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LASALETTE JUBILARIAN

Missionary priest, back home, recounts five-decade adventure

The prospect of someday eating a three-week-old fertilized duck's egg was not on Rev. Rene Bisaillon's radar when he began studying for the priesthood as a teenager.

"They told me I had to eat it in the dark," Father Bisaillon recalled of the first time he tried the Filipino delicacy known as "balut." 

"When I ate it, they asked me how it tasted and I told them it felt like I swallowed something feathery. They just laughed, then told me what it was."

That was just one of many adventures for the LaSalette missionary, a native of Cohoes who's celebrating his golden jubilee as a priest this year. During a visit to the Albany Diocese, he recalled the winding path his vocation took.

Becoming a priest was a childhood idea for Father Bisaillon that quickly became reality. Upon finishing eighth grade, he went directly to the Missionaries of Our Lady of LaSalette in Enfield, New Hampshire.

"I was 15 when I started my seminary," he told the Evangelist; "and I was ordained when I was 28 years young."

Young adult
Father Bisaillon took his first vows as a LaSalette missionary in 1953. The experience was a call to adulthood from the very start.

"I remember my first day," he said. "As soon as I got [to the seminary], I had to help take chairs out of the church. I couldn't say goodbye to my parents. There was no time to cry; just work, right from the start."

Upon being ordained in 1959, Father Bisaillon volunteered to be assigned to the Philippine Islands. His request was granted almost immediately - but then culture shock set in.

"It was [going] from a rich country to a poor country," Father Bisaillon explained. "But the people there had strong faith and were hard workers."

It took him about a year to get used to all the Filipino customs, language and food. Today, not only can he speak Ilocano, one of 87 dialects in the Philippines, but he has acquired a taste for balut.

Father Bisaillon's years in the Philippines were filled with challenges: He survived numerous typhoons, witnessed the eruption of Mount Pinatubo, crossed unsafe bridges that flooded shortly after he made it over them, and dealt with snakes that occasionally made their way into his hut.

"I've got more lives than a cat," he joked.

Lifesaver
Perhaps the most inspiring story, however, came when Father Bisaillon saved a child's life in the mid-1970s.

"A woman came to get me at 9:00 at night and said a baby was dying and the mother was sick, too," he recalled.

With no money, the mother could not afford to go to the hospital, so Father Bisaillon offered to pay himself. But the 11-month-old baby was suffering from malnutrition and tuberculosis, and doctors deemed him "too sick" for the hospital to admit.

"The hospital would take the mom but not the baby," the missionary remembered. "They said he could die any minute."

Father Bisaillon decided to care for the infant himself. A friend who was a doctor agreed to help: "He said to me, 'I'm a doctor; I'll do the medical care. You're a priest; you do miracle care.'"

A few weeks later, both paid off.

"For two weeks, [the baby] cried and I cried. Then one day, he smiled and everything was better after that."

Today, that child, Armando Papa, is 31 years old and has a wife and daughter. He teaches theology at Ferdinand College in Gamu, Philippines; he is also studying law.

"I fell in love with that little boy," Father Bisaillon recalled. "I'm so thankful the Lord answered my prayers."

Hello, Hawaii
After he spent more than 30 years in the Philippines, during which he could only return home once every five years, Father Bisaillon's aging parents requested that he move closer to home. 

It turned out the closest he could get was Hawaii.

"I was given the option and when I heard it was Hawaii, I said 'I'm leaving tomorrow!'" he said.

Father Bisaillon has called Koloa on the island of Kauai his home for the past 16 years. He comes back to the Albany Diocese every summer to live with his sister, Rita Reynolds, in Ballston Lake.

"I'm very proud of him," Mrs. Reynolds told The Evangelist. "He's so well-loved. There's never been a person who hasn't enjoyed him."

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Father Bisaillon's ordination. Though he has been retired for about 10 years, he has continued to help out with Masses in Hawaii and to work as a missionary of LaSalette. 

In all those years, Father Bisaillon said he has learned a simple lesson: "Being kind and loving people comes back to you. If you love people, they will return that love to you."

(07/23/09) [[In-content Ad]]

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