65 Years of Priestly Life - Fr Ennio Mantovani SVD

65 Years of Priestly Life. The history of a Journey 32 and forgets or even rejects the roots. As leaves without roots will wither and die, there is the real danger that inculturation becomes a museum that suffocated the true life. In Europe we are enthused by the beautiful colours and we don’t see that it is colourful shirt not the new, healthy skin. The question that we must answer is: did the two examples I mentioned deal with roots or with leaves, that we can collect but will soon desiccate? Application of our principles Let us take first the pig kill. What we can see and I describe are the leaves. My History of Yobai in Pictures is a description of the beautiful, unique leaves. I have often written about the event. The missionaries in the anthropological preparation had never heard about the pig kill. The Simbu had not been discovered yet, and in the coastal region this type of pig kill was not known. Out of respect for the culture the missionaries did not forbid it, but the communities, as we saw, were divided and that shows that there might have been hidden negative aspects. Schäfer left the decision to the people. The people around Schäfer, strengthened by his positive attitude to their culture, decided as we mentioned to accept the feast with some minor changes. The main change was the replacement of the Bolin Post with a Cross, introducing a new element, at least for the Catholics in the ritual of the pig kill. Inculturation? From the leaves we need to dig to find the roots giving meaning to the pig kill and the cross. The roots are revealed by the myth: Long, long ago there were two brothers who lived in the sky with their sun-god known as ‘AndeYagle’. One day ‘AndeYagle’ decided to send them to the earth so as to make them intimated with the earthly man. When the agreement was made, the two sons appeared like a flesh of lightning through the sky and descended to the earth, touching the tip of the Kama shrub on their way. The elder brother’s name was Mondo and the younger was Gande. They came and comfortably settled at Wonkama, a small mountainous place located in the Upper Simbu. They lived there for a long time and eventually became famous. Everybody respected them and regarded them as their leaders. One day Mondo invented ‘arigl’ – a head gear which was made of colourful boards with feathers and later everybody imitated this idea. Usually, he wore this head gear and went to the bush and stayed there till night. Then he came home and slept . His brother Gande was very suspicious of this behaviour and wondered what the elder was doing in the bush all day long. Gande decided that he would follow his brother one day to the bush and see what he was doing every day. So, when Mondo dressed and left the next day, Gande followed him secretly. As soon as Mondo arrived at the usual place, he removed the ‘arigl’ – the head gear from his head and placed it on a branch of a special tree called ‘Ende Mondo’. Then he grew the pig’s teeth and started digging the soil just as pigs do. He kept digging till night. His brother Gande saw him from his hiding place with tears running down his cheeks. At dusk Mondo took his arigl and put it on but it kept slipping off his dead. So he said: ‘Did Gande come and see me that you act like this?’ After saying this he placed it on and this time it stood perfectly on his dead. Then he went home and when he reached the house, he asked Gande: ‘Did you follow me to the bush and see me?’ ‘Yes, I followed you and saw you.’ Gande replied with tears. ‘You must take me to the place where you saw me digging and kill me and bury me at the place where I hang my arigl and put a fence around the place. Today, the sun is rising from that mountain which is on the northeast so when it comes to the third mountain (approximately 3 months) ‘kangi grass’ will soon grow on That great value, as the myth states, came from the death of Mondo who died to bring about the pigs from his grave. Amazing similarity with the Christ Event: Jesus who had to die on the Cross, to give us the true life that was missing.

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