6. Presence in the rural region

The constant desobrigas do not resolve the living out of Catholicism in the rural areas.

An annual visit in order to celebrate sacraments does not offer guidance and growth in the life of faith nor a sufficient spiritual care. Three factors don´t allow for the increase in these visits: first, the lack of Priests, who because of religious and civil responsibilities in the urban centre cannot be away for large periods of time; second, the slim budget for a pastoral action which uses up tonnes of fuel, together with maintenance and looking after motor and river craft. Thirdly, there are the climatic conditions that reduce to only a few months the actual possibility of these visits. When the waters are high many families move to dry areas; when they are low, navigation is made difficult by the appearance of stones, at the same time that distances are increased because shorts cuts cannot be made through navigating.

From 1976 onwards the Augustinian Recollect Jesús Moraza started to implant “grass root communities” in rural areas. He looked for the relevant people in every community, the best formed leaders, those most responsible and capable of uniting families and looking for solutions about education, health, and creating solidarity when faced with accidents or times of hunger. These people could continue to have weekly meetings which brought them together as a group, to celebrate the faith, prepare acts in common like feasts, and mitigate the problem of isolation and constant loneliness. Because of this work, Moraza was also named as Education Inspector for the rural area of the municipality.

Bishop Florentino Zabalza included the adaptation of this system for all of the Prelature as one of the urgent pastoral plans. If the Catholic communities came together weekly, talked about their problems, shared solutions and celebrated the faith together, not only would they build up the Church but also a conscious civil community which knew its rights, and together defended them. The people of the Purus stopped being isolated families who fought for survival and became communities based on solidarity, with the capacity of demanding things from the authorities and capable of reacting when faced with disasters.

In 1994 they appointed a married couple to do a more continuous job of catechesis in the rural area between Tapaua and Canutama. They also managed to achieve a greater effort and consolidation in the biblical catechesis, and religious education. Also they started to organize resources and people, including care for the Earth, that would avoid some of the problems for the economic survival of these small communities. They organized complaints about the abuse of the environment, and the civil authorities kept a more conscientious watch on the inhabitants of these municipals.

Rural emigration was also an influence as was the abandonment of the population in the tributaries; entire districts came about with little infrastructure, and the families started to have some crops on the beaches, to fish and to hunt, as they had no jobs or employment. What was positive was the inclusion of many minors in the educational and sanitary system.

But in contrast, in these years there was also a growth in means and resources for companies, that coming from outside, openly preyed upon these natural resources. The Parish denounced the deforestation in the Rivers of Tapaua and Cunhuã, which gravely affected the life of these indigenous peoples; as well as the presence of foreign fishermen who emptied the lakes and pools of many species.

At the beginning of the 1990’s the Prelature created two teams. One covered the Rivers of Tapaua and Cunhuã, with two religious from Labrea, who also attended to and supervised the relationship with the recently discovered zuruahã tribe. Another team were dedicated only to the Purus River.

In 2005 they founded the Cooperative of Agricultural Producers from Tapaua, with State help. In an agreement, the worker would sell their produce to the Government who would send it to charitable organizations. The Hope Centre from Tapaua received from then on watermelons, mangoes, bananas and a local popular fruit the pupunha.

The rural zone is a very different world from the urban one, with its own sense of time and calendar, and it is an isolated culture with an economy centred on the crops from the beaches and fishing from the river. Its sense of priorities is distinct from many other human beings, and some of this can be observed in this desobriga narrated by one of the religious, Nicolas Pérez-Aradros:

“I started to take down details [for baptisms] at seven o´clock in the morning. I had to keep my patience. Some mothers came to give me the details of their respective children. One of them was going to have four children baptized, one for every year, for they hadn´t seen a Priest for four years; the other woman was going to have two baptized. Well, both the first and the second woman had given birth to two children, in the same years in less than six months, but on different dates. Therefore, I had to correct the mistakes and keep my patience. If it was the father who was going to register his child he didn´t know the full name of his wife; and if the wife came, vice versa. I remember that on asking a woman when her child had been born she answered: “the day it rained a lot”; and another “a Friday”. It sounds funny, but it’s true”.

Years later, another missionary told his own experience in this way:

“The process of inculturalization comes by breaking through many preconceived ideas, by admitting a series of ideas that for us are not so important, and by living according to principles and interests completely different from our own. On one occasion in a group of three houses, after greeting the family, I started to talk to the owner of the house. Seeing that various children came in and went out I asked how many children he had. The father thought for a minute, in a confused fashion, replied that he had no idea. He called his wife and asked her how many children they had; she replied seven, three boys and four girls. He therefore repeated this answer, happy and satisfied that his wife knew the answer to such a difficult question”.

Maybe one of the best descriptions of the pastoral attention given to the rural population has been made by Sister Cleusa, a martyr for the indigenous cause assassinated in 1985 and a Female Augustinian Recollect Missionary. She was one of the pioneers of teams dedicated to the ribeirinhos (the river people):

“It was worth the effort to see close up, feel and share the life suffered daily by our brothers throughout the rivers, beaches, ravines and centres away from the municipal headquarters. How great is the injustice! Where is the respect to human rights, surrounded by hunger, illnesses, illiteracy, exploitation of the needy white and Indian? Evangelization? Certainly it is not enough to do everything one can in a day. From there comes the present worry from those who preside over some communities. On the way we thought about the viability of small projects, provisional and with volunteers, using the Purus. That is Pastoral attention for the whole River. A dream? More like faithfulness to the Mission and the desire to be useful to our brothers, for it is necessary that Christ reigns”.

Since the 80’s all of the parishes in the Prelature hand out every year in all of the rural communities a written plan with all the celebrations, catechesis, some small stories for discussing problems, and other educational themes. It is useful, so that the leaders know what to say and how to act in the community.

At the moment, the parish relies on a specialized team for pastoral attention in the rural zone, composed of one religious, one of the female missionaries of the Oblates of the Assumption, a driver for the boat and committed lay people. Frequency has increased notably in comparison with the annual desobriga: there are more education visits, others with itinerate teams dedicated to children, health, protection of the environment, and celebrations for local festivities…

The budget for all this comes from projects financed by Catholic organizations like Misereor or Adveniat, by NGO’s like the Augustinian Recollects’ Haren Alde or La Esperanza (Hope); or public economic programmes with the help of the Committee for Missions and Social Development by the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine. The pastoral and economic effort is huge, but it has allowed for a much more constant work which is more effective in the rural area.

NEXT PAGE: 7. Large periods of absence or isolation

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