A pastoral experience from a remote part of Brazil

Fr. Rui Cavalcanti Barboza is a Brazilian priest who is living an interesting pastoral experience in the midst of a people suffering grave social problems. His adventure started about 40 years ago when he met a missionary, Bishop Alano du Noday, who originally had come from Brittany . When he was made Bishop of a vast area in the state of Goils, Bishop Alano found himself without a single priest. Undaunted he continued his work of evangelisation by bringing together in his own home, those young men who appeared to him to be called by God to priesthood. In this way he prepared 30 priests from the locality, among whom was Fr. Rui. Afterwards the area was divided into various dioceses and Fr. Rui went to work in the diocese of Miracema do Norte. In the following interview Fr. Rui tells us about his experience.

Could you describe what your diocese is like?

The diocese of Miracema was established in 1965. It is 57,000 km 2 and has 180 thousand inhabitants distributed in 18 parishes, 6 of which are run by priests and the others by communities of sisters. It is located in the territory of the wide basin of the river Toacantins, along whose bank the inhabitants of the region for centuries eked out their existence, both because of its fishing resources and because it was the only way of communication. Along the river we find the principal cities of the area such as Miracema which is presently the centre of my diocese.

In the last forty years our region has been literally 'attacked' by so-called civilisation with large-scale immigration - mostly of very poor people - from other areas. People were attracted by some big work-projects which were going on, such as the road going from Belem to Brasilia , the Transamazon highway, and various projects of colonisation, but above all, by a deceiving propoganda which fostered in many the illusion of finding the Promised Land. The local population found itself unprepared to meet the new situation and unable to discern true values from more negative aspects. Consequently, we now have a large number of adventurers whose only goal is to get rich quick, using all means possible. Part of this migratory tide is composed of people who are very rich and who, in order to protect their capital, buy vast stretches of land, increase their estates and set up an organisation of illegal workers not unlike slavery. The social consequences are as follows: - many widespread urban developments have transformed our ancient small towns into immense favelas with no infrastructure and lacking even the most elementary hygienic sanitary facilities. The newly arrived immigrants, having no previous contact with the environment and its traditions and more often than not forced to living in subhuman conditions, do not set up stable family nuclei. More and more illegitimate children are born only to be then abandoned. The phenomenon of prostitution has increased on a scale never known before. Often families see themselves as forced to send their children out on the streets in order to survive. You might think that there could be some kind of control or action on the part of the public administration and the courts but unfortunately here law, justice, and social security are often seen by the people as useless and indeed harmful concepts because too often these institutions side with the strongest.

The South American Church has been grappling for some time now with these types of situations and searching for an adequate Christian response. What is your opinion?

The problem of what to do in such situations is a burning question and in these years it has taken up a considerable amount of our theological literature and above all our pastoral praxis. Many documents have been issued by the Episcopal Conference, the most important of which is undoubtedly that of Puebla . These documents provide a deep analysis of the evils of our society and they indicate that the ultimate remedy is to create a communion among Christians so that they can be promoters of an authentic process of transformation based on the Gospel. We know this theoretically but what should we do in practice? When I was still a seminarian in the major seminary in Rio de Janeiro , I was tormented by this question. I used to say: "Soon I will be a priest and I will return to the diocese. What will I do? Will I go and preach missions? or baptise? or will I throw myself into works of caring such as hospitals, schools, senior citizens' homes?" I understood that all of this would not amount to much and I could not see how I would be able to talk to people of the Gospel in a way which would be effective.

It was at this time that I had the opportunity of living an experience which, with all its simplicity, opened my eyes. In the seminary a small group of the Word of Life had been set up, inspired by the spirituality of unity. By taking part in it and in trying to put one sentence of the Gospel into practise daily I discovered much more than an edifying message: it was a living Word, which unleashed its transforming power in the thousands of situations of every day and not only at an individual level, but also at a social level. And so I became profoundly convinced that the Gospel, by changing the heart of men and women, can transform the structures of this world. I think that was the most beautiful gift that God made me in the period of preparation for priesthood.

I returned to my diocese and found myself immediately before a people who were looking for pastors who were true brothers and friends, more than preachers of a fluffy "gospelising". Our people want a religion committed to the promotion of salvation "here and now" as a sign of the credibility of redemption and the future resurrection. A disincarnated spirituality, a preaching which would emphasise the promises of the future would have had no effect; indeed it would be alienating.

What was your experience of parish life?

When I was made parish priest in 1968, I was very young and had no experience. My Bishop brought me to the new parish where there was nothing: no church, no house, and he left me at the bus station where a group of people were waiting for me. The town was called Colinas di Goils, situated half way between Brasilia and Belem on the artery road which links the two capitals. It was a town which recently sprung up like a mushroom along the roadside. First of all the petrol station and then a small restaurant and a hotel for the drivers and of course a house for the prostitutes; then some houses for the road-workers and their families and then many adventurers searching for land and fortune. Gradually a large town grew up and it needed a church. In my first meeting with some catholics they asked me for three things: a secondary school, a convent of sisters and a church. So I saw straightaway how people were thinking: the priest must resolve everything and on his own... I listened to everything carefully and then I tried with great tact to make them understand that we could do everything they wanted and even more, but all united together. I myself was not aware that evening that the first seed of the Gospel had been sown, a seed which would transform an individualistic and paternalistic mentality into a communitarian mentality.

