Simulia Mission

Upon the Salesians’ departure, Fr. Dalla Valle drew up a programme for the social and spiritual uplift of his community ‘providing an environment in which they can live with dignity … so that they do not feel slaves.’ ²³¹ The example and collaboration of some was to favour the return of others, particularly from the outstations where one ‘could not distinguish the Christians from the pagans.’ ²³² Fr. Dalla Valle therefore proposed to extend the period of catechumenate to four years so as to stop the Rishi ‘going back and forth’ and urged a clear commitment at baptism. ²³³ Whilst his activity in the outstations was disrupted by continuous quarrels and blears, at Simulia centre the Christians invited the kabiraj to exorcise devil possession and performed Hindu jattras (SIM. 2: 172–3). Much upheaval was apparently created by the matabbars, seeking to recover their share of power lost to the missionary and, given that both sides were resolute in pursuing their own ends, solutions were only partial and temporary, despite the missionary’s optimism (SIM. 2: 176/183). Fr. Dalla Valle wanted to ‘educate’ his Christians to contribute to their own welfare, paying a fee for the mission land on which they lived ²³⁴ or working in exchange for distribution of USA gifts. The ‘food-for-work’ programmes carried out in Simulia, where the Rishi worked side by side with Muslims and Hindus building the road to Beniali, ²³⁵ together with the projects in the outstations, awakened the fervour of both Christians and former Christians, who were asking to return (SIM. 2: 236/238/239/241). The ‘miracles worked by the rice’ and other gifts were, however, destined to last only as long as the rice lasted. The matabbars, in fact, aggrieved at finding themselves excluded from any decision-making and profit, ²³⁶ took advantage of the situation to ‘incite the Catholics against the father’, by returning to old practices or inviting the Jessore Pentecostals among them. ²³⁷ This process had escalated from the time when Fr. Dalla Valle entrusted Fr. Dri, his assistant from May 1955, with the outstations while he concentrated on the foundation of the Annunciation Diocesan Sisters. ²³⁸ This enterprise drained him of money and energy, creating tensions between him, his community and confreres. The latter in fact, had opposed it fiercely on the grounds that, while entire communities had been abandoned due to lack of means and catechists, the Bishop and Fr. Dalla Valle seemed determined to proceed with their project. The final blow came on the occasion of the ‘special Mission’, when not only did the headmen encourage a Protestant presence in the southern area, ²³⁹ but also at Beniali, ²⁴⁰ and two young men brought Protestant girls to Simulia. At the beginning of 1958, when the matabbars organised a meeting to remove the parish priest, ²⁴¹ and some Protestant catechists visited the Christian para distributing pamphlets and Bibles, the Bishop had no alternative but to reluctantly replace Fr. Dalla Valle with Fr. Chiofi from Satkhira. The former moved to Jessore together with the nuns, taking from Simulia as much as he could, thus emulating the Salesians he had so despised in the past for the same attitude. Thus Fr. Dalla Valle’s initial programmes crumbled under the impact of events and his good intentions of aiding the Christians’ social and spiritual growth came to nothing. All in all, it seems clear that the ‘message of salvation’ travels by very human means, or in ‘earthen vessels’, conditioning dialogue to the ‘intentionality’ of the people involved in it.