Columban History-CDO
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Columban Mission in Cagayan de Oro Diocesan priests answer the missionary call It all began back in 1911 when Father Edward Galvin, a recently ordained Diocesan priest from Ireland accidentally meet another Diocesan priest, Father John Frazer from Canada in Brooklyn, New York. Galvin had been temporarily assigned by his bishop in Brooklyn, New York since ordination and was now due to return to his home diocese. Frazer, on the other hand, had volunteered to be a missionary inChina. What ever happened in that one conversation it was enough to convince Galvin that God’s call for him was to go to China with Frazer and not back to Ireland. After many years on mission Galvin would later become Bishop of Hanyang, China. However, before that in 1916 he returned to Ireland to seek the support of his Alma Mater, the National Seminary of Ireland (Maynooth), his classmates and fellow diocesan colleagues for a mission in China. Father John Blowick, one of the seminary professors, resigned his post and threw in his lot for Galvin’s cause. And thus in October, 1916 The Maynooth Mission to China began.It was to be a Society of Secular Priests (not a religious congregation) with the purpose of proclaiming the Gospel of Christ in foreign lands. Saint Columban, the 6 th century Irish missionary, who set about re-evangelizing Europe after the collapse of the Roman Empire, was chosen as Patron and his words: “ Perigrinari Pro Christo” (Exiles for Christ) would be the inspiration for these new missionaries to leave their homeland for the sake of Christ, not knowing if they would ever again return. And some never did. Many of these young missionaries in China succumbed to illnesses. Others were martyred. Founders of the Society of St Columban and the Columban Sisters 1929 Columbans arrive in the Philippines Just one month previously, in September 1916, another alumnus of the National Seminary of Ireland, Bishop Michael James O’ Doherty (who had served for five years as bishop in the newly-established Diocese of Zamboanga) was installed as the 26th Archbishop of Manila. Since the majority of Spanish priests had already left the Philippines following the 1 events surrounding the War of Independence with Spain and the subsequent US occupation, Archbishop O’ Doherty began desperately to look for priests to staff theimmensely vast, Archdiocese of Manila. He turned to his fellow Irish diocesan priests for help but it seemed that most of them were going to China with the Columbans!His only option therefore was to ask the Columbans directly for priests. As it happens many Columbans were familiar with Manila as a stop-over point on their long journey to Shanghai and so were willing to consider the Archbishop’s request. Finally a decision was made and three Columban priests arrived in May 1929 to work in Our Lady of Remedies Parish, Malate, Manila. In keeping with what had very quickly become practice in China, these three men began their mission by learning Tagalog and Spanish from a priest of the Archdiocese of Manila, while at the same time running the parish. Eventually there would be over 100 priests and one bishop working throughout Luzon in parishes, schools, universities, apostolates among the urban poor, with the Aeta of Zambales and in Student Catholic Action. But that’s another story! Archbishop Hayes’ Petition The American Jesuits of the New York/Maryland Province had arrived in Manila eight years before the Columbans (1921) and in 1926 eight of these young Jesuits, including Fr. James Hayes SJ, were assigned to work in Mindanao. In 1930, Fr.Hayes came back to Manila in his new role as Jesuit Superior. During these three years in Manila he became a close friend of the Columbans in Malate Parish, not in small part due, I am sure, to the fact that both his parents were Irish. Also, Fr. Edward Galvin, the co-founder of the Columbans was first assigned in New York, the very city where Fr. Hayes had grown up. In any case, this friendship between Fr Hayes SJ and the Columban Fathers was the very reason why in1938, five years after he was installed as Bishop of Cagayan de Oro and desperately in need of priests for this immense Diocese, he did not hesitate to ask his Columban friend in Manila, Fr. Pat Kelly, to deliver his request to the Columban Superior General. In a letter to Father Kelly, dated March 31, 1938, Bishop Hayes SJstates: “As I explained to you in Manila, the Jesuit Fathers are not able to supply enough men for the work for souls in the four provinces of this diocese which they are at present trying to care for. Thus by means of this letter I wish to make a formal petition to the