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National Geographic : 1989 Jul
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from any of those in Darcey who lived through the occupation. For most, time has served to temper the emotions that stirred the souls of the people here in the 1940s. But while the ha tred and resentment may be gone, the memo ries remain. A 72, now retired after a working life time of carpentry, Georges Mazue tends to his vegetable garden and fruit trees. One window in a front room of his house frames a view of a pear tree, and in the spring, when the blos soms are out, it is grand. But the French, as cap suled in the people of Dar cey, are good at that-at seeing to it that life is made sweet with blos soms and flowers. No family here is so poor as to not have a box full of gera niums in bloom on the front porch or a bed of dahlias in the side yard. And has a Saturday in summer ever passed in this village without some one heading up the steep hill in late afternoon with arms full of freshly cut peonies to be put at the al tar for tomorrow's Mass? The flowers help, cer tainly, for the church is old and rarely bathed in shafts of golden sunlight. Retiredfarmer and Original parts of the Arbey, 82, leaves th structure go back, proba- Darcey'sfew remai bly, to the 13th century, about 500 years after the vague beginnings of Darcey. The church tower rises above all else in the village. It is only by chance, however, that bells still ring and that a priest still cele brates Mass. For a time the village was without a priest. There was no inclination on the part of the archdiocese to appoint one (bishops, like gov ernment officials, count heads in apportioning resources). In Paris, meanwhile, a priest and university professor named Jean-Claude Rochet was giving thought to getting out of the city on weekends and perhaps being of assis tance in a village parish. A tall, slim man who smokes a pipe and wears a suit and necktie p he ni rather than the turned collar of the priest, Rochet came to serve not only the church in Darcey but also the ones in five surrounding villages. And during the week he teaches the ology at the Catholic University of Paris. "I asked the people of Darcey and the other villages to help me because I would not be in residence," he said. "And they did. There may be a shortage of vocations to be priests, but there is no shortage of vocations to be lay workers. It is coming more and more to that. The day of the resident village priest in a black cassock is over." Father Rochet takes the train down on Fri days. "When I get there, I eat with a family," he said. "There is always at least one family I can have a meal with without noti fying them beforehand no, not one, at least five." Still, church atten dance in Darcey has de clined sharply in recent years, though not so much among the elderly. They need the church in their lives. When all else fails the caft, the butcher shop, maybe even the bakery-it will be there, but not necessarily with a priest in attendance. "It has been decided that there may not be ostman Pierre another priest here after bakery, one of I leave," Father Rochet ing shops. told me. "So an impor tant part of my job is to prepare people to retain their religion without a priest, to encourage them to conduct cate chism classes for young people and organize self-run prayer groups." And if it should come to that, will Les Accor deonistes de Darcey be expected to turn to liturgical music? There are about a dozen members of the ensemble, each of whom plays an accordion. Sometimes they go through a songbook from start to finish with only a brief pause between numbers. The accordion has become the instrument of choice in Darcey. There is also a village chorale. Indeed, mu sic is important to the life of the village, and without question to the life ofMicheline Vidal, A Village That Refuses to Die 143
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