Fr Cagnasso: 30 years ago, PIME welcomed local missionaries to build a universal Church
In 1989 the Italy-based missionary institute decided to welcome members from non-Christian majority countries. “A simple rule was established, namely that whoever enters PIME is sent to work in countries other than his own, a sign that his Church - even a small and young one – is open to giving, and can serve as a new stimulus for the Church that welcomes him.”
Dinajpur (AsiaNews) – Fr Franco Cagnasso, a missionary in Bangladesh, talks about his society, the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), which 30 years ago, in 1989, chose to open itself and welcome missionaries from countries with a non-Christian majority. Until then the prevailing view was to remain “tied to its origins as an institute that embodied the missionary spirit of the Italian Church”.
Today the face of the congregation has changed, open to African, Asian, Latin American priests, "a wealth of people" as Fr Cagnasco put it. Opening up was decided not to seek “vocations to ensure the institute’s survival, but rather as a way to propose our institute as a tool of mission with a universal vocation”. Fr Cagnasco’s thoughts follow for this aptly called ‘Anniversary’.
Gradually, our small group of PIME missionaries in Bangladesh is no longer seen as the "Italian missionaries". In fact, Italians are fewer, and older. Missionaries have come from other countries, like Cameroon, Brazil, Colombia, and India. Others, an Italian, one from Guinea Bissau and another from India are waiting for their visa. Every now and then, Bengali PIME missionaries come along, when they take a break and come home from their mission in Cameroon, Guinea Bissau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, and PIME headquarters institute in Rome, which is also a mission, isn’t it?
During our assembly in Dinajpur (PIME’s Bangladesh capital) on 26-27 February I looked around, and was quite gratified, if I may say so. It occurred to me that we could mark an anniversary since this wealth of people started coming almost 30 years ago, September-October 1989, when PIME chose to open itself to members from non-predominantly Christian countries.
Until then, this did not happen for two reasons. PIME felt somehow tied to its origins as an institute that embodied the missionary spirit of the Italian Church, in various ways linked to it. At the same, the Institute wanted to spend all its energies in setting up local churches and training the local clergy. For this reason, it directed those who asked to join it to PIME-founded diocesan seminaries.
The 1971 General Assembly had reiterated these principles, nipping in the bud an initial attempt to include Indian members some years earlier. It was the answer to the problem that for foreigners it had become practically impossible to obtain visas to work in India, and for this reason there was the prospect of leaving parishes and works founded by us without any clergy, until they gradually disappeared, like in West Bengal, or disappearing like in Andhra Pradesh, where we had set up so many Christian communities, parishes, dioceses, schools, hospitals, social centres and so on.
At the time, the majority felt that this was not compatible with what we were. Joining PIME and then working in one's own country was something unprecedented, and would have challenged various aspects of our traditions, including spiritual ones. It was a hard and even painful choice, especially for those who believed in it, the more so for our Indian confreres (including several of my personal friends), but I agreed with the reasons and supported it.
In the general assembly that took place 18 years later in Tagaytay (Philippines), it was decided instead to open up and I came out in favour. Was I turncoat? I do not think so. The reasons were different, and the ways of opening up were thought out in such a way so as to ensure that PIME remained itself, opening itself up however to the different places that had developed over time and of which we had become better aware.
What places? It was increasingly clear that the mission could not be identified as coming from "Christian countries", i.e. Europe and the Americas, and going towards "non-Christian countries". The former were seen less and less as Christian, whilst the latter saw the development of lively and fruitful local Churches, despite their minority status. We were convinced that the mission was not a greater duty only for those who have a lot of "vocations", or even for unemployed priests, but that it was an aspect of the Church herself, big or small.
By welcoming members from Christian-minority countries without fear of poaching in those Churches, PIME had to help them express their missionary aspect abroad as well, because this would contribute to their development and growth, as well as offer new openings, methods, views to the traditional "missions".
The aim that prevailed was not about "seeking vocations" to ensure the institute’s survival, but rather a way to propose our institute as a tool of mission with a universal vocation to the Churches we had founded or in which we had been working for a long time. A simple rule was established, namely that whoever joins PIME is sent to work in countries other than his own, a sign that his Church - even a small and young one – is open to giving, and can serve as a new stimulus for the Church that welcomes him.
Opening up to missionaries from these Churches had to be decided on a case by case basis, in harmony with the local episcopates. It began immediately, with its heavy work and collateral errors. But at present, looking around at our small assembled group, listening to the various speakers, thinking about where my confreres work - both Italian and those from "non-Christian majority countries", eating and praying together ... I felt great joy and satisfaction.
It was the right decision, providential even. As an Italian who joined PIME well before they were born, I am happy to listen, watch, and exchange experiences, ideas and programmes with missionaries from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Together, we can better express the reality of the universal Church, everywhere, at home as well as abroad.
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07/02/2019 17:28
