JUST a week short of a celebration to mark his 70th anniversary of being ordained as a Roman Catholic priest, 92-year-old Father Louis Fossion died on Thursday morning.
At Father Fossion's wake at the Church of the Holy Spirit on Thursday, his former parishioners remembered him as 'a living saint', 'dedicated', 'very loving' and 'very special'. -- ST PHOTO: DOMINIC WONG
The celebration - a mass and dinner on Aug 2 at the Church of the Holy Spirit on Upper Thomson Road - will go on as a memorial event now.
Donations raised from the event will be given to the Roman Catholic Church in Inner Mongolia, as Father Fossion wished.
He had served there, as well as in China, Hong Kong, Taipei, Manila, and his native Belgium, before coming to Singapore in 1968.
For the following 28 years up till 1996, he was the parish priest of the Church of the Holy Spirit, after which he became a resident at the Church of St Francis Xavier.
His last three years had been spent at St Theresa's Home, where many of his former parishioners still visited him regularly.
He died at Mount Alvernia Hospital of pneumonia after being warded for two weeks.
At his wake at the Church of the Holy Spirit on Thursday, his former parishioners remembered him as 'a living saint', 'dedicated', 'very loving' and 'very special'.
They recalled how he would drive around the neighbourhood every Saturday morning picking up children for his catechism class, sometimes squeezing as many as eight of them into his faithful white Volkswagen Beetle.
He even showed up close to midnight to bless the new home of his parishioner then.
The church will be holding a memorial mass at 8pm on Friday and a funeral mass at 10.30am on Saturday.
The cremation will take place after that at 1pm at the Mandai Crematorium.
The Straits Times
July 26, 2007
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