7. Large periods of absence or isolation

A. The solitude of the missionary

The lack of religious for the arrangement of the communities and for covering all the areas of pastoral work, social work and evangelizing, has been one of the gravest problems for the Prelature in all its existence. But there are various reasons which make necessary an adequate number of missionaries in every religious community in the Brazilian Amazon.

There are the large distances which prolong every journey. The missionaries, for the greater part, are not Brazilian and must travel frequently for the requirements and bureaucracies for their legal residence in the country; and to rest and visit their families travelling to their native countries. Every departure to the rural communities implies between one and four weeks in a boat, away from the house.

If the community has two Religious, something which has happened frequently, it is almost certain that they will spend 50% of the time alone, without seeing each other. There are even times when there are no Religious in the main parish; and if there are three people the periods of solitary life lessen, but do not disappear.

The first great absence, once the community was formed, took place on the 14^th of January 1965. For almost four months one religious was raising funds in the South of Brazil, and the other was in a meeting of Caritas (CAFOD) in Manaus.

The religious’ holidays have also served so that they would talk about Tapaua in faraway places. Cestaro, already in 1969, talked about the mission in the States of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. He asked for help in parishes, social service centres, colleges, and also in newspapers and magazines and by radio and television (Channels 2, 4 and 9 in the Capital Sao Paulo). He returned to the prelature with school material, clothes and fifteen million cruzerios (€74,000 today), for evangelization.

In June 1970 Cestaro said goodbye to the city for a new life in Manaus; his companions from the first community weren’t there now, so the parish was left without any religious for five months.

B. Volunteers to attend the Mission

On the 8^th of March 1970 the Prior General of the Order, Luis Garayoa, sent a letter to all the Augustinian Recollects to express his concern for the Labrea mission. He asked, insistently, for volunteers to help the Province of Saint Rita, in charge of managing the mission, so that the pastoral service and the religious life would be assured:

“It is not now only our duty as Prior General; it is not only about obeying what was prepared in the General Chapter: we have been formally invited by name and by order of the Holy Father to send urgently eight missionaries to Labrea; where at the moment there are very few, and they have clearly indicated to us that all the Order should be interested in it”.

To put it another way, the Holy See had called to attention of the Order for neglecting the mission, with the consequent lack of Religious in order to carry out the pastoral work and live the Religious life. Twenty-five offered themselves as volunteers, of which fifteen belonged to the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine. In total, eight were selected. At the end of 1970 three Spanish Religious arrived in Tapaua to restart the mission: Miguel Ángel González, Francisco Piérola and Jesús Moraza. Piérola was interviewed by a magazine for his Province, and left in this way his impressions:

“I am going to the mission in Brazil for many reasons: something of the Spirit of Don Quixote and the adventurous desire of Christianity; a little also because there are more than enough people here, and there are people who can take my place. I had already some time ago asked the Prior General to be a volunteer for the Amazon; my greatest difficulty is my family, because my parents are elderly and my other Augustinian Recollect brother has gone to our mission in Taiwan. But I am convinced that you have to let the Spirit triumph amidst a material and materialistic world”.

In those times in the mission there wasn’t even a postal service, letters were sent to the State capital of Rondônia, Porto Velho, to a postal box of one the religious’ friends who would bring them the correspondence. The letters were sent on from Labrea to Tapaua in boat when it was possible, and answered letters had the same return journey. In conclusion: they needed months for the complete journey of sending, receiving and replying.

After almost three years without a Bishop, Florentino Zabalza a missionary who had been one of those who had responded to the call by the Prior General, was informed by radio whilst visiting Tapaua of his appointment as Bishop; which he accepted. It was July 1971. Zabalza belonged to the Province of Our Lady of Consolation, and would be Bishop of Labrea until 1994.

In 1972, the community returned to being composed of only two Religious. Saturnino Fernandez came from Tapaua as Parish Priest, accompanied by Moraza. He was there until 1975, and some sources relate that at that time he received, from the Evangelical missionary Wilburg Pickering, the nickname of “the Old tiger of the Purus”. Although the purpose was to insult, it became for Saturnino recognition of his audacity and courageous work in every area.

On the 7^th of April 1980 the Order of Augustinian Recollects reorganized its consideration to the mission. Through a common agreement the four communities of the Prelature and the house in Manaus would come to depend on the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino for its management, personnel and resources. The religious in the Prelature awaited the outcome of the new plan:

“We make a promise that this Prelature recently taken on by our Province with so much love, would not continue in a precarious state, but rather that it would be reinforced with the support and missionary enthusiasm of so many of our religious who long for a missionary life at the forefront in a region like ours: this immense Amazon so rich in future promises, but so lacking in resources at the present time”.

Almost ten years later the lack of people again became urgent, and the Provincial Prior Marciano Santervás sent a formal letter on the 27^th of September 1988 asking for volunteers. At that time, of the four communities in the Prelature, three of them were with only one religious including Tapaua where Jesús Moraza was living and working.

