APOSTOLIC WORK

from Reality March 2020

HALLOWED BE THY NAME

MISSION SUNDAY CELEBRATION – ST PATRICK’S, LISBURN Back row : Fr John O’Donoghue M.Afr, Fr Conor McGrath, Fr Liam Dunne SVD, Fr Martin Cushnan CSsR, Fr Gerald Doyle MHM, Fr Francis Ahern OSA, Fr Fergus Tuohy SMA, Fr John Brown CSSp, Fr Eddie Deany SMA Front row : Fr Terence McGuckin CP, Fr Billy Fulton SPS, Fr Aloysius Lumala, Mary McGrath, Bishop Noel Treanor, Geraldine Goodall, Fr Fonsie Doran CSsR, Fr Kevin McHugh SSC, Canon Brendan Murray, Josephine O’Boyle

APOSTOLIC WORK WAS FOUNDED IN BELFAST IN 1923, FOR THE PURPOSE OF SUPPORTING MISSIONARIES AND THEIR WORK IN MANY COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD, WHETHER THEIR NEEDS ARE FINANCIAL, MEDICAL, STRUCTURAL OR EDUCATIONAL.

BY JOSEPHINE O’ BOYLE

Although it is now 96 years in existence, the aims and ideals of the founder, Agnes Mc Auley, are still the basis of the Apostolic Work Society today.

Agnes Mc Auley, born in Enniskillen, moved to Belfast in 1903 and eventually after various jobs she finally began working in the office of the Franklin laundry. In her private life she displayed exemplary Christian attitudes, offering both spiritual and material assistance to others, especially those on the missions. As well as attending many Masses each week, she also was involved in the sale of missionary magazines including The Far East, African Missions and other forms of fundraising. Such was her commitment and powers of persuasion that her friends and indeed the Bishop of Down and Connor, Dr Joseph MacRory all helped in her work, providing spiritual, financial and material aid for the missions. This work included providing vestments for Fr O’ Connor, a missionary priest in Africa; helping Mother Marcella (a Franciscan nun) to finance the building of a leper hospital in Kamuli, Uganda; and providing a bursary of £500 for the education of students for the priesthood through the African Missionaries in Cork. The Bishop’s approval for this project was secured when he was blessing vestments for dispatch to the missions in Africa.

BEGINNINGS Agnes, with a few like-minded friends, organised themselves into a group to provide funds for missionaries. When Bishop MacRory was

Apostolic Work financed this classroom and a place of worship at Kapukupudu

It also supported a clean water project at Mador, Ghana

approached about this idea, his reaction was very positive and encouraging. “I do not see how anything but good can come from it” he said.

The first group of ten young women from six different parishes met in Belfast on October 15, 1923. After some prayers, they discussed ways to raise money to help the missions. At the next meeting which was addressed by a Mill Hill priest on leave from his mission work in Uganda, the group were told “What is not good enough for God at home is not good enough for Him in Africa” This comment has endured as a policy of Apostolic Work to this day – only the best goods and materials are dispatched to the missions.

What took place at those early meetings is still today replicated at Apostolic Work branches throughout Ireland. Although Agnes died on December 23, 1925, she was succeeded in 1924 by a very competent and like-minded Mary Mc Call whose organisational ability, dynamism and zeal led to remarkable growth in the spread of the association and the deepening of its spirituality. Within a year of Mary Mc Call’s accession to the presidency, new branches had been formed in Clonard and Ardoyne in Belfast as well as one in Ballymena. From these small beginnings has developed a global organisation, whose work now reaches missionaries across the world including Africa, Asia and South America providing altar linens, vestments, Mass kits, chalices, ciboria, pyx, oil stocks, monstrances and other liturgical essentials, as well as financial help for food, water provision, medical supplies, transport, orphanages, education, clinics, church buildings and seminaries. The money required for all these needs comes from a variety of sources: honorary members’ subscriptions collected annually, fundraising events such as. Christmas fairs, cake sales, sponsored sporting events, coffee mornings and fashion shows. Apostolic members are very ingenious at developing new ways to encourage their supporters to continue with their financial help.

