Phil Bosmans

:::'My last word: gratitude'.:::
:::##FOTO: Phil_Bosman/Phil_Bosmans.jpg#id=3126##:::





Phil Bosmans 
° 1 July 1922 - † 17 January 2012


Phil Bosmans passed away in the early morning of 17 January 2012 in Mortsel. On 1 July he would have turned 90. With his charisma and radiant smile, he was an icon of the 70´s and 80's. For 36 years he was the head of Movement without a Name as the author of many proverbs, numerous books and founder of several initiatives.


The early years

Phil Bosmans was born at Gruitrode (Limburg) on 1 July 1922. His father was a small farmer. There were 4 children in the family. When he was 16 the family moved to Genk. Phil Bosmans spent much of his youth in the immediate vicinity of the coal mines and the miners. His two brothers earned their keep in the pit.

His parents could not afford to let their children go to college. With the help of an aunt and a Montfortan father he was given the opportunity to continue studying in Rotselaar near Leuven.

Except for a brief interruption in May 1940, when he and his brother fled to France for several miserable weeks, Phil stayed in this residential school until the end of WW2.

In 1941 he was admitted to the Montfortan fathers. He stayed with them to the end of the war. In 1945 he went to Oirschot in the Netherlands where he was ordained on 7 March 1948.

Priest

After becoming a priest he was sent to the Vendée in France to do missionary work in the suburbs of Tours. He subsequently became friendly with several worker-priests in Paris. He had a profound admiration for them.

In 1949 he was called back to Belgium to lead "missions to the people" Together with a number of colleagues he would stay in one place or another to preach and to visit. Until April 1951 he lived as a worker-priest among the miners in the shanty town district of Waterschei and worked with them in the pit.

In 1951 his Bishop asked him to travel across Limburg with 'Our Lady of the Poor of Banneux'. He met hundreds of people, preached and led processions. It was very hard work and he had virtually no free time at all. Phil failed to get enough rest and eventually collapsed in Hopmaal in early June 1954.

Father Aerts, the parish priest of Hopmaal, and Leontine Franck, a nurse, took care of Phil. He was so ill that he was confined to his bed for two years. He was unable to do a thing. Nor was he allowed to do anything, not even say mass. Specialists were pessimistic about his situation. His superiors were informed that he would be a wreck for the rest of his life and would be good for nothing at all.

"In the meantime I'm alive and kicking and my specialist has long been pushing up the daisies", Phil once said in a mischievous moment.

Movement without a Name

His superiors did not want overburden him and allowed him plenty of free time. This allowed him to respond to Father Loop's request to help build Movement without a Name in Flanders. Since 1957 Phil has devoted all his energies to this work.

Dozens of social and cultural initiatives emerged under his inspiring leadership. The little man was always central to the development of the Movement without a Name. At a time when virtually no formal social safety network existed, Phil and his friends worked miracles to set up one house after another.

Later on the Lannoo publishing firm had the idea of collecting the hundreds of telephone messages that he had written as a book called 'Menslief, ik hou van je', which appeared in 1972. It was to become the most widely sold book in Flanders. It is now in its 56th impression, and has sold 800,000 copies in Flanders and the Netherlands. Currently sales in Germany stand at about 2 million copies..

Phil has written other books as well, which have been translated into 26 languages, and braille versions of several of them are available as well. All in all Phil's books have sold approximately 10 million copies throughout the world.

Phil's years of hard work have also brought him a number of prizes and awards. For example he has twice been awarded the Visser Neerlandia prize, once in 1968 and again in 1991. In 1991 he was also awarded the prize of the Flemish Community.

Retirement

Until 1991 Phil Bosmans was the Chairman and managing director of Movement without a Name. Frans Van Oudenhove, a member of the Scheuts, took over his duties on 1 July 1991.

Phil's retirement has unfortunately not been without misfortune and in December 1994 he was involved in a severe car accident. He had barely recovered when he suffered a stroke. Since then Father Bosmans has been handicapped, with a paralyzed right arm and leg..

Notwithstanding intensive therapy and a great deal of effort, his condition has barely evolved. He has learnt to write with his left hand and has mastered the basics of the personal computer.
On Saturday 7 March 1998, he celebrated the 50 years of priesthood in the church of Kontich-Kazerne, where he now lives. In September of the same year he had a private audience with King Albert II.

Phil Bosmans passed away in the early morning of 17 January 2012 in Mortsel.

Phil's successor, Father Frans Van Oudenhove, was himself replaced on 1 July 2000 by Patrick Hanjoul.