Tuesday, August 23, 2016

NEOCATECHUMENAL'S SAD EYES

Posted by LaPaz, a JungleWatch correspondent in Spain.

The Neocatechumenal Way in Guam's blog has just published a testimony of an italian neocatechumenal family sent to Japan to evangelize (it is, to make the NCW grow up there), which shows how wonderful is living as itinerant when you carry inside you such a rainbow kingdom and everything is used to glorify, over all, the Way.

I will present here for you another experience of a neo-family in missio, of course peppered with neocatechumenal ideology, but at least more realistic than the happy-raimbow one brought by the Guam's voicer. 

I can not resist remarking how sad are this woman's eyes despite the great sense she finds in all she has suffered in the name of evangelization, in front of Kiko and Carmen's holy adventure way of living among cardinals and Domus, agapes and journeys, painting, singing and building up a great holy empire. She suffered in her body which later are merits for the hoRRoris causa Kiko and Carmen's honours. 

Excuse me but I feel real shame of this kind of testimonies, where children and women -over all- are exposed to objetive dangers while others, like catechist and leaders of the Way, even bishops and cardinals, collect their medals. 

The original is here, in Spanish. Notes in blue are mine.







"Interview with Maite Dávila, lay missionary in Japan
By Victoria Serrano Blanes, for Buena Nueva, July 2015.

How did you meet the love of God in your life?

I grew up believing that in my relationship with God I had to be good. But of course, my reality of sinful stopped me and that made me be wrong. When fifteen-and a special family situation, as my father was schizophrenic-I heard in a catechesis that Christ loved me as I was and I was involved in my life, I was shocked. It was 1973, in my neighborhood of Madrid, which was very worker, the Jesuits preached social justice, and this flirting with my desire to change the structures, to help the poor ... But I began to see my mother, who also had heard the catechesis, a radical change; she began to open their home to people of the parish with different ideologies, communion and love was given among them, and she relied on God to be sustained in suffering by the illness of my father. That is, I saw within the church two different dialogues, one asking for confrontation and justice, and the other for peace and forgiveness. In this new community which was born in the parish the miracle of brotherhood looked very evident despite their social, intellectual and political disparity. This love among brothers and from my mother to my father, despite how hard it was the familiar coexistence made me also know the love of God. Later I married Felix and I have seen the love of God through the family .. .(Note: I cut here a sentence which is mistaken in its original transcription).


Why did you go to live in Japan?

In 1989 we offered to go as a family in mission wherever. God had saved our lives and our marriage, and therefore, by asking families to proclaim the Gospel both felt that we should thank the Lord answering that call. We had been twenty-six years in Japan, first in Hiroshima and then near Yokohama. There were born our last five sons. Felix died of cancer in 2004.

What is the mission?

Announcing Jesus Christ through family life. The Japanese believe that life is better in the West, so our neighbors were impacted by that a family of seven, and then with those who were born there, and by we were to live with them in a culturally Buddhist neighborhood. They are very quiet but there we are next to them.

How were the beginnings?

You go there with a project of what will be the mission and then discover that God's plan is not yours. At first we had many difficulties on a practical level, but the desire to obey the Lord was enough that He did it all. Felix was a rigger, however, due to not knowing the language was almost impossible to get a job. He worked a while as stonemason ... In Hiroshima we lived seven years and when the Japanese government, by necessity of labor, opened the country's doors to all descendants of Japanese who after World War II emigrated to Latin America (Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay), a missionary Italian priest called us to help in pastoral work of the parish of Yokohama, where a Latin community was formed.



"love will make everything easy"

You came with five children and five others were born there. How did they react to such a large family?

