Father Rogier, 89 years old, died on 6 January 2025, in Breda (The Netherlands).
He entered the novitiate in 1954 and he was professed on 24 September 1955 in Ginneken (The Netherlands).
He was ordained a priest on 4 September 1960 in Broekhem, Valkenburg (The Netherlands).
May he rest in peace in the love of the Sacred Hearts.
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He was born in Wamel on December 31, 1935, joined the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts in 1955 and was ordained a priest in 1958.
After completing his doctoral studies in Mission Sciences with honors in Nijmegen in 1964, he regularly assisted his fellow missionary brothers as a missiologist in the various countries where the Congregation is active. The many 'foreign' figurines and nativity scenes in his room testify to his love for the mission.
But he carried out his main tasks and activities in the Netherlands itself in the years 1977-2000. As a lecturer, dean and rector he was first affiliated with the College of Theology and Pastoral Care in Heerlen and later he became a lecturer at the Catholic University of Nijmegen.
In 2000 he became rector of the home for religious priests from Indonesia and India who studied in Nijmegen. In 2005 he moved to the sscc community in Leuven and became a collaborator of the Damiaan De Veuster Project there, until 2020.
During all those years he was regularly asked by the KRO to address 'the people' (as he sometimes called them) via radio or television, and he was also sometimes called upon by the Dutch bishops' conference.
During the last years of his life he was a member of the sscc community in Teteringen and during the last six months of that in the monastery nursing home Mater Dei in Breda. His health then clearly deteriorated. In Mater Dei he received excellent care, especially the last days of his life. Many thanks for that to the nursing staff, working from their own Congregation or from Mater Dei.
The funeral service will be on Monday 13 January, at 10:30 in the chapel of Mater Dei, Brabantlaan 5, 4917 JW Breda.
The burial will follow at the Zuylen cemetery, Tuinzichtlaan, Breda.
01/07/2025