Our Fathers in Heaven (Onze Vaders)

Synopsis – Our Fathers in Heaven
Our Fathers in Heaven tells the life story of Herman, born into a large family from Brabant, who grows up in the shadow of war, religion, and tradition, and searches for his path between religious vocation, intellectual hunger, and personal desire.
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Part I – Growing Up in War and Faith
Herman is born in 1930 in Valkenswaard (in the Catholic south of the Netherlands), the son of Sjef and Anna, who fled from Belgium with Herman’s grandparents during the First World War. His birth is a difficult one, and Herman narrowly survives. Within the family, a narrative takes hold that Herman was “saved by a guardian angel” at birth.
The family is large and poor, but close-knit. Herman is an exceptionally intelligent child, with his own place in the garden where he reads books meant for adults.
When the Germans invade the Netherlands, he carves the date into an oak tree—a ritual that will accompany him throughout his life. He experiences the harsh reality of war. At the same time, his bond with Father Gerard grows, who introduces him to the works of Bonhoeffer and encourages him to follow his calling to the priesthood.
At the seminary, Herman discovers his talent for philosophy and theology, but also experiences his first love, for fellow student Bert. When Bert rejects him and leaves the seminary, Herman throws himself into an intellectual quest through Bonhoeffer, Augustine, Marx, and Jung. His fascination with Jung’s dialectics leads to an existential crisis, in which he balances on the edge of madness. Ultimately, he finds grounding in his father’s words and in the soil of his native region: faith must be rooted in reality.
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Part II – Ordination and Calling
In 1960, Herman is ordained as a priest. During his first Mass, he feels both pride and alienation—as if it is happening to him rather than being done by him. Shortly afterward, he leaves for the Congo, where he becomes acquainted with local priests and rituals. These experiences affect him deeply: he discovers that his hands seem to carry a special calling.
When his father dies and Herman himself falls ill, he returns to the Netherlands. There, he grows into a pillar of support for his family and cautiously begins to use his “healing hands,” first with his mother, later with others. He continues to struggle, however, with the question of whether this is a spiritual gift or a psychological approach.
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Part III – Love, Conflict, and Loss
In the 1970s, Herman becomes a parish priest in Limburg, in the midst of a period of secularization and social change. He meets Peter, with whom he builds a loving relationship. Together, they move within the gay scene of Maastricht and become involved with the COC. Herman becomes a confidant for believers and homosexuals in spiritual distress, but his open attitude also attracts enemies.
The antagonist Anton de Wit spreads rumors about Herman and Peter. Bishop Gijsen launches a conservative offensive and refuses the sacraments to homosexuals. Herman comes into conflict with the diocese and ultimately loses his parish. Yet he refuses to give up his calling. With the support of Peter and his American friend Father John McNeill, he continues working as a pastoral and psychological counselor, often outside the official structures of the Church.
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Part IV – Healing Hands and Inner Peace
In the 1980s and 1990s, Herman further develops his therapeutic abilities. He helps residents of nursing homes, clients in psychological distress, and friends from his surroundings. His “healing hands” remain the subject of rumors, but for Herman they are a discreet instrument of closeness and consolation.
He continues to write and correspond with Father John, who in the United States fights against the Church’s condemnation of homosexuality. Herman himself chooses a life of “engagement from a distance”: committed, yet always with a certain intellectual and emotional reserve.
At the end of his life, he returns to the oak tree into which he once carved the dates of war, ordination, and love. The tree symbolizes his roots in the earth, his search for a synthesis between faith, philosophy, and humanity, and his enduring desire to help others—not as a saint or healer, but as a human being. He himself has become the synthesis.
When, after a heavy storm, he sees that the oak has been uprooted, he realizes that his own end is near.
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Themes
Our Fathers in Heaven is an intimate drama about faith, love, and identity. It explores the tension between tradition and modernity, between intellect and emotion, between church dogma and personal truth. Herman embodies the struggle of a generation breaking free from a suffocating Catholic environment, while remaining rooted in the soil of the Kempen region and in the core of its faith.