The Mission Of The Church: To Humanize Society By Bishop Valerian D'Souza
PUNE, Maharashtra (SAR NEWS) -- The German, Swiss and Austrian Jesuit missionaries left behind a rich legacy in the fields of education and social work. I have been a beneficiary of this experience as student, seminarian, priest and bishop. I remember them with affection, aware of a sense of challenge to live up to their expectations and to carry on their legacy. What inspired them to leave the comfort and security of their country and come and spend their lives in selfless service in the western region of India? They came in 1854 at the invitation of Capuchin Bishop Anastasius Hartmann. The Capuchins and Carmelites had worked for the community before them. It was a period of the Padroado and Propaganda tussle. These pioneers faced a long and dangerous voyage and many did not reach India. While in India they had to look after a vast area from Quetta to Hubli (Karnataka State). They travelled by bullock-cart and horseback. There were scarcely any medical facilities on the whole, especially in the rural areas. Quite a few young missionaries died before they could be taken to a hospital miles and miles away. Their accommodation was simple, sometimes primitive. The people, the culture and the language were foreign to them. But they worked hard and persevered. What was their driving motivation? It was Jesus and to continue his mission. For this they were ready to sacrifice even their lives. The need to lift up the Christian community impelled them to start schools. Within 20 years they had started St. Patrick's School in Karachi, St.Mary's in Hubli, St. Stanislaus and St. Mary's, St. Xavier's in Mumbai and also St. Xavier's College in Mumbai. St Patrick's School in Karachi had many political and religious luminaries as students - Cardinal Valerian Gracias, Cardinal Joseph Cordeiro, Archbishop Raymond, Bishop William Gomes et al. Gen. Musharaf and former Deputy Prime Minister of India L K Advani were products of St. Patrick's. Besides schools, the missionaries started social works and later inspired other religious to start medical institutions. What are the challenges we face looking over the last 150 years? Like St Ignatius his sons must be gripped and fascinated by the Person of Jesus. Their lives must be centered on Jesus. To proclaim the Kingdom without proclaiming the King is meaningless. To be a Jesuit without deep attachment to Jesus is to be a Jesuit in name only. One of my earliest recollections as a young priest was in Harigaon mission in Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra. A young Jesuit was about to leave on his motorcycle. There was a bedroll and luggage on the carrier. He informed me he would be out for a week visiting mission stations. He would spend each night under a tree. Every evening he would sit with the villagers and listen to them. This would go on week after week. The jeep has saved time but have we preserved the custom of spending the evening and even the night in a village, being with the people, listening to them? Pioneering Spirit The first missionaries had to be pioneers. They needed to be creative. They experimented and failed at times, but they persevered. They tried to read the signs of the times and act accordingly. Parish work was not the main charism, but they took up parishes to be in touch with the people. They started institutions in response to the needs of the people. Several boardings were set up for poor boys and Dynanamata High School was launched with agricultural bias, technical schools to provide immediate jobs for the boys, Snehasadan, an inter-faith dialogue center and the Social Centre for the development of farming community. Today we need that creativity. The world is changing so fast that we can be left behind. We cannot rest on our laurels. What are the new initiatives that are being planned? Challenges in Education Speaking to the bishops of USA in June 2004 Pope John Paul II reaffirmed, "Her many religious, educational and charitable institutions exist for one reason only: to proclaim the Gospel. It is utmost important, therefore, that the Church's institutions be genuinely Catholic: Catholic in their self understanding and Catholic in their identity." According to the Roman document on "The Mission of Catholic Schools" Oct 2002" the Catholic School must enable the students to raise great questions concerning the meaning of life, the significance of reality, and a responsible commitment to transform it in the light of the Gospel values and modern culture. The poor and the marginalized must have a central place in our educational programmes..." According to St Ignatius education can become an effective agent of transformation. Our institutions can be and should be agents of change in a society riddled with discrimination, corruption, denial of human rights, greed for money, power, position, ethnic riots.President Abdul Kalam has words of high praise for the Jesuits. "The Jesuits are doing something holy, something sacrosanct by working in the field of education. Education gives one the ultimate human value. They have made excellent contributions not only in India but the world over." Globalization of Love: People speak of the globalisation of justice, peace and