"Since January 16 I am as a warden and professor of Gregorian at Saint Joseph's College. Meanwhile father [Peter] Pillai, my superior, asked me to start Scouting. There are about twohundred boys at boarding-school and about sixteenhundred pupils. There are also the beginnings of YCS1, in which I am involved. I suppose I'll also be involved in Young Christian Workers movement one of these fine days. I don't know whether I can manage all that. I never thought of a life like that. Here, at college, all is modern town-life: football, cricket a.s.o. - there is a lot of sporting."2
Father Henk Schram wrote these sentences to his former superior in the Netherlands on 3rd March 1949. Henk (Henry) Schram was born near Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, on November 28 1919. His family belowed to lower middle-class; Henk was the eldest of seven children. When he was still a small child, his family moved to the south of the country; Henk grew up in villages near Germany and Belgium. When he was twelve, he chose for becoming an Oblate of Mary Immaculate. He may have been impressed by their modest living conditions and special interest in poor people. Henk's two brothers followed him in that choice. Henk was studying in Belgium, when in May 1940 German armies invaded the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg and France. He and his fellow-students fled to the sea-coast. They could not escape however, and saw in stead how people had been killed or were killing each others. Students were deeply impressed and cared about wounded people. While invaders started persecuting many thousands of innocent people - among whom lots of Jews - Dutch students were called back to the occupied Netherlands, where Henk Schram secretely became active for Resistance movement. In June 1944, a few months before liberation of the region he was living in, he became a priest. Two years later he was sent to Ceylon, which was about to become independent from England and where, during two and a half years, he worked in poor parishes, especially among fishers' population. Father Schram showed himself enthusiast about both population and country, which he considered as being purer (less spoilt) than those in Europe.
"Scouting is running splendidly", he informed his former superior November 24 1949. "Both for Scouting and for YCW3 God has given me splendid leaders. I consider this gift as a great token of friendship from Heaven and, in fact, a little bit as a miracle. The fellows in YCW are topping fighters and men who by grace immediately understood YCW-ideal. With respect to Scouting the same is true: well trained and persevering people, full of ardour, deeply Catholic. Apart from Scouting and YCW I am busy with engineering YCS."
"Concerning my wardenhood", father Schram continued, "I also have some troubles with the system and with the people who are defending it. Basis for education is, to my thinking, friendship. So my attitude is more democratic towards the boys. Sometimes hard words have been spoken on that, but a few weeks ago an English university professor (prof. Green) came here, who gave a lecture on education. He made a distinction between the dictatorial, democratic and laissez-faire4 system and proved from experiments, that the democratic one was the best one, although the results are visible only in the higher studies. Now the wind has turned and noboby disputes. Providence!"5
"Scouting is excellent", father Henk Schram reported on May 20 1950. "Last meeting of Pioneers of my YCW-section was as a whole fire and flame6. Two weeks ago we also started with the slums".7 Father Henk Schram was, of course, a child of his time and environs. As far as we can see, however, he has shown remarkable openness. He had a wide horizon and was open to what others would tell him. He would not condemn anyone easily. And he cared even less for forcing his opinion down another's throat. Yet he had an opinion: he was convinced to the backbone, that every human being is a child of God...so responsible for his fellow human beings, who are his brothers and sisters. Deeply convinced he also was of the fact, that every human being has an inalienable value and that human dignity may be hard pressed by (social) injustice. `Serving God' meant according to father Schram: inquiring into yourself and other people and into your own and their situation, contemplating individuals and structures, working on personal and social corrections, and encouraging others to do the same.
Father Henk Schram drew upon ideas of the Belgian priest Josef Cardijn and his movement óf, fór and bý working youth. In co-operation with among others canon Cardijn and Ceylonese and French colleagues, he succeeded in building up in Ceylon a movement like that. `See, judge and act', was the motto. Men and women of every rank, station and age and regardless their religious convictions had to become fully active in their society. They had to become - also when they were of low descent - conscious of their dignity and responsibility. They had to make full use of their eyes, ears, feeling and intellect in their own living- and working-environs, they had to visit the slums, and they had to be active in trade-unions, co-operations and other social organizations. Father Henk Schram - among so many others - made a stand for human dignity, solidarity and mutual understanding. He also wanted full-fledged place for laypeople in Roman-Catholic church.
