The time and patience of the Indios
On Popoli e Missione, an interview with Fr. Paolo Maria Braghini, a Capuchin Franciscan missionary in the Amazon among the Ticuna Indios
Hope is something you carry inside and makes the journey lighter. Brother Paolo Maria Braghini, born in 1976, a Capuchin Franciscan missionary who has been reaching more than 70 villages deep in the Amazon, on the border between Brazil and Peru, by canoe for nearly 20 years, knows this well.
In Alto Solimões, more than walking one has to paddle (even for days), but “a pilgrim of hope never stops, also because we are in a region of Brazil that is totally neglected and, if there were not the presence of the Church, there would be absolutely nothing.”
In this slice of the world, moreover, a pilgrim of hope “also feels fatigue; sometimes, he gets corns or sores on his feet. In the most extreme areas, he is at risk of his life, but this is all part of missionary life.”
Pilgrims of hope every day
Since 2005, frei Paolo, a native of the province of Varese, has lived in Belém do Solimões, in a totally indigenous parish inhabited mainly by the Ticuna and Kokama ethnic communities. That of the friars is a daily routine of intense prayer and community life, in which they care for everyone. “Even the most distant, whom you go to despite the fatigue,” says the missionary, who has just returned from a four-day tour of places where the Internet and everything else is lacking.
“Ours, in fact, is a work not only of pastoral and evangelization, but also of human promotion, because we are abandoned here. There is no drinking water or electricity; there is a lack of roads, bridges. Boys are reaching the age of 18 without knowing how to read; the police are absent; and drug traffickers are leading so many young people to their deaths.”
On the eve of this Jubilee, then, the wishes of the Indians are many. In summary, “to simply have what is normal elsewhere. It will take a long time, but hope has patience” and we need the government to start caring.
“In light of this, here we feel like pilgrims of hope always, and not only for the Jubilee. With joy, we stand beside our people, our enlarged fraternity.”
It is the poor who teach us to hope
Indians are fellow travelers who are simple, but who know how to walk together. Wü’iwa, as they say in the Ticuna language.
“Even though hope comes from God and prayer, it is they-the outcasts of society-who many times help us rekindle it when it fails. That’s how it works with the Holy Spirit,” smiles Brother Paul gratefully.
He who responded to a strong call, choosing to leave everything and give himself “totally to the kingdom of God and to the mission,” among the poor has found the reasons for hope: in a pilgrimage “that has as its goal eternal life, as well as a more just society, with more peace and more respect for nature.”
This is the social dream Pope Francis speaks of in the Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia, published following the 2019 Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazonian Region.
Our Jubilee
When the Holy Door opens in Rome, very surely, the inhabitants of these villages will be in what they call “Torü Naãne,” our Land.
“We will experience it, we will celebrate it – and it will be very beautiful – but the how we don’t know yet,” says the Capuchin friar, referring to their small parish. “At the end of November [ed.] we haven’t made any calendar yet; we will start when we meet everyone for formation and explain in their language what the jubilee is. Unlike the European mentality whereby everything is already planned, here every day is a struggle and we go step by step, albeit with a lot of confidence,” he explains.
And, meanwhile, one continues to be a witness of hope among the people, especially where the main road leads to the most abandoned crossroads and suburbs.
Brother Paul is already ready to resume his canoe on the Amazon. “We enter the many tributaries where no one but us missionaries arrive. What is the point of our presence? They no longer feel alone, but loved.” And in that precise instant, in that encounter, the door of the heart opens wide and the Jubilee of joy and hope finally begins.
(Loredana Brigante, People and Mission, 1/25, pp. 20-21)
Source
- Popoli e Missione
Image
- Frei Paolo Maria Braghini