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  Priest’s Corner - Support and Appreciation

Fr. Piet Houwen, May He Rest in Peace

Forwarded by Fr. Emile Frische

Piet Houwen was one of nine children of Mr & Mrs Jac Houwen and was born on the 9th of April 1918 in Horst, in the diocese of Roermond.

Hans did his secondary education in the diocesan seminary of Roermond, in Weert. In 1936 he went to Roosendaal for his philosophical studies. Because of the war he only did one year of Theology in Mill Hill and did the remainder in Roosendaal. He did his Perpetual Missionary Oath on 9th of May 1941 and was ordained Priest in Roosendaal on the 12th of July 1942.

Again due to the war he was appointed to do a missionary course at Nijmegen University. In 1943 he was appointed to our College in Tilburg. In 1944 he moved to the parish of Blerick and two years later he was appointed to Haelen.

In 1947 he was appointed to Kampala. Here Piet worked till 1964 when he was asked to be acting Rector in our minor seminary in Hoorn, the Netherlands, but the following year he was back in Kampala, Uganda. He was working in Jinja diocese among the Basoga where he was known for his growing of asparagus and rice.

In 1972 Piet went to Los Angeles, USA, for studies. He became a Regular member of Transactional Analysis Association and studied Personality Development and Interpersonal Communication. In 1973 Father Piet became involved in Marriage Encounter and became the ME promoter in the USA. In 1976 he moved back to the Netherlands and became the ME promoter, first in the Netherlands and later also in Belgium and Suriname. He worked in the St. Joseph Parish in Veldhoven but was at the same time a facilitator in the Marriage Encounter movement. Many weekends he reached out to married couples all over the country.

Recently he made his last trip to Surinam and rounded off his contacts with the ME there. In March of this year he came back, sick and tired. He moved first into St. Jozefhuis and after one week came to Vrijland.

Early on the morning of April 20, 2006, he died peacefully in his room in Vrijland.

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