MADISON — Missionhurst Father John Morel, pastor of Our Lady of the Blue Ridge Parish in Madison since 1989, will soon be retiring. Originally from Belgium, he has served in the Arlington Diocese since 1980.

Father Morel said that he had "no idea" of becoming a priest for most of his youth. Then, when he was attending a Catholic college in Brussels, which he said was an institution equivalent to a combined high school and first two years of a university, something occurred. One day they had a retreat preached by a Dominican priest, from which Father Morel gathered that he would benefit from a spiritual director. The director Father Morel found was a local diocesan priest. After some meetings, the director asked him, "What do you plan on doing with your life?"

"Maybe I would like to be a priest, but I’m not good enough," said Father Morel.

"Of course not," replied the director kindly. "You’re not good enough, but if Jesus had to wait until somebody is good enough, there would never be another priest," adding that trying to be good enough is what matters.

"It gave me a little bit of courage," said Father Morel, adding that his decision to enter the priesthood "came in a strange way. For a long time, I hesitated between being a diocesan priest, or being a religious priest. And if it would be religious, than would it be contemplative, or would it be active, or would it be missionary? For a long time I didn’t know what to do, but I remember very clearly, that one day at vacation time I went to Mass during the week. It was customary at that time to stay a little longer to do your thanksgiving. Then out of a clear blue sky I had the idea to go to the Scheuts." The Missionhurst-C.I.C.M order is known as the Scheut Fathers or Schetuists in Belgium.

There was a "fascinating" picture, hung on the wall behind the desk of his spiritual director, that had a strong influence on Father Morel. In it, a man was wearing a huge fur robe and fur hat, sitting on a small horse that had long hair. This was a friend of the directors who was a missionary in the cold climate of Mongolia, China.

Father Morel was born in Elsene, Belgium, on Nov. 18, 1913, to Lawrence and Alice Morel. He said he had two mothers growing up. His birth mother died when he was 11 and his father remarried a woman named Marie.

Father Morel’s grandfather was a Catholic school teacher in the town of Bruges. He decided to remain at the school after 1884, when Catholic schools lost their government support to public schools, and raised nine children on a small salary and uncertain pension.

Having spoken three languages during his life, Father Morel said, "I was born in French, raised in Flemish, and learned English when I came to the United States."

Father Morel decided to join the Missionhurst before discussing it with his parents. They were initially startled, but then supportive, he said. He entered on Sept. 7, 1933, in Scheut, Brussels, Belgium. On Sept. 8, 1934, he made his first religious profession and was ordained to the priesthood on Aug. 6, 1939.

Father Morel prepared himself to work in the China missions in Mongolia, but German occupation of Belgium during World War II made it impossible to leave. He spent several years at St. Joseph Parish in Bruges, and was then assigned to the United States in May 1946.

He served as assistant pastor at St. Igantius Parish in Philadelphia for 15 years. One aspect of his priesthood which he felt was important was that before he came to the United States he had almost no contact with African-Americans. When assigned to serve in Philadelphia’s inner city during the late 1940s and early ‘50s, he "was immersed in the black community" because parishes were still segregated into "colored" and "white," he said.

"The first thing that struck me" was when shaking hands with one of his black congregants or putting Communion in their mouth, "that their palm or tongue are the same color as anybody’s," he said. "I realized that this blackness was just on the skin, and inside we are all alike," he said.

It was a time of large-scale conversions to Catholicism with 30-40 people being baptized at a time, he said. When sent on trips to the South, his superior always asked that he stop and minister to at least one black parish. Father Morel celebrated his 60th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood a few years ago and some of his former parishioners from Philadelphia came to Madison to commemorate the occasion with him.

In 1955, he was appointed to St. Leo Parish in Detroit, where he first served as assistant pastor and then subsequently pastor. The city was later in racial transition, he said.

"We lived through the riots of 1967 and were on the front row," he said. "Fortunately the parish; the church, the convent and the school, were not damaged."

He described the atmosphere as "rather tense." Rioters attacked firemen when they attempted to put out the intense fires which raged for several days, so there was a police presence.

During Father Morel’s nearly 25 years in Detroit, he served as vicar of the Inner City Vicarate, spiritual director of a Cursillo group and police chaplain.

He moved to Missionhurst in Arlington in 1980 and was rector of the Mission Center from 1981-84. In 1984, he started serving at a Congregation retirement house on Annandale Road in Falls Church. He was a member of the C.I.C.M. Provincial Council, and of the Board of Trustees of the Missionhurst Retirement Program and director of the U.S. Province Aging and Retirement Committee.

At that time he also began helping out at St. John Parish in Orange because the priest there was ill.

He said that in 1946, Missionhurst priests had begun staffing the Piedmont area, in which Our Lady of the Blue Ridge Parish is located. When he was in his mid-70s, Father Morel became pastor of the parish. Now 88, he said he has immensely enjoyed living and serving in the rural Madison area, but is ready to retire. Father Morel will soon reside at the Missionhurst Retirement Home in Arlington. He said that if he had the opportunity to live his life all over again the same way, he would. "Yes. I have always been very happy in the place in which I was, whether in Belgium, Philadelphia, Detroit, and then here."

Ruth Kulick and her family have been parishioners at Our Lady of the Blue Ridge since the late 1970s. The Kulicks and the parish have been very involved in the interfaith MESA (Madison Emergency Services Association). The organization provides clothing and food to the needy as well as offering assistance with employment, housing and transportation.

During Father Morel’s tenure, "Our Lady of the Blue Ridge has been very active in having members help with social justice issues," said Kulick. "He has done a very good job of encouraging lay support in the community and has opened up the church to outside groups."

Tomas Fernandez and his family have been members of Our Lady of the Blue Ridge Parish for 10 years.

As part of a team sponsor in the parish RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) program, he knew a young man who felt that because of the difference between his and Father Morel’s age, the priest could not understand the perspective of a youth.

Fernandez told the young man that Father Morel’s presence "is a wonderful passing moment in our parish. He represents a grandfather role. I lost my grandfather in high school. Father Morel brings a wisdom, a sage commentary to life." The young man then accepted this answer and embraced the relationship, Fernandez said.

"Father Morel has a warmth and hospitality, and a wonderful compassion inside the confessional," said Fernandez. "He brings pre-Vatican II sensitivities to the Eucharist, and also the post-Vatican changes. He balances those eloquently. He has a zeal for liturgical art and has been very supportive of the art center we’re (the Fernandezes) launching."

Fernandez referenced the hip replacement surgery that Father Morel was scheduled to have on June 11.

"On Holy Thursday, he washed the feet of the 12 men, of which I was one," said Fernandez. Due to Father Morel’s physical limitations, "you could tell it was difficult for him, but it was part of his tradition and important to him."

At that service, Father Morel announced his upcoming retirement to the congregation.