We came to a decision never to do anything on our own, but rather after having seen it together and in agreement with everyone. So it was decided to start a secondary school as a priority because the young people - especially the poorest - would not have been able to go to another one without being discriminated against. So at the end of that year the " John XXIII School " was born with 90 students and 3 teachers in a building we had hired while the construction of the new building was going on.

These concrete deeds immediately acquired a considerable "pedagogical" importance in the eyes of the people. Had it not been through the unity of everyone that a great dream, such as the school, which had been requested in vain for such a long time from the civil authorities, came true? And wasn't everyone poor? So it is true that if you search for the Kingdom of God and his justice, the rest is given in abundance! People became aware that it was through communion, and above all by sharing their goods, free time, and work skills that many other problems could be tackled. The formation of the group of educators was important. In a few short years the school had 1200 students and 53 on the staff. All of them, from the doorman to the director, tried to live the spirit of fraternity and service, and all could have their say and vote at the decision-making moments. Naturally this spirit spilt over into the classroom! Many students, having finished their studies, offered their assistance in order to repeat the experience they had with us in other parts of the parish where there were no schools yet. And so the experience multiplied through the energies of the community itself. These teachers, as well as working in the school also helped in the catechesis and the Sunday liturgy, trying to discover and prepare possible religious leaders in various communities. These would then come periodically to the parish centre where they would live a communitarian experience which would form them in an authentic Gospel mentality. And so a reasonably organised evangelising action started up. We called it evad which means "evangelisation at home": not to wait for people to come to church but rather go to their homes, propose the Word of God to be lived in order to render our existence more human, to discover Jesus present in every neighbour in order to tackle together in the light of His presence the problems afflicting us. So, many base-communities were born around the Word of God. The transmission of the experiences of the Word lived and seeing its concrete fruits in everyday life was for everyone the discovery of a new way of being Christians.

Then we constructed the stone church but only after the need to have their own place of worship had matured in the community. And I should point out that even before we had the stone church, God had already brought about a flourishing of many vocations among the young people: people who wanted to be consecrated to God in the service of his people as lay, religious, and priests.

But at a certain point, you changed parish...

Yes. A priest must always be ready to lose, in unity with his Bishop, the fruits of his apostolic work. And so, when the Bishop asked me to change parish, I said yes immediately without hesitation, even if it cost me a lot to leave a parish community which I had seen born from nothing. But it was necessary to live the experience of Abraham who left his land to follow God. So I was transferred to Miracema. At the beginning it was very hard, but there was no time for regrets! A few months after my arrival the area was struck by a terrible flooding. Out of the 1200 houses in the parish more than 600 were destroyed. In organising the help necessary I got to know the parishoners better. After the flooding some were able to reconstruct their little houses but the others had to make do with straw huts. These were the poorest, those who even today work on the estates. They have no fixed contract and no medical assistance.

What can you tell us of your work in this new pastoral area?

Well, by then I had understood clearly that one must evangelise through life, starting with the concrete situations. In order to start, together with a group of young people, we set up an enquiry among the families to find out what kind of living conditions they had. We then invited them to choose the best solution out of the following proposals: a) to look for charitable help in money and foodstuffs; b) create new jobs; or, c) establish concrete forms of solidarity among all, in order to tackle our problems together. To our great surprise 53% went for the third option, 32% the second and only 15% the first.

But one of the most serious problems of the city, even more than that of the accommodation, is the enormous number of abandoned young people who are debilitated physically and mentally. We considered this human problem as a priority and so a community centre was set up which takes care of 250 young people. We look after their physical, mental and spiritual care and their normal insertion into society. This work is carried out by people in the area, who were trained by a parish team. The young people are divided into groups and each group has a young boy or girl in charge and these in turn are under the guidance of a woman general-coordinator. An effort is also made to involve the parents of the young people through meetings which are very important not only for the young people, but also because it gives us the possibility of educating the parents themselves to recognise and allow the essential values of Christianity to flourish in the family.

The community centre, with its various activities has become an attractive element in the life of the community. The young people who work there emerge from it formed both as humans and Christians: they learn - also through fraternal correction - to maintain positive relationships in even the most difficult human situations and to grasp the enormous repercussions which the practice of the New Commandment can have in both the educational and social fields.

But this is not enough. The experience has also sparked other initiatives in which some of the parents of the young people and other adults have felt the need to associate in order to confront together various needs and to be able to serve the community better. And so a rural union has been set up, something which has never been heard of before in this environment. Others have formed a building co-operative and they have started to build their homes. This experience is producing good results and the society has received providence in the form of machinery to make bricks. The governor of the area has also become interested and has granted them other facilities. No one would have ever imagined that the humble people of the area, living in the miserable straw huts, would have been able, on their own initiative, to set up a building company which benefits everyone.