In Japan they only have a child or two, but I was surprised of not receiving opprobrium by the number of children or by the fact some of them were born by caesarean section. My first two children were born of natural birth but as in the third pregnancy I had to take sulfa drugs for toxoplasmosis, and this could affect the child, they scheduled an caesarean section - but then did not exist ultrasounds and they gave me the opportunity to abort clandestinely, but we decided to continue with embarrassment. The child was born perfect. If I would have aborted, I would have never forgiven my self. After Pedro, I have got two more children with caesarean section in Spain. When I arrived in Japan, pregnant of the sixth child, necessarily he had to be born by caesarean section. Then I had the third and they have been much more respectful with it than in Spain. (Note: she refers in Spain the most of doctors are not respectful with cases like her, with more than two cesarean section, doctors use to recomend avoiding more pregnancies due to high risk).


With seven Caesarean, were you aware that your life could endanger?

Yeah, but Christians know that God gives life to our children, and being opened to life involves risk. I am a very fearful person but I have seen the Lord upholds the weak. So neither the first child I could have got. Precisely being so fearful person, I'm dying to think of a toothache! But it is God who has given me the grace to do things that surprised me. And how much He has taken care of me! For the first two cesareans I have in Japan, the fourth and fifth, they gave a dose of insufficient anesthesia and I had a terrible pain. For the third caesarean in Japan I asked God to make the miracle of giving birth in a large hospital, because due to my situation as a foreign person I did not have any access to it. And so it was: a parishioner of the parish of Gion took all steps to attendent at the Red Cross hospital. There they put the dose of anesthesia I needed.


And interestingly Felix has been called to heaven first . How was you experience of the death of your husband?

That's right, I risked my life and instead Felix has died. God calls each one in turn and mine has not arrived yet. My lack of faith, the Lord needs to continue working with me! Felix was aware of his death from the first moment and lived his illness very naturally. He knew where he was going! He even had the courage to call the press to order his death reminders. The year that passed since they detected his cancer until he died we were like the three young men who were not burned in the oven, protected by grace. We felt very alive people's prayers. Being buried is also high grace, as in Japan all the dead are cremated. By several factors: scarcity of land, the high cost, fear of the spirits ... the Administration puts many drawbacks for burial, and Felix and I had to take enough steps to acquire a grave. In the end, the Italian priest of Yokohama got one for us on a small island. I leaned a lot on my husband, idolized him, and his absence made me fall in a small depression, but the Lord rescued me. In my situation, I clung to him or I die! And I have seen that as a priest friend told me, it is preferable an onion with Christ than a delicacy without Him. The question is not what I want, but what God wants. And I know that His will is always the best.



"Hasten, Lord, come and save me"

We have an idea of ​​disciplined stoic Japanese people, with a high concept of honor, how is their character?

It is a country of great contradictions; technologically advanced but very traditional. They are also very refined foodies and, thus, they live to work and for being able to afford their whims. It is understandable thing because, as not believing in the afterlife, they have to prolong this as much as possible with the cult of their body, healthy living, cosmetics, etc.

How do they live their religion: Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism ...?

Culturally they have these deep-rooted religions, but then their life is on the other side. On a day to day they are not religious or transcendental, but at certain times they turn to their gods -there are close eight thousand gods, because even a plant is a deity for them and some think they can be reincarnated as a cockroach. This is the greatness of Christianity, by looking at the risen Christ we have no fear of death because we know that He expects us in eternal life. However, if somebody does not want to know or have not clear where he goes and where he comes from, what feeling of transcendence could he have?


There is a suicide every fifteen minutes and two school a day take their own lives. So much is the social, family or educational pressure they suffer?


Yes, they are very demanding of themselves because they have to make the cut above all, because they feel obliged to save the honor of the family -even whith suicide, as happened before with the famous harakiri-. The Spaniards, if we are angry or upset, express it openly, but they consider it a sign of weakness. They do not express their feelings not to appear vulnerable. Whether it rains, cold, heat, whether good or bad, they are always showing the same face. Such is the pride and shame which means for them to ask for charity, even if poor, there is not any person asking for money on the street. And they do not accept charity from anyone. Knowing they are in need is enough humillation they just conform. They also have deeply rooted that "dirty laundry" is washed at home. A child can not cut a flower in a public garden or throw a paper on the floor, because the mother scolds him, but not because he has done a wrong thing but because somebody could have seen him. It is very present in their culture that while no one can see you, you can do whatever you want. The error is that, really, because doing so does not educate or cut the root of sin; only serves to give an image. So if somebody discovers it, you sink. There are also many problems of bullying.



