{"id":1029,"date":"2015-01-22T16:14:27","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T16:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bkpdefunts.smainternational.info\/?p=1029"},"modified":"2015-01-22T16:14:27","modified_gmt":"2015-01-22T16:14:27","slug":"le-pere-louis-imbach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/?p=1029","title":{"rendered":"Le P\u00e8re Louis IMBACH"},"content":{"rendered":"

Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des Missions Africaines \u2013Province de Strasbourg<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"IMBACH<\/td>\nn\u00e9 le 11 ao\u00fbt 1892 \u00e0 Bollwiller
dans le dioc\u00e8se de Strasbourg, France
membre de la SMA le 6 juin 1914
pr\u00eatre le 11 juillet 1920
d\u00e9c\u00e9d\u00e9 le 11 mars 1977<\/td>\n		\n

1920-1921 Les Roches, professeur<\/p>\n

1921-1926 missionnaire en G\u00e9orgie
1927-1928 missionnaire \u00e0 la C\u00f4te du B\u00e9nin
1929 Vigneulles
1929-1932 Dreiborn, Luxembourg, professeur
1932-1938 Grove-Ferry, Angleterre, aum\u00f4nier
1939 L\u2019Ecluse, Hollande, aum\u00f4nier
1940-1974 USA, New York
1974-1977 Tenafly, NJ<\/p>\n

d\u00e9c\u00e9d\u00e9 \u00e0 Passaic, USA, le 11 mars 1977
\u00e0 l’\u00e2ge de 85 ans<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Le p\u00e8re Louis IMBACH (1892 – 1977)<\/p>\n

Louis Imbach est n\u00e9 \u00e0 Bollwiller, au dioc\u00e8se de Strasbourg, le 11 ao\u00fbt 1892. Il fit \u00e0 Keer ses \u00e9tudes classiques, suivies d\u2019une ann\u00e9e de noviciat \u00e0 Chanly en 1911-1912. De 1912 \u00e0 1914, il entreprit deux ann\u00e9es de philosophie au grand s\u00e9minaire de Lyon, o\u00f9 il pronon\u00e7a le serment s.m.a. le 6 juin 1914.<\/p>\n

Il \u00e9tait en vacances dans sa famille en Alsace lorsque, au mois d\u2019ao\u00fbt 1914, commen\u00e7a la Premi\u00e8re Guerre mondiale. Il \u00e9tait susceptible d\u2019\u00eatre mobilis\u00e9 dans l\u2019arm\u00e9e allemande. Mais, gr\u00e2ce \u00e0 l\u2019intervention du P\u00e8re Ranchin, sup\u00e9rieur du s\u00e9minaire de Lyon, qui obtint les autorisations n\u00e9cessaires, il put se pr\u00e9senter, en novembre 1914, \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9v\u00eaque de Strasbourg, Mgr Fritzen, qui accepta de lui conf\u00e9rer le sous-diaconat et, d\u00e8s lors, selon les dispositions de la loi allemande en vigueur, il \u00e9tait exempt de tout service arm\u00e9, \u00e9tant n\u00e9anmoins mobilisable comme infirmier. Il ne fut cependant pas appel\u00e9 imm\u00e9diatement au service de sant\u00e9, de sorte que, en 1915-1916, il put faire une ann\u00e9e de th\u00e9ologie en Alsace. Mobilis\u00e9 ensuite, il rentra \u00e0 Bollwiller au d\u00e9but de d\u00e9cembre 1918 et, en f\u00e9vrier 1919, il retourna au s\u00e9minaire de Lyon pour y reprendre et y achever ses \u00e9tudes th\u00e9ologiques. Il fut ordonn\u00e9 pr\u00eatre \u00e0 Lyon par Mgr Moury, le 11 juillet 1920.<\/p>\n

Apr\u00e8s son ordination, le P\u00e8re Imbach fut d\u2019abord envoy\u00e9 \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9cole apostolique des Roches \u00e0 Chamali\u00e8res. Le P\u00e8re Desribes ouvrait cette nouvelle \u00e9cole le 1er octobre 1920, en remplacement de celle de Mozac, dont les b\u00e2timents \u00e9taient devenus insuffisants pour le nombre d\u2019\u00e9l\u00e8ves qui devaient y \u00eatre admis. Le P\u00e8re Imbach y fut professeur durant la premi\u00e8re ann\u00e9e scolaire, en 1920-1921.<\/p>\n

Puis, de 1921 \u00e0 1926, il travailla dans les Missions Noires de G\u00e9orgie, aux \u00c9tats-Unis et, de 1927 \u00e0 1928, dans la Mission de Lagos, qui s\u2019appelait \u00e0 cette \u00e9poque Vicariat Apostolique du B\u00e9nin. Rentr\u00e9 en Europe en ao\u00fbt 1928, il passa d\u2019abord quelques mois \u00e0 la maison du noviciat des Fr\u00e8res \u00e0 Vigneulles, avant de prendre diff\u00e9rents emplois d\u2019aum\u00f4nerie et de professorat. Ce fut d\u2019abord, de septembre 1929 \u00e0 juillet 1932, un poste de professeur chez les P\u00e8res de Saint Fran\u00e7ois de Sales \u00e0 Dreiborn au Luxembourg. Ensuite, de septembre 1932 \u00e0 f\u00e9vrier 1938, il fut aum\u00f4nier dans un \u00c9tablissement en Angleterre, \u00e0 Grove-Ferry. En 1939-1940, il r\u00e9sida \u00e0 la maison de la Croix Valmer et, pendant quelques mois, \u00e0 l\u2019\u00c9cluse (Sluis) aux Pays-Bas, comme aum\u00f4nier au Coll\u00e8ge Saint-Joseph d\u2019une congr\u00e9gation de Fr\u00e8res.<\/p>\n

