CABRA DOMINICANS, LATIN AMERICA AND VATICAN II

My life as a Dominican began with the opening of the second Vatican Council in October

1962 when I entered the Congregation as a postulant. On our first day in Kerdiffstown, we,

the new postulants, together with all the community, watched the opening of the Council

on a TV set which had been rented for the occasion. As a teenager I had watched with

interest and joy the election of  Pope John the XXIII on my 14th brthday and in May 1962

the canonisation of  the Dominican, Martin de Porres, by  good Pope John.

My three years of initial formation were accompanied by the events of the Council and the

inspiring documents  which were promulagated by it. The changes in the Liturgy were being

introduced and while gregorian chant was still practiced diligently in Kerdiffstown so too

were the vernacular readings, reponses and Eucharistic rites.

During my student years at UCD, religious life was adapting to change and I made my first

visit home to see my family during that time. I was always interested in mission overseas

and in 1973 I volunteered to go to Argentina. However this did not become a reality until

1977. The intervening years I spent in Eccles St where renewal and daptation of Religious

Life was being implemented. Nearby in Dominick Street I attended excellent lectures on

the Vatican Council Documents and on religious life given by Austin Flannery and others.

Mission to Argentina

The mission in Argentina  was begun in 1968 by the community of Taylor’s Hill

Galway, which was an still an autonomous community under the Irish Province of

Dominican Friars . They were asked to run a Catholic School situated in the parish of Santa

Cruz, in Buenos Aires. When the Taylor’s Hill community became part of the Congregration

it was decided to keep on the mission in Buenos Aires with a view to expanding it. The

Dominican Friars had preceded the Sisters to Argentina by founding a mission in Recreo,

Catamarca in 1965 and in Paraná 1967.

In 1975,  2 sisters, Sr Urban Rodgers and Sr Veronica Rafferty were to move from Buenos

Aires to start a community in Paraná.

Influence of Vatican II

Lumen Gentium and Gaudium et Spes gave much inspiration to the Church in Latin

America. A rather conservative hierarchy  in Argentina, a country of great political

instability, was slow to implement changes. Between 1970 and 1983 there had been no

fewer than 10 presidents, some lasting only months at a time.  From 1976 to 1983 the

military were in power.  But some bishops had  met regularly with their Latin American

brothers during the Council, to discuss an option for the poor in the Church. This group

included,  Helder Camara and Argentine bishops such as Alberto Devoto and Enrique

Angelli, the latter later killed by the military in 1976.  About 40 of these Conciliar fathers

celebrated the Eucharist  together in the Catacombs of Santa Domitila in November 1965

and signed a pact which they called “the pact of the catacombs”. They promised to live a

life of poverty and to be a Church without prestige, serving the poor as  Pope John XXIII

wanted. Those who signed this pact promised to reject all symbols of privilege and power

and to  place the poor at the centre of their pastoral ministry.  The text of this pact which

has 13 points was to influence the Bishops Conference in Medellin, the conversion of

Archbishop  Romero, and the theology  of liberation.

Influence of Medellin and Puebla Conferences

The Latin American Bishops Conference was held in Medellin in 1968.  Justice and Peace

and Basic Christian Communities figured in  the conclusions of this Conference.  I had

never heard of the document of Medellin until I began reading it soon after my arrival in

Buenos Aires. It blew my mind. Here was the teaching of Vatican II being applied to the

everyday life of the Church in Latin America. At this time too liberation theologians were at

work across the continent, men like Leonard Boff, Jon Sobrino  and Gustavo Gutierrez, who

was later to join the Dominican Order.. In 1969 the Argentine bishops issued an important

document after their meeting in San Miguel, Buenos Aires. This was their way of applying

the Medellin conclusions to Argentina, promoting the Church of the poor,  justice and

peace and favouring Basic Christian Communities. This was not an easy journey in Argentina

and many priests, religious and laity  who opted for it for were called “tercer mundistas” of

the third world, and accused of causing social unrest or even supporting the guerrilla

movement.