But how do you support all these activities economically?

I have to confess that I never believed too much in money raining from heaven! In fact, I think there is a need to make do and do only what you can with what you have. We cannot expect to set up a lot of structures in order to then preach the Gospel. And likewise it doesn't seem right to expect that the stomach should be full in order to speak of God. We have to start to search together for food because this loving concretely is already evangelising. Then comes the Word which becomes revealing and has the power to convince.

On the other hand, I have to say that providence has never let me down. It can be seen above all through poor people who, in sharing in common the little they possess, have worked real miracles. There has been help also from abroad and from government agencies, but generally this help has arrived when the community had already got going by its own means. This help has not dispensed us from working together, rather it has opened up further possibilities, without ever having to renounce our communitarian style.

But might it not be said that you run the risk of social activism?

I have never seen these activities as a goal or criterion of a pastoral action. If anything, the opposite is true: the activities have sense in the measure in which they favour the growth of the ecclesial community, where all are children of God and so brothers and sisters. On the other hand, people know that God is Father precisely because they experience it through concrete facts, such as the help received and given during the flooding, the houses constructed thanks also to providence, and the various works carried out. For me, however, the most convincing sign I had that God is doing something in our midst was 6 months after my arrival in the parish. Some young people, boys and girls, came to tell me that they felt the desire to be more involved in the church. They wanted to share together an experience of communitarian life. We restored an old parochial house to which various groups of young children come while the young people come to my house. Their life is a continuous evangelisation, because it is all based on living together the Word of God. They study, work, tidy the house, etc. and often they are the animators of the various parochial or diocesan activities; meanwhile, their vocation matures. The experience is now six years old and there have been many fruits: some of the young girls have entered religious life, some of the young men have gone to the seminary, others are committed to various services at the diocesan level and still others have become leaders of the basic communities.

Does the social dimension of your pastoral activity not risk becoming merely social assistance? For example, Puebla says we must go to the cause of the social problems; othewise we are just doing a "patching up" job whereas the evils continue in society. It's the question of the changing of structures. How do you try to keep this dimension in mind?

Your objection seems correct. We cannot be limited to working only on the effects. Unfortunately, our society is to a great extent like a machine which produces poor people. So it is not enough to solve a few problems for a few poor people. We must go further and fix the machine. Obviously our people do not have direct access to the centres of power and decision in order to change things. And yet we feel work is important, in some way, even at this level. Firstly, because everything we do is fundamental in order to become conscious of this situation and so that the people will feel their own dignity, their possibilities, and learn to organise themselves and become protagonists. Then clearly if a few wheels function better, even if only at the periphery, this might have an effect on all the social machine. A small sign of this was when the authorities saw the seriousness and commitment of our people and also the concrete fruit of our work. They came to us with financial help in order to advance some interesting undertakings. If I could use an image I would compare our situation to the reconstruction of the temple of Jerusalem : with one hand we lay the bricks and with the other we defend ourselves from the enemies. What I mean is that, on the one hand, we try to solve the concrete and urgent problems which we meet directly ( favelas , abandoned families, children without schooling, etc) and on the other, we try to defend ourselves from the unjust structures through the "conscientisation" of everyone and appreciation of the organisations of the people (association of local inhabitants for the construction of houses in solidarity, trade unions, etc.). Another thing I discovered is that we can't go to the people with ideas in mind, good revolutionary ideas, ideas which we are imposing. It's a great danger to go ahead alone, not to have the historical patience of going step by step along with the people. It's a question of sowing the Word of the Gospel, living it personally and waiting for the people to mature, understand and take the steps. In this context even the simplest of people find the wisdom to express their true needs, because the Holy Spirit has already gone ahead of us and has worked in the people before us! The seeds of the Word are really there. I have seen that in the measure in which we listen profoundly to the people, silencing our ideas, our culture, our urgency to change, then the people give a surprising response, both in understanding and in commitment. But when we try to impose, then the thing does not work, because this is not of the Gospel. Maybe we do it in good will, even with zeal, but it's a mistaken zeal, which reminds me of what Saint Augustine used to say: "Great steps, but off the track" .

Obviously I have experienced that acting in this way is not easy. It requires an asceticism on the part of the evangeliser, a continous interior stripping down, an emptying of self in order to follow the Holy Spirit in finding the form our work has to take. If I arrive with a scheme in my head and I want to force the people into it, then it normally does not work. And then discouragement sets in: "it's too simple, he does not understand, he is not interested....". We ought to create communion by searching for the answers together.

It's good to see a priest like you, happy to give your life for your people...

If I have been able to live with joy my life as a priest until today, I recognise sincerely that I owe it to my brothers. Every now and again I leave all and go to meet the other priests of the Focolare M ovement with whom I can share everything, knowing that I am with the "family". And here I find the necessary balance to meet the problems which await me without risking the loss of the essential, that is, God, his joy, his peace, his light. If I didn't have this support, in order to renew me interiorly, maybe I would have neither the light nor the energy to go ahead.