In Pace Christi

Fr. Josef never attached any great importance to his academic qualifications and it is interesting to see that his doctorate thesis was not on any of the Christian philosophers but on the atheist philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach. This tells us much about Fr. Josef: he always wanted to hear the other side of the story and was always an independent thinker. For this reason he afterwards took a deep interest in Islam. Not for nothing was he appointed professor of philosophy at the theological seminary of Khartoum in Sudan.

Fr. Josef was born on 6 March 1934 at Unterschneidheim, near Ellwangen, into a very ordinary family. Being a very intelligent child, it was obvious that he should continue his studies. With other boys from his village, he entered the Ellwangen Josefinum missionary seminary. Having done the novitiate in Bamberg (1953-1955) where he took first vows on 19 May 1955, he was sent to study in Rome where he was awarded a doctorate in philosophy. On 9 September 1960, he consecrated himself to God and the mission by taking perpetual vows. He was ordained priest on 8 June 1963.

He was expected to teach philosophy to the novices and scholastics since the novitiate had been moved from Bamberg to Mellatz. It was the time of Vatican II, a time of new ideas and social upheavals. The number of theology students began to diminish drastically and the plan of partly internal studies was abandoned. The scholastics themselves questioned the theological faculty of Bamberg as a centre of studies. The small group of scholastics preferred to do a “Freisemester” in other universities with Professor Josef Ratzinger. The opening of the international scholasticate in Innsbruck put an end to the uncertainty.

In those years, discussions began on the possible reunion of the two Comboni congregations. Fr. Uhl took an active part in the discussions as a member of the Reunion Study Commission. For a number of years, he was also a member of the General Council of the German congregation.

In 1974, the time came to leave for the mission. Fr. Josef did not opt for South Africa, the traditional MFCJ mission but for an African mission of the FSCJ. He was therefore assigned to Malawi. Unable to obtain a visa, he was sent to Kenya. In close collaboration with the FSCJ, Fr. Uhl and some other German confreres, especially some Brothers, took charge of the parish of Nakuru and opened the technical school of Gilgil. It was a pilot project both as regards the school and also the collaboration between the two still-separated congregations. Fr. Uhl began the pastoral work, something completely new to him at that moment.

Ten years later, in 1983, the reunion of the two congregations was already realised and the General Council called him to Rome, appointing him General Secretary for Evangelisation. In that office he prepared, among other things, the opening of the Institute in Asia with visits to various countries. In his explorative journeys, he literally reached the gates of China. During the fifties, the Josefinum students used to present a play on the missionary life of Saint Francis Xavier, who died on the island of Shangchuan, on the threshold of China. Fr. Uhl played the part of Saint Francis. As in the story of Saint Francis Xavier, Fr. Uhl was also denied entry into China.

In 1997, Fr. Josef was assigned to the province of Khartoum as professor of philosophy at Khartoum seminary where, at that time, the philosophy students from all the dioceses of Sudan studied. It was an enormous challenge for him due to the Moslem environment and the fact that he did not know Arabic.

In 2011, at the age of 74, he ceased teaching and was assigned to his original province. With the permission of the Provincial Council of the DSP and at the request of the General Council, Fr. Uhl went to Limone and the house where Comboni was born, to receive visitors, many of whom were German-speaking, and introduce them to the life of Saint Daniel Comboni, the history of the Institute and that of the missions.

Due to health problems, he had to leave his work in Limone and he moved to the centre for elderly confreres in Ellwangen where he spent the last years of his life. At Christmas he contracted the coronavirus and died on 9 January 2021 in the city hospital.
(Fr. Reinhold Baumann, mccj).