"my cry came to your ears"

How did your children adapt to this society so different?

The first missionaries are the children, because in school they face the culture as it is. Older, Isaac, Mary, Peter and Joshua took so long to adapt. Classmates made them much harm: they laughed at them, they put thumbtacks on their shoes ... But it was a miracle that no they did not rebel. Truly the Lord helped us! God inspired them not resist these sacrifices or not returning evil for evil, and that saved them, because they eventually stopped messing with them. In addition, God has not allowed my children to grow up with pain and bitterness toward the Japanese nor to the mission. On the contrary, specifically for my daughter Mary was an honor to suffer for Christ, not a grievance.

Did Devil took that suffering to make you desist mission?

See your children suffering is worse than your own suffering. The first thing as a mother is acting like a lioness to protect your cubs. But God sustained us. To me, in pain, the Lord has inspired me to keep in mind Esau and his contempt for birthright for a mess of pottage, and also remember the election of Jacob. Faced with the temptation to go back to Spain I leaned more in God and the Virgin. There I discovered the amazing attitude of Mary to enter with Christ in the salvific mission of human, just for love.

Does the economic uncertainty discourage you?

Not at all. How God cares for us! We rode the house with furniture garbage. It was the economic "boom" and people threw them to renew old. New families in mission arrived and they told Felix: "Let's see if you can find a cot". And a cradle appeared! All we needed, all we found, even with the box! One of our children wanted a fishing rod and soon it appeared in a container. The Lord provides a way that inspires people to fill your needs and desires. Of course you can live by faith, and so little faith as I have! I have to tell the Devil, "Get out of here I have memorials to remember all that the Lord has done for me!". God breaks the schemes; my five older children, how bad they happened at school, they have been able to assist some university courses in Japan. And about the five who were born there, one is Discalced Carmelite nun and another is a seminarian.


"I will sing to the Lord because he has helped me!"

In a population of one hundred and thirty million people, less than 0.5% are Catholic. Why does not the Gospel turn on?

It is a great mystery. San Francisco Javier himself said it: "In India I fished with a net, in Japan I fished with a cane." The fact that many Catholic families are in mission is a sign that the Lord loves this people and want them to be saved. Christ has also given his blood for Japan and wants them to know his love. Now, when their conversion will occur? I do not know. Since then, there have been many martyrdoms and his blood was the seed of Christians and the engine for us to be there. In Nagasaki Catholics are descendants of those martyrs. Also many missionaries, after the atomic bombs, were moved to Japan, and this self-giving of the Catholic Church did awaken many conversions. Nothing is lost, but today we do not know why they have their ear closed to the Gospel. So at least they see our love and dedication to them for Christ's sake. As it has happened, for example, after the tsunami, none of the families in mission has left and that has surprised them a lot, because they, if could, they had gone away. Now, transfering that love and attracting all Japanese people is a question of high grace of God, and that's just in God's hands.


The harvest is plentiful in Japan, does the Lord still call you to be there?

The mission is for one. If God allows evangelize, great, but above all it is for one's self conversion. I live day to day asking God, with fear and trembling, to continue having mercy because I can lose and fall into what I now consider unthinkable. And he calls me to live with docility, to accept whatever he wants, because my life does not belong to me but to the Lord. I am here today, well, next morning there, also well ...

Do you think God has been good to you?

Very well, super generous! I deserved to have been abandoned for so hard, so much disbelief, so infidelity to Him and yet he has always rewarded me good: with love and patience. He still calls me, being pure impediment, that surpasses me. He knows what he's doing, of course, but I would not have picked me for this. Every day I say: I give you all, you know how I am!"


