Alfred De Sutter (1932-2025)
Born in Torhout, on March 26, 1932.
Religious vows on September 8, 1953.
Ordained priest on August 3, 1958.
Missionary in Congo (Kinshasa) and Belgium.
Died in Torhout, on May 19, 2025, at the age of 93.
Those who only knew Father Alfred in recent years would find it hard to imagine him as an inspiring leader of the J.E.C., organizing camps, or as a collaborator with Aid to the Church in Need, led by the "Spekpater" (he distributed lard after the war in refugee camps).
Alfred was the eldest of four children. In Torhout, his father was a keen archer, and young Fred became an equally keen arrow collector. The closest neighbors to his parents' house were the Missionaries of Scheut. Throughout his secondary education—the college was just a few houses down the street—Fred was a regular altar boy in the chapel of the Fathers of Scheut. So it was not a big step for him to enter the Scheut novitiate in Zuun in 1952. In 1958, he was ordained a priest and, in November of the following year, he left for the Belgian Congo. As a brand new missionary, he experienced the independence of the Congo, with all its tensions.
Between the day of his ordination as a priest and his first departure, he spent a year in missionary training in Gillies.
Alfred worked in the north of the Congo, notably in Bokonzi, Ngbelenge, Yakamba, and Ngwaka. He was very involved in the training of catechists and in "development aid," as it was called at the time. He lived and worked alone for much of the time, but shared the joys and sorrows of his fellow priests. He never missed the annual retreat or the various provincial meetings.
Wherever he worked, he had good relations with the local population. He knew many people by name. He worked at the grassroots level in the villages. Fred was always taking initiatives and seeing them through to completion. That is how we accidentally learned that he had helped financially to set intelligent young people on the path to one profession or another.
In 1995, he returned to Belgium for good and underwent a year of training at Lumen Vitae. After that, he found himself at the Scheut-Anderlecht dispatch office. He worked there until 2002. From 2002 to 2010, he lived in Zuun, where he worked part-time for Memisa (Medical Cooperation for Missions). In 2010, he returned to Anderlecht. From 2012 to 2017, he was responsible for Memisa. He studied the projects proposed that could be accepted for funding. There, too, he sought to get to know all the visitors by name.
Meanwhile, he never lost sight of his hometown of Torhout. From collecting arrows for his father, he became chaplain of the Royal Saint Sebastian Archery Guild in Torhout. Every week, he would visit his fellow archers in Torhout. He was particularly appreciated for his ability to listen. Everyone could come to him with their needs, fears, or sorrows. Fred also had a great sense of humor. The president of the guild expressed it this way:
"Father Alfred made people feel a little bit like they were already in heaven."
On August 31, 2020, he moved to Torhout. Fred loved life and loved being part of the community. He had some good years in Torhout. But the years do not always pass peacefully; they also bring their share of misery and difficulties. Little by little, he needed more and more help. The walker became a wheelchair. Fred became less and less present. Sometimes he would shout, as if to tell us he still had things to say. After a long struggle, he passed away on May 19, 2025.
His ashes are in the urn.
The man of the earth is in heaven.
- Arnold Quartier, cicm
