Philippe Albert Joseph Stevens, PFE (30 March 1937 – 7 December 2021) was a Belgian Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Maroua-Makolo from 1994 to 2014. He was a member of the

Little Brothers of the Gospel The Little Brothers of the Gospel (; abbreviated PFE) are a male Catholic religious congregation of diocesan right. The movement was founded in 1956 by René Voillaume, the first superior general of the Little Brothers of Jesus, to evangelise ...

Biography

Born on 30 March 1937 in

Quaregnon Quaregnon (; ; ) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. On 1 January 2018 Quaregnon had a total population of 19,006. The total area is 11.08 km2 which gives a population density of 1,716 inhabitants per k ...

, Stevens was the seventh child in a family of nine children. Raised as a devout Catholic, he attended the

Catholic University of Leuven University of Leuven or University of Louvain (; ) may refer to: * Old University of Leuven (1425–1797) * State University of Leuven (1817–1835) * Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) * Katholieke Universiteit Leuven or KU Leuven (1968 ...

. He earned a degree in philosophy in 1965 and three years later joined the

. In the 1960s, he arrived in Cameroon, starting in , where he became a missionary under the leadership of . He was then ordained a priest on 13 July 1980 by Jacques de Bernon, who was then Bishop of Maroua-Makolo. In 1994, de Bernon retired and was succeeded by Stevens on 11 November of that year. He was consecrated on 15 January 1995 by . On 5 April 2014,

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

accepted his resignation on the grounds of age. During his time as Bishop, he was dedicated to interreligious dialogue between Christians and Muslims. Stevens died on 7 December 2021, at the age of 84.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stevens, Philippe 1937 births 2021 deaths People from Quaregnon Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) alumni Members of Catholic orders and societies 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Cameroon 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in Cameroon Belgian Roman Catholic bishops