18 October 2010
INTERVIEW WITH BEATRICE BOURRAT,
14 OCTOBER 2010
Father Michel Forges d'Arc, who now lives near Paris, belongs to an old established family from Versailles, which claims to be related to Joan of Arc.
At one time he was living in the presbytery of Epinay sous Sénard with Emmanuel Daublain, and through him, got to know the Chemin Neuf Community.
From there he moved to Brazil and was responsible for a parish on the edge of Joao Pessoa, the capital of the state of Caraiba in the Noreste region.
At the prayer group there, Michel Forges d'Arc became friends with a number of people including Fernando, Edilene and Synara.
He mentioned the possibility of getting to know the Chemin Neuf Community in France to them, and they spent two months in Hautecombe coming to understand how to deepen their faith through living in community. They returned to Brazil, then came back to France for the Cycle A and Cycle C discipleship training programmes. Fernando and Edilene returned to Joao Pessoa for a month to get married, and a number of the brothers and sisters of the Community in France also came to the wedding, including Bruno Vuillaume.
During all these adventures of our Brazilian friends, Michel Forges d'Arc remained discretely in the background, providing words of encouragement when they were needed.
The de Souza's (Fernando and Edilene) then returned to Hautecombe as helpers in the house until the birth of their daughter Nathalie, and then they returned again to Joao Pessoa.
During this period Synara in turn also came to France for training.
During a meeting in Rome, Laurent Fabre met the Cardinal of Mariana, Dom Luciano Mendes de Almeida who suggested that he should go to see Dom Serafim, the Archbishop of Belo Horizonte. This prelate proposed to Laurent, who had gone to see him, that he was willing to put the Chemin Neuf Community in charge of a parish in the city of Belo Horizonte. Laurent, when he visited the parish of Santa Margarida Maria Alacoque, was greeted by a painting representing Our Lady of Guadalupe; the same day he also visited a Carmelite Convent which is one of the places in the parish where services are held, and he saw that it was dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe. These two signs seemed significant to him and so he accepted the archbishop's proposal.
Father Serge Clemente, who had for a long time felt a calling to help in a shanty-town and who could speak Portuguese, arrived in the parish on 8 December 1998 with Jacqueline Coutellier who stayed for a month, and with Synara who later left for Joao Pessoa to finish her law studies. Henri and Marie-Thérèse Delporte then arrived, then Marina de Vanssay and Virginie. Right from the first year, Serge started the Menor pastoral mission to help young people in the favela known as Vila Sao José, which is not far from the parish, though not in its territory.
Fernando and Edilene arrived next to join the team and did pastoral work in the parish alongside Henri and Marie-Thérèse. Henri then took on a project to build a house in the garden of the parish house so as to provide two additional units of accommodation for the Community.
Lastly, Laurent called on Father Philippe Berger, who had done his novitiate with the Congregation of the Holy Sacrament Fathers in Minas Gerais, and who was dreaming of going back to Brazil.
The Delportes returned to France a year later.
Sister Beatrice Bourrat arrived on 13 February 2003 after a mission of two years at St Gildas, the Community's foundation in England and a three months' stay in Les Pothières. Some months later, Sister Brigitte Faure arrived for a three year stay.
When he reached the end of his assignment as parish priest, Serge wished to go to Sao Paolo to work with street children for a time, then he returned to the Chemin Neuf Community (CCN) in France, then in Africa.
The basis of the presence of the Chemin Neuf Community is its parish life.
The members of the CCN in Belo Horizonte are there above all else to be of service in the parish and they have basically three missions, firstly the pastoral work in the lovely parish of Santa Margarida Maria Alacoque, then there is social work related to the parish and finally the work of the Chemin Neuf Community Foundation in Latin America.
After the arrival of Philippe, the Alpha Course took off quickly and the parishioners appreciate it greatly.
Dominique and Dany Hevin came to reinforce the team in 2004 and 2005, and took on the responsibility for the Cana mission and also the Community's fraternal life and its links with the Brazilian brothers and sisters such as Joaquim and Marcia from Divinopolis who were interested in approaching the Community.
Regarding our Youth Mission, we have been running confirmation classes in the parish since 2004 and we organised preparations for the World Youth Days (WYD) in Germany in 2005 which were attended by five of our young people.
Fernando and Edilene are now living in neighbourhood fraternity, in accommodation near to the parish house.
Cana continues, but in the parish we prefer to run the Marriage Course.
Six months after the WYD in 2005, our young people and parishioners welcomed our first Chemin Neuf style Youth Festival, with a good Mary and Martha team, led by Dominique and Dany Hevin. A group of our young people from the parish, encouraged by Sister Beatrice, Flavio and Leandro and Agnes who came over from France, assembled some 100 participants for the festival.
The diocese of Belo Horizonte has today come to rely more and more on the Chemin Neuf Community, and Father Philippe Berger will shortly be asked to become a teacher at the local Seminary and named an Ecclesiastic Counsellor for the New Communities; Sister Beatrice has also been nominated a Counsellor.
The Alpha Course, thanks to the work of Father Philippe Berger, has been expanding rapidly in Brazil.
Brazil is a very rich country and the Church here is flourishing. Some of the new communities are expanding rapidly. Little by little we are finding our place and the reason for which the Lord called us to this city and this continent. Our parish and our parishioners are courageous and dynamic, they give without counting,; sometimes they question us concerning our presence with them and we try together to work out how best to combine our talents and to build up a fertile alliance. Mutual confidence is growing step by step, and it is they who are leading us to take the indispensable steps to absorb the culture of the continent and of Brazil. They are becoming more and more open to the Chemin Neuf Community and they now insist that we should just be ourselves and give all our talents.
SO, A SLOW FOUNDATION, YES! BUT SOLID AND DEEP, BUILT FROM STONES WHOSE NAMES ARE: LISTEN... MUTUAL RESPECT... PATIENCE... LOVE... RECIPROCITY... FORGIVENESS... HOPE... HEALING THE PAST... DOING THINGS TOGETHER.
Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labour in vain.” Psalm 127, 1 ... The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
Published by CCN Brazil
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