Gsell, Francis Xavier Ep. (1872-1960)

 

 

 

The Alsatian: German or French?

Xavier Gsell was the sixth of nine children of cotton spinner Laurent Gsell and Josephine née Jehl in the Rhine valley of Alsace, which was then part of Germany (Elsass, 1871-1918). They lived in the impoverished fishermen's lane by the River Ill at the back of Benfeld township and Xavier's father worked in a large cotton factory in neighbouring Hüttenheim until this burned down in 1881. The family then moved to Sainte-Croix-aux-Mines near Colmar, famous for its silver mines, where Xavier became a cotton-spinning apprentice.

 

Gsell's father Laurent worked in this cotton factory at Hüttenheim (near Benfeld) until it burned down in 1881 and the family moved to St. Croix aux Mines to find work. Part of the old factory and one of the chimneys are still visible to the left. Source: RG 2014	The fishermen's lane in Benfeld where F.X. Gsell spent his childhood in the Feschergassel (Rue des Pêcheurs) now heritage-listed.   Source: RG 2014
A communal laundry on the river Ill consisting of a roofed and submersible platform still used by the washerwomen of Benfeld/Hüttenheim in the 1950s. Source: RG 2014	View of the river Ill at fishermen's lane in Benfeld. Source: RG 2014

 

In these staunchly Catholic and impoverished villages recruiting missionaries regularly visited to inspire young boys for religious life and Catholic education. Fifteen-year old Xavier signed up as a Missionary of the Sacred Heart and entered the 'Petit-Oeuvre' MSC school at Issoudun where he met the founder of the MSC congregation Jules Chevalier (1824-1907). Xavier spent his one-year noviciate at the apostolic school (later Chevalier Institute) in Chezal-Benoît and took his vows on 17 October 1892 at age 20. He then studied theology and philosophy at the St. Apollinaire University in Rome, alongside Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, and was ordained on 30 May 1896.¹ He celebrated his first mass at his home village of Benfeld on 22 June 1896.²

 

Gsell is normally referred to as French, which would exclude him from inclusion among the German-speaking missionaries in Australia. The Alsace changed hands between the German and the French nations four times in seventy years, and the Alsatian dialect is Alemanic, very similar to that across the other side of the Rhine in Baden. On his Australian naturalization application in 1909 Gsell referred to himself as a German subject, but after World War I when Alsace had returned to France, he was described as French³, and his autobiography in the 1950s also positions him as a Frenchman (though he wrote it in English).⁴

 

At any rate, his ethnic identification was with a region, not a nation: 'I am proud of my Alsace'.⁵ For him Alsace was ‘the fountainhead of patriotism’ (patrie, Heimat), it was not about nation.⁶ In his autobiography he related how, in 1921, when his father had already died, he visited home and found it strange that everyone, especially the children, were now speaking French, although his mother still spoke Alsatian and Gsell responded in French. ‘My heart was wrung in the knowledge that I could not speak the language of my mother.’⁷ He had been away from Alsace for 34 years. He had attended school in France, studied in Italy (with Latin, Greek and some Hebrew), worked in Australia and acquired some Tiwi.

 

Elsewhere there are glimpses that he was still more Alsatian than French. In a letter to his family from retirement in Kensington in 1950, he related how he enjoyed speaking Alsatian with Père Willem, a priest from Boffzheim (not far from Benfeld).⁸ Perhaps his native tongue was deeper in his heart than he himself understood, because in 1942, in the terror of death his prayers were German. Sheltering in a trench during the first bombing of Darwin:

 

‘It was the day after Ash Wednesday and I found myself repeating to myself: “Ash thou art, and to ash thou wilt return … perhaps today”’.⁹

 

In both English and French the verse of Genesis 3:19 actually refers to dust (poussière), whereas in German it refers to ash (Asche), so the association with Ash Wednesday (Mercredi des cendres, Aschermittwoch) comes from German prayer.¹⁰

 

 

Sydney – Yule Island - Darwin

Soon after his ordination, at age 25, Fr. Gsell departed for Australia (7 September 1897) with the intention of joining the MSC mission in New Guinea founded in 1884. But arriving in Sydney (20 October 1897) he was assigned to teach dogma and scriptures at the new MSC college at Kensington which opened its doors in December 1897.¹¹ He was to learn English and teach theology, and his Australian students later held him in affectionate memory.¹² In December 1898 he was appointed procurator of the New Guinea missions at Randwick, which for Gsell was a 'dispiriting time'.¹³

 

