Leafing through his diary one is struck to see Pierre Chanel jotting down, almost daily, the words ‘Etude de la langue’. For Chanel, studying the language was not just one of his tasks during the three-and-a-half years he spent on Futuna. The four words hit the core of his missionary work. Not knowing the language he stood by, helplessly, seeing how people died, while he was unable to proclaim the message of the Good News. ‘Hardly had we got back to Poi than we were informed of the death of a young man with a terrible hunchback, who had died dangling from a rope in search of relief. Another cause for sorrow for a poor missionary who cannot yet preach the truths of salvation’. (2)
How did Chanel study the language? Thomas Boag, the English companion of Father Chanel and Brother Marie Nizier, knew Futunan. But Thom didn’t speak French and neither Pierre nor Marie Nizier spoke English. In the first months Chanel had to rely completely on contacts with the local people, but as Fr. Baty - - who had visited Chanel in May 1839 – notes, the ongoing wars made regular contact with the local people impossible and prevented Chanel from learning the language, which explained why the mission on Futuna had hardly made any progress. (3) Bataillon was able to help Chanel. The words ‘Study of the language ‘turn for the first time up in Chanel’s diary during his visit to Wallis from 25 March to 29 April 1838: ‘I was busy with Fr. Bataillon‘s notes, studying the language of Uvea and Futuna’.(4) From June 1838, on we find the expression ‘Study of the language’ more often. Chanel had obviously been able to get copies of at least some of Bataillon’s notes.
Bataillon himself had been in a more fortunate position than Chanel. When he arrived in Wallis he there met a Frenchman, Paul David, who had lived in Wallis for many years and who turned out to be of great help as translator. Bataillon could show Chanel elements of a dictionary, lists of current expressions and also the very first translations of prayers, liturgical texts and even a few newly-composed hymns. Fr. Mayère suspects that it was not the ordinary language which was most difficult for Chanel to master, but rather the explicitly religious language. ‘How to say the Christian mysteries through the poor words of every day life?’(5) Chanel was thus desperately in need of language. The only ones, who could help him, either directly or through Bataillon, were the Wallisians and the Futunans themselves. But he could not move as freely among the Futunans as he would have liked to do. Rare are notes like the one of 10 June 1838: ‘I went out for a short time and had a walk. I picked up what I could of the Futunan language... (6)
Looking at the linguistic challenge facing Chanel, I should like to make three comments.
First of all, evangelization starts obviously with the painful awareness that there is a communication gap and that ‘translation’ is needed to fill it.
Secondly, Chanel, by studying the language, did more than merely prepare the toolbox of evangelization. Philosophers tell us that language is not just a system of semantic tools used at man’s discretion. Language is of symbolic order in that it makes reality reveal itself to man. Man not only uses his language as a means of expression, prior to that he is shaped by his language. Paul Ricoeur refers to Humboldt who said that any language is a ‘Weltanschauung’. (7) If this is true, then Chanel did far more than just prepare his toolbox when he was studying the language. His profound desire for communication was already part of the message itself. His language study was already part of evangelization.
Thirdly, the only ones who could help Chanel and Bataillon in their studies were those to whom they were sent. In this respect a passage from a letter of Fr. Flaus, the founder of the mission in Bougainville, 60 years later, is interesting: He reported about the boys who helped him to build his house in Poporang: ‘I explained to them why we had come and I started to study their language. Their eyes nearly popped out of their heads when they watched me writing and even more so when they heard me reading aloud the words they themselves had spoken to me.’ (8) The Oceanians provided the words the missionaries needed to speak to them. Often it has been said that missionaries imposed their views on indigenous people. I am rather struck by how much Chanel was dependant on the locals, materially and even more so linguistically. The Futunans who offered their words were not only recipients but also donors, not only donors of external signs, but of a symbolic universe that touched divine reality itself.