En avril 1940, s\u2019embarquant \u00e0 Saint-Nazaire, il put retourner en Am\u00e9rique. Il exer\u00e7a d\u00e9sormais, de 1940 \u00e0 1974, un minist\u00e8re pastoral \u00e0 New York. Il logeait dans une maison destin\u00e9e au clerg\u00e9 (The Leo House), situ\u00e9e non loin d\u2019un couvent des S\u0153urs de Marie-R\u00e9paratrice, dont il \u00e9tait l\u2019aum\u00f4nier.<\/p>\n

Sa vie quotidienne y \u00e9tait bien remplie et se d\u00e9roulait dans la r\u00e9gularit\u00e9 d\u2019un horaire quasi monacal. D\u2019abord il restait toujours tr\u00e8s int\u00e9ress\u00e9 par les livres et il s\u2019appliqua beaucoup \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9tude des saintes \u00c9critures, dont il comparait les traductions modernes avec les textes originaux h\u00e9breux et grecs. Mais il donnait aussi beaucoup de temps au minist\u00e8re des \u00e2mes. Pendant de longues ann\u00e9es, il disait la sainte messe \u00e0 midi \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9glise Saint-L\u00e9on du Couvent des S\u0153urs, pour les gens d\u2019affaires de ce quartier de New York. Il assurait cette messe tous les jours sans manquer un seul jour, dit-il, durant 27 ans. Il passait aussi tous les jours des heures au confessionnal \u00e0 New York et dans d\u2019autres paroisses. Je ne sors de chez moi, dit-il encore, que pour dire la messe. Je fais le trajet toujours \u00e0 pied. Je pars \u00e0 10 heures 30, je vais au confessionnal et ne reviens chez moi qu\u2019\u00e0 15 heures. Le dimanche, il disait deux ou trois messes dans une paroisse pr\u00e8s de Tenafly.<\/p>\n

Avec tout cela, il n\u2019oublia pas les missions de la Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 ni ses confr\u00e8res d\u2019Alsace. Mgr Strebler en fit la remarque en \u00e9crivant dans le Ralliement : le P\u00e8re Imbach a su aider mat\u00e9riellement le P\u00e8re Muckensturm pour la construction de la Chapelle de Saint-Pierre. Il a soutenu efficacement plusieurs missions au Togo. (Et) il lui a fallu peiner pour soutenir ainsi nos \u0153uvres…<\/p>\n

Le P\u00e8re Imbach resta \u00e0 son poste \u00e0 New York jusqu\u2019en 1974, c\u2019est-\u00e0-dire tant que sa sant\u00e9 le lui permit. Lorsque celle-ci fit d\u00e9faut, il se retira dans un \u00e9tablissement sanitaire (nursing-home), aux environs de la maison provinciale de Tenafly. Il \u00e9tait infirme et, bien malade, il avait besoin de soins constants. Il mourut le 11 mars 1977. Il \u00e9tait dans sa 85e ann\u00e9e. Ses obs\u00e8ques liturgiques furent c\u00e9l\u00e9br\u00e9es le 14 mars dans la Chapelle s.m.a. de Tenafly.<\/p>\n

Father Louis M. IMBACH (1892 – 1977)<\/p>\n

Louis Imbach was born in Bollwiller, Alsace Loraine, in the diocese of Strasbourg, on August 11, 1892.
He died in the Columbia Nursing Home, Passaic, Passaic County, NJ, USA, on March 11, 1977.<\/p>\n

Louis Imbach was one of seven children born to Francis Xavier and Catherine (nee M\u00fcller) Imbach. He received his elementary education at the local parochial school in Bollwiller. He then entered the SMA College at Keer en Cadier for his second-level studies. He made his novitiate in Chanly (Belgium) before coming to the Society\u2019s Major Seminary at Cours Gambetta, Lyon (France), to study philosophy and theology. Louis was received as a member of the Society on June 6, 1914. During the last two years of the First World War he entered the hospital service of the German Army \u2013 as a non-commissioned officer \u2013 serving in Alsace, Germany, Belgium and Northern France. After the war he resumed his studies in Lyon and was ordained a priest in the seminary chapel, on July 11, 1920.<\/p>\n

