We Honour Him by Our Deeds

V. Santosh

April 2007

There are moments in life we fondly reminisce saying,

‘For oft when on my couch I lay,

In vacant or in pensive mood’ I recall that moment when…’

There are a few others, which we wish were better deleted from our memory but they invariably keep nagging us. There are still others, which compel us to do something; something that would help alleviate the pains of the people involved in the incident.

Commemorating, as we are, in 2007, the birth centenary of our illustrious General, Fr Pedro Arrupe, we cannot but recall incidents that compelled him to do something. He himself was a refugee of sorts when he, along with other Jesuits, was expelled from Spain in February 1932; in all 350 persons stayed in Marneffe, in a temporary shelter. His experience in Japan after the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima in August 1945 and the misery of the ‘boat people’ fleeing from Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia strongly influenced him. All these and many more similar incidents shook him and the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) was his response to the plight of the refugees.

Fr Arrupe’s commitment to the cause of refugees is portrayed by an incident that Sr Cecily FMM narrated to us, Jesuit novices. It so happened that a year after the JRS was founded in 1980, demand rose manifold and there was a personnel crunch. Fr Arrupe approached other Congregations for support. Many of the Europe-based Congregations were themselves facing the crisis of dwindling vocations; the Congregation of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (FMM) was no exception. So, when Fr Arrupe asked for personnel support the General of the FMM was procrastinating. And sometime later Fr Arrupe was bedridden and she went to pay a visit to the ailing Jesuit. Even when he was seriously bedridden, he remembered his request for personnel. The General of the FMM was deeply moved and she extended support and the healthy collaboration continued for years after that. This incident only reiterates his commitment to the cause. (Allow me a digression, Sr Cecily herself was a volunteer in the JRS in Africa. This incident also explicitly shows the need for more hands that are committed to this cause and more vocations, so…)

All these happened in the early 1980s and JRS has now completed its silver jubilee but the problem still continues and the converse has increased manifold: Israel – Palestine, Cambodia, Laos, Chechnya, Bosnia – Herzegovina , many African countries, Afghanistan, Iraq, … are reeling under feuds and wars leaving millions of people abandoned; Sri Lanka in not far behind.

It is well known that the ceasefire agreement signed in 2002 between the Sri Lankan Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) restored normalcy in the island nation till 2006. But ever since the new Prime Minister, Mahindra Rajapakse, took over the mantle of running the Government the ceasefire slowly waned. Violence rocks the Tamil majority areas of North and East Sri Lanka. The right to life of the Tamils is under threat; civilian lives are at the mercy of the State’s camouflaged army personnel.

Listed below are some of the atrocities of the Government of Sri Lanka

June 18, 2006 at Pesalai (near Mannar): 40 Tamil boats were burnt; more than 5 people were killed in an attack on people who had taken refuge inside a church.

August 13, 2006 in Kates Island (near Jaffna): Sri Lankan army attacked St. Philip Mary’s Church killing 15 and injuring 20 civilians.

August 14, 2006 at Senjolai (Mullai Theevu): Sri Lankan air force bombed an orphanage killing 61 girl students, injuring 160 others.

Between April and August 2006, 2.05 lakh people fled from their homes in Jaffna alone.

For months together the A-9 highway, the only road linking Jaffna, Wanni and the south of Sri Lanka has been unilaterally closed by the government denying movement of essential commodities like food, medicine, etc. into Jaffna. A complete economic embargo has been imposed on these areas.

The consequences of these events need no mention. Humanitarian efforts of NGOs like the Jesuit Resource Centre and Loyola Computer Literacy Centre are also paralysed because of the Government’s stand.

In spite of all that has happened so far, the international community has preferred to be mute spectators, be it the Asian superpowers - China and India or the self-proclaimed leader of the world, the United States of America. In this year when we commemorate the birth centenary of Fr Pedro Arrupe, the brain and heart behind JRS, let us lobby to strengthen international pressure on the Sri Lankan Government to put an end to its inhuman way of dealing with the Tamil minorities. Let us at least conscientise the international civil society on the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, if we are not directly able to alleviate the sufferings of the people. Remember the motto of the JRS – assistance, accompaniment and ADVOCACY.

For it is by our deeds that we honour Fr Arrupe!