New Book Explores Life of Moroccan Muslim-Turned-Catholic Priest Jean-Mohamed Abd el-Jalil

After the works of Maurice Boormans and Françoise on Jean Mohammed Ben Abdeljalil (1904-1979), an "atypical" Franciscan priest, a new book has been published on this Moroccan personality converted to Christianity. The historian Moussa Marghich, one of the members of an interfaith group in Lille, is the author. He explains the reasons that led him to write his book. The previous authors "were mainly interested in the period after his conversion," notes Moussa Marghich, doctor in the history of religions, but "the period 1925-1928, explaining the reasons for his choice of Christianity, was missing".

To write his book, Moussa Marghich relied on the correspondence between Mohammed Ben Abdeljalil and Clément Étienne, a priest who was the director of the Charles de Foucauld school in Rabat, where the former was a student before going to France to study at the Sorbonne. The letters are reproduced in their entirety. "I had access to the Franciscan private archives in Paris".

Born in Fez in 1904 into a family of Andalusian origin, Mohamed was raised in the Muslim religion. He did his primary and secondary studies at the bilingual college in his hometown. He attended the French Gouraud high school in Rabat from 1922 to 1925. After obtaining his baccalaureate in