Like the Bishop of Digne
Remembering Bishop George Marskell and his life of service, helping people discover their worth and dignity as human beings
By Paul McGuire
Summer 2006
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In 1996, new Scarboro lay missioner Paul McGuire joined the Brazil mission team. L-R: Paul, Fr. Omar Dixon, Bishop George Marskell, Fr. Ron MacDonell, Fr. Doug MacKinnon and lay missioner Karen Van Loon. Today, Frs. Dixon and MacDonell are the two remaining members of Scarboro's Brazil mission team. Karen Van Loon is now the coordinator of Scarboro's Justice and Peace Office in Canada. Bishop Marskell died in 1998 and Fr. MacKinnon in 2002, both of cancer.
This year, Denis Morris Catholic High School in St. Catharines, Ontario, where I work as chaplain, presented the musical, Les Miserables. Based on a great book by Victor Hugo, this wonderful musical is filled with many Gospel messages. When most people think of Les Miserables they think of France in the 1800s, the reformed criminal Jean Valjean, and the love story between Cossette, Marius and Eponine.
If you've seen the musical or read the book, you may remember that Jean Valjean stays a night at the home of the Bishop of Digne who gives him shelter when he's turned away from everyplace else.
Valjean, hardened by years of imprisonment, repays the bishop's kindness by stealing his valuable possessions-the silverware from his table. Valjean is soon caught and brought back by the police. However, the bishop tells the constables that he gave Valjean the silver and so they release him. The bishop goes even further and gives Valjean his silver candlesticks as well.
Seeing the musical for the first time at the age of 16, I thought about the kind of person who would do such an act of forgiveness and kindness. I met that person in 1995 when I traveled to Itacoatiara, Brazil, and stayed at the house of Scarboro missioner Bishop George "Dom Jorge" Marskell.
During my brief time living with Jorge I saw true charity and kindness the likes of which I had never seen before or since. Jorge will always be to me the "Bishop of Digne".
Living with the bishop
When I went to Itacoatiara as a new Scarboro lay missioner, I was told I'd be living with the bishop. Immediately ideas of a fancy house with lots of luxuries came to mind. In fact Jorge's house was quite simple and what there was of it was very much a community shared house. There were always lots of visitors.
One day I woke up, trotted across the space from my bedroom to the washroom in my underwear, only to be startled to find a bench full of people lined up in our living room, waiting for their morning appointments with the bishop.
Jorge was available to the people at all times. He would often be called in the middle of the night to come to the home of a sick or dying parishioner. And there were many days when we were just about to sit down to a meal when there would be a knock at the door from someone needing food. Jorge would often give away his own meal to that person.
Saturday morning music lessons for street kids, one of the programs at the Association Dom Jorge. Itacoatiara, Brazil.
As a young kid fresh out of university, I look back now and realize it must have been tough for Jorge to put up with my loud music and boisterous attitude. Several times I borrowed Jorge's motorcycle, leaving him stranded to walk to parishes as far as five kilometres away.
Yet Jorge never complained. In fact when I had been living with him for less than a month, I came home one day to find Jorge's belongings in the hallway. Of the two bedrooms in the house, one was the size of a walk-in closet and one was slightly larger. That day, Jorge moved out of the room he'd been sleeping in for the past 20 years and into the smaller bedroom so that I would be more comfortable.
It has been almost seven years since Dom Jorge passed away, and even now I continue to be reminded of a great man, and how the memory of a person's selfless acts of kindness stay with us for a lifetime.
Rosa Vieira McGuire (right), wife of Paul McGuire, with Dona Sylvia Aranha de Oliveira, president of the Dom Jorge Association. Sylvia has worked in the Prelacy of Itacoatiara for the last 32 years as a pastoral agent in the village of Silves and as director of Centrepi, the training centre of the Prelacy.
In Les Miserables, the bishop's act of forgiveness and kindness led Jean Valjean to conversion, forever changing the course of his life. In the same way, Dom Jorge's good deeds continue to impact others long after he leaves the scene. Les Miserables will always remind me of the Amazon River and a humble bishop named Jorge who wore blue jeans.
Paul McGuire, a former Scarboro lay missioner, is chaplain at Denis Morris Catholic High School in St. Catharines, Ontario. The school held a Starvathon as part of its Social Justice Week during Lent 2006. The week ended with a Mass celebrated by Bishop James Wingle of St. Catharines. Over $15,000 was raised for several projects including community organizations in Guatemala and Haiti, and for the Dom George Association in Itacoatiara. Read more about the Starvathon on the following pages.
Association Dom Jorge
Hoping to keep his dream alive, a small group of laity in the Prelacy of Itacoatiara have formed the Association Dom Jorge to continue some of the pastoral initiatives that Bishop George Marskell began. These initiatives include:
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Legal assistance and defense of poor farmers threatened with expulsion from their lands;
Adult education classes and a mobile library for children and adolescents living in poor neighbourhoods;
Medical assistance to the poor, and preventative health education;
Visitation and defense of prisoners languishing in jails.
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