Columban Fathers to come to the Diocese of Cagayan. I would request you to take up this matter with your superiors when you visit Ireland.” i He finished the letter by saying: “I feel sure that God will bring the Columban Fathers to this Diocese if it is His holy will and I shall continue to pray for this intention.” ii 1938 Columbans come to the Diocese of Cagayan de Oro Bishop Hayes’ petition for priests was promptly approved by the Columbans in Ireland and by December 1938 elevenColumbans had arrived to serve under Bishop Hayes. It 2 was decided that five of the priests, Fathers Chapman, Brangan, Murphy and Mc Cullagh, would go directly to Misamis Occidental with their new Superior, Father Peter Fallon, while the other five, Cronin, Callanan, Mc Fadden, Corrigan and Noonewould first stay in Cebu to learn Binisaya. And so, for example, the young Fr. Patrick Cronin was assigned to live in the Parish of Barili, Cebu and to learn Binisaya from an old man who was more interested in learning English than in teaching Fr. Cronin Binisaya! iii Fr Frank Chapman was the first to arrive in Mindanao on November 10, 1938. Misamis Occidental Bishop Hayes assigned the Columbans to take charge of Misamis Occidental and by Easter 1939 all eleven men were gradually beginning to take over the running of the parishes there from the Jesuits, who had kindly stayed on to help facilitate the transfer of their parishes to the Columbans. In a letter Fr. Fallon remarked: “No one could be kinder of more generous than those American Jesuit priests, mostly of Irish descent: they are glad our men are coming, though I know it will be hard on some of them to leave”. When Father Heneghan visited his Columban confreres in Misamis Occidental he had the following to say: “Most of the people in Misamis are baptised-but that is all!There are many who fell away into Aglipayanism through lack of Catholic priests. Until a few years ago there was only one Spanish priest doing the whole district, going about on horseback. There are about one hundred miles of coastline with a new road along the sea. It is being populated by immigrants from Cebu and other southern islands. Just to show you that these country people are good and fell away just because there were no priests: when Fr. Denis Murphy began to say Mass in an out-chapel, though he could not speak their language, over forty of them came and said they wanted to become Catholic again”. iv Bishop Hayes’ numerous requests to the Columbans for more priests were usually granted and very soon, not only were all existing parishes in Misamis Occidental well-staffed with priests, but many new parishes were also developed. Following a request from Bishop Hayes to the Columban Sisters, three sisters were assigned to Misamis in 1941 to set up a Catholic College there (which has recently become La Salle University). And with this influx of missionaries and the newly established catechetical programsin public schools the Catholic Church was now rapidly re-establishing itself in the lives of the people of Misamis Occidental. 3 Some members of the First Columbans in Misamis Occidental around 1939. Included are Fathers F. Chapman (1 st left- front), P. Cronin (4 th from left –back) and W. Hennessy (2 nd from right –back) World War II By May 1942 the Japanese forces had reached Mindanao via Davao. When they reached Cagayan de Oro they had Bishop Hayes promptly arrested and incarcerated. When word of the Bishop’s plight reached Misamis Occidental the Japanese had already arrived there too. Fr.Vincent McFadden SSC, an American, was arrested in his house in Oroquieta, brought to the University of Santo Tomas, Manila, which the Japanese had had turned into a concentration camp for foreign nationals. Fr.Patrick Cronin and his two classmates, Fr.Frank Chapman and Fr.Bill Hennessy decided immediately to follow their parishioners who were on their way to hide in the forests of Mount Malindang. Here they remained throughout the war to avoid being arrested by the Japanese, eating mostly kamote to avoid dysentery and drinking tea made from the bark of trees to avoid malaria. Archbishop Cronin would later recall the wonderful bond of solidarity and deep friendship that was built up between them and their parishioners when the lived together in the mountains. They also built up a supply network with officers of the American resistance, who regularly included alter wine and medicines for the priests among the supplies they managed to smuggle by submarine through enemy lines from Australia. On their return trips to Australia the submarines carried civilians from Mindanao. Time and again the Columban Fathers and Sisters had a chance to leave war- turn Mindanao.