FATHER ANDRZEJ BLAZKIEWICZ, MISSIONARY FOR THE NEOCATECHUMENAL WAY
“Prayer is an extraordinary, powerful resource”
Marco Carvalho
He was born in Poland, grew up spiritually under John Paul II, was a missionary in Brazil for over twenty years, but it was in Macau that he found the most suitable answer to the public health crisis that resulted from the dissemination of the new coronavirus: the continued invocation of Saint Roch in the local churches.
You came to Macau with the aim of providing spiritual support to lay missionaries of the Neocatechumenal Way that were based in Macau. How are the families of the Neocatechumenal Way living these challenging times in the Special Administrative Region?
Our mission was greatly reduced due to the pandemic. In fact, there is only one family on a mission and one lay person in a similar situation. These are the ones that remain in Macau. All the others left in the first days of this public health crisis and they were not allowed to return. One other family left for health reasons. They had to return to their country and they remain there for the time being. They are taking sometime to rest. Those who remain here kept their mission alive. This mission requires them to share their faith with people around them, both at work and at school, namely through their children. It is in this daily relationship that evangelization reveals itself. It involves being with people, giving a testimony of their faith and their availability in their daily life. This is what the Lord expects of us, as their witnesses.
That’s one of the central aspects of the message of the Neocatechumenal Way. That evangelization requires, to a large extent, acts and gestures of kindness every day…
I would say it is more a contact evangelization, a practical evangelization and not so much in terms of preaching or vocation. The perspective that someone is called to follow a certain path, that he was called to put that path into practice is not something seen as essential by the Neocatechumenal Way. The fundamental thing is the example that we adopt in life, the presence near those in need and the answer we give to the needs of the others, having in mind the context in which they live. When we reach adult life, this presence has to reveal itself through work, so that we can find a way to help them overcome problems and difficulties. This strength comes from the practice of listening to the Word of God, of taking part in the Eucharist, from living with our brothers and from sharing this experience of God, of how God works in our life and through our life.
As far as the pandemic is concerned, we live – we might well say – in a reality that is very special, but which is also guided by close contact and communication with our people abroad, in the countries where we are from. What I see as outstanding in Macau, what has been very special and very remarkable in Macau is a reality so simple that I can’t help but imagine what it would be like if it were applied to other resources and in other places. I am talking about the constant invocation of the intercession of Saint Roch. This prayer is something that occurs at every celebration. God gave me this opportunity to be here, to experience this reality and I realized how remarkable this is. Whenever I have the opportunity, I praise this simple reality: prayer. The experience of the local Catholics, of the Church in Macau, should also be considered as a sign for all the others, for those still facing situations like these, of an epidemic scenario. Faith, through prayer, generates this effect.
I can compare this reality with a similar condition, albeit in its own terms. When I first arrived to Salvador, most of the people who were part of the clergy were elderly people, some of them at an advanced age. And if they weren’t old, they were foreigners. When I arrived there, the bishop promoted a similar practice. After each Mass, after communion, the community began to pray, to make a biblical invocation: “Send, Lord, the workers, for the harvest is great and the workers are not that many.” This brief prayer, this invocation of the Gospel, changed what the reality of vocations was in just a few years. Today, the diocese of Salvador has many new and mostly local priests. This is very evident to me. Can you imagine if people promoted more initiatives of this kind?
Do you think that praying…
Prayer is an extraordinary, powerful resource. It is the Word, in all its simplicity, directed towards God. Imagine the Eucharist, penance or other practices that we have when they are well channelled in the right direction…
Why is there so little prayer today? Do you think people still know how to pray? Or did they stop believing in the power of praying?
I don’t think people stopped praying. People who define themselves as Catholics pray regularly, don’t they? What we might need is to give this word – the word “Prayer” – more acceptance. It’s not merely about the number of prayers or the praying time. What really matters is believing that the Lord is listening. And not only does he listen to us, he also answers. This is what makes the difference: to believe that we can communicate with God.
You work directly with the Portuguese-speaking community. In addition to this capacity of including this invocation to Saint Roch in all sorts of religious ceremonies, …
It’s not just about praying. More than the prayer itself, what matters is the conviction, the experience of faith. In this particular case of Saint Roch, its concern is with the pandemic. But in other circumstances, people rely on the protection of Our Lady of Fatima. All of this constitutes an experience of faith in many different dimensions. This faith of the community should also be seen as a sign.