The case of Fr. Chanel seems exceptional. And that is how the Society has always looked at him and at the Oceanian missions. Those who left for the missions and those who stayed in the old countries felt the same: the real challenge for Marists was in the remote regions of the world. Ordinary teaching to ordinary kids in an ordinary French provincial town: what did that amount to, compared to the heroic work of the missionaries in the remote Pacific islands? Still, Fr. Colin was not at all impressed by such rhetoric. To young Marists who looked down on educational ministry Colin had a clear answer: ‘And what do you think you are going to do then? Go on the foreign missions? I think a hundred times more highly of education of youth in our own countries, which are also pagan, than I do of the foreign missions’(10) Of course, this is also rhetoric, but the message is clear. The European situation basically contains challenges very similar to those in the Pacific. On another occasion Colin remarks in the same vein: ‘Let those who will stay in France, in Europe, console themselves. There is no need to go to Oceania to find suffering and danger. Are the majority of the Frenchmen better than the natives of Oceania? Have they any more faith? Better morals? Those of you who have traveled through France know well enough.’ (11) This is another way of saying that Europe needed to be re-evangelized to the same extent as Oceania needed to be evangelized. For Colin dechristianization is caused by a lack of instruction, ‘a bad education, in which everything concerning spiritual matters is neglected,’(12) but it is also a question of communication. ‘It is necessary to instruct, to present the truths of religion, to preach doctrine, but it must be done with great tact. Ours is a difficult age...(13)
For centuries European society, and with it the Church, was divided in two parts. There were those who were to tell and those who were to be told, priests and bishops clearly belonging to the former category. Marists needed to learn a new language to bring about communication with people who no longer accepted to be domineered, people jealous of their freedom and independence. Colin said it should be a precise, clear, unthreatening, un-ideological and simple language. Of course, he was greatly concerned about the obvious crisis of traditional faith. He spoke of the ‘sickness’ of his time, its ‘malady risen to the head’, its ‘pride’, its ‘madness’. But what this situation called for was not only an increase of instruction and preaching. At least as important was the question of how to preach: ‘We must cure this spirit [of pride] by our simplicity, by our humility. In the pulpit let us not seem domineering, or else we shall alienate people. Man is more jealous than ever of his freedom, and his independence.’(14)
We find these words in a collection of remarks made during the first months of 1845 on the subject of preaching. Colin was averse to pompous, emotional and extempore sermons. Messieurs, we must have a clear and precise style in preaching. That is what this century wants. Did not one of our confreres, living in a town of some four or five thousand inhabitants, receive a letter from a gentleman asking him to recommend some good books on religions.., and adding, “I cannot get used to the language of our priests”? Until now we have not been able to undertake writing, because of the difficulties of our early years. We were only children, but now we are adolescents. A different kind of language is needed!’(15) What was needed was a different kind of language, without ideological or political ballast, neither of conservative nor of progressive brand, a language as simple as the Gospel, gained by prayer and meditation and independent of press and opinion leaders.(16)
It would be a mistake to understand Colin’s plea for ‘a different kind of language ‘only as a matter of tactics, of strategy, of communication skills, prior to the evangelization in the proper sense of the word. The new approach of ‘winning souls by submitting ourselves to them’(17) was for Colin already part of re-evangelization itself. What he had to say about style, approach, language and behaviour of Marist missionaries and preachers revealed his understanding of the Gospel itself. It was all closely related to what he said in his constitutions, that Marists should seek only ‘the interests of Jesus and Mary’ and therefore ‘to avoid in their style of life and in their dealings with others, all that suggests display, ostentation, or a desire for attention; loving to be unknown and subject to all, without deceit or cunning’.(18)
Of course neither Colin nor Chanel ever considered evangelization as a two-way traffic the way we do. They were as little familiar with ‘dialogue’ and ‘inculturation ‘as they were with ‘microsoft’. But our founder was very concerned about meeting the communicative needs of nineteenth century Europeans. Therefore he wanted Marists to use a clear, unostentatious, simple, un-ideological and intellectually coherent language. In a certain sense the new generations of Europe taught the Marists how the Gospel should be preached. That is why Colin encouraged missionaries everywhere to collect souls from where they had arrived, without prejudice and with a great trust in what God’s grace was able to work in the hearts of people.
Whatever has changed in the past two centuries, the basic questions are still ours. Who are the Europeans of today? I shall present only a few of the characteristics that I find in the European Values Studies, notably the study ‘Religion in Secularizing Society’ of 2003. (19) This study contains a number of cross-national analyses of Europe’s patterns of religious and moral orientations, mainly based on the 1990 European Values Study survey data.