After three years in Sydney Gsell was at last sent to undertake missionary work in Papua, arriving at Yule Island on 9 May 1900. The Catholics at Yule Island were assisted by 14 Filipino cathechists who married into the local population, and in 1891 the entire population of the island was baptised.¹⁴ During his period on Yule Island (1900-1906) Gsell contracted malaria and black-water fever (malarial hemoglobinuria). Also during his stay in Papua, one of the German MSC missions near Rabaul was attacked. In the attack on 13 August 1904 on St. Paul's mission, five Sisters, three Brothers and two priests were killed. ¹⁵ The priests had been like Gsell from Le Petit-Oeuvre in Issoudun, the German Matthäus Rascher (1868-1904) and the Dutch Hendrik Rutten (1873-1904). This cannot have failed to leave a strong impression on Gsell, who mentions these two in his autobiography. ¹⁶

 

In 1902 the last Jesuits withdrew from the Northern Territory, and in 1906 the MSC took over the Catholic ministry of the Northern Territory (then part of South Australia). After six years of missionary work in Papua New Guinea, Fr. Gsell was appointed (23 April 1906) as apostolic administrator of the Northern Territory (the Victoria-Palmerston diocese - according to Flynn created in 1848 as the world's largest Catholic diocese).¹⁷ Fr. Gsell returned to Sydney for five months, and arrived at Port Darwin on the day of the Feast of Assumption, 15 August 1906, greeted, according to his recollections, by just three Catholics on the wharf (Tom Caine, Robert Pickford, Francesco Chavez). He officially commenced work on the 26 August 1906.¹⁸ For the next five years he occupied the ‘comfortable little bungalow’ that had previously housed the Jesuits.¹⁹ According to Flynn Fr. Gsell was the only Catholic priest in the Northern Territory for two years until Fr. John O'Connell MSC arrived in 1909.²⁰ Gsell recruited missionaries of the Sacred Heart²¹ and Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and opened St. Mary’s school in Darwin in 1907 to re-establish the Catholic presence in the Northern Territory. ²²

 

'Msgr. X. Gsell, Apostolischer Vikar von Darwin - Bathurst, Australia. 'Source: Benoît Gsell, Benfeld and Dominique Thirion, Strasbourg

 

Bathurst Island mission and marriage policy

With a fellow priest now able to 'hold Darwin', Fr. Gsell moved to Bathurst Island [2] in 1911 to establish a mission among the Tiwi.²³ Like his predecessors at Yule Island, he was accompanied by four Filipinos, and they were shortly joined by Br. Henschke and Fr. Courbon. The MSC Sisters arrived on the island in 1914 to open a school. Soon the children agreed to be baptised and later formed the core of the Christian community.²⁴ During the first fifteen years of the mission 113 children were baptised, but no adult conversions were achieved.

 

Fr. Gsell remained on Bathurst Island (Nguiu) for 27 years focusing on Aboriginal children. He felt that polygamy was the path to 'collective suicide’ for the Tiwi, because it entailed child sexual abuse, low fertility and ‘wife-lending’ and his creative response was to purchase the marriage rights of women who sought his help. (See Bathurst Island Mission - Mission Policy [3]) The case of little Martina became the cornerstone of his mission policy and he spent a lifetime explaining and defending it.²⁵ This initiative later earned him the title of the ‘Bishop with the 150 wives'.

 

The emerging discipline of anthropology in Australia leveled strong criticism against Gsell’s marriage policy as a number of young researchers became interested in the Tiwi. Baldwin Spencer spent two weeks at Joe Cooper’s buffalo camp in 1912 when the mission was just being established, and Charles Hart began to conduct fieldwork among the Tiwi in the 1920s.²⁶ In 1952 Mabel Wylie completed a study of attitudes towards polygamy in northern Australia with reference to the Old Testament.²⁷ She was a student of Sydney Anthropology Professor Adolf Elkin, who was an Anglican rector, and her study was commissioned by Rev. C. F. Gribble, general secretary of the Methodist overseas missions. The study was a Protestant critique of a Catholic policy. But Gsell had obtained Papal approval for his policy in 1948 and for him this was all that mattered: 'L'approbation du Chef de l'Eglise me suffit.' ('The approval of the head of the church is good enough for me.')²⁸

 

Gsell deflected the attack: ‘When I started my missionary life, anthropology was still in its infancy. If it had been developed as it is in our days, it would have been very useful to me and would have helped me to avoid many mistakes.’²⁹ In 1955 W.E.H. Stanner relayed criticisms of Gsell's policy to the Department of Territories. ³⁰ By this time Gsell had retired and had already published his defence. Later the female anthropologists Catherine Berndt, Jane Goodall and Diane Bell contested Gsell’s view that Tiwi women were degraded by polygyny, and Corinna Erckenbrecht (2003) calls Gsell’s marriage policy ‘one of the most bizarre testimonies of overseas mission history’.³¹ On the other hand a Tiwi politician in 2012 referred to Gsell as the 'protector of young promised wives'.³²

