Beloved Brother

By Michael O'Kane
January 1999

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“Jesus came to the tomb of Lazarus and wept for is friend.”

For those of us who lived and worked with George Marskell, and who loved him, these last seven months have been in a very real sense, a time pilgrimage, filled with grief and hope, prayer and solidarity with George in his sufferings, and faith in the Jesus that George loved and served in the poor of the Prelacy of Itacoatiara.

These last few weeks, especially since the Feast of Pentecost and the deterioration in George's condition, I've been creating a garden in my backyard that I've called, “George's Garden.”

George and I were soul-mates. We have been close friends and brothers for almost 40 years. George was my closest and most intimate friend at Scarboro Missions.

George and I went to Brazil in 1961 with Scarboro missionaries Paul McHugh, Vince Daniel, and Doug MacKinnon. George and I bonded as brothers back then.

During our missionary careers in Brazil we journeyed together, we celebrated and laughed together, we prayed and struggled together, we shared our dreams together. We knew each others’ fears and weaknesses, and our gifts and strengths. We respected and loved each other.

As shepherd-bishop of far-flung communities and isolated villages in the 92,000 square kilometre area of this jungle diocese, George scrupulously followed the pastoral plan of the Brazilian Conference of Bishops, adapting that plan to the needs of his people. Known to the people as Dom Jorge (Portuguese for Bishop George), he lived and breathed “the preferential option for the poor” adopted by the Bishops of Latin America at their now-famous Conference in Medellin, Colombia, in 1968.

George’s pastoral mission was one of empowering the people, recognizing their dignity as sons and daughters of God, sisters and brothers of Jesus Christ. He knew hundreds and hundreds of them by name. During his pastoral years George was never a builder in concrete or stone; but he was a builder of Christian community—300 communities, tiny cells of God's Kingdom. He was constantly in dialogue with leaders of these communities who were treated as equals and co-builders of the Kingdom. His mission as their “shepherd,” as he was want to say, was to be a presence among them.

George would spend six to seven months of each year on the river, on his boat, the Calamanta, with Paladar, his boatman, visiting these isolated communities. Few people were aware that because of a near-drowning experience as a young boy in Hamilton Bay, George had a dreadful fear of deep waters and had never learned to swim.

George worked to educate the people. The pastoral centre, Centrepi, held liturgical, catechetical, ministerial, and leadership courses, and general education sessions four to six months of each year. He built a rural seminary where young men from the interior could prepare for the priesthood. He brought in a contemplative Congregation of Sisters to the prelacy to pray for the pastoral teams and their work, as well as to instill in all the need for prayer and the development of the spiritual.

Every two years an Assembly of the People, a diocesan Synod, is held in one of the major towns (and George opened the most recent one on the Feast of Pentecost at the end of May). This was a time when George sat down with the pastoral teams and community representatives to plan the pastoral of the prelacy. But it was especially a time for George to celebrate with his people their victories and their growth, and for them to be a source of strength and affirmation for each other in living out their Christian life and mission.

George had a pastoral team for everything, pastoral of the sick, a health pastoral, pastorals for the preparation of the Sacraments, a pastoral for prisoners, a pastoral for prostitutes, for the Indigenous people, for workers, for single mothers, for orphans, for the landless... and all of this functioned more or less effectively!

By nature and temperament, George was a peace-maker, but he fought for the rights of the impoverished peoples that he shepherded. He stood with his people against the large land-owners and land robbers, who attempted to take over the small land-holdings and acreage of uneducated peasants who had tilled and worked the soil for two and three generations. George, along with the pastoral teams and community leaders, set up vigilante committees that guarded the lakes and rivers, and successfully blocked the invasion and plundering of the fish reserves—the stable sustenance of the villagers—by large outside fishing trawlers.

During the days of the military, George was a “suspect” bishop, a “communist.” He was a professed enemy of corrupt political and civil leaders who preyed on their people. He fought unjust systems of oppression that sought to enslave his people.

He waged a long relentless battle against the Balbina hydroelectric dam mega-project (largely funded by the World Bank). The dam was constructed on the upper Uatuma River in the prelacy, a direct invasion on the lands of the Waimiri-Atroari peoples. In the December, 1990, issue of Scarboro Missions, George wrote, “The 4,000 or more hectares of rainforest which were flooded by the dam’s reservoir forced the evacuation of these Indigenous peoples from their traditional hunting grounds. The reservoir, polluted by the decaying forest, killed all forms of water life for more than 200 kilometres downstream, seriously affecting the livelihood of the riverbank dwellers.”

George’s prophetic stance and work were unsuccessful, but now, some 14 years later, the region flooded is an environmental embarrassment and the hydroelectric power plant a monumental disaster.

A few years ago I accompanied three seminarians and a young priest from St. Peter's Seminary in London, Ontario, to Brazil and the mission of Itacoatiara. The trip was to experience a different culture and a different vision of Church. We spent our month visiting interior villages and the people, being present at the Assembly of the People, exchanging ideas and faith perspectives with the youth, and time with George. Here is what one of them had to say:

“My greatest impression and most moving spiritual experience was visiting the sick with Dom Jorge. It was a revelation and grace-filled moment for me to witness the terrific impact the bishop had on the sick, the nurses in the hospital, and the family members... For them, this was the person of Christ bringing them courage and hope... One of our professors had warned us of some of the errors of Liberation Theology. For me, if that was Liberation Theology in action, then Liberation Theology is making the Gospel and Jesus very much a presence in the lives of the people.”

To us here in our affluent, materialistic and individualistic society, George leaves a legacy and an urgent challenge: his lifetime commitment of building God’s Kingdom among the poor and dispossessed.

Personally then, and in the name of those who lived and worked with George and Sr. Frances Baker (who nursed George in January and February, and is now in Africa) I pray,

“Jorge, our beloved brother and most worthy shepherd, walk now with Jesus your brother and Saviour. Your time of tribulation is finished. Thank you for everything, for your life, your faith, your commitment to the poor. You have completed your mission. Rest in the arms of your loving Mother, Our Lady of the Rosary.”

The Prelacy of Itacoatiara, pastored by Scarboro missionary Bishop George Marskell (“Dom Jorge”), has founded and is involved in a number of significant projects and pastoral activities:

• accompanying 300 or so Basic Christian Communities—Christians who come together motivated by the Gospel and by their faith, to pray, sing, reflect, and discuss issues important to their lives;
• preparing young Brazilian men for the priesthood at the Oscar Romero Seminary founded by the prelacy;
• outreach to youth, challenging young people to a lifelong Christian commitment to transform the society in which they live;
• formation and training of catechists and liturgical animators;
• training of community leaders;
• human rights work through an organization offering legal assistance to the poor;
• a program for women so that they discover their dignity as women and their fundamental rights in the family, in society and in the Church.

Bishop Jorge also worked with CIMI (the Indigenous Missionary Council of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops), an organization committed to the cause of Brazil's Indigenous people, most of whom are in critical situations and are struggling for Native rights and self-determination. CIMI also provides educational and medical assistance to Native people.

As well, through the Brazilian Bishops' Pastoral Commission on the Land, he stood in solidarity with rural workers (farmers and fisherfolk) who struggle for land titles and against commercial fishing which endangers their livelihood.

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