Everyone recognizes him when he walks through the streets of Morlaix, in Finistère-Nord. And he is very proud of it. The Senegalese Émile Dione has officiated for eighteen months as an exorcist priest in the parish of Saint-Yves, a job that is above all a vocation.
Sitting behind a desk on which piles of books are piling up, a small candle near him, Émile Dione’s large black eyes pierce his large glasses. He speaks in a calm and slow voice, articulates very softly and repeats like a teacher so that the listener fully immerses himself in his words.
” Father Emile Dione from Senegal. I am in my 63rd year. Priest for thirty years. Last of a family of six. Originally from Thiès, in the center-east of Senegal, he completed his humanities in all the major seminaries in the country, officiated in the diocese of Thiès then in Diourbel. And he arrives in Morlaix at the end of August 2021, it is then his first trip to France. ” We were lucky to have a student priest in Rome, about fifteen years ago, who wanted to recreate the links between Senegal and Finistère after befriending a Breton priest. And he had the idea of sending priests from Senegal to support the Breton Church. »
“History binds us”
However, to hear the story of this man who exudes sagacity, this exile does not seem to have been one, since a strong and ancient link exists between the native country of Émile Dione and Brittany. ” I arrived here, I had absolutely no knowledge of the region. But the welcome was great! Good pancakes and good cider “, he repeats, laughing out loud. ” What nobody knows he said, regaining all his seriousness and straightening up in his chair, is that the link between the Church of Senegal and Finistère is very strong. And the priest recounts: We received the Gospel from Breton Spiritan missionaries, mostly from Finistère. Even today, in part of the Catholic community, we still speak of the priests of Quimper. Thus, until now, whether in the region of Cayor, Sine or Casamance, catechesis in the national languages has been inspired by Catholic songs of Breton origin.
Another improbable transmission: the cult of Sainte-Anne. Omnipresent in Brittany, it has also become so in Senegal through this evangelization (Thiès and Dakar, among others, have respectively a cathedral and a parish dedicated to the saint). ” In Dakar, it’s in Bel Air, by the sea, it must have been people from Brest! “, he has fun imagining.
” I had to come to Finistère to realize that our Sainte-Anne pardons in Senegal are modeled on those here », surprises Émile Dione himself, putting his finger to his cheek as a sign of reflection. And the resemblances are not only religious, insists the priest, tightening his woolen scarf around his neck. ” I love this region, there is so much to discover… And the climate of Finistère, the rain, this nature, reminds me of Casamance, less wild animals, more polar. »
Obviously, he feels at home here and does not intend to return to Thiès during the time of his four-year cooperation, renewable as long as he wishes (and he intends to continue), the internet is more than enough for him to keep in touch with his family. ” We make videos and we laugh! And Émile Dione to insist on “the work” that must be done in Brittany.
A vocation: to help people
” I am here to support the Church of Finistère which lacks priests. I am surprised to see that the young priests here are 50 years old, whereas in my diocese of Thiès, I am a grandpa! That is to say the degree of needs that there are here. And the parish priest deplored the cruel lack of young people, of dynamism, of family spirit, which he is nevertheless trying to remedy.
And then, Émile Dione is also in Brittany for a practice that has met with immeasurable success, exorcism. Far from the clichés transmitted by horror films of all kinds, exorcism is a prayer practiced since the origins of the Church, a “ service offered to all men so that they can be delivered from the forces of evil “, explains the priest very seriously, the New Testament at hand. ” Some feel hostile forces, hear noises in their house, feel oppressed, etc. We are here to help them. »
But exorcism is no longer unanimously accepted within the Church, with some denouncing the influence that the exercise can have, arguing that today’s illnesses are above all psychic and not spiritual. Émile Dione, staring, reassures and affirms that spiritual accompaniment comes ” in addition of the psychological, that he practices a form of collaboration with the medical, a more difficult exchange however in France than in Senegal, secularism obliges. ” Some come just out of curiosity, but most of the people I receive, believers or not, are also supported psychologically. I bring them spiritual support, it’s not a power, but a faculty. I cast out demons with my hands, for free, like the love of Christ “, he insists. ” Once the process of liberation in Jesus has started, I withdraw. »
A parallel with African maraboutism? Émile Dione opens a large binder and takes out the decree of the bishop who officially appointed him an exorcist priest in the country of Morlaix, a practice he also practiced for more than a decade and a half in Senegal. ” The marabouts work with occult forces, to cast a spell or to unbewitch, he explains, weighing each word. They manipulate forces beyond them that are dangerous and destructive. My work for me is spiritual: to put a person in relation with Jesus. There is no hold or fear. A word of God and the laying on of hands. Basta! »
Émile Dione receives more and more people, and not only from Finistère. On this Friday afternoon in April, he is very proud to say that he is waiting for a family in distress who has come from Nantes to receive his prayer and ” the services of jesus “. ” People are getting worse and worse, and since the Covid crisis, there has been an existential crisis in our societies. How can you now live in a society where one fine morning, you are told that you are stopping everything? And this crisis, even today, has many repercussions on the well-being of humans, from the youngest to the oldest.
The priest, who cannot resist mentioning that if he could no longer taste pancakes or cider all at once would be very unhappy, regrets that in France the faculties of resilience are much less than in Africa. ” At home, every morning, we expect things to go wrong, but we are ready to face it. “And to remember, laughing, full of good nature:” When I arrived in Morlaix I was surprised because every morning there was electricity “. That said, Émile Dione remains full of confidence in the future, because according to him, Covid, energy crises, migration, war in Ukraine, etc., have led to a real surge of solidarity in the West. ” All this reveals a lot of potential in the human being wherever he is. »
The prelate by Morlaisian adoption intends to continue his mission, even if with the pension reform, ” it could be that[il] must stop! “. ” I feel good here. I’m happy. When it is time to return to Senegal, I will continue to be a priest. From Morlaix, I will keep the slopes of the terrain, that’s a lot of cardio and that’s very good! I took the opportunity to rejuvenate! Also, the strong preservation of cultural identity, which we also have in Senegal. And Émile Dione draws out a few words of Breton with a perfect accent. ” And then the benevolence of the people, since now, I am part of the decor… »