Martyr in Bangladesh

Chapter 7. A Spiritual Testament

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Fr. Valerian Cobbe: " "Missionaries are called to open roads of confidence, hope and courage for the people they serve"

A month after his death, the Xaverian magazine “Fede e Civiltà” published the sole surviving document of Father Cobbe. It is an extraordinary spiritual testament that is worth reading:

“When the bishop sent me to Shimulia in 1967, my first impression was of a village of dead people. Everyone I met was hungry, sick, ignorant, and confined in a ghetto that had made them outcasts in the eyes of the Muslims. All good Muslims believed that there was no place in paradise for Christians and, in fact, they never prayed for the conversion of Christians because they were too lowly to aspire to such a grace. The most they did was pray for Father’s conversion because he seemed more honest and better than the rest of them.

Christians employed by Muslims were given something to eat at midday on a banana leaf, never on a plate: the Christian is impure. A Muslim would never even accept a glass of water from a Christian and if the name of Shimulia was pronounced he spat on the ground, almost as if to expel the bad taste of the place from his mouth. The first day I taught catechism in the school, two or three children fainted; only later did I learn that they hadn’t eaten for two days.

For a few days, I was undecided as to whether I should remain there or escape. Finally, however, thanks to Father Mario Veronesi, I decided to stay and see if I could help this community in any way. The people were good, generous, religious and God-fearing. The first thing I suggested was that the Christians set up a cooperative saving scheme. They all agreed and everyone had to deposit a small sum each week. Though they possessed some land, I soon realized that their extreme poverty forced them to mortgage it and sell at a ridiculously low price. I immediately redeemed the land and asked my friends in Italy to finance an irrigation project for the benefit of everyone, Muslims and Hindus included. The first two pumps were ready in 1968, but there were still religious disagreements among the people, and they had never before used irrigation or chemical fertilizers.

At this point a good agronomist, Mr. David J. Stockley, who was also a Baptist minister, came to our help. He came to Shimulia once a month and stayed with us for a week to train the people. The wells were supplying us with water from a source 600 feet below the surface, at a rate of 25 gallons of water per second. Mr. Stockley also taught the women how to work in the fields, something unheard of previously.

Fr. Cobbe conversing with some of the farmers in Shimulia

Muslims, Hindus and Christians working together

Initially, the richest Muslims of the nearby countries tried to hamper the irrigation.  They spread rumors that the irrigation would ruin the fields and that these would never yield any crops ever again. They then tried to stop the poorest people among them from coming to work in the fields of the Christians.

All these problems were resolved in one year when the fields began yielding three harvests a year. The situation improved even further when the school expanded its education program with more classes. The communities began to hope in the future and a cooperative was founded by people from different villages and of different faiths. Once a week, Muslims, Christians and Hindus, gathered to discuss their financial problems. In 1969, thanks to help from Italy, another two wells were ready and, from that time onwards, the Christian community had no more survival problems.

The community was no longer considered a ghetto and the Christians are now respected like all the others. They even say now that the Christians have been truly blessed by Allah. During the civil war, and afterwards, the irrigation saved the community from hunger. Some say that the martyrdom and the intercession of Father Mario Veronesi also helped. When they go to Jessore, many Christians bring back some earth from the tomb of Father Veronesi as a relic.

Perhaps some of our friends in Italy have a wrong impression of our activities. Our continual requests for money have maybe given some the impression that we are only doing social work and that we have lost sight of the most profound reason for our coming here. I can assure them that this is not the case: the sole reason for our presence here consists in spreading the Gospel message.

Any contribution the missionary makes to the material well-being of his people is a direct consequence of fidelity to the Gospel itself. Jesus himself preached to people, but when they were hungry he felt compassion for them and gave them to eat, even if he had to do work a miracle in order to do so. When a sick person implored his help, he cured him in body and in spirit. The Church has always continued the work of Jesus through human promotion, attention to the sick, schools for the poor and cultural progress; the Church even founded the first universities in Europe. In the Middle Ages, the Church was behind the first workers’ unions and, in modern times, different Popes have constantly exhorted the nations to contribute to the human and Christian progress of all peoples.

With regard to our specific development work in Bangladesh, I believe that it is both essential and indispensable. Life is more important than religion. Our people suffer hunger every day and their lives are made extremely difficult by the fact that they cannot find work and do not know how to feed their children. The basic necessities of life, bread or a plate of rice, come before anything else. Only after hunger has been satisfied can a person turn his thoughts to God. Religion cannot flourish on misery and desperation.

Besides, corruption spreads easily in an underdeveloped and non-Christian society based upon great social and caste differences. We are often the only ones who offer a concrete example of a well organized community that bases its activities on maximum honesty.

The golden village

Only through organized work did the Muslims begin to frequent and familiarize with the Christians; they also began to collaborate with them. Half of the members of the cooperative are Christians, and half of them are Muslims; the same proportion applies to the agriculture project. Whereas before Shimulia was despised, they now call it “sonar gram”, the “golden village”, and the Muslims have no difficulty in coming here for social gatherings. The people used to lack capital and leadership and were hopelessly disorganized. At the beginning I had to provide both the capital and the leadership.

The Christians are now respected like all the others. They even say now that the Christians have been truly blessed by Allah. During the civil war, and afterwards, the irrigation saved the community from hunger. Some say that the martyrdom and the intercession of Father Mario Veronesi also helped. When they go to Jessore, many Christians bring back some earth from the tomb of Father Veronesi as a relic.
Fr. Valerian Cobbe

The initial contribution of the missionary is necessarily a direct one. He is always, or almost always, the person that everyone trusts, the one who organizes, or helps to organize things. He is also the mediator in dealings with officialdom.

Some missionaries make the mistake of ignoring the concrete situation, either because of insufficient preparation, prejudice against non-Christians or an undue concern with proselytism. We should be guided by the absolute principle that any work done should benefit the whole community and not just the Christians. We should strive to ensure that the missionary assumes a leadership role only at the beginning: his concern should be to form the people in such a way that they become self-sufficient. In my own case, I was soon able to return to my proper missionary activity in the apostolate and the school. I do not even have to go and supervise them any more. Everything now works smoothly.

The cooperative and communal work have been of great advantage to us. The whole community is involved. Here it is the community that matters, not the individual. For the Christian community, the Gospel message and social work have become one and the same thing, but also vice versa: social work and Christian duties have become inseparable and the cooperative that directs the work in the fields also supervises the moral behavior of the community. In Muslim eyes, our influence is indirect, in the sense that we provide an example of an honest and laborious life.

A "Hi-Five" in Bangladesh, in front of the Church of Shimulia

Opening Roads

The missionary must be educated in the spirit of initiative but, at the same time, he must learn to work with others: he must know how to organize some social work, as well as being capable of accepting help; he must also know how to form leaders. Above all, he must never forget that he is, first and foremost, a “guru”, a spiritual master, a priest.

Only by virtue of this title are we accepted, respected and loved. In this social context, we must side with the poor and help them, but we must never get involved in their political contests, not even to support candidates who could be of advantage to our cause. If some politicians come looking for our support during the elections, we must never compromise but, rather, respect all authority and all parties. We must always be above their contests and ambitions in order to respect the authentic nature of our mission.

The road has been opened. There are immense difficulties to be overcome, but the people have re-acquired self-confidence, hope and courage. Their conquests have been the fruit of the charitable help of Christians who have given life and hope to the people of Bangladesh”.

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