Phnom Penh: PIME’s 25th anniversary in Cambodia
Phnom Penh (AsiaNews) – The Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) yesterday marked, with the Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity, 25 years of presence in Cambodia. The missionaries, along with the faithful and Church authorities, celebrated a Thanksgiving Mass in the capital.
In 1990, Cambodia was just re-emerging from the Khmer Rouge dictatorship. The Church had been wiped out, its buildings destroyed and its staff killed or expelled. That year, the new government allowed the Sisters of Mother Teresa to open a clinic to help the sick. The Sisters asked PIME to send them a chaplain to celebrate daily Mass. Thus began the mission in Cambodia.
"Last night was a moment of celebration to thank the Lord. We and the sisters came together in Cambodia,” Regional Superior Fr Gianluca Tavola said. “The Superior General, the General Councillor Fr Gabriel, and three ordinary bishops of the three apostolic prefectures of Cambodia were present. Together we celebrated Mass, followed by a moment of sharing, with the superior, the bishop and the regional superior of the Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity addressing those present. We had invited representatives of various religious institutes, as well as missionaries and some faithful, and about 250 people came to the event."
What follows is the address Fr Ferruccio Brambillasca, PIME Superior General, delivered at the end of the Mass.
Your Excellency Monsignor Olivier Schmitthaeusler, Monsignor Enrique Figaredo Arvargonzalez, Monsignor Sudairaj Antomysamy, all priests, all members of Religious Orders, and to all of you children of our Heavenly Father, my most cordial greetings on behalf of all the members of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, known to most as PIME.
I am very glad to be here, among you, to celebrate with you, today, the 25th year of the work done by members of PIME in this country.
Our Institute, born 160 years ago, is a missionary Institute of almost 500 members (priests and laymen), working for the Kingdom of God in 18 countries.
Speaking only about Asia, our missionaries were sent to Papua New Guinea, China, India and Myanmar; and in these countries they established local communities, dioceses, seminaries and other facilities necessary for the running of local Churches.
In the course of these 160 years, we were gifted by God with 19 martyrs who gave their lives for the Gospel and who are a source of daily inspiration for us, PIME Missionaries. Martyrdom, even in your beautiful country, is evidence of one’s unconditional love for Christ and a distinctive feature of a particular Church, people, nation…
Our Institute, as you can see from the makeup of its members working among you, is international. Its members, coming from different nations have as their sole purpose to leave their country of origin to go and preach the Gospel to all peoples. This purpose of preaching the Gospel outside of one’s country of origin makes of us, even here in Cambodia, all brothers serving their brothers.
As it is done by other missionary institutes, PIME too places itself unreservedly at the service of the local Church. For this reason, through this celebration, we intend to pledge the continuation of our service before those who are the leaders of this Church: Bishop Olivier Schmitthaeusler; Monsignor Enrique Figaredo Arvargonzalez; Monsignor Sudairaj Antomysamy. In addition to the pledge of continuing to work at the service of the local Church, we pledge to express the missionary nature of our Institute by working among the non-Christians, through religious dialogue, humanitarian assistance and direct evangelization because these activities are for us both the starting point and the goal of our labour.
Furthermore, in a country such as Cambodia that has known the horrors of war and violence, every PIME missionary desires to be a man of communion and peace, able to bridge cultural and religious divides.
One might ask: “How is it that 25 years ago, through the initiative of Fr. Franco Cagnasso, who was then the Superior General of PIME, a new mission in Cambodia was founded?” “How does PIME’s mission in this country fit into the context of the rest of PIME’s missions in the world?” “Is there a lesson that our presence here can teach both the Cambodian people and our whole institute?” “What are the necessary changes that have to be made? What are the initiatives and activities that must be continued? What do we have to correct in our way of doing missionary work in Cambodia?”
As you can see, these questions do not have easy answers, especially for me visiting this mission and your most beautiful country for the first time. Only now I begin to understand a little about how this mission operates. However, I must say that, although I was not familiar with it, I have always been interested in this mission. It could be not only because, in my missionary work in Japan for 15 years, I got to know Japanese volunteers who came to work here, but also because this mission in Cambodia doesn’t fit the classic mission mould that has lots of structures, lots of churches and chapels, lots of priests and nuns and lots of faithful, but it is a “pure mission” at its beginning, in which both the Holy Spirit and you are free to work for the good of this country and for its people.
As you know, we just “tiptoed” into Cambodia by sending professors to teach at university level, by assisting the Sisters of Mother Theresa (to whom I convey a special greeting) and by humanitarian projects of New Humanity whose work is truly precious for people in need of assistance at many levels.
Among the pioneers, I want to single out Fr. Antonio Vendramin, who will speak later on tonight. He spent the first few years in this mission alone. Then I want to mention Fr. Franco Legnani, who lives at our General Headquarters in Rome. He told me about the first steps taken by the PIME Missionaries in this land. As Fr. Franco Legnani was telling me, the first few years were lived by these missionaries amid uncertainties, as it was not yet clear to us if PIME should have invested more personnel or not in this mission. As anyone can easily understand, living from day to day with uncertainties is not helpful and it does not contribute to work with a serene mind. Yet, uncertainties can generate wisdom and patience in a missionary. Wisdom and patience are such that they stay with a missionary for the rest of his missionary life.
Therefore, thanks to the daily sacrifice of our first PIME missionaries here, now our mission benefits from the work of young priests and, from a legal standpoint, it is a Delegation of PIME dependent directly on the Superior General and his Council.
Naturally, among those missionaries who toiled in Cambodia but, unfortunately, have already gone to receive their eternal reward, I cannot fail to mention Fr. Mariano Ponzinibbi. Although he worked here only a few years, thanks to his very meaningful presence, he has left a lasting positive impression on all those who got to know him.
I must mention also the presence of PIME’s lay missionaries (CML) and those of ALP. They are all people who contributed to introducing our PIME Institute into the mainstream of missionary work in Cambodia in a professional way as lay missionaries.
For us members of PIME, this mission in Cambodia is one of our youngest ones and, thus, it is set as a benchmark of what we should do as a missionary institute in the process of finding more relevant and more effective ways to do missionary work in the new millennium. First of all it is a “lean” mission with few missionaries and all relatively young. These young missionaries are closely knit into the local clergy so much so that one of them is the Vicar General of the diocese. They are also a closely-knit community among themselves. And, most importantly, they labor among non-Christians with a simple lifestyle that bears witness to the Gospel of Jesus very effectively.
If we compare these 25 years of missionary activities of PIME in Cambodia to the many decades spent in China or India where we have been working, practically, since the beginnings of our missionary institute, 25 years are not that many. Yet they offer us the opportunity to reflect seriously on our work so far and on what can be done in the future.
I hope that this work may continue with that simplicity and enthusiasm that were present when we first set foot in this country. This I hope so that our community in Cambodia may always be a missionary community at the service of the Gospel and of the poor.
I ask of all of you here present to assist us in keeping this commitment and also to call us to task, if we were to fail in this commitment.
I express my gratitude once again for your presence here, tonight, and for the support you have given us in the course of these 25 years. May the Lord keep blessing you in your ministry among the Cambodian people.
And to all of you, I also wish a pleasant evening!
Fr. Ferruccio Brambillasca, Superior General of PIME
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19/08/2016 13:34
