Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us

The Vatican had divided the diocese of Jaffna into two and appointed Bishop Bravi to Colombo. Eugene wrote to Propaganda Fide:

While the Christians in the vicariate of Colombo are more numerous, much richer, and more generous, the schools in the vicariate receive 100 pounds sterling from the government every year. The schools in the Jaffna vicariate receive nothing at all.

Because Jaffna would be the poorest area after the division, the Oblates wanted to consolidate their missionary presence there.

I am speaking about this because I have had the occasion to write to you and the idea I would venture to submit for your Excellency’s consideration would be to obtain from the Sacred Congregation that the vicariate of Jaffna to be served totally by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and that an Oblate, for example Fr. Semeria whom I have often praised, be chosen as coadjutor of the present Apostolic Vicar with the right of succession. I feel that this measure would ensure the good of that Vicariate which would prosper thanks to unity of discipline and conformity of views. It would then be possible to attach greater importance to the propagation of the faith, establish a house of education and, if possible, a seminary. All of this would be possible for a religious Congregation, but very difficult for isolated priests working on their own.

Letter to Bishop Barnabo, Secretary of the S. Cong. of Propaganda Fide, 27 February 1850, EO V n 13.

This request would only be fulfilled six years later.

REFLECTION

In those days when means of communication were so difficult, it was important to ensure a unity of approach in missionary endeavours. This is why Eugene began to request that when an area was to be confided to the Oblates, then the Bishop of that area, who also acted as the religious superior, would be an Oblate. We have had several examples of this in our history.

After three years of Oblate presence, Eugene wrote

I cannot see that you are doing much there, that you are still only beginning… and up till now you have not told me of a single conversion.

Letter to Fr. Étienne Semeria in Jaffna. 17 January 1850, EO IV n 14

In response to Eugene’s desire to see quick results, Father Semeria responded in April 1850:

“We must make up our minds to be almost martyrs of patience. The good that we will do here will not be apparent for quite a long time. To treat the Indians as you would Europeans would be to risk spoiling everything. Nevertheless, good can be done and is being done. Jaffna is proof of this. When the Goan priests were ministering here, the most fervent Christians scarcely went to confession even at Easter, and those fervent ones were rare. Now we have about thirty communions in our church every day. Before, the Sacred Presence was not kept. Now, many persons visit the Blessed Sacrament every day. Before, it was impossible to assemble the children for catechism. For the past two years, I have succeeded in doing so and grown ups also attend those lessons spontaneously. Within a short period, I have baptized between sixty and seventy adults.”

Three years later, in 1853, Semeria wrote:

“I think that, sometimes, it is easier to convert an idolatrous people who are suddenly touched by previously unknown truths which are taught them, than to regenerate half-Christians who have abused the grace they had received. Nevertheless, although we cannot flatter ourselves that we have done all the good we wanted to do, the change brought about in the thinking and behaviour of many of our Christians is really marvellous. Anyone who was familiar with the city of Jaffna five or six years ago, would certainly have good reason to praise the Lord if he examined the enormous difference which exists between the Christians of that time and those of today.”

(https://www.omiworld.org/lemma/semeria-bishop-etienne/)

REFLECTION

“We will always be close to the people with whom we work, taking into account their values and aspirations. To seek out new ways for the Word of God to reach their hearts often calls for daring; to present Gospel demands in all clarity should never intimidate us.”

OMI Rule of Life, Constitution 8

Eugene had great dreams for the missionary outreach of the Oblates in Ceylon, and was impatient for results

I shall try to send you two missionaries, although I am less favourably disposed towards your Ceylon mission. I cannot see that you are doing much there, that you are still only beginning. I search in vain in your letters to see what work you are doing, and up till now you have not told me of a single conversion, and frankly I only agreed to send missionaries to Ceylon in the hope of seeing them used for the conversion of souls.

For the Italian and Spanish missionaries who are looking for their daily bread, it is good to win it by serving parishes, but our Oblates are called to a different ministry. I beg you to send me a detailed account of everything concerning you on both the spiritual and temporal levels.

Letter to Fr. Étienne Semeria in Jaffna. 17 January 1850, EO IV n 14

Eugene was impatient for results but was told that it was necessary to be patient because the Oblates had to learn the languages and, more important, the culture and way of thinking of the people which was so different from Europe and North America.

REFLECTION

“Each life is made up of mistakes and learning, waiting and growing, practicing patience and being persistent.” (Billy Graham)

Turning our attention to Ceylon (Sri Lanka today), we recall how the first four Oblates had arrived there in 1847, with the charge of reviving the faith of the Catholics who had abandoned it and converting over a million people who did not know Jesus Christ.

Father Semeria always cooperated with Bishop Bettachini who made him his secretary. He accepted that Bishop Bettachini placed the three priests in three missions distant from one another: Father Semeria in Jaffna to the north, Father Ciamin in Mantotte to the west and Father Keating in Batticaloa to the East, and we do not know where Brother de Steffanis was doing his ministry. Later, Father Semeria would see to it that the missionaries were allocated two by two in the missions. When the second group arrived in 1849, Fathers Semeria and Le Bescou were in Jaffna, Fathers Ciamin and Leydier in Point Pedro and Fathers Keating and Mouchel in Batticaloa. Two more were to arrive in 1850.

