Anaclet Dupar, « a silent and courageous intelligence » (P. Didier Mupaya)

On August 28, the Université de Mazenod de Kinshasa paid tribute to its former rector, Father Anaclet Dupar. This is the tribute of the secretary general responsible for research, Father Didier Mupaya, shortly before the funeral mass.

Silent and courageous intelligence
Laudatio academica

in tribute to the Reverend Father Professor Doctor Anaclet Dupar Lalhe, O.M.I. On the occasion of his funeral — Kinshasa, Friday, 28 August 2026

Reverend Father Provincial,
Dear Brothers Oblates of Mary Immaculate,
Church authorities,
Reverend Abbots, Reverend Sisters,
Academic and administrative authorities,
Teaching and scientific staff,
Dear students,
Dear Members of the biological family of Father Anaclet Dupar Lalhe,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is with deep emotion and deep gratitude that I take the floor in this painful circumstance to pay tribute to a man whose life has been intimately linked to the service of God, the Church, intellectual formation and youth: Reverend Father Professor Anaclet Dupar Lalhe (ADL), Oblate of Mary Immaculate.

Father Anaclet Dupar left us unexpectedly on Wednesday 19 August 2026, in Kinshasa, at St Joseph's Hospital, after a short illness. The information published notably recalls his ministry as parish priest Saint-Philippe and his role as former and first rector of De Mazenod University.

But today, we do not only want to recall a date, a function or an administrative path. We want to celebrate a person, a presence, an intelligence, a vision and a work.

1. ADL: An intelligence for vision

Father Anaclet Dupar was a silent and courageous intelligence. Silent, not because she lacked strength, but because she didn't have to stage to be fruitful. Courageous, because she knew how to discern possibilities where others still saw only obstacles; because she knew how to carry a intuition up to its realization, even when this intuition encountered incomprehension, indifference or resistance.

He possessed this rare quality of builders: the ability to see away while accepting to start modestly.

This intelligence was often placed at the forefront of innovative projects. It is therefore not without reason that, from the end of his graduation in philosophy in 1989, his religious superiors entrust him with the conduct of a pioneering river mission: to take a first boat, going up the Congo River and the Lomami, from Kinshasa to Isangi and Opala, in order to open up new perspectives to the missionary services intended for the populations of these landlocked lands.

This mission, carried out at the threshold of his missionary life, was already revealing his personality. Audacity was required to embark on an uncertain river route, availability to meet distant peoples, and a keen sense of initiative to imagine concrete measures and forms of intervention in the event of unforeseen events.

The young philosopher whom his superiors sent to the river already carried in him the traits of the future builder: the taste of exploration, the courage of the unedited, the attention to the needs of the people and the conviction that any true mission begins with a shift towards the other.

The same courageous intelligence was again manifested when he became the first Congolese Oblate to take on the heavy duties of provincial treasurer. Such a responsibility required much more than control of numbers and procedures. It called for probity, discretion, a great capacity for discernment and the courage to make decisions in the service of the province's common good and peripheral missions.

In accepting this charge, Father Dupar demonstrated that the administration of ecclesial resources was also a true missionary service. To manage the property of the community rigorously was to allow works to live, communities to function and apostolic commitments to continue. His financial responsibility was thus in keeping with his river experience: opening paths, ensuring the continuity of the mission and making the future possible.

The same consistency appears in his intellectual and scientific journey. His doctoral research, devoted to the formation, acquisition and management of the heritage of the former Churches of North Africa, was not a mere historical curiosity. In his doctoral thesis in theology, supported at Saint Paul University in Ottawa in 2009, he asked about the theological foundations of the heritage of the Churches of Roman Africa.

By studying how the former Churches of North Africa had constituted, administered and consolidated their resources, Father Dupar also sought, in depth, to enlighten the march of the African Churches today. He viewed the past not as a closed museum, but as a source of intelligence for the present and inspiration for the future.

Again, her intelligence proved courageous: she dared to face concrete questions — management, responsibility, resources, consolidation of works — while placing them in a theological, historical and ecclesial reflection. At home, the search was never separated from the mission. It was intended to help the Church better understand her history, faithfully administer her property and build her future in Africa with greater responsibility.

From the banks of the Congo River to the responsibilities of the provincial treasury, from the archives of the ancient Churches of Roman Africa to the construction sites of De Mazenod University, there was a profound continuity in his journey. Father Dupar has always been a man of passage and openness: he went to places where something had to be started, organized, structured or renewed. He was not content to dwell in existing works, walk on beaten paths, he sought to give them a new future.

2. ADL: The principal craftsman of the Université de Mazenod

Among the works to which his name remains attached, the Université de Mazenod occupies a special place.

