The final chapter of an extraordinary life concluded when Perth priest Father John Luemmen sac was laid to rest on January 17.
From being drafted into Adolf Hitler’s army in 1940, to becoming a Pallottine priest and moving to Australia, receiving a British Empire Award from Queen Elizabeth II and being played by Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush in a recent Australian movie, the entire life of the 94-year-would not have been out of place on a cinema screen.
Fr John shared his remarkable journey in an interview with The Record in 2007.
He was born on December 11, 1919 in Appeldorn, Germany, a rural area near the Dutch border.
During his teenage years he attended a Pallottine boarding school, but was adamant that it was strictly for educational purposes.
“I had never heard of the Pallottines before this – and I definitely didn’t want to be an overseas missionary,” he said with a smile.
Through the influence of the Pallottine priests, however, Fr John’s attitude soon changed and he recognised his call to the priesthood and the Order.
His preparations, however, which began in November 1939, were interrupted by Hitler’s escalating power and, in 1940, all novices were called up for military service.
Fr John was to become part of Germany’s ill-fated advance into Russia and found himself involved in the Siege of Leningrad, one of history’s longest and most destructive battles.
He was one of 20 who survived from his company of 120.
When he finally escaped the frontline horror, Fr John was without three toes from his right foot, the result of severe frostbite.
With the desire to become a priest still strong, Fr John was sent to Italy in 1944.
In between battles, and at great personal risk, he would attend Mass.
Such visits could have led to his court martial and death, but his Commanding Officer, a friend, turned a blind eye.
As the German army accepted defeat, Fr John eluded Russian imprisonment by hours, escaping across a river to the Americans.
Many of his compatriots were not so lucky, he recalled, when they were captured and marched to Siberia.
Fr John was placed in an Allied prison camp and soon connected with a priest, becoming his chauffeur and altar boy as he celebrated Mass at three separate prison camps.
When he expressed his desire to become a priest to US Intelligence agents, he was released.
Upon returning to Germany, Fr John learnt of the death of his brother.
When he returned to the seminary to complete his novitiate he was reunited with only nine of the original 33 students.
Ten had been killed during the war and the remainder had either been maimed or unwilling to return.
Fr John completed his studies in 1950 and was ordained in Limburg with his fellow Pallottine deacons on July 9.
At this stage of his life, after spending time in so many other countries during the war, his earlier concerns about working in foreign lands no longer deterred him and he accepted his posting to Australia.
He arrived in Fremantle, along with three other newly ordained Pallottine priests and a number of other lay and consecrated missionaries, on April 5, 1951.
One of those to migrate with Fr John was Schoenstatt nun, Sister Anita Spenneberg.
The now 96-year-old, residing in Sydney, recalled the experience to The Record: “In 1951, on the boat Cyrenia we travelled from Germany to Australia,” she explained.
“It was overloaded with migrants, mainly from Germany and Italy, who were searching for a new home in a new country.”
Sr Anita recalled Fr John’s enthusiasm and energy from the very beginning, as he immediately dedicated his time to establishing educational foundations for young Aborigines.
Fr John’s memories of these earliest days, however, reminded him of the little awareness he had of the place where he would spend the next six decades.
“All I knew about Australia had been passed on by my Superiors,” he had recalled with a laugh.
“Sheep, kangaroos and primitive Aborigines are the hallmark of the country, I was told, and the diocesan clergy were mostly Irish – very good priests – but with a national weakness; they liked their whiskey.”
Not long after his arrival he found himself taking the six and a half hour drive to Tardun in the remote bush of the Diocese of Geraldton in north-west Western Australia.
Here, until 1955, he cared for Aboriginal boys at the Order’s boarding school and farm, claiming to have learnt his English from the students, newspapers and listening to others.
In his autobiography, Led by the Spirit, he would describe these years as “My apprenticeship amongst the Aborigines”.
Around 1955, the Pallottines purchased a five acre block of bushland in Rossmoyne and a building was erected.
From 1956 until 1980, Fr John took charge of this Training Centre and developed it into a place where Aboriginal students were accommodated as they attended secondary schools and learned trades as apprentices and trainees.
“He was passionate about Aboriginal education,” Fr Eugene San, Regional Leader of the Australian Pallottines, told the large crowd attending his funeral at the Queen of Apostle Parish in Riverton.
“He saw it as the great equaliser for our Aboriginal brothers and sisters, enabling them to be on equal footing with everyone else.”
The Training Centre commenced with only a single student, Harold Little, who also played for the Perth Demons in the West Australian Football League.
“Boys studying in Tardun often got the basic ‘mission education’, but Harold wanted to study more,” Fr John said.