Your Eminence, to conclude the picture I wish to place before you, I would recall that 10 Oblate missionaries are working in the Vicariate of Jaffna in Ceylon and others will follow when it may please the Holy See to entrust that Vicariate to the Congregation, not only to facilitate the expansion of missionary activities for the conversion of non-Christians but also to found schools and a seminary.

Letter to Cardinal Fransoni, Prefect of the S. Cong. of Propaganda Fide, 25 July 1850, EO V n 16

REFLECTION

We will spare no effort to awaken or to reawaken the faith in the people to whom we are “sent, and we will help them to discover “who Christ is”. Our mission puts us on constant call to respond to the most urgent needs of the Church through various forms of witness and ministry, but especially through proclaiming the Word of God which finds its fulfilment in the celebration of the sacraments and in service to others.

OMI Rule of Life, Constitution 7

In Canada the Oblate missions were expanding, as we see in this report that Eugene sent to Rome to Cardinal Fransoni, Prefect of the Sacred  Congregation of Propaganda Fide.

In Canada, we have two communities in the diocese of Montreal for the urban and rural missions; one community in Saguenay, in the diocese of Quebec, for missions in the colonies and among the Indigenous. In the diocese of Bytown the Oblates of Mary Immaculate do practically everything: they have a novitiate, staff the seminary, go on missions among the Indigenous of Abitibi and Temiscaming and evangelize the lumbermen, the hundreds of men who spend most of the year in the woods cutting lumber. They used to be more like wild men than Christians, but they have changed completely since the Oblate Fathers have been visiting them at the cost of great hardship and sacrifice. Moreover, the Oblate Congregation is still providing almost all services in the vicariate of St. Boniface on the Red River and is moving towards Ile a la Crosse and Hudson Bay.

Letter to Cardinal Fransoni, Prefect of the S. Cong. of Propaganda Fide,, 25 July 1850, EO V, n. 16

REFLECTION

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” (Ambrose Redmoon)

After his arrival, D’Herbomez was amazed to see the “renowned missionaries of Oregon at his first encounter with them. Brother Verney was dressed in a French cap, goatskin leggings, and moccasins, covered by a green cloth under an old blue vest and a frock coat. Pandosy was dressed in a worn out cassock, an old straw hat, goatskin leggings and thick shoes. All this made D’herbomez exclaim, “The habit does not make a missionary’”(Young p. 102).

At first, Ricard considered sending D’Herbomez to the Swanomish tribe on Puget Sound. However, he later decided that D’Herbomez could better use his time learning English, Chinook and Walla Walla. Initially, they sent him to serve in the Yakama missions with Father Chirouse. In August 1851, Chirouse, D’Herbomez and Brother Verney traveled to Chirouse’s mission of Saint Joseph in the Yakama country. For D’Herbomez it was an arduous journey through dangerously steep mountain passes. However, they were relieved and happy to arrive at the wilderness mission they would call home. (Young 115 -116)

REFLECTION

Often we romanticize our ideas of the early Oblate missionaries beautifully dressed in their spotless cassocks and Crosses while preaching and converting. The narratives of their actual experiences shatter this romantic picture. What counts is the quality of their lives, their courageous and zealous preaching of the Gospel, and the witness of how they lived their message.

“Beware, so long as you live, of judging persons by their outward appearance.” Jean de La Fontaine

In writing to the Society of the Propagation of the Faith requesting financial assistance for the foreign missions, Eugene gave some details of the Oregon and Red River missions.

I wish to begin this letter by expressing my thanks to you as well as to the Council for the grant allocated to the missions served by the Missionary Oblates of Mary. You would not believe the extreme needs of the missions, among others, of Oregon and Red River. In Oregon, the men are on the verge of dying from hunger. The reports I receive show me missionaries reduced to eating, as if it were a banquet, dogs and wolves, walking barefoot since they do not have the means to purchase shoes, and forced to clothe themselves by cutting up a blanket to make a sort of cassock. You know that I did not neglect to send them what they needed most, but the passage to reach that extremity of the world is so lengthy that they suffered considerably during the long wait.

The men in Red River live in any icy environment and are so distant one from another that it costs an enormous amount of money to procure even the simplest foodstuffs. For these men, only God can account for the sacrifice of all they suffer for his glory and the salvation of the poor and truly abandoned souls.

Letter to the President of Propagation of the Faith, 20 March 1850, EO V, n 11

Young p. 90-91: “They remained quietly among the tribes, slowly getting to know the ways of the people. While they could claim the comfort of land, they could not claim to have settled it. Food was scarce. After they had run out of wolf and dog, they had to resort to killing the horses and cattle that they were hoping to use as work animals. Their diet consisted mainly of potatoes and the catch of the day. Their clothes were in tatters and their shoes were falling off their feet. Worse than the physical tortures of their poverty were the tortures of loneliness. On the bright side, the mission continued to expand and the outreach to the native peoples grew more effective. Chirouse and Pandosy continued to improve in their study of the native languages as they traveled among the various people of their concern.They also began to have a sense of how to operate a mission among the natives, themselves.”