- First of all, and this will surprise nobody, with respect to religious beliefs and signs of personal religiosity, the decline in religious awareness is rather general, although Iceland in the north and Italy in the south are interesting exceptions. The Irish remain the most religious people, whereas both in 1981 and 1990, the French and the Danish are the least religious people.(20) Similarly in almost all countries a decline can be noted in the numbers of people who say that the church gives adequate answers to various issues, and it seems that this, together with the declining levels of church attendance, indicate a decline of the institutions of religion.(21)
- Secondly there is no reason to simply write off religion in Europe. Religion in Europe is changing profoundly but it is not disappearing: As a matter of fact, ‘the religious decline does not imply that religiosity has disappeared or that people have turned into disbelievers. In most countries, the number of people who do not believe in God or any sort of spirit or life force ranges from around 20% in Denmark and Sweden to less than 1% in Ireland. Large majorities of Western populations thus believe in “something” although the belief in a personal God has decreased, that is the traditional view of God has declined in popularity.(22) This is not to say that no evangelization is needed, but that evangelization in Europe finds some starting points in a certain religious sensibility.
- However, and this is the third feature, in spite of all the talk about the new religious quests of Europeans, there is no reason either to be over-optimistic with respect to the personal religiosity of Europeans. If we look at the impact religion has on the way people shape their lives, it has to be said that secularization today is no longer limited to the public domain, but has largely penetrated personal and family life. The influence of the churches’ views on family life is rapidly dwindling. Religion in Europe seems to have little ascendance over life in general, except for the core members.(23)
- Fourthly, there is more at stake than ‘only’ a change from formal to unofficial religion. Even if it is it is undoubtedly true that there is a genuine and at times increasing interest among the younger generations in alternative religiosity, ‘the starting level of their religiosity is so low that they will never reach the levels of religiosity of the older generations. In other words, even unofficial religiosity is on the wane at macro level, but increases at the individual level as people get older.(24) This induces the authors of the European Values Studies to say that ‘primary religious socialization is more important than the turn to piousness as people get old and frail’ and ‘that the religious decline seems to begin with a lack of primary religious socialization and primary religious role-models’(25) Father Colin obviously had a strong point when he underlined the importance of education for the evangelization of European youth.
- Finally, in spite of what many Church leaders like to repeat, there is no reason to consider present-day Europeans as people who, spiritually or morally, feel disoriented or in despair. The European Values Studies speak of the symbolic universe of those who are remote from traditional religious affiliation: ‘A rejection of religion goes hand in hand with clear ethical, social and political values that combine left-wing humanism, cultural liberalism, anti-authoritarianism and participatory will.’(26) To say that Europeans have to opt between Christianity and nihilism, is an assertion that is hard to substantiate and one that shuts the door to dialogue.
When I prepared this talk I read again the texts of the VI Symposium of European Bishops on ‘Secularization and Evangelization in Europe today ‘which was held, almost 20 years ago, in Rome in October 1985. I also read the Apostolic Exhortation ‘Ecclesia in Europe ‘ of John Paul II dated 28 June 2003. Neither Cardinal Danneels in his key note address of the 1985 Symposium nor the Pope in his concluding speech mentioned the word ‘dialogue’ even once. This in spite of ‘Gaudium et Spes ‘that 20 years before had passionately called for dialogue by Christians, not only among themselves, not only with Jews and Muslims and other believers, but also with ‘those who respect outstanding human values without realizing who the author of those values is, as well as those who oppose the Church and persecute it in various ways’, all this ‘because God the Father is the beginning and the end of all things and we are all called to be brothers’. (27)
In Ecclesia in Europa ‘, the apostolic exhortation of 2003, Pope John Paul ll emphasizes the growing need for ecumenical cooperation and inter-religious dialogue, especially with Jews and Muslims. (28) Dialogue with unbelievers on the other hand tends to be handled with kid gloves, In 1985 it was Cardinal Basil Hume of Westminster who came forward with a positive perspective of evangelization, starting from ‘dialogue’, ‘co-responsibility’ and ‘diakonia’. In doing so he provided the bishops with basic elements of a dictionary of evangelization for our time. I find his speech still most relevant for our topic.
