Meetings between holiness and politics are inherently dramatic. Think of Jesus' trial, of A'Beckett's murder, of Luther at Worms, of Romero's last sermon. Most of these were tragedies. In Fr Pierre Ceyrac, a French Jesuit priest who died last week at the age of 98, politics and holiness met dramatically, but as comedy.
I met Pierre in the Cambodian refugee camps by the Thai Border. It was at the beginnings of the Jesuit Refugee Service. Pierre was then in his early 70s, having come from India where he had spent most of his Jesuit life, notably helping to form a national association of many thousand Catholic students.
He was a charismatic figure whose focus was entirely on the people whom he gathered together. He had an instinctive grasp of pastoral needs, but little interest in the institutional structures that might carry his work into the future. He lived for the day because the day is the place where people live.
Pierre was a recognisably holy man in the tradition of Francis of Assisi, whose gaiety, freedom and deep compassion he shared. He was totally present to the people with whom he was speaking and enjoyed their company. As a result those of us who knew him came quickly to treasure and to love him.
He also had a total freedom with money. He was comfortable begging for funds for his beloved refugees from leading people in French society and enjoyed their company. But he wanted nothing for himself. By my counting he had only a pair of sandals and a change of clothing, and never seemed to eat.
The Cambodian refugee camps were set in a complex and cynical political context. The United States and ASEAN nations supported them because they were associated with resistance groups, including the Khmer Rouge, which fought the Vietnamese occupation. The camps were supplied with food by the United Nations Border Relief Organisation (UNBRO) that also established the rules under which the many NGOs and volunteers worked.
The camp was set between the guns of the Thai army and the Vietnamese forces. It was guarded and gutted by members of the Thai paramilitary, many of whom were recruited from prisons.
Pierre was involved in simple community work, resourcing refugee groups that supported women and children at risk. Like other volunteers he had to find a way of working that expressed his idealism and faith and at the same time recognised the morally