A  persecution of the Church in Argentina and  in other countries took place in these years.

As I was preparing for my departure to Buenos Aires in May 1977,  9 Pallotines in that city

were murdered in their parish house by the military. In December that same year  following

a meeting held in Santa Cruz Parish,  two French Sisters who  were accompanying  families

of the “disappeared” were kidnapped, never to be seen again. During my 4 years in that

Parish I was priveliged to learn much from the community there, one of whom Mateo

Perdia became head of the Conference of Religious o Latin America and attended the

Bishops Conference in Puebla, Mexico, in 1979. After that event he shared the conclusions

with us at parish level and the Bishops Conference began to implement them. The

document of Puebla was a tool which served to renew the life of the Church, its pastoral

agents, educators and liturgists. For me one of the most striking statements from the

Bishops was the acknowledgement  of their mistakes and the words “the Church is at once holy and sinful.”

As a group of Dominican Sisters we continued taking steps towards greater insertion into

the Latin American Church and culture. We welcomed and studied Evangelii Nuntiando

(1975).  As the new decade of the 80s began and we had  already founded a community

of 3 Sisters in Paraná in 1975  and there were now nine sisters, all Irish, in the Region.

We had yet to see how we could invite young Argentines to join us.

Option for the poor

After much discernment  we made a new  option for the poor and decided to leave the

school in Buenos Aires in 1982. We were moving  to two new areas, one outside Buenos

Aires in a marginalised area called Cuartel V and the other a rural mission, in Solari, in the

Diocese of Goya, Province of Corrientes, a ten hour bus journey from Buenos Aires.

I had the privilege of working there for 5 years.

The bishop of Goya, Alberto Devoto I have already mentioned as being one of the group

who made a commitment during the Council to establish the Church of the the poor. He

never owned a car,  lived a poor simple life, was addressed as Padre Alberto and in

every way possible reached out to the poor, who were the majority in his diocese.

With never more than 3 Sisters in our community we lived in the village of Solari which had

had no resident priest for many years. There was a strong popular religiousity alive among

the people who kept their practice and devotion alive with novenas, fiestas and

pilgrimages.

Basic Christian Communities

In order to strengthen the life of the community and in accordance with the pastoral

priorities of the diocese, basic Christian Communities were set up and family catechetics

introduced during our time there. There was great diocesan support for these new

ventures. Courses in Catechetics and formation for leaders of communities were organised.

 Jose Marins a Belgian priest who spent his life in Brazil formed a team which visited the

Base Communities throughout Latin American giving courses and animation which

contributed greatly to the life of the marginalised groups. The formation given on these

courses was excellent. It included Church History, Scripture and Theology as well as

practical organisation of community groups.

Solari our village was unique in many ways, very isolated but now linked to the diocese

through a pastoral plan, with assemblies and courses for pastoral agents. With traces of an

earlier Guarani culture still evident, the people had a great love of music and dance and a

spirit of solidarity and hospitality towards all. On reflection it was evident that a much

earlier evangelization had left its mark. Opening the Scriptures to this people was showing

them how they were living the word of God and how they reflected the good news in their

lives. I can truly say that I was evangelised by the poor in this place as in other areas of

Argentina.

I am glad to say that the communities in Solari continue their journey to the present day.

The Sisters moved on after 15 years there as they did from the Paraná Parish and more

recently from another parish in Buenos Aires. The laity have been educated and

empowered in these areas and in a very macho culture many women have made great

strides towards equality.

Still to come

But the Institutional Church has yet to read the signs of the times where women are

concerned and also to recognise that celibacy is an impossible burden for most of the

diocesan clergy. Hhh Hopefully a future Vatican Council III led by a Pope from the southern

hemisphere  perhaps, will be honest enough to face the truth and remedy the injustices

being done to the members of Christ’s Body. Many communities are deprived  of the

Eucharist to-day and are being excluded from the ministries they are called to.

We are being called again by Pope Benedict to be part of a new Evangelization. Surely this

time we must take cognizance of these facts and as the people of God, in  the power of

the Spirit, take appropriate action.