25 years since the death of Father Alfred Delmée

Alfred Delmée was born on October 5, 1925 in the city of Brussels, Belgium. He received a religious education during his childhood, which included attending daily mass and kneeling in prayer with family families each evening. In school, he was an outstanding pupil and he completed his primary education in six years instead of the habitual eight. Once he completed his primary education, he continued to secondary school at Saint Stanislaus in Brussels. Already at this early age he gave his heart to those who surrounded him and began to participate in the activities of groups which visited and took care of the aged. He brought both his mother and sister along to participate too. He also revealed his goodness of heart as a scout: on one of his trips during a particularly cold winter, he carried a small and exhausted child on his shoulders at a time that he himself had wounded his leg.

Alfred Delmée had an uncle named Abel, who had wanted to be a priest but had been killed during the War in 1915 at the age of 25. This event had a lasting influence on Alfred Delmée and thus, in 1943, when he completed his secondary schooling, he entered the seminary in Malins. His parents rejoived at his decision. He completed his philosophy studies in 1946 and was then sent for theology studies to Rome. In Rome, Alfred Delmée came to know a Polish priest by the name of Karol Wojtyla, who was studying at the Angelicum. At that time, the college for Polish students was not yet open. The Cardinal of Cracow had asked that the Polish students be accepted at the Belgian college. Thus Karol Wojtyla and Stanislaus Strowjeski arrived at the Belgian college. In summer time the Belgian students went back to Belgium but the Polish students could not. In the long vacation of 1947, Karol Wojtyla and his friend spent time in Belgium. They arrived in Brussels and were hosted in the home of Alfred Delmée. Alfred was ordained in 1947 in Rome, in the Church of Saint John Lateran. Thereafter, he continued his studies in the fields of theology and canon law.

During his studies, in 1951, Alfred Delmée and his friend arrived as pilgrims in the Holy Land, coming there through Egypt. This pilgrimage profoundly influenced him. In 1952, Alfred concluded his studies at the Gregorian University and received his degrees in theology and canon law. In 1953, his archbishop named him as one of his secretaries. Alfred Delmée did not receive this nomination happily. He expressed himself in these words to one of his friends: "In this job I will be a man of papers and official letters. I would prefer work in a parish community".

In 1958, Father Bruno Hussar was the responsible for the Hebrew speaking Catholic community and club in Jaffa. He told his friend, Brother Yohanan Elihai: "I have received authorization from those responsible for me to begin the preparation for the inauguration of a Dominican institute for Jewish studies in Jerusalem (what would become Isaiah House). I need to find a replacement quickly". Then there was a series of coincidences (and who knows if not divine intervention): a week later Yohanan received a letter from Alfred Delmée saying: "I met you seven years ago in France, and now, I too have decided to come and live in Israel. What are the possibilities?" Immediately on receiving Yohanan's reply, Alfred began preparing the way for his departure from Belgium. His spiritual director asked him why he was doing this. His response was: "There are certain things for which we must be "mad", that is that there are people who have an extraordinary idea, which in the eyes of others might seem strange, but they consecrate their lives to this idea. In this case, one might say that there has been a special calling from God".

Many difficulties stood in the way of Alfred Delmée but following special efforts exerted by Father Bruno Hussar, he received permission from the Archbishop of Brussels to work in Israel. On October 14, 1958, he arrived aboard a ship at the port of Jaffa together with Brother Yohanan and Helen. Helen was not lucky enough to have been able to speak much with Alfred Delmée because he spent the entire voyage studying Hebrew with Yohanan. When they reached the port, Bruno was waiting in order to take him to Jaffa. From the beginning and until 1969, Alfred Delmée lived with the De LaSalle Brothers (who have a school in Jaffa). He ate with them and celebrated daily mass. Immediately on arrival he went to study Hebrew in the Meir Ulpan in Tel Aviv. Sophy Grunberg later remembered: "He wore a black cassock in winter and a white cassock in summer and dressed in this he went to the ulpan. Newspapers wrote about him and his pictures in the ulpan were even published. At first he went on a bicycle and afterwards on a scooter. Alfred learnt Hebrew quickly and immediately after the ulpan he began teaching religion classes to Christian children in the Brothers' school". In those days there were many Christian children in the school who were from Polish families or mixed Jewish-Christian couples. Alfred celebrated mass for these children in Hebrew and even preached homilies in Hebrew. He was named responsible for the Jaffa Hebrew speaking community. Many young people with their parents came to mass at the club, named for Saint Simeon, and also single people. At Sunday mass there were usually about 25 people and at Christmas about 60. After mass, those present would share a meal. At a certain time, the young people would gather for a dance party one a week. There was a record player and they prepared a reception too. During the party, Alfred Delmée would stay in his room and emerge after 22.00, when the party had ended, in order to answer the questions of the youth in various domains: religion, morality, day to day problems… "

In December 1965, the Archbishop of Cracow, Karol Wojtyla, came for a visit to Jaffa. He stayed with the Christian Brothers and visited the club. Alfrede Delmée told him of the work in the Hebrew speaking Church. In 1966, Alfred, in turn, visited Bishop Wojtyla in Cracow. He toured the city in the bishop's car and visited the concentration camp at Auschwitz. At holiday times, they exchanged greeting cards.

