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Father Van Lingen, a tireless shepherd in Jordan (1916 - 2015)
"A krakige voice, but still remarkably clear mind," wrote the Catholic Nieuwsblad about him. The magazine interviewed the 99-year-old Frans van Lingen only a month ago. Tuesday the man died who was pastor for 34 years in the Tichelkerk in Jordan.
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He called it the best time of his life.
The son of a billiard maker was born in 1916 in the first Grotius Street. He came as a child regularly in the Tichelkerk on the Lijnbaansgracht. The Capuchins - men of simplicity, barefoot, with companies and beards - said they impress. They are followers of Francis of Assisi; The austerity preached by him, is respected by the monks.
At twelve years old Van Lingen went to the minor seminary of the Capuchins in Langeweg. "Try it, if you do not like, you come back," his mother said. He continued. Van Lingen studied classical languages and pedagogy and in 1934 he entered the Capuchin Order and was given the religious name Fructuosus. At age 25, he was ordained.
People Children
When a pastor was sought in 1970 for the Tichelkerk, on the edge of the Jordan jump Van Lingen, according to his fellow brother Bertus Bus (63) a hole in the sky: he was allowed to return. "Frans was a tireless shepherd. After the mass, he did his best to give everyone equally a hand. " René de Jong (57) for decades visited the miss. "His sermons were infused with life. And the number of people in the Jordan River to be baptized by him, married or buried, should be in the thousands. "
Van Lingen also gave religious instruction. On the blackboard he signed with the Bible stories. He once told Het Parool: "People's children are the best out there, much nicer than the children of the upper classes."
In the beginning was the Tichelkerk Mass at six am still full of Roman Carmen. Even at half past eight, nine, eleven o'clock the church was full. But times changed. De Jong: "There were plenty of people around, but especially what they call yuppies. They did not come to church. French tried it yet, but the changing composition of the neighborhood was disastrous for the Tichelkerk. "
Not agonizing
The church has been used since 2004 by the Russian Orthodox community in Amsterdam. "It has done me a lot of pain," Van Lingen told The Catholic Nieuwsblad. 'But you should not lamenting. That helps you anything further. "
Van Lingen moved to the monastery on the Van der Does de Willebois Singel in Den Bosch. He remained missing after and to the last he visited old and sick people in Amsterdam. About his old age Van Lingen said in the spirit of St. Francis: "One of the advantages of old age is to be a grateful man."
In June, he moved to a convent nursing home, where he was surrounded by his brothers, relatives and friends died. He was buried yesterday.
Parool.nl / (By: Liza Lonkhuyzen) / (Photo: © Merlin Doomerni)