Michel Vanfleteren (1936-2025)
Born in Heule,
on February 25, 1929.
Religious vows on September 8, 1949.
Ordained priest on September 12, 1954.
Missionary in Congo (Kinshasa) and Belgium.
Died in Kortrijk,
on March 15, 2025,
at the age of 96.
Michel was born on February 25, 1929, the seventh of ten children in the family of Cyriel and Emelie Desmet in the St. Catherine parish of Heule/Kuurne/Lendelede. After his secondary education at the St. Amandscollege in Kortrijk, he went to the noviciate in Zuun because he wanted to become a missionary. The following year, in 1949, he took his first religious vows. After studying philosophy in Néchin and theology in Scheut and Leuven, he was ordained as a priest in 1954. In November 1955, he left for the diocese of Lisala in the Equator Province of Congo.
His first appointments were as director of the primary schools in the mission of Yambuku and then Yakamba. Soon, he became a teacher at the college in Umangi. After about four years of apostolate among the workers of a large plantation in Dage, he returned to education as the director of the secondary school, first in Bominenge and then in Gwaka.
In the meantime, the diocese of Lisala had split, and the procurator's office of the part that formed the diocese of Budjala was located in Gwaka. Michel was the procurator there for 10 years and was responsible for supplying all kinds of goods necessary for the proper functioning of the various mission stations of the entire diocese.
His talent for organization and aptitude for mathematics came in handy, both in secondary education and in the procure and economat. Michel loved organization and structure. Parish pastoral work was not his thing.
He always worked very hard
and could sometimes come across as aloof,
but he always showed the necessary humor.
That humor was not always clear
and was sometimes misinterpreted.
He was the best storyteller there was.
In early 1987, he was called upon to work for the Kinshasa consulate. For thirteen years, he was responsible for the passport service. Almost daily, he traveled from one embassy to another with all kinds of documents, especially those related to residence permits for missionaries working throughout the country. Those were turbulent years in the Congo, and the work was not always easy, but as efficient and decisive as Michel was, he always managed to get what he needed.
In 1999, when he had turned 70, Michel decided it was time to say goodbye to the Congo. He was not about to sit back and relax, however. He became an econome at the Mission House in Rumbeke, and when this house closed, he moved to Kortrijk. He enjoyed good health there for another seven years. Only in the last few months did we see his zest for life gradually diminish. On Thursday, March 6, 2025, he was admitted to the hospital in Izegem, and the following Monday, he was transferred to palliative care in Kortrijk, where he peacefully returned to his Creator on Saturday, March 15, 2025.
- Jozef Laevens
