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MARION BRESILLAC SOUVENIRS VOL 3 LE JOURNAL D'UN MISSIONNAIRE (1849 - 1854) S.M.A. 1991 Cum permissu superiorum Patrick J. Harrington, S.M.A., Superior General, Rome, 25th June, 1991 French edition prepared by an S.M.A. team Put into present-day English by Bob Hales, S.M.A The present digital edition was prepared with the kind assistance of Dolores McCrystal and Joan Quinn. Cover design by Ann McCarthy, Ballinadee PART I – THE LAST FlVE YEARS IN INDIA 1849 – Outnumbered 1041 1850 - Fight for a Solution or just get out? 1069 1851 - Ball now in Rome’s court. Ceylon 1095 1852 - Becoming morally untenable 1159 1853 - On the way out 1179 PART II - JOURNEY TO ROME AND PARIS 1209 Guide to Chapters and Sections 1439 FOREWORD Souvenirs 1 and 2 are based on Marion Bresillac's journal or his personal diary, but they include many longish reflections and letters added in 1855 when he was preparing his Indian memoirs for publication. (They also exclude some remarks which he considered too rough to print, or maybe unfair). The editing and amplifying job stopped suddenly when he had got to the last entry for 1848... Africa beckoned. And the next thing we hear, he is busy founding a new society (S.M.A.) and preparing to go to Dahomey. (The blue Diary 1856-1859 covers that period). Obviously, he had not much time to work on his journal after that. So what we have here in Souvenirs 3 is his "raw" Missionary Journal (1849-1854) without subtraction or addition. To me it reads more quickly and better for that, because his style, I think, got very tangled sometimes when he sat down and consciously improved it for the reading public. This now purely-personal expression of his immediate thoughts and feelings (to God or to himself) reads more naturally and vividly than a "public" effort might be. So I have some hope that Souvenirs 3 will be enjoyed even more than I and 2. Bob Hales, S.M.A. Translator PART I THE LAST FIVE YEARS IN INDIA (p 1041) 1849 OUTNUMBERED Working and Waiting in Pondicherry. Charbonnaux admired the Retreat; but Contradicted it in the Synod. Mouse. Pondicherry, 1st January 1849 I did not feel at all like making New Year courtesy calls in Pondicherry, or receiving any. The Europeans never had much time for me. The [European] Prefect Apostolic seems to be rather indisposed towards the Mission at the moment (I don't know why) and so he was barely polite. I was also quite content to miss any New Year visits or "compliments" from the leading Indians. So, for the whole day, I kept imprisoned in my room. Thus the year began for me with a day of deep Retreat. May 1849 be spent totally for God, in the service of the holy Catholic Church! 31st January Throughout all this month, I have been extremely busy. Did I perchance achieve any good? Extremely doubtful. At first I had some hope that our meetings in the [Preparatory] Commission and Council [for the Synod] were actually going to succeed in doing something. That hope is now greatly diminished. The Synod has by now taken place. But, after the Opening Ceremony in the church (which was very impressive) it achieved almost nothing at all. The mountain heaved and groaned, and gave birth to a tiny mouse. Then we had a [Society] Council. This notably failed to calm the minds and consciences of all the missionaries. The two meetings were preceded by a Retreat. I was the (p 1042) preacher. I tried my best to inculcate some of the virtues and attitudes we so badly need. The Retreat seemed to make quite an impression. And it might have made some lasting contribution, too, if it wasn't publicly contradicted, almost immediately! It was hardly over when Bishop Charbonnaux launched into some highly unfortunate speeches, in the Synod. With his usual recklessness (or his over-emotional vigour) he managed to knock down just about everything I had been trying to build up. And yet at first he was so taken by my Retreat that he asked permission to copy down all my talks! Afterwards, he couldn't even see that his speeches were destroying all the effect of my preaching. The missionaries are going back to their stations [after the Synod] a little less agitated and somewhat less angry than before, no doubt. But they are still not calm enough, not united enough, not clear enough about their present pastoral duty. Certainly not sufficiently clear to ensure that the good work will now go on smoothly, unimpeded by blatant contradictions or by other negative elements. Bishop Bonnand would like to keep me here a little longer [to try and sort out the caste (etc) situation]. But it would obviously be a waste of his time [and mine]. Everybody is tired [of meetings]. It is time to go. I have got a bullock-cart constructed [for my return journey]. And I am now only waiting for the arrival of our bullock team from Karumattampatty. Luquet deteriorating. Pacreau leaving. Mini-retreat to College. 