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Occasional Paper Number 28

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Mission Accomplished

by Robert J. Barringer, C.S.B. & Terry Kersch, C.S.B.

AUGUST 2000

The Report * Informe * Rapport of February 2000 announced the Final Vows Retreat to be held this year in Annonay April 16-29, 2000, under the direction of Father Bob Barringer, Retreat Master, and Father Kevin Kirley, Resource Person. It can be reported now that the said retreat took place as scheduled and if one can judge from externals and the observations of those involved, it was a resounding success.

By arriving in Annonay the evening of April 13 the retreatants Terry Kersch (Canada), Ernesto Arriaga (Mexico), José Diocles Delgado (Colombia) were able to visit some historic sights in the Ardèche before the opening of the retreat: St. Basile, Maison-Seule, St. Symphorien-de-Mahun, Lalouvesc, thanks to the good graces of Father Jacques Deglesne who rented a van and served as chauffeur, and to Father Kevin Kirley who supplied pertinent facts of Basilian history.

The scholastics were lucky enough to pay a visit to the Collège du Sacré-Coeur, Annonay, while staff and students were still there before they left April 14 on their Easter vacation. Another bit of luck was their participation in the Chrism Mass in the cathedral of Viviers, April 17, where Bishop François Blondel made a point of greeting each one individually, and where they enjoyed a spirited clergy dinner at the former "Grand Séminaire".

Father Barringer conducted the retreat (conferences, liturgies, discussions) entirely in Spanish, the one language common to the group. It began formally on the evening of April 15 and ended Eater Sunday, April 23. The schedule included a manual labour period each day which the retreatants spent tidying up and weeding the little Basilian cemetery on the College grounds. There was time for recreation too, devoted largely to "pétanque", a sort of lawn bowling for rough terrain. One memorable afternoon Father Pouzol, still alert and hearty at 89, conducted a tour on foot of the city of Annonay which included the original Collège des Cordeliers (the former Franciscan monastery), Ste. Barbe, Ste Claire, and spots of interest such as the well-concealed cellar near the Pouzol home where priests and faithful offered Mass clandestinely during the worst days of the French Revolution.

Holy Week was a fortunate time to hold the retreat as the scholastics were able to experience two parish liturgies, Holy Thursday at St. François and Holy Saturday Vigil at Notre Dame, both churches in Annonay. After the retreat proper they were treated to a visit of the Basilian parish, St. Sulpice, at Villevocance, and to the five mission churches in the surrounding hills. Also, before leaving France on April 26, the group spent Easter Monday and Tuesday touring the antiquities of Vienne, Lyon, Orange and Avignon, again thanks to Father Deglesne and the Peugeot van.

If the Final Vows Retreat of the Jubilee Year 2000 was a memorable and exciting experience for the three New World scholastics, it seems to have been a refreshing moment as well for the five French confreres who welcomed them into their home at Maison St. Joseph. Suddenly the number of these latter doubled, and the presence of scholastics, eager to learn, eager to help out with the household tasks, not only brought new life into the hallowed halls of the old house but gave the Community in France a new sense of purpose, a new reason for being as it were, and a very human flesh-and-blood contact with the Basilian presence in North and South America.

A sincere 'Thank-you' to all who worked and prayed for its success.

Kevin J. Kirley, CSB

Resource Person

Other Reports

At first blush I thought the idea of the retreat in Annonay more than a little wrong-headed, in the sense that it seemed a large expense to incur when so few would be involved and when the community is still struggling to understand and live the implications of poverty in the new millennium. The Latin-American perspective on these matters also gives the question a sharper edge as it is so easy to translate the price of airfare etc. into the equivalent of what is needed to sustain whole families in their struggle to feed and house themselves. As the retreat approached, I felt the positive sides of the idea more directly, and was grateful on a more personal angle for the possibility of seeing the French confreres again. In the event, I think that the idea proved its worth at the level of the interaction between the men themselves, between the retreatants and the French confreres, and between the French community and its sense of the rest of the Congregation (especially the Latin-America) and its future.

Robert J. Barringer, CSB

Retreat Director

Master of Scholastics in Colombia

One scholastic's response:

The most memorable things for me were (1) the hospitality of the French confreres. (Hospitality is clearly part of our charism). (2) The rootedness of the French Confreres. (Rootedness-expansion tension). (3) Seeing the places which were historically important for us for which I've only heard names - Particularly, seeing St. Basile and St. Symphorien-de-Mahun.

