Carlo Torriani

SWARGA DWAR

The conversion of a catholic missionary

presented by

Card. Simon Pimenta

PIME Publications, PIME Regional House, Eluru - 534 0-07, A.P., India

A HOLIDAY CUT SHORT

Letter No. 38, November 1990

Dear Friends,

Since I came back to India two sentiments are following me. The first is a feeling of thanksgiving and esteem for those I met, the second a feeling of regret for those I could not meet.

I had prepared my long list of names of persons to meet, but the holiday was  so short that I couldn’t meet not even half of those persons. I must confess to you that I cut short my holiday because I was fearing I could loose my vocation. In a world so well clean, developed and comfortable, I was surprised to find myself thinking: “It would be nice to remain for ever here”. But then I was pulling up my conscience asking: “What about the others? What about my people in India?” I think of those migrants who try the impossible to come to Europe or to America. I feel their envy, their resentment.

    Development in the West goes much faster. The latest invention or gadget comes also to India, but only for few, while the gap between rich and poor becomes wider. How far will go this widening gulf between Lazarus and the Rich? How mush adjustable can be the tolerance between the two poles without breaking up?  For how long there will be the difference between 100 rupees daily wages of those who collect tea leaves in India and 100 dollars daily for those who sell it in London?

    The second impressive variance that I noticed is the quantity of information available through the media in the West and the inherent possibility of distortion. Looking, for example, to the way the Gulf crisis was presented in the West, where Sadam  Hussein was  depicted  as more dangerous than Hitler, while back in India I could read articles explaining how “to understand Sadam”, one can understand how different are the perspectives between the rich and the poor, and how strong is the influence of the media.

    Another thing that impressed me was that in Italy you come across a lot of old and retired people but very few children. I visited in Rancio (Lecco) our house for retired and sick missionaries: it is full. I went to see an old friend of mine in Palazzolo Institute in Milan, there also it is full. I was invited to speak to a class of students in the school of my childhood, Martiri della Liberta’, I found empty classes or ten twelve children in every class. What a strident contrast! In India schools are bursting, classes are full with sixty seventy children. In India there are very few houses for old age.

    Every time I come back to Italy I notice that these differences are more accentuated. What to do? Come back to Italy more frequently to feel less the difference or stop going to Italy to avoid it at all?  The missionary is a bridge, if the river widen the bridge is under tension. All the missionaries feel this tension in our time. How to proclaim Christ’s message: “Blessed are the poor”, without sounding ironic and ridiculous?

    On the tin sheet of hut in Janata Colony I had written my motto “We must share”. This can be the solution. But we cannot limit our sharing only to with the missionaries, our effort of sharing must change the institutions, the conditions of international trade and the attitude of the governments.

    It will take a long time, surely. We must not get tired of trying and repeating.