Death of Father Gerry Mooij.

The last Mill Hill Missionary that I knew in Kenya has died.  I received this yesterday from Father Fons Eppink, who edits and produces a daily Mill Hill newsletter. 

Father Gerry Mooij

Mill Hill Missionary                May he rest in peace

Gerry (Gerardus) Mooij was born in Heerhugowaard on November 26, 1939, the youngest son in the family of Piet Mooij and Ursula Oudeman, a family of 9 sons and two daughters. At the age of 13 he registered at the mission house in Hoorn, where he studied from 1952 to 1956, followed by two years in Haelen. He concluded his minor seminary training in Tilburg in July 1959. He studied philosophy in Roosendaal (1957-1959) and then continued on to Mill Hill (1961-1965), where he was ordained as a missionary priest by Cardinal Heenan on July 10, 1965, after he had taken the perpetual oath of the congregation of Mill Hill on May 1, 1964.

Immediately after his ordination he was appointed to the Mill Hill mission in Kenya and worked mainly in Nyilima Lwak, Sega and Kisumu. He devoted himself completely to the people who lived by the side of lake Victoria. There he found his place, there he was a sign of peace for people who often lived in particularly trying circumstances. In 1983 he attended a course at the Ggaba Pastoral Institute in Eldoret and in 1998 at St. Bueno’s. He was then able to return to Kenya and devote himself fully to pastoral work again, in recent years also in the parish at Milimani, Kisumu, where he got along well with the other fellow Mill Hillers.

In 2015 he celebrated his golden jubilee. He knew then that he would have to return to the Netherlands and live in St. Jozefhuis. With his own insights and humour, he took as the first reading at that celebration words from the prophet Amos: ‘Seer, you must get away!’
His health gradually deteriorated. In quiet moments he could say that his life was complete and that people no longer had to go to extremes to keep him alive. A game of cards was always welcome. The walks became shorter.

After a stay at the hospital in 2023, he returned to his own environment, De Zilverheuvel. He has slowly passed away from us over the past few months, a life completed indeed. May he rest in peace.

On March 13, 2024 we will say goodbye to Gerry in a Eucharistic celebration out of gratitude. This celebration starts at 11 a.m. in St. Jozefhuis, Johannahoeve 4 Oosterbeek, followed by burial in our own cemetery.

Its interesting the things you find out about people when they have died.  I didn't know he had spent time in St. Bueno's in north Wales; he never talked to me about Wales.  But in retrospect I can see the signs of Jesuit spirituality in him.  Too late to talk about it now .... my last link with the Mill Hillers in Kisumu gone .... 

I will watch his funeral online on Wednesday ...