The Eiffel tower in Paris,
France has become one of the epitomes of a ‘dream-come- true’ moment. For
others, the statue of liberty, the London bridge, Christ the Redeemer statue in
Rio de Janiero, Brazil and many other iconic figures around the world. Being
able to travel to as many countries as possible all over the globe has become a
part of the desire of most people I know and with the ‘facebook age’, the
intensity of this desire has become stronger because we cannot wait to share to
everyone where we have been and how we are feeling being able to reach these
destinations. St. Augustine once said, ‘the
world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page…
When I
signed up for the pilgrimage to Italy last July 7-14, 2013, it was mainly
because I wanted to visit the basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and learn more
about the life of the closest if not the only person who lived a Christ-like
life. I have simply become interested in his simplicity and humility, something
very challenging at the present day era of globalization and modernity.
Before we
head off to Assisi and La Verna however, we delegated a day walking around the
city of Rome which included the visit to the catacombs, SVD (Societas Verbi
Divini) headquarters and the Vatican. I don’t know about the rest of the
participants (there were 10 of us from different countries excluding our
organizers – Fr. Avin and Rev. Stroh) but I was most excited with the visit to
the SVD headquarters that afternoon. It seemed like one of the ‘mecca moments’
for me. For one, I’ve spent more than half of my life in a school run by the
SVD priests and through all of those of 15 years; I’ve never imagined I’d be
able to do this, but there I was, looking at the SVD building, stopping for a
moment to convince myself I was actually there, took a picture, inhaled deeply
and exhaled finally as if I was home.
We were
greeted by Rev. Herbert Scholz SVD, a german priest who is responsible for the
archive of the ‘Generalate’. Fr. Avin informed him that there was a Filipino
among the participants. He was very glad to receive my hand and asked me
‘kumusta?’ (how I was in my language). I was very happy hearing him said that
in my mind I kept on repeating, this definitely feels like home. He informed me
that he stayed in the Philippines for quite some time before his present post
here in Rome. In fact he was able to attend a retreat among other SVD priests
in the Holy Name Retreat house in Mt. Banat-i in Dampas, Tagbilaran City, which
is not only my home-city but the actual village where I come from! Talk about
the small-world cliché. I also met a Filipino priest, Fr. Paulino Belamide. I
should say I would be more surprised if I didn’t find one because the
Philippines I believe is among the countries whose families are inclined to
send one of their children to religious vocation. In fact there was a time way
back when it was common for almost every family in our province to have at
least one priest or a nun. I had a quick chat with Fr. Belamide and for the
brief moment I was again in touch with the Philippines.
Fr. Scholz
gave us a tour around the SVD house, we had some refreshments and at that point
there was nothing better than to settle down with some cold drinks after the
city walk under the scorching heat of the sun later, when everyone had a piece
of the delectable cake and some cookies, we gathered together to listen about
the background of the SVD and their mission.
We started
with a round of introduction starting off with Rev. Waltraut one of the
chaplains of the International Students Chaplaincy (ISC) in the Netherlands, Mariam
and Vida from Ghana, myself, Fangping and Guangming from China, Pamela from
Uganda, Camilo and Reena from India, Augustine from Zimbabwe, Pungky from
Indonesia and of course Fr. Avin, also an SVD priest who is among the ISC in
the Netherlands.
Fr. Scholz
began by explaining about the background of the Colegio del Verbo Divini as the
headquarters of the order of the Divine Word Missionary of the Society of the
Divine Word. He added that it was called colegio because apart from being headquarters
for the administration of the said order, they also have priest studying in
different fields like theology, the study of the bible, church law, liturgy,
worship, education and pedagogy and others. They have about 30 students here
from countries all over the world and the biggest group are the Indonesians,
Indians, Vietnamese and just now a good number from Africa. He said they also
have short courses (2 yrs) and for masters 3-4 yrs study. There is also a study
on Hebrew and Greek (bible languages) while others are taking doctorate.
He said that
his role is simply to work with the archives and the small library. He also
said that he does pastoral/personal religious work as chaplain among the
Filipino migrants in Rome - about 40 thousand of them (wow that’s a lot! in my
mind, how about the non-registered migrants?) Still I am happy knowing that my
co-Filipinos haven’t forgotten about their religious values.
Brief
history
Tracing the
history of the SVD, Fr. Scholz pointed at the familiar picture in the wall (at
least to me it was very familiar) and said that it was founded in 1875 by
Arnold Janssen, a German priest now a saint. The order was located in Holland
due to political circumstances at that time, it was impossible to establish
religious congregation in Germany previously known as Prussia. This information
was something new to me; I did not learn this in the period I was in school
that the first SVD group was in Holland. This made me all the more excited
because I am currently taking masters in Holland which is now known as the
Kingdom of Netherlands! The connection just continues to awaken me. At that
moment I felt like a child again learning something new. He continued by saying
that there were Germans at first later joined by some Dutch but the official
language spoken was still German and they did not find it necessary to learn
Dutch unlike at present he said due to the membership that expanded with
different nationalities, a lot of languages have been spoken and many are also
trying to learn other languages other than what they are speaking. For example
here in Rome, the official language for house communication is Italian but the
Generalate officially work in English (minutes of meetings and discussions). He
explained that there are about 16-17 different nationalities in the house so
people have to find a common language when communicating to each other. He
continued with the history by recalling that the national headquarters came to
Rome in 1928.
