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

YOUTH AND MISSION

Letter No. 54 September 1999

Dear Friends

    Yesterday Cecilia and Marcello, the last guests of this monsoon season, left Swarga Dwar. And now I am here musing about you who had been here in SD in the last months: 35 persons had been our guests. Some of you had gone elsewhere: Rachel in Spain, Tiziana in Palestine…

    I think of you going back to the aseptic Italian atmosphere. Margherita wrote: “ Just back it was looking strange to see how clean, perfumed and quiet is this side of the world. But surely it is not so mad and funny as India. I think that a journey in India will be good for everybody. I would prescribe it to those who always complain.   

    May be you now are thinking of SD and India like summer dream or, may be, like a nightmare. Claudio wrote: “Calcutta is really disturbing, indescribable for the human misery I saw and assisted”.

    Do you remember the reading we had in the last evening in the prayer hall Shanti Sangam? It was a passage from Lao-tze, in the Taoist tradition of searching harmony between contrasting principles.

The more calls for the less. The excess calls for the defect.

 The principle of contraction is starting from the apogee of expansion.

 Weakening comes after strength, decay after prosperity, scarcity after opulence.

    The quicker somebody becomes richer, more striking looks the poverty of the one who lags behind. The more rich  one becomes, more responsibility he acquires towards those who lag behind because one uses the riches that belong to all. We cannot progress without sharing. After the experience in India, you are now aware of how much necessary id the progress for India and the sharing for Europe. Some of you have renounced a journey to Ajanta-Ellora to save something to offer to the mission. Others have done other renunciations. Marco presented to me his Jerusalem Bible; a gift very useful for me. 

    For the first time this year we could face not only the dialogue between religions but also between religious believers and lay believers. This has been possible thanks to Lucio who, from his experience in Cuba, has brought here Michele e Simone. We have all witness their faith in human work, in solidarity between nations, in sharing with the poor. Also the other residents of SD witnessed it. Ravi said: “These ones really work hard”.

    It is always a pleasure to see people coming back to SD. Like Lucio, who came for the second time, we had Claudio who brought Vittorio, Roberto, Mirco and Simone after visiting Thailand and the works of Mother Teresa in Calcutta.

Also Filippo came again with her cousin Virginia. People here say: ”When the rains come also Filippo comes from Italy.”

    The visit less expected but most welcome has been the one of twelve sisters of The Servants of the Holy Spirit. Since they were having their general assembly in Pune and wanting to know the work of the church in India, they came to see Swarga Dwar. They were coming from eight different countries, they prayed with us, in the evening, in the ecumenical chapel, in the morning they received coconut-prasad. In this occasion also Iqbal spoke about his life and experience in SD: everybody was moved.

    So SD is also working as ashram: a place with spirituality and a message. This is a very great thing for leprosy patients.