The Magazine of the Missionary Society of St. Columban
November 2011
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All God’s Children
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ome say that familiarity breeds contempt. Columbans say that familiarity breeds compassion. Getting to know people individually and hearing their stories puts a human face on a “problem” and makes it personal, not merely political. As missionaries, Columbans have all had the experience of being migrants. We’ve left our homes and familiar surroundings and entered new countries with unfamiliar cultures, languages and religious and social practices. We’ve been outsiders looking in and know both the stress and anxiety of trying to fit in as well as the untold blessings of being received with hospitality and even joy by local people who simply accept us because we are missionaries, heralds of the Good News. Because people could see us in some way as a blessing, they often bent over backwards to make us welcome and at ease. I’ve wondered what our U.S. reality might be if we could see all immigrants as human beings, as real people with deeply moving stories of why they left all that was familiar to risk death, imprisonment and even torture and kidnapping in order to find a better life. If we could see more clearly the tremendous benefits of having these determined, courageous, hard-working In So Many Words brothers and sisters living among us, maybe we could treat them more like the missionaries, the By Fr. Bill Morton “heralds of Good News” that in many ways they are. These are people full of hope and energy, willing to take risks and work several jobs, often brimming with faith in God and our Blessed Mother. They not only build our roads and bring our food to the table but also care for our parents and grandparents in nursing homes and hospitals, while others work in universities, and still others start businesses, creating jobs and stimulating the economy. If we realized how interdependent we are, might it not help us to see one another as God does — as brothers and sisters, equal in dignity, all God’s children, struggling to live, to love, to survive in an ever-changing complex and all too violent world? God sees us as a family. And the meal God sets before us is the Eucharist where there is a place at the table for everyone. Our God is the God of life and of plenty, not the God of scarcity and exclusion. At this table all are welcome, all are fed and there are still baskets of goodness left over to share. We are all God’s children.We are all children of migrants, whether first, second or tenth generation. We are family and this is our home.
Our God is the God
of life and plenty, not the God of scarcity and exclusion.
Fr. Bill Morton lives and works in El Paso, Texas. www.columban.org
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St. Chad’s Sanctuary My Place of Ministry By Gertrudes C. Samson
Gertrudes C. Samson, a Columban Lay Missionary from the Philippines, shares her experience working alongside asylum seekers at St. Chad’s Sanctuary, Birmingham, England.
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t. Chad’s Sanctuary is my place of ministry twice a week, as well as my involvement in other ministries in Birmingham, England. When I first entered the Sanctuary, I noticed at once the beautiful tapestry hanging at the right side of its main hall. It depicts the Holy Family on a journey with Mother Mary riding on a donkey while carrying baby Jesus with St. Joseph walking on foot beside them. I thought it was just a typical Christmas decoration, but it has a caption underneath it that reads, “We Too Were Asylum Seekers.” Then I realized that it depicts the Holy Family on their flight to Egypt to flee from the persecution
of Herod who wanted to kill baby Jesus. The tapestry visually explained what the Sanctuary is about and the value of its work. An asylum seeker is someone who is fleeing persecution in their homeland, has arrived in another country, made themselves known to the authorities, and exercised the legal right to apply for asylum. St. Chad’s Sanctuary, which is a partnership between the Salvation Army and Catholic Church, ministers to the asylum seekers as well as to others who are far from home. It offers friendship and hospitality to asylum seekers, refugees and other migrants. We try to give them listening, nonjudgmental and compassionate hearts that respect human dignity irrespective of culture, faith or background. The sanctuary is operated by just one full time manager, Sr. Margaret Walsh, and the rest are volunteers like me.
Sanctuary Volunteer Duties • • • • • • • • 4
Sitting down with the asylum seekers in the English classes to help them catch up with the lessons given by the teacher especially during the drills or exercises; Preparing and offering warm coffee or tea and biscuits for those who come to the Sanctuary; Washing dishes; Sorting and organizing many piles of donated clothes to ensure they are clean and still useful; Sorting and repacking donated foods and hygiene items; Distributing donated food bags, clothes and household items to asylum seekers; Recording data and statistics about the works of the Sanctuary; Cleaning up the Sanctuary work areas, the premises and more… November 2011
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You might ask what else we do at the sanctuary aside from listening and talking with people. Actually we have many works. The sidebar below shows only some of the duties I help with in various ways together with other volunteers. Honestly speaking, at the end of each day, I feel very tired because there is so much work in the Sanctuary, while volunteers like me are so few. But definitely, I am happy! I have met people from more than 80 different countries. I have made loving friends with Sr. Margaret, other volunteers, asylum seekers, donors and supporters of the Sanctuary. Most of all, I am grateful for the opportunity God has given me to serve Him at the Sanctuary. Jesus said, “I tell you whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Although I was not born at the time when Jesus and His family were still asylum seekers, I know I am serving Him at the Sanctuary in the face of every asylum seeker, refugee and migrant that I meet. With that in my heart, I know that Jesus is happy with us at St. Chad’s Sanctuary, my place of ministry. CM Gertrudes C. Samson is a Columban lay missionary living and working in the United Kingdom.
www.columban.org
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Prison Ministry Being There for Others By Sr. Angela McKeever
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oday I was talking to a woman who goes twice a week to visit her son who is serving ten years in prison. Listening to her, I began to understand how the family suffers. Pedro, her son, is in a jail built 100 years ago for a maximum of 1,800 men. Today that jail holds 7,000 inmates. Pedro’s mother, like many other of the men’s relatives, began queuing at 2 a.m. to get in at 9 a.m. In the rain, in the cold, they have no shelter from the elements. The relatives of the inmates bring clothes and food as there is never
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enough food provided by the jail. In spite of visitors being partly strip searched —a degrading experience — drugs, cell phones and alcohol still find their way inside.
