Life on Rosebud Mission

Rosebud / St Francis Mission is the name of the Catholic ministry to people in the towns of Mission and Rosebud and some smaller surrounding towns. There are three Jesuit priests, Frs John, Tim and Ed who together lead 7 churches.

The South Dakotan country side is beautiful - wide open plains and big skies. I went for a run one afternoon along an almost deserted strip of highway, with the shadows from the setting sun stretching for miles across the fields, and the sky filled with more colour than I've just about ever seen. And you know you're in South Dakota when you're jogging past a buffalo farm!

I've been to a funeral, concelebrated Masses, done reconciliations at a few churches, and met lots of people. I'll help out with Christmas masses, and then I'll do masses next weekend filling in in for Fr Tim, who'll be away.

Something which has surprised me is how very ordinary and western/American the liturgies have been. I expected a lot more native rituals to be part of the funeral particularly, but it was quite straightforward, with only Amazing Grace sung in Lakota, the local language, and a traditional chant at the graveside being distinctive.

The Lakota people share similar problems to many Australian aborigines, a loss of cultural identity, poverty, dependence on welfare, and susceptibility to alcohol. Suicide and death by drunk drivers are the major killers, as are diabetes related illnesses partly triggered by obesity. Life expectancy is 20 years less that for the rest of America. Pine Ridge, a neighbouring Indian reservation is the poorest county in the US.

So while the mission is doing the usual Catholic things of attempting to re-evangelise the many baptised but unchurched and uncatechised Catholics, there is also a lot of work going into social services, to drug and alcohol rehab (partnering with the Betty Ford Clinic), and to helping to keep the culture alive, including teaching kids their own Lakota language.

I'm going to learn a lot.