20. Witnesses: Francisco Javier Jimenez Garcia-Villoslada

He was born in Pamplona (Navarra, Spain) in 1958. He has been a priest since 1981 and has worked as a teacher, in parishes, as a formator for seminarians and religious. This along with pastoral work with young people and promoting vocations, as well as acting as secretary and Prior Provincial… In 2003 he fulfilled his dream to be a missionary in Tapaua, where he went for two and a half years.

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Since a child I had wanted to be a missionary. With the Augustinian Recollects I fell in love with the missions and this dream was fed. I identified myself with the Prelature of Labrea because I got to know the missionaries from there, who told us their adventures and talked marvels of their experiences. And because some of my closest friends and companions were sent there. At last, after twenty-two years as a priest, I was sent there. Yet again, there was an endemic situation of not enough continuity with too many changes of religious. I went to learn, not to teach: to learn from the missionaries, the people, the poor, the children. I was ready to ley myself be evangelized, to search for God in a poorer world, a younger world, which was unknown, mysterious and difficult.

I learnt from my companions to relate to the people, to get on in the school and in the parish. Also to touch the reality there, and see what the people expected of us and what we could offer them. I tried to accept everything with realism, without bitter deceptions or great amazing pastoral plans.

I arrived in the moment of a building surge. The previous community had made great plans to prepare the parish for the 21^st Century: the Hope Centre, St. Augustine’s and St. Joseph’s chapels; an extension to the rooms for catechesis and the main church, and the retreat house “Casiciaco”.

The daily routine started at six in the morning with Mass, and at seven I had Spanish classes in the school where I also learnt Portuguese. I went by bicycle or walked to give class, and came back wet with sweat. The food was a surprise and I soon got used to the feijão (beans), the rice and the fish from the Purus; although I lost sixteen kilos in six months. A three o’ clock, for the first two months, I had Portuguese classes with Rayma, a local teacher. Afterwards, I went to the airport to cycle. This was because the airfield of 1.5 kilometres was the only place where I could cycle with having to be careful of children, pot holes, motorbikes, bicycles, dogs…

I was surprised by the people’s commitment: the children in the Infant Missionaries as true protagonists and missionaries; the leaders of the communities and how they got involved in the festivities; the parish council at the end of every month without fail, great participants and a number of initiatives; the novenas for Christmas, the Fraternity Campaign in Lent.

Another surprising discovery was the political organization, very similar to the feudal system. The mayor is like the Lord who commands, does and undoes; contracts whoever he likes for any job… The local government is the only business, with thousands of employed. It is a captive vote: if they don’t vote for the Mayor they will be out of work. For this reason, the electoral campaign is so dirty. In 2005 there was a great fraud, irregularities, votes were bought, threats, violence… The Mayor said that now “he was only going to favour his friends – those who had voted for him”. I heard what was said, marvelling with shock, both surprised and indignant.

The religious situation was a surprise: divided into two groups, Catholics and Evangelicals, half and half, very competitive and with some disloyalties amongst them. There was a lot of influence, pressure and change in the Churches: the people passed from one to another with great ease, without fidelity or commitment. Some Catholics fell in love, and their partner obliged them to go to their Evangelical Church in order to stay together.

Christmas was hardly celebrated, only a little bit of Christmas Eve and the novena for Christmas in the family. It was celebrated in districts, and is a simple feast but beautiful for the union of family and neighbourly ties. Neither did Holy Week have any great impact. At the start of Lent, the young Catholics and some Evangelicals would come together in a retreat called Carnival with Christ, in order to escape from the seduction of the civil carnival whose magic got as far as the jungle. It was noteworthy the staging of the Passion on Good Friday, that was represented with quality and dedication by the young people in their pastoral groups.

Representation of the young people’s Good Friday celebration.

When they opened the new Hope Centre the Governor of the Amazon came, and the local politicians wanted to take advantage of it. We didn’t want ourselves to been seen involved with them. We went to the official religious opening, but we only attended the start of the celebration with the Governor in order to welcome him.

The pastoral guidelines were fixed by the Prelature: the grass roots communities were the main thing. They met every week for the novena, the Eucharist, and to organize their activities and to prepare and celebrate the feasts for the patron, with the involvement of other communities. There was an approach along the line of Liberation Theology and a rejection on charismatic spirituality. It was more emotional, less rational and with methods similar to the evangelicals’.

The hope was to promote the participation and pastoral responsibility of the laity. Especially the care of infants and adolescents, visiting the sick, the elderly, and prisoners (with the evangelical commitment of the Legion of Mary). As well as the increased attention to marriages, because of the dangers of infidelity and the breaking up of homes with partners changing.

As a novelty, we introduced the Eucharist in every community in the city during the week. Before it was in the main Church at six in the morning, with very few people. We agreed that every day it would be celebrated in a different community, and more than thirty took part regularly. There was a lot to be reinforced, but the devotion and appreciation of the Eucharist was in crescendo, in a town little used to and very neglected towards this central aspect. For living in the rubber plantations and in areas of production they had maintained their faith based on the devotion to the saints.