A Repressive System
The system is one of repression and punishment. Up to 30 men at a time sleep in cells that were built for eight. They pool the food and take turns cooking it. When they wash their clothes and hang them up over the passage way, they have to keep watch so that the clothes are not stolen and sold for drugs. Close living conditions
with nothing to do, abysmal toilet facilities along with various mental and physical complaints creates a climate of unrest, fighting and drug consumption. Some of the men spend their time taking irons out of the beds, walls and stairs to make weapons like spears to fight each other which leads to many injuries. In one week, 203 inmates were murdered by other inmates. In spite of these conditions, one is surprised by the depth of faith, hope and solidarity that is to be found there among those who have a change of mind, heart and spirit. Those who recognize they have www.columban.org
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“I had to come here to stop doing what I was doing when I was young; the dangers I was in and put others in.” Many see the hand of God in this.
done wrong, and they are few, want to change their way of thinking and acting; they want a new life. But sadly, for the great majority, life in this prison is a brutal affair where many give up all hope of new beginnings.
New Beginnings for Juan
In another jail outside Santiago where there are 5,000 men, we said good-bye to Juan as he left for Bolivia after serving an eightyear sentence. Over the last two years he worked in a workshop, St. Columban’s, where he learned a lot about copper work through the arts and crafts course. He also took a course in solar paneling. He made one for me and what a treat it is to have boiling water from the sun. Throughout the last year Juan took four men each month and taught them all he had learned. With patience he even taught some of them to read and write. Juan felt very happy to be going to the workshop; he was one of the lucky ones who had availed himself of the opportunity to learn something he www.columban.org
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could work at when he got back to his own people. The fact that he was able to share his experience with others helped him in some small way to repair some of the damage he had done by working for eighteen years in drug factories in different parts of the world. In Bolivia he will begin a new and better life.
Realizing the Damage Done
prisons? To the innumerable men “spaced out” by drugs, brutalized by violence, alienated from warm human contact, sunk in despair? And every day I hear Him say, “I was in prison and you came...” Maybe, in the end, that is all He asks of us — to simply be there for others. CM Columban Sr. Angela McKeever has served in Chile for almost thirty years.
One can never understand the mystery of life where there are some people who do a lot of damage and only fully realize it when they come to jail. As many say to me: “I had to come here to stop doing what I was doing when I was young; the dangers I was in and put others in.” Many see the hand of God in this. It is an opportunity for some to seek help to change, but others continue as they are and refuse any help that is offered.
What would Jesus do?
I ask myself, “What would Jesus do?” How would He relate to the Pedros and the Juans in these November 2011
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Missionary Priest as Migrant Worker Living and Working in Japan
By Fr. Paul McCartin
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wenty-five years ago, Filipinos suddenly started to come to the parish where I was working in Japan and ask for help with various problems they were having. Some band members were not getting paid. They had broken a store regulation which said they must not date Japanese employees. Some nightclub workers had no money and were cooking rice received from Japanese friends over a wood fire outside their apartment door. They had not been paid since refusing to work as prostitutes. At first I was reluctant to do much for the Filipinos. Whatever affinity I felt with the Filipinos as fellow foreigners was not enough to overcome my preconceived ideas about being a missionary. I had come to Japan for the Japanese. The Filipinos, on entertainment visas, were going to be in the country for
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only six months. What could I do in six months? It was only after the parish priest and the Columban Regional Director pointed out to me that migrant workers from overseas were becoming a serious issue. Actually, it was the way their employers treated them that was the issue, and I decided to take up the cause. My ancestors migrated from Ireland and England to Australia. One great-grandfather was a migrant worker within Australia. My father traveled around the state working on various construction projects. As a missionary priest, I have traveled overseas to work. The working conditions of a typical missionary priest in Japan are not exactly the same as those of migrant workers from Iran, China or Myanmar. We get paid on time. We have job security. We have excellent health insurance. But our working conditions are not always as good as they could be. The parish priest works long hours. He works at least six days a week. He works every Saturday and Sunday and most public holidays. He works right through the summer and New Year holiday periods. On top of all that, the priest is on call twenty-four hours a day. He can and does get called out in the middle of the night. And, he sometimes has to work on his so-called day off. Does the priest get paid for all this work?
