Basankusu Cathedral Inauguration

I’d never seen so many people at our local airstrip. The inauguration of the new cathedral was about to take place in four days’ time - not only that, but our new weekly air service is still operating with its twenty-eight seater plane. Thursday’s plane brought eight bishops for the celebrations ... it also brought several invited politicians, so their supporters were also among the crowd.

Basankusu welcomes the bishops

All the cars in Basankusu, which isn’t many, were commandeered, including our three, to carry the guests. A choir sang at the corner of our house and greeted the bishops as they passed.

I heard from our night-watchman that I would be leading the Grand Parade on Friday, representing Mill Hill. I didn’t relish the idea at all. Fortunately, Fr Otto, who had travelled up from Kinshasa, and myself were given seats with the bishops.We watched the different diocesan organisations march past to the raucous rhythm of the brass band. I was especially pleased to see my malnutrition centre volunteers joining in.

With so many bishops in town, Saturday afternoon saw several masses which included baptisms, First Communions and weddings. During the evening, we gathered to re-bury Basankusu’s first bishop, a Mill Hill Missionary called Gerard Wantenaar, who died in 1951.

Sunday’s inauguration mass lasted six hours! We waited a long time outside in the scorching sun. I eventually took my place with the invited guests ... but it was much a matter of ‘grab a seat if you can!’ It was packed! The new cathedral is built in the same style as the old red-brick cathedral. The interior plastered walls are painted pale blue and white. Much more light enters now ... it really is quite something, and right in the middle of the rainforest!

But, all good things come to an end. Some visitors only flew in for the day; others left on the Monday. I, myself, was called to a meeting in Kinshasa and secured a place on our Thursday flight.

With the scarcity of flights, passengers were a bit panicky. They thought they wouldn’t all get a seat ... and they were right. People pushed and shoved to get up the steps into the plane. It was chaos! Eventually, they gave me and a local priest a place to sit on a cooler-box full of soft-drinks. The air-conditioning didn’t work and we were all dripping wet in the heat ... but two hours later we arrived in Kinshasa.