Fr. Sozzi Ferdinand
My 44 years in Bengal
Special Service in Mondo e Missione
Interview by Fr. Piero Gheddo and Fr. Bordignon Sandro
We were not heroes but almost
People asked me to tell my missionary life in Bengal, but I do not know from
where to begin. In fact, I do not know if I give a service to missions and to
readers, since I think I have done nothing worthy of being remembered. Yes,
people say that the only fact of been 44 years in Bengal, and never come back to
Italy, is something out of the ordinary, but at that time missionaries were
almost all the same way and it is a good thing that now missionaries return
every seven years (this is for the Pime fathers) to rest and refresh ideas. The
world is running so fast that if we do not update ourselves, we will be outdated.
I always tried to read books about theology, even though I never had that much
time: I think it is a duty to stay young in ideas.
Today I think in Santal and not in Italian
Certainly the mission of Bengal, since 1929 when I went there, to 1973 when I
returned for the first time (but in a few months back again in Bengal), has
changed dramatically. In 1929 we were at the second phase of missionary work in
the immense Bengal. The first phase was the one started by our Pime confreres in
the middle of last century: a dozen missionaries (no more were never active
simultaneously) launched in a territory vast more than the whole Italy territory
(from where they were born ten dioceses ), covered with dense forests, majestic
rivers, without means, without the Christian communities: a real virgin area
open to evangelization. The time of the pioneers was something unimaginable
today. Those early missionaries had "easy death", so that Bengal was
called "the white man's grave" and until 1920 the average life of our
missionaries in mission was less than two years! This means that a good part of
the fathers were dying after a few months of life in Bangladeshi, struck down by
fever, cholera, smallpox, a thousand diseases against which there was no defense.
As late as 1930, a British medical committee, who visited the British colonies with
study purposes, considered Bengal the most malarial area in the world!
But I said that these early missionaries were truly extraordinary men. Reading
today the report of the early missionaries about their travels in search of new
tribes to evangelize or scattered Christians to be consoled, someone is amazed
by the strength they had, the spirit of sacrifice and unwavering faith. They
would travel months, staying away from home without any comfort, in a deadly
climate, moving on foot or on ox-drawn cart, sleeping in mud huts with thatched
roofs, among people in the vast majority could not even understand them.
Especially isolation and distance from home and the brothers were among the
most tough too challenge.
I arrived in Bengal in 1929, when it has already begun the second phase of the
mission: the territory was almost fully explored, some Christian communities
existed a bit everywhere and we begun to have some means of communication such
as train, horses, the first bicycles. But even then we had nothing, we felt
abandoned by the entire civilized world: how much faith was necessary to resist
with joy and enthusiasm!
But I would do not do any poetry or sentimentalism about my missionary life,
despite having lived with enthusiasm, it has never been poetic. In 1929, when I
arrived in Bengal, there were twenty missionaries scattered in different places
far from another few days of travelling. I was assigned to the mission of
Mariampur, a detachment of the main center of Dhanjuri, where there is a leprosarium. In this mission I had been living with the Santal and Oraon, who are
tribal people, not integrated with the Bengali population. At that time people
did not understand English, except for some officials, so we had to learn the
local language, Bengali (language which is very beautiful but very difficult as
well), the Santal, Oraon. What a grind! I threw myself into the study of
languages as a dead person, without guidance and without method, at least to
learn first Santal: after a three-four months, I could make myself understood,
but to learn well the Santal language it took years and years, but now I realize
I often think in Santal and not in Italian. After 44 year of absence from Italy,
my Italian is just very poor.
At that time, the missionary work was all set to visit the villages, care work
in education and medical care. Above all, the school was the heart of the
mission, because it helped to form a group of people with minimal education,
which could be useful to their people and also to spread the Christian message.
Very few were Christians because the conversion was difficult: conversion to
Christianity meant the abandonment of their traditions and their own tribal
group from which people would have been excluded, and we had to set up Christian
villages, so that the newly baptized could not grow a in hostile environment,
found to marry and form new communities.
The schools in which students are
paid
The school, as I said, was our means of contact with non-Christians, together
with medical dispensaries, leper colonies and orphanages. People still did not
understand the usefulness of the school, not only we had to give everything for
free, but we also had to pay poorer parents because they left their children
free from work. One mother told me: "What? I gave my son and you also want
me to pay you? You must pay me, because my son does not earn anything".
Then, when they saw that children could read and write and get some employment
at the government, mothers were all proud and came back to thank. To us the
mission of schools served, as a tool to improve the social status of the
population, as the best way for us to make us known: the boys and girls coming
out of our schools, even if non-Christians, were preparing the soil of society,
that maybe would have bear fruit after two or three generations. Among
Christians students would also emerge priestly and religious vocations, among
them we chose the catechists and teachers. Today the situation is very different
and even if the government would take back our schools, we are ready to
cooperate cordially with the work of the government, because now the mission is
based, is known, is welcomed by everyone, and there is anymore absolute need for
us to use schools to enter the environment. In fact, I dare to say that perhaps
today if the big Catholic colleges and hospitals who belong to the government,
many religious activities would be driven to a more apostolic way, in the sense
that unfortunately great works absorb a lot of personnel, which is no longer
free to do more direct actions of evangelization . It is true that our schools
are still the most respected in the country and from them graduate almost all
leaders, as well as our hospitals are those who enjoy more confidence by people
for many reasons (cleaning, charity, accuracy, etc.). But at the same time we
may wonder if we are missionaries to run schools and medical care facilities, or
if these services belong to the local government and we must do something more
specific.
Did we make a leftist choice?
Now we go back to the mission as I experienced it before the last war.
Missionaries at that time were devoted only to poor: the Aborigines of the
various tribes (Santal, Oraon, Munda, Pahari) who were under the control of
Islamic and Hindu, that is Muslims and Hindus. The poor were the ones we tried
to help in every way, in social, economic, political, cultural and finally
religious way. At that time there were about 200,000 Santal in the diocese of
Dinajpur and even more Oraon even and then 14 other tribal groups, all
immigrants living in small communities at the mercy of Muslims and Hindus, who
treated them like slaves, except the Santal who loved free life in the jungle,
living almost as perpetual nomads. The Oraon had instead settled on the land and
also became the owners, but they were oppressed by the Bengali Muslims and
Hindus who were more educated.
