Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 13 · column 2 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
Waters, W.Va.; a sister, Evelyn Frances of Escondido, Calif; two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Father A. Verbeke
Previous rector
Father Albert Verbeke, a previous rector of St. Peter’s Catholic Church, died on Nov. 20 in Belgium. Father Verbeke was a dedicated Catholic priest, missionary and pastor, and he was well known in Rappahannock County.
He was a member of the Missionhurst order and the rector of St. Peter’s when the church building was constructed in 1992. He retired in 1996 and returned to home country, Belgium. He died after years of chronic health problems.
His funeral will take place in Belgium, but a memorial Mass will be celebrated for the repose of his soul and the consolation of his family at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Washington, Virginia, on Monday, Dec. 2 at 7:30 p.m.
Father Verbeke was born in Roeselare, Belgium, in 1921. After joining CICM, the missionary congregation of Scheut (Missionhurst in the US), in 1940, he was ordained a priest in 1946. Fulfilling his dream, he became a missionary in China, but within a year after his arrival in Peking (Beijing), he was expelled by the Communist regime.
Reassigned to the United States, he was Treasurer of Promotion at Missionhurst headquarters in Arlington, Va. from 1949 to 1976. During these years he also served as chaplain of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and of the Knights of Columbus.
In 1976 Father Verbeke became pastor of Immaculate Conception in Buckner, Va. and Saint Jude’s in Mineral, Va. After building a new church in Mineral, he was appointed to Our Lady of the Blue Ridge in Madison, Va. in 1984. Forced by ill health to reduce his activities, he came in 1988 to the Mission of Saint Peter’s in Washington, Va.
Together with the then small but dynamic congregation of Saint Peter’s, he built a new church which was dedicated in 1992 and in which he celebrated his golden jubilee as a priest in 1996. Later that same year, after eight years in Rappahannock County which he considered the happiest of his life, he retired to Belgium. He was clearly out of his element
98.2%