Testimony of Mission — Fr Yves Caroff, OMI

Even today, as one walks along the shops of Bestari Jaya – formerly known as Batang Berjuntai, or go to the District Office in Kuala Selangor or visit one of the many estates that surround the town — the Chinese businessmen, Malay officers and Tamil Estate leaders ask about the “orang putih” priest when referring to Fr Yves Caroff (1925-2008).

Mar 28, 2019

By Paul Sinnappan
Even today, as one walks along the shops of Bestari Jaya – formerly known as Batang Berjuntai, or go to the District Office in Kuala Selangor or visit one of the many estates that surround the town — the Chinese businessmen, Malay officers and Tamil Estate leaders ask about the “orang putih” priest when referring to Fr Yves Caroff (1925-2008). This recognition earned by Fr Caroff, the Oblate missionary from France, comes as a result of his holistic missionary work. Besides serving his parishioners, Fr Caroff was also involved in integral human development works. Fr Caroff is a Testimony of Mission in his Missionary work which helped people of all races and religions.

In all the parishes that he served in Malaysia (1964-1980), i.e. Batang Berjuntai, Mentakab and Dungun, Fr Caroff carried out his missionary work with a two fold approach. As a priest of Jesus his Master, he was faithful in his priestly calling to celebrate the Holy Mass in the main parish church and also in its outstations; he trained lay leaders; strengthened catechetical, liturgical committees; introduced Bible Studies. As a parish priest, he visited all families focusing on families which were not in contact with the parish and welcomed them into the Church by providing adult baptisms, convalidated their marriages, and administered baptism to their children. However, he had another equally important approach for which he is fondly remembered, the results of which continue to be experienced even today – Integral Human Development.

In Batang Berjuntai, he established the Fatima Training Centre in 1971 and started kindergartens, sewing classes, typewriting classes, mechanic classes, agriculture – orchid farming, chicken rearing etc. These activities helped women and youths to learn new skills. Using these as entry points he organised awareness sessions to empower women, children, youths and adults. He trained leaders to increase their participation in trade unions, local organisations and politics. To address the financial difficulties among the rural and urban poor, he started the Credit Unions (community based savings and loan groups), a registered Co-Operative which is serving 3,000 families by providing small loans for many purposes. The awareness and empowerment he gave to local leaders led to the starting of the Peoples Service Organisation, a registered society, which is addressing the rights of workers, farmers, land issues and human rights issues.

Similarly in Mentakab, he reached out to the Felda Settlers (Malays and Indians of the early years) to address issues related to home economics, bad roads, schooling of children, health. Finally he got them involved in a Co-operative to start savings. They started agro based economic project to earn extra income. In Dungun he organised the fisher folks and small scale farmers to buy inputs and sell their products in collectives. In 1980, he left for the Philippines and continued his holistic missionary work there until his eventual return to the Lord in 2008.

Wherever he served, first in Sri Lanka, then in Malaysia and finally in the Philippines, Fr Caroff gave great importance in training and empowering local leaders so that they can stand on their own feet and own and operate their community projects. In each team, there were a small number of Catholics whom he trained in Bible, Social Teachings of the Catholic Church and the Socio Pastoral Approach. He also identified knowledgeable people in other religions to train non-Christian leaders in the Community projects and programmes. By introducing the Young Christian Students Movements and Young Christian Workers Movement, he instilled in the minds of local leaders the ideas of See – Judge and Act method, review of life, Gospel Inquiry, Social Inquiry, Action – Reflection – Action method.

As we celebrate the Extraordinary Missionary Year, we recall with gratitude the dedicated foreign missionaries who served not only to build the local Church but also built local community leaders in our country. Today, as we look back to the years that Fr Caroff spent in Asia, we cannot but remember with gratitude this priest whose holistic missionary work is encased in the epitaph inscribed on his tomb: “Build People, Not Buildings”.

Total Comments:0

Name
Email
Comments