We missionaries deployed ourselves since the very beginning on the side of the
Aborigines. Today it seems that we made a leftist choice, but I think we did
just a Christian choice and after half a century it is a great satisfaction for
us to see these originally oppressed tribes to have their own professionals,
teachers, government officials, political leaders, lawyers and know how to
defend themselves before the law. At first hand, the laws of the colonial
government already existed, but the primitives did not know and then they had no
courage to seek justice, so passively suffered all the wrongs and oppression. We
started with the schools, then we helped them to unite them in small
cooperatives, to free from the burden of loan sharks, and finally we have
defended them in the courts, when it seemed they just were right. All this work
done for the tribals drawn to us the hatred of Muslims and Hindus, which today
is almost outdated, now it is understood we defend the tribals, we were not
fighting the Muslims and Hindu, we were just defending justice. However many
Bengali people told us "we will never become Christians since you defend
these aborigines'. We must remember that at that time the Aborigines were
considered at the level of unclean animals, with no personality nor right.
Having started the redemption of these poor among the poor, I think that when
Bengal and India history will be written, our work for the tribals should be
recognized as one of the major contributions made by Christian missionaries to
this great country. There is an interesting fact about it. One of the pioneers
of Bengal, Fr. Rocca, a man of exceptional abilities, tried to live with the
Hindu Brahmins, which is the highest caste of the Hindu world: he wanted to do
what centuries before Father De Nobili and then some other missionaries, who
devoted themselves to higher castes has done. He would certainly achieved his
aim, but had to abandon everything when he realized that the Brahmins had an
underlying attitude which is not receptive: they were so attached to their
privileges, so proud of their superiority over other Indians, that Fr. Rocca
feared of being exploited against the poor. Life with the Brahmins is facinating,
no doubt, religious dialogue with Hinduism should be done through them, but I
think that the fundamental task of the church in a country like India or
Bangladesh is going toward the poorest of the poor among those who are despised
and abandoned by all. Even today, between tribal and outcaste (dalit), in India
and Bangladesh, there are at least a hundred million! Work then is there.
Half of the missionaries died after two years of Bengal
I see I'm already loosing track of my narration, but I say things as they come
up to my mind: these are the most authentic. So, I said how changed the mission
since the beginning of my mission and what has changed of the life of the
missionaries in the 44 years of my staying in Bengal. Now there are no disease
problems, there are doctors and hospitals everywhere, by plane in a few hours
some one can go back to Italy. I myself have been loaded on a plane almost
involuntarily, when I was struck by illness, and without my noticing I was
already in Italy at the Niguarda Hospital in Milan!
Once was not this way, if someone got sick, had to bear everything in Bengal: we
would go back to the centre of the mission, Dinajpur, after days of arduous
journey, but it was much better than in our villages. This explains why many
missionaries died at a young age. I worked with three missionaries in Bengal: I
worked in Bengal with other three fathers, two survived, Fr. Martinelli and I
both, the other two Fr. Re and Fr. Brambilla died, struck down by fever. I
myself, if I were to describe all the diseases that I had, I would never finish:
I had diphtheria, filaria, malaria, kalajor, double hernia, black fever,
appendicitis, abscesses various.
I do not know how I managed to resist, the Lord has helped me in an
extraordinary way. Every year during the months of June-July, six or seven
missionaries were forced to go to hospital with malaria or some other diseases,
medical staff helped us to recover and then we walked back into the forest. Once
at the hospital we consoled each other, the treatments were few because there
were no medicines, but at least there was a brick house, a little dry and fresh,
while at the villages we were dying of humid heat, sweltering. I fainted several
times on the road due to malaria, once while walking in the fields I passed out,
then when I recovered I went on a little but fainted again. Some good people
picked me up. Another time I awoke in the forest, at night I passed out without
realizing it, my legs were up and my head down, I could die, or not even wake up
... Another time I was in the market of a village, I felt I was fainting and I
had enough time to run inside a house and lie down on the table when I had
already lost consciousness.
These adventures are common to the missionaries of the past life in Bengal
because the mission was difficult everywhere. People make me laugh, now, when
who write say we were colonialists or imperialists or we did not respect the
"cultures" of those people: who writes these things has not the
slightest idea of how we lived and also how we live today in missions; and how,
only to learn local languages, were necessary years of efforts, even with tears,
because when you are alone among people who do not even understand and you do
not understand what they say, except four sentences memorized like "how are
you?", "did you well?", "give me a drink" and things
like that, is really difficult to understand the local culture! Now everything
is different and the missionary who are in Bengal, have at least more than a
year to study the local language, in a quiet environment and not in a forest as
we did, then everything is easier. But during the first years of the mission we
had nothing, we were very poor and isolated from the whole world: the important
thing was to survive and try to help people survive.
How many times did you receive the last
anointment?
Well, do not want turn you tired I will with the story of all my adventures, but
I want to tell you about that time at six o'clock in the evening when I was in
church for the liturgy and at 9:00 p.m. people were already giving me the last anointment! Why? Because when attacks due to black fever came, they were much
worse than malaria: you would start to shake, to shake also in bed, and agony
came pretty quickly. Only those who had a very strong heart could resist: some
fathers died in an hour, nobody could do anything. The "black fever"
(or "black water fever") is a disease due to of mixing blood and urine
in the kidneys: usually leads to death within 24 hours and the only remedy, then,
was to drink water constantly and extract urine mixed with blood through a
catheter, to prevent the blood to clot inside the bladder. Black blood came out
who would scare everyone!, Well, that time I caught the black fever, Fr.
Martinelli who brought me straight to bed saved me, and forced me to drink
gallons of water during all night and he drew blood. I fainted a few times and
Fr. Martinelly gave me the last anointment, but in the morning I found that my
heart could make and the crisis was over. These were the treatment of that
period. I do not know even how many times I have given the last anointment for
such cases. I must thank the good Lord that my heart has always strong and then
I never let it go. Several brothers died because "let them down" it
was difficult and painful to endure without medicine, with severe pain,
isolation . Aborigines, when this kind of epidemic would spread, died like flies,
they had no resistance. Once, due to a plague I think that at least a million
people died in Bengal: at the mission we had hundreds and thousands of patients,
who could be saved if taken in time, but many arrived too late. Then there was
the problem that facing these kind of fevers, we should have eat well to recover,
to have enough energy: instead ordinary people had no opportunity to have
nutritious food and we had only rice , vegetables, freshwater fish and some
chicken. There was the possibility of having more food, For many years I never
taste, salami, butter, beef, olive oil and anything else that does not grow in
Bengal . Today is different, you can find anything you want, it is enough to
have a bit of money go to the market and find everything. We continue to eat
badly, out of habit, for negligence, but sometimes, at least when we are
celebrating, we grant as a steak, ice cream, authentic coffee at Christmas, we
also get the panettone from Italy, perhaps a bit stale because not well packed
(in that heat!), but still arrives.
"We were not
heroes, but almost!!"
