FROM THE MISSIONS
AND FROM THE WORLD
Savino Palermo, scj
The Mission in Basoko was founded on January 8, 1902, after that of St. Gabriel (December 25, 1897). It has turned out to be one of the greatest Missions of Upper Congo.
It is now a large parish with one hundred Catholic community- chapels, spread out over a territory as extensive as Belgium. It has been calculated that there are 140,000 inhabitants, and one third of them are baptized Catholics.
The Mission and Parish Center is in Basoko, at the confluence of the Aruwimi river with the Congo river. Its perennial vitality is still in evidence today thanks to the imposing missionary buildings: the Church of St. Mary (inaugurated by Msgr. Grison on August 15, 1912), with its square bell-tower standing 30 meters high, it was the ancient residence of the FMM (housing the dispensary, leper hospital, schools for young girls, meeting place, etc.); there are now schools for boys (with some 2000 pupils currently enrolled), with little houses for the teachers, and for the missionaries there is a large residence with running tap water where they have two hours of electricity every evening, etc.
Another center, a secondary one, was at Mokaria, about one hundred km west of Basoko. It is still possible to imagine the vitality of this mission by admiring the missionary buildings, which are sadly not being taken care of.
The most important of all the other community-chapels are those of Yahila, Basali and Mongandjo.
Basoko has the misfortune of being situated too far from Kisangani and therefore remains almost in solitude. Msgr. Grison, during the years of its growth, as well as Msgr. Kinsch, during the years of the troubles 1960-67, often visited Basoko and even went to some of the other secondary locations.
The great pastoral tours of Msgr. Grison used to start from Kisangani and went through Avakubi and as far as Beni, on foot, in caravan (47 days!), always ending in Basoko, coming down the Ituri and the Aruwimi rivers.
Currently Basoko is still almost cut off from Kisangani and the Center of the Archdioceses. The only communication route remaining is the great river. The only means of transport is the piroga; 300 km to be traveled either in a rowed piroga (never taking less than five or six days), or in a motorized piroga (taking at least 10 hours without stopping). The fuel necessary for this round-trip voyage costs an arm and a leg!
Today Basoko remains isolated even more: all of the intermediary traders have abandoned it because of the total instability of people and goods, caused by the so called “Liberation” wars (1996-1997) and by the Rebellion, or rather the invasion (1998...) - it is not possible to say how much longer it will continue.
The Basoko Mission was founded and developed in turn by German, Dutch and Belgium, Italian and Brazilian S.C.J. missionaries.
Currently there are four S.C.J. people there: Fr. Paul Slowik (Polish) Superior, Louis Marie Butari Kayamba (Congolese) curate, Salvador Elcano (Spanish) treasurer, and Zbigniew Kierpek (Jane) (Polish), a traveling missionary. They occupy themselves with all the various kinds of pastoral work, and they are highly appreciated by the faithful and also by the non-believers. They are all the more regarded because our Fathers have learned to speak Lingala fluently, using even a bit too much of it in their sermons...
Their work is without doubt immense and they all have far too much of it.
Fortunately, as always, a good number of “benevolent” have volunteered to give them a hand.
But these catechists, do they have an adequate training? What have they received which they can give to others with competence and clarity?
There education-instruction, in general and especially at the primary-school level, is very poor: during this last decade national education - at both the primary and the secondary level - has become increasingly inadequate.
The assistance which our missionaries are able to give to these generous collaborators has been reduced. Most of the time we are limited to periodically visiting the various villages and then spending a few days in Basoko, in order to receive communiques.
The Archbishopric and the Pastoral Center of Kisangani, with all its commissions and organisms, gives no aid to Basoko, neither materially nor even of encouragement: no visits, no meetings. Even the communiques and the letters directed to the faithful arrive late in Basoko - when the subjects are already out of date - and, even more, they are sent in French or Swahili: of little use, because the communities and even the pastoral agents only understand the local language.
The last time that Basoko received a group of people from the Pastoral Center, for a few days of “recycling”, was in 1991, when Fr. Zénon Sendeke was the director.
Given this situation, the S.C.J. Provincial Commission for Spirituality and the Apostolate felt that it was their duty to program a series of formation sessions for the catechists of Basoko.
We have thought it right to base this training on three main lines:
- Biblical Training: offering a general geographical and historical framework of the Old and New Testament; with a description of certain personages of the Bible and certain pages which appear most often in the catechism. This is to be given out to catechumens or to the community during the liturgy of the Lord’s Day. Subsequently there will be a reading and commentary, page by page, concerning a particular Gospel.
- Theological, Catechist Training: centering on the Apostle’s Creed and the Sacraments.
- Moral Instruction: directed above all to awakening a sense of conscience and personal responsibility and, subsequently, to receiving a deeper knowledge and practice of the Decalogue...
This entire program will be presented in a series of three sessions. Each session will be residential and will last one week; the daily time table will be from 6:30 am to 7:00 pm.
The first session of the series took place with four groups of catechists during the months of February-March, 2000. One group was in Mokaria, the second group was in Mongandjo, the third and fourth were at the Basoko Center. There was a total of 247 participants, and fifteen of them were mothers.
Some perfunctory, or “tourists”, were reluctantly but necessarily sent away.
Most of the people who attended were lodged with their extensive families; they received three meals a day, prepared by the legionnaire mothers or the voluntary CEV, which they ate at the mission.
