Brazil’s Missionary The CEO visited Father Leising in Rio de Janerio last year, Edges is happy to quote the article recently published in Western New York Catholic newspaper. “He’s a South American missionary with a vision for a new way of being Church in today’s world. For more than 50 years, Father Edmund N Leising, OMI, has been living in the slums of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, helping people learn the skills to organise day-care centres and small enterprises to improve their lives. While many endorse the call to care for the poor, the real challenge is finding a method to accomplish the task. Father Leising was only 26 when he went to Brazil in 1946. He arrived in Rio de Janeiro only a few months after ordination and met some of the world’s most heart-wrenching poverty. He responded with a vision and a plan that continues to serve as a successful model for international relief organisations and local organisers. He found that poverty could be reduced through the co-operation of churches and agencies. He saw that connecting churches and agencies in the poorest slums would lead to a new socio-economic community which, when inter related with middles and upper classes, could close the gap between the rich and the poor. It inspired the creation of Lockport VOICE, a faith-based community organisation. Chris Halverson, from St Mary’s Parish, Lockport, who worked with Father Leising for three years in Brazil, blended his Brazilian liberation movement with VOICE-Buffalo’s style of community organising and incorporated as Lockport VOICE. "The Gospel tells us to reach out to the poor," Father Leising said. "This is a problem throughout the world. The idea of mission is to put pressure on the social structures of our society and guarantee that every person can obtain the fulfilment of his or her basic needs without becoming a beggar." His ministry has done that. It helps people recover their self-esteem by learning new skills to earn money themselves. It is based on the idea that if you give a man a fish, he eats for a day; if you teach him to fish, he eats for a lifetime. Father Leising has taught millions of Brazilians life skills and given them identity, hope and an ability to earn an income. His goal is to help people become self-sufficient and not dependent on charity or handouts, which he seams as demeaning to them. "The whole idea is to help people feel proud of themselves," he said. "It’s got to come from within. When you get people to do something they feel good about, something as simple as sewing something they can sell, you have helped them feel better about themselves. The real problem in the world is not people. They’re the victims of our institutions, whether civil, church, economical or political. It’s the system, the structures that inhibit the people." When he was first assigned to St Sebastian’s Parish, Villa Cruz, in the city of Pocos de Caldas, Brazil. Father Leising lived in the home of a wealthy landowner and was given a horse to minister to plantation workers. When he saw the desperate poverty of the people against the wealth of the landowner, he couldn’t live in the landowners home. "I moved out and lived on my horse among the people," said Father Leising. He said in South America the poor and the wealthy live in the same community, which makes it impossible not to see the desperate living conditions of the poor. In the United States, the wealthy and poor are segregated by suburban development and urban sprawl, making the inner city poor invisible to the suburban middle and upper classes. In both cases Father Leising said that the poorest of the poor are invisible to the churches. "The poor feel ashamed to come to church," Father Leising said. "In the United States, we give things to the poor; we don’t live with them. In Brazil we live with them and I often celebrate Mass in their homes. We need to do what the Lord did. He lived with the people" By Father Leising’s living with the people and sharing the education and skills necessary for employment, their pride is restored which helps them find their way out of poverty and despair. Father Leising said 63 percent of the people in Brazil are dirt poor. 25 percent are middle class and only 10-12 percent are very rich. He said the vast majority of the poor have no identity! He said, “We need to look at a mission in our world today though a new lens. Religions are beginning to see themselves as friends, allies and members of the same family, saved by death or Christ, not as adversities or as competitors.”” |
