STORY - "Mission Accomplished"

Going to India is an opportunity to remember, literally, what the mission is, why we’re here.

This statement by actor Richard Gere resonates with both Bishop Michael and Fr Brian Mascord after their mission to India in August. As Bishop Michael said at the Assembly in September, “We had a very successful trip, speaking with bishops and priests about coming to Australia in response to a previous Assembly where this matter came up, and I have to say to you that we were successful. We hope to get some of those priests here in the early part of next year.”

Listening to Bishop Michael and Fr Brian reflect, it seemed that the pilgrimage that they engaged in was at least as important as the mission to invite overseas priests to minister in our diocese. The passage to India had been presented as a somewhat grim experience, so much so that each found the encounter far more enjoyable and encouraging than they had anticipated. “I was agreeably surprised!” said Bishop Michael.

“India’s a very old church, much older than here, and you’d think because of that they’d be a bit tired and worn out themselves but they’re still very focused on the gospel and on church,” said Bishop Michael. “It’s much easier to be a worshipping person in India because whether you’re a Muslim, a Hindu or a Sikh or a Christian or whatever you might be, everyone’s entitled to worship something and somebody and in that environment of mutuality, there’s more of an overt spirituality present in the community which we just don’t have.” Fr Brian recalled that in Goa, where the remains of St Francis Xavier rest, “They had shrines in the middle of rice fields!”

“Sensory overload” captured the experience for both; “Everything’s in your face – the number of people, the poverty, the heat, the traffic, the culture…you can’t avoid it.”

The church is doing some wonderful things in India
The lepers have access to the cathedral school in Delhi at night, so that they have a safe place to sleep and to wash. Fr Brian could not believe that despite their affliction and their homelessness, “Here are the lepers greeting you, waving to you, and there is a joy about them!”

The Archbishop of Delhi, Vincent Concessao, is an exceedingly pastoral man who identifies strongly with his people, and he made a great impression on Bishop Michael and Fr Brian. “When you hear his story, you see Chetanalaya, (the equivalent of Caritas in India), being born through him,” said Fr Brian (see http://www.delhiarchdiocese.com/arch/arch_archbishop.html ) Religious tolerance was apparent; for example, they met Mr Ali, a Muslim who had worked for 25 years for Chetanalaya, a Catholic agency, without any conflict.

“I was very proud to be Catholic in India, because the church is doing some wonderful things in India. I know that the church does wonderful things in Australia too but it was more evident in India. We visited the Loreto school in Calcutta, run by Sr Cyril, where the kids sleep in the upper storey so they have a safe haven, however poor. All the kids, irrespective of where they come from, are given bundles of food to take out to the poor every afternoon after school. That’s a wonderful outreach.”

In Chennai Bishop Michael and Fr Brian visited a school for children with a mental disability run by an Australian, Sr Theodore, formerly of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. “The school is a phenomenal place, built simply through donations. She has teachers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists working with these children who would have been abandoned. The church is openly caring for the most vulnerable,” said Fr Brian.

Bishop Michael was particularly impressed by the fact that “The people who have initiated these projects are women, and now elderly women – Sr Cyril, Sr Theodore and not to mention Mother Teresa’s work – inspirational women making a huge difference.”

Bleak picture
In meeting priests who might come to our diocese, Bishop Michael and Fr Brian were careful to paint an accurate picture of the Australian church. “We talked about the difficulties and the struggles we were having,” said Fr Brian. “We described Australia as a very materialistic country, very self-absorbed, hugely secular…Mass attending numbers are down to 10% of the Catholic population and there are not many young people coming to Mass…the bishops and priests we spoke to, to a man, were excited by the possibility of re-evangelising our diocese.”

Bishop Michael observed that the church in India “is more traditional than our own – the church there might be where we were some forty years ago. But there’s an openness to the Australian scene.” Many priests whom Bishop Michael and Fr Brian met had come from the very Catholic state of Kerala; “Kerala has evangelised India, and now Kerala will evangelise Maitland-Newcastle.

“We’ve been promised up to nine priests, and I’ll be working now to bring that about.”

Hospitality joyfully given
Vocations Director Fr Brian emphasised that it will be the responsibility “of all people in the diocese to support these men.” “Their hospitality was extraordinary,” said Bishop Michael. “It was humbling to be on the receiving end of such hospitality in a poor country, and it was joyfully given.”

The church in India does not have the educated laity that has become the norm in Australia, and the difference was pointed out to the priests who were expressing interest in ministering here. Clearly there will be a process of adjustment and accommodation – by them, and by us.

In accepting the direction of the 2005 Assembly that he explore the possibilities, Bishop Michael has put aside his own reservations and opened the diocese to a new evangelisation and a new spirituality. “Vocations don’t happen in a vacuum, and if the church is more vibrant because of these younger Indian priests, then there’s every chance that young men will consider priesthood.”

Tracey Edstein

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