THE MESSAGE OF
THE RECTOR MAJOR
Fr.
Angel Fernandez Artime, SDB
I’M A SALESIAN AND I’M A BORORO
Diary of a Happy
and Blessed Missionary Day
Dear friends of the Salesian Family, I’m writing to you from Meruri in the state of
Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. I write this greeting almost as if it were a
journalistic report, because it’s been only 24 hours since I arrived in the middle
of this Brazilian state.
But my Salesian confreres arrived 122 years
ago, and since then we’ve always been present in this mission in the midst of
forests and fields, accompanying the life of this indigenous people.
In 1976, a Salesian and an Indian were robbed
of their lives with two gunshots by facendeiros
(great landowners). They are the Servant of God Rudolph Lunkenbein, a Salesian,
and the Indian Simão Bororo, killed because the landowners believed that the
Salesians of the mission were standing in the way of their appropriating more
land that belongs to the Boi-Bororo people.
Yesterday, we had the joy of experiencing
many simple moments. We were welcomed by the indigenous community upon our
arrival and greeted each other – without haste – because here everything is unhurried. We
celebrated Sunday Mass, shared rice and feijoada (bean stew),
and chatted from time to time.
For the afternoon, they’d prepared a meeting
for me with the leaders of the various communities. A few women chiefs were
present; in several villages a woman has the ultimate authority. We chatted. They
shared their thoughts with me and presented me with some of their needs.
During one of these moments, a young
Salesian, a Boi-Bororo, took the floor. He’s the first Bororo to become a
Salesian after 122 years of our being together in this land. This also
speaks to us of the need to give things time. Things are not as we think
and want them to be in today’s efficient and pragmatic world.
This is how this young Salesian spoke before
his village, his people, and their leaders or authorities: “I’m a Salesian but I’m
also Bororo; I’m Bororo but I’m also a Salesian. The most important thing
for me is that I was born in this very place, that I met the missionaries, that
I heard about the two martyrs, Fr. Rudolph and Simão, and that I saw my town
and my people grow – thanks to the fact that my people walked together
with the Salesian mission and the mission walked together with my people. This
is still the most important thing for us: to walk the road together.”
I thought for a moment of how proud and happy
Don Bosco would be to listen to one of his Salesian sons and member of this
people (like other Salesians who come from the Xavante or the Yanomani peoples).
At the same time, I assured them during my
talk that we want to continue to walk alongside them, and we want them to do
everything possible to continue to care for and save their culture – and their
language – with our full help. I told them that I’m convinced that our
presence has helped them, but I’m also convinced of how good it is for us to be with them.
In the early days of our journey as a congregation,
Don Bosco sent his first missionaries to Argentina. We’re a congregation recognized
for our charism of education and evangelization of young people, but we’re also
a very missionary congregation and family. From the beginning up to today,
there have been more than 11,000 SDB Salesian missionaries and
several thousand sisters, Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. Today, our
presence among this indigenous people, which has 1,940 members and continues to
grow little by little, makes perfect sense after 122 years together because
they’re on the margins of the world – a world that sometimes doesn’t understand
that it must respect who they are.
I also spoke with the matriarch, the eldest
of them all, who came to greet me and tell me about her people. After a
beautiful torrential rainstorm, we sat down at the site of the martyrdom, to
recite the Rosary with great serenity on a beautiful Sunday evening (for it was
already dark). There were many of us there, representing the reality of
this mission: grandmothers, grandfathers, adults, young mothers, babies, small
children, consecrated religious, and lay people – a great richness in the midst
of the simplicity of this little part of the world that lacks power but that’s
also chosen and loved by the Lord, as He tells us in His Gospel.
I know that we’ll remain here, God willing,
for many years to come, because one can be a Bororo and a son of Don Bosco, and
a son of Don Bosco and a Bororo who loves and cares for his village and his
people.
In the simplicity of this meeting, today was
a great day of life shared with indigenous people – a great missionary day.
