Testimony at the time of his death

Testimony at the time of his death

OF FATHER EMILIANO TARDIF

The church of Santiago

He was an important figure of the Charismatic Renewal

CORDOBA, June 10 (ZENIT) - Father Emiliano Tardif died last June 8, at the age of 71, of a heart attack, in the city of Cordoba (Argentina), where he was preaching a retreat for the charismatic renewal

In September 1956, Father Tardif settled in the Republic of Saint Domingue and became a Sacred Heart missionary, then provincial of the congregation. In 1973 he had to return to Canada (his country of origin) to be hospitalized urgently because of an acute case of tuberculosis. The doctors told him he would need a year of treatment

Father Émilien Tardif

“After the doctors had done all these examinations on me and before they began their treatments, I remember that five people from a charismatic prayer group in Quebec came to see me. They prayed for me in the hospital room and the Lord healed me in three or four days,” related Father Tardif. After this event, Father Tardif decided to deepen the spirituality of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and to take part in retreats and gatherings. In November 1973 he received a healing charism. “It was for me a formidable instrument of the Lord to accompany my work of evangelization.”

He returned to Saint Domingue but began to travel throughout the whole world, where he drew immense crowds. Twenty-two years ago he founded the community of the Servants of the Living Christ, currently present in several countries of Europe and America.

According to Giovanna Manzo, a member of the community in Italy, Father Tardif always said that at the moment of his death “the first thing he would ask the Father would be: 'Why do you heal certain people and not others?'”, proof of the humility of this priest who never sought to be anything other than the servant of God, the humble instrument of his love beside those who suffer.

ZF99061006 NATIONAL MOURNING IN SAINT DOMINGUE FOR THE FATHER. June 13 (ZENIT) -

President Leonel Fernández decreed yesterday a day of national mourning upon the arrival in the country of the remains of Father Emiliano Tardif, who died at the beginning of the week in Argentina.

The president declared that “the death of Father Emiliano Tardif deeply afflicted the Dominicans among whom he had shown great sensitivity, an authentic Christian solidarity, and where he had exercised a deep pastoral vocation.” Father Tardif died last Tuesday of a cardiac arrest in San Antonio de Arredondo, in the province of Córdoba, in Argentina, where he was preaching a retreat for 250 priests.

ZF9906130

THE POPE RECEIVES THE NEW PRESIDENT OF THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Mr. Hipolito Mejia offers a book about Father Tardif to the Holy Father

VATICAN CITY, Monday July 3, 2000 (ZENIT.org) - John Paul II received this morning the new president of the Dominican Republic, Mr. Hipolito Mejia, in audience. He was accompanied by his wife and a few other people. The new president of the Dominican Republic was elected last May and replaces Mr. Lionel Fernandez. He will take up his duties next August 16. The two men spoke privately for 15 minutes. At the end of the meeting, the Pope met the president's wife and the eleven people accompanying them.

In a warm atmosphere, the Pope and the new president exchanged gifts; the Pope gave the medals of the pontificate to the president, and the latter gave the Holy Father the book of Fr. Emiliano Tardif “A Man of God”. Father Tardif (died a few months ago) was a Canadian missionary in the Dominican Republic. He played an important role in the Charismatic Renewal Movement throughout the world, through his conferences and his books.

“I bless you, as well as your country,” the Pope told him in Spanish. Presenting his wife to the Holy Father, the new president emphasized the importance the Dominican Republic places on the family.

Father Émilien Tardif

Sacred Heart Missionary

Born June 6, 1928.

Died June 8, 1999

Lord, you know how much I desired to be beside my loved ones to do them good; since you have called me back to you, Lord, take my place beside them, be their friend and their comforter.

My God, I have completed my course, my pilgrimage is over, I have accomplished the work you had entrusted to me, and now I return to you to pray with more love and fervor for those who will remain after me.

Message received:

France, November 12, 2002

Dear Brother in Christ,

Will you allow a humble Bishop of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church to testify about Father Tardif.

We corresponded together for several months, some time before his birth into heaven. We shared the enthusiasm of the unification of the Church and the certainty that the Lord acts today as yesterday among us if we let him act!

Father Tardif was a good man, speaking of the Lord not like a theologian dissecting the Scriptures in order to know what the life of Jesus was, but testifying to the living reality of the Lord in the World. What need have we to know how the Lord lived, since he still lives among us?

May our brother Emiliano pray to the Lord to send upon the Church the Grace of Unity so that it may transmit it to the World.

++Kallistos, Archbishop