I do not know if these things are of interest to the readers of "Mondo e
Missione, still is our lives as missionaries. I would have many other things to
tell! For example, we travelled on ox-drawn cart: I spent nights and days on
that wagon without springs! Once there were neither cars nor motorcycles, some
cycling, but we had to be around the villages for months and bring everything we
needed for religious celebrations, register books, medicines, the catechist who
led us, we had to go with ox-drawn cart. Not on paved roads as there are now,
but along dusty or muddy trails, along the rice paddies or jungles inside the
jungle and where the wagon did not pass, we continued on foot or by bike (we
also put the bicycle on the cart ). We walked slowly, naturally, to a maximum of
thirty miles a day and no more, often less. For example, when was the time of
flood of the rivers, the plain all flooded, no one knew where we were, we did
not even know where the river and the trail where: we had to stop one day or two
to let the water pass, some refugees stood on promontories. Besides the bridges,
that in most cases were bamboo skewered in the mud, on which we had to walk with
the bike on its shoulder and behind the catechist with pack of vestments:
sometimes the strings gears broke and ended up soaked in mud or water, we had to
swim toward the shore and put all our stuff at the sun to dry them. Once I fell
into the water and not having anything to dry the shirts except the vestment to
celebrate Mass, I wore it and so I entered the village. Under I was naked.
People came towards me, it was evening, and they saw me with this coat on me and
everyone was wondering about what happened. Then I said: "nothing, the Mass
has already started, let us all go to church. Everyone followed me and so I
celebrated Mass with the only vestment on and nothing under. Another time the
water had covered a big hole and I have fallen straight into it, that time I
almost drowned. But the greatest difficulties were not these materials ones.
When you're young and healthy you do not even think about them. What on the
contrary made us suffer, was isolation, which is now almost disappeared, living
among primitive peoples who do not understand with whom we could express us in a
limited way, and we could speak only about food and material things. Even with
our Christians, it took a long time to educate them a bit! So we felt isolated,
useless: we went home after one or two months of terrible life and not even find
even a dog to tell our stories. If we met occasionally among confreres we
celebrate in a such a way that we never end up, we were up talking the all
night. Although there was only well water to drink, it was enough to speak with
someone who understand you. Did I experience crisis? Of course I did. Twice I
was also there to come back home in Italy, I was really discouraged. Twice I
said, I leave, on and say anything to anyone in a month I will be home in Italy.
I wanted to run away without leaving traces. I was alone with dozens of villages
to visit, with people asking this and that, asking for food, medicine, money, a
job and I had nothing to give. At some point I really got depressed. Why I did
not escape? Well, because I had a bit of faith and because the good Lord took me
by the neck and held me at the right time. I am remember of that time when
British royal commission came to my village to study the geography of Bengal:
they were making a big map of all the rivers, trails, and villages. There were
three English professors who came from some where followed by a few dozen of
porters, servants with tents, food, tools, medicines, etc. (It was the first
time I saw the canned beer). They stopped a bit in my village, they saw how I
lived and then told me: "But here in Bengal you missionaries are all heroes."
The answer came to me spontaneously: "We are not heroes, but almost."
God also works outside the Church
Let me now say something about how the mission was carried on in the past and
how our work developed until now. The changes were many, because the environment
in which we work changed itself: of the old Bengal and environment remained
practically nothing, (the vast forests almost entirely converted into cultivated
fields), isolation and the mentality of the people, now evolved with the school
and all the political events of the last thirty years.
Who were the enemies of the missionary
For example, people's mentality. When I arrived in Bengal, the missionary was
seen by aboriginal people with a spirit of superstition: when they saw us from
afar, they escaped. On the contrary, the Bengali Muslims and Hindus who were and
are the strongest majority, educated, thought: here are our enemies, the ones
who defend the Aboriginal and the outcast! Then, little by little, the
aborigines have learned to know and understand us and that we just wanted to
help them: then they followed us no matter we went. Many conversions happened,
as a starting point, due to the help we gave for social reasons, during famines,
floods, epidemics, or they converted becasue of the desire to be part of the
Christian community, which was (and still is) a certain social promotion and
defense against bullies, or had the feeling of gratitude to the missionary who
had defended a village or a family an injustice. Who had power or wealth, never
became a Christian, they were all enemies of the missionaries who came to
disturb their peaceful society in which they counted something and oppressed
others. They We told us: "Father, you are an intelligent person, but we can
never get along, until you're on the side of these aborigines'. Then the
mentality has changed, step by step, the missionary is now generally acceptable
to all, I think that by now almost everyone have understood our spirit of
charity without any exclusions. And then, especially here in Bangladesh during
the war of independence against Pakistan, here in Bangladesh we missionaries and
local clergy represented the only defense, the only shelter for everyone without
distinction of race or religion, or caste. The change in attitude towards us was
also influenced by the British departure, after the end of colonialism, we all stayed
here. An educated wealthy man of my place at that time said: "Father,
why the British go away and you stay?" I replied:" I have not come
here like the British, to do business nor to dominate the people but only to
help you, to show you that I love you". He replied: "I have already
heard this many times, but now I really believe, because today you have put your
lives into our hands of Bengalis with much confidence, as true friends."
We missionaries have always tried to establish good relationships with everyone
and deeply take care of the life of these populations. I remember when I walked
around Santal villages, after I had already learned the language, the first
thing I did was to go to the village chief in charge and ask him about the
village, health, fields, their problems. The chief of the village was always
honored that a father was interested in his village. He invited me to his house,
we established a friendship. Then I asked if they would have liked a visit of
the father in the future, if he said yes, I replied that I would have return
again. Then when I went back, they were all waiting for me, then I talked to the
whole community and praised their natural virtues, their proverbs, their
traditions and their customs, and said that all these beautiful things were to
be developed. Then I spoke their concept of God, listened to their problems,
helped them as the best I could.
The Santal understand the essence of the Gospel
Once we studied a whole metaphysical theology system, detached from life. Today
I read books about theology and it seems they are more related to daily life
than those we were used to. The fact is that when we arrived to a mission and we
were in touch with local people, Christians and non Christians, it seemed that
all the studies we have done were not useful, and that instead, what would be
served, was not studied. So we needed to start again: for example, to understand
the mentality of local people, studying how to penetrate the message of Jesus in
their mental background, free us as missionaries from the whole system of truth
and philosophy that we had in mind, to keep only what was necessary etc..
