THE CHEMIN NEUF COMMUNITY
International Ecumenical Fraternity
LETTER FROM BRAZIL
No 3 November 2009
“Young and old will rejoice together...” (Jer 31,13)
Nine days of “Padroeira,” the patronal festival of our parish! Each year, it represents a new page in the story of our parish family. We shall not forget this one. We shall pass around the film made from all the photos we received... All the more so because Dom Waldor, our archbishop, was with us for the celebration this year.
We shall not remember the minor problems we had with the communications, but just the “magic” moments, the acted-out parables. For example, the children's party was run by several pastoral care groups, and this allowed the children from poor families to be together with the children who go to the posh schools. So there was no distinction between the 200 children who were there. Joy unbounded! Drinks, hot-dogs, a small playground (with slides, a trampoline... ), all provided free of charge. An experience of the generosity of the Kingdom of God. A corner of heaven on earth. Hallelujah! "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Isaiah 55,1.
There was that same fragrance of the Kingdom of God during the Community meal. Everybody shared and received in abundance. Young and old were truly rejoicing, dancing and singing together (… by the way, the health care team managed to visit 84 sick people in the parish this month. Congratulations!). The Word of God was put into practice. “And they all ate and were satisfied.,” Mark 6,42. Could one dream that the whole country could be like this?
Another parable: the processions with a fire engine carrying the statue of Sainta Margarida Maria Alacoque, a brass band, candles and singing, the expression (not sufficiently ecumenical!) of the public dimension of religion. We are asked to experience in the streets what we celebrate in our chapels, that is to say, to announce Jesus Christ and to defend the sacred value of each human being, just as the canonised saints did. We marched and prayed for peace.
Speaking of the fire brigade... At the end of the “carreata”, the procession in their district, they came forward, knelt down, and asked for the blessing of the priest. One of them even stayed with us for the whole route, hanging from the fire engine with one arm and holding his other hand to collect donations for us... This is how we should live, I thought, greatly moved, accepting our responsibilities on earth while receiving everything from above, open to God's Grace.
These festive moments are the positive story of the parish run by the Community. The Kingdom is in our midst. Thank you, Lord. █
Philippe Barrucand (Padre Tiago)
From Father Philippe Berger
July 2009
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| The parish church |
Some news about how we are living in Belo Horizonte...
… it's astonishing to see how rapidly things are developing here. Lots of new things, some good, others not so good.
… the food crisis, and the price rises that go with it, is radically complicating the daily life of people with small budgets. Still, Brazil is doing its best to combat the surge in unemployment. Thank goodness the national labour market in immense, yet finding a job is getting more and more difficult... Corruption among the elite in continuing unabated in spite of the growing awareness of this among the masses, and especially among the middle class, which is gradually waking up...
In our district, the government has finally decided to go ahead with the elimination of the Sao José favela which is very close to our parish and with which we are working a great deal. This is going to take some years... An arterial road is to be built linking Pedro II Avenue with Tancredo Neves Avenue. The city needs this, there is no doubt about that. In fact, it has been talked about for 20 years. Still, this time the compulsory purchase of makeshift houses has begun, and several blocks of low-cost housing have already been built. Several families have already moved in. These units are concrete skeletons, squeezed so close together that you could play cards from one building to the next. It's not very humane. Sure enough, it's better than the street... But when you see the three enormous palaces that the government is building for its administration on the northern outskirts of our city, taking up the entire plain, I could think that they could have been a bit more generous towards the people of Sao José.
That decision by the government and its implementation has caused tensions to rise in the favela. The antagonism between the upper and lower parts of the shanty town has intensified. The number of murders has soared. There is one funeral after another, mainly young people... It is dreadful. It is clear to me that the construction of these rabbit hutches is not going to solve the problems of these alienated brothers and sisters. The implementation of our Hill of Hope project will be more welcome than ever.
