Who is Pedro Opeka, the Argentine priest who built hope in a miserable neighborhood of Madagascar – 09/08/2019

Seeing some children fighting in a dump for a piece of pork to eat, the father Pedro Opeka He thought: "I have to do something, these people can't live like this, God doesn't want it, it's men who allow it, especially politicians who don't deliver what they promise."

Thus, in mid-1989, he joined people who lived in cardboard houses next to the municipal dump of Antananarivo, capital of Madagascar, and said: "If you are willing to work, I will help you." This is what the writer Jesús María Silveyra tells in his book “Journey to Hope” (Ed. Lumen, 2006) after having spent time in Madagascar to know in situ the work of this Argentine priest, focused on work and education so that the poor recover their dignity, not in welfare, which led him to found the Akamasoa Humanitarian Association ("The Good Friends") and raise with its future 25 thousand inhabitants in five villages with thousands of homes, in addition to schools, clinics and clubs. And launch productive ventures.

Born in San Martín, in the great Buenos Aires, in 1948, the son of Slovenian immigrants who fled the horrors of war, Pedro embraced his passion for football since childhood and at the same time acquired knowledge of masonry for his father's occupation. That training would be worth the nickname of "The bricklayer of God" because it would become very useful for all the buildings that would later be built. After studying at the school of the Vincentians in Lanus and Escobar, at age 18, he entered the seminary of San Miguel, where he had a theology professor who would eventually become world famous: Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

Enrolled in the congregation of the Mission of St. Vincent de Paul, at the age of 20 he left Argentina and traveled to Europe where he studied philosophy and theology, with a two-year volunteer in Madagascar, one of the poorest countries in the world. The experience impacted him and, in 1975, after being ordained in the basilica of Luján and decided to return to settle definitively. His first 15 years were spent by the Mission of Vagaindrano, in the south of the island, where he took care of the parish and faced some works. In 1989, with his health broken by having contracted malaria, he took over the seminar of the congregation in Antananarivo.

But the extreme gravity of the social situation, with so many people living in subhuman conditions, lor led to face a formidable task of social promotion with concrete works. And although he received help from abroad, the centrality of his action was based on engaging the inhabitants in their own development after gaining their trust and being very respectful of them, leaving aside all paternalism. “Assistance, when it becomes permanent (unless extreme need) becomes dependent on the subject of assistance and God came into the world to set us free, not slaves. ”says Father Pedro in Silveyra's book.

The numbers of his work are blunt: 25,000 people have their own home in five villages of the association; 10,000 children attend schools and 4,000 people work in the quarrys, furniture and crafts manufacturing, and community services. In addition, more than half a million have received temporary help so far at their Reception Center. In addition to the possibility of spiritual assistance. The Mass that he officiates every Sunday has the presence of thousands of faithful, who participate enthusiastically singing happy songs and listening to him with devotion.

What is your formula for getting out of poverty? He asked Clarion a year ago, during his last visit to Argentina. “Work, discipline and honesty. And respect: don't say one thing and do another. The work dignifies and makes you feel good because you have created something with your hands, thanks to your ability and talent. And they feel owners because they say: "We made them", "they are our houses", not the houses of someone who gives them to them. They sweated, suffered to achieve it, which leads them to not let them deteriorate. In addition, they have an experience of overcoming the effort that is transmitted to their children. ”

Distinguished with the Legion of Honor, the highest distinction of France, is mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. "I have little chance of receiving it because I am a Catholic priest," he says. And he completes: “But the people of my town give me the Nobel every year… I never had anything and at the same time I have everything. Because the more I shared, the more I gave, the more I received. ” But yesterday he felt he had another great reward: the visit of his former teacher, today Pope Francis.