Inventing a mission in Cambodia
Prey Veng (AsiaNews) In order to perform his duties, Fr Alberto Caccaro, a missionary with the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), has few tools: a motorcycle, a map to find his way around different villages and the Passion of Christ as an example to follow.
He just arrived eight months ago in Prey Veng (eastern Cambodia) to take up the function of resident priest, but he has been in the country for the past four years.
In a conversation with AsiaNews, he spoke about how he is "inventing" his mission from scratch, day after day, demanding nothing from the people he meets, only offering his love.
He talks about how he is going door to door to meet and learn about people, their families, Buddhist villages; how in the process, he is discovering what fascinates these people most about Christianity, namely that "paying attention to others need not cost anything, that passion for one's fellows need no bear any interests, that forgiveness" is possible.
He speaks about his friendship with Buddhist monks, about the Church's commitment to educate the young and heal the sick in a country whose rulers seem "indifferent" to the problems of the population.
The mission
I have just come back from a tour of the villages, totally wet.
I drove around in my motorcycle and halfway I was caught in rain. I had to slow down to avoid skidding.
Among these simple people, my mission is something I must invent on a touch-and-go basis.
For instance, today I visited a family. Their home burnt down accidentally four months ago.
The wind blew some sparks that set off a fire that not only destroyed the building but also burnt all their rice reserves, the equivalent of 100 euros (120 US dollars). The people hung rice bags from the ceiling the way in our country people stuffed money in their mattresses.
It was the smoke that led me to them.
When I started my ministry in Prey Veng I didn't know anyone. I went out going down a path, usually a dirt road, till I reached some villages; I started to follow people, or like that time . . . I went towards the billowing smoke.
Not one but ten houses were going up in flames.
Since then I started to help these people; never with money, but always we some tool that might help them get back working the earth.
Now I go back to see them on an almost regular basis, finally without any pretence that they want to hear a priest and the missionary. If I think about their fate, I am reminded of the man possessed by the devil that Jesus healed in the Gospel of Mark (Mk, 5:18-19).
Jesus healed the man without asking him to follow him. Jesus was not hurried, he gave him time to think, to be with his folks, to wonder about all the strange ways Heaven uses o make itself heard.
Even if there are some Christians of Vietnamese origin living in the same settlement, for me life is a bit lonely in this early of my mission stage. Among the Cambodians, there is only one Christian.
Evangelisation faces major obstacles. The local mentality, which is rooted in Buddhism, views every person as his "own refuge". In Buddhism, the notion of grace does not exist.
The social structure is caste-based with divisions determined by one's economic activity and wealth.
There is a certain sense that everything is fixed. And of course, there is the fact that, traditionally, everything was Buddhist.
Relations with the Buddhist community and how the Passion of Christ is making a difference.
Relations with the Buddhist community are good and based on mutual respect.
Many priests sincerely try to reach out and meet others in unrehearsed situations.
By contrast, Buddhists can count on 50,000 monks and 5,000 pagodas and know that they are the national religion.
At my place, we just started teaching English and I invited some Buddhist monks with whom I am friends.
It must be clearly understood that I am in Cambodia to take their place.
I must still search.
If we could apply Buddhism to the letter, we certainly would be free of any type of passion.
According to Buddhism, suffering comes from love.
I have no doubts about the effectiveness of the spiritual path that the Buddha taught. But I do ask myself whether it meets the most intimate human needs.
Is overcoming suffering what makes us mot human? Can a mother not suffer for her child? Or isn't it rather true that suffering is a mark of our identity?
For the past three years, it has become clearer to me that I can give up passions, and, among them, feelings of affection, but I cannot give up the Passion. Like Christ. The Passion to love, the Passion to seek out and show what makes humans true, beautiful and good.
It is the Passion of Christ that makes all the difference, that leads the two religious experiences in different directions, even if we can help each other.
Buddhism still fascinates me, but I cannot be silent about the Cross.
The Passion is the overflowing of meaning and love that my heart reaches, desires, beseeches.
The Passion creates, generates love, and for this reason, is the future
In the Gospel of John, Jesus says that he came so that no one would be lost.
I' like to die for the same reason, for the same passion, for the same love of God for each of his children, even if suffering comes from love".
The local Church
Of the three dioceses that make up the Cambodian Catholic Churchone Apostolic Vicariate (Phnom Penh) and two Apostolic Prefectures (Battambang and Kompong Cham) the last one, mine, is the poorest one.
Still, I am happy for these small communities, where we can count each other on the fingers of one, perhaps two hands, of my brothers' small but yet visible progress, of the faithfulness to the monthly presbytery meetings that nourish the same Passion, the one that refuses to accept that someone might be lost, even among us priests.
Relations with the authorities are very good. The King actually attended the requiem mass for Pope John Paul II.
Ethnic Cambodians represent one third of all Christians in the country, the other two are ethnic Vietnamese.
But the heavy presence of Protestant Churches, with some of them being true sects, has given Christianity a bad reputation.
What's the more, the improper use by some of money when proselytising is creating expectations in some locals that they can make money in converting and attending religious functions in such or such a Church.
We still have to resolve ongoing issues related to acculturation and preparing adults for the faith.
There have been some vocations. There is a national seminary with five candidates and several conversions. But these things take time. And for us Catholics, things are different from the other Christian denominations because we require a long period of study before anyone can convert.
Catholics' social involvement in society
Cambodian farmers wait for rain in their thousands before they can start work in the rice fields. But is has not yet come.
There are no adequate plans to manage the country's water resources with basins, canals, wells and roads.
Corruption is rampant and there is chronic unemployment. The school system does not teach how to think critically, to analyse things, to think logically.
This has had an impact in every domain. Patronage politics and a certain form of cultural deprivation have prevented people from dreaming.
It is clear that here the free flow of ideas is paltry and that an intelligentsia that writes, debates, provokes, offers ideas and thinks about the future is missing.
Those who run the country give the impression of being elsewhere, of being indifferent.
In this context, PIME and other Catholic groups are involved in youth education, pastoral work at the parish level, with the sick.
We are dreaming about one or more schools where thinking and research might be fostered, and culture, in its wider sense, developed.
Even though locally the Church is still not very socially relevant and lacks visibility, there are men and women religious in the countrySalesians, Jesuits, missionaries of Charitywho are truly dedicated.
Article 43 of Cambodia's constitution guarantees religious freedom, something that the government respects and protects. However, a recent rise in nationalist fervour, which closely related to Buddhism as the state religion, has led to the persecution of Christians, especially in rural areas, and raised fears among Muslims, who receive foreign funding.
Out of a population of 12.7 million people, Buddhists are 84.7 per cent, whilst Christians are just over 1 per cent.
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11/12/2018 15:22
24/11/2016 18:44
