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New Rice Project in Myanmar

Rice being distributed in India
SRI system of rice
cultivation in Cambodia
When Jesus, the Son of man, praises the servant at the Last Judgment, saying: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me” (Matthew 25:35-36), he meant what he said! We are literally, not merely figuratively, to feed the hungry. In my home country of Myanmar, the fact of hunger is always with us.
 
In my later years of ministry, I’m still very active, busy and happy. I’m working on a new project, trying to help the farmers in the area learn about a new methods of growing rice, which is, of course, a staple in our daily diet here in Myanmar.
 
The Specialized Rice Intensification (SRI) system of growing rice that I learned from researching on the internet is going to be the method I am using. It has been tried out in many countries and particularly in India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos and even in Myanmar. 

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A Quiz Before Heaven

I remember an extraordinary experience that happened to me several years ago, in 2005. 
 
I have just returned from my visit to Soatanana, a village in the northwestern district of Antsalova. I was there, together with Fr. Henry and also Fr. Donatien Randriamalala with two Ursurline Sisters, to celebrate the annual gathering of delegates some 200 delegates from the seven district churches. The gathering and liturgies were well organized. There was plenty of time to meet with various groups, with serious input and final preparation for the reception of the sacraments. 
 
On the schedule for Saturday afternoon was a Bible Quiz. The seven churches each had to answer four biblical questions drawn at random from a basket. Five points were awarded for a correct answer, so a perfect score was 20. Some did rather well and the quiz captivated the attention of the 200 attendants. Delegates from Ambereny were up for their four questions. The second question was: “What is the first line of Simeon’s Canticle?” No one knew the answer so Sister quizzed the attendance. 

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Rewriting the Future: a New School in Ganda

Beginning ground preparation in 2010
for the new school

La Salette Sisters in Angola

Editor: The Sisters of La Salette were established in Angola on July 22, 1992 by Joaquin Hatewa, an Angolan La Salette and three other sisters: Valentina, Marianna and Gloria. In 1993 six candidates came to begin their religious training. During the war, the life of the missionaries was seriously jeopardized. In fact, the sisters were made prisoners by the rebels for several weeks.
 
The congregation of La Salette Sisters work with 10 communities spread throughout the country of Angola. They offer health care, provide training and education of children at risk and accept war orphans.

A New School for Ganda

Ganda is a municipality in the mountain province of Benguela. During the war the area was occupied by rebels and has been the scene of fighting between warring factions. The material and psychological legacy of 27 years of war weigh heavily on the whole social fabric. In Ganda there are no roads, no water or electricity network, as in many other parts of Angola.

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La Salette Formation in India

Old temple inside high rise
complex in Kerala
India is a mixture of the old and new. Ancient temples coexist with modem high-rises. Men were digging up old paving at the airport with hammer and chisels, but people in remote areas could be seen with cell phones. The incredible mix of old and new was perhaps most easily seen on the highways, where India-made trucks and cars shared the road with carts drawn by camels (in the North) or cows. One might infer from that last statement that the highway system is not like our own. Orderliness and efficiency do not seem to be prime cultural values. Work is labor-intensive, but in the second most populous country in the world, that works out just fine.
 
Our La Salette Region there has felt the impact of the new. The Regional House is in Bangalore, where the new area is named “Electronic City.” International high-tech companies are in the midst of building offices there. Property values have increased eight to ten times since the Regional House was purchased. When La Salette moved into the area, they were the sixth religious community to locate there. There are now three times as many. It appears that there will be a population boom of people working in high-tech industries and Catholic religious communities in this same area!

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Ash Wednesday in Madagascar

That year I began Lent in a singular fashion.
 
I went to Belo-sur-mer for Ash Wednesday. I felt bad for the Christians there – Fr. Yan is home on vacation in Poland – and figured I would make an effort to serve them as we launched into Lent. As the crow flies, Belo-sur-mer is only 45 miles from Morondava. In the dry season it takes about 4 to 5 hours by car – access is by a dirt track (we call it a road) that leads to two major rivers which are not spanned by bridges. You traverse seemingly endless salt flats and drive through miles of deep, fine sand. 
 

 
Fr. Yves Pleyber, M.S., standing
fifth from left, as a young missionary
in Betafo, Madagascar
But my trip down on Tuesday, Mardi Gras, was by sea. A company here – called Aquamen – has a speedboat with two 90 horsepower outboard motors, and I hitched a ride. The trip was good, even though I held my breath all the way – 180 hp and Belo-sur-mer in one hour! – bouncing over the waves and graciously taking in the ocean spray. I have gone to Belo-sur-mer hundreds of times over the years and that was the fastest I ever made the trip. 
 
Having traveled early in the morning I had all day to visit and meet with the people. We had a Mass at 5:30 PM after hearing confessions for 45 minutes. On Ash Wednesday we also had a good liturgy – except for the homily that was too long, all of 40 minutes. Over 100 people participated in the liturgy. After Mass there was a meeting in church to set up a visitation schedule because Fr. Yan – who regularly serves this place – will be in Poland for some time.

