AN UNCLE BUILT MS CATHEDRAL

New West Indies Bishop spent a year in Dorset learning English
MGR. Charles Gachet, whose appointment as first Bishop of Castries, St. Lucia, in the West Indies, was announced last week, spent a year in England shortly after he was ordained priest in 1936.
The Bishop-elect is a member of the Sons of Mary Immaculate (Chavagnes Fathers), a French congregation founded in 1800 by the Ven. Louis-Marie Baudouin to win back for the Church those whose faith had been shattered during the French Revolution.
They have a house at Shaftesbury, Dorset, and it was here the( the young Fr. Gachet came to perfect his English before going to the island mission.
Called Belmont House, it was the mother-house of the congregation during the period, early this century. when the religious orders were exiled from France.
Charles Louis Alphonse Gashet was born on a farm in the parish of Bazoges-en-Pareds, France, on July 17, 1911. His father died several years ago. but his mother is living. She is a niece (If Fr. Louis Tapore F.M.1.. the first priest of the congregation to arrive in St. Lucia, in 1878, after they assumed responsibility for the rn iesion, He built the church which will be his grand-nephew's cathedral.
FIRE
Fr. Gachet began his novitiate at Mouilleron-en-Pareds in September, 1929, after six years' secondary studies at the congregation's junior seminary at Chavagnes-en-Paillers. He was ordained seven years later by Bishop Gamier of Teton.
He arrived in St. Lucia on November 27. 1938, and spent 12 years as a busy assistant priest in the parish of Castries. In addition, he built two new churches.
During the 1948 fire which destroyed most of Castries he worked tirelessly to relieve suffering and in helping to fight the flames.
After a visit to France and Rome in June, 1950, when he was received by the Holy Father, Fr. Gachet returned to St. Lucia to become parish priest of Soufriere. Here he built another church, and once again did not spare himself to help 2,000 parishioners rendered homeless by a second great fire.
Earthquakes and hurricanes are an ever-present threat in that part of Ihe world.
Fr. Ceactiet also became Superior of the Chavagnes Fathers in St, Lucia.
ENGLISHMAN
An English member of the congregation now working on the island is Fr. Charles Jesse, F.M.I., a schoolboy convert He was received into the -Church by the Fathers at Shaftsbury, his birthplace, when he was 14 years old. Ordained in France in 1927, he went to St. Lueirin the following year.
He has since visited England only twice, the second occasion a few months ago.