Life practice taught us to be simple, like the Gospel. The most we were going
on, living in contact with people, the most we understood that the language of
the Gospel was so immediate, so simple, so profound. The books of theology we
brought from Italy became moldy, we had always gospel we in your pocket. The
religious discourse that we, Christian, still do to non-Christians is very
simple. For example, when I explain the providence of God to women breastfeeding
in church, I say: "how does your milk become flesh and blood and hair of
your children?" They answer: "we do not know" So I say that God
lives in them and their children; it is a concept that people already have in
their mind and warmly approved. When I talk to men I speak about their sowing
and harvesting in the fields, the forest life, noting how much God loves us. In
general, not Christians aboriginal fear spirits, which can hurt them: all their
spiritual life is made up of fear, fear complex, magical rites performed to
protect themselves from bad influences. They also have an inadequate idea of God:
they believe in a Supreme Being, but normally think that God is far from the
world and does not need men, so do not care about what happens on earth. We try
to explain that God is love, is the father of the men who love us, so that God
forgives our sins and sent his Son for our salvation. We explain that it is
necessary to establish an intimate dialogue with God through prayer. This
goodness of God is the great revelation that shake the religious universe of the
pagans. When they hear that God loves them, who is the father of all men, so
that we are all equal before God, then they listen with an open mouth and then
want us to go back to them to tell these things. I always use pictures and words
of the Gospel. The Eastern people understand the gospel more than we Westerners,
because we live in a modern and secular world. The Santal are still living in
rural environment, very similar to that in which Jesus lived: therefore, the
Gospel parables, discourses of Christ, the life of Jesus and His Apostles, is
understood very well. Not only that, but they enjoy because for them it is a
entirely new and revolutionary speech, compared to their traditions and
mentality. I think that our Christians of Italy should learn from Christian
Santal, in this sense: that here in Italy, after 2000 years of Christianity,
with all the confusion of voices that there are in Italy today, we cannot longer
understand about this blessed message of Christ and its freshness for humanity.
The Santal understand it very well, they go straight to the essential, they
realize that Jesus is revolutionary because he preached the love of God and to
the neighbor and Jesus has practiced it in a heroic way. This is what really
counts. Instead I get the impression that in Italy, often times we have
forgotten this too, or at least we are so overwhelmed by so many theories that
we can no longer see the essential.
We were wrong not to Christianize the Santal rites
Of course, we cannot believe that is enough, sometimes, to approach a village or
a family Santal, to make them Christians. We always had a long term catechesis:
it begins with God who is love and then goes on to ask sacrifices to respond to
this love. For example we taught to give up hatred for the enemy, revenge (very
strong feelings among the pagans); ask men to work harder for the family to give
up drinking and not chase after other women, we asked women of be faithful to
their man, to take care of the education of their children sending them to
school, and other practical things like these. To be Christian, it takes years,
indeed, sometimes several generations. At first we do not even explain the truth
of entirely: they would not understand. We must first create a whole new
mentality, a Christian atmosphere which male people to understand the meaning of
cross, the Eucharist. Once, at the beginning of my missionary apostolate, I
spoke for a long time to a group of Santal that seemed already prepared, I spoke
about Jesus the Son of God who became man and died on the cross for our
salvation. They knew the meaning of crucifix already, but I wanted them to
understand the meaning of that image. At the end, I asked: Who can tell me why
people crucified Jesus? All were silent, they did not know what to say, they did
not understand anything of what I said. Then finally, one gets up and said:
"To steal his clothes." You should not expect too much, we must walk
according to their pace, which is very slow. On the other hand, I would like to
see how many of the Italians who say to be Christians how much understand about
the Cross and Eucharist!
For the baptism was different, they could suddenly understand it, as the
confession. They also have the baptism when a child is born Santal, the chief of
the village gather together to cleanse the baby from impurity. They do not know
what is this impurity, but they believe that children are born morally stained,
and must be purified. They call the barber of the village, who cut the hair of
the child as a sign of purification, then the wizard makes upon the child
different ceremonies, then the father of the child offer to drink bitter water
to everyone in the village, of which I can not say anything about the meaning,
presenting his son to all the villagers. So, the baptism in the church is fully
understood as a rite of introduction into the community, a kind of ritual
purification rite of peace with God. Confession is also understood: in their
traditions there is the concept of repentance and petition for forgiveness to
the community. I never found difficulties during the confession of sins among
the Santal, indeed I have always met the maximum sincerity and spontaneity. Only
among the converts from Hinduism there are difficulties, because they have a
legalistic concept of sin, so maybe they confess they have killed an insect, but
not if they hated or oppressed a man, they confess they ate unclean meat, but
did not rob the workers the right wages. We need to give a more detailed
investigation of the concept of sin. Unfortunately we made the big mistake of
not to bring to church their own original rituals, their practices, purifying
the meaning: then we would have a more integrated community in their traditions,
while, on the contrary, they have always felt like fugitives. But the mistake,
in truth, did not belong to us, missionaries on the spot. We saw and felt these
things in a deep way. For example, I knew the Santal songs, playing guitar and
mandolin, I went around and learned all their songs because they are beautiful:
there are songs for weddings, funerals and baptisms songs, I collected about
4,000 of these songs, all written, words and music. I have them all in my
personal archive in Dinajpur and now that the Santal forgot about them, I
believe to be the one who kept more songs than anybody else. Who knows if, one
day, these songs will still be useful to someone or something. I said that we
missionaries, living the life of the Santal and understanding their language and
mentality, we could see the usefulness of "Christianizing" their
rituals and traditions. It seemed absurd to introduce the melody or Gregorian
Italian songs to a people who has already such a beautiful music, even though so
different from ours. In the past we could not say these things, but today is
very different and the emerging church is really indigenous. I remember once we
asked some missionaries in India to work with us to study these Santal rites,
they also worked among the Santal, but strongly opposed to what we wanted to do,
which is to integrate the Santal rites in the church, they said that Rome would
not have allowed it. I do not know if it is true, but we have not even tried
seriously.
We gave a conscience to the poor
The main difficulty we encounter in our apostolate, was not the conversion issue,
but to create homogeneous communities, stable and mature. The Santal villages
were converted in an easy way after a few years of contact with missionaries or
catechists. But then not really matured communities turn out, mainly because
people were all nomads, immigrants, people subjected to Hindus and Muslims who
made them work like animals on Sunday. I remember when I went to visit the
Santal villages and people gather in church on Sundays for celebration, I had to
ask permission to owners on the site to bring people away from work. They could
not say no, but they were waiting outside the church to lead immediately the
Christians back to work. In short, they were real slaves, dependent on all
others, not only for work, but for everything, they ate leftovers from those of
caste, cleaned their houses, do what ever they were said to do, keep quiet, if
not they were beaten. Then, we missionaries committed us gradually to give
awareness to these poor, by the help of education and Christian catechesis both,
based on human dignity and equality of all men, with concrete actions, when the
right occasion came. How many times I myself have gone to court to defend the
Santal in front of the owner of a village who committed some bullying! Then I
swore myself to death to keep going but several times I also had to run away to
avoid of being beaten. Once I agreed with some men and some young people of the
Santal to go together to a village to free some Santal away in front the eyes of
the Indians who had almost turned them as slaves. Things went this way, that
during a famine period of time, Indians had taken away some Santal people giving
them food the Santal became their slaves and Indians did not leave them anymore.