At Mokaria and at Mongandjo the training was given in the chapel, the people were seated on rough benches with their exercise books on their knees...; in Basoko it was given in the large parish hall, better equipped with desks and chairs, etc.
Everyone followed this first session with strict fidelity to the timetable (which was very intense) and with a diligence all the more admirable considering the fact that they were people who had very little knowledge of our culture and who had received very little education; and who, in their villages of huts, had never thought of following any clock for any amount of time, even for their necessary work... At the session they had to stay seated for hours, listening, forcing themselves to understand and to take notes, etc. It was truly a labor which asked them to do something which was completely different for them.
Yet, with all this, they were happy and even proud. Their numerous interventions during the lectures, their interest in the debates, these were clear signs of their interest and participation.
When they returned to their village they met with their community on Sunday and told them what had happened during the session; they declared that they were proud to have participated and to have learned many “things”, even about... theology.
However, during session after session, certain problems concerning our catechists clearly came to the surface. Here are a few of them.
A certain number of catechists were too old or too tied to their routine, it was necessary to give them extra help. This wasn’t easy due to their minimum education: currently at its lowest level and being received by only a few people.
The catechists who were the right age and had the right amount of good will, need to have recourse to the formation they have never received; it must be adequate for their task.
This is a grave and urgent necessity, one which is impossible to ignore if one does not wish to run the risk of “heterodoxy”, above all in the moral domain. Here are a few examples:
Neither the nature, nor the value, nor the spirituality of the sacraments, above all of marriage, is understood at all.
When choosing between custom and faith, it is custom which counts and which dictates solutions. Several catechists of different zones have reported that in the meetings, talk-sessions or discussions, even baptized Catholics have declared that “Here they leave faith on one side and remain with their customs...”.
Most of the catechists feel that restitution of stolen goods is not an obligation, above all if the theft is not known about or is not being investigated. They have the same conviction about other faults for which reparation is due.
The sixth commandment has been reduced to the ninth, do not touch another man’s wife. However, having “relationships” with a girl or a free woman is not a considered a sin. A young man who was asked if he had “known” a young girl, reacted with astonishment: “What do you mean? Am I not a man?”.
For most of the members of the ecclesiastical movement, even of the parish council, participating at one of their meetings during the week or on Sunday is equivalent to hearing Mass (or the liturgy in the absence of a priest) on the Day of the Lord. Most of the members of these groups normally practice this convenient flexibility.
With regard to sects, which are aggressive and growing, our catechists, and even their pastors, feel inadequate, powerless and discouraged.
The sacrament of Catholic marriage (is it necessary for one to be reminded?) causes serious, painful, thorny problems... A very high percentage of Catholic adults either settle for a customary village marriage or postpone the request for the sacrament until they are dying. They are very jealous of their total sexual freedom and practice: “Sikuzote na popote!” (I have heard them saying: “Having only one woman, that’s like having none at all! A man is potent until the age of 60 or more...”).
In the past the ecclesiastical authorities have always had great trouble in obtaining catechists and teachers who live within a “regular” marriage, and therefore do not have to be sent away.
Even today one often hears, here and there, about some people who have been threatened and constrained with a similar sanction.
But in any case, what is the result of this? It produces a situation of hypocrisy or rebellion.
A great part of the fault and the responsibility of this situation is ours, the clergy’s. Let us be honest: how many catechists and Catholics in their time have received a true catechist-education for marriage and family life? Let us make a clear analysis: they have received practically nothing, practically never!
This can be verified both in our catechism manuals and in the quantity and quality of Mafundisho who are in preparation for baptism or communion or confirmation. Marriage, in these preparatory exercises, is only touched on...
Then again, in what parish, even if urban and populated, can one find courses for ‘preparation for marriage’? And to whom is the Commission for Family Ministry limited, and for what reason?
Here, in my opinion, is the original sin of refusing or delaying of the sacrament of marriage, causing the extremely grave misunderstanding-ignorance of the nature and the value of marriage as such: that which the Creator desired for every man “from the beginning”, as Jesus Christ established, with the religious mystery given to it by St. Paul.
The wisdom of our ancestors is always there for us to recall: Nihil volitur quin precognitur...
It is useless then to “threaten”, to constrain, to penalize, and to fix a date to “put things in order”.
One must seriously bring back that catechist education which has been lacking or neglected... It is necessary to well organize and disseminate a session of information and training; one which is expressly dedicated and “useful” to the catechists and to their wives.
After this is done, the “regularization” would be easy and genuine (with the great grace of God: nisi Deus det, Mt 19:11).
In every session held in Basoko we have found that among the catechists there is also the presence and active participation of assistant catechists who were never baptized. It is incredible but true, and it was with the knowledge of the leading catechist.
When questioned, these people stated that they would like to be catechists. However, as far as baptism is concerned, they requested that it be put off to an undetermined date in the future.
Here we have in our Church yet another rare but significant case of a confusion of ideas, or of a lack of theological training. Is this merely syncretism?
To support themselves most of the catechists manage to get by with a small trade (above all in classical material near the schools buildings) and with the little Sunday collection. Less numerous are those men who work in the fields with their wives and their sons and daughters, which however is necessary in their villages and which sets a good example.
Most of the catechists of the bush work “on their own”. That is to say that they combine the tasks of the Mafundisho, of the performance and animation of the liturgy on Sunday, of control of the groups, movements, etc....