No. His wages are quite low. There is no overtime pay and no double or triple time for working on weekends and public holidays. Let’s calculate his wage: 24 hours x 6 days x 4 weeks = 576 hours/month. Let’s say the wage is 150,000 yen/ month, or $1937.48 per month, although it varies from diocese to diocese. That is 260 yen or $3.36 per hour. This is even less than the trainees from Vietnam, China and other countries get, and they are sometimes called slave labor. It is much less than the U.S. minimum wage. Why is there no priests’ union? The benefits must compensate for the low salary. As mentioned previously, job security and health insurance are excellent. Rent is usually free, although sometimes the house is unsuitable. Doorways are often too low for tall missionaries (anyone over 6 feet tall). Low sinks can aggravate backache. Beds and futons can be too short. Columbans in Japan are entitled to four weeks annual leave but some feel unable to take the full four weeks because of social pressure. A week off in workaholic Japan is unusual and four weeks unheard of in this culture. Then there are various perks. In one parish in which I worked, a funeral director gave the parish priest 500,000 yen every year! Then there are the sports club memberships, vacations at www.columban.org
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parishioners’ holiday houses and food—parishioners give me lots of food. And, of course, we generally have no trouble getting a work visa. We actually have a visa category just for us — religious activities — which usually entitles us to a threeyear stay. Then we get two years formal language education, a luxury most migrants have to do without. All joking aside, the main reason, of course, is that most priests are not in it for the money. We are working for God, and the job satisfaction is second to none. Discrimination is a taboo topic, but missionary priests are sometimes the victims of discrimination by diocesan priests. Some Japanese priests do not welcome foreign priests, although it should be noted that the discrimination is not necessarily one way. The employer, the diocese, may also refuse to sponsor those who wish to apply for permanent residence. Some missionary priests have worked fifty years for the Church in Japan but will get no severance pay, no pension and no accommodation when they retire. When I arrived in Japan, all foreign residents, including those of Korean descent who had been born here, and whose parents and grandparents had been born here (diplomats and military personnel were excepted), had to be fingerprinted regularly. Some people of Korean descent began a campaign to get the fingerprinting abolished. With some other missionaries and support from the Papal Nuncio, I refused to be fingerprinted as a show of support for the Koreans. If I, the greatgrandson of Irish and English immigrants, was Australian, I could not understand why the Korean were not Japanese. www.columban.org
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Fr. Paul McCartin interviewed at Yasukuri Shrine
My refusal meant that I could not get a re-entry visa to Japan. If I left the country I would have had to apply for a new visa and my application would have been rejected. The government responded positively to the antifingerprinting campaign, and eventually I was able to obtain a re-entry visa. But upon my arrival at Narita Airport after my first home vacation since my refusal, I was taken into a room at Immigration and questioned about my refusal and about my future plans. Even though, twenty years later, I now have a permanent residence visa, I still feel uneasy when passing through Immigration. I think it is because the official has power over me, and I am not sure that he/she is on my side. Just a few months ago, walking back from the supermarket, I was stopped by police right in front of my house. They said there had been a violent incident nearby. Three police officers surrounded me, presumably to stop me fleeing. They thoroughly checked my alien registration and driver’s license and then asked me to show them what was in my pockets and backpack. I knew I wasn’t in any trouble, but
still, the experience shook me. I would hate to be here as an illegal immigrant, never knowing when I would be picked up and deported. While in the seminary I visited a monastery where I heard that one of the members had been asked by Australian Immigration to accompany a man who was going to be deported. Back in the seminary, I mentioned this at the dinner table and a priest angrily criticized the monk for being a party to deportation. This made me think. When is it appropriate for a priest or monk to collaborate with civil authorities? And I have since heard that some people believe that the idea of a country has no basis in reality. Maybe, from God’s point of view, and we should be looking at things from God’s point of view, there are only people — not Australians or Japanese or Filipinos — and all people should be able to move around freely. CM Fr. Paul McCartin lives and works in Japan.
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The Life of the Immigrant Losses Followed by Gains By Fr. Charles O’Rourke
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fter having lived and worked in Korea for twenty-seven years I was asked to return to the U.S. and work with the Korean Catholic immigrants here. Little did I realize that the life of the immigrant is so different and difficult as compared to those who stay back home. And among the many factors that help to shape the life of the immigrant, there is great struggle, hope for a better future and many times unspeakable disillusionment. Immigrants come to this country in hopes of making a better life for themselves and for their families. We have all heard stories from our ancestors about the struggle, the risk, and the dangers, along with the humiliation of trying to relate to others in another language and better themselves in unfamiliar surroundings. Regarding Korean immigrants, they cannot continue their jobs or professional careers when they don’t speak the language well, and they often lose financial security as a result. They have to start their lives in the U.S. from a low income position or develop a small, family owned business in spite of holding a professional degree. Usually, they have to find work which does not require good language skills. For example that could mean operating dry-cleaning shops, auto repair shops, barber shops
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or beauty salons. However, this is changing because, in more recent years, we have seen a multitude of immigrant doctors, nurses and other professionals in prominent positions. At this point, very few people from South Korea are coming to the U.S. as refugees of political turmoil or oppressive economic situations. Recently some Korean people have moved here from
To experience through faith that God is with us in our struggles is a great consolation and morale booster, especially to the immigrant. North Korea and mainland China as refugees, and they also have language problems as well as financial difficulties. They try to find employment at small businesses owned by Koreans where they don’t have to use fluent American English. They are grateful to be here, and many of them experience a sense of human dignity that they never thought possible. The universal human experience of migration is that people have to go through culture shock due to the differences between their
home country and the country to which they have migrated. This can be a real headache for the parents. They see their children wandering between two different cultures, at home and at school, for example. It can be a very lonely life for the parents as well as the children who are often left on their own in the home while their parents are at work. The children have to look after themselves while their parents struggle to make a living. However, the children often become fluent in English much faster than their parents due to school and their interest in television. And so the gap begins to grow between the parents and the children. The children become more Americanized while the parents try to hold onto their traditions and culture. Behavioral problems often arise because of the difference in culture between Korea and America with the parents not knowing how to cope or control their children in what can be for them a very perplexing situation. From that comes the stress and strain of the parents and possible conflict between them. It isn’t easy. The first generation of immigrants usually seems to search out a church of their faith. For most of these people the church community is the only place where they can find comfort and support for one another. In the www.columban.org
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midst of their struggles the church community is where they can experience the fact that God is with them, reaching out to them, giving them peace of mind and a taste of sanity. One main focus of Korean church communities is to assure the immigrant that they are unconditionally loved and held by the source of life itself and nothing can change that. To experience through faith that God is with us in our struggles is a great consolation and morale booster, especially to the immigrant. Even though it was more difficult in many ways to work with the Korean immigrants here in the U.S. as compared to the Korean communities in Korea, I could not help but admire them for their faith and steadfastness in their struggles and hardships. It was almost a daily occurrence when parishioners would come in desperately seeking guidance and advice for different problems. I am grateful to God that He placed me there to share my love and give some glimpse of hope to them. Just being with them was a grace I can never forget. CM
The universal human experience of migration is that people have to go through culture shock due to the differences between their home country and the country to which they have migrated.
