Some come here for years to study or work, others only stay for the length of an internship or an exchange program. “We get people from all over the world passing through. Our goal is to create an ambience where people don’t feel isolated”, says Rodrique Kajio, a Fontys engineering student from Cameroon.

Kajio is an acolyte in the English Mass, held in the church of the Augustinian fathers in Eindhoven known as the ‘Paterskerk’ every first and third (sometimes fifth) Sunday of the month. Mass is celebrated in the Heilige Hartkerk at Ploegstraat on other Sundays. He is also one of the people behind the International Youth Community Eindhoven, a growing group of young people which is part of this parish. Kajio is jokingly known among his friends as ‘the pope’ and likes a laugh. He regularly organizes meetings on themes which can be proposed by anyone in the community. Members of the group serve in the choir and some of them play the guitar or the drums.

Environment
After a nine-month internship with Philips for his telecom engineering course, Francesco Bonarrigo will be going home to Italy before long. Is he looking forward to that? “Not really”, he says, “this is a much more international environment than at home. Here you have to open yourself to other people, I’ve very much enjoyed my stay here”, he says. Francesco’s birthday was last Sunday and there were prayers for him and for good weather during his birthday barbeque which was attended by his friends from the youth group.

One of whom is Adolphe Foyet from Cameroon, who came to Eindhoven only eight months ago for a postdoc position at the Department of Chemical Engineering after having done research in Germany. He found the English Mass through friends of friends from Cameroon. “The youth group is about simple things like helping each other out. It’s also important to me socially. We have a lot of fun and it’s good to have friends you can count on. I know I can call them if I need help with anything.”

The initiative for the youth group came from a Polish student who died in a car accident before he could see his idea bear fruit. It now has 118 members in Eindhoven and abroad, keeping in touch through a Google newsgroup. “The basic principle is, if someone needs help, they send us a message. We do what we can”, says Kajia. “Here in Eindhoven we mainly have a lot of social activities. We sometimes take trips together, a few weeks ago we cycled to Den Bosh. But we also take time to visit the elderly residents in ‘De Wilgenhof’ home.”

Modern
Fr Chima Anyaeze, who leads the English Mass, is pleased with the growing interest in the English Mass. “We have a very modern church with many talented members. Most of the people who come to the English Mass work in technology. There are many students, researchers and people from companies like Philips and ASML. We have people from America, Asia, Africa, Poland and Italy, basically from all over the world.” Father Chima, as everyone calls him, is part of an international missionary congregation dedicated to the mutual support of Catholics in the southern and northern hemispheres. The Nigerian priest came to Eindhoven specifically to work in the inner city parish and has learned Dutch.

“We try to create an environment where foreigners can express themselves in their faith. We allow everyone to participate, in the readings, the choir or in other ways”, says Fr Chima.

The international community in this parish has grown gradually into a community of about 150 over the last five years, as people reacted to ads and posters put up in hotels, the university, Fontys and international schools. Caecillia Vitasari, an Indonesian PhD student at the Chemical Engineering Department says she found the English Mass just by googling it. Others were introduced by their contacts in Eindhoven.

The English Mass is held at 12.15, right after a Dutch Mass. The international churchgoers are visibly from a different demographic group. The Dutch are mostly over fifty, the international community mostly under - with quite a few children and people in their twenties. The English Mass is one of the ways the inner city parish is trying to keep the historical Paterskerk open and promote growth in a parish that was slowly closing down./.

Fr Chima Anyaeze leading English Mass at the Paterskerk in Eindhoven. Photos: Bart van Overbeeke

The International Youth Community Eindhoven can be reached at: iyce@gmail.com.