The law could not do anything, because when the judge, went to interview those
Santal, were scared of being beaten, they said they did not want to go away and
they feel well there. Who had dared to say something different, not only did not
obtain any results, but would even tied to a pole and whipped to blood. So when
I saw that things were really so, I went to the village with about forty young
Santal armed with arrows and clubs: the Santal were experts with the arc, they
could hit a wild pig while escaping far away fifty meters. The fact is that we
have succeeded even without much discussion, to take away our Santal. Remained
only a stubborn old man, who said he had given his word and that he would not
run away and escaped. When he died I know that Indians have tied his ankles (to
avoid to touch him), pulled and threw into his well, from which, later, nobody
has drawn more water, as sign of humiliation.
Ten million refugees without anything!
It is because of these reasons that we were considered enemies by the Bengali
Hindus and Muslims, that is, by all Bangladeshis, with the exception of
Aborigines and the outcasts! But we saw the poor who were under the feet of the
Indians, we could not keep quiet, although very often we had to swallow bitter
mouthfuls, not to worsen the situation. We have always tried to redeem the
marginal groups, giving them schools, health care, specialization in work,
helping them to better cultivate the fields, make rice banks to free them from
bondage of loan sharks, and so on. Our teaching created sometimes unexpected and
unintended results, as when the Santal of a certain region rebelled altogether
and engaged real battles for the possession of land, which previously was their
forest. We had to rush and bring peace, otherwise, they would have been murdered
or beaten up! Now the social action of the mission is completely different, also
because today we have many material resources, which once we did not even dare
to dream. Now we can build industrial schools like the "Novara Centre",
which is the wonder of the region, because the diocese and the city of Novara in
ten years have given us about 150 million liras. But once we would not even seen,
the equivalent of 150 million of today, even in fifty years and for the entire
mission. In the last ten to fifteen years we could have more social facilities
than in one hundred years earlier: schools, medical dispensaries, cooperatives,
wells, irrigation canals, vocational schools, contributions for the improvement
of agriculture, villages with brick houses, new roads small craft industries
which creates jobs. We imported tractors and agricultural machines, we taught the
use of chemical fertilizers, we have trained mechanics and electricians, started
community to work together and urged people to unite to do something together.
And then, the great work we have done by CORR, the Catholic charitable
organization in Bangladesh (the local Caritas), during and after the
Revolutionary War! It has been a wonderful job, we have saved hundreds of
thousands of lives and helped millions of poor people to rebuild everything from
the hut to the well, by plowing the field first and then purchase the livestock.
The church has shown to everyone that by the help of CORR, not only that our
concern was to help all the same way, Christians or Muslims, Bengali or Santal,
but we knew how to make all these people cooperate despite the fact the hated
each other. We had ten million refugees returning from India with nothing, ten
million! Many of those who remained lost everything. Among the general confusion,
the only things that worked were the Indian army and CORR. The army to kept
order, the church united with all people of good will worked on reconstruction,
administering the money of all for the good of all. When the government of
Bangladesh was planted, the President Mujibur Rahman received all the bishops
and he wanted to thank them on behalf of the entire country. It was an
incredible thing, to see how everyone just trusted the priests and those who
worked with us were the UN Commission, India, the United States, all countries
and organizations in the world; they were studying and seeing the needs, then
gave money to us because we used money for the good of all. It was a time of
emergency, and luckily is over, because now everything is in the hands of the
government, as it should. But then everybody saw that the church was truly at
the service of all: we built houses and roads, irrigation canals and wells, we
distributed food and clothing and medicines, and nobody could say that we stood
on the side of anyone in particular. We worked for the construction of roads and
huts, above all, we gave a job to hundreds of thousands of unemployed, paying
them with rice and wheat coming from America and other countries. The Lord has
helped us in a visible way: throw our hands passed billions, tens of billions,
and we did not have even one serious case of theft or of someone who fled with
the money of the community. It could also happen sometimes, it was
understandable that one could have lost control because of this much money: and
yet, among the leaders, did not happened even a case. And we were able to show
to the government and the international organizations that have helped
Bangladesh with our accounting in order, with great precision.
Collaborate with everyone for the social welfare
I believe that the largest action of evangelization has been done with this
witness of real love to everyone, so that everyone understood what was the
church and who are the missionaries. Maybe it could be that we could have a
genuine dialogue with Muslims, but due to the general situation, the times had
not yet come. And then, the image that we have given about our selfless work for
others was so new, revolutionary, that was even incomprehensible, unbelievable.
It will take some time before will be understood and bring fruitful reflections.
In fact, the all non-Christian religions, Islam or Hinduism are the same,
although they have noble values to save, they are a combination of formalities
and traditional exteriors that do not change the man in depth, even though they
give a certain spiritual education . Only living a long time in a non-Christian
country, we come to understand the profound value of Christianity, the
difference which exists between faith in Christ and other religions who were
born from the man. Christianity is founded on God's love for man, a love so
great that the Son of God became man to save us, in the same way, we have to
love our brothers, to spend our lives for them, without expecting anything in
return. These truths are absolutely revolutionary, radically changing the man
and, consequently, the society and its unjust structures. We turn our Christian
religion in a pagan religion, when we merely observe Christian law with a
formalistic attitude! I found educated Muslim people who accepted in a private
the whole teaching of Christianity and they told me: "I can see that
Christianity is the religion of the future, of all people, because is the
religion of love, which transcends all racial division , caste, social class.
But these Muslim people told me these things in secret, in public they would not
ever admit to avoid to be later expelled by the Islamic society, family and the
village. For this reason there have never been conversions of Muslims, or maybe
there was someone in ancient times, when the missionary, as a white person, had
a considerable force and could also overcome the resistance of the Islamic
community. But in recent times, at least since I'm in Bengal, we have never
forced things. Today, what we seek is a dialogue with everyone. And more than a
strictly religious dialogue, we seek dialogue and collaboration on a social
level, to help those who suffer and for the good of the country development.
Already during the war and after the war, as I said, there was a good start, it
was partially overcome the mentality of division and hatred between religions,
castes, races: they were all united to work for the the common good. Then, we
try to continue on this road, which I believe is the way to bring the
Bangladeshis to Christ.
Christian ideas have transformed Bengal
I always thought, maybe now I say an heresy, that is not our action of
missionaries who evangelized, but only the action of God who uses us
missionaries as very imperfect instruments and traitors: if we can a little
damage it is already a great achievement! God spreads the gospel outside the
church as well as in the church. Perhaps to keep us humble. I mean that people
come to God in ways that we missionaries do not know and we would never thought.
The important thing is that we have faith in God and the Holy Spirit and work
honestly: then maybe what we wanted may turn in a complete failure, but
meanwhile we get surprising results in another direction. For example, we have
always tried to found a Christian community in Bangladesh. We did not really
succeeded, despite all the enormous sacrifices, faith, good will of all of us
missionaries! Even today, most Christians rooted in Bengal, although only a
third of Bangladeshi Christians are those derived by the Portuguese in 1600,
although pure Bengali Portuguese family, who are now professionals, officials,
people evolved, all the bishops and great part of this Christian priests are
done more with the sword and marriage or cohabitation, rather than catechesis
and faith. We, modern missionaries, we would think, we failed, we have not even
got the results of the Portuguese. The Christians we have made in the last
century, in fact, are still with one foot in the paganism and the other into
Christianity. I have seen catechists, for who I would haveput my hands in the
fire because I was so sure of their faith, do the strangest things out of
paganism in the forest when they were taken by fear in times of danger, whether
the attack of fever or a jumping tiger jumping. Pagans are plenty of natural
virtues, spirit of sacrifice, love for children and families, they could also to
teach us, but faith is still superficial, while the Christians of the Portuguese
have another dimension and depth. But I believe that measuring the success of
our work only by the number of our Christian is a mistake. For this reason I say
that God works almost more out of the Church than inside the Church. The meaning
is that the Church, and without being aware of it, while is making a little and
uncertain Christians, has transformed Bengal. The church may perhaps always
remain a small flock, full of imperfections and sins, but meanwhile the witness
of Christian ideas preached by this small community have radically changed the
environment, as I believe, has changed the world.
The miracle of charity
There is nothing in common between the Bengal I have lived forty years ago, and
Bengal today: the instinct for freedom, collaboration for the good of all, young
people who spend themselves for the good of others, some Muslims who saved the
lives of Pakistani soldiers threatened by Hindu is not all this Christianity?
Forty years ago such things would not even be dreamt. In 1932 I saw starving
hundreds of Santal and Bengali would not even move a wrinkle: it was as if there
was a mortality of flies or grasshoppers. Now faced with disasters all move,
government and associations, schools and political movements. Europe, some time
ago, did not even know about the existence of Bengal: in the great famine of
1941-42 it is estimated that have died four to five million Bangladeshis. Well,
at that time, Europe was at war, but even if it was, would not care. Nowadays, on
the contrary, help arrived from all over the world and with the help tens and
hundreds of young people, nurses, agronomists, social workers, organizers, all
people who came to work for free for the Bengali people, full of enthusiasm and
dedication. Someone was hurt, others are sick or put in danger their own life
too! And this, I think, is heroism and Christian spirit in practice, not theory.
It has been this heroism that has moved the Bengali people, were all put to work
for the common good, as never happened in the history of this people. An
educated Muslim told me:, "Father, it's amazing how hatreds of race and
religion and caste almost disappeared, and how we are all working for others.
You know that until yesterday when I saw that the field of my neighbor was
better than my, I went at night to destroy it? "And this happened for all.
Another told me: "Father, you do not know us, there is so much hatred and
jealousy among us that if we did not fear the vengeance and the law, there would
be a massacres of entire families. Yet now we all work together! This is a
miracle of the Bengali nation and also of the Christian missionaries because you
have always preached these things. " I'm sure that people of Bangladesh has
taken a huge step towards brotherly love, mutual understanding, formation of a
human community based on respect for the individual and the overcoming of all
divisions of class or caste. Is this not Christianity? One day, tomorrow, when
we would never expect, people themselves will tell us: " let us pray
together, praise God together. During the war, many Muslims and the mullahs (in
charge of leading the prayer in Islam) saw to the church giving everything she
had, helped everyone, took continuously initiative to share food, homes, welcome
refugees, make wells, prepared fields, Muslims and Mullah thought and said:
"these missionaries are doing so for interest, then they will baptize all
of us, then we will be in their and say: "who still wants to be helped, has
to become a Christian". On the contrary at that time we did not baptized
anyone, it was also forbidden to speak about conversion or baptism. We all
looked astonished, we could not explain this and how we did not take advantage
we had because of the money we had in our hands, neither we take advantage of
power nor the government we helped: indeed, once the government was able to have
an organization, we entrusted everything to the government without the slightest
hesitation, and sometimes government officials were the ones who begged us not
to drop everything because they did not know how to manage. I believe that this
was a great witness, an evangelization in which God's plans would eventually
bear fruit. And this already happened it, because young Bengalis grew among are
adversities and have absorbed the great lesson of Jesus Christ, who is to do
good to others without expecting any reward.
The philosophy of life which is learned in Bengal
Since I returned to Italy a few months ago after 44 years of absence, I realized
how much changed my country, in every sense: the landscape and daily life, the
mentality of the people, politics, entertainment everything. One is tempted to
say that there was good progress but some things I cannot accept: for example
the contrast between young and old seems so exaggerated, even within the Church,
that we cannot understand each other any longer . In Bangladesh, although with
different ideas, we are more united in essentials topics. Everyone asks me if
the young missionaries who came to Bangladesh in recent years bother me, but I
say no, no annoyance, on the contrary they bring new ideas, some good, some not,
they experience new ways and sometimes they guess right, some other times they
are wrong; in short, we old in touch with young priests’ ideas change a little,
some other times young priests change after being in touch with the reality. For
sure, sometimes we have arguments, we discuss animatedly, say big words, but
then we understand that the whole truth you is never only one side: and if all
give way a little, we all agree again and everyone can walk a step forward.
At three o’clock in the morning I wake up to pray
This philosophy may seems cheap, but in our life a bit of common sense never
hurts, even to the greatest philosophers and theologians. I would especially say
that we should be optimistic about the future of the world and the church. Back
to Italy I admired so many young people involved: the youth, in my opinion, is
now more open to understand other people, more unselfish, more educated, more
available to a discourse of faith, than we were in our time. My opinion may
sound superficial, because I am in Italy only since a few months, but perhaps
this impression of someone who returns after a long time are more precious.
People tell me: "there is a shortage of vocations, young people no longer
want to commit". It is true, it could be also a temporary crisis, our
structures may have to adapt, but it could also due to a possible deeper crisis.