Do you feel that faith grew stronger due to the pandemic? Or are these signs not that easy to notice?
Nowadays it’s somehow complicated. Unfortunately, we were absorbed by the idea that a certain development and a certain technology can solve all our problems.
We have, for instance, internalized the idea that if we cannot take part in the Mass, the television broadcast or internet broadcast will be enough. There are a great number of other ways in which technology fosters the idea that it will protect us from harm.
On the side-lines of all this harsh reality, I would like to share some thoughts. The question of the mask, for instance. Personally, I cannot accept that we have to assimilate the idea that, from now on, we have to live our reality behind a mask. It shouldn’t be like that. Our nose and our mouth, we use them to ventilate, to oxygenate our organism. The mask is a temporary solution, a somehow artificial solution that is not part of us, that prevents us from being natural. What kind of influences or consequences should we expect from using the mask? What effects might this continued use of the mask have, in the short or long term? We do not know. And this is very worrying. People, in the context of this whole reality, as time goes by – and we are already in the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic – no longer have any certainties. They have more doubts than certainties in the context of this whole threat. The certainties about the vaccine are not that great. All these issues make it difficult for people to analyse and understand what is happening.
How do you evaluate the four years you spent in Macau? Did Macau surprise you? Or were you expecting to find exactly these circumstances?
It was a surprise when I first arrived here, I don’t know exactly if it was due to some ignorance on my behalf or because until then I had little interest in this reality, but it surprised me to know that in Asia there are Catholic communities that speak Portuguese. Now, after being here all these years and having had the opportunity to know much more, I feel a much greater surprise. The Diocese of Macau is the mother of so many dioceses here in East Asia. Macau’s history is very remarkable and I thank God for allowing me to dive into such a special place. It’s a blessing, a grace that the Lord bestowed upon me, when he brought me to this region and guided me through the experience of the people who speak Portuguese, a language I learned to speak in Brazil and which made this experience a whole lot closer. This also happened thanks to the contact I had with the Brazilian population, thanks to the traditions that I was allowed to contact with, first in Rio de Janeiro and later in Salvador. Brazil is an extraordinary nation, but the realities are very, very different.
Chinese Catholics, though few, are seen as very faithful, they live their faith in a very concrete way. The evangelization of China has always been one of the most elusive goals of the Catholic Church. Do you believe China can be fully evangelized? Is the devotion we see in Chinese Catholics a good sign?
Yes. We see that devotion in the communities that celebrate in Cantonese, in the way they take part in the celebrations and also the way they take care of the space, be it in terms of music or ornamentation. I noticed this devotion the first time I visited Asia, almost ten years ago, in 2012, when I came to Hong Kong. I stayed in Hong Kong for two months. This experience was quite important to me. This devotion stands out in quite a few differences, but also in the way of entering, of taking part in the mystery of the holiness of God.
It’s a special phenomenon, as I saw in Salvador, where the predominant majority of the population, more than 80 percent, involves people of African origin, they are of African descent. The panorama is quite different in Rio de Janeiro, it is very different in my homeland and it was also different in England, where I spent a few months learning English. And now, I had the opportunity to experience this local reality.
These particularities of the place, they help us to live our faith in a more honest way: they help us not to impose, not to ignore, but to give value. They help us to understand how the other is, the place he occupies, the way he lives and to understand where the other comes from. And this is a sign.
The history of China and the evangelization of this part of the world, has a very different story, an incomparable story, which cannot be compared to any other and that is how it should be. This perception helps us not to be arrogant, to be humble and much simpler, much more willing to serve the Lord. As the Holy Scriptures say, one sows, so that another may reap.
I often remember the words of a colleague of mine, who passed away already and that I came to know in Brazil. When we were asked: “What are you doing or trying to do here?” he just said: “I am trying to be present”. The presence with the other, as a person, this is the essence of any mission. This presence works in two domains: it allows the Lord to transform me, to call me constantly to conversion, but it also makes it possible for the Lord to become a sign for another, just as he became a sign for me.
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