9 February I have seen several letters from Bishop Luquet, written to various confreres and to Bishop Bonnand. Truly, this dear friend of mine forgets himself [forgets all his common sense]. The letters are full of anger and irritation; and these emotions cannot easily be combined with wisdom or prudence. They made painful reading. (p 1043) I have written to him about this1. But I fear he will not take my advice very well. 18th February Fr Pacreau seems to be going from bad to worse. He is asking [to leave Coimbatore] and go back to Pondicherry [Vicariate] or else 1 AMA 2F6 pp 240-242. There are many other footnotes and references in the French edition, not repeated here. By the way, the Headings and sub-headings are invented. Square brackets indicate [completions] and [explanations]. -- Tr. to Europe. I am writing to him, to try to encourage and console him. But, with a head like his, I fear, anything can happen. 5th March I am still here, waiting for the bullocks to be sent down by Fr de Gelis. In the meantime, Fr Fages asked me to give a short Retreat at the Colonial College. I was happy to do so. And God in his goodness gave me some happy results there. I am going to leave within a few days, along with [my new man] Fr Cornevin, and also with Fr Pouplin [of Pondicherry Vicariate]. He is still unwell, and is going to try if the cool air of Ootacamund can help. En route. No win until Judgment Day. Leroux's doubts. Dodged. Oludupet, 12th March Here we are, out of Pondicherry at last. My heart is still heavy, my eyes inclined to be tearful. Not because I am sorry to be leaving that city, where so many miserable disagreements are still blocking all the progress we could be making. Rather, because I did not manage to achieve anything while I was there; not even the slight changes which I considered so important (almost (p 1044) essential) for ensuring some minimal progress (very small indeed) at this crucial time. And so it goes on. The years go by. The work continues [without a plan] without any sign of lasting progress, of real [fundamental] improvement in the pitiable state of Religion in India. No effort ever seems to succeed, to achieve that [radical] kind of improvement. Still, there are some men of brave heart and clear intelligence, able to see what can and what should be done. But either they die, or they are just not listened to. The only views that are actually heard (in practice anyway) are the timid proposals suggested by "prudence" to cautious men, wise enough in their own way, but without any global vision, without any glimmer of foresight into the future. I suppose that's how it has to be, O my God, so that the moment of Grace may not arrive too soon, before its own due time. And, in the meantime, the men of desire [the men of goodwill with fire in their hearts] can always maintain the personal merit of their burning charity. Those great desires, that ardent charity, always seem in practice to result in nothing. Yet, even now, they may really be having their own hidden saving effect, known to You alone, Lord, only to be revealed at the End, before the astonished gaze of humanity. Ha! I think I can see it now, why the Day of Judgment is so necessary after all! How right and fitting it will be, for the infinite Justice of God, to manifest His rightness even to the good men who ignored it so blindly here below. To show them clearly, at last, what real goodwill, what wisdom, what perfection, what true charity was contained in that policy which they rejected, and in that human heart which they also rejected, and discouraged, and broke! In the man they called "an eccentric, a reckless visionary, a mere dreamer"! Yes indeed, the just men will also need the Day of Judgment, maybe even more than the sinners. It is only right that the unrecognized just man should at last be justified before all the just, before those who so constantly misunderstood him, and sometimes even persecuted him, blindly, out of their own invincibly erroneous conscience!(p 1045) [We had a long talk] but we parted rather sadly. His main torment now is his troubled conscience.