Perspectief 2018-41

2018 - 41 The Rishi People and the Catholic Church 67 Reag eer towards them. The Rishi simply took advantage of the opportunity. It was the missionary which until recently could not understand the profound need of human recognition the Rishi were looking for in their movement towards Christianity. Pure intentions were lacking also on the Church's side. Because of a narrow concept of evangelisation, all that the mis- sionaries were looking for was institutional aggregation to the established Church. The Rishi knew it, and intelligently took advantage of it. The beginnings were thus difficult: the Rishi's quest for earthly salvation were met or not met by the missionaries' offer of an eternal, over worldly one. The Church-snake could not let go the Rishi-frog, because at the end of the day it was the only frog it could get; on the other hand the Rishi-snake could not let go the Church-frog because it was the only one which could do something for them. Indeed, the Rishi were supposedly right in their approaching the Church. At first, their quest for human fulfilment was met by the caring and paternalistic hand of the fa- thers. Human promotion had then the characteristic of alms giving, a pietistic task which was to be carried out on an individual bases, outside of any socio-cultural and political reflection. The fathers often lamented that the Rishi Christians were confined to a sort of ghetto. But it was them who had contributed much to the building of that ghetto. It was only from the 70s onwards that the Church started looking at the Rishi with different ayes and thus began to think of their integration. At the same time it was in those years in which fathers commenced to understand that evangelisation was not all about church aggrega- tion. Christianity is actually about bringing out the fullness of humanity hidden in any human being. It is eventually to point at Christ as to the ideal fulfilled man. It is liberation from any sort of slavery which must start right here and now. In this the Rishi were right. Father Luigi's experience in Chuknagar has been about evangelisation of this sort: the at- tempt to constitute a people with a restored human dignity without asking anything in exchange. Grace or gratuitousness has been his operative tool in his nearly 25 years spent with the Rishi people. Yes, the church in his missionaries has converted, but so has the Rishi. It is interesting to notice how old Christians of Rishi background try hard to hide their origins. At the time of conversion most of their forefathers changed their surname to disguise their roots. Today's Christians of Rishi origin, not only keep their surname, but are no longer afraid to declare their Rishi origins. What is more, they are proud of their being Rishi. Why should they be ashamed of their history: they are the victims. It is us, the vic- timisers, who should be ashamed of our history. But are we? If often Rishi people