Background
of the order and their mission
Fr. Scholz explained the
background of the order and its mission in a not so ‘presupposing manner’. He
began by saying that among the members of the Divine Word missionary men, about
85-90% are priests and the rest are called brothers or missionary brothers who
have the same rite and obligations as the priests but do not perform ‘priestly
offices’ (I’m assuming the 7 sacraments). He added that long before, they use
to have a lot of these brothers but the numbers have been decreasing now. He
added that the SVD has about 6 thousand members around the world in 60
countries. He believed that about a hundred years ago those who were sent in
the mission outside Holland were practically still from Europe. Currently
however, he is happy to note that there are a lot of locals like in China,
Latin America and South Africa, while few but at least already have improved
from before. He also added that about half of the superiors in Latin America
are Indians.
He said that this group of men
dedicated in prayer, community living, unmarried and trying to live a simple
lifestyle has offered their lives in mission through service to the community
in so many forms but most importantly bringing the good news and making known
to the world what Jesus also have spoken of, centered in one message, and that
is the Kingdom of God or the reign of God wherein the one who has the command
and manages the affair of our lives is no longer our pride, selfishness and cruelty
but God’s mercy and love; to bring the blessings of the Kingdom of God and to
do it in those situations and groups where you might say, the blessings of God’s
reign or dominion including among others peace, justice, understanding, mercy
and compassion are less experienced and felt or where the openness to the
transcendence to God and to spiritual values to Jesus, is less present.
Rephrasing it in a more
theoretical expression he explained that they engage to the margins of society,
the poorer, disadvantaged and marginalized person especially those at the
‘margins of faith’ – people who have no vision of God, their mission is to open
the eyes of these people and offer this possibility faith about the good news
of the Kingdom of God.
Challenges
One of the participants asked Fr. Scholz why
there is a declining number in terms of membership not only in SVD but in the
religious sect in general. Fr. Avin said it could be due to the sizes of the
family which is also becoming smaller and also mainly because the coming
generations both parents and children don’t have the kind of religious interest
that the past generation have. It seems that the whole atmosphere has been so
secularized.
Fr. Scholz tossed a theory that
the ‘default setting’ in Europe 50 years ago was that you are a Christian –
either a catholic or a protestant but a Christian none the less. Now he
believes the ‘default setting’ is that you have NO RELIGION at all, in fact you
would even notice that instead of freedom of religion, it has become freedom
FROM religion. This has sadly become the mentality of many which would
basically mean leading people out of the life of prayer or to the dedication of
their lives to celibacy for missionary activities. He wished so much that
people would come to believe again the good news and find joy and meaning in
believing. He is saddened every time he finds people who don’t believe but of
course he does not lose hope especially when he is among people who still
remain in their faith despite the challenges of time.
Realizations
Some of the participants shared their views
on how the contemporary world and the issue of modernity have steered the
people away from God how people think that when they have all the material
wealth and security in the world, they would not need God in their lives.
Suddenly God has become a God for the poor only. Also participants share that
the church as an institution especially the catholic has been bombarded with
issues trying to destroy its credibility to the people. The image of the church
is presented in such a way that people are called to look what kind of
leadership they are following and message they are trying to live with among
these church leaders who have been involved in different controversies and
scandals.
Personally, as a catholic, I
feel bad about what the church as an institution has been going through lately.
Although I have faith that they will endure this challenge, I of course cannot
hide my fear and I can only put my hope to the people of faith for them to have
courage and strength to continue to fight because as it has been said, ‘the only way for evil to triumph is for good
men to do nothing…’
That night, I tried to reflect on the mission
crosses that I have been receiving every after graduation. In elementary, I had
one mission cross, another one in high school and the third in college. I tried
to recall the times that we have been required to memorize the vision, mission
and goals of the school. I vaguely remember the words in the vision now but I
know it was basically about being called by the Father to build Christian
communities in Bohol (my province in the Philippines) and beyond. I also
remember the upliftment of the welfare of marginalized members of society in
the mission (maybe because we just discussed this also in that afternoon with
Fr. Scholz) and the dialogue with other culture and religion among one of the
goals…I said to myself, maybe this pilgrimage is also relaying an important
message to me, those messages that I have already heard before but have not
done much to spread around. Perhaps it is about time to look back into those
mission crosses as a reminder of the sacrifice that Christ made for me and the
mission that I actually have been in charged as an SVD daughter.
Unless you are a genius, one has
to learn how to play the piano first by looking into notes per notes and
reading it before playing through the heart without having to look at
instructions. Hence I pray that with this pilgrimage, I would review the
mission I was bestowed upon and hopefully begin to play this by heart.
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