Testimony of Mss. Dávila, who left Madrid during 80's decade, makes me think something smells weird with Neocatechumenal's families sent to mission.

I remember the first case of Ebola in Spain was a religious, a member of Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God. He was in Liberia as missionary and, despite his survival choices were almost nil, he was transferred to Spain by Spanish Government. Even atheist people considered that catholic missionary, as a Spanish citizen, had right to every possibly health guarantee.


Neocatechumenal's missionaries seem not having those guarantees when they are sent anywhere to announce the Gospel. It is quite strange. The thing here is asking which is their real status when they are sent. Are they sent with all legal requirements? 

I doubt it since the moment we know a citizen from a developed country have to give birth her baby by cesarea (her n-time cesarea, which means a very high risk) without enough anesthetic dose just because she is a "foreigner" with no right of access to a main hospital. I can not belive it. 

We are talking about babies, children and women at risk who are not covered by enough health guarantees in developed countries. Japan is one of the most developed. How is it possible? We are talking about basic medical aspects. Are we talking of people who have to live as irregular inmigrants being sent by official Church? I can not belive it. 

Yesterday we had breakfast whith children trained and brainwashed by their parents and ISIS to be a "bomb-boy" killing the most number of unfaithful on the news. The last masacre in Turkey was caused by a boy wrapped in explosives. We saw on TV a father blessing his 15 years old boy who was going to blow a bomb-truck. That is jijadism and their killing martyrdom.

What about those parents who expose their children to unnecessary objetive risk by announcing JesusChrist even without the most basic guarantees? What does the Pope think about it? And Cardinals like Rylko and Schonborn and Toppo? Are they aware of it? 

I remember when Kiko started sending first itinerant families to foreign countries, he emphasized those people were able to face everything in the Name of God. Even if their teen daughters would have been raped. All for God's Glory. 

Some years after there might be some grave difficulties -of course never told- and Kiko decided to put some conditions for families to be send: one of them was related with their daughters' age. Not due to the real risk of being raped or abused, just because teenagers girls were a temptation for RM's in mission and male single itinerants. 

To vomit. Women are always a potential source of evil in Kiko's mind. All of us know Kiko is not an example of healthy and balanced mind, but what about mind of cardinals and bishops who support the Way's missions? Are they sending children to live as potential martyrs unnecessaryly when even our eminences do not choose it for themselves anyway?

To finish, I copy here a significative paragraph from Cialdinis neocatechumenal family in Japan for NCW expansion, that one showed by Diana. http://www.tokyofamilies.net/2014/09/this-month-5/


While you feel real shame by knowing the extreme experiences told by Maite Dávila as NCW missionary, you can enjoy this rainbow-flower-power speech when the father is asked about comparing to raise seven boys in Japan and in Italy:

"Gaetano: I would say 90% of things here are a lot better than Italy. The Japanese government scholarship system works, there are family restaurants, parks almost everywhere, etc. Shopping for kids’ clothes here is way cheaper than Italy, thanks to H&M, Forever 21, etc. Children’s clothes in Italy are expensive".
LOL, much more fashion in Japan for your kids!

Thank you, Gaetano. Your words mean to be a neocatechumenal itinerant for new evangelization is a simple question of good or bad luck, the normal when you are sent by random by a little piece of paper taken from a bag by Kiko's magic hands. Your experience has nothing to do with the horror lived by others from your same organization.
If in both cases you were sent by the same Church being the same figure of itinerant in mission, why do you seem to be the two sides of a coin? Is there anything else -we do not know- to explain so many differences between? Which elements under table we are not enough able to see? 
Anyway, Gaetano, your experience of flower power missio is a better neopropaganda than Mss. Dávila's experience. Without any doubt! I know Diana knows best. 

No comments:

Post a Comment