A conference on Bishop Xavier Thoyer and the foundation of a local church in Fianarantsoa (1937- 1962) with the intervention of Fr. Charles Raymond Ratongavao.
Father Charles Raymond Ratongavao, priest of the Diocese of Fianarantsoa, holder of H.D.R. Charles Raymond Ratongavao, priest of the diocese of Fianarantsoa, holder of H.D.R. (Habilitation to Direct Research) in Christian history and theology, was carried out on Wednesday February 19, 2020 at the Salesian Don Bosco house. The foundation of the Catholic Church in Fianarantsoa had known the participation of religious and lay people of high esteem in order to begin its history and to respond to the aspirations of the indigenous people to the Gospel messages, to the Good News.
Bishop Xavier Thoyer is above all a figure of the Church in Fianarantsoa. Born on 8 July 1884 in Moulins, France, he was sent to Madagascar (Fianarantsoa) as a visitor in 1936 and had to face the weight of two very different cultures. Already on December 24, 1936 he was appointed Bishop and Vicar Apostolic of Fianarantsoa, and he took on this difficult mission for 26 years. He resigned in 1962 and died in Ambositra on October 7, 1970.
Bishop Thoyer's episcopate was not self-evident, given the historical and cultural context in which Madagascar found itself at the time. The Church and colonial France presented themselves, at the beginning of his episcopate, as "two friendly powers" that support each other. In pastoral work, this political situation was reflected in the introduction into Betsileo of a Church that was a copy of France's church. The result is the image of a Christianity largely foreign to the local socio-cultural realities. It is not surprising if the Christian religion was the object of popular rejection during the Malagasy uprising of 1947. Bishop Xavier Thoyer took advantage of this turnaround in the population, despite the loss of one of his priests, Father Patrice Garvey, who was killed by an assegai at Manampatrana (on the eastern Tanala cliff) on April 4, 1947, to show a face of the Church that was close to the local population, both in the coastal regions and in the central highlands. "Stay close to the people" was the leitmotiv at the monthly meetings of the presbytery.
This closeness to the people has also translated, from the pastoral point of view, into a particular attention to needs and lived reality. The foundation of a rural formation centre in Andriamboasary (on Fianarantsoa suburb), that of the College of St. Francis Xavier Ambatomena Fianarantsoa and of the Immaculate Conception in Mananjary, illustrate this willingness of the Church to provide the necessary support to raise the level of agricultural techniques for the rural world and of knowledge in the school environment. In order to give dynamism to the pastoral ministry, Bishop Xavier Thoyer has also put himself in the promotion of indigenous vocations. These concern both the laity and the priestly vocation. The presence of Fidei Donum priests and the establishment of new religious congregations such as the Discalced Carmelites, the Cistercian Monks, the Sicilian Jesuits, the Daughters of Charity, the Religious of Arras, the Fathers of the Holy Family, the Sisters of Ragusa, etc... helped Bishop Xavier Thoyer to build a local Church for which the mission is constitutive of its identity. In conclusion, Christians and mission are inseparable in the life of the Church. Bishop Xavier Thoyer was one of those who worked for the local Church in the Betsileo.
Post-novice salesian of Don Bosco, Fianarantsoa