I was fortunate to know Father Delmée very well. I immigrated to Israel in 1970. Alfred Delmée, together with Father Daniel Rufeisen, came to fetch me from the airport. One Saturday, I went to visit relatives in Bat Yam. As I had requested, Alfred Delmée came to fetch me and we celebrated mass in Jaffa. I spoke to him back then in very weak French with a Polish accent. I told him of the pressures my family were exerting on me because of the religious issue and that I was looking for work. Immediately he offered: "Come stay with me, I am alone and I do not want to be alone". He welcomed me into his home, organized studies for me in an ulpan and put in order my medical insurance. Once, returning from a visit to Belgium, he brought me a sum of money for a scooter. Later, he spoke with the superior of the monastery alongside St Peter's Church, on the Jaffa sea shore, Fra Pedro Bon, and then he said to me: "You can work here". He even asked that the superior put at my disposal a room that could become a club. I lived with him for eight years. He helped me with everything. I learnt how to be a pastor in Israel from him.

Alfred Delmée liked to collaborate with others in the pastoral work of the communities. Thus, he worked with Sophy Grunberg, afterwards with Hannah Ashkenazi and Yehudit Dror and as of 1969, he worked with Sister Miriam Nothmann. Sister Miriam remembered: "He was a true pastor, that is a man who was deeply concerned with others on their own terms, how they felt and how they understood their needs, how they express what they want and he sought to respond to them. He always resisted giving people what we, as clergy people, thought they needed or what was good for them… When he received notification that a Christian was to be found somewhere, he went to visit. One of his principles was that if someone did not want contact with Christianity, he would not visit again. Alfred visited many people. There were those, sick, lonely, that he would visit once every three days regularly because he knew that they were waiting for him. When he visited someone, he noted when he would make his next visit. Sometimes, he celebrated mass in the homes of the elderly and the sick. He believed that a part of his job was to help people in a concrete way. Thus, he went shopping for sometimes for the elderly and the sick and organized various things for them. Alfred read extensively, he knew much, he thought a lot and had much to offer. His approach to people was very positive. He was an intuitive; sometimes he would be astonished that a person would arrive just at the moment that he had been thinking of them. He jotted down in a notebook birthdays of all the members. He also jotted down the dates of death and on the Sunday closest to that date he would mention them in prayers. Everyone sensed that here was someone who was truly involved in his or her life… If someone went on a journey, left the community or did not come, he always had a strong reaction of faith: this is the work of God and not our work. God knows, God is acting and God wills, and thus he was able to see day by day what God might want. Members of his family sometimes came to the country. When he had time he would show them around but before anything else, he brought them to the community, first of all the people. There was no question about that and everyone knew and understood."

In 1971, Alfred Delmée's parents came to visit the country at Easter time. I helped him carry his mother on a chair, she being already weak, up to the club. Jean-Marie, Alfred's brother, later told that Alfred's mother wrote to him afterwards: "During those five days I thought often of your uncle Abel, whose wish you have realized – to be devoted to God and to others". Alfred was in Belgium when his mother, sick with cancer, lay dying. His presence alongside his mother was a consolation. He was with his family when she closed her eyes for the last time. At her funeral, he was the main celebrant alongside many other priests, however he did not deliver a homily. His family wanted to reserve plots alongside the grave of his mother but Alfred refused to agree to their intention: his family understood that he did not want to be buried on Belgian soil. Alfred always belonged to the diocese of Brussels. In his many letters to his family he was always discrete about his work. Each year, during summer vacations, he went to Belgium to relax. He always had a list of things that he had to do for others, and many were those who asked that he take care of certain matters. He visited his family and always found the time to visit his friends.

In 1974, in the Church of Saint Peter in Jaffa, we celebrated the silver jubilee of his ordination to the priesthood. At the end of the mass, which was celebrated in Hebrew with a great crowd present, Alfred addressed the faithful in Polish: "Dear faithful, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your participation. For twenty five years God and people have given me much".

On October 22, 1978, his friend, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, was elected Pope. Alfred called his family in Belgium in order to express his joy. He knew that after the deaths of Paul VI and John Paul I, his friend had a chance of being elected. At the beginning of April 1979, Pope John Paul II invited all the friends he had studied with to Rome. Alfred decided, after some hesitation, to accept the invitation and he went to Rome to meet the Pope. They spent three days in the Vatican, they ate with the Pope, conversed with him and enjoyed their time together. The newspaper "Osservatore Romano" published an article with a photograph of those present at the meeting. The Pope stayed in Rome and Alfred returned to Jaffa to continue his work.

Much could be written about his lectures in the home of Ms. Clothilde (Matthys, founder of a group for Jewish-Christian dialogue in Tel Aviv), and in the meetings of the Hebrew speaking Catholic communities, about his ecumenical work with the Protestants, about his volunteer work during the Yom Kippur War, when he transported children to kindergarten or took soldiers to where they needed to get to in his car, and much else. Every person who knew him could testify to many things that perhaps are not known to us. Dr. Meir Mendes, the chairman of the Association for Interfaith Understanding in Tel Aviv, said: "Often I would call him on the telephone in order to clarify data that I needed for my research and especially to get information, facts and figures, about the Christian world everywhere and here in Israel. Father Delmée was very informed on these subjects and each time I received a perfect answer and I am greatly indebted to him for his help. There is another domain in which I was helped by him and in which he collaborated with me: in the framework of courses I gave at Tel Aviv University and at Bar Ilan, it was important to bring students to the churches and Christian institutions in Jaffa. Father Delmée was the right person for this job. He was emotionally attached to Israel. He always prepared the visits down to the last detail and arranged for the heads of the churches to be waiting for us and afterwards he would give his explanations in fluent Hebrew and he knew how to explain. He also knew the history and archeology of Jaffa".

On October 26, 1985, in the afternoon, Alfred Delmée was returning from a visit to Jerusalem with Sister Miriam Nothmann and her mother and her little dog. Close to Tel Aviv, the car swerved off the road. Alfred died at the age of 60 and Sister Miriam's mother was killed too. We faced a problem: how to tell his family about his death in the accident. We decided to pass the news through an acquaintance in Belgium. Yohanan called the Miller family. Henriette, Alfred's sister later told: "On October 26, at 21.00, Mrs. Miller called and asked for the telephone number of my brother. I asked if this had something to do with Alfred. She said that it did, that Alfred had died. My father was in the next room, watching television. I called my brother and told him to come, that there was an emergency. He came immediately, thinking that it was something to do with our father. I told him about the accident and then somebody else called. My brother decided that we should not tell our father right away but that we should wait for another call, that this should be sure. During the night I was unable to sleep. Each day I want to mass at 11.00. That day I said to my father: I did not sleep the whole night so I am going to church to participate in the 8.00 mass. My brother, Jean-Marie, arrived after 10.00 and said: I received a call from Ein Karem, it is true. Then we said to my father that we had something to tell him. We sat next him and told him that Alfred was dead. He covered his face in his hands. Jean-Marie travelled to the funeral and I stayed with our father."

Bishop Kaldany (Patriarchal Vicar in Israel), many priests, nuns and brothers, members of the orphaned community and believers from all over the country participated in the funeral. The church was full of those who came to honor Father Alfred Delmée, among them Protestants, Arabs and Jews. The presence of so many people revealed how much he had been loved. After the funeral I went to Wolfson Hospital together with Bishop Kaldany and many others to give Sister Miriam (hospitalized and in serious condition after the accident) communion from the funeral mass.

On November 2, a mass was celebrated in Brussels for the late Father Delmée. In this mass the priests who had been ordained with him participated. Priests, men and women religious and a great assembly congregated in the church. The Sisters of Sion even sang some songs in Hebrew. In his homily, Father Sherbock said of Alfred: "… he was a learned man, very educated and he had time for the small things in life… just like God who loves every person. "For the Jews he was a Jew" (1Corinthians 9:20). He saw Jesus at the heart of the Jewish spiritual tradition… he knew that because of Jesus we must respect Judaism and he himself was a living testimony of a Christianity that has been cured of hostility towards the Jewish people."

The news of Alfred Delmée's death also reached his friend, the Pope from the mouth of Father Marcel Dubois, who told him during a meeting in Rome that Alfred had been killed in a motor accident. The Pope took a step backwards, closed his eyes, sunk in thought and then said: "May he rest in peace". Through the Vatican Embassy in Brussels, a letter was sent to the Pope telling him what had happened. Two weeks later, Alfred's father received a letter from the Vatican telling him that the Pope had been very moved when he heard about the death of his friend. The Pope said that Alfred had always been a loyal servant of the Church.

I end with a story told by Sister Miriam Nothmann: "In Ashkelon, there were two elderly sisters. Once Alfred took them to Jerusalem. One of them he carried on his back in order to visit the Holy Places." This image is a flashback to Alfred's past, when he carried the child on his back as a scout. We see here the image of the Good Shepherd who carries the sheep on his shoulders in joy (Luke 15:5).

Read a short biographical portrait of Father Delmée