The Magazine of the Missionary Society of St. Columban
August/September 2014
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o n t e n t s
Issue Theme – Friends on the Journey
Volume 97 - Number 5 - August/September 2014
Columban Mission Published By The Columban Fathers
Columban Mission (Issn 0095-4438) is published eight times a year. A minimum donation of $10 a year is required to receive a subscription. Send address and other contact information changes by calling our toll-free number, by sending the information to our mailing address or by e-mailing us at missionoffice@columban.org.
Motorcycle Diaries
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The Rainbow 14 Community Foundation (Emmaus Industries)
4 First Full-Length Fijian Bible
A Gift to the Faithful
5 The Importance of Institutional Memory
The Columban Archives
8 Columban Connections
A Vocation in Myanmar
10 Ordinations in Myanmar
Enduring Faith
16 Remembering Komai
Friendship Forged at Language School
17 True to My Dream
The ups and downs of God’s call to be a teacher
19 A Picture that Keeps on Teaching
50 Years of Education
20 Paying Tribute
A trip from Suva to what was once the heart of the Catholic mission in Fiji
Departments 3 In So Many Words 23 From the Director
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Mailing Address: Columban Mission PO Box 10 St. Columbans, NE 68056-0010 Toll-Free Phone: 877/299-1920 Website: WWW.COLUMBAN.ORG Copyright © 2014, The Columban Fathers (Legal Title) Publisher REV. TimOTHY Mulroy, SSC directorusa@columban.org Editor Kate Kenny kkenny@columban.org Editorial AssistantS Connie Wacha cwacha@columban.org Marci Anderson manderson@columban.org G RA P HI C DESI G NER KRISTIN ASHLEY Editorial Board Dan Eminger Jesus Manuel Vargas Gamboa Chris Hochstetler Kate Kenny REV. TimOTHY Mulroy, SSC Jeff Norton Greg Simon Fr. Richard Steinhilber, SSC Connie Wacha Scott Wright
The Missionary Society of St. Columban was founded in 1918 to proclaim and witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ. The Society seeks to establish the Catholic Church where the Gospel has not been preached, help local churches evangelize their laity, promote dialogue with other faiths, and foster among all baptized people an awareness of their missionary responsibility.
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Widening the Net “Is there anything I can do to help? Just let me know!” God seems to send generous people our way. We Columban missionaries, both ordained and lay people, feel challenged at times to widen our nets and welcome new collaborators. They want to join in the mission of Christ as we try to live it, doing what they can, attracted to our practice of crossing cultural, national and even natural boundaries in order to share the Good News with peoples of languages and customs that were unknown to us. One day I decided to finally answer the question, “What can I do to help?” and invited people from the parish communities of El Paso, Texas, to attend a meeting. Together, we soon formed a group of about 20 people who took on the title “Columban Volunteer Corps,” and they are now busy with a couple of projects. The Corps volunteers help us keep the Columban Mission Center tidy and ready for groups of university students and school teachers from different parts of the country who come to El Paso. These groups stay in our center for about a week at a time, and we organize three or four visits or presentations each day during their time with us about the rights of undocumented migrants, the organizations and In So Many Words institutions that protect them, with additional stops By Fr. Robert Mosher at the international border fence and including a presentation by the Border Patrol agents themselves. Our new Columban Volunteer Corps also promotes Columban projects with fundraising events, and we meet regularly among ourselves for reflection and business. For Mother’s Day this year, for instance, which falls on the same weekend for both Mexico and the U.S., the Corps, or CVC, decided to organize an Italian spaghetti supper in two sittings, with a raffle, to raise funds for our Mother and Child clinics in Pakistan. The CVC members were very excited about it, planning their costumes and fanning out into the business community to acquire donations. I hope you enjoy the stories in this issue, all centered around these generous collaborators of ours in different parts of the world, our extended family of supporters and volunteers who help make it possible for us to continue to respond to Christ’s call to, “Go out to all nations.”
God seems to send
generous people our way.
Columban Fr. Robert Mosher is the Director of the Columban Mission Center in El Paso, Texas.
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First Full-Length Fijian Bible A Gift to the Faithful By Fr. David G. Arms
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n the feast of St. Luke, on October 18, 2013, Archbishop Peter Loy Chong, the new Archbishop of Suva, Fiji, presided at the launch of the first full-length Fijian Bible. When the Christianization of Fiji began in the 1830s and 1840s, an effort was very quickly made to translate some of the Scriptures into the Fijian language. Soon the Methodist Church was able to put out a translation of the entire bible, minus the deuterocanonical books. These are the seven books and the additions to Esther and Daniel that the Church has read from the beginning but which the Jewish community decided in the first and second century were not part of the bible and so dropped them. In modern times, the Catholic, Orthodox and a few other Churches still accept them 4
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The Archbishop blessed and launched the new volume, and immediately a section was read from the book of Wisdom and from the Gospel of John. as part of the bible, but the other denominations do not. Although in due course some short portions of these books were translated as required for the Catholic lectionary, they remained basically un-translated until recently. In the 1960s, with the agreement of the Christian Churches, the Bible Society of the South Pacific began a new translation of the entire bible. In the 1990s, the Bible Society suggested that if the Catholic Church was prepared to undertake the task of translating the deuterocanonical books, the
Bible Society would be prepared to publish two versions of the newly translated bible – one without the deuterocanonical books, and one with them. The Catholic Church accepted this challenge and its translation office, called Vosa (which translates as “word” or “language”), set to work. Since I was in fact the director of that office, I managed to get together a small committee of translators who were certainly very competent but who could only meet occasionally. Since the Vosa office itself only had a staff of two or three (besides myself) and had other translation tasks to attend to, the work progressed only slowly, but progress it did. Vosa’s principal translator, Mr. Aminiasi Qiatabua, prepared a first draft, then the translation committee worked on the draft www.columban.org
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to produce a translation that was both faithful to the original and acceptable modern Fijian. The Vosa office then formatted the work appropriately and the Bible Society kindly undertook the task of setting the whole volume and having it printed. Of course, finances were an ongoing problem, but donations helped fund the translation work and eventually helped pay for the publication of the new bible. The launching ceremony itself was very impressive. After the Archbishop had solemnly entered the Cathedral, a copy of the new bible was ceremonially processed up to him to the accompaniment of a Fijian lali (wooden drum) and davui (conch shells). The Archbishop blessed and launched
the new volume, and immediately a section was read from the book of Wisdom and from the Gospel of John. The Archbishop gave a stirring homily on the importance of the Word of God in our lives. After some touching prayers of the faithful, the religious service came to a triumphant end with a fitting hymn sung by all. That was not the end of proceedings, however. All were immediately invited to descend
to the crypt under the Cathedral. There, talks were given by myself (for the Catholic Church) and Epenisa Lewatoro (for the Bible Society) giving background about the bible and about this particular translation effort, accompanied by a video. Then all broke up for light refreshments and socialization, while the new bible went on sale (at a reduced price) and was enthusiastically purchased by many of the faithful. CM Columban Fr. David Arms lives and works in Fiji.
The Importance of Institutional Memory The Columban Archives by Michael Arbagi
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ave you ever heard that history isn’t practical? Did you ever make fun of a friend or relative who majored in history or a related field? Well, hopefully by the end of this article you will have changed your mind about these matters. I’ve had the great privilege of serving as the archivist for the Columban Fathers www.CoLuMbAn.orG
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here in Omaha since June 2012. It’s been an illuminating experience, and I’ve learned an enormous amount about the outstanding work that the Columbans have accomplished all over the world. The Columban archives maintain records of all of those accomplishments, so that future generations will know about it
and can appreciate it. If you’ll give me a few moments of your time, I can show you how the Columban archives function in order to maintain what we call “institutional memory.” So what exactly is an archive and what is the purpose of maintaining one? An archive is a repository (that’s a fancy term for a place August/September 2014
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to put things) for keeping and preserving the records of an institution that the organizational leadership has determined to have institutional value (i.e., they are worth keeping). By the way “records” aren’t just those old vinyl LPs in your basement. They can refer to paper documents, photographs, audio-visual materials, objects of any kind, electronic documents and photographs, and many other things. One of the duties of an archivist is to devise and maintain orderly systems so that researchers can access information in the records in a timely manner. This concept is known as “intellectual control.” Okay, so what does that mean in plain English? If you remember going to the library, and navigating the Dewey Decimal System, then you can get an idea of intellectual control. The system was designed so that users, in a large quantity of information and records, could locate and access the information they wanted in a timely manner. That’s why the librarians always told you not to replace a book that you took from its shelf but did not want to check out, and to allow them to take care of that. They had a definite, specific system for finding things and didn’t want you throwing a monkey wrench into that. So “intellectual control” essentially means that 6
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people can quickly find information about a specific topic, even in large repositories. These days many archival systems are computerized, and that makes intellectual control even faster and simpler (hopefully). None of this, though, answers the question of what are the practical uses of archives. Well, organizations that have been around for a period of time (including the Columbans) receive many research requests that must be answered about things that occurred in the past. We need records to accomplish this. But there’s more. Archives and records have more practical uses, such as maintaining institutional heritage and building upon knowledge for new developments. In fact, archives have been instrumental throughout history in academic, medical, scientific and technological breakthroughs. In many of the great advances that have occurred over the past several decades, most of them have been due to teams of researchers be they computer scientists, medical researchers, professors, and others, who are working on a particular issue. Often these individuals and their successors toil for years or even decades on a particular problem, making little progress. Then, all of a sudden, the researchers make a breakthrough discovery that
enables them to find the miracle medical treatment, write the code for an amazing computer program or decipher a lost ancient language. If nobody had been keeping records throughout this process about what worked and what did not, these advances would likely not have been possible. Consider that the next time you hear someone saying that history is impractical. In the case of the Columbans, we want to prepare the archives for the publication of the book in honor of the 100th anniversary of the organization. The Columban Fathers have been at work around the globe for nearly a century in not only spreading the Gospel, but also in charitable projects, reaching out to other faith groups, and many other areas. Many Columbans have paid for their beliefs and work by spending time in prison, being expelled from countries, or even losing their lives. The role of the Columban archives is to preserve and document those great achievements, making sure that records which do show the accomplishments are not lost or forgotten. Although these records may seem like a bunch of useless documents and recordings, they are priceless in their ability to make the public aware about Columban achievements. Being a chemical engineer or airline pilot may be more prestigious than archival work. Nonetheless, archives can play an important role in organizations, including the Missionary Society of St. Columban. CM Michael Arbagi is a Certified Archivist. He works in the St. Columbans, Nebraska office.
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Our Missionary Journey Since the very founding of the Society, we have been on a missionary journey together with you, our friends, who journey with us. In the early days of the Society, co-founder Ned Galvin wrote in a letter to a fellow missionary that “I have no doubt but that God will lead us where he wants us to work but, at the same time, we must use the reason He has given us and seek the place where we think we can do the most good and do it for the longest possible time.” God has been our guide in this journey and together, as friends who share the same values and concerns, we have made a difference in places like China, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Fiji, Pakistan, Myanmar (burma), Mexico, Chile, Peru, Japan and also in the united States, Australia, britain and Ireland. Like the Mission of the Twelve in the Gospel of Luke, we have been summoned and sent out with you, our friends in this journey, “to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. ”we have seen the incredible fruits of this calling blossom in the far reaches of the world as faith has rooted and thrived. we are forever grateful that you have been with us on this journey. we have shared with you our joy and our sorrow in the pages of the Columban Mission magazine. we have experienced your own personal fulfillment in life, the raising of your families, baptisms, first communions, graduations and even the farewells. Through it all, our mutually supportive prayers have given comfort, hope and confidence in the journey.
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The journey continues, and we ask you now to continue with us on this journey. God’s kingdom here must continue to grow. The need is still great, and there are still many miles left for us to travel together. Please consider making a gift to the Columban Fathers as we continue God’s work, together, as friends on the journey. You may use the envelope insert in this magazine to support our work. we remain grateful to you and will always remember you in our Masses and prayers. For information regarding gift annuities, membership in our Legacy Society, obtaining our legal title or for a handy booklet on how to prepare a will, contact Chris Hochstetler at: Columban Fathers P.o. box 10 St. Columbans, nE 68056 Phone: 402/291-1920 Fax: 402/291-4984 Toll-free: 877/299-1920 www.columban.org plannedgiving@columban.org
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Columban Connections A Vocation in Myanmar by Fr. bosco n-lam Hkun Seng “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people” (Luke 5:10). I would like to share with you about my vocation. Before I proceed, let me introduce myself and how my grandparents and my father converted to Catholicism. I am Bosco N-lam Hkun Seng. My father married twice. I am the second-born child from the second marriage. My siblings are nine in number including my two stepbrothers. My father told me the story of his becoming Christian. My grandparents and my father were animists honoring the spirits called nat jaw. They lived in Kachyihtu which is now one of the remotest parishes in Myitkyina diocese. Kachyihtu is located in the northern part of the country and of the diocese of Myitkyina as well. It is two days of travel by boat from Myitkyina upstream from the Irrawaddy and one day on foot. When my father was a little boy he was seriously ill. For his recovery from illness my grandfather offered ten cows to so many kinds of nats (spirits) but did not succeed. When Columban Fr. Owen Rodgers (d. 1997) whom they called “Wa Jau Ra Ja” arrived to Kachyihtu he prayed for him and my father got 8
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Celebrating at ordination!
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better. In 1952, my grandparents were converted to Catholicism in the hands of this same Columban missionary. In 1956, my father was also baptized by him. My grandfather was a man of great dignity which garnered for him the respect of all. Due to the war, when the Columban Fathers could not go to Kachyihtu for about eight years he was the one who organized the faithful. The last parish priest of Kachyihtu was Columban Fr. Owen O’Leary who left the village in 1967. My father hadn’t been highly educated. He studied up to only grade eight in Columban mission school in Myitkyina under the guidance of Columban Fathers Thomas Walsh (who died 1945 at the age of 34 from malaria after internment by the Japanese in Mandalay), Thomas Dowling (d.1979), John J O’Sullivan (d.1989) and Fr. Owen O’Leary (d.2013). When the war broke out my grandfather called him back to Kachyihtu, and he could not continue his study. In 1967, he began to work as a catechist, and in 1969 he attended the catechetical course in St. Luke’s Catechist School in Tanghpre, Myitkyina, under the guidance of Columban Fr. Bernard Way (d. 1993) whom they gave Kachin name “Wa Jau www.CoLuMbAn.orG
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Naw Seng.” From then on, my father has been working as a permanent catechist in Myitkyina Diocese. Since my father was a catechist, priests would come to our home every now and then, so priests were no strangers to me since my boyhood. I observed from then on, the way they spoke, the way they dressed and what they did. They were my heroes. For me, they were Mr. “Know All.” But when I joined the seminary, I came to know that a large number of priests have
“Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people” ~Luke 5:10 abandoned their priestly ministry throughout the world for various reasons. I was surprised as I saw very human elements in priestly community. On the other hand, I came to know holy priests and good priests also. In my seminarian life, I liked reading mission magazines such as Columban Mission and the PIME World. I got much wisdom from
those magazines. I came across the word of a Columban Fr. Jim Cloonan (d. 1992). He said to a Burmese priest Fr. Canute U Lun Aung who was saying prayers before the Blessed Sacrament after Mass that is “God will be here all day, but the people have to go back home soon, and they would love to speak to you.”(Columban Mission Dec. 2005) The other one is the word of Blessed Vismara (PIME), “You are old when you are no longer useful to others.” I was touched. I noticed that missionaries are never tired of meeting the needs of the others – mental, physical and spiritual. They are simple, humble and content with what they have. From this, I learned one thing: that a priest should be seen and be approachable. Joy does not lie in material things but in us. I believe that a life of commitment, simplicity and honesty gives this joy. I truly want to “die without being old.” CM Recently ordained, Fr. Bosco N-lam Hkun Seng lives and works in Myanmar.
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Ordinations in Myanmar Enduring Faith By Fr. Neil Magill
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n November 21, 2013, I traveled up to Myitkyina in Kachin State, Myanmar, from Mandalay where I work in a seminary and a higher education center for the ordination ceremony of five young Kachin priests and the closing of the Year of Faith. Kachin is the area where Columbans had worked until all missionaries were expelled from Burma beginning in the 1960s. It was an experience of a lifetime – a faith-filled atmosphere with at least 5,000 people in attendance for three days of seminars, choir practice, catering and ordinations. The poor and refugees from the many “Internally Displaced Persons” camps, which have sprung up during the last seven years’ intense conflict with the Burmese military, came in droves. We read
in the book of Qoheleth, “There is a time for everything under heaven” and this was a time to celebrate since the Kachin people have suffered so much in recent years due to the war and traumatic dislocations. Hundreds of women have been gang-raped by the military, innocent people including children killed, homes burnt, villages destroyed and more than 100,000 people displaced from their homes and villages. Many of these people now have no homes, no money and no influence, but they do have a strong faith and a hope that they will see justice for their children. Pope Francis tells us to “get out among the sheep” and to “smell the sheep.” There are many sheep and lambs needing our care in the Kachin state! During the three day event,
there were many moving Masses, ceremonies and liturgical dances which were sensitively inculturated. The Kachin peoples’ traditional dress is bright and colorful. Not all of the time was spent in prayer and work; people met up with old friends, made new ones and in the evenings there were stage shows which entertained everyone before most slept under trees waiting for the events of tomorrow. Our prayer is for many happy years for these new shepherds and a hope-filled future for a people who have endured and in the midst of their distress, found a reason to celebrate. The newly ordained priests are: Fr. Bosco Nlam Hkun Seng, Fr. Joseph Brang Aung, Fr. John Aung, CM Fr. Paul Ginza Tu Aung, and Fr. Luke Kawa Tu Mai. Fr. Neil Magill lives and works in Myanmar.
The ordination ceremony
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Missionary Society of St. Columban
“Columbans on Mission” Stories Compiled by Fr. Peter Woodruff
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Since 1918, the Missionary Society of St. Columban has been sharing the Gospel in solidarity with the poor throughout the world. Today, Columbans including priests, Sisters and lay missionaries work in fifteen countries around the globe in conjunction with lay men and women within the local communities. Columban Fr. Peter Woodruff spent several years traveling around the Columban world and interviewing the men and women engaged in mission work. The stories collected here provide a rare look at a moment in time in the continuing mission work and the ongoing Columban story. Each story is unique and different, but all of them share in furthering the work of mission today. Explore their first-hand accounts of what it means to be a missionary in today’s ever changing world. Peter Woodruff, Australian by birth, is a member of the Missionary Society of St. Columban and was ordained in 1967. He worked as a missionary priest in parishes located on the northern periphery of Lima, Peru, where much of his prior vision of life was challenged and reshaped by a radically different social reality where the quest for social change and an emerging liberation theology provoked a lengthy and rather chaotic review of many aspects of life and Christian faith. Since leaving Peru in 2009, Peter has traveled to countries where Columban missionaries work, interviewing priests, Sisters, lay missionaries and those with whom they work. He has written and ghostwritten many stories that serve as raw material for the three English language mission magazines of the Columbans in Australia and New Zealand, U.S., Ireland and Britain. Peter currently lives in Australia.
Order Your Copy Today! Author Peter Woodruff
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Call 888-795-4274 ext. 7879, order online at www.xlibris.com, www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com or visit your local bookstore.
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Motorcycle Diaries Navigating the Maze by Fr. John boles Columban Fr. Liam Carey finds a motorcycle to be a godsend when working on the urban fringe of Lima, Peru.
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he roar of engines, a plume of dust, a mean machine slicing through the desert sands..... It all sounds like a scene from the 70’s cult classic “Easy Rider.” In fact, it is Columban missionary Fr. Liam Carey, speeding to his next Mass in the parish of Jicamarca on the eastern edge of Lima, Peru. Fr. Liam is a frontiersman. Indeed, most of our work in Lima is conducted on the “frontier” of the urban area. Lima is a typical Third World “mega-city,” with thousands of people flooding in from the impoverished countryside every year in search of a better life. As the city is surrounded by desert, many of these peasant migrants simply squat in huge shanty towns, erecting flimsy wickerwork huts on the bare hillsides that ring the metropolis. Life is hard for the newcomers. At first, there are no services of any kind. They must organize themselves and press the government to extend electricity lines and paved roads. Drinking water is provided by tankers, which every morning weave a path through the morass of makeshift
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dwellings. Sewage is disposed of in pit latrines. Rubbish is burned in the streets. People must travel long distances each day either to work or to hunt for a job. Schools and clinics are slow to arrive. As for housing, the folk are left to their own devices, slowly improving their homes if and when they are able. Ever since the Columbans arrived in Lima in 1952 it has been a priority of ours to accompany these people and serve them from the outset. Our parishes grow up like the neighborhoods – evolving
bit by bit. In Jicamarca, the scale of immigration is astounding. “Twenty years ago this was empty space,” recalls Fr. Liam, “apart from a few pig farms. Now there are over 100,000 people here, and the government reckons that, when fully occupied, there’ll be over half a million!” Eventually, the area will have to be split into two or three parishes, each with at least two priests. For the time being, however, there is just Fr. Liam. Similar to the other residents, he first lived in a tiny www.CoLuMbAn.orG
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two-room hut, perched on a steep slope. Over time he has been able to make a few improvements, but conditions are still fairly basic. From here, he fans out to the seventeen Christian base communities that the Columbans have fostered to date, strapping his Mass kit and other essentials onto the back of his bike. “You see, there are still hardly any paved roads round here,” he explains, “and the dirt roads are just that – dirt. A motorbike is ideal for cutting through all that.” www.CoLuMbAn.orG
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Faithful to Columban principles, Fr. Liam works with a team of committed local lay people and missionary Sisters (mostly from Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.). The idea is to form Christian communities in all the various population centers of Jicamarca, then look for land, build rudimentary chapels (funded mainly by the generosity of Columban benefactors) and, when the essentials of a parish are in place, hand the area over to the bishop and the native diocesan
clergy. From then on it will be up to them to keep the place going. And for Fr. Liam? Well, as a true Columban frontiersman, he’ll just move on to another fringe area and start all over again. Thus a new chapter will be opened in his “motorcycle diaries.” Columban Fr. Liam Carey is from the West of Ireland. He worked in Brazil before coming to Peru. CM Columban Fr. John Boles has worked in Peru for twenty years.
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The Rainbow Community Foundation (Emmaus Industries) A Personal Reflection By Michael J. Kendrick Ph.D.
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y chance, I first encountered the Emmaus organization through meeting its key founder, Columban Fr. Noel O’Neill in the early 1980s at a course I was teaching in Massachusetts based upon what was called at the time “normalization” theory. This theory had been developed initially in Scandinavia and subsequently spread worldwide quite rapidly. The theory, in its early years, addressed the life circumstances of persons with intellectual disabilities and their largely devalued and dehumanized status in many societies. Later, through the writings of the now deceased Dr. Wolf Wolfensberger, Professor Emeritus, Syracuse University, the theory was expanded to have a more universal focus on the experiences of many other socially devalued groups in society both in contemporary and historical instances. This was not an entirely new insight, as contemporaries of Wolfensberger such as Jean Vanier, the founder of the L’Arche movement also was prominent and influential in his affirmation of the worth, gifts and inherent humanity of people with disabilities. He similarly emphasized the value of social integration, community and relationship as both catalysts for change and an opening of the hearts of people to formerly excluded persons. It was the need to promote and support the
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challenging journey from being unwanted, excluded and rejected to belonging, community and obtaining valued social roles that came into prominence by the late 1960s. Fr. O’Neill’s search for ways forward for persons with intellectual disabilities in his adopted country of South Korea drew on the examples of these two men. South Korea was not a particularly hospitable country at the time towards the idea of better life conditions for people with disabilities, though this would change in time. The devastation of the Korean War followed by a laborious struggle to meet the many material needs of a burgeoning population rendered people with disabilities to be a comparatively low priority. Families were largely on their own in terms of supporting
people with disabilities and hastily built custodial institutions were the best the state could manage at the time for those whose families could not manage. Even to this day, such institutions are still the dominant life option for many people with disabilities outside of their family home. Emmaus was created with a vision to enable the person with a disability to flourish and experience the richness of life, community and the ongoing explorations of their own unique interests and potentials irrespective of the type or degree of the disability they lived with. In other words, Emmaus had a deep interest in seeing that people with disabilities could grow and develop and to taste life as fully and diversely as any other person. Even more radical for its time, Emmaus saw that people with disabilities
Fr. Noel with friends from Emmaus
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Columban Fr. Noel O’Neill and Michael Kendrick
Fr. Noel and Emmaus actors
and their families could indeed direct and shape their own lives and life priorities and should be supported to do so. Almost from the outset, Fr. Noel O’Neill, following the example of Jean Vanier, also decided to share a home with people with disabilities, a living arrangement that he has continued to this day. This simple act of deeply personal life sharing highlights the falseness of the “us vs. them” and/or the “otherness” of people with disabilities and instead substitutes a vision of an entirely shared rather than separate humanity. It also underlines the pointlessness of an over fixation on a given person’s impairments at the expense of the fullness of the person as an interesting and distinct human being who is likely capable of much, much more than we might allow for given our low expectations for people with disabilities. What has grown from this seed of this vision of personal developmental potential and shared humanity has been a massive expansion within the lives of the individuals supported by Emmaus into every conceivable corner of community life in the www.columban.org
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city of Gwangju, South Korea, and elsewhere. This has included regular community employment, people having homes of their own, interests and lifestyles unique to them, marriage, participation in the arts and church liturgies, travel, friendships, family, multiple valued social roles, personal achievements of all kinds and so on. In other words, people have now obtained lives that much more closely mirror the lives of their fellow Koreans and help emphasize that they have taken their place within community rather than watching community life from institutions on the outside of community. Emmaus has been an example of what good can come from not just seeing the intrinsic and sacred worth of all persons, but from acting in solidarity and support to explore, enrich and safeguard the potentials in each person’s life. CM Michael J. Kendrick, Ph.D., is well known throughout the world for his extensive work as an independent international consultant in human services and community work. He works with governments, service organizations and small community groups in many countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Ireland, Scotland and England.
(Above) Workers at Emmaus Industries
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Remembering Komai Friendship Forged at Language School By Fr. Tom Rouse
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atu Veiwili Komaitai was our language teacher. He came from a prominent family of the chiefly island of Bau. Within traditional protocol, he was always acknowledged by the chiefly title of “Ratu.” In ordinary conversations, many of his close friends used this title “Ratu” whenever they were speaking to him. But during my very first Fijian language class in February 1977, I clearly remember Ratu Veiwili introducing himself, “My name is Komai.” That was the beginning of three or four months of intensive language studies. Komai had begun his career teaching Peace Corp volunteers from the United States. He was approached by Columban Fr. David Arms who asked Komai to take responsibility for the language course that he (Fr. David) had set up. Fr. David has a doctorate in linguistics and who, upon return to Fiji after his studies, set up this language school for foreigners, mainly Columbans and other missionaries, who wanted to properly learnthe major language of the Fijian people or the language that is commonly spoken among all the diverse tribal communities among the indigenous Fijians. There are a number of different and, in many cases, quite distinct languages among the indigenous Fijians.
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In our class, the class of 1977, there were four of us, two Columban priests, Frank Hoare (an Irishman) and I (a New Zealander), one Marist priest who was also from New Zealand, and a Vincentian priest from India. We were quite a mix. Considerable effort had gone into setting up this language school, and so we were equipped with state-of-the-art technology. In those days we used those small tape diskettes. We had very good playing machines which enabled us to record our own voices as we listened to and repeated a sentence or a phrase. In this way, we could compare our pronunciation with that of the speaker on the tape. It was hard work, but we were fortunate that Komai was a top-class Fijian speaker. This
was understandable given that he belonged to the family who, within traditional settings and on major occasions, spoke on behalf of one of the paramount chiefs of Fiji, Ratu Sir George Cakobau, who was also, at that time, the Governor-General of Fiji. This meant that Komai not only knew the language, but he also was well versed in traditional protocol. And so, in the course of our language studies, we were privileged to learn the Fijian rituals that surround the presentation of traditional gifts. There were a couple of other things I recall about Komai. The first was his enormous patience. He could sit through hour after hour of endlessly repetitive sentences, correcting us time and again as we struggled, through constant and tedious practice, to grapple with www.CoLuMbAn.orG
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Fijian sentence structures and then to put together our own sentences. As he strove to make sense of the logic behind a peculiar Fijian way of expression, I remember one member of our class asking in exasperation, “Well, why do you say it that way?” Komai very calmly and gently replied, “I do not know why we say it that way. Please just take my word for it: this is the way it should be said.” Secondly, Komai had a wonderful sense of humor. I remember the way he used to chuckle whenever he heard something that he found amusing. Many years later, when I met again at a club where he was a member and I had become the chaplain, he regaled in telling the story of the time I conducted the traditional ceremony of presentation and immediately afterwards I proceeded to drink the cup that
was supposed to go to him. It was a very funny incident. But it was a measure of our friendship that he could tell this story to others without fear that I would be offended or annoyed. In fact, I love to tell the story against myself. Komai was a wonderful character. Sadly, he died only
He taught us what he knew. And we knew we could find no better. last December, 2013. During the funeral, members of the club we belonged to carried his coffin. This was appropriate because he was a very committed member of the Bilo Levu club. One of the principal tenets of this club is: when you enter the door of the clubroom
True to My Dream The Ups and Downs of God’s Call to be a Teacher By Sisilia Moce I feel that life began for me in 1961 when I went to the recently opened Catholic Teachers’ Training College in Suva. From grade four I had wanted to be a teacher. Acceptance into the teachers’ college program depended upon passing the Senior Cambridge Examination, which was marked in England. I had been at the college in Suva for a month when the examination results arrived; I had failed. Some students in the www.columban.org
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same situation went back to school for another year and took the examination again, but I decided to return to my home in Ba. I felt my mother could not afford the expense of another year at school. In 1954, my father, who was a carpenter, was invited by Columban Fr. Dermot Hurley to take on the job of school caretaker. Fr. Hurley had recently established boarding facilities for Fijians living in both coastal and highland villages. My
you leave your status or title at the doorway and pick it up again when you leave. Why Komai, a man of high chiefly status in Fiji, enjoyed the companionship of this club was that, at heart, he was a very humble person. And that was a further quality that made him such a good teacher of the Fijian language. He taught us what he knew. And we knew we could find no better. Komai, we are grateful for the memories of your humility, wonderful sense of humor, enduring patience, and noble lineage. CM Columban Fr. Tom Rouse lives and works in Fiji.
mother worked as cook for the boarders. I was in grade six at that time. My father died in 1957 and my mother, with the three youngest of eight children — six girls and two boys — had to move to a smaller house on the same property as the new caretaker needed the house we had been living in. After my father died Fr. Hurley talked with my mother who gratefully accepted his help with my high school tuition costs; I was the only member of my family who went on to secondary school (high school). After returning with my disappointment from Suva, Columban Fr. Seamus O’Connor helped me get a job as a cashier in a local general store where I worked until 1966. He also celebrated my wedding in 1962. Life did not stand still; three children came along and then August/September 2014
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a most welcome surprise came my way. There was a shortage of teachers in Fiji so the government established a program called Emergency Trained Teachers (ETT). The program required three years of supervised teaching followed by a three month intensive course. The principal at our parish school invited me to leave my job and join the ETT program under her supervision. Even though it meant a drop in pay I left the general store and went to work as a “licensed” teacher in St. Teresa’s parish primary school. In less than two years, in 1968, I was accepted into the intensive ETT course and in 1969 I became an officially qualified teacher and spent 18 happy years teaching at St. Teresa’s. After leaving the general store I also had four more children. I was assistant principal when I left to take on a similar post in Votua and was made principal in 1988, remaining there until 1996, when I took over as principal at St. Teresa’s following the Marist Sisters’ retirement from the school. At that time the compulsory retiring age was 55 years, but I was able to stay on until 1999 and retire at 57 years. Then the Monfort Brothers asked me to teach Fijian Language and Religious Education at Xavier Secondary College, which I did until 2008. I loved teaching and even though I had little formal training I know I did a good job. God called me to that work, and I thank God for all that I have been able to do for hundreds of students during over 40 years of teaching in our schools in the Ba area. My husband was a carpenter, and we had a good life together. 18
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He got cancer of the throat and died after a short illness in 2002. That was a very sad year for me as my youngest son also died that year; he had been an asthmatic for much of his life. However, God continues to bless me with life and reasonably good health. Arthritic knees are troublesome but at 70 years of age something has to be malfunctioning. I continue helping out in the parish. I have helped a number of Columbans with Fijian language and am active in Columban Companions in Mission, which helps promote the work of St.
Columban’s Missionary Society but also contributes locally, especially in the area of intercultural understanding. In recent years we in Fiji have seen the importance of moving towards greater mutual appreciation between Fijian and Indian cultures, and we are constantly on the alert for opportunities to make a contribution in that area. Anything in the field of education, in school or outside school, that is my vocation from God. CM
Sisilia Moce lives in Fiji.
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A Picture that Keeps on Teaching 50 Years of Education By Fr. Charles Duster
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ince returning from Fiji in 2005, I have been privileged to spend part of my time making “thank you visits” to our supporters and benefactors who by their interest, prayers and financial help make Columban mission possible. So far, I have visited eighteen states, usually accompanied by Chris Hochstetler, our Director of Fund Development. These visits bring many surprises and interesting stories like how people first came into contact with the Columbans to discussions about the aspects of our mission work they find most interesting. Occasionally on these visits, you get a surprise that just “knocks your socks off.” Recently we visited a couple in Tucson, Arizona, Ervin and Joan Fideler. I had spoken with them a few times previously on the telephone but this was the first opportunity I had to meet them personally. After a brief chat in the living room, the couple said they wanted to show us something. In the hallway leading to the kitchen was a framed black and white photograph obviously taken from a magazine. It turned out to be from a 1963 issue of Columban Mission which was called The Far East at that time. The photo showed a young oriental boy, naked, crying and sitting by the side of the road next to a bowl with chopsticks. The caption above the picture reads “Lord, when did we see you hungry?” It was an unusual picture to be hanging in someone’s home but the story behind it is even more amazing. www.columban.org
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Ervin and Joan were both originally from South Dakota and were married in 1957. Because of the demands of Ervin’s work, the family moved several times: to Omaha where their five sons were born, to Minneapolis where their daughter was born and the children attended school, to Seattle for several years and eventually to Tucson. Each time they moved, they took this framed photograph with them and hung it in their new home. “It was a teaching aid”, the couple explained. “We used it to teach our children and their friends and later our nine grandchildren something about mission, about the situation of children less blessed than themselves with material goods.” “Why do you think he is hungry?” “When do you suppose he last had something to eat?” “What can we do to help him?” Questions like these were talked about at the dinner table and at family gatherings. They helped the children have a deeper understanding of what it means
to be concerned about others and the importance of reaching out to them, the very heart of the missionary vocation we all share through our baptism. Over the years, despite being framed, the magazine picture has faded a bit, but it is still used as there is another generation coming along to ponder the meaning of the photo, over 50 years old but still packing a powerful message. The great grandchildren and their friends will soon be asking, “Why is that picture hanging there?” Certainly Joan and Ervin will have the answer. There are many ways to educate young people about mission. As I said at the beginning, experiences like this just “knock your socks off.” CM Columban Fr. Charles Duster lives and works in St. Columbans, Nebraska.
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Paying Tribute A trip from Suva to what was once the heart of Catholic mission in Fiji By Fr. Peter Woodruff
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r. Taaremon, a newly ordained Fijian Columban, was at the wheel; Visenia sat in the back, and I traveled next to the driver. We took a circuitous route out of Suva due, I was told, to major bridge damage along the main highway resulting from a recent major flood. Our vehicle seemed to me to be sturdy and able for the rough roads ahead of us. However, the steering wheel began to vibrate quite angrily once we passed the 50 kph speed; it acted as a type of cruise control protecting us from speeding fines. I suggested that it might be important to have the wheel alignment checked but was told that was how it was, and it could not be fixed. As I’m here primarily to gather stories for our mission magazines I’m not exactly wired to mind my own business but, in this case, the better course was clearly to move on to other agenda. As we traveled north along a paved, divided highway I wondered aloud every now and then if we were still in Suva. Eventually I saw a sign with another name on it and then another. The urban sprawl, half hidden among the tropical foliage was continuous for some kilometers beyond the municipal jurisdiction of Suva. The road 20
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was a single-lane, paved highway by the time we turned off to the right going towards the coast on a predominantly gravel road. Visenia told me that this road had been as it is now when her father first arrived in the area. We came to a short stretch of asphalted road, parts of which had been potholed by floods. It was soon clear to all that traversing unrepaired asphalted road was much worse than driving along an old fashioned gravel road. There seems to be a certain logic in staying with gravel, knowing that maintenance of a minor country road would not get priority, unless some powerbroker were living at the end of the minor road, which, I was assured, is definitely not the case. We passed many small farms where sugar cane seemed to be the main cash crop, also various clusters of houses with Visenia pointing out that one was an Indian village, another Fijian and so on. We arrived at our immediate destination, Visenia’s family hamlet, a cluster of houses without a shop. We briefly greeted some family members. One three-yearold girl did not want to speak to me and could not be persuaded, even by her mother. A middle-aged woman was sitting on a veranda
preparing bamboo leaves with which she would later make a Fijian mat; she explained the steps to me. Visenia’s nephew helped arrange an open boat with an outboard motor to take us across the Rewa River to what had been the original mission station on the main island of Fiji. Getting from a meter high riverbank to a wobbly open boat with one useless knee required lots of help from two local men; if I had lost my footing I’m sure they would have held me. Relieved to be on board I sat on a cross bench in the middle of the boat facing forward. The screw became entangled in the rope between boat and shore, probably because they’d had to bring the boat in parallel to the shore to accommodate my limited agility. Without any cursing or fuss the matter was fixed, and we headed across the river to Naililili. A Hindu neighbor sat sprawled in the bow facing the stern. He had on gumboots and carried a machete. Visenia told me that she was going to cut bamboo that the Hindus needed for religious purposes. The boat crossed and pushed into the riverbank for our Hindu passenger to disembark. He knew where to find the bamboo he needed, would cut it, wait for the www.columban.org
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Visenia was accustomed to this particular river crossing as she and her family crossed for Sunday Mass each week.
boat to collect him and bring back a ten meter long and six centimeter diameter pole. Visenia was accustomed to this particular river crossing as she and her family crossed for Sunday Mass each week. Visenia showed me the French built church, opened in 1901, a school and a parish house that were built around the same time. She explained how, in the late 19th century and into the 20th, many priests, brothers and nuns lived in what was the mission compound. They ran schools, a farm and workshops to make and repair equipment. They needed to be www.CoLuMbAn.orG
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self-sufficient in so far as possible. From this center the French Marist missionaries went out to the villages of the main island of Fiji. The founder of the mission hoped the church might one day become the cathedral, but the British established their administrative center in Suva, which subsequently became the capital of the independent nation of Fiji and also the archdiocesan headquarters. I was especially moved on seeing the tomb of U.S. Columban, Fr. John Mahony, who was born in 1929 and died in 1989 after dedicating his life as a missionary
to the people of Fiji. I had met him once about two years before he died. He died in another part of Fiji, in the hills, but had requested to be buried in the old French mission compound. Maybe it was his tribute to those who had gone before him. CM Columban Fr. Peter Woodru lives and works in Australia.
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Secure the Future of Mission… in Places like Peru become a Columban Mission Sponsor
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rom the undeveloped urban barrios of Lima to parishes high in the Andes, Columban missionaries have been engaged in pastoral ministry (or simply “serving”) to the people of Peru for nearly 60 years. when you become a Columban Mission Sponsor, you help support the work of Columban priests, Sisters and lay missionaries and you secure the future of mission well into the future. There are two ways to become a Mission Sponsor. Choose the method that’s right for you!
Make Your Gift Online Put your gift to work even faster, save time, paper and postage by signing up at: www.columban.org/sponsor.
Contact Us To receive a monthly reminder by mail or to speak to someone about becoming a Columban Mission Sponsor, call us toll free at (877) 299-1920, 8:00 am–4:30 pm CST, Monday through Friday. The Columban Fathers P.o. box 10 St. Columbans, nE 68056 (877) 299-1920 plannedgiving@columban.org 22
May 2013
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Friends in Unexpected Places
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uring my spring break from language school I traveled alone around Japan for ten days. I was a Columban seminarian back then and had only a rudimentary knowledge of that country’s language, customs and places of interest. However, since I had read in my guide book that there was a youth hostel in the town of Manazuru in Kanagawa prefecture, I got off the train in order to spend Saturday night there. As I walked from the station, with the street map from the guide book open in my hand, I met a man who paused to ask me where I was heading. While I responded to him in my broken Japanese, his breath, reeking of alcohol, enveloped me. I felt very unsure, therefore, when he told me that I was going in the wrong direction! However, since it was still daylight, I took his advice and arrived at the hostel just as he had directed me! After supper that evening I asked the owner
FROM THE DIRECTOR By Fr. Tim Mulroy of the hostel if there was a Catholic church in that town. He knew the location of several churches but was unsure which one was Catholic. However, he promised to personally research the matter for me, since an internet search was not an option back in those days! Early on Sunday morning I ate breakfast while listening to the rain and the wind outside. Just as I finished, the hostel owner came in wearing heavy rain gear. He told me that he had walked around the town and found a Catholic church where there would be Mass at 9 o’clock.
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The story of the Prodigal Son was the Gospel reading that day. In his homily, the priest emphasized the father’s joyful embrace of his long lost son. There were about eighty people in the congregation, all of whom – except me – were Japanese. The story of the Prodigal Son was the Gospel reading that day. In his homily, the priest emphasized the father’s joyful embrace of his long lost son. After Mass a number of parishioners approached me and inquired where I had come from, whether or not I had eaten breakfast, and if I was in need of anything. Perhaps, my rumpled appearance from having walked through the wind and rain, as well as the fact that I was alone and far from home, gave them the impression that I was a prodigal son in need of an embrace! I decided not to spoil that impression by telling them that I was a Columban seminarian! Since that weekend I have frequently recalled with gratitude the kindness shown to me as a stranger by both Christians and people of other faiths in the town of Manazuru. Thanks to their hospitality, though still a young and inexperienced missionary, I felt a definite assurance that God would provide me with companions and friends on all my future missionary journeys.
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Columban Fathers po boX 10 st. Columbans, ne 68056
NON PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID COLUMBAN FATHERS
Journey with Jesus
“Said Jesus to Simon, ‘do not be afraid, from now on you will be
Journey With Jesus is a supplementary Catholic mission education curriculum for grades preschool through eighth grade from the Columban Fathers.
catching people.’”— Luke 5:10 Indeed, if you feel called to help with Jesus’ nets, do not be afraid to call us and discuss a life of mission service.
Five lessons per grade containing: • Opening and closing prayers • Video presentations • Original songs on CD • Activities • At Home Connections • Posters Journey With Jesus is available free on loan or for purchase. Visit the Columban Mission Education website at: www.columban.org/missioned for more information and how to order the program.
We invite you to join this new generation by becoming a Columban Father or Columban Sister. If you are interested in the missionary priesthood, write or call… Fr. Bill Morton National Vocation Director Columban Fathers St. Columbans, NE 68056 877-299-1920 Email: vocations@columban.org Website: www.columban.org
If you are interested in becoming a Columban Sister, write or call… Sister Virginia Mozo National Vocation Director Columban Sisters 2546 Lake Road Silver Creek, NY 14136 626-458-1869 Email: virginiamozo@yahoo.com Websites: www.columbansisters.org www.columbansistersusa.com
Japan + Korea + Peru + Hong Kong + Philippines + Pakistan + Chile + Fiji + Taiwan + North America
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