We have a real need for the space and the facilities that will make it possible for these brothers and sisters to receive material help, education, training for jobs, and also help for their spiritual and personal lives. The activities that are already under way in this project keep on diversifying and growing. Food aid is now being provided to close on 40 families. The series of “little lessons” - the most recent one on first aid, given by the fire brigade – are forging ahead and getting better and better. The integration of marginalised people into the parish is growing year by year. The various workshops that we have planned are ready to go ahead, but we are hamstrung for lack of space. They are going ahead but in a very small way: computing, sewing, etc...
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| A view of the Sao José favela |
The work of the Menor mission is always attracting more teenagers and it is a pleasure to give guidance in their professional lives to these young people who, after they having spent many years with us, keep coming back to see us and rely on us. Claudia has left the favela with her three children and has found a small house in which her three little tearaways are becoming so much calmer... Claudia asked to be baptised three weeks ago. A superb festival...
So for as the three new buildings that are planned are concerned, the progress is equally impressive.
Let's begin with the objective Number 1 of our plans: the first phase consists of completing our place worship plus the Community House, starting from the bar (with the pyramid-shaped roof) that we bought in 2005. To do that, we need to purchase the piece of land situated on its right side. We finally managed this two weeks ago. Hallelujah! It's been a long haul. And as the crisis made all the prices go up, , in the end we had to find 250,000 reals for this purchase ( about 96,000 euros because the euro is now worth only 2.6 reals and not 3 as previously!!!) The times are hard!
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| Children in the favela |
Still it's a victory of which we are proud. Using the various donations that we had received from you and using the small savings that the community in that district could make, we managed to get the purchase through in the following way:
50,000 reals(17,300 euros) provided by the local community with your help,
200,000 reals (77,000 euros) borrowed from the solidarity fund of the archdiocese (an interest free loan with monthly repayments of 2000 reals).
For the building work as such, taking into account the price increase, 500,000 reals (roughly 200,000 euros) will be needed. We envisage the budget as follows:
50,000 reals (17,300 euros) to be provided by the local community which will in addition be making the monthly repayments for the land.
150,000 reals (58,000 euros) have been requested from the German organisation Kirche im Not (Church in Need) to be used for building the church itself.
300,000 reals (115,000 euros) from Europe-Brazil Solidarity.
The building plans are now well advanced. The basement will be mainly car park as is required by law. There will be a large multi-purpose hall on the ground floor; the church and the meeting room with then be on the first floor together with the rooms required by the project, interview rooms for people with legal, psychological and social problems, a catechism classroom, meeting rooms, etc. So that is the first phase of our project.
The second building planned is mainly for the Chemin Neuf Community, as it will be a community house and a hostel for young students, as has been requested by our Archbishop Dom Walmor; this is to be located on a sunken plot of land in the parish. The football field will be replaced by several buildings including a covered multi-sports ground.
A “loan for use” contract has been concluded between the Archdiocese of Belo Horizonte and the Chemin Neuf Community, permitting the latter to occupy this site for the next 50 years. During this period it has been stipulated that the Community will continue to be responsible for running the parish and social programmes of Santa Margarida Maria. So we have a long term guarantee for our project.
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| The Bar |
The third part of the project is a building for social work, which is to be built on the site of the present crèche; the news of this were and still are a shock for us.
We found out, through a surveyor who was working on the land to the right of the crèche, that this land had been appropriated by a decree from the prefecture at the beginning of September 2008. When we met some of the City politicians, we were told that the city council had decided on this public project, and that they were in fact planning a UMEI, a municipal unit for children's education, which would cater for 440 children aged from 6 months to 6 years. The compulsory purchase order did not include the crèche itself.
So the idea of our “Hill of Hope” project has now become one with 440 children, while our crèche only took a hundred so we should be pleased. So this misfortune should turn out well. However, the latest news is that the Archdiocese which owns the land has still had no official notification of this compulsory purchase. But rumour has it that now we shall also lose the land that the crèche is on. Another shock! And not much that we can do about it... So we are now obliged to accept that this land will be reserved for that third building. We are now hesitating between the crèche and the parish centre, to be done by stages on the right part of the parish hall where there are the kitchen and the toilets...
