Today I celebrated my last Sunday Mass here in Nuuk. By the grace of God many people attended.
The impression that I leave with me from this place is that there is a great future for the Catholic Church in Greenland. Souls are in great need of God, and of courageous missionaries who will bring Him to them.
The climate and geographic conditions of Greenland make missionary endeavors extremely difficult. This frigid land is about 81% ice-capped, and there is continuous permafrost over the northern two-thirds of the island. Transportation is difficult due to the weather, and because there are no roads between towns. To add to the difficulty of the physical climate, there is also the difficulty of the spiritual climate.
Without a doubt, the missionary who labors in Greenland faces a great challenge. However, when Christ gave the Great Commission, He also gave the great promise, “…Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” Therefore, no matter what challenge the missionary faces, he does not face it alone. The land of Greenland presents a unique opportunity for the missionary who is up for the challenge of this needy field!
This past Tuesday, Fr. Walter and I decided to climb to the top of Store Malene with a group of people from here. Store Malene is the highest peak of those accessible from Nuuk.
The hike and climb was hard, technical, and as demanded as we expected. It is what climbers call "alpine mixed climbing." Once at the top we had a great 360 degree view at the top and saw tantalizing peaks in the distance. Well worth the effort!
Another great day at the mission here in Nuuk, Greenland. Many people came to Holy Mass! It was another opportunity to share our faith and sacraments with Catholics living in the North Pole.
As in the past Sundays, a few non-Catholics also came to Mass and stayed for lunch or dinner.
In the year 999, the 20-year-old Leif, son of Erik the Red, traveled to Norway, where he met a saint, King Olaf Tryggvason. The King received him well, and instructed him in the Catholic faith, as was his habit with all heathens that he came across. . Leif was baptized soon after, and that led to the baptism of all his crew. Leif stayed the winter with King Olaf, and was well treated, being allowed to stay at court. A great honor was thus bestowed upon this chief’s son from the remote Greenland’s settlements.
Saint Olaf’s missionary zeal spread across the Atlantic Ocean by sending missionary priests to Iceland. When Leif announced his return to Greenland, Olaf seized the opportunity to enjoin Leif to preach the Gospel in the West. Leif left Norway in the early summer of 1000, and a missionary priest accompanied him. That was the beginning of the Catholic Church in Greenland.
In the past (perhaps before the year 15.000 BC), vast glaciers covered certain regions of North America and Greenland. During the post-glacial period the ice melted, except in Greenland, were it decided to remain…
The ice and snow are probably the hardest obstacle when going to different towns or house visits. One has to dress as if climbing Mount Everest!
In the 10th Century, Erik the Red led Icelandic Vikings westward onto the pasturelands of southwestern Greenland, opening the way to the first European colony in the Americas a generation later. Erik was enraptured by the country before his eyes; it was far richer than the parts of Iceland in which he could possibly have settled. He was the one to name this vast country, whose interior was covered by one enormous ice sheet, “Greenland,” for in summer the land is green, in contrast with the ice and snow of the mountains. Thus, in the summer of 986, the Norse settlers established a stable society of devout Catholics that flourished for the better part of 400 years. And then they vanished. Nobody is certain of what happened then.
Sunday is the best day for apostolate here at the mission. During the week we visited many families and different people, Catholics and non Catholics, and invited them to come to Mass. On Sunday you have them all together, and therefore it’s a great opportunity for us in order to evangelize the inhabitants of Greenland.
In the morning things didn’t look as planned… The weather was really bad… so windy that almost you couldn’t see anything, and it was also snowing a lot (it’s been snowing almost non stop for a week now…). But it seemed not to matter to our parishioners, for most of them came to our two Masses, even though it was so bad outside. Some of them even walked for a couple of miles or more to get here! Many non Catholics came to Mass today, which is really great!
Of all the books written by Servant of God Segundo Llorente, the one that excels is the one titled “40 Years in the Polar Circle.” This book defines the stature of this “Hercules of God” who never said no to God and who lived a happy life as a priest.
These are some excerpts from his book:
“Neither the Blessed Virgin nor the angels can do what priests do every day, Christ could have arranged things in many other ways; but He chose the intervention of the priests. Upon this figure He partakes to bring salvation to the human race”.
“Among the promises to the devotes of his Sacred Heart we could not miss a most special one for his priests, the promised grace to soften the hearts of those most hardened”
“It seems very common for the Lord having to obey; when I consecrate He must obey; when I absolve He must approve, if there is no faulty impediment; when I baptize He must adopt the creature. He voluntarily submitted Himself to us, as it is often said: “He opted to be at our service”.
“In the mornings I unravel off the blankets like a bear snapping out of his den. I light a candle and jumping into my seal fur boots, always filled with dry grass to make then more comfortable and less cold; I fire the stove and if the water had turn into ice I melt it to be able to wash. Just open a door and walk two steps, there I am, in front of the altar”.
“I tell the Lord the same words that the father of the Prodigal son told his older son “You are always with me and all I have is yours”, but I seem to hear the other way around: that I am the one always with Him and all His things are mine, and that’s the way it should be, because, my belongings, what good would they make to Him? What is He going to do with my patched-up boots, my ragged garments or my ignorance? On the other hand I can make use of his magnificent attributes: His omnipotence, his kindness and his mercy. Certainly I am always with Him”.
This Jesuit priest, above all, a missionary, spent most of his apostolic life deep in the Artic Polar Circle. He was born on November 18, 1906 in Mansilla Mayor in the province of Leon, Spain. He died on the 26th of January 1989 in Spokane, Washington, U.S.A., and was buried in Desmet, Idaho, U.S.A.
At the early age of 17 he answered the call to become a priest, and at 19 went to the missions. He had volunteered for "the most remote and difficult places", and soon after obtained permission to go to Alaska. Forty years among the Eskimos, he traveled thousands of miles and dwell on both sides of the Yukon River. He spent long seasons in Akurulak, Bethel, Kotzebue, and Alakanuc, the first being the place of some of his most exciting memories made famous in the book "Crónicas Akurulakeñas". Segundo Llorente went back to Spain only once, in 1963, a trip design to encourage vocations to the priesthood.
He wrote twelve books about Alaska (some of them published in English as well). Four years of theology school in Kansas gave him a perfect command of the English language. He was also able to speak sufficient "Eskimo" language to make himself understood among the natives. He wrote thousands of letters, with his deep and habitual flare, inviting the youth of the world to join the priesthood and the rewards of becoming missioners. His letters and essays about life among the Eskimos were published in the magazines "Misiones" and "El Siglo de las Misiones". He was a saint, a model of what it is to be a priest!
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