 

Relations with government

Fr. Gsell favoured a theocratic patriarchy guided by clear rules and personal charisma over complex administrative procedures. He spoke out against prison terms for indigenous offenders, and preferred light corporal punishment or a punitive transfer. In the 1930s Gsell weighed into the debate about the recognition of native law in the justice system on the basis of his experiences in Papua, where courts of native affairs were operating under resident magistrates. He disfavoured this system and suggested instead to draw up a simple set of 'commandments'.³³

 

Gsell strove to keep government intervention at arm's length. His annual reports contained perfectly balanced budgets, always in round figures: £200 in - £200 out; £650 in - £650 out. He did not want his mission workers to become Protectors of Aborigines and have to administer government policy. What he did want from the government was an effective patrol boat to police the regulations under the Aboriginal Ordinance, so for many years he included in his reports salient observations about the detrimental interactions with lugger crews, since the opportunities of trade with the luggers dictated the waxing and waning interest of Tiwi in the mission.

 

As soon as Fr. Gsell left Bathurst Island mission (1938), government intervention increased. During postwar reconstruction he fought a last battle with the Commonwealth government, which sought to resume all freehold land in 1946 in a move to disaggregate the mixed and Asian communities that had emerged in the city centre. Gsell resisted all efforts to shift the Catholic cathedral and school arguing on the basis of the constitutional rights of the church vis-á-vis the State.

 

 

Bishop Gsell and Catholic extension in the Northern Territory

As apostolic administrator Fr. Gsell extended the Catholic presence to Alice Springs in 1929, and to Tennant Creek in 1936 (Santa Teresa Mission and Charles Creek). When the Bathurst Island mission seemed on the brink of collapse he established another mission at Port Keats [4] (Wadeye) in 1935. He received an OBE for his efforts in 1936.³⁴

 

At age 66 Fr. Gsell became Bishop of Darwin (1938-1948) in charge of a vicariate that stretched as far as Torres Strait. He was both honoured and humbled, and explained to his sister Marie that ' being Bishop brings heavy responsibilities', signing off as 'your poor little brother at the other end of the world'.³⁵ 'The other end of the world' became a frequent turn of phrase in Gsell's pen, and by late 1939 the militarisation of the north became very noticeable as 'Darwin is becoming more and more a garrison city each day'.³⁶ During his period as Bishop, Gsell established a settlement for mixed Aboriginal descendants at Garden Point [5], Melville Island (1940) near the police station that had been set up in response to his consistent pleas, and another mission at Arltunga (1943) in Central Australia. After the first bombing of Darwin Bishop Gsell joined the stream of civilian evacuees to Alice Springs (1942-1945).

 

In May 1946 Gsell celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ordination. He had perhaps hoped to celebrate this at home in Alsace³⁷ but his trip to Europe had to wait until 1947 in the lead-up to his retirement and succession by Bishop John O’Loughlin in 1948.

 

Bishop Gsell spent about six months in Europe. In Alsace he baptised his cousin's grandson Benoît Gsell in September 1947. It was one of his last acts as a Bishop, a fact of which he was keenly aware, annotating each photograph with 'Bishop of Darwin'. On 2 January 1948 he had a private 15-minute audience with Pope Pius XII who gave him several blessed rosaries³⁸ and endorsed his controversial marriage policy: 'Yes, I understand perfectly. You purchased the women to set them free. You have conducted yourself well. I bless your work and your diocese with all my heart.'³⁹

 

On his return to Australia Bishop Gsell undertook a last tour of his vicariate including Darwin, the Channel Island, Port Keats, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs, Arltunga and Katherine with its new Catholic church. At Bathurst Island he was dispirited to see the flow of Tiwi into employment in Darwin. In his farewell speech in October 1949 he hinted at Psalm 126: 'yes, I have sown with tears but I have also reaped with joy'.⁴⁰ Delaying his move into retirement at the Kensington monastery, he spent one month in Alice Springs, six weeks in Adelaide, and eight weeks in Melbourne. After travelling for more than three months he wrote home that he was 'digging in like a general trying to hold each position as long as possible' to avoid the inevitable retreat into retirement.⁴¹ 

 

