Finding meaning beyond success, Singapore's hidden question
A French missionary with the MÉP, Fr Bruno Saint-Girons, served as a parish priest for 15 years in the Southeast Asian metropolis that is currently welcoming the Pope. He told AsiaNews about the daily life of his communities, confiding that he would like this great city to learn from Francis to listen to everyone, not to judge.
Milan (AsiaNews) – Fr Bruno Saint-Girons, a French missionary with the Missions étrangères de Paris (MÉP), carried out his ministry for 15 years in the great Southeast Asian metropolis, where Pope Francis arrived today on the last leg of his apostolic journey to Asia and Oceania.
"The first thing that strikes you when you arrive in Singapore is the image of the modern, advanced city. Slowly, however, I got to realise that there are deeper traditions (Chinese, Malay, Indian) that operate in people's minds and hearts,” said the clergyman, speaking to AsiaNews.
In 2019, he returned to his diocese of origin, Evreux, where he is now a parish priest, prison chaplain, and head of interfaith dialogue, but he has kept in touch with many friends in Singapore, whom he visited this summer.
AsiaNews talked to him about the daily life in the big city, a melting pot of humanity, with its historic communities, its migrants, and the many expats who stay for a few years to work in Asian branches of large global companies.
Their different faces are also reflected in the local Catholic community, about 395,000 strong, about 7 per cent of the country’s population, with whom Pope Francis will celebrate Mass tomorrow afternoon in the National Stadium.
“In Singapore I was in charge of four parishes," says Fr Saint-Girons. “Quite large entities, with about 10,000 people attending Mass every weekend. Composite communities, with people who participate with different motivations.
“Interfaith communities: I found people usually searching for meaning in their lives. Openness among different groups living in Singapore? It depends a bit on the individual; in some, I found this desire, in others less so.”
Despite the image of efficiency, the place is also crisscrossed by more complex trends. For the MÉP missionary, “There is a sort of tension between tradition and modernity. Many young people today question many things, carrying within them the desire to 'deconstruct' this model.”
Singapore appears to be one of the Asian metropolises that today offers the most opportunities to those who live there. But what do people miss the most?
“There is a tendency to look for success," notes Fr Saint-Girons, “and this can lead people to stress and exacerbate this desire. A friend told me: 'Singapore is like a prison for me'; it applies to work, business. But this danger can also be reflected in the Church herself; there is even the risk of looking at 'salvation' as a form of success, where what matters is only that in the end I go to heaven . . .”
What legacy would you like this visit of Pope Francis to leave to the local Catholic community?
“I think his message of openness, including to those who are not like us," the missionary says. “The invitation not to judge them, but to listen, to journey with them. I think that underscoring these attitudes can be very useful in a context like Singapore.”
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15/10/2008