This University is the result of the statutory transformation of the Saint-Eugène de Mazenod Theological Institute. Its opening in 2018 enshrined a major institutional evolution and a new ambition for Catholic higher education. On the occasion of the official launch in May 2019, Father Anaclet Dupar, then rector, recalled that formation and higher education were means of evangelization, without being confused with the first end of evangelization.

This thought admirably sums up his approach: forming the human being in all its dimensions, developing intelligence, strengthening consciousness, preparing for responsibility and serving society. This is what he stopped teaching students, even lay students, through his courses on the social teaching of the Church.

I remember, as if it were yesterday, on this day of early January 2017 when his documentation relating to the statutory transformation of the Saint-Eugène Theological Institute of Mazenod at De Mazenod University was thrown overboard by an ecclesiastical authority which was supposed to engage in the front line.

This impulsive reaction could have discouraged him. It could've led to a waiver. It could have made it appear that the project was unrealistic or permanently compromised. But Father Dupar did not give up.

It is at this precise moment that perhaps the greatness of man is best revealed. He agreed to wear the cross of this university even before it was recognized in its new form. He carried him in silence, in discretion, sometimes in loneliness, but always with remarkable inner determination.

He was the first to believe in this work for a long time. It will remain the main craftsman and the one who led the first steps.

3. ADL : A Rector close to students

But Father Dupar was not only the man of an institutional project. He was also a paternal voice for the nascent De Mazenod University.

He was close to the students. This proximity involved a genuine educational responsibility. For him the university is not limited to the transmission of knowledge, it is also a space for human growth, discernment and personal maturation.

He paid particular attention to the first lay students enrolled at De Mazenod University. In them, he saw not only the beneficiaries of the training, but also the first witnesses of the opening and future of the institution. He knew that their presence gave a new face to the academic work of the Oblates in the DRC.

This closeness with students was part of the family spirit of Oblate charism. Father Dupar has passed on with fidelity, combining academic demand with benevolence and listening. Today, Father Dupar will rest at the cemetery on the campus of De Mazenod University. Its silent presence at the heart of the institution will forever remind the university community of the history, sacrifices and family spirit that must continue to exist.

4. ADL: A collaborator and a life-master

For my part, I had the grace and responsibility to collaborate with him for six years, from 2013 to 2019, as academic secretary general.

This collaboration allowed us to discover man beyond the function. I was able to observe his way of thinking, deciding, negotiating and holding.

I also understood that Father Dupar's leadership was not based on noisy authority. Rather, it was exercised through conviction, consistency, example and ability to stay on course even when circumstances became difficult.

During these six years he was for me a collaborator, a superior, an adviser and, in many circumstances, a master of life, restraint and silence. Today I measure how much this collaboration has contributed to my own understanding of academic service, academic responsibility and human proximity.

5. ADL: An integral design of the university

Father Dupar's vision was rooted in an integral conception of university.

For him, higher education had to be both scientifically demanding, responsive to human realities and oriented towards the common good. A Catholic university was to be, according to an expression recalled at the launch of the Université de Mazenod, « consciousness in science and light in society ».

6. A legacy to pursue

Father Dupar's death plunges us into sadness, but his work forbids us discouragement.

A life like his does not end with death. It continues in the institutions that it has helped to create, in the students it has trained, in the collaborators it has accompanied, in the vocations it has encouraged and in the beliefs it has sown.

De Mazenod University now bears a particular responsibility: not betray the intuition of its principal craftsman.

Continuing his work will be for us:

defending the quality and integrity of training;
staying close to students, especially the most vulnerable;
make the university a space for research, dialogue and accountability;
uniting the academic requirement in the sense of service, and human;
maintain the courage to innovate when society needs it;
working in discretion, without seeking honors, but with the conviction that every true work ends up bearing fruit.

Final tribute

Reverend Father Professor Anaclet Dupar Lalhe,

You have been a priest, religious, teacher, researcher, treasurer, rector, builder and father for many.

You served the Church faithfully.
You served youth with proximity.
You served the search in depth.
You served college with vision.
You served the truth with courage.

You have carried, sometimes in silence and discretion, the cross of a work that was not yet fully recognized. You have accepted incomprehension without letting hope die. You have prepared the future when the circumstances seem to be calling for renunciation.

Today, we thank you for your presence among us, for your work, for your words, for your demands, for your encouragement and even for your questioning, which forced us to grow.

We don't say goodbye to you like someone who totally disappears. We entrust you to God, in the hope of the Resurrection, and keep from you a debt of gratitude.

May the Lord welcome his faithful servant into the light of his presence.
May Saint Eugene de Mazenod, whose religious family and educational work you have served, accompany you to the eternal Father.

And that De Mazenod University, for which you have given so much, remains a living witness to your faith, your intelligence and your courage.

Father Anaclet Dupar Lalhe, O.M.I., rest in the peace of Christ.