The people from Tapaua are notable for their familiarity, hospitality, and welcome. It is not difficult to make friends with them. They open their doors, their arms and their hearts. They love and let love. They find it difficult to understand people who come from far away, with another culture, education, customs and language. We find it difficult to adapt, to understand them, to accept them as they are, with their value and their limitations. There is the danger of wanting to “convert them”, so that they might learn my way of seeing things. What is needed is for us to learn lots from them, and they have much to give, to teach and to communicate.

They are a young people, almost adolescent, with a desire to grow. It is beautiful, and brings hope. Giving classes in the school allows you to get to know and become known by the majority of the children, and their families. The Hope Centre offers a place of meeting and relating, of apostolate, a vast platform for evangelization.

One of their greatest achievements is education: from being an illiterate town they now young people better who are better trained than ever. They have more interest, and as soon as they can they go to Manaus or to the South of Brazil to find a better life. This was impossible before, and unthinkable: only the sons of traders or politicians could have this luxury. The school grants and family help program, from the government of Lula de Silva, vastly improved the situation of many poor and needy families.

It is a Church with few traditions, a lot of music, desire and creativity; and with the will to be protagonists of their future. They love the Church, feel that it is theirs, help and take part. Tithing is one of the challenges: a faith commitment to God and my Church; to really give ten per cent of their salary, which is sometimes miniscule.

Outside of the Amazon, the mission has a lot of pull and attraction. Sometimes we can embellish through a lack of knowledge and idealism the heroic adventures, far from the routine and stressful life of the West. But this ideal and image has become lost amongst the friars. Nor do we see the same missionary enthusiasm, full of determination, generosity and availability. Some religious even look on this work with mistrust and misgiving: “the true mission is in Europe, over there the missionaries live like kings doing what they want, things that in other places are not allowed”. These things tend to be said by some, but I don’t know if this is with the necessary information or objectivity.

Thank God, there are always religious who help with their prayers and their kind regards, their details (a call, a letter, an email, a collection, a gesture). We felt their help, as much from the Provincial council as from the ministries; some very small like Barillas and Tulebras (Navarra) who gave small but valuable sums; like the widow in the Gospel.

For the families the greatest problem was the distance, and the lack of communication. Only at the beginning of the 21^st Century did telephones and the Internet arrive, although very slow and with many failures. They put us in contact with the world. The family suffered in silence this absence, but we felt their support, their admiration, their prayerful presence and their sustaining love. It is one of the marks of the missionary. You could feel the satisfaction, the pride and admiration they felt for us.

Many people, some known and many unknown, helped our work. The recollect nuns with their continuous prayer, which is generous, silent, fruitful, suffering and evangelizing. The more aware ministries, that sow with missionary spirit amongst the faithful. The volunteers, that started to come close to this unknown and mysterious world.

In my personal and religious life, Tapaua has meant a before and after period. I needed this experience, despite the fact that it seemed very short. I learnt to cry, suffer, enjoy, mature, and grew a lot.

What examples of self-sacrifice, of fidelity to God, of true faith, of Christian meaning for life, of hope, of love, of generosity! They helped me to value community life, indispensable for living as a recollect; to love and value our fellow brothers, despite their failures and deficiencies. To give of myself to others with greater generosity. To be enthralled by this younger Church, to learn everything in a very different context from what is normal. It was hard, and at the same time, enriching. You have to learn everything and this involves difficulties, patience, shocks, but it is very positive. It opens your mind, widens your horizons, enlarges your heart. It makes you grow, and see things in another way, with new eyes.

I know that life is not easy there. There are political obstacles, social and geographical problems; those do with work, and cultural ones too… But Tapaua and its people have an entire future in front of them. They can’t presume about the past, but they have a lot of history in front of them to build up. They have the treasure of youth, which allows you to dream, which gives you the strength and the capacity to resist and overcome the difficulties. I would encourage them to grow and to strengthen themselves as a society: to go on gaining in stability and social and political credibility. To go on combatting the errors, abuses, blights and privileges. To go on acquiring and vindicating their rights, for greater justice, a better quality education, better health care, a more just distribution of wealth, greater freedom, greater autonomy, greater independence.

They are a very religious people. In Christ they have the way, the truth and the life. May they not let anyone to take them on other paths that degrade their dignity, that would destroy their peace, that would prejudice others, destroy families and impede their development. May they grow in tolerance, in an appreciation of the values of others, in respect, in love of the truth, in making together projects in favour of children, young people, the sick and the poorest among them.

I congratulate the parish of Tapaua for their golden anniversary. From here it seems like nothing; here life is different, lived in a rush and intensely. I would invite you to appreciate your past: the effort of those who brought you the faith, who fought to create this Church, who gave their lives serving you. That you would forgive them their faults generously and to value those who passed through there and keep hold of the good, (something of that there will be, although goodness doesn’t make a sound) and forget the bad.

That you might learn from them to be supportive, altruistic and charitable and to not close yourselves in on your own interests but rather to search for Christ’s interests and that of others. So that you might grow in maturity and responsibility, in the proper use of freedom, in professionality, and in education. Do not lose your values, your joy, your simplicity, your spontaneity, the enviable smile of your children, your hospitality, your hard work, your capacity of sacrifice and suffering. So that you might aspire to be everything that God would wish, everything that God has dreamed for you.

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