African joie de vivre in the Church

Alphonse Ndabiseruye is the name of the "temporary priest" in Alpnach. The priest from Burundi was a Christmas present for many believers.

"For all I care, the service could have lasted half an hour longer today," said a 78-year-old man from Alpnach in front of the parish church on Christmas Day. The special thing about this statement: he had already been in the church for over one and a half hours beforehand. "I liked how cheerful and cordial the African priest made the Christmas service together with the church choir," he said later. "And most of all, I like how the priest wants to take the people with him and involve them in the service."

His wife had attended the Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve and she too was enthusiastic about the black priest and the way he organised the service, "even though it was a bit racy, with the guitar and all," she said.

She heard that the children particularly liked the priest from Africa, "and why don't we keep him in Alpnach? He would surely be a worthy successor to Father Josef Kuzar, "whom we all held in high esteem and did not want him to move away," the woman added.

Two fellow students

Josef Kuzar and Alphonse Ndabiseruye: two priests who have made history in the parish of Alpnach in a short time. Josef Kuzar, a 33-year-old from Slovakia, left Alpnach for personal reasons at the end of November, a good year after taking up his post as vicar, and resigned his priesthood. Before leaving, Josef Kuzar paved the way for his fellow student Alphonse Ndabiseruye to become a parish priest in Alpnach for a short time. The latter wanted to work in a parish for some time before returning to Africa.

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