensuring maximum participation and involvement of the local population. Youth guidance, school activities, the development of an adapted liturgy, and Sunday celebrations were all part of his regular agenda.
Father Cyriel was deeply engaged in thinking about the meaning of mission. He regarded mission as a specific dimension of the universal Church, with the human person at its center. He was not afraid to express this conviction openly, sometimes even in sharp or challenging words.
For him, it was a constant challenge to keep redefining the meaning of mission in light of the changes within society and the Church. He struggled with the realization that Europe was no longer the center of the world. He and Christianity as a whole were confronted with other cultures, religions, and ideologies—all of which possessed their own value and right to exist.
Father Cyriel believed it was important for missionaries to recognize that the Church itself was still seeking a new balance. Not only missionaries but also church leaders had to deal with the modern human being and the new media, which tended to magnify and distort social, economic, political, and religious realities. He acknowledged that the language once used to speak about God no longer resonated with many people.
Yet Father Cyriel would not be who he was if, as a true missionary, he did not also see new possibilities for the future of mission. He believed it should begin with addressing the tangible needs of society—care for the sick, the disabled, the lonely, and migrants.
In 2005, the provincial superior asked him to take responsibility, together with a care service, for a house in Kessel-Lo where elderly and infirm confrères were being looked after. There, he discovered a new dimension of what it means to be a missionary, one he could live out in practice. He continues to do so to this very day.
Missionaries of Zutendaalse side by side...
On the world map...
born in Zutendaal 1940
first vow in Zuun 1960 
priestly ordination in Scheut 1965