My impression is that many Christians, young and old, laity and priests and nuns
do not know how to pray more. There is not any longer a constant teaching about
prayer and spirituality about mortification: this is why young people, who are
also available and have many fine qualities we did not have, do not receive good
guidelines, do not have the necessary illumination to choose God. It is useless
make out of this any illusion: a priestly or religious vocation or even a lay
apostolic commitment is born and matures only under two conditions: much prayer
and great mortification. We must learn to say no to themselves, be capable of
total giving, otherwise you do not have the authentic experience of God and does
not feel attracted to him. A few months ago, just came back to Italy, I girl
came to see me and she said she wanted to become a missionary nun. I said that
the intention was good, but at first we must experience the joy of meeting
Christ personally, the joy of spending one hour alone in prayer with Christ. So
I tried to guide her for some time, then I ask her: "why you can not enjoy
the prayer?" She said, "You know, maybe because I got bad habits in
sexual matters, which I can not tear myself away, though my confessor told me
that these things are not sins" I will not judge my brother in the
priesthood because I do not know him, but he certainly sent the girl along the
wrong way, a very easy to walk way, but it will be very hard to leave. What it
does change whether it is or not a sin? It is not a question of law but a
question of love, generosity, a more or less devotion to God. I am convinced
that many young people are well led, we are afraid of offering high ideals, they
want to please them all or almost. I have seen many good parents, Christians,
but they educate children to have everything, they allow everything and in this
way they think they're affectionate because they never say no, but kind of
education is this one? And it could happen that these children are already
married at twenty or twenty-five years? We go back to talk about prayer and
mortification. Only those who are free can give themselves to God, only who
prays can really manage to be mortified. From here you can not escape. I want to
share my experience to the reader and I say almost with shame, but it is not my
particular thing, although I know many missionaries, and also I have learned
from the older missionaries, when I went to Bengal in 1929. Well, in those early
years of mission I have made a habit of getting up every morning very early to
spend the first two to three hours every morning continued with God because
during the day there is not time- In this way you feel transformed and with a
force that is not your own. Now I do not want some young people to give up some
sleep to do crazy things. There in Bengal we go to bed very early and we can
also easily get up at three in the morning. But you who want to follow Christ
instead of getting up at three in the morning, can give up some pointless
conversation and retreat to pray alone with God, do not be afraid to give him
too much time!
I am at war with cobras and leopards
The story of waking up in the night to pray, was useful to me in at least two
occasions: once allowed me to save all the furnishings of the church, the other
once saved my life. So one night I got up and go in the church of Saidpur. There
were two thieves who were stealing. I opened the door and found them inside, all
amazed that in the middle of the night their father had gone to church. I
shouted: "What are you doing, wretched, stealing in church?" They were
two big and heavy scoundrels from a nearby village. They had already put in two
sacks candlesticks, vestments, chalices and all that was in church. They were
paralyzed by fear. I went, I took them by an arm and take them outside the
church, to call people to come and give them a punishment. But as I start to
shout, they recover from their shock and easily get rid of me and run like hell.
Another time, I'm still in the church at three in the morning. About five
o'clock I heard people shouting. I went out and I saw a dozen men armed with
sticks are around my house. They say: "Father, the leopard has entered your
bedroom, thank God you were in church, otherwise who knows what might happened
to you. Now we must kill him. I took a big stick and I put myself outside the
door of the room and said: "Make a loud noise, so that I can go out and
knock the leopard with my stick." So they did I and I was ready with the
stick raised. Leopard, after a while, came out slowly. I dropped a hit on his
neck. As if I had cherished him, he turned toward me with his nose not far from
me more than two feet from my legs, made a great roar and then jumped to the
forest and disappeared. What a scare guys! He was a beast that if only would
have touched me sent, he would have sent me to the creator. And I wanted to beat
him. But if I tell all the adventures with animals, I guess I would never finish
and go off-topic. I will tell another adventure. While visiting a Christian
village, the night I went to sleep in the church made of mud. In a corner on the
ground, I stretched out my mat, I put another blanket over the cushion and
prepare the bed for the night. Then I had a long conversation with some men. I
go to bed, sleep very deeply and in the morning, folding the mat to take it away,
you know what I find under? A stiff cobra! You see who had taken refuge under
the mat while I was there. Then, going to sleep, I crushed and killed without
realizing it. It would have been enough a while for the cobra to bite me
somewhere and I was a dead man. It is very obvious that, in many occasions, that
God protects us. Another time, in another Christian village, I had to do a
rudimentary toilet in a bamboo grove: a hole in the ground and a bit of branches
around. In the morning I go and while I'm about to squat, I hear the distinctive
whistle of a cobra behind me. I get cold sweats in the neck, but I have enough
time to get up, I turn and see the cobra all tense, ready to strike, half out of
the bushes in the position of attack. Have you ever seen someone to run off with
the pants in your hand? Well, I'm out of the woods like that. My Christians
laughed at me for a week and I suffered of constipation for two weeks.
The real revolutionaries are the saints
Today we talk about pastoral methods, there are conferences to study new methods.
All good things: but I do not think the methods, but the spirit is the one who
animates any method. I tried everything I have in Bengal, I did work catechists,
I went around for months in the villages, I played guitar and mandolin as a
mountebank tried cooperatives and agricultural banks, I did individual and group
reflection, I tried the theaters with a religious background, in short I have
tried all the new methods. Yet, if I have to honest, I really felt a missionary,
I had conversion and the trust people when I prayed more. It is just worrying
about the methods, forms of pastoral theology, but we must never forget that we
do not work, but the Spirit, and who redeems, saves and free the man is Jesus
Christ. Every man, even the poorest, have no such need of us, of our aid, our
works, but they need Jesus Christ if we are able to be tools in the hands of God,
well, we will bear fruit otherwise we fail, despite the fact we may build great
schools and become social reformers. Here, I think we should give this training
to young people in a deep way. And I also believe that they are available to
listen to this speech, because this is the real speech about the truth of faith.
On the contrary many people mislead young people instead of telling them: you
have to be revolutionaries, you have to chase after all the news of theology and
sociology, you have to break down old traditions and structures, you have to
challenge the corrupt society and so on. Young people are likely to delude themselves
because they may believe that after having run for a while, they have
contributed to improve the world. I say: Go ahead revolutionaries and dissidents,
but pray first two to three hours a day, then we'll talk. The real
revolutionaries are the saints, because the only revolutionary is Jesus Christ,
the more someone comes close to Christ, the more truly revolutionize the world.
Nothing really changes radically the world, concerning the holiness, like
goodness, sacrifice, selflessness, giving life to others. This applies
especially to consecrated persons, priests, nuns and lay people who really want
to engage in the apostolate. We must work to discover Christ in us. It is good
to be updated, I ask to send me to Bengal Rahner's books and books of other
modern theologians I always liked Rahner’s book because in his books everything
is based on ascetic training and then have some pages about Jesus Christ who
have something extraordinary. I said that these things need to be meditated,
pray about these meditations for hours to mature to the point of encounter
Christ in our hearts, the joy of finding Jesus Christ and live with passion.
However, often times, we are content of words, big words, theories, and in our
lives we do not put in practice the ideals for we donated our lives to God.
Young people must start with great ideals, the task of educators is to open vast
horizons generosity of youth, the enthusiasm of young people do not let young
people languish in negative and pessimistic things, but in the right direction,
which is that of prayer, sacrifice, for the love of God. We have to give great
ideals to the young: later we will realize that maybe young people will not put
in practice all of them, but still will have wide-ranging breath like the world,
make the choice of serving others and not themselves, God's choice and not our
own selfishness.