I first call your attention to the word ‘dialogue’. Cardinal Hume says that whoever believes that God has created man after his image, necessarily will be open to dialogue with everybody, since every human being is an echo of God and able to tell us something about God. Therefore dialogue is needed. Cardinal Hume, undoubtedly inspired by Paul Vl’s Encyclical ‘Ecciesiam Suam ‘— still, today, a most inspiring document for European Christians --, speaks about the need for dialogue within the Church, with people of other Churches, with people of other religions and with every human being and human society as such. (29) I should like to link what the European Values Studies say about ‘anti-authoritarianism’, to what Hume says about ‘dialogue’. Anti-authoritarianism sounds threatening to many Christian ears. However, it all depends on where you look in the Gospel and Church tradition. After all, we are followers of somebody who said to his disciples that nobody should be called ‘Father’, since they had only one Father, in heaven, that nobody should be called ‘Rabbi’, since they had only one Master and they were all brothers and that nobody should be called ‘Teacher’, since they had only one Teacher, the Christ. (30)
The second word of importance for our evangelization vocabulary is the word ‘co-responsibility’. Cardinal Hume shows that today no Christian community is attractive which does not allow for co-responsibility and partnership at the various levels, parish, deanery, diocese, national conferences of bishops and world-wide Church. Quite a number of Christians will object that the Church is not a co-partnership, but a hierarchical society founded on the Word from on high. I would rather say, precisely because the Church belongs to Christ and to Him alone, nobody can exclude others from carrying responsibility for the Church of Christ. What about St. Paul affirming that ‘to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good’(31) and that ‘to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it?’(32) I should like to link what the European Values Studies say about ‘Participatory will’ to what Hume says about ‘co-responsibility’ as a basic Gospel value. ‘Participatory will’ still sounds threatening to many. Time and again we are assured that the Church never was meant to be a ‘democracy’. But was it perhaps meant to be a ‘monarchy’?
The word ‘diakonia’, or more simply ‘practical service ‘is the third word mentioned by Cardinal Hume. Here again, Christians in Europe are not preaching in a vacuum. Many people, that is Hume’s message, are longing for peace and communion, fighting for justice and resisting discrimination and marginalization. Many are increasingly concerned about the future of our planet and of future generations. People who dedicate their lives to bringing about unity, justice and peace implement an integral part of the Gospel.(33) I should like to link what Hume says about ‘service’, to the ‘left-wing humanism’ mentioned in the European Values Studies as part of the symbolic universe of those who are most removed from Christian tradition. ‘Left-wing humanism’ doesn’t sound reassuring to most of the core members of the Church, but why not recognize that sparks of the Spirit might have gone beyond the boundaries of the Church to kindle the passion for justice and peace which we find in that part of the European tradition called ‘social humanism’?
Of course other words should be added as elements for a European evangelization vocabulary. ‘Personalism’ plays a crucial role in European culture, even if it is often misunderstood as ‘individualism’. ‘Authenticity’, faithfulness to the inner self of the human being, against various forms of social control, is a commonly shared value, even if the difference between the desire for ‘authenticity’ and narcissistic self-centeredness at times is overlooked. Authenticity touches the heart of the Gospel of Jesus, who frankly used to denounce hypocritical behavior and social control in the areas of prayer, fasting and alms-giving. (34) I should like to link this desire for authenticity to what the European Values Studies call the value of ‘cultural liberalism’.
Cardinal Hume reaches the conclusion that there is in Europe a real base for evangelization in dialogue, not only with adherents of other religions, but also with those whom we used to call the ‘unbelievers’. ‘In spite of the obvious secularization it is absolutely clear that there remains in the heart of every individual an open space which only God can fill. There is a religious instinct, a hunger of God, which is often not recognized and which at times seeks satisfaction in all kind of eccentric wanderings. Here we find continuously a possibility of direct evangelization, of a dialogue about things concerning God’ (35)
1. Marist Mission Europe starts with learning languages. Nobody is too old for it. In Europe many women and men over 60 besiege adult education centers to study languages in order to watch foreign TV channels, to enjoy literature or just to make the most of their holiday. We need a minimum of ambition for the sake of Marist Mission Europe.
2. Proclaiming the Gospel in the poverty of Yaoundé, Auki, Callao or Davao entails special hardships. Proclaiming the Gospel in Toulon, Enschede or Brescia involves other hardships and perhaps even more severe ones.
3. Not unlike Fr. Chanel on Futuna, we need those to whom we are sent, to find the right language. That is why we need to be attentive to the symbolic value-universe of the average European of today.
4. How we proclaim the Gospel (‘the medium’) is in some way or another part of the Gospel (‘the message ‘).
5. Marist tradition seems well suited to prepare ourselves for evangelization in dialogue with people removed from Christian tradition, wherever we meet them in parishes, schools, chaplaincies and centers of spiritual encounter and dialogue.
6. The intuition of Fr. Colin that education is one of the most crucial settings for evangelization, is still of utmost relevance. All those who work in education should be wholeheartedly supported.
