Raphaël Bui and Jean-Clément Koumoue, two new priests in Saint-Affricain

Le père Jean-Clément Koumoue, de Côte d’Ivoire, et le père Raphaël Bui, doyen de trois paroisses. MIDI LIBRE – J.M COGNOT

L’un a retrouvé la foi en Aveyron, l’autre vient de Côte-d’Ivoire pour aider l’église.

Monsignor Luc Meyer, Bishop of Rodez and Vabres-l'Abbaye, has appointed Father Raphaël Bui for six years as dean and parish priest of the Bon Pasteur and Notre Dame des Vallons du Rance parishes. He resides at the presbytery of Saint-Affrique. He replaces Father Jacques Clavier, who was appointed for three years as parish priest in solidum of the Saint-Jean-des-Sources parish and cooperator for the Saint-Marc des Causses and Notre Dame des Trois Horizons parishes. Father Jean Clément Koumoue, with the agreement of Monsignor Joseph Kakou Aka, Bishop of Yamoussoukro, in Ivory Coast, as part of the exchanges between churches and the Fidei Donum mission, is appointed for one year as a cooperating priest for the parishes of Bon-Pasteur and Notre Dame des Vallons du Rance.

Ceremonies this Saturday and Sunday

Depending on the needs, he will be able to provide service to the Saint-Méen des Rougiers parish. He resides at the presbytery of Saint-Affrique. During this first year, he will participate in provincial and national meetings planned for Fidei donum priests. Today, at 6 p.m., in the collegiate church of Saint-Sernin-sur-Rance, the installation mass of Father Raphaël Bui will be celebrated. The ceremony will be presided over by Monsignor Luc Meyer, Bishop of Rodez and Vabres-l'Abbaye. The same ceremony presided over by the bishop will also take place tomorrow, at 10 am, in the church of Saint-Affrique.

Father Raphaël Bui, 59 years old, is originally from the Paris region. He is a scientist by training and has been a resident of Aveyron for thirty-four years. “In 1990, I came to Aveyron to work as a civil engineer at the departmental equipment directorate of Rodez.” Four years later, he returned to the seminary in Toulouse. He was ordained a priest in the year 2000. "I worked mainly around Rodez, in central Rouergue, in youth ministry as well as in the various areas related to ecumenism and Islamic-Christian dialogue. I was also a priest in Baraqueville and Naucelle, but also in Capdenac-gare. And this for periods of six years. In the meantime, having fallen seriously ill with a cardiovascular disease, I underwent a major operation."

“I am here by providence”

Father Jean-Clément Koumoue, 54, studied in Ivory Coast in the diocese of Yamoussoukro, the capital: “I am here by providence. These are agreements between the churches. We believe that the first missionaries left from Europe and especially from France to evangelize. Today, we are all aware that Europe and particularly France, have a crisis of priests. Having received for free, it is normal that today we give for free. We come to support to help the church of Aveyron to move forward. Here the welcome was warm, I found brothers and sisters."

Today, Raphaël Bui is in charge of the entire territory of the greater Saint-Affricain, the Raspes du Tarn and the Sorgue valley to the borders of Hérault and Tarn. Father Jean-Gabriel Albin is the administrator of the parish of Saint-Méen-des-Rougiers. “I am the dean, that is to say in charge of coordinating all three parishes in the Saint-Affricain region, explains Father Bui. Jean-Gabriel Albin is someone I really like and we see each other regularly.”

Raphaël Bui, a polytechnician, has a background in mathematics. “For years I was not an atheist, but a non-believer. Meeting believers as mathematically inclined as I was initiated a journey back to the Christian faith that came to fruition at the age of twenty-five with the sacrament of confirmation. I was a fervent Christian when I was a child. I really liked mass for one thing, the preaching. The rest of the mass bored me. At twelve, I really dropped everything in a very thoughtful way. I stopped being a believer because I am not sure that it is true. It was only as an adult that I returned to faith."
 

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