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A New Pentecost for Myanmar

Beginning of the National Workshop
I serve as the Myanmar National Coordinator for Biblical Pastoral Ministry. I am proud to say that the effect of last year’s national workshop entitled “New Pentecost” was a deep sense of the Spirit’s presence during the 2nd National Biblical Apostolate Workshop. It was held held on March 1-6, 2011 at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, ministered by the La Salette Missionaries in Chanthagone, Mandalay, Myanmar. 
 
When we began planning the 2011 event in September of 2009, we expected less than 100 official delegates and about two hundred extra people at the most to witness the Biblical Awareness Festival. However one week before the event, I was told that there were many more people than we first expected, arriving by trains, boats and buses. On the whole there were about 600 people who attended the Biblical Festival and an additional 110 official delegates including three Archbishops and five Bishops who came as resource persons and for other functions.

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Kinderhilfe Bethlehem: A Small Bridge for Peace

Fr. Ernst Schnydrig, M.S.,
born on Sept. 16, 1912,
professed on Sept. 9, 1932
died on April 15, 1978

Editor: Mike Ursini, a La Salette alumnus told me about this article about Fr. Ernst Schnydrig, M.S. on the web site of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, founded in 1926 by Pope Pius XI. This article shows the power and courage of one La Salette when confronted with need and injustice.

 
The year was 1952. As the bells of the Church of the Nativity rang out, calling Christians to the Christmas services, a Swiss priest, Father Ernst Schnydrig, M.S., stood watching a father bury his child in the muddy ground before his tent. A child had died of hunger near the very place where Jesus was born.
 
Profoundly moved by this incident, Father Schnydrig, who was working for Caritas Switzerland to help war refugees in Palestine, rented two rooms in a house and installed 14 cots to form the nucleus of what he confidently named the Caritas Baby Hospital.
 
The hospital grew gradually, with the help of a local doctor and a refugee worker from Switzerland. Meanwhile, Father Schnydrig began working for the German Caritas Association. Caritas was not in a position to run the hospital permanently, but Father Schnydrig was able to find church members in both Switzerland and Germany who were ready to form an association that would sponsor the children’s hospital and manage its legal, financial and organizational affairs. Thus Caritas Kinderhilfe Bethlehem, now known as Kinderhilfe (“children’s aid”) Bethlehem, was born in 1963, with its headquarters in Lucerne, Switzerland. Later, offices were established in Geneva and Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.

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Crocodile is King in Madagascar

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A giant Nile Crocodile

A fearsome predator in the bush country of Madagascar is the crocodile. Known as the Nile crocodile, its origins are in Africa where it is the largest reptile south of the Sahara. It can weigh as much as 2,100 lbs, thus growing to become about 4,000 times heavier than the 2 inch egg from which it was hatched. And from that 2 inch egg, it can grow to a length of 20 ft. Although its regular habitat is in fresh water, some regularly swim the Mozambique Channel from mainland Africa to Madagascar – some 400 miles. They need water to survive – be it in a river, a waterhole, a lake, a reservoir or a ditch – and can remain completely submerged for extended periods. During the dry season or a prolonged drought, they will travel over land as much as 15 miles to find water.

Unlike mammals and birds, a croc cannot regulate its body temperature. Crocs love the morning sun and, as if they were sunbathing, are often seen basking on the sandy banks of the rivers

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La Salette Ministry in Namibia

Untitled-1Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia, is situated on a plateau in the geographic center of a country half the size of Alaska. In 2002, acquiescing to the request of the Archbishop of Windhoek, La Salette Missionaries from Angola came to minister in Opuwo – a city of some 11,000 inhabitants in the northwestern region of Namibia called Koakoland. It neighbors on Angola.

The majority of Namibians live in pronounced poverty because of widespread unemployment and striking inequality of production distribution. With an elevated unemployment rate in the whole country – and nearing 50% in Opuwo – families live from hand-to-mouth off the land.

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A-stone-inishing Facts

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Fr. Maurice Tochon, M.S.,
welcomes pilgrims

Editor: Fr. Maurice Tochon, M.S. has worked at the La Salette Shrine in France for many years. During this time he has explored the geological history of the mountains surrounding the Shrine. His studies and learning, with the assistance of some professional geologists, have been well utilized in a weekly display and workshop, explaining the geological background of the site and the materials used in the building of the Basilica on the remote mountaintop where Mary appeared. Here he describes an imaginary meeting with a curious pilgrim on one of his Wednesday workshops.

Pilgrim: “What? ...learning about geology at the La Salette Shrine? People come to the Shrine in France to pray – not to learn about stones and rocks!”

Fr. Tochon: “And what was the Basilica – where you pray – built with?”
Pilgrim: “It's true! It is stone, not concrete ... Its age?”

Fr. Tochon: “Some of the stones used are anywhere from 150 years old to 25 million years. Some may even be over 200 million years old!”

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More Articles …

News from the La Salette Missionaries in Myanmar in March 2022

Myanmar can only be reborn through reconciliation, says Cardinal Bo

Thousands in Myanmar are on the move and millions are starving

Cardinal injured, priest dead after earthquake in Haiti

The patience of the Myanmar Church is being tested

New Liturgical Resources for the La Salette Feast

Myanmar Catholic priests, religious and laity fight against pandemic  

Haitian Bishops urge fraternal coexistence after the assassination

Persecution Worsens for Christians in Post-Coup Myanmar

Four Catholics killed in military attack on Myanmar Church