I finish by inviting you to make your own the prayer to Mary, the Mother of Hope which concludes ‘Ecclesia in Europe ‘and begins as follows:
Mary, Mother of hope,
accompany us on our journey!
Teach us to proclaim the living God;
help us to bear witness to Jesus,
the one Savior;
make us kindly towards our neighbors,
welcoming to the needy,
concerned for justice,
impassioned builders of a more just world;
intercede for us
as we carry out our work in history,
certain that the Father’s plan will be fulfilled.
Dawn of a new world,
show yourself the Mother of hope
and watch over us!
Watch over the Church in Europe:
may she be transparently open to the Gospel;
of communion;
may she carry out fully her mission
of proclaiming, celebrating and serving
the Gospel of hope
Jan Hulshof sm.
Marist Mission Europe
La Neyliere
July 2004
(1) Ad Gentes, 26
(2) Diary 27 May 1838, in: Ever your Poor Brother. Peter Chanel, Surviving Letters and Futuna Journal, texts translated and presented by William Joseph Stuart & Anthony Ward, Rome 1991,269
(3) Letter of Fr. Baty of 18 June 1839, quoted by Charles Girard, Pierre Chanel, missionnaire mariste, in:SaintPierre Chanel, Exposés présentés lors desjournées d’étude des 16-l8juin 2003, a l’occasion du bicentenaire de sa naissance, Saint Augustin, 2004, p. 148. Bataillon who visited Chanel on the sameoccasion felt the same: ‘Car outre qu ‘die [Ia guerre] absorboit leurprincipale attention, elle rendoit leurs rapport.s avec liii [Chanel] beaucoup plus rares et conséquemment / ‘étude de la langue en souffroit cons idérablement. Aussi, lorsque nous avons été a Foutouna, lep(ère) Chanel ne possédoitpas encore suffIsamment Ia langue pour annoncer solennellement la parole de Dieu. Le roi et ses sugets étoient tous disposes a / ‘entendre, mais ii ne pouvoit encore assez suffisamment sefaire comprendre. C ‘étoit là pour/ui toute sapeine etson regret.’
(4) 3 April 1838, in: Ever your Poor Brother, 255
(5) Père Chanel. Je vous écris, Paris 1994, 63
(6) Ever your Poor Brother, p. 273
(7) Paul Ricoeur, Philosophic du Langage, in: Ecyclopedia Universalis, Volume 9 (1980), 780
(8) Letter of September 1899
(9) A FounderSpeaks, 99,4
(10) Ibid., 172,19
(11) Ibid., 117,8
(12) lbid., 142,2
(13) Ibid., 142,2
(14) Ibid., 99,1
(15) Ibid., 99,4.,with a slight change in the translation
(16) Ibid., 92,6
(17) Ibid., 102,33
(18) Const., 228 (Colin Const., 50)
(19) Religion in Secularizing Society. The Europeans ‘Religion at the End of the 20th Century, edited by Loek Halman & Ole Riis, Leiden-Boston 2003
(20) Ibid 10ff.
(21) Ibid., 11
(22) Ibid. 12. Italy is mentioned as an interesting exception of an increased religious awareness (p. 10).
(23) Karel Dobbelaere, Josette Gevers & Loek Halman, Religion and the Family, in: Loek Halman & Ole Riis, ibid. 90
(24) Halman & Ole Riis, Contemporary European Discourses on Religion and Morality, ibid., 11
(25) Ibid., 11
(26) Piene Bréchon, Integration into Catholicism and Protestantism in Europe: The impact on Moral and Political Values, in: Lock Halman & Ole Riis, ibid. 14 0
(27) Gaudium et Spes, 92. Cf. also the document ‘Humanae Personae Dignitatem ‘(1968), published by the Secretariat for Unbelievers (the Secretariat for Unbelievers established by Paul VI in 1965 became later the Pontifical Council for the Dialogue with Unbelievers, which was integrated in the Pontifical Council for Culture in 1993 by John Paul II).
(28) Ecclesia in Europa, 54-5 7
(29) Synthese et signes d ‘espérance. Allocution finale du cardinal Basil Hume, archevêque de Westminster,
in: La Documentation Catholique 67 —LXXII-- [1985], 1081
(30) Mt, 23,8-12
(31) ICor, 12,7
(32) Eph, 4,7
(33) Ibid., 1082
(34) Mt,6,I-18
(35) La Documentation Catholique, ibid., 1082
