Martyr in Bangladesh

Chapter 2. Working in Baniarchok

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Bangladesh: Mother and Child

After a year of language study, he was sent to Baniarchok, a village of fishermen, with Father Antonio Alberton, one of the pioneers of the Pakistan mission. He began to work with enthusiasm but the task was not an easy one.

He wrote to Father Giuseppe Stella, his old teacher in Lerino, on October 27, 1963: “We have about 1,500 Christians here, and we could have many more if only we had the resources to train some catechists and open other schools or a church. Our school only caters for the first three years of the primary cycle and it is all at our own expense. When we asked the Vicar General for help, he told us that the diocese could not assist us in any way and, if we were unable to maintain the school, we should close. Rather than close, my ambition is to expand the school to offer another two years of education. We may have little hope of educating the elderly, but the youth and the children are the hope of tomorrow’s Church and it would be unthinkable to leave them without a Christian education. Their families, naturally, cannot contribute to their education in any way.

The people around us live in great misery and we cannot ask them for anything. At present we hold lessons in the church, but we hope that quite soon we will be able to build a more suitable place for the children. I am well and very happy here. I have already started systematic visits to all the families. I want to get to know them all and, with the grace of God, help them spiritually. I cannot forget either the terrible material conditions in which they are living. Therefore, I would like to get our Christian friends to form a cooperative, pool their resources, and teach them to think also of the future. This is not an easy task among people who have lived for thousands of years under masters who barely gave them what they need to survive.

Our Christians are almost all converts from Hinduism. This area is predominantly Hindu and it is easier to work here than in other areas of the diocese. My impression is that the Word of God receives a better welcome from the Hindus than from the Muslims”.

The school, visits to the families and the cooperative formed a good pastoral plan and kept Valerian busy. The cross he bore was certainly a heavy one, as he pointed out in a letter to the parish priest of his home village on November 23, 1963: “Here in Pakistan, we suffer at the sight of poor, hungry, dirty and uneducated people. We also suffer because they are so far from finding a sure way to God. They look to us for the material help that we cannot give them, without suspecting the immense spiritual richness we could share with them. We suffer gladly and share what we can with the needy. I will never get discouraged and I would never change places with anyone”.

Fr. Valerian Cobbe during a Xaverian gathering in Khulna

At the Service of his Community

After just one year in Bianiarchok, Valerian was assigned to Khulna as administrator. He had to leave his projects, dreams and activities in a spirit of obedience. He remarked that he felt as if he was escaping to Egypt. He blessed his people from the boat on the river and left without a fuss. He took up work in the office of the bishop. A Xaverian mischievously asked him what he was doing in Khulna. The service to which he was appointed was certainly prestigious, but he preferred to be in the front-line, among the poor, where the need was greatest.

He soon felt useful in his new job and, in a letter to the Superior General on April 2, 1964, he wrote: “My day begins at 5.30 am and ends at about midnight. The interesting part of this job is that I am at the service of others for the entire day. The only time I have for myself, for prayer, is in the evening. I am usually busy with insignificant things like posting letters, maintenance of the refrigerator and the jeep, preparation of guest rooms, and I attend to the bishops requests and orders.

I cannot forget either the terrible material conditions in which they are living. Therefore, I would like to get our Christian friends to form a cooperative, pool their resources, and teach them to think also of the future. This is not an easy task among people who have lived for thousands of years under masters who barely gave them what they need to survive. Our Christians are almost all converts from Hinduism.
Fr. Valerian Cobbe

I buy building material for the missionaries and take care of their documents and bureaucratic needs. The suffocating heat prevents us from working as much as we would like. Sometimes in the afternoon I just collapse from fatigue. I do this willingly for the salvation of my soul and to assist the members of my community. I try to help them in any way I can and I strive to be as hospitable as possible”.

In April 1964 Father Valerian Cobbe saw with his own eyes, for the first time, the devastation and desperation left by a cyclone that struck part of the mission: “Some villages have been literally wiped out and thousands are feared dead. The wind was so powerful that many dead people were found hanging from trees”.

In December 1962, he took part with some confreres in the international Eucharistic Congress in Bombay at which Pope Paul VI was the guest of honor. Among the crowd there was also a little nun with a blue and white sari, accompanied by some of her sisters: she was Mother Theresa of Calcutta, who was already working wonders among the poor of that immense city devastated by misery.

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