Summer 2012 - The Mill Hill Missionaries

Summer 2012 Advocate:Layout 1 19/07/2012 12:14 Page 9MemoriesofBasankusuZaire – the DemocraticRepublic of CongoBy Fr. Patrick J. Molloy, mhm.[Fr. Patrick Molloy comes from Glencolumcille, Co. Donegal. He is celebrating his RubyJubilee (40 years). In this article, he writes about his first ten years as a priest, which werespent in a very remote mission in the tropical rainforest of Zaire – the DemocraticRepublic of Congo. Fr Patrick is now Rector of St. Joseph’s House, Dublin.]FORTY years ago, whenI was appointed toBasankusu I knew verylittle about where I wasgoing. I just about knewthat the country thenknown as Zaire was betterknown as the BelgiumCongo and French was spokenthere – as well as the locallanguages.I was informed that Basankusu was in8Fr. Patrick Molloythe Equatorial Province and partof the tropical rainforest. I wasalso told that malaria is endemicin the region; and at that time,Church-State relationships wererather strained.On the 29th March 1973, togetherwith three other Mill Hillmissionaries (Brian Coffey, JohnSmith and Brian Thorp), I boarded TheKananga ship in Antwerp Belgium, andsailed away, like missionaries of old, destinedfor the diocese of Basankusu in theRepublic of Zaire.After ten days at sea we arrived in the