Reflections on a visit to parish
A recent trip to a rural African parish to spend time with women, children and parish groups was a revelation of sorts for Maritsa Techioli, a parishioner at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Redwood City.
Techioli and another Mt. Carmel parishioner, Maritza Longland, traveled with Father Paulinus Mangesho, Mt. Carmel’s parochial vicar, to the priest’s hometown parish in Kiriani, near Mt. Kilimanjaro. The two parishioners are in the vanguard of a sister parish initiative focusing on spirituality rather than on material aid, which is the more common connection when a financially wealthy parish reaches out to one that has great need.
What impressed Techioli was the abundance of spiritual wealth among the people of drought-stricken St. Francis Xavier Parish in the Diocese of Moshi. She related an encounter with 80 children preparing to receive their First Communion this Christmas.
“You should see their faces – happy as ever,” she said in an interview at Mt. Carmel. “It was surprising to me that these kids really walk long distances, to learn about loving Jesus and what it is to take First Communion. You should see some of land. A third factor is the high level of education of Tanzanians, who are schooled under a British system, learn 11 subjects in a year of elementary school and are worldly enough at a young age to know what the term Golden Gate means.
Father Mangesho noted that Tanzanian culture is personal, and the Church embodies this. Even in a large congregation Mass, everyone knows everyone else, and if there is a new member people take time to learn the newcomer’s story and ask if there is anything that person needs. At the same time, if a parish member does not show up for Mass, people reach out to see if the absent member needs help.
Parents teach their children to put an offering in the collection basket, not only to support the Church now but also to develop the habit of supporting it in future generations. The children, when they are married, will pass on the practice to their children.
Church music in Tanzania is integrated with each Sunday’s readings, so that throughout the liturgy the assembly is reminded of the Word. People also look forward to going to Mass because they like to sing.
The difference between singing and listening is a point Father Mangesho looks forward to sharing more with the Mt. Carmel community as the sister parish relationship develops. He plans to speak to the parish youth group and to grades six through eight in the parish school.
Father Mangesho, a member of the Apostolic Life Community of Priests, also known as the Holy Spirit Fathers, who has been assigned to parish work in the Archdiocese of San Francisco since 1999, sees music as a path to full pews and lifelong faith formation. That is how it is in his home parish. “They should make children love to go church more, to have the kind of music they really love and sing themselves – not listen, but sing,” he said. “That’s what we do. They go to church and say, ‘I’m going to sing today.”’
Techioli said she was impressed with the role of the parish women’s club and members’ interactions with the pastor to form responsible children.
“They really take their role very seriously,” she said. “They’re involved with the kids. Young mothers, young fathers – their role is to see that these young parents have good energy and a positive disposition to teach their youngsters to be good citizens. And these kids, what is amazing to me is that at an early age they have big responsibilities, like taking care of their siblings, making sure they go to church every Sunday.”
Techioli and Longland shared their experiences with other parishioners at a presentation at Mt. Carmel. The reaction was positive and led to plans for more talks on how the two parishes can help one another.
“My focus was to find out their thing, their stuff, how do they do it,” Techioli said. “ They have each other. They are poor in their food, they are happy in other ways. It’s also true that they don’t know the difference. They’re just happy the way they are. That touched me a lot. It’s something all of us need to be aware of and concerned about.”
Mt. Carmel Pastor Father John Balleza agreed.
“What I sense is they take a personal responsibility for one another,” he said. “If anything, that’s the lesson we need to learn – to take on that personal responsibility. If we see somebody doing something that’s not quite right, we need to draw them back in. That’s what I hear Father Paulinus saying. And we don’t do that. For example, when we have a concern in the community we might express that but we don’t go and try to draw that person back in personally.”
The St. Francis Xavier parishioners, for their part, cannot afford to visit Mt. Carmel but always have the door open for guests.
By Rick DelVecchio
From November 13, 2009 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
