In Close proximity to the most marginalized
Father Christophe Six SJ travelled to the Amazon in September 2005, specifically to the Brazilian Amazon Region of the Society of Jesus, to become a member of the Itinerant Team working out of Manaus. My own arrival in the region was at the end of January 2006.
What is the Itinerant Team? We are a team of missionaries who do itinerant work in the Amazon region; we are both lay and religious and come from a variety of institutions and cultures. We share our lives with the people living along the river, with rural workers, with native peoples, and with the poor in the cities. For twelve years now the team has been working hard at forming new networks and joining hands with other Amazon projects – in a word, embracing frontiers. We work out of three central locations, one in Manaus, another in Tabatinga (where Colombia, Peru, and Brazil come together), and a third in Roraima (where Venezuela, Guyana, and Brazil come together).
“Close proximity to the most marginalized” was always the main concern of Fr. Christophe. It was for that reason that his first option was for the urban poor. His attention was focused on the challenges of the cities, where river-dwellers and native peoples intermingle and where drug addiction and crime are serious problems. There in the cities he saw reflected the violence of the larger society.
Subsequently Christophe, due to circumstances and his own generous and bold disposition, gave up his preference for the urban milieu and committed himself to learning about and working closely with the indigenous reality of Amazonia. Working with the Native Peoples Missionary Council, he dedicated himself heart and soul to the Munduruku people of the Nova Olinda region. He visited villages and lived close to the people, he promoted the women’s movement and the training of women leaders, and he accepted the challenge of reaffirming the value of the native culture. He also formed part of a team that was accompanying and doing research with riverside dwellers who were reasserting their Maraguá origins. His wholehearted dedication opened up new horizons for this native people and paved the way for the recognition of the Maraguás as an ethnic group that was seeking land and better conditions as a resurgent population. They feel tremendously grateful to Christophe.
Christophe impressed me by his habit of constant prayer, his discernment, his boldness, and also his humility. He had a tremendous ability to find the sense of God in the worst of conflicts, and he also sought out ways to get around obstacles when apparently, and perhaps objectively, there were none. In this way he helped avoid ruptures which would impede the progress of a work, and he fostered more amicable relationships which produced new life.
In October 2007 he was found to have lung cancer, and from that time until 4 January 2011 he did his best to take better care of himself and stay alive. From 2008 on he lived and worked in Itaici (São Paulo) as a director of the Spiritual Exercises. When I spoke to him in September to wish him a happy birthday, he told me that he was pleased because for a year and ten months he had not received chemotherapy; it seemed the nodules were no longer a problem. In November, however, his condition took a sudden and drastic turn for the worse and was out of control.
His lack of health did not allow him to realize his greatest desire, which was to lead a more contemplative life. Only God knows!
We are immensely grateful to you, Christophe, for your magnificent witnessing to God’s loving presence in the midst of us.
By Luísa Fernandes, Itinerant Team, Amazonia, Brazil
