Father Jacques Œuvray died Wednesday in Cameroon in his 81ste year. “He had health problems which required his hospitalization which he did not survive,” explains the episcopal delegate Marie-Andrée Beuret, thus confirming the information given by FRY.
“He wanted to go say goodbye to his friends in Cameroon, because he felt that his health was declining,” she confides, before recalling that Father Jacques had founded the Association of Friends of the Institut Populorum Progressio d ‘Elig-Mfomo, located north of Yaoundé. Marie-Andrée Beuret sees this as a sign of the deceased’s dual roots between Cameroon and Jura, where he officiated in numerous parishes and was an ardent defender of the patois.
A big void
Jacques Œuvray was born in Cœuve, where he was ordained a priest in 1974. After an apprenticeship as a typographer then as a rotativist at the newspaper Le Pays in Porrentruy, he studied the humanities at the diocesan seminary of Fribourg. He was appointed vicar in Moutier, then dean in Porrentruy, before joining the Delémont parish until 1998.
He was then appointed canon of the canton of Jura, responsible for twenty years for ensuring the link between the bishop and the Jura Government. In 2011, he returned to Ajoie to Boncourt, then to Porrentruy. He left at the beginning of the month on a trip to Cameroon, where he visited regularly.
Ardent defender of the patois
Very invested in this African country, he created his association in 1996 and obtained the support of the cantonal state and many Jura residents. He was also very active in the establishment and development of the agricultural institute in Obala, supported by the cantons of Jura and Bern. At the birth of the canton, Father Jacques was also among the founders of Winter Relief.
He was very invested in defending the language of his ancestors. Indeed, Father Jacques has been saying several masses in patois every year for several decades, where he revealed all his talents as a preacher.
