Everyone acknowledges him when he goes through the roads of Morlaix, in Finistère-Nord. And he is really pleased with it. The Senegalese Émile Dione has actually officiated for eighteen months as an exorcist clergyman in the church of Saint-Yves, a task that is over all an occupation.
Sitting behind a workdesk on which stacks of publications are accumulating, a tiny candle light near him, Émile Dione’s huge shiners puncture his huge glasses. He talks in a calmness and also sluggish voice, verbalizes really gently and also repeats like an educator to ensure that the audience totally submerses himself in his words.
” Father Emile Dione from Senegal. I remain in my 63rd year. Priest for thirty years. Last of a household of 6. Originally from Thiès, in the center-east of Senegal, he finished his liberal arts in all the significant academies in the nation, officiated in the diocese of Thiès after that in Diourbel. And he shows up in Morlaix at the end of August 2021, it is after that his initial journey to France. ” We were fortunate to have a trainee clergyman in Rome, concerning fifteen years earlier, that wished to recreate the web links in between Senegal and also Finistère after befriending a Breton clergyman. And he had the concept of sending out clergymans from Senegal to sustain the Breton Church. »
“History binds us”
However, to listen to the tale of this guy that emanates sagacity, this expatriation does not appear to have actually been one, given that a solid and also old web link exists in between the indigenous nation of Émile Dione and also Brittany. ” I showed up below, I had definitely no expertise of the area. But the welcome was excellent! Good pancakes and also great cider “, he duplicates, giggling aloud. ” What no one recognizes he stated, reclaiming all his severity and also cleaning in his chair, is that the web link in between the Church of Senegal and also Finistère is really solid. And the clergyman states: We obtained the Gospel from Breton Spiritan promoters, primarily from Finistère. Even today, partially of the Catholic area, we still mention the clergymans of Quimper. Thus, previously, whether approximately Cayor, Sine or Casamance, catechesis in the nationwide languages has actually been influenced by Catholic tracks of Breton beginning.
Another unlikely transmission: the cult of Sainte-Anne. Omnipresent in Brittany, it has actually likewise come to be so in Senegal with this evangelization (Thiès and also Dakar, to name a few, have specifically a sanctuary and also a church committed to the saint). ” In Dakar, it remains in Bel Air, by the sea, it should have been individuals from Brest! “, he enjoys picturing.
” I needed to pertain to Finistère to understand that our Sainte-Anne excuses in Senegal are designed on those below », shocks Émile Dione himself, placing his finger to his cheek as an indicator of representation. And the similarities are not just spiritual, firmly insists the clergyman, tightening his woolen headscarf around his neck. ” I enjoy this area, there is a lot to uncover… And the environment of Finistère, the rainfall, this nature, advises me of Casamance, much less wild pets, even more polar. »
Obviously, he feels comfortable below and also does not mean to go back to Thiès while of his four-year participation, eco-friendly as long as he wants (and also he plans to proceed), the net is sufficient for him to communicate with his family members. ” We make video clips and also we laugh! And Émile Dione to demand “the job” that should be performed in Brittany.
A job: to assist individuals
” I am below to sustain the Church of Finistère which does not have clergymans. I am shocked to see that the young clergymans below are half a century old, whereas in my diocese of Thiès, I am a grandfather! That is to claim the level of demands that there are below. And the church clergyman deplored the terrible absence of youngsters, of dynamism, of family members spirit, which he is however attempting to treat.
And after that, Émile Dione is likewise in Brittany for a technique that has actually met countless success, exorcism. Far from the clichés sent by scary movies of all kinds, exorcism is a petition exercised given that the beginnings of the Church, a “ solution used to all males to ensure that they can be provided from the pressures of wickedness “, explains the priest very seriously, the New Testament at hand. ” Some feel hostile forces, hear noises in their house, feel oppressed, etc. We are here to help them. »
But exorcism is no longer unanimously accepted within the Church, with some denouncing the influence that the exercise can have, arguing that today’s illnesses are above all psychic and not spiritual. Émile Dione, staring, reassures and affirms that spiritual accompaniment comes ” in addition of the psychological, that he practices a form of collaboration with the medical, a more difficult exchange however in France than in Senegal, secularism obliges. ” Some come just out of curiosity, but most of the people I receive, believers or not, are also supported psychologically. I bring them spiritual support, it’s not a power, but a faculty. I cast out demons with my hands, for free, like the love of Christ “, he insists. ” Once the process of liberation in Jesus has started, I withdraw. »
A parallel with African maraboutism? Émile Dione opens a large binder and takes out the decree of the bishop who officially appointed him an exorcist priest in the country of Morlaix, a practice he also practiced for more than a decade and a half in Senegal. ” The marabouts work with occult forces, to cast a spell or to unbewitch, he explains, weighing each word. They manipulate forces beyond them that are dangerous and destructive. My work for me is spiritual: to put a person in relation with Jesus. There is no hold or fear. A word of God and the laying on of hands. Basta! »
Émile Dione receives more and more people, and not only from Finistère. On this Friday afternoon in April, he is very proud to say that he is waiting for a family in distress who has come from Nantes to receive his prayer and ” the services of jesus “. ” People are getting worse and worse, and since the Covid crisis, there has been an existential crisis in our societies. How can you now live in a society where one fine morning, you are told that you are stopping everything? And this crisis, even today, has many repercussions on the well-being of humans, from the youngest to the oldest.
The priest, who cannot resist mentioning that if he could no longer taste pancakes or cider all at once would be very unhappy, regrets that in France the faculties of resilience are much less than in Africa. ” At home, every morning, we expect things to go wrong, but we are ready to face it. “And to remember, laughing, full of good nature:” When I got here in Morlaix I was shocked since every early morning there was electrical power “. That stated, Émile Dione stays packed with self-confidence in the future, since according to him, Covid, power dilemmas, movement, battle in Ukraine, and so on., have actually resulted in an actual rise of uniformity in the West. ” All this exposes a great deal of possibility in the human being any place he is. »
The prelate by Morlaisian fostering plans to proceed his goal, also if with the pension plan reform, ” (he) could need to quit! “. ” I really feel great below. I’m delighted. When it is time to go back to Senegal, I will certainly remain to be a clergyman. From Morlaix, I will certainly maintain the inclines of the surface, that’s a great deal of cardio which’s excellent! I seized the day to renew! Also, the solid conservation of social identification, which we likewise have in Senegal. And Émile Dione extracts a couple of words of Breton with a best accent. ” And after that the altruism of individuals, given that currently, I belong to the style… »
