October 23, 2011

“Well, it’s been a quiet week here in Lake Woebegone…” to quote Garrison Keeler. It started with some rather frantic e-mails from Brazil wanting to know if there was any information at our end about the visas. The answer was no, which caused them to re-contact their people in Brasilia to see what the problem was and all to no satisfaction. Finally on Friday a call came from the Brazilian embassy here that sounded promising and the seven postulants all went to see if indeed it was a call to give them their visas. That too was disappointing but maybe on Monday we’ll get good news. The poor guys who never wanted to go to Brazil for a novitiate in the first place have been hanging around with nothing to do. They’ve been a great help in that they have filled in to do the cooking and helping with the dishes, etc. but still I think they feel like – let’s get this show on the road. They will spend the time from their arrival till February learning Portuguese to be ready for a “Brazilian novitiate”. So I hope Monday will be the day the ordeal will be settled.

Thursday and Friday the CHR(Conference des Haitiens Religieux) the conference of Haitian Religious – both men and women religious met for a general meeting. I was glad to go and participate representing us the Oblates of St Francis de Sales here in Haiti. The first day was in French and easier to follow; the second in Creole. The opening Mass was said by the Papal Nuncio. He is from the Philippines. I thought the Mass was a disaster. We had no worship aids to follow the singing and the Nuncio spoke for over 45 minutes. That was bad enough but the sound system was poor and he has a heavy accent so between the two I was pretty lost. Also, papal representatives should be models of good liturgy. I don’t care what he was talking about I’m sure it was not a homily, breaking open the Word of God. It was a talk or a conference. That’s not the place for a talk or a conference. Let him give a homily and at the end of Mass let him give a talk but don’t mix the two. Anyway, nobody asked me. The meetings that followed were pleasant and somewhat informative for me. I’m glad I went.

Friday afternoon I gave my first “chapter” or conference of the school year. Since there’s not much other news I’ll share with you what I said.
I began by saying that the official Church, the popes, bishops, Episcopal Conferences all talk about “the option for the poor”. I asked what that meant for us personally and as a community. I said it had to mean at least for us religious and future religious that we must be up-to-date about and engaged in the situation of the poor both here in Haiti and in the world. Poverty touches the question of human rights and it’s the duty of the government to help the poor to help themselves – to furnish clean drinking water, sufficient food, basic medical care and education for the children. So if we want to be good citizens, and the Lord asks that of us, we can’t go around saying, “That’s not my problem.” It is your problem and among other things you should be voting for candidates who are committed to passing laws and developing programs to help the poor. I said religious should be activists, not revolutionaries, but activists, not politicians but well informed citizens who can educate the laity about the teaching of the Church on social justice and who can encourage the laity to get involved in the cause of social justice. (I mentioned this because you may remember a former priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president of Haiti some time back and he was not successful. Mixing priesthood and politics directly is not a good idea. But getting behind lay folks and encouraging them to become candidates, etc. is a better way of going about things.) All this I said is part of the call of the Church that each of us have in our hearts, as Jesus had in his heart, an “option for the poor.”
Then I went into what Francis de Sales taught about poverty in his book Introduction to the Devout Live, a book written for laypeople primarily. In reviewing this I was touched by what I found. He says in Chapter 15 of Part III, “But I, Philothea, would put into your heart both riches and poverty, both a great care and a great contempt for temporal things.” And later in the same chapter, “Deprive yourself, then, frequently of some part of your property, by giving it to the poor with a willing heart; for to give away what we have is to impoverish ourselves in proportion as we give, and the more we give the poorer we become.” And this part I love, “Love the poor and poverty and you shall become truly poor, … now if you love the poor, be often in their company, be glad to see them in your home and visit them in theirs. Talk with them and be pleased to have them near you in church, in the streets and elsewhere. Be poor in conversing with them, speaking to them as their companion; but be rich in assisting, by imparting your goods to them since you have more abundance.” That reminded me of something Mother Teresa said, “Don’t talk about the poor, talk to the poor.”
I then reminded them of the aim and the reason for the Oblate foundation in Haiti which is, as stated by Mike Moore the first provincial of the South American Province, “to work with and for the poor.” I talked about the discussions Tom Hagan and I had with Father Alberto the new Provincial, and with Father Leoclides his assistant in August. Some of the things said were: “We should be open to the present moment, to the present needs wherever they are and where the poor are, that’s where we should be. I asked them if they were ready to be part of this vision.
When I was finished I invited them to get into groups of three and answer the following questions: (1) What does “the option for the poor” mean to me? (2) What is the importance of our celebrating our community Mass on Sunday at Ste Anne’s Chapel in Cite Soleil? (3) Are you at ease with the aims of the Oblates in Haiti? How do you see them being accomplished? It was a pretty good discussion. I said that making what is theoretical practical is the key to it all. We can talk forever about poverty, etc. but getting our hands dirty by actually working with and for the poor is another thing.
So that’s how it went. Another week and I hope a week of growth and openness to the Lord’s call. Blessings to all. Tom