“So I helped organise an apprenticeship for him and taught him all the academic subjects. He was a good carpenter.”
With Harold successfully completing his Year 10 certificate and going on to become a cabinet maker, and the success of several others the following year, applications started flooding in.
By 1961, Fr John was accepting girls into the school and, as numbers swelled, he sourced finance to expand the land to 25 acres, with the Centre eventually accommodating 100 Aboriginal boys and girls per year in six separate houses.
Between 1956 and 1963, Fr John was also the parish priest at the newly established Queen of Apostles Parish, where he diversified his energy into activities and projects such as beginning a second stream at the primary school and the building of Orana Primary School in Willetton.
On June 16, 1979, Fr John was awarded the British Empire Medal (Civil Division) from Queen Elizabeth II for “Service to Aboriginal and Migrant Welfare”.
In his autobiography, Fr John describes his joy at receiving many congratulatory telegrams after the occasion, including one from the Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser.
Not long after the award, after 25 years of service and on advice from his German Provincial, Fr John retired from the Pallottine Centre to go on sabbatical before once again becoming the parish priest in Riverton where he remained until 1995.
Fr John’s work was also recognised in more recent times when he was presented with an Active Citizenship Award by the Canning City Council on Australia Day in 2010 for his extensive service to Aboriginal education and welfare, the expansion of primary school education and his work with the aged.
In the same year, the movie Bran Nue Dae was released, a big-screen adaptation of the stage musical written by Jimmy Chi who had been a student at Rossmoyne.
Geoffrey Rush’s Fr Benedictus character had been loosely based on Fr John.
In the movie, Rush portrays him as an authoritarian; however, Harold Little’s wife, Cecelia, one of the first girls to be enrolled at the Rossmoyne mission in 1961, told The Record that although Fr John was strict, he was more a mentor to the boys and girls, and many maintained their friendship with him throughout his life.
In July 2010, Fr Ray Hevern, the then Australian Pallottine leader, concelebrated Fr John’s 60th anniversary of priestly ordination along with seven other Pallottine priests.
Parishioner Bill Smith said that the event had been attended by many parishioners, Pallottine lay missionaries and ex-students, the latter thanking Fr John for the opportunities he had provided for them through education.
Similarly, those whose lives had been touched by this loyal servant, including a contingent of ex-students from Broome, attended his funeral on January 17.
During his eulogy, Fr Eugene reflected on his two years working as an assistant priest alongside Fr John, after his ordination in 1991.
He described him as a tough taskmaster, but also as a catalyst for learning.
“Like his namesake, John the Baptist, the fiery prophetic character, a trailblazer, Fr John was quite challenging but at the same time we knew that beneath the exterior toughness he cared deeply about others and he would never ask of others what he wasn’t willing to do himself,” Fr Eugene said.
“He taught us, by example, the lessons of service and commitment; about perseverance; diligence and hard work. As a newly ordained priest, this was a good place to cut one’s teeth.”
Fr John continued to be active in ministry, even after his retirement as parish priest in 1995, celebrating Masses and visiting parishioners right up until the last few months of his life.
“These last few months were particularly difficult for Fr John as his mobility became more and more limited,” Fr Eugene said.
“However, even when he was consigned to a wheelchair his request was always ‘move me, move me forward’. That was Fr John, even in sickness he wanted to be progressing. He wasn’t one for stagnation.”
Such stoic determination was characteristic of Fr John’s lifestyle but what undergirded and provided the foundation to everything he achieved, Fr Eugene believed, was his priesthood, his love for God and his love for the people God placed in his care.
It was a sentiment shared by his pioneering travel companion, Sr Anita, who recalled her experiences when she worked alongside Fr John from 1985 to 1995.
“I remember him as a zealous priest, who was concerned about bringing people back or choosing the Catholic faith,” she said.
“He was a hard worker and a genuine priest who was close to the people in his parish. I enjoyed working with him.”
In Led by the Spirit, Fr John recalls the advice he was given before leaving Germany: “Don’t worry too much about the Aborigines in Australia” he had been told.
“Their numbers are small, they live in different tribes, their languages are different and they are a dying race. Make sure you baptise them before they die so they can go straight to heaven.”
The reality of his experience, however, instilled in him a passion to invest his love, time and effort mentoring and empowering Aboriginal people to embrace the fullness of both their earthly and spiritual lives.
It was a passion he attempted to convey to all people he encountered throughout his life.
“They were all children of God,” he would write, “and we were missionaries, simply sent here to tell them that they had a loving Father in heaven.”
It is a simple and beautiful summary of a life that was lived to the full.