{"id":1728,"date":"2012-06-22T08:40:48","date_gmt":"2012-06-22T08:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/2012\/06\/22\/j-manrakhan-2\/"},"modified":"2019-08-19T10:24:40","modified_gmt":"2019-08-19T06:24:40","slug":"j-manrakhan-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/j-manrakhan-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Vicar-General – Diocese of Port Louis"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Memoriam: Am\u00e9d\u00e9e Nagapen<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By Professor J. Manrakhan<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Allow me to add to the flood of homage, being rendered to the memory of Monsignor Am\u00e9d\u00e9e Nagapen, GOSK, former Vicar- General of the Diocese of Port Louis, and who passed away at 81.<\/span><\/p>\n

He forms part of a whole galaxy of distinguished personalities who have served both Church and Letters, from the days of St. Augustine (354 -430), theologian-philosopher and a most celebrated priest of his time, who attempted to harmonize the tenets of Plato\u2019s teachings with Christian values and principles, to Cardinal John Newman (1801- 90) whose classical <\/span>Idea of the University<\/em><\/strong> still remains at the very foundation of any functioning Citadel of Reason (the University included) to even more modern times, with Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881 -1955) Jesuit priest, philosopher and paleontologist, searching for a superior, universal and unifying Conscience.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After studies at the Royal College, Am\u00e9d\u00e9e <\/span><\/a>entered a seminary in France to become a priest in 1955. Subsequently, he proceeded for social-sciences study in Canada, and was appointed Vicar-General, 1969 – 2002.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The writings of Am\u00e9d\u00e9e Nagapen centred upon various intertwined aspects of the history of Mauritius and the Roman Catholic Church here – probing both wide and deep: from parish monographs to the more monumental, <\/span>L\u2019Eglise \u00e0 Maurice,<\/em> 1810 – 41; and <\/span>L\u2019Histoire du Dioc\u00e8se de Port Louis;<\/em> and from the plight of runaway slaves in <\/span>\u2018Le Marronage \u00e0 l\u2019Isle de France\u2019,<\/em> to his latest, <\/span>L\u2019Abb\u00e9 Tristan Bordet<\/em>, 1829 – 84 (now in print) concerning the first Mauritian English Scholarship holder to become priest.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Am\u00e9d\u00e9e Nagapen also served as Editor-in-Chief of <\/span>La Vie Catholique <\/em>(1968 – 71) and as a member of L\u2019Union Internationale des Journalistes de Presse de Langue Fran\u00e7aise; as the President of the Roman Catholic Education Authority (1971 – 91) and on <\/span>L\u2019Association des Ecrivains de langue fran\u00e7aise, <\/em>and the<\/span> Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 de L\u2019Histoire de L\u2019Ile Maurice, <\/em>among others<\/span>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

As a historian, he acted more in the style of a peace-time Herodotus (c484 – c422 BCE) rather than that of a near-revolutionary Friedrich Hegel (1770 – 1831). As a person he was courteous, patient and affable, pertinent and sharp, tolerant yet discreetly persistent, hard-working and productive \u2013 ever striving; and methodical:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Toute pens\u00e9e qui p\u00e9n\u00e8tre en profondeur s\u2019ach\u00e8ve en un mysticisme moral\u2019 <\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

— <\/span><\/em>Albert Schweiter, 1875 – 1965<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018La plus petite mousse par ses harmonies \u00e9l\u00e8ve notre intelligence jusqu\u2019\u00e0 l\u2019Intelligence qui veille aux destins de toute la terre\u2026.\u2019
\n— <\/span><\/em>Jacques Bernadin de St Pierre, 1737 – 1814<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But perhaps the most appropriate citation to discern his effectiveness might be one from l\u2019Abb\u00e9 de Saint Cyran (1581 – 1643):<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018\u2026les choses visibles me sont comme invisibles, et les invisibles comme visibles: et les unes et autres me servent\u2026\u2019 <\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

How might he have seen himself, amid all his achievements, not least with his amazing penmanship?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn my Father\u2019s house are many mansions\u201d <\/span><\/em>(St John, 14:2)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

* Published in print edition on 16 August 2019<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Memoriam: Am\u00e9d\u00e9e Nagapen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":261,"featured_media":6560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7793],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-memoriam"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/MT-Logokk.jpg?fit=1200%2C880&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-rS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/261"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}