On the second Sunday of December some 15 years ago, in a small village named Wanjin, 30 minutes outside Pingtung City in southern Taiwan, we chanced upon a curious “inspection tour.” It was curious in that, unlike traditional inspection tours in Taiwan, it involved the Virgin Mary instead of the usual folk religion gods.
Organized by the local Catholic priesthood, sourced in the sizeable — considering how small the village is — Catholic Church called the Wanjin Basilica of The Immaculate Conception, the day’s event included a range of celebratory activities and, situated to the side of the church, an outdoor confession.
The photo shows one of the priests listening intently to the confession of a woman dressed in aboriginal clothes. He is leaning forward, pressing his shoulder to the back of a wooden chair and cupping his ear to cut out distracting extraneous chatter and noise. The woman, an intense look on her face — is it contrition? is it sadness? — is looking into the mid-distance, not directly at the priest, her arms bent at the elbows and her hands half-concealing her mouth, perhaps to make her hushed words more audible to the priest, while maintaining her own sense of privacy, reluctant to allow others hear what she is saying.
大約十五年前的十二月第二個禮拜天,我們在距南台灣屏東約三十分鐘車程一個名叫萬金的小村莊,偶遇了一個有趣的「繞境」儀式。耐人尋味的是,不像台灣傳統中絕大多數的神明出巡,它出巡的是聖母瑪利亞,而不是常見的傳統民間信仰的神明。
這儀式是由當地一間名為「萬金聖母聖殿」的天主教教堂的神職人員所舉辦。這間教堂因坐落在小村裡而顯得尤其大。當天的活動包括了不同的慶典,以及教堂側邊舉行的戶外懺悔。
這張照片是一位神父留神傾聽著一位作原住民裝束婦女的懺悔。他傾身向前,肩膀緊埃著木製椅背,一手摀住另一隻耳朵以遮去其他無關的話語和噪音干擾。這位婦女表情激動,是悔罪?抑或悲傷?她目光投向不遠處,而沒有直視神父,她手臂彎曲,手半遮嘴,或許為了使壓低了的聲音能夠讓神父聽得更清楚,一方面也保有隱私,不讓別人聽見她在說什麼。
In the grounds of the church I also saw this little boy, lost in his own world as the confessions were going on in the background.
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