TODAY The introduction of the UK Gift Aid scheme some years ago annually increases donations by 25 per cent if the donor is a UK taxpayer, and this brings a welcome addition to funds as it also does to many other deserving charities. Sponsorship of more expensive liturgical items are often undertaken by individuals, families or sporting groups. Annual church door collections are a valuable source of income, especially in parishes which do not have a branch of Apostolic Work but welcome a speaker, who gives a short talk about the needs of missionaries and the role of Apostolic Work in helping fulfil these needs. Some parishes have a junior branch of Apostolic Work, often based in a local school. These also help to inform and encourage young people in their role as missionaries and provide opportunities for them to help raise muchneeded finance for mission projects especially those involving children, such as education and medical needs.

In 1935, the Prefect of the Sacred Congregatation for the Propagation of the Faith wrote from Rome to Bishop Daniel Mageean (Bishop of Down and Connor at that time) praising the work of Apostolic Work association. He also announced that from then on it was directly aggregated to the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, now known as the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, thereby granting it and its workers apostolic privileges which continues to this day. Although in some dioceses in Ireland the number of members in Apostolic Work has decreased in more recent times, there is still great support for this work which continues to provide for the ever-increasing needs of missionaries.

33 ALL OVER THE WORLD The annual monitoring return from Apostolic Work Down and Connor to the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland for the financial period ending November 30, 2017 lists the countries where it is active. It includes Albania, Argentina, Bangladesh, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chile, China, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gambia, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Lithuania, Madagascar, Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

This list is by no means the complete picture, as other dioceses may support missionaries in other countries. A quick glance will show that Apostolic Work operates in some of the poorest regions of the world where large numbers of the population suffer severe deprivation of basic needs. The role of Apostolic Work is to implement projects which, while providing the necessary short-term help to these people, aim through a range of interventions to provide them or their children with the skills and the means to become self-reliant. It is for this reason that the Apostolic Work Society was founded and will continue to help fund missionaries who are working to alleviate poverty and suffering throughout the world.

WHO DOES APOSTOLIC WORK HELP? The organisation uses a range of projects which are tailor-made to suit different groups with specific needs. For example in some countries there are specific areas of deprivation which can include different age groups like preschool through to young adults, groups who suffer

from illnesses which require long-term treatment including HIV/AIDS patients, and those addicted to misuse of solvents, alcohol or drugs. Refugees, asylum seekers, those with learning difficulties and groups whose needs are complex and possibly long term, can get advice and help from trained personnel who are supported by finance provided by Apostolic Work. These examples are not exhaustive as certain situations require specialised, specific help and where possible this will be given.

Fr Liam Dunne SVD spoke very eloquently at the annual retreat in 2018 about his experiences as a missionary who was helped by Apostolic Work. He told us that his group, Divine Word Missionaries, is the largest missionary organisation in the world today, working in over 80 countries – most of which are heavily reliant on help from other countries if their mission is to succeed. As Irish missionaries are not as numerous today as in former years, many missionary priests, sisters and lay people at present are coming from less developed countries like India, Indonesia, Brazil,

Papa New Guinea and the Congo. These missionaries are not as well supported by their families or home countries as past Irish missionaries were, so in fact the needs of the mission world have increased in recent years and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

The two main objectives of Apostolic Work today remain as they were in 1925, namely:

1.To provide missionaries with the material needs required for their work evangelising in impoverished parishes in the developing world. This aim is achieved by various fundraising activities with all monies being sent to a central diocesan office.

2. To pray for the success of missionary work in spreading the Gospel to all peoples.

It was for these reasons that the Apostolic Work Society was founded, and therefore will continue to help missionaries working to spread the love and word of God and alleviating poverty where needed around the world. With God’s help this work will progress and develop even further in our quest to provide the most deprived peoples of the world with their essential needs, both spiritual and temporal. Josephine O’Boyle is secretary to the Apostolic Work, Down and Connor Diocese The classroom turned to chapel

The Spirituality of St Patrick is a fountain of nourishment based on the writings of the man himself. The booklet presented here is not just ‘a good read.’ It is the Rule of Life that gave Patrick meaning in success and adversity – something upon which the reader is invited to reflect, to ponder, to revisit and to live by. Besides including “Patrick’s Profession of Faith” and “Sayings of St Patrick,” part 5 of the publication is a ready resource for Patrician hymns in English and Irish, notably Hail Glorious St Patrick, Dóchas Linn Naomh Pádraig, and Mrs Alexander’s classic rendition of St Patrick’s Breastplate.

Ecumenically the booklet contributes to “the new season of reconciliation that is defrosting the divisions that have scarred our island and pushed believers apart.”