“The cry and petition for help is directed to all the religious in the Province, not only those in Spain but also those in Mexico, the Philippines, England and Costa Rica. No-one should use as an excuse false reasoning or leave the responsibility to another. May everyone let the voice of the Spirit resound in the sanctuary of their conscience, for the peace and the needs of the Christ’s Church in Labrea, the portion which has been entrusted to us”, says the Prior Provincial in his letter.

This same year from Tapaua a report explains: “At least one visit a year to every community, for which we would need at least four months’ journey, (one by the Purus River, and three by the Rivers of Tapaua, Cunhuã, Piranha, Jacaré, Ipixuna and Itaparaná) would be necessary for only a second-rate attention. If we wish to attend a bit better the Purus, where there are already organized thirty-four reflection groups, we would need more than a month’s journey. It would be then five months by river. But how can we combine in this way, the pastoral duties and our community life when we count on so few people in our houses?”.

Among other things the Provincial Prior offered a new way of being a “missionary”, for a more limited time of between eight and ten years. This was instead of the traditional formula that was applied, that normally meant that a missionary was destined for practically their whole life. It has been applied with success since then, and there are many religious who have spent time in the Labrea Mission and have returned afterwards to pastoral work in other areas or countries.

The positive consequences have been numerous. There exists today a greater knowledge about the mission because more religious have lived it personally, and not only through third party education. There has been a greater increase of vitality with missionaries who had previous experience, or who later were prepared for other pastoral work or social projects. Also the arrival of missionaries of a certain age has given us more maturity and experience.

But there have been less positive consequences: there has not yet been a total achievement of a permanent presence of three or more religious in every missionary post; and the continuous rotation means that many religious haven’t even had the time to get used to the climate, the culture and get to know close up the people, and offer them a better service without restrictions.

The calls of superiors asking for volunteer missionaries for the Prelature of Labrea have never ceased. It was repeated in September 1997 by Miguel Miró, Provincial Prior: “I feel the obligation to call on your missionary conscience: we need Religious for our mission in Labrea”.

C. Tapaua, a place for education

In December 1973 the Augustinian Recollect Francisco Javier Hernández takes charge of the formation for professed theology students, in the Province of Saint Rita. He, seventeen years later, will be named as Bishop of Tianguá, in the Brazilian State of Ceará. He belongs to the Province of Saint Nicholas, and comes as a volunteer to this post of Formator in Franca, in the State of São Paulo.

One of his main concerns is the education of these religious in love of the missions. For this reason, he starts an exchange programme sending them to the mission of Labrea for short periods, so that they can complement their formation with missionary experience.

In the last few years they have resumed the experience under the guidance of Nicolas Pérez-Aradros, who was for years Parish Priest in Tapaua, and is now Provincial Prior of the Province of Saint Rita. Young deacons from this province have had the opportunity to experience the Amazonian mission, collaborating with the communities for nearly a year.

Also, the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine has two similar programmes. In one, religious with simple vows spend the summer in the Amazonian communities sharing their life and mission, sometimes accompanied by their formators. In the second, before making their Solemn Profession, religious who have finished their theological studies have an experience of being introduced to various communities in the Province. Tapaua has already received one of them.

Since 1989, In order to ease solitude and help pass on information, religious from the Prelature meet twice a year in January and July. All the missionaries, including those who live and work in Tapaua, participate in these fraternal meetings that also help to coordinate activities on priorities and pastoral programmes.

D. Native vocations

The Prelature of Labrea, and the Parish of Saint Rita in Tapaua, have always had religious and priests from outside of Brazil. Local pastors have come from the South of the country (especially those from the States of São Paulo, Río de Janeiro and Espírito Santo), as well as from Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica, Scotland, the Philippines and the United States.

The most desirable way to avoid the lack of people is the promotion of native vocations. But this desire has never been achieved satisfactorily. There are natives in the Prelature of Labrea like some Female Augustinian Recollect Missionaries, and some Marists. But neither the Augustinian Recollects, nor the yearning local clergy, have been able to attract people born and educated in the Prelature.

In 1982 a first attempt was made with a seminarian from Tapaua, who lived in the Recollect community in Canutama. This attempt, like another two in 1988 and 2008, were not successful. One of the candidates from Tapaua came to the novitiate in Spain, but left before professing.

The vocational cultural has been implanted with vocational teams. From these attempts have emerged some very implicated well-formed young people, but in none of these cases have they managed a concrete vocation for the religious or priestly life. There are many understandable reasons for this. Firstly, it is difficult to find people with sufficient education in order arrive at a process of discernment with real expectations; which often means leaving home, and probably the region. Education is something in progress, for families are unstable, and culturally it is not seen as a viable alternative. Also, secondly, the religious have many pastoral needs and have not been able to dedicate time to personal guidance.

NEXT PAGE: 8. Pastoral priorities

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