Martin Lucas

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Martin Lucas SVD (born October 16, 1894 in Haarlem (Diocese of Haarlem), † March 3, 1969 in Kerkrade , Limburg, Netherlands) was a Catholic priest , Steyler missionary and papal diplomat.

Origin and career

Martin Lucas entered the school of the St. Willibrodus mission house of the Steyler Missionaries in Uden on October 16, 1913 . In 1920 he made his first and in 1923 his perpetual vows in the Society of the Divine Word . Lucas was ordained a priest on October 26, 1924. From 1925 to 1927 he was a teacher at the Soesterberg Mission School. In 1927 he became rector of the Steyler community in Uden; 1928 novice master in Helvoirt and 1941 rector of the central house of the Steyler missionaries in Teteringen near Breda. During the Second World War he was entrusted with the post of Provincial Superior of the Dutch Province of the Societas Verbi Divini from 1942 to 1945 . In 1944 Lucas was appointed rector of the remaining German community in the St. Michael Mission House. In the difficult situation of the Netherlands occupied by the German army, Fr. Lucas demonstrated diplomatic skill that did not go unnoticed in Rome.

Papal diplomacy services

Pope Pius XII appointed the Divine Word missionary, who had not completed a Roman degree or a Pontifical Diplomatic Academy , on September 14, 1945 as Apostolic Delegate in South Africa. On October 29, 1945, Martin Lucas was ordained Titular Archbishop of Adulis by the Prefect of Propaganda Fide Pietro Cardinal Fumasoni Biondi . In 1952 Archbishop Lucas suggested the South African Bishops' Conference to found a missiological-pastoral institute. Even if the beginnings of Rome were stopped again, Lucas is considered to be the ideal initiator of the Lumko Institute, which the German Pallottine Bishop of Queenstown, Johannes Baptist Rosenthal SAC founded in Lumko in the bishopric of Queenstown in the Eastern Cape in South Africa and that has been since 1971 Pastoral Institute of the South African Bishops' Conference is. After seven years of successful work in South Africa, Archbishop Lucas was made Internuntius for India on December 4, 1952. A tropical disease forced Lucas to resign from his work in India in 1956. He was then appointed to the State Secretariat in Rome in 1956. In addition, Lucas became a consultor for the Propaganda Fide in 1957. After he was cured of his tropical disease, he returned to the diplomatic service of the Holy See.

In June 1959 he became an Apostolic Visitator in Scandinavia and in March 1960 he became an Apostolic Delegate for the five Scandinavian countries Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland. Lucas chooses Copenhagen as his seat. In the summer of 1960, Lucas was appointed a member of three preparatory commissions for the announced Ecumenical Council. In 1961, his deteriorating health forced him to resign from office. Archbishop Martin Lucas died on March 3, 1969 in the hospital of the Steyler Missionary Sisters in Kerkrade. As a religious and diplomat, Martin Lucas was always close to people and helped his confreres to discover and develop their missionary vocation. Lucas tried to motivate the local churches in South Africa, India and Scandinavia in their renewal process.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The deceased confreres of 1969 , in: Steyler Missionschronik 1971 , Steyler Verlag: St. Augustin, p. 188.
  2. ^ Anselm Prior: A brief history of the Lumko Institute . Germiston, South Africa: Lumko Institute 1993
  3. ↑ Archbishop Martinus Lucas 1894–1969 , in: Johannes Fleckner: So were they, Vol. 2, St. Augustin 1995, 189–191.
personal data
SURNAME Lucas, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch clergyman, Steyler missionary and papal diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH October 16, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Haarlem
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 1969
Place of death Kerkrade