Fr. Bruno Saint-Girons, a French MEP missionary, was a parish priest for 15 years in the Southeast Asian metropolis that the Pope is currently visiting. He speaks with about the daily life of their communities. And he expresses a wish: “I would like this great city to learn from Francis not to judge, but to listen to everyone.”
Milan () – “The first thing that strikes you when you arrive in Singapore is the image of a modern and advanced city. But little by little I came to understand that there are deeper traditions (Chinese, Malay, Indian) that continue to act in the minds and hearts of people.”
Fr. Bruno Saint-Girons, a French missionary with the Paris Foreign Missions, has spent many years of his ministry in the great metropolis of South-East Asia, where Pope Francis began his visit today, for the last stage of his apostolic journey through Asia and Oceania. In 2019, he returned to his home diocese, Evreux, where he is now parish priest, prison chaplain and in charge of interreligious dialogue, but he has kept many friends in Singapore, whom he visited this summer. He tells what everyday life is like in the big city, a melting pot of historic communities, migrants and expatriates who sometimes stay for a few years to work in the Asian branches of large global companies.
These different faces are also reflected in the local Catholic community: around 395,000 faithful, about 7% of the population, with whom Pope Francis will celebrate Mass tomorrow afternoon at the National Stadium. “In Singapore I served four parishes,” says Fr. Saint-Girons. “It is a fairly large community, about 10,000 people who attend Mass every weekend. They are mixed communities, made up of people who participate with different motivations. They are also interreligious communities, where I have met people who were generally looking for a meaning for their lives. And the openness between the different groups living in Singapore depends a bit on the people: in some I found this desire, in others less so.”
It is a reality that – beneath the image of efficiency – is also crossed by more complex dynamics. “There is a kind of tension between tradition and modernity – says the MEP missionary -. At this moment, many young people question many things, they carry within them the desire to ‘deconstruct’ a model.”
Singapore is apparently one of the metropolises in Asia that offers the most opportunities to people. But what do people need most? “There is a general tendency to seek success,” observes Father Saint-Girons, “and this can lead many people to stress and exasperation in the face of this desire. A friend confessed to me that for him Singapore was like a prison. It is good for work, for business; but there is a danger that can also be reflected in the Church itself, because there is a risk of seeing even “salvation” as a form of success, where the only thing that matters is that in the end I go to heaven…”
What legacy would you like to see left to the local Catholic community by Pope Francis’ visit? “His message of openness, also towards those who are not like us,” the missionary concludes. “The invitation not to judge them but to listen to them, to walk with them. I think that in a context like that of Singapore, remembering these attitudes can be very useful.”
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