Fr. Bruno Orru, s.x.

The Joys of a Missionary

Fr. Bruno Orru - from the Xaverian Mission Newsletter

My 22 years in Indonesia have been busy and beautiful.  The first eight years I was in two small mission parishes some 70 miles apart, of three different ethnic groups: Chinese, Javanese and Batak.  Indonesian was a common language, so I could communicate quite well.  I was “on the road” – on the rivers and on the sea – most of the time, and I loved it.

 

There was the care of the lepers, six quite large schools, a dispensary and a few mission stations very far from the center.  Many of the children I taught then became Catholics once they came to Jakarta.  Then in 1987 I was assigned to the Cathedral parish in Padang, on the island of Sumatra, for three years, and there too my work was plentiful and rewarding.  We had many catechumens, mostly Chinese and a few Javanese.  There was some kind of a tug-of-war with the Pentecostal churches, which in the end helped me to deepen my own faith and to correct a few mind sets of mine.

 

I am learning to practice all the beautiful things I’ve been teaching the novices, especially to be open to the unpredictable plans of God.  It’s a good exercise in faith but also in the joy of being available.

In 1990, I was named novice master to Indonesian candidates to our Xaverian missionary life.  I was stepping into a completely new territory, but after eight years on it, “I was tracking comfortably.”  My experience at the Minor Seminary in Holliston, MA, did help me much, keeping in mind, however, that American young adults were in many ways different from these oriental young people. 

 

The difference was a real challenge on which I tread softly.  He who gives all strength saw me through it until I had the joy of seeing one of my first novices, Suhud Budi Pranoto Antonius, being ordained a priest a few months ago.

 

Last year, I came to a large city parish in Jakarta.  It has been another happy year, though sometimes I plunged into it a bit recklessly, forgetting that I am not so young anymore.

 

Then death struck.  Fr. John Ferrari, the new novice master, died at the young age of 64.  Fr. Nicholas Macina, who had taken his place, also fell ill and is still recuperating in Italy.  So ‘old Bruno’ was called back to novitiate, ‘pro tem.’  However I am still the pastor here, but I make do with the help of another priest.  I am learning to practice all the beautiful things I’ve been teaching the novices, especially to be open to the unpredictable plans of God.  It’s a good exercise in faith but also in the joy of being available.  Come July, though, I hope to be back full-time in the parish.  Surprises, of course, are always playing hide-and-seek, and I am keeping myself open to them.

 

During the recent troubles in East Timor our parishioners were receptive to the refugees who were fleeing from the killings and the destruction on their island.  Our parishioners knew there always lurked the danger that those refugees might be terrorized by the militia that had been scattered throughout Java.  We held our secret, and thank God, nothing happened.  Now most of the refugees, including all the Canossian Sisters with their postulants and novices we sheltered are back in Timor.

 

Another source of Joy: our parishioners have been faithful to a second collection at Mass every Sunday, which goes to buy food for the poorest, mostly Moslem, in the parish.  So far some $77,000.00 have been contributed, and that is saying a lot for a place like this.  Now we are planning to build a dispensary to serve the poor in the parish territory. 

 

At this time we are using the basement of the church, where every Sunday many Catholic doctors and paramedics, members of the parish, give their free services.  This project has also been funded by a parish in Minnesota.  Too bad that, just when we were going full speed ahead, some thieves broke into the place and stole away most of the dental equipment, from the dentist chair to drills and all…  But our resolve is firm.  Oh, the joys of a missionary life.  Thank God!

 

Fr. Bruno Orru (from the Xaverian Mission Newsletter) » More