I think that the vocations are born by the appeal to the generosity. So it's a
certain mentality that we need basic care: the mentality of self-giving without
asking anything in return, the willingness to spend our time, our lives for a
noble cause, not looking for immediate results, in other words the mentality to
pay personally for the ideals we believe in. Today, I think, we are to
accustomed to accuse others, to make responsible other of all the bed things of
our society: everyone complain, accuse, everyone wants to check on others, is
the basic attitude which is in danger of not being right if we look not only to
others responsibilities and not to ourselves. Kennedy told the young Americans:
"Ask not only what America does for you, also ask yourself what you do for
America."
Some common sense never hurts
There is a false liberalism that sounds fake to me. This liberalism affect those
who do not have patience, who assumed too much of himself, who is not tolerant
of others and wants to impose its own pace at any cost even to who cannot not
keep it. I take a practical example. In Bangladesh, there were missionaries and
missionary non-Italian, excellent people until the protest wave arrived from the
West the wave in recent years. Then, at that time, a good number of them have
changed, have begun to be progressive out of place and out of time. Good ideas,
for heaven's sake, I also agree with it as well, but as I said before, a bit of
common sense does not hurt even the greatest theologians. The fact is that a
church, after all traditionalist like the one in Bangladesh, where the great
mass of Christians are farmers, fishermen, artisans, tribals who live by hunting
and fishing, people wanted to impose new and strange forms, remove the devotions
and most cherished traditions to the people. A father, for example, overnight,
began to celebrate Mass sitting on the ground, to do as the Indians, and to
distribute communion pieces of bread on the hands of everyone. People rebelled,
and more than two hundred men surrounded the house of the father and told him:
"you go away immediately or you are in trouble. He had flown to escape: a
scandal that went on and on, in a closed environment such as the rural one!
Another would remove St. Philomena who was the protector of a village church and
had a very frequented church even by neighboring regions. He said that according
to new research Saint Philomena does not exist and therefore must be eliminated:
even there a revolt occurred. Woe to those who touched St. Philomena in that
area! We must go on slowly, if you really need, and do not want change
everything overnight. Also because the people here are Christian only in part
and the part that is still pagan, if necessary can still beat a priest. The fact
is that St. Philomena remained at his post, despite all historical criticism,
and I think it will remain for a long time. In Dhaka, the American nuns had a
great hospital, without any doubt the best of all Bangladesh, better equipped,
as the largest, most hospitable to all, rich and poor, with high reputation
doctors, clean, with Sisters who had worked miracles for many years. Even those
poor sisters were affected by the mania of the reforms too fast: they too,
overnight, started to remove the cap, a step that could be also a good thing,
but without the right spirit. The nuns protested against a too wide structure of
the hospital. Then they wanted a day off a week. Then no longer wanted to live
in community but in groups. In short, a bit and now a bit tomorrow, almost all
of them got married and nearly all the few that remain, unable to carry out this
immense city hospital, gave back the hospital for free to the government. I know
that because the Government implored them to remain, but there was nothing to be
done: in America there were not anymore vocations and those in Bangladesh
dispersed. So now the hospital is no longer even a shadow of what it was: there
is dirt, disorder, lack of medicine and doctors, aging equipment and get broken.
Then you understand why many bishops and local priests of Bangladesh and India,
say : we do not want anymore foreign missionaries. They are right. If the
foreign missionaries are only bringing disorder, it is better that they stay
home. Here there is already a mess too. But if you honestly and seriously want
to work, then all they seek. We Pime fathers of Dinajpur were invited in other
dioceses, and now we also service the Bishop of Chittagong. Perhaps we Italians
adapt more, perhaps we have some of that common sense that never hurts. Or
perhaps, more simply, because we do not want to be in charge, we also know how
to cordially subjugate ourselves to indigenous bishop or government officials
was just emerging from the forest. We should go in the third world with this
spirit, otherwise it is better to stay home. We must accept their mentality even
the most conservative, we do not have an attitude of superiority and did not
want to impose our secular mentality and our excessive liberalism, which in
Italy can perhaps be good, but abroad may become a kind of religious and
cultural imperialism .
Young people, spend well your life
To conclude, I would say to young Italians today to spend their lives well not to
waste it on things of little value, your life is worth much and deserves to be
engaged in something big, noble, to be of great assistance to large possible
number of men and women. The best way to prepare for life is to meet God in
Jesus Christ. Do not believe in other prophets, do not be fooled by messianic
human. Tagore, the greatest Bengali poet, who wrote beautiful pages on young
people says: "If you wonder how great you are, your life will give you the
answer: only if you are committed serving God, you will do things worthy to be
remembered with admiration and gratitude". I would also repeat what St.
Augustine said: "My God, how later I met you! You were in me and I was
beside myself". This sentence is full of meaning. We should check ourselves,
be ourselves to meet God, when we can control ourselves, then we give ourselves
to God and neighbor in fullness. Otherwise we are content of words. I am
optimistic for two reasons: first, no period of human history has been better
than this. It 's a universal improvement of all people: people walk toward
Christian ideals, brotherhood, peace, understanding and mutual respect, the
ending of all oppression. Young people today are better than yesterday because
they feel deeply these ideals: for this I must say that young people should look
for radical commitment to achieve, do not waste time with unnecessary verbal
context, with theoretical discussions, running behind all inconclusive messianic
messianisms. Only God can fully realize the ideals in which more and more people
believe: only Jesus Christ, incarnated in the lives of many people of our time,
could revolutionize human society in depth. And I am optimistic for a second
reason: the good always prevails over evil, because the side of good is the God
side. God's ways are not our ways, it's true: however, not always. God achieves
his goals in the way we wants, but sometimes we are disappointed, discouraged,
because we can not see God's work in the world. We think that everything is
going pell-mell and yet everything goes well. It 's like us in the war of Bengal,
killing, destruction, the work of decades destroyed, millions of refugees, hate
and revenge it seemed the whole Bengali universe would collapse. We were
discouraged and to the point of psycho-physical limit of exhaustion. I remember
one evening, an old Muslim man from a village told me: "Father, do not be
sad, because God knows what he does and Bengal will reborn more beautiful than
before." He was right in his simple faith had a hundred times right. Recent
events of these years have fully confirmed what the man said due to his great
faith in God. Everything is a matter of faith and love of God. If our life is
spent under these two signs, we will be the luckiest and happiest among people.
It is my wish to all readers, going back to Bengal, almost recovered from all
the diseases that I had. I ask only a prayer that I can continue to live long
with my Bengalis, the people whom God has given me a legacy.