Fr. Charles O’Rourke lives and works in St. Columbans, Nebraska.
www.columban.org
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The Real Heroes
walked along the lane leading to the Beijing Diocesan seminary with one of the priests one day last week. “That wasn’t there when I came here last,” I said referring to the three hillocks of mud and rubbish on the left side of the lane. “Neither was the huge crater in the ground on the right side, from which the earth had been excavated. Where is the vibrant community and the marvellous market they had?” I asked. My friend replied, “the town has been demolished like many of the old communities and hutongs [narrow streets or alleys] in Beijing; the families are gone, and the workers are scattered across the country as in many similar situations before.” All along the road to the seminary was a construction site, a kind of coliseum all lit from below. Before my eyes, another vast expanse of the new, modern Beijing suburbs was about to rise on a twenty acre site. Even in the darkness, the welders were still working, very high up, possibly twenty five stories. In the darkness, we could see the sparks rising from the outline of the half-finished buildings.
Migrants Build Modern China by Fr. Eamonn o’brien
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Over the past ten years I have seen a gigantic construction boom not only in cities like Beijing with its Olympic feast of building but also in small cities and the expanding suburbs everywhere. Highways are being hewed out of mountains; airport terminals are sprouting like mushrooms. Malls are everywhere, often quite empty, and conference centers and hotels are to be seen even in third-tier cities. Land is being extracted from farmers for this expansion, because cites and skyscrapers are the fashion. The process that marks the end of an old community’s destruction to the grand opening of the new with banners and fanfare is sometimes only a matter of months. The television ads and glossy magazines are harbingers of this new development from slums, hutongs, and old communities to sweeping yuppie suburbs with underground car parks and massive malls where every western luxury brand item can be purchased, even diamonds. However, there is little or no space in the Chinese media or in the minds of many for the men and women from the countryside who construct these buildings, who labor hour after hour, day after day on minimal wages, terrible working conditions, and who live in the most basic, unsightly shacks that are just bulldozed when the project is over. I feel these are the real heroes, whose blood and sweat have created all the new buildings of this massive transformation of the landscape of Chinese cities and countryside that has taken place in China over the past years, including the now world famous Bird’s Nest of the Olympic Village. I have seen these workers arrive at railway stations, in groups, sometimes with their families of little children, with plastic bundles www.columban.org
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Street vendor
strapped to their backs holding all their possessions. They may have walked, cycled or hitched rides from their villages, often from houses with mud floors, trying desperately to make something of their lives, and especially for the lives of their children. I have been in a couple of villages, where the only people remaining are grannies, granddads and the children. The mothers and fathers are so missed by their children, but they are just another statistic in what has been described as the greatest internal migration in human history. It is a migration that contributes immensely to what many consider will be the first economy in our globalized world in about fifteen years – China. Individually and collectively, they are heroes, the men and women who come to the cities and the old and very young who remain at home. The workers move dirt, mud, water, glass and rubbish. They shovel cement and run between jobs; sometimes the women are indistinguishable from the men as they work. Their features are burnt black by the searing sun, rain, humidity and pollution as they shift bricks, steel and earth, and their hands are full of welts. Their food is very simple. The old who are left at
home in the villages are heroes also coping with a young generation; they knew poverty prior to the 1950s, now they have deep feelings of loss in their community, and uncertainty in coping with the social challenges that arise in parentless villages. Yet, they firmly believe their grandchildren will have a better life. These families, ripped apart from each other, are providing the comfortable world where the rising middle class of China live in, while they, alas, will never be able to afford it. As I walked to language school four years ago, I had to pass what must have been the biggest building site I have ever seen. The men and women were often on the morning break as I went by, and I must have been gawking at them. A man, later known to me as Mr. Wang, gestured me to join them, offered me a breakfast, a split pancake with a fried egg and some vegetables. On that cold morning, it was delicious and led to a similar curbside breakfast for two weeks. We laughed, joked and gestured about our language capacity, mine in Mandarin and theirs in English was pretty low, and their dialect may not have been Mandarin, but I wouldn’t know the difference anyway! But still, we November 2011
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Migrant community
Building site
communicated. They had photos of those most dear to them, children, wives, parents and their old home towns. I had photos too of my nephews, nieces and grandnephew. I don’t think I ever convinced them that they were not my children! My gang was moved to another site, but before that Mr. Wang welcomed me to visit his family in South west China. As we had breakfast, hundreds of well-dressed passers-by rushed to their air-conditioned offices in the new national television tower or the posh multi story buildings nearby. They were dressed in their immaculate suits, shoulder bags and exuding deodorants. They sometimes slowed down, clearly bemused at this strange scene, some laughing, maybe scoffing, their disapproval. I often reflected on both groups: the workers, whose labor was taken for granted and whose names would be written out of history, except in the hearts of their dear ones. It must have been, I thought, like the laborers who built the cathedrals of Europe or “won the West” in the great American adventure. For many of the yuppies passing by on the street, and their glitzy media culture, their internet exchanges, silvery computer screens and rolling images of a vibrant, young star of the month, there is no place for Mr. Wang and his fellow manual workers in the Chinese dream.
These workers are seen by many as dirty, uneducated peasants, to be avoided and even feared for what they might do to you. Recently, I had a retreat in Worth Abbey, where I was informed that the architect chartered to redesign the Abbey Chapel was also the one who designed the U.K. Center at the Shanghai Expo 2010. Tens of millions of people went to the Shanghai Exhibition. The local and the international press marvelled at the buildings, and praised to the sky all of their foreign designers, but I scarcely saw a word about the real heroes and their families at home, who constructed these marvels. Their lives were broken in the making of this exhibition Center and every other urban sprawl all over China. But despite the immense challenges to the workers and their families, lives also were made a bit better in small ways – a builder’s pay packet going to the village regularly, assurances of a child’s education, payment for medicine, a small shop serving the village, or the best house in the area. The empty rhetoric about the place of workers in this society is being named as bogus by many. The indomitable spirit of Mr. Wang and his colleagues are playing their part in that process. With them I pray that in the near future they will fully reap what they have sown
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and enjoy the fruits of their labor. Now the pain is more evident, and the gains are simple such as those listed. But deep inside them I sense an unquenchable will which will prevail. It was well illustrated by the father of Mr. Wang and his village mates when I visited them and heard their story of how they managed in their hostile environment over the past 30 years. After a wonderful time with them, their resilience was admirably summed up in the final goodbye of Mr. Wang’s father. He was brought up in the French Catholic tradition, and he bid me goodbye in French with a determined twinkle in his eighty five year old eye, “all the best Fr. O’Brien, I have been the CATHOLIC party secretary of the Communist party of this village for 30 years. Long live Catholicism!” CM
Fr. Eamonn O’Brien (pictured above left) lives and works in Hong Kong.
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Home Salvador, Brazil by Fr. colin mclean
Cousins with the football trophy www.columban.org
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n the coffee table book, Salvador, an alluring photographic study of life of this city, the Brazilian poet, Jorge Amado, writes: The city is prey to the spirit of adventurers from all parts of the world, who over the years have exploited her black and heavy beauty, thick as oil and deep as mystery, trying to reduce it to the value of the tourist trade. And everything is small and sad when touched by such hands. There is a persistent and criminal effort to shrink Bahia’s beauty, her dramatic ancient beauty, to the limited scope of a tourist’s curious gaze. Bad poets come from afar to sing her praises in uncomprehending verse, while movie-makers film her without feeling, and millionaires and socialites buy her without knowing her, but she has held out against them all, living on for those who understand and love her. She lives on in her grandeur, her ocean and streets, in the daily renewal of mystery and beauty. I may be a long way from an adequate appreciation of the lure and mystery of this city, and yet I
Football player Andre and wife Ana Paula with trophy
hope the following paragraphs will help the reader appreciate why I am able to feel at home here. I came here with the first group of Columbans sent to establish a mission in Brazil and have put a lot of emotional effort into staying here, especially during the first three years. Prior to coming to Brazil, I had been in the Philippines where I had felt welcomed and affirmed. Here, on the other hand, especially among the Afro-Brazilians, with whom I live and work, the onus is on the outsider to demonstrate who he or she is and whether they are friendly and approachable. The outsider will not be accepted simply because of his or her position (especially as priest or nun), as was the case in the Philippines. No doubt in Brazil this is part of the heritage of hundreds of years of slavery when bishops, priests and religious congregations owned slaves. Also, I had been reasonably proficient in the Tagalog language in the Philippines, but I struggled to learn Portuguese as I was 40 years old when I arrived here. Brazilians tend to switch off if the foreigner does not speak reasonable Portuguese.
Andrew Lima Roche, a member of the football team
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What kept me here during those difficult first years was the experience of the Columban group. At that time, there were eleven Columbans in Brazil, and we met twice a year, each time for four to five days, for personal sharing and to make decisions together. Later, priest associates and lay missionaries from the Philippines and Ireland were fully included in these biannual meetings. This was a new way of operating for Columbans on mission. The decisions were no longer left in the hands of a director with his council but rather all members of the mission participated, tried to work towards a consensus but, if necessary, put the matter under discussion to an open vote. We did not use secret ballots for anything, not even in choosing our mission unit coordinators. However, at times, in order to fulfil the letter of the law, we did go through the motions of a secret ballot, which never altered what we had already agreed upon openly. In 1988, the centenary of the official abolition of slavery in Brazil, the Catholic Bishops’ Lenten Action Program, titled “I have heard the cry of my people,” focused on the situation of the
descendants of African slaves. It invited the Catholics of Brazil to look at the history, culture, social situation and racial discrimination of black Brazilians, who constitute about 45 percent of Brazil’s population and 85 percent of the city of Salvador. It was a powerful moment for many Brazilians and especially for me, as we felt urged and challenged to enter into solidarity with black Brazilians in their struggle for social equality and justice. In 1990, a Brazilian priest invited me to live in a poor community within his parish. There people got to know me as a neighbor and a friend. They would drop in constantly for a chat. Meeting others as a resident who shared their neighborhood and not as a priest with a formal role in the parish church was similar to an experience I had lived in the Philippines. Fr. Tommy O’Reilly (a diocesan associate from Ireland who worked with us for six years) joined me later, and we got on really well. In 1993, I was invited to attend the National Conference of Black Priests, Bishops and Deacons. The community where I was living and working was 99 percent black, so
A parish family with many brothers on the football team
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I was known to be in solidarity with the black apostolate. At the close of the conference a bishop was ordaining a black deacon, so he called on the black priests present to join him in the final blessing. I hesitated because he had said “black priests.” The priest beside me pointed to the black skin on his arm and said, “It is not about this; it’s about the way your heart is. You share our cause, so come on, join us.” I have not looked back since. I do not restrict myself to serving the pastoral needs of our church-going parishioners. I feel very much alive when I am with young people who, for the most part, have little or no contact with the Church. This happens with my friends in theater, afro-dance, circus arts and the newly formed parish soccer team. For me, this is missionary outreach as I move out of the Church to where these young people feel at home; I join them in their space. Last year our soccer team won the inaugural championship in the deanery league, and this year we expect to have ten teams competing. Six of the parishes are run by Brazilian priests and some young priests want to play in their parish teams. For the young players it is not just another morning of sport, but rather it seems to me to be part of the Brazilian passion. In Brazil, soccer competes with soap operas for the attention of millions of television viewers. Candomblé is a religion that has its roots primarily in the beliefs of the Yoruba tribe, who have lived for centuries in what today is Nigeria and Benin. This tribe has traditionally recognized a supreme deity who has created mediating spirits (Orixás), who influence forces of nature and human life. By appropriating the Catholic devotion to the saints and www.columban.org
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angels, brought to Brazil by the Portuguese colonists, Candomblé devotees have maintained their faith in the Orixás. After getting to know something of the religion and befriending Candomblé devotees, I now feel accepted by them and welcome to attend their religious ceremonies. This is a major acceptance on their part, considering that many in the Catholic Church consider Candomblé to be, at best, superstition and, at worst, devil worship. I enjoy sharing in-depth discussions with my fellow priests, nuns and laity on pastoral and theological issues at our deanery meetings. In the parish I have similar opportunities with our three deacons and their wives and a group of four nuns (three Brazilians and one Spaniard) with whom I share the parish apostolate and missionary work. I also meet regularly with six members (four men and two women) from one of the black movements in the city. We may go to a restaurant or one of our houses where we informally discuss the issues, challenges and strategies that are presently on the agenda of black movements in Brazil. All are black and have had a cultural association with the Catholic Church. Over the years, such a variety of friends from various walks of life and diverse perspectives have welcomed me, have shared with me, have let me be part of their lives and struggles. I really have no excuse for not feeling at home. CM
2011 Jubilarians The Missionary Society of St. Columban wishes to congratulate the 2011 Jubilarians of the U.S. Region. Diamond (60 years)
Denis Bartley
Richard Steinhilber
Golden (50 years)
Michael Dodd
Thomas P. Reynolds
Charles Duster
Denis F. O’Mara
Fr. Colin McLean lives and works in Brazil.
www.columban.org
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November 2011
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Relocation in Myitkyina State Starting Over
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n February 2011, at the 14th anniversary of the Marian Grotto feast which attracted around 6,000 Kachin Catholics from two dioceses in Myanmar, Myitkyina and Banmaw, Bishop Fracis Daw Tang celebrated Mass with 24 priests in Tanghpre in the northern province of Myitkyina, Myanmar. It is there that the large Myitsone Dam forced the relocation of Tanghpre and another Katchin village in Myitkyina, Myanmar. Starting March 23, 2011, the local authorities and employees from the Asia World company relocated about 130 families from Tanghpre village to Aung Min Thar village, a relocation which increased the villagers’ worry about
their uncertain future. Aung Min Thar village is ten miles south from Tanghpre and most of the buildings are merely temporary shelters for this relocation purpose. Naw Naw, a 28-year-old villager said, “With 10 trucks, many policemen with plain clothes, township government employees from Myitkyina, firemen and security guards from Asia World came to the houses and started loading.” Tanghpre is 27 miles north of Myitkyina, and it is where the construction of the two largest dams for Myitsone hydropower projects is taking place. According to the Myanmar Times, when this project is completed, it will almost double the country’s present
electrical capacity in Myanmar. However, it is believed that most of this electricity will be exported for use in China. The authorities wanted to finish the relocation since Tanghpre will be under water. Tanghpre is where the confluence of the two rivers, the Mali and Nmai, coming from the Himalayas join to form the Ayawaddy river. The confluence, locally known as Myitson, is one of the most attractive spots in northern Myanmar. Mr. Naw said, “Relocating the villages near the Myitsone dam, the largest one, and [near the] other seven dams along the Mali and Nmai rivers makes people who live along the rivers deeply concerned [about] their future and livelihood.” In early 2011, over 60 families from Mazup, Dawng Pan and Lahpe villages were forced to move to Aung Min Thar village. Nhkum Hkon said, “The evacuees receive 100,000 Kyats ($100.00 U.S.), a television set, a
Temporary shelters
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A temporary home
house and rice for six months for each family from Asia World.” Asia World receives financial and technical support from the Chinese government. But, there are still villagers who are compelled to sell their lands in Tanghpre to the company according to the fixed prices. They worried that they would be harassed and threatened to move from the village. Sara Aung, a local catechist, said, “Like myself, most villagers have been living here for years and can’t leave our homes and lands because the land belongs to our forefathers and has become our parental heritage.” There are still many private companies who are digging gold along the rivers of Mali and Nmai and throughout the village of Tanghpre. These companies destroyed all the irrigated rice plantations and turned the village into a stony place. The local villagers could do nothing but were helpless and felt saddened by the destruction of their lands. Ma Aung , a 26-year-old villager, said, “We are forced to leave www.columban.org
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Sleeping quarters
from our homes because of the natural resources. This is our land, and we have been living here for generations. In the past, no one cared [about] us.” According to the local police source, these private companies will stay in the village and dig the gold for three more years. Fr. Thomas, a Catholic priest reported that Tanghpre was a historical birthplace for the Catholic Columban Mission where the Columban Fathers built the church and mission schools for local Kachin people who then were animists living on “green hills.” The Marian Grotto and Our Lady Queen of Heaven church were built in 1952 and became historical heritages for Kachin people. According to Fr. Thomas, in July of 1945 after World War II, Fr. John Howe (who was later a bishop in the Kachin state) arrived in Tanghpre where only five non-Catholic families lived. He founded Tanghpre as an inhabitable village and made it the mission headquarters for the uppermost area of Myanmar.
Fr. Thomas said that Taung-ok Zinghtung Naw, a mountain-chief appointed by the government, who is also a relative to Archbishop Paul Grawng of Mandalay, was the first person who converted to Catholicism in Tanghpre. A decade later, in Tanghpre, Fathers Bernard Way and Patrick Madden opened a school for catechists which has provided over 700 catechists to teach in villages all over. They also published Jinghpaw Kasa (Jinghpaw Messenger) magazine which was the first magazine for the Catholic Kachin community. According to Mr. Naw, “It is believed to relocate around 40 villages along the upper part of Tanghpre and the lower part of Ayawaddy. After Tanghpre, the villages of the upper Myitsone such as Gwi Htau,Tangbau yang, mile 5, Lasip Zup, Njip, Tang Yang will be relocated soon.” CM This article was submitted by a Columban Father who wishes to remain anonymous.
November 2011
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Sojourners Among Us Migrants, Immigrants and Refugees
The Flight into Egypt by EdmĂŠ Bouchardon
By Ryan Murphy
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n the United States, the issue of immigration is controversial, although the concept has existed throughout history. In the Bible we read about the Jewish people immigrating to the promised land after fleeing the persecution in Egypt. The Holy Family were refugees in Egypt as they hid from the wrath of King Herod. The United States prides itself on being a melting pot and is comprised of the sons and daughters of immigrants. So what happened? Why have migrants, immigrants and refugees become villains? Although the United States represents all races and ethnicities, there has often been hostility toward new immigrants. As the Irish fled the potato famine and came to the United States, they were discriminated against and could only find work in undesirable employment, like building the railroad system. Chinese immigrants faced even more discrimination. They were segregated into geographic regions known as “Chinatowns� and were not respected as humans. On May 8, 1882, the Chinese Exclusionary Act was signed into law, thereby banning any further Chinese immigration until 1943. This was the first law that specifically
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targeted the ethnicity of immigrants and was only repealed because the Chinese were our ally during WWII. Today, the waves of immigrants that are being targeted are from Central America and Mexico. Five states have passed legislation to allow police to take immigration matters into their own jurisdiction which in some cases have led to racial profiling of suspected illegal aliens. Acting as an extension of federal immigration officials, local law enforcement can arrest and detain immigrants until they can be deported. Many politicians are pushing for more construction of a high tech border wall and even more border patrol agencies. In 2000 there were 9,000 agencies; today there are 21,000 agencies. This year, Congress is considering if it should implement E-Verify, a mandatory electronic verification for every employer in the United States. This program will seek and find the 7-8 million unauthorized immigrants employed in the United States and terminate their jobs. I have been blessed to have traveled throughout Central and South America, from where many of the unauthorized migrants come to the U.S. What I have witnessed, is that the United States is not a closed society. The images of
American and European wealth are seen all over the world, including in extremely impoverished areas. Movies, magazines, billboards and television shows portray an average American family owning multiple vehicles, televisions in every room of the house, huge luxurious wardrobes and having no discomforts. This may not be a true portrayal of every American, but it is often what the outside world thinks. As the quality of life declines for impoverished communities in the developing world, the concept of migrating becomes a viable option. The choice to leave home, family, friends and culture is never an easy decision to make. One of the reasons people migrate is out of economic necessity. The idea of traveling to a land of excess to make enough to supply your needs becomes more attractive. Not every undocumented worker is here to earn enough money to return home. Some migrants become immigrants and decide to permanently reside in the United States. Others come to this country to reunite with their families. In the U.S. many families have one or two parents who are immigrants with American born children. Policies that target illegal immigrants often endanger the www.columban.org
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family unit of immigrants when the children are separated from their parents. For the Catholic Church, the protection of the family has been one of the driving forces to work for immigration reform. During the 1980s, many refugees from the wars in Central America escaped the violence by traveling to the United States. Today, new waves of refugees are Mexicans escaping the extreme violence of the recent drug wars. In the last four years, territorial disputes between drug cartels and government forces have killed nearly 40,000 people. One third of the population of Ciudad Juarez has evacuated the city, many of whom moved to the United States. The El Paso, Texas, chief of police, Greg Allen, estimated that during the past two years, over 30,000 Mexican nationals fleeing the violence in Ciudad Juarez have settled into El Paso. Columban missionaries all around the world, including those in the United States, are walking in solidarity with immigrant communities. In Taiwan, at the Hope Workers’ Center, Columbans serve the migrants from Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. In the United States Columbans at the U.S. – Mexico border in El Paso, www.columban.org
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Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, work closely with Annunciation House, an immigration shelter that provides the basic needs of newly arriving migrants, immigrants and refugees. In Washington, D.C., the Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach (CCAO) represents the plight of the immigrant communities to Congress, embassies and other institutions. The Bible is clear on how we are to treat the immigrants in our communities. In Exodus 22:21, we read that, “You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”
As this was true for the Jews in the Old Testament, it also is relevant to Americans today. We must heed the message in the Book of Exodus and care for the fatherless, widows and orphans among us. CM Ryan Murphy is a former Columban Volunteer and worked in Washington, D.C., at the Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach office.
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Hungering for Community Sharing the One Bread and the One Cup By Fr. Timothy Mulroy
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t always seemed to me that going to a restaurant provided me with an opportunity to choose exactly what I liked to eat. The bigger the menu, then, the greater was my expectation in finding that perfect dish to satisfy my taste buds. Furthermore, I assumed that everyone thought like me. I found myself puzzled, therefore, when I ate out with Japanese friends and noticed that all of them chose the same dish. At first, I simply thought it odd, but gave it little more reflection. However, when I had the same experience over and over again, I became confused. “Surely, everyone cannot like the same dish,” I mused. “What was the point in eating out if each of us couldn’t enjoy our preferred dish?” I asked myself. On many occasions my confusion and discomfort was increased by the custom of my companions asking me to choose what I liked to eat and then having all of them chime in that they too wanted to enjoy the same dish. It seemed that, because I was a priest, or a guest, or as the only foreigner in the group, on so many occasions I was given the task of deciding what it was that everyone would eat. On many occasions I felt uneasy about this role and tried to convince my companions to exercise their own freedom
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of choice. On a few occasions I protested by pretending not to be able to understand the menu, thereby hoping that I might be relieved of my role. However, it was all to no avail. Inevitably, someone knew my preferred dish from a previous outing and so would order it again for everyone. Each time that I had this kind of experience I came away from it perplexed. I kept asking myself the same questions, and I kept coming
Sharing the same food was a means of forging community. up with the same unsatisfactory answers. Indeed, it took several years before I realized that my dissatisfaction arose not from my answers. It came from asking the wrong questions, and from my narrow way of interpreting my experience. As I came to understand Japanese culture better through a variety of experiences, I came to realize also that they interpreted eating out with
companions differently from me. While I focused on the variety of dishes on the menu, they were more concerned about having a common focus for the group members. Likewise, whereas I emphasized freedom of choice for each individual, they were concerned about creating a common experience through which the members of the group would feel bonded with one another. In other words, for my Japanese companions, sharing the same food was a means of forging community. As I reflected on my new insight, I came to realize that when we invite guests to our home all of us eat the same dish and in doing so draw them closer into the bonds of our family. Sharing a Sunday brunch with another family is not primarily about being able to eat what I like but rather about the sense of inclusion that comes from everyone taking from the same big dish in the center of the table. As with Sunday brunch, eating out with Japanese companions opened my eyes to the deeper meaning of what happens in the celebration of Mass. Our sharing of the one bread and the one cup not only builds our individual relationships with Jesus, but also forges us into the community of His friends through such a communal experience. I am grateful to my Japanese friends for being patient with me until I came to see just how important this coming together as one is, not just in our celebration of the Mass, but in every meal. CM Fr. Timothy Mulroy lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.
WWW.COLUMBAN.ORG
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To Meet the Needs of Our Time
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river can mark not only the landscape of a place but the hearts and lives of the people that live there. If you’re on the so-called right side of the river, it can bring you material wealth, earthly comforts and a connectedness to the wider world. But for those on the so-called wrong side of the river, it can mean a life of poverty, sickness and isolation. Earlier this year I had the opportunity to visit China where Columbans have served since the founding of our Society in 1918 by Fr. Edward Galvin who was later named the Bishop of Hanyang, China, and Fr. John Blowick. A five hour train ride from Shanghai to Hanyang brought me face-to-face
From the Director By Fr. Arturo Aguilar with where our mission began at the intersection of the Yangtze and Han rivers. We visited the cathedral built by Bishop Galvin which was located on the poorer side of the city. After more than ninety years, the early Columban presence has stayed on the side of the river that joins us to people who are poor and marginalized. Whether the river is the Yangtze in China, the Rio Grande at the U.S. Mexico border or
...Columban mission has always chosen to stand on the side of people who are on the periphery.
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the Indus in Pakistan, Columban mission has always chosen to stand on the side of people who are on the periphery. As I walked the streets and passed through the vegetable market of Wuhan, I imagined Bishop Galvin, a humble man from County Cork, Ireland, with a passionate heart, going to China where the needs were the greatest. He went with a spirit of service and invitation of baptism into our faith. His desire came not from a spirit of condemnation of the culture and traditions he entered into, but of his deep faith and calling to witness God’s love to the people who suffered most. Bishop Galvin is quoted as telling new arrivals in China that “we are not here to convert the Chinese; we are here to do the will of God.” What must have been a difficult mission in those early years continues to bear fruit because of the love and faithful perseverance of Galvin and the early Columban missionaries to China. Throughout my visit to China, I was blessed to meet with many people and visit many places that have been touched by Columban mission. From the Bishop of Shanghai to a Chinese priest sponsored by Columbans who was studying English in Ireland to a congregation of Sisters found by Fr. Galvin, signs of his early hope remain in a country where life for the majority still is marked by poverty and oppression. While visiting with the Bishop of Shanghai, when asked of the future, he stated that the country is developing quickly and that the Church needs to be ready to respond to the growing industrial and consumer culture. Just as our founder did more than ninety years ago, as missionaries in today’s world, we are all called to be ready to meet the needs of our time and to evangelize in creative ways, primarily through our lives of service and witness of God’s love and justice to all cultures.
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Columban Fathers PO Box 10 St. Columbans, NE 68056
Learn more about Columban missionaries in Taiwan!
“You are the light of the world…your light must shine before others, so that they may see the good
Explore Missionary Work with Migrants in Taiwan
Some 330,000 migrant workers from other parts of Asia have come to Taiwan to find work. The Hope Workers’ Center run by Columbans helps these workers when their rights have been violated. “Walking from the Shadows” lets you experience the ministry of the Columbans to these exploited workers, share in the celebration of their Catholic faith and be moved by their suffering and situations. Available in DVD or VHS format. Please contact the Columban Mission Education Dept. at 877/299-1920 or www.columban.org to order “Walking From the Shadows.” Columban Fathers/Mission Education PO Box 10 St. Columbans, NE 68056
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NON PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID COLUMBAN FATHERS
that you do and give glory to God.” Matthew 5:16
Are you ready to let your light shine before others as a missionary priest, bringing Good News to the world?
Contact us: www.columban.org vocations@columban.org 915-351-1153
Fr. Bill Morton, SSC National Vocations Director Columban Fathers St. Columbans, NE 68056
Japan + Korea + Peru + Hong Kong + Philippines + Pakistan + Chile + Fiji + Taiwan + North America
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