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35 C H A P T E R T H R E E I v a n I l l i c h a s We K n e w H i m i n t h e 1 9 5 0 s Joseph P. Fitzpatrick, S.J. I van Illich embarked on his New York City career as a young assistant priest at Incarnation Parish in upper Manhattan where, in a few short years, he became the beloved priest of a quite varied gathering of parishioners. It was also in this position that he began to exercise an extraordinary influence over the administration and the young priests of the New York archdiocese. At this time the archdiocese was experiencing a rapid influx of hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans, newcomers to a city that had been a haven for immigrants for more than a century. This immigration was a challenge to the city as well as to the archdiocese. If the archdiocese responded reasonably well in its performance, this measure of success was due, more than to anyone else, to Ivan Illich. He gave a vision to officials and priests that they needed and was able to guide them in the development of a pastoral ministry to the Puerto Ricans that was remarkably creative. It was in this context that I came to know him, and his friendship has been one of the great blessings of my spiritual and religious life as well as of my professional career . With all the attention given to Deschooling Society or Medical Nemesis or Gender, to those of us who were close to Ivan in his early days, he is remembered as a profoundly religious person capable of giving us a deep insight into the realities of our religious experience and of inspiring us to dedicated ministry. Once Illich arrived at Incarnation Parish and realized that many newly arrived Puerto Ricans had moved into the area, he went to Puerto Rico, learned Spanish almost overnight, and spent one month on foot exploring many aspects of Puerto Rican life. He asked Bishop James Davis, then the ordinary of San Juan, if anyone had come from New York to study the background of the Puerto Ricans. The bishop told him that I had been there some months before and gave Illich a report of my visit that I had left with him. Illich read this and searched me out when he returned to New York. I was amazed at the insights he had gained into the culture of Puerto Ricans, and the vision he reflected that would guide us in our ministry to them. He was keenly aware of the importance of ministering to them in a spiritual and religious style that made sense to Puerto Ricans in the context of their culture and traditions. He saw the danger of seeking to make them over in the image of the Irish or German Catholicism of New York. He had also established an extraordinary relationship with Francis Cardinal Spellman. Then, in his conversations with me and the priests of the archdiocese, he worked out with us the pastoral style that assisted us greatly in our response to the spiritual needs of the newcomers. However important it was to help them learn English for education, employment, and political activity , their religious practice made sense only in their native language. He also insisted on a ministry that would enable them to continue their traditional religious practices. He formed a generation of priests who became outstanding in parishes where it was necessary for them to minister to established English-speaking parishioners and, at the same time, to adapt their ministry to the needs of Puerto Ricans. One of his first achievements was the development of El Cuartito de María (The Little House of Mary), as creative a response, as I have seen, to Puerto Ricans. He rented an apartment in a tenement occupied by Puerto Rican families. With the help of a few dedicated young women of the parish, he set up an informal neighborly apartment where the young women could play with the children and mind them while their mothers were shopping; where women could gather for friendly conversation ; and where the young women simply fulfilled the role of good neighbors. This was exactly the kind of casual, personal relationship that would have been characteristic of a barrio in Puerto Rico. Had this kind of imaginative response been multiplied , the experience of Puerto Ricans would have been...

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