HALF THE DAY UNDERGROUND.
By Giancarlo Manieri. July/August 2006.
This is a short biography of a great Salesian Brother, the Belgian Jozef van den Berk (Lommel 20 February 1920- Rome 8 May 2004). His was a double vocation: one to the religious life and one to the service of the catacombs. For almost a third of his life he has lived underground, walking up and down hundreds of steps and walking through tunnels: millions of steps, thousands of kilometers in his 32 years of service. He has left indelible memories in the minds of his visitors. From being a horticulturist he became a guide in the catacombs and sowed the seeds of faith.
It all began with a school trip organized by the Salesian College of Hechtel where Jozef was a student. These days school trips can become a nightmare for the teachers who accompany their students on account of the absurd things certain students are up to. In those days strict discipline and meticulous and self-sacrificing assistance were a guarantee of success. His school went to Holland, to Valkenburg (near the city of Maastricht) to visit a perfect reconstruction in an underground complex of 18 Roman catacombs, among which those of St Callixtus. That visit, by the light of candles, the inspiring story of the first Christians and the heroism of the martyrs made a deep impression on him: “I would love to be a guide in the Catacombs”. It was the year 1933. Jozef was 13. Forty years later that dream became a reality.
HORTICULTURIST.
He had entered the Hechtel College in 1932 and commenced his studies. He did not like it very much: he preferred the garden, the plants, life in the fresh air, working with his hands. The Rector of “Don Bosco” understood the situation, and also because Jozef’s health was not the very best, he sent him to the Ardennes, to Grand Alleux, where he could recuperate his health and obtain a certificate in horticulture. After this he went to the novitiate of Groot Bygaarden, then to Halle as a handyman.
The change came in 1958 when he went to Belgian Congo as a missionary. For several years he taught horticulture, the raising of animals, how to sow, reap and keep. It was an experience he would never forget. Rome was his last assignment. Saint Callixtus and the Catacombs made a dream came true which for forty years had remained hidden in Jozef’s heart. He was 53 by now, but what did that matter? Better late than never. He thought of himself as being old, but according to him these were the years that were absolutely the most intense and profitable in his long life.
UNDERGROUND APOSTOLATE.
He took on his new work as a type of apostolate, a real form of evangelization, and jumped right into it. He himself took part wholeheartedly in these underground pilgrimages, but this time in the real catacombs, the biggest and most beautiful in Rome, those of Saint Callixtus. Half his day he spent in them, to explain, to move and be moved, to convince, to show his faith and to make that of his visitors grow, to let know the most glorious story of the Church of Jesus, going up and down more than 100 little flights of steps several times a day. In his 32 years of activity he has gone up and down millions of steps. What an amount of grace for the eternal life. The other half of his day he kept working for his tourists. Thus he produced tens of thousands of tape recordings in some twenty languages which he handed out as a present after the visit. They contained the history and especially the meaning, the message of the Catacombs. With his own hands he has made tens of thousands of rosaries, very strong they were so that they would last. He thought that they would be used every day and so they had to last. These too he gave away to his “clients” or he would sell them for the missions (he never forgot the time he had spent in the Congo). Hundreds of thousands of pictures of the Good Shepherd which he had printed as a bookmark for the breviaries of the priests, male and female religious who came to visit. All these little mementoes were to remember their visit so that the catechesis would not be forgotten. “I have talked with fervour and love, and also with much humour to make the visitors understand the hymn of hope of the Catacombs”.
A LIFE IN THREE STAGES
The apostolic life of Jozef is crystal clear and uncomplicated. It is divided into three stages: 20 years work in Belgium, 12 years in the mission of Belgian Congo (it became Zaire and is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and 32 years in Rome as the guide who was sought out by the tourists, appreciated by his superiors, admired by his confreres. He was a sympathetic personality and a fine Salesian. He was the brother of two Salesian priests and of one religious sister. He wrote once: “I want to be like a parish priest who puts his whole life at the service of the Church”. He kept going to the Catacombs thoroughly convinced: “Here I am a hundred times more missionary than in Africa. This is missionary work on a world scale”. He said goodbye for good to his confreres and his admiring tourists on the 8th day of the month of May of the Year of the Lord 2004. He is still remembered. There are many who still ask after him.