A memento of the baptism of Benoît Gsell by Bishop Gsell in Benfeld, 1947. Benoît was the grandson of the Bishop's cousin Charles. Annotated by Gsell on the reverse: 'Souvenir du saint baptisme conféré a Benoît Gsell dans l'eglise d'Erstein par Mgr. + F.X. Gsell, MSC, Évêque de Darwin, le 6 Septembre 1947' Source: Benoît Gsell, Benfeld and Dominique Thirion, Strasbourg	Bishop Gsell with Henri Thirion, Paulette and baby Dominique at Sainte-Croix aux Mines, 1947. (Henri was the son of Bishop Gsell's cousin Marguerite.) Source: Benoît Gsell, Benfeld and Dominique Thirion, Strasbourg	'Bishop Fatigué + Familie Legrand, 1947' (A 'tired Bishop' in 1947 with his sister Marie and Raimond Legrand. The other woman may be his sister Anna Liess.) Source: Benoît Gsell, Benfeld and Dominique Thirion, Strasbourg

 

 

Retirement and Autobiography

Gsell retired to the MSC monastery in Kensington (Sydney) in 1950.⁴² The French government awarded him the cross of the Légion d'honneur⁴³ and Pope Pius XII, who knew him from their common period in Rome, appointed him as bishop assistant to the pontifical throne. Gsell immediately set about writing his autobiography, to which he kept referring as 'mon fameux livre' (my grand book) because he felt that it took him so long to write. By June 1950 it was running to nearly 300 pages of manuscript in English and he hoped that it would be out by Christmas. He called it 'My Fifty Years in Mission'. He told his sister:

 

Those who have read my manuscript find it interesting. Eventually you will be able to judge for yourself, but I assure you that for me as an old bushman it is a tough job to write a book. My hands are more used to toil and spade than the feather. But there, one has to do penitence, and what a great penitence it is!⁴⁴

 

By September 1950 Gsell was despairing about the slow process of publishing: 'I never thought that the publication of such a small book could give so much trouble'.⁴⁵ He could hardly credit that it may take longer to publish a manuscript than to write it. The book is largely based on the anecdotes related in Gsell's reports to the Department of Territories, but without dating most of the incidents. Pat Ritchie, a stockman and lay worker at the Tiwi mission, used the same anecdotes for his adventure narratives and press publicity, though the details of the stories differ somewhat.⁴⁶

 

The cover of Gsell's autobiography in 1954 with its 'titre-choc'

Gsell’s autobiography was written in English and appeared in French in 1954, where it received its dashing title, L’Évêque aux 150 épouses, the 'titre-choc' (shock title) that became Gsell's badge.⁴⁷ Gsell expected that readers would find the title 'a bit strange'.⁴⁸ Indeed, it was also somewhat misleading: Gsell was not a bishop while at Nguiu, he claims to have purchased the marriage rights of 124 women, not 150, and of course he did not mean to claim the women as his wives, though this may have been the Tiwi understanding of the arrangement. The book appeared with the same marketable title in German and English in 1956.⁴⁹ By August 1958 the English edition had sold out.⁵⁰

 

During his retirement Gsell felt at greater liberty to comment on Australian and world affairs. He observed the post-war stream of European migrants to Australia, at first with joy and encouragement, and later with concern. Australia could be a 'land of milk and honey' (un pays de cocagne) but it took hard work and determination, and especially the first few years were dire for migrants. Gsell felt that the discovery of uranium and oil in the Northern Territory would change the face of Australia but wrote to his sister Marie 'if one day an atom bomb falls, remember it as a present from Darwin'.⁵¹ The cold war spread fear of communism and so it was comforting that the 'Moscovites' (Moscutaires) 'got a battering in Korea'.⁵² With General de Gaulle's return to power, about which 'everyone is happy', Gsell prayed 'that he will end this stupid war in Africa'.⁵³

 

When an MSC training hospital opened in Kensington Gsell moved in to minister for the Sisters, some of who had been at the mission with him. 'I look after their soul and they look after my body'.⁵⁴ He also visited the patients, many of whom 'are younger and healthier than me'.⁵⁵ He was pleased that 'my black children in Bathurst write to me often, in English.'⁵⁶ In 1956 he celebrated the diamond jubilee of his 1896 ordination and he began to sound surprised that he was still alive - 'the main thing is to be ready'.⁵⁷

 

Bishop Gsell was buried at St. Mary’s Towers in Douglas Park, and in in 1982 his remains were transferred to Darwin to the crypt of St. Mary’s Cathedral.⁵⁸ An Aboriginal hostel in Nightcliff (Darwin) is named after him, and in August 2006 a lavish commemoration of Gsell’s arrival in Darwin took place in the presence of dignitaries from Rome and Strasbourg, including a centenary mass and a reception at parliament house.⁵⁹