In his Ceylonese days already father Henk Schram showed himself being internationally active. He, for example, helped in building up monsignor Jozef Cardijn's movement elsewhere in Asia and cherished his international contacts. He thought that Ceylonese, who had to bear their own movements, should be informed about developments in their own country and abroad. Moreover, just like Jozef Cardijn he was convinced that mankind is one big family and that, what is happening in one place, has consequences for people elsewhere. So there should be co-operation; people everywhere in the world could learn from each others. Ceylonese travelled around and followed courses and attended international meetings. Henk Schram himself visited Rome, Manila, Melbourne, Karachi, Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam and so many other places, where he pleaded in favour of international solidarity and a more important role for laity in Roman-Catholic church.
In 1966 Father Henk Schram for good returned to the Netherlands. He thought that his job in Ceylon was jobbed and had, by working very hard and living in an extraordinarily sober way, undermined his health. Next years he would be in great support of among others Dutch Young Christian Workers. Society as a whole was on the move. Established relationships of authority in church, civil society, workshops and families were no longer taken for granted. Lots of people turned their back upon their church and openly made their own choices, regardless official teachings. On a local, provincial, national and international level father Henk Schram was an inspirator for progressive people who were striving after changes in Roman-Catholic church, for people who stood for environments, or who devoted themselves to underprivileged people in their own country, or in a peace or Third World group.
Father Henk Schram made people think, showed interconnections, brought people into contact with each others and, more than that: he listened. He made people feel that they had a right to be regarded as seriously thinking human beings. Although he never visited Sri Lanka again, he all the time was in good contact with Sri-Lankans, some of whom visited him and his family. On his death-bed he told a nurse about his deep concerns regarding developments in Sri Lanka, the country he kept loving so dearly. He died in Amsterdam on October 9 1984, so before his 65th birthday, the age when most Dutch retired from work. "[The person] who wants to be a light, must endure burning", he once had written in his diary. Father Henk Schram was burned.
1 Young Christian Students movement
2 "Sinds 16 januari zit ik als prefect en professortje in het St. Joseph's College. (...) Ondertussen heeft pater Pillai, mijn overste, me gevraagd om de Verkennerij te beginnen. Er zijn hier ongeveer tweehonderd jongens in kostschool en een 1600 leerlingen. Ook bestaat hier reeds het begin van de JEC, waar ik ook met mijn neus in zit. En ik zal een dezer dagen ook met mijn neus in de Kajotterij zitten. Ik weet niet of ik dat allemaal ook kan bolwerken. (Ben ook nog professor voor Gregoriaans.) Stelt u zich voor! Aan zo'n leven had ik nooit gedacht. Hier in het college is alles modern stadsleven. Voetbal en cricket enz. enz. Er wordt heel veel aan sport gedaan." (From a letter to father Jos Voogt March 3 1949)
3 Young Christian Workers movement
4 (French): `let things alone', so: liberal
5 "De Verkennerij gaat prachtig. Én voor de Verkennerij én voor de KAJ heeft God me prachtige leiders gegeven. Ik beschouw deze gift als een groot teken van vriendschap uit de hemel en eigenlijk een beetje als een wonder. De kerels in de KAJ zijn reuze vechtersbazen en mannen die bij genade onmiddellijk het ideaal der KAJ begrepen. Met de Verkennerij hetzelfde: goed getrainde en doorzettende lui vol vuur, diep katholiek. Buiten Verkennerij en JOC ben ik bezig met de JEC op touw te zetten. (...) Wat mijn prefectschap betreft: ook daar heb ik enige moeilijkheden met het systeem en met de mensen die het verdedigen. De basis voor opvoeding is mijns inziens vriendschap, met het gevolg dat mijn houding meer democratisch is tegenover de jongens. Soms zijn harde woorden daarover gevallen, maar enkele weken geleden kwam een Engelse universiteitsprofessor hier (prof. Green) die een lezing gaf over opvoeding en een distinctie maakte tussen het dictatoriale, democratische en laissez-faire systeem en uit experimenten bewees dat het democratische het beste was, ofschoon de resultaten slechts in de hogere studies tot uiting kwamen. Nu is de wind gedraaid en niemand discuteert. Voorzienigheid!"
6 so: complete enthusiasm
7 "De Verkennerij is opperbest. De laatste Pioneers-bijeenkomst van mijn KAJ-sectie was al vuur en vlam. Sinds veertien dagen zijn we ook met de slums-sloppen + achterbuurten begonnen." (From a letter to father Jos Voogt)
JO SCHOORMANS
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten