Michel Meunier was invited to give an interview by phone on Radio Veritas, Johannesburg, following the death of Fr Didier Michon. The interview took place a few days ago. Didier celebrated Mass regularly at the radio station while Michel is still doing it. Here below some pictures taken in 2015 showing Michel in the studio and Didier welcoming a missionary, Norbert Angibaud, at Oliver Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.
By Seán O’Leary, M.Afr
Didier arrived in South Africa in September 1990 in answer to a call made to the Society, to minister to the displaced Mozambicans who had sought refuge on the South African side of the border; away from a devastating and crippling civil war. The place chosen for this new missionary initiative was Lebombo; a sprawling area of tin shacks and hunger, where the Church had not been established. This was pioneering missionary work and Didier took to it with an enthusiasm that never waned in his 25 years or so in South Africa.
He was a man of deep prayer, who loved community life and above all, a pastoral agent whose love for the people and his concern to help them was deeply appreciated. Lebombo carved out a special place in his heart and, although he would work in other places, Lebombo was his true home in South Africa.
He moved onto Siyabuswa in KwaNdebele in the Pretoria Archdiocese in 2001 to a situation very similar to what he had experienced in Lebombo. He brought to the people of Siyabuswa what he had brought to the people of Lebombo and was as much admired and appreciated. Open heart surgery in 2002 slowed him up somewhat but never dampened his enthusiasm and after a further eight years in Siyabuswa he returned for another four years to Lebombo.
It was in the Edenglen community in Johannesburg that he would see out his remaining years in South Africa; where he took on a shared responsibility of Guest-Master. The warmth of his welcome and the willingness to go the extra mile for guests became a hallmark of his caring nature. The choice to return to France in 2014 was his, aware as he was, that the weight of missionary life was slowly taking its toll. The man is gone but his memory will live on and be cherished by many in South Africa. We say ‘Hamba Kahle’ Didier, a Zulu phrase that simply means ‘Go Well’.
On the 5th September, Didier was at the reception hall, Friant Street. As Mass was starting at 11:30, the main celebrant, looking for the key of the tabernacle, went to see Didier but found him lying unconscious on the floor. He was brought to a nearby hospital and died at 1:30 on the 6th September.
Didier spent many years as a missionary in Zambia and South Africa. He was 81 years old, 55 as a missionary. The funerals took place in Paris on the 9th September. May his soul rest in peace.
Picture of the funerals of Didier Michon in France
By Serge St-Arneault, M.Afr
I was privileged to spent few days in South Africa and be welcomed at our house in Johannesburg, South Africa. Better known as Edenglen house, every confrere is warmly received by Didier Lemaine, Michel Meunier, Didier Michon and Seán O’Leary.
I enjoyed to accompany Michel to Radio Veritas where he is celebrating Mass from time to time at exactly 12:30. This Catholic radio station is quite close to Edenglen house.
Many thanks for helping all of us to feel at home. The following pictures give a glance of the outside building while, in the kitchen, you can recognised Jos Van Boxel cooking and serving wine alongside with Seán. Jos attended the ordination to the diaconate of Antony Alckias and Tomasz Podrazik in Merrivale. Norbert Angibaud was also there coming from Mozambique on his way back home to France for good after forty years of missionary life in Malawi and Mozambique. Norbert was welcomed by Didier Michon at O.R. Tembo International Airport which is at ten minutes’ drive from Edenglen.
In the chapel of Edenglen House, a special corner is dedicated to the confreres who worked in South Africa but died, two of them in brutal circumstances: Georges Bodinier (24th Sept. 1941 – 3rd Feb. 1985), Francis Carey (20th Sept. 1938 – 5th May 2010), Josef Stumpf (29th Nov. 1930 – 19th August 2006), Raymond Bourque (6th Jan. 1931 – 30th June 1978) and Louis Blondel (14th June 1939 – 7th Dec. 2009). May they rest in peace!
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