In 1907 Ignace Lissner from Alsace commenced the first SMA mission parish in Savannah Georgia, USA. Other parishes \u2013 all in largely African-American communities \u2013 were soon established in Atlanta, Augusta and Macon. After a year spent a year in Belgium, Louis was assigned to the Society\u2019s American works. Sailing from L\u2019Havre, he arrived in New York on board the liner Paris, on October 1, 1921. He served in the Society\u2019s missions in Georgia for the next three years. He was first posted to St. Anthony\u2019s mission in Savannah, where he assisted Alphonse Riber. At the time the mission had some 70 African-American Catholics. Early in 1923 Louis posted to Immaculate Conception mission in Augusta, a larger parish with some 500 Catholic members. Sometime during the course of this year Louis was appointed Councilor to Ignace Lissner, the Pro-Provincial. The Pro-Province had been established in 1921 with a view to preparing the American branch for full Provincial status. A year later he came to the Vicariate of the Bight of Benin, in West Africa, arriving in Lagos in October 1924. Here he was posted to the principal station of Ebute-Meta in Lagos where he assisted Eugene Gasser. In 1927 he returned to Europe and was appointed to the novitiate for Brothers, situated at Vigneulles, Moselle, France. A document in the archives of the American Province in Tenafly states that between 1929-1932 he taught Latin, Greek, German and French in Luxemburg.<\/p>\n

Between 1930-32 the Society\u2019s register which detailed the placements of confreres has no entry for Louis, a very rare occurrence. However between 1933-1938 he is listed as chaplain to Saint Mary\u2019s College, Grove Ferry, near Canterbury, England. The circumstances which brought him to this Marist Brothers boarding school in England are unknown. So also are the circumstances which led him to leave America in 1924. The probability is that he had a serious difference of opinion with Fr. Lissner, most likely over money. In 1938 Louis traveled to Alsace, visiting his family and then taking up residence in the Society\u2019s \u2018Sanatorium\u2019, at La Croix Valmar. In February of the following year, still in Europe, he wrote to Fr. Maurice Slattery, the Superior General, requesting permission to work in a US diocese. And when objections were raised by Fr. Lissner, Fr. Slattery and Fr. Brediger (the Alsace Provincial), he took his case to Propaganda Fide. On December 1, 1938, Fr. Slattery informed Louis that Propaganda had ruled in his favor. \u2018It is the will of Propaganda that I allow you, in your unhappy circumstances, to find a Bishop who may be willing to accept your services as a priest for one year by way of trial, and later on by way of incardination. I am, too, requested to help you by the concession of suitable references\u2026 When you find a Bishop, Propaganda is prepared to grant you an Indult for one year to enable you to live outside your own Community and secondly is willing to approve, with my consent as Superior General of the Bishop\u2019s incardination.\u2019 What the issue was that caused the \u2018unhappy circumstances\u2019 is not known, but it is likely to have been related to the circumstances surrounding his departure from Georgia.<\/p>\n

War had already broken out when Louis returned to America, coming on April 8, 1940 by \u2018special permission of His Eminence Cardinal Fumasoni-Biondi, Prefect of Propaganda, given to him in December 1938.\u2019 Armed with Fr Slattery\u2019s reference and also a letter of introduction from the Cardinal, he obtained work first in the diocese of New York and Brooklyn, and in the diocese of Lafayette, returning again to New York City. Louis became an American citizen in 1945. He was still a member of the Alsace Province. Two years later, in April 1947, the Superior General wrote Louis saying that he should either incardinate in a diocese or return to his Province, but that he could not remain in \u2018no-man\u2019s-land\u2019. At this time Louis was chaplain to the Sisters of the Reparation in New York City and living nearby in the Leo Home where he served as an assistant. The Leo Home was a hostel run by the archdiocese to provide accommodation for priests and religious visiting America. Leo was not in any urgency to become incardinated. He wrote: \u2018I must say that personally I had more stability and security during these last seven years than ever before, although it is only a temporary arrangement. I am happy to go on this way\u2026\u2019 And he reminded Fr. Slattery that he had sent a report to Cardinal Fumasoni-Biondi each year since his return to America. That was an end of the matter. Louis remained on in the Leo Home until 1973 when his health deteriorated sharply and he began to lose his faculties. At this point the Provincial Superior of the American Province, Kevin Scanlan, performed a signal act of kindness as well as an act of common sense. Louis was a member of the Alsace Province and should have returned to the retirement home of his Province. However Fr. Scanlan, in a letter to the Alsace Provincial wrote: \u201cIt would be cruel to send him back to Alsace since he did not wish to go and has been away so long from all his former contacts over there\u2026\u2019 Instead it was arranged that Louis should enter the Dellridge Nursing Home, Paramus, NJ. Later, as his condition deteriorated, he was sent to the Bergen Pines County Hospital, also in Paramus. .<\/p>\n

Louis was 84 years old when he died. A life-long friend of Bishop Joseph Strebler, some of their correspondence is preserved in the Archives of the American Province in Tenafly.<\/p>\n

He is buried in the SMA Community Plot, Mount Carmel Cemetery, Tenafly, NJ, USA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des Missions Africaines \u2013Province de Strasbourg n\u00e9 le 11 ao\u00fbt 1892 \u00e0 Bollwillerdans le dioc\u00e8se de Strasbourg, Francemembre de la SMA le 6 juin 1914pr\u00eatre le 11 juillet…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-necrologe-sma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}