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| Aerial view of the site |
So the idea of our “Hill of Hope” project has now become one with 440 children, while our crèche only took a hundred so we should be pleased. So this misfortune should turn out well. However, the latest news is that the Archdiocese which owns the land has still had no official notification of this compulsory purchase. But rumour has it that now we shall also lose the land that the crèche is on. Another shock! And not much that we can do about it... So we are now obliged to accept that this land will be reserved for that third building. We are now hesitating between the crèche and the parish centre, to be done by stages on the right part of the parish hall where there are the kitchen and the toilets...
Good bye for now!
Father Philippe Berger
Testimonies
From Delphine
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| The favela "Vila Sao José" |
For me, it's the filth that is the hardest to bear. Everyone we meet stares at us and wonders what we're doing here, but they do greet us. “In Brazil if you don't live in a favela, you never set foot in a favela.” Two worlds live side by side but never meet...
Claudia's house is surrounded on three sides by open streams of sewage in which the pigs come to eat.
You wouldn't want to fall into that! When it rains, (and here, when it rains, it really rains), the streams overflow and flood the house. You can see the sky through the holes in the corrugated iron roof, through which the rain obviously comes; so when it rains, everything gets wet. On nights like that, it is impossible tp sleep, the people empty their buckets as they fill up and wait for the rain to stop. Towards the end of January, it rained almost without stopping. For many, that was a terrible ordeal. My first reaction, coming from my great curiosity, was to want to look everywhere, into all the narrow alleys, through the windows... we had been talking about this for such a long time...Now at last I was there, I had the answers to my question, “What is a favela like?” “How do people manage to live there?” But after a few yards I said to myself, “Delf, when you are walking through a district of Brussels, do you look at the people through their windows?” “No, but here it's not the same...” “So because the people are poor, it's all right to stare at them?” “No, but I'm just visiting.” “Just visiting?” “... ...” A healthy curiosity, or the opposite? Not easy to have the right attitude.
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| Open sewer with pigs feeding |
You wouldn't want to fall into that! When it rains, (and here, when it rains, it really rains), the streams overflow and flood the house. You can see the sky through the holes in the corrugated iron roof, through which the rain obviously comes; so when it rains, everything gets wet. On nights like that, it is impossible tp sleep, the people empty their buckets as they fill up and wait for the rain to stop. Towards the end of January, it rained almost without stopping. For many, that was a terrible ordeal. My first reaction, coming from my great curiosity, was to want to look everywhere, into all the narrow alleys, through the windows... we had been talking about this for such a long time...Now at last I was there, I had the answers to my question, “What is a favela like?” “How do people manage to live there?” But after a few yards I said to myself, “Delf, when you are walking through a district of Brussels, do you look at the people through their windows?” “No, but here it's not the same...” “So because the people are poor, it's all right to stare at them?” “No, but I'm just visiting.” “Just visiting?” “... ...” A healthy curiosity, or the opposite? Not easy to have the right attitude.
Not easy to have the right attitude with the people either. What to do about the (huge) problem of alcohol? For example, on her birthday, Claudia and her neighbour, along with the teenagers who were there, were drinking beer... I drank one glass of beer while they drank four. After three hours I got back home and wouldn't drink again for a week. But they don't stop so easily. .. Would the solution be for me not to drink with them? Not so easy for a “Belgian”... And if I refused to have a drink with them, it could be taken badly, it could mean that I didn't trust them,...
Delphine
(1) We were there on behalf of the parish, visiting the inhabitants of the Sao José favela which adjoins the parish.
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Children in the crèche |
Excerpt from a letter
written by Anne-Claire, shortly to be a JET (young volunteer) in Brazil,
during a three months' training course.
during a three months' training course.
Discovering community life
… as you see, I am on a training course, and have already done several weeks in Hautecombe; I shall be here until the end of December.
...My first weeks here were not easy. I already could not stand all those sweet smiles of the brothers and sisters of the community. The chanting of the psalms during the offices got on my nerves. I only had one wish, and that was to run, to run without stopping, far away, .not to think any more, just to get back to noise, the world, reality. But still, I have to stay here for three months, to make this training period a good time in my life. So I put myself “in openness” with all my heart, so that God would give me the grace of coming to like this place and of finding myself feeling well here...
