A warm reunion in Namibia

In November 2022, Brother Hermenegildus Beris CMM received an invitation to celebrate the 25th anniversary of St Charles Lwanga Major Seminary in Windhoek, Namibia on 30 January 2023.

Brother Hermenegildus chaired the committee that prepared the launch of this institute in 1996. The seminary was opened in January 1997. Over the past 25 years, he has taught various subjects and is the only teacher from the beginning who is still active. For more than 20 years, he was also Dean of Studies. After returning to the Netherlands in 2016, he remained attached to the seminary in Windhoek as a history professor and still teaches online video lessons to this day. As a historian, Brother Hermenegildus has laid an important foundation for the historiography of the Catholic Church in Namibia.

Brother Hermenegildus gratefully accepted the invitation to attend the jubilee, and together with Corelia den Brok, associate member of the Brothers CMM who assisted him on this trip, he visited his beloved Namibia from 26 January to 4 February 2023.

For Brother Hermenegildus, it was a warm reunion with old acquaintances and familiar places. For instance, he met the Namibian group of Ambassadors WWB, who welcomed him with a beautiful song. His current students in the seminary only knew him from online classes and were delighted to finally meet him in real life. During the jubilee celebration itself, a speech by Brother Hermenegildus was of course not to be missed.