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

In silence

sleeping and dreaming

that life is joy.

I woke up to see

that life is service.

I started serving and discovered

That to serve is joy.

Rabindranath Tagore

PRESENTATION 

I am very happy that an English version of the book THE GATE OF HEAVEN by Fr. Carlo Torriani, PIME, is published in India, after two editions in Italy.

It is plain to me that Fr. Torriani had seriously tried and, I believe done it well – to “Indianize” himself and his work. I know this is a touchy subject in the ecclesiastical world and his efforts can be misunderstood.

In the situation he is and he works, I feel his efforts are indeed praiseworthy. How else could he work?

It is plain to me that he has not crossed the border line with any exaggerated attempt – even in the setting of the chapel at Taloja. It is a prayer hall or place for all to come to pray.

He had not transposed those for whom he works into a different and alien – to them – setting. He had kept up and reflected the life of the poor in India. It is clear to me that he has a good knowledge of the Indian religious context and life – because of his living experience.

Two things stand out:

1.                                      that he has done a tremendous amount of work for the leprosy patients – not so much as a social            worker  (despite his degree at Tata Institute of Social Sciences) – but as a missionary evangelizer with genuine love, identifying himself with them, their problems, even their life. Surely the example of Jesus and his dealings with the leprosy patients must have inspired him and helped him.

2.                                      He has made himself an Indian. He appreciates the life, the religion, the people as they are. He loves

India. Indians, especially the poor.

In the chapter “That stone was Christ” he expresses his own discovery of his future vocation with those beautiful words: “I was shocked, because I understood that, as Christian and as missionary, I have to do like St. Paul:  I have to discover Christ where already He exists: that is in the religions, in the mythologies, in the symbols of the peoples and also in their history.”

From this, it necessarily follows – the discovery of meanings in the religions and worship of other religions.

He had done in practice what other write about!. He had applied Vatican II in his life and work.

In the chapter  “Why I go” is a kind of “apologia pro sua vita”  with a rich spiritual consideration and application. How true it is what  he says about Italy (true also about other places) – what is the future of Christian Europe?

The incident about Iqbal in the chapter “Prophets like Jeremiah” is very touching and revealing. Out of the mouths of babes we can learn spiritual wisdom. indeed.

Reading the book one is faced with the dilemma that the missionary finds in his work. If we look for results in numbers we will be disappointed. Our Lord did not convert many and never ask for a change of religion.

That does not mean that numbers do not matter. We must also understand the situation of the others. All this makes the work of the missionary so difficult and, in the present situation, dangerous.

When Fr.Torriani asks: ”What does a missionary do?” in the present situation, I think, he gives a satisfactory answer..

I believe he had shown the love of Christ to the last and the least of our people and in that, I am sure, he find satisfaction and fulfillment as a priest and as a missionary.

I whish him many more years of  service of love and kindness to those for whom he is trying –and I feel successfully – to open  “Swarga Dwar” – and they will enter “Swarga’ through it..

+Simon Cardinal Pimenta

Emeritus Archbishop of Bombay.

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