solidarity. But only Pope John Paul II has spoken of the globalisation of love. The world has little understanding of that. But the challenge for the Church throughout the ages is to globalise love. The road to conflict resolution and justice can only come through dialogue, relationship and love. Children today have more knowledge and information than we had at their age. But most of them lack balance and emotional maturity. We older people had problems too in school and college but they were minor compared to what students go through today. They lack emotional support because they often lack parental love. They get much more pocket money and bigger presents than before, but money and gifts are no substitutes for love. The most troublesome students normally are craving attention. In our educational institutions we are called to be educators and not just administrators. The heart of education is education of the heart. We must help our students to become really good human beings, have the right values, and live for something worthwhile. Academic life is important, but, by itself, it is really inadequate. In fact, if we are not careful, we can turn out successful egoists, or deeply corrupt professionals who 'did well' in our schools. Efficient administration and excellent results lead us to forget that we are dealing with persons whom we can hurt in our quest for that excellence, efficiency and 100% results. 100% results has become an idol in many institutions. But remember Jesus had only 91.7% success with his apostles! Today the in-thing is empowerment. In General Chapters of the Society empowerment especially of lay people, of the poor, the marginalized, the downtrodden and women is stressed. Much has been done in this field and the Jesuits can be proud of their involvement in fighting against injustice and in working for upliftment. My point is how much empowerment has taken place? In the social sphere people are being trained to fight for their rights and not depend on the priests/brothers. Is this taking place in the educational sphere? How much power do we give our teachers and lay principals? In the cities we need to invest more in providing education at all levels in the vernacular medium. Option for the poor means moving out to remote rural areas and new urban areas. These are tall orders and seem beyond the reach of individual organizations. Networking is the need of the hour. The last Plenary Assembly of the CRI Men's Section had the theme "Inter Religious Collaboration." We have to go beyond inter-religious collaboration to wider networking, making use of the expertise and professionalism of others and offering to other institutions our strength and resources. Where do we stand? What are our plans? We decry corruption in our country, but can turn a blind eye to corruption in our institutions. The tuition racket is making many of our teachers lakhpattis. Parents who cannot afford to pay the tuition fees are spending hundreds of rupees on tuitions. They feel compelled to do so, otherwise "Teacher will fail my child." I have mentioned this more than once at meetings of our Diocesan Board of Education. Can we find a solution to help our parents by stopping this rampant disease? We also need to reflect on the new trend in many of our schools to build and build more structures. That is not the problem. The point is how do we raise the funds? A donation by its very definition is voluntary. Are the donations really voluntary? I know of cases where the student was humbled before the entire class because the donation was paltry. There is a lot of talk among parents when contributions are forced. Principals will not hear of it because of the old refrain, "My child should not suffer." Many Catholic parents here in Pune have sent their children to schools of other faiths. This is not because of poverty. Why have they taken this step? I am happy if the reason is that there are too many poor children in our schools and they want schools with elite students. I am disturbed when I hear they find the principal arrogant, children being beaten and standards going down. Evaluation of our institutions will show us where we stand. Inter-religious dialogue The Pope speaks of inter-religious dialogue as an essential element of evangelization. To me our schools and social work offer us excellent opportunities for inter-religious dialogue. We do not have to invite people. They are already there in our students, teachers and parents. Let us make use of that. One idea very close to my heart is for principals to visit the homes of our Class X students. Even if they number 150 we can do it over the whole year. The amount of goodwill we can generate is tremendous. Even a radical anti-Church person will not shut the door on the face of the principal of his child, but will feel honoured at such a visit. He will consider it a blessing that a man of God has entered his house.In short our prime objective must be to form men and women who will not live for themselves but live for others, and who will try to humanize society. (The writer, Bishop of Poona, gave this keynote in Pune at a seminar Dec. 12 on the contribution of the Jesuits of the German Province to the Educational and Social Fields in the Bombay-Poona Missions) END