Hospitality:

I must admit that before my departure and before actually meeting the French confreres, I harboured some prejudices about their hospitality - I did not think it was going to be as good as it actually was. I think this prejudice was largely shaped by my reading of the history of our community just prior to the split. This prejudice was also reinforced by my experience of French Quebeckers as an English Quebecker during the sixties and seventies, as well as by a prior visit to Paris before I was a Basilian.

This prejudice began to evaporate the moment I met Jacques Deglesne at the Lyon airport. In the midst of his busy schedule, he had gone through the trouble to rent a mini-van and meet us all at the airport. He also took time out of his busy schedule to take us on various tours of Annonay and the surrounding area. The other confreres at Maison St. Joseph and Villevocance were equally hospitable. I felt entirely at home during my stay at Maison St. Joseph and I look forward to an opportunity to return there.

Being already familiar with the hospitality of the Canadian, U.S., Mexican and Colombian confreres, the hospitality of the French confreres very much added to my impression that hospitality is indeed one of our charisms.

Rootedness-expansion tension

During my time as a Basilian, I have encountered Basilians who are very rooted to place and energized by the prospect of building existing institutions as well as those who are highly mobile and energized by the prospect of new ventures. Perhaps because the North American community was founded by the French community within 30 years after the congregation was formed, and at a time when resources and personnel were rather limited, I had the notion that mobility and expansion were very much part, if not the stronger part, of the Basilian charism. Getting to know the French confreres, however, helped to change this notion. From them I learned the value of rootedness and that it is at least as strong a strain in our congregation as the expansion strain. It is clear to me that both strains exist, and have existed, side by bide in fruitful tension since the founding of the Congregation. Although I recognize that confreres feeling more inclined toward one of these strains might at times be impatient with those who feel more inclined to the other, getting to know the French confreres has taught me that having people of both strains is a tremendous gift of the Holy Spirit to the Congregation.

Historical locations

As a result of our (almost) daily walking tours with Fr. Kevin Kirley and Fr. Felix Pouzol, I gained a good sense of human, Church, and Basilian history in Annonay. The Montgolfier brothers were brought up here and launched their first balloon and landed it right next to our first school in Annonay. Marc Seguin, the inventor of the suspension bridge, among other things, was from Annonay. Also, according to the Michelin guide, Annonay was the first place where the Protestant reformation was preached in France and, according to Fr. Pouzol, its people suffered greatly from the religious wars that followed. It is not clear to me whether those wounds have entirely healed yet. Catholics also suffered a great deal during and after the French Revolution. Fr. Pouzol pointed out to us a number of nooks and crannies where clandestine masses were held during that period.

The places that made the greatest impression on me, however, were St. Symphorien-de-Mahun and St. Basile - the former because that is where it all began for our Congregation, and the latter because it was from there that we took our name - or, at the very least, gave our founders the idea to place the Congregation under the patronage of St. Basil.

It is one thing to read and hear stories about these places, but it is another thing entirely to breathe the mountain air, touch the weatherbeaten stone battlements, feel the damp coolness, and almost hear the faint Latin echoes of our first confreres as they celebrated mass inside these ancient and silent Romanesque structures.

It took us almost two and a half hours to drive by car from Annonay to St. Basile. It is a small hamlet of ancient stone structures tucked away in the mountains about five kilometers south and above the town of Lamastre. Maison-Seule, a fortified chateau a few minutes outside of the hamlet, was the site of a fourth century Gallo-Roman outpost which, in the nineteenth century, served as one of our schools for about seven years.

All I really know about the existing Romanesque church of St. Basile was that is was built "sometime" before 1178. Fr. Pouzol speculates that it was founded by the Monks at Lerins sometime after they adopted the Benedictine rule (which, if I remember correctly, was in the 7th century). But my questions about "when" and "whether it was originally founded under the name of St. Basile," were met simply with a classic Gallic shrug and the words "Sh'ai pas" (ardéchois for "je ne sais pas").

St. Symphorien-de-Mahun is where it all began so I was particularly excited to see this place. It is located at the far end of a small isolated valley three quarters of an hour by car west of Annonay. The hamlet commands the main approach up the valley, so it was not surprising that our founders had good warning whenever revolutionary troops approached. There would have been more than sufficient time for our founders to cover their tracks and escape into the hills before the unwelcome visitors arrived in town. It is also clear to me how they would have been caught by surprise that one time the same troops approached from the much less likely direction over the mountains above the town.

Although Basilians have not been here for quite some time, the Congregation is still very much a part of the local folklore. We met an old gentleman outside the ancient Romanesque church who had a few - probably apocryphal - stories about Basilians that even our own historians did not know about.

Terry Kersch, CSB

Retreatant