REFLECTION

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28: 19-20)

In the meantime, this is what the first group of Oblates had been doing in Oregon before the arrival of this second group of three missionaries.

Eugene had surmised:

I do not know if we can count on establishing Christian communities amongst the Indigenous people; in such a case we should leave Providence to act and if God calls upon us to make the faith flourish in this glacial world, we will not lack men ready to consecrate themselves to this ministry.

Letter to Bishop Guigues, 13 April 1850, EO I, n 131

But, despite the odds against them, they did succeed. Beginning in 1847 they built a wooden chapel and house at the meeting of the Yakima and Colombia Rivers. They dedicated this mission to Saint Rose of Lima. The place chosen for the Saint Rose mission proved unsuitable because of the lack of timber for building and of arable land. Besides, there was no Amerindian encampment in that place and the Oblates did not stay long. In the meantime Father Ricard made a foundation on the south shore of Puget Sound bay.
Beginning in 1848 and 1849, Fathers Chirouse and Pandosy together with Brothers Blanchet and Verney, founded three other missions about 50 kilometres from one another “at the request of the chiefs of small Yakima tribes numbering about 150, or 200, or at most 300 each” as Father Ricard wrote to Father Faraud on February 10, 1852. At each place the missionaries built a small poor chapel. When they arrived in the region there was “neither parish, nor mission, not chapel, nor house.”
https://www.omiworld.org/lemma/oregon-united-states-1847-1860/

Ron Young (p. 85):  “Saint Rose, Immaculate Conception, Saint Joseph and Holy Cross in the diocese of Walla Walla were little more than wilderness huts, sparse and uninviting. It would take time before they could be built up into anything resembling more than a one-man hovel. However, the locations were well chosen for encountering the native peoples of the area. Further, Father Chirouse showed great initiative by following Kamiakin’s tribe to their winter retreat and establishing another mission there in order to continue the evangelization he had begun. In this way, he adapted the location of the mission to the lifestyle of those he was sent to serve.”

REFLECTION

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

As the Oblate Congregation grew and became more widespread we find that Eugene’s letters do not always give too many details of the missions.  For this reason, I think it important to fill in the details with some narrative. We may not be able to hear the words of Eugene speaking, but through the lives and achievements of the Oblates, we hear his charism and his spirit fully alive.

The first group of 5 Oblates, under Fr. Ricard, had travelled to Oregon via sea to New York, and from there, “they traveled by ship, stagecoach, steam ship, on foot, covered wagon and horseback to reach their destination. Finally, the 2000 mile Oregon Trail would have left them exhausted. Yet, when they arrived, they were ready to begin at once to establish their mission among the native peoples of the area. ( Ron Young, The Mission of the OMI in Oregon, p.69).

The second group were carrying much-needed supplies. On November 29, 1849, we had read in Eugene’s diary that Fr. Louis D’Herbomez (27) and Brothers Gaspard Janin (51) and Philippe Surel (30) had set sail for Oregon.  As there was no Panama Canal, they had to go right around the continent of South America.

I yesterday received a letter from Rio de Janeiro from our Fr. d’Herbomez who is on his way to Oregon and who, on February 14th, had only reached so far, after leaving Marseilles in November.

To Fr. Bellon at Maryvale, April 21, 1850, EO III n 38

They reached San Francisco on July 19, 1850 – a sea voyage of around 230 days! Six weeks later they finally arrived at their destination in Oregon.

Ron Young writes (p. 102)

The small group was sent with twenty-two pieces of freight filled with basic supplies and long-awaited money for the Oregon Mission. Unlike their predecessors, these missionaries would travel the entire journey by sea from France, around Cape Horn, to San Francisco. From San Francisco they traveled to Portland, Oregon, aboard the ship Caroline. Continuing onward, they traveled to Fort Vancouver up to the Columbia River.

REFLECTION

These ships were no luxury cruise liners with air conditioning and refrigeration, and one can only admire these missionaries and all the personal discomfort they were prepared to undergo for the salvation of souls.

Ordination of Brother Richard Moloney in my chapel. I ordained him sub-deacon and will ordain him deacon at Sitientes and priest on Easter Monday. He is one of the three who is destined for the Buffalo mission.

Diary 22 February 1850, EO XXII.

The first three Oblates sent to Buffalo were 25 years old and had just finished their studies and been ordained. Pierre Amisse was the superior, accompanied by Richard Moloney and Francois Xavier Pourrat. On arrival they were unable to take over the church promised them because the pastor refused to leave. They were discouraged and also realized that they needed to become more proficient in English if they were to cope. After 15 days the trio of youngsters left and went to Montreal. It would take another year before a more permanent community of Oblates arrived – and from then on, the Oblates were to remain in Buffalo until today.

REFLECTION

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” (Winston Churchill.)