...I've discovered that the way we see things depends very much on our openness of heart and on the fact that we choose freely. Finally, I have come to like it here and I'm learning a tremendous amount.
...I've learnt that you do not have to go very far to be struck by differences. Here I'm already experiencing culture shock. My way of life was so different from what is being proposed to me today. I've moved from having six brothers and sisters to having 80, the rhythm if life is different, people's habits, the rules, the people, all my bearings have been shaken up, apart from, perhaps, the time and the French language (fortunately).
...There are around 20 foreigners on the training course, out of 40 participants. So we are an amazing mixture of cultures. I've understood that living with others should make me accept our differences, and especially to accept them as a plus, as something constructive, even more, as something to love. For example, in my group I've got a priest from Madagascar, just arrived from his country; it's the first time he's left Madagascar. He is … what shall I say? … quiet, cool, and rather slow (it's his culture that makes him like that). I have to learn to love these characteristics of being a laggard and not taking the initiative. Because if I take these away, it's no longer him: it's such a shame to want others to be like me. Since I've come to like what he is, I appreciate him enormously: he is even one of the people whose presence strengthens me and whose calmness soothes me.
In order to love people as they are, even if I find them exasperating, I have only found one solution:
TO MARVEL at their difference...
...Another thing that I've learnt here is providing a service. My first job has been to prepare breakfast (which means getting up earlier ... I was delighted!) Here everyone finds it normal that everything should be ready in the morning: the water hot, the bowls where they should be, butter and jam on the table... At first, I was appalled at this indifference; I would at least have wished that people should thank me, that they should know that it was me... and I understood that it could be so much more attractive to provide the service in secret, and I would put flowers, friendly little notes, croissants... And in the mornings I would see the big smiles, everybody's delight when they found these little treats. I was a thousand times more satisfied. Now when I take my shower, I am aware that someone cleaned it for me. Someone took the trouble to clean MY shower, which she would never use. It's crazy, isn't it? As a result, I pray for her and thank her for having make it sparkle. For me this is what life is: loving the other and taking care of her in secret.
After my first week, feeling depressed, I said to my friends, “It just stinks of love here!” Hautecombe is exactly that: Love. For me, there was too much love, I didn't want all that. Selfishly I told myself, “But I'm fine on my own, I don't need your love, leave me in peace.” Now I understand why there is so much hatred and violence directed against Christianity, and why so many died as martyrs. It's because people are AFRAID of LOVE, Real, Genuine Love. It seems so out of proportion in comparison to our small selves that we want it to go very far away from us, that it does not touch us. If it touches me, I'm done for, I've had a taste of such love and I'm going to become dependent on it. Why take so much trouble to escape from the most beautiful thing in life?
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| Laurent in Divinopolis |
I am carrying you all in my prayers (and I have all the time I need for that). If you have any special prayer requests, do not hesitate for a moment from letting me know; It will be an immense joy for me to be praying for you.
With much love and best wishes, and thanking you for your support. ?
Anne-Claire (October 2009)
A WORD FROM OUR GENERAL ADMINISTRATION
The financing of the Sacred Heart Church to be built on the site of the former bar
The immediate financial requirement is 115,000 euros
Total cost:
Land: 94,300 euros
Construction: 190,300 euros
Total: 284,600 euros
Funds already in hand or promised
By local fund raising and from local grants: 113,300 euros
From charitable organisations: 58,000 euros
Total: 171,300 euros
Still required: 113,300 euros
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| Group photograph during Laurent's visit to Divinopolis |
A WORD FROM OUR GENERAL ADMINISTRATION
The financing of the Sacred Heart Church to be built on the site of the former bar
The immediate financial requirement is 115,000 euros
Total cost:
Land: 94,300 euros
Construction: 190,300 euros
Total: 284,600 euros
Funds already in hand or promised
By local fund raising and from local grants: 113,300 euros
From charitable organisations: 58,000 euros
Total: 171,300 euros
Still required: 113,300 euros
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| Facade of the new Sacred Heart Church to be built on the site of the Bar |
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