The Far East COLUMBAN MISSION MAGAZINE October 2016 Just one boiled egg makes the children happy A journey back to Latin America Columban Fr Donald Hornsey returns. My mum’s baptismal name is Agnes PRICE $1.50 The Far East Contents October 2016 Vol 98, No. 9 THE FAR EAST is devoted to furthering the missionary apostolate of the church and has been published by the Missionary Society of St Columban since November/December 15, 1920. THE SOCIETY was founded in 1918 as a society of secular priests dedicated to 4-5 6-7 the evangelisation of the Chinese and other overseas people. It is an exclusively missionary society. SUBSCRIPTIONS: $15 per year (AUSTRALIA) AUSTRALIA St Columban's Mission Society 69 Woodland Street Essendon Vic 3040 Postal address: PO Box 752, Niddrie Vic 3042 10 -11 12-13 Tel: (03) 9375 9475 [email protected] www.columban.org.au NEW ZEALAND St Columban's Mission Society P.O. Box 30-017 Lower Hutt 5040 Tel: (04) 567 7216 [email protected] 20-21 22-23 www.columban.org.au 3 From the Editor 16 Mission World Publisher: Discovering and responding to Muslims attend Masses and Fr Gary Walker the needs of others Vigils in show of solidarity [email protected] 4-5 A dream becomes 17 From the Director reality Beware of the fundamentalists! Editor: Good Shepherd Children's Fr Dan Harding Programme in Juarez, Mexico. 18-19 On being good news [email protected] The story of a catechist from 6-7 Just one boiled egg Pakistan. Editorial Assistant: makes the children happy 20-21 My mum’s baptismal Jacqueline Russell name is Agnes [email protected] 8-9 Reflection - A great A Korean Lay Missionary tells how welcome for ourselves her mother is an inspiration. Designer: Assunta Scarpino 10-11 A pioneer returns to 22 'In the Footsteps of [email protected] Chile St Columban' Pilgrimage 2017 Communications & Publications 12-13 A journey back to Latin Director: America 23 Feedback from 2015 Mrs Janette Mentha Fr Donald Hornsey returns. pilgrims [email protected] 14-15 Columban priesthood - 23 Your Columban Legacy Saint Columbans Mission Property challenging and enriching Association A.B.N. 17 686 524 625 Printed by Doran Printing, Melbourne The Far East COLUMBAN MISSIONOctober MAGAZINE 2016 Columban Fr Donald Hornsey with Chilean Lay Missionary Teresa at Peru's National Day celebrations, offering Pisco Sours, the national drink of both Peru and Chile. (See story pages 12-13) Photo: Fr Donald Hornsey SSC Just one boiled egg makes the children happy A journey back to Latin America Columban Fr Donald Hornsey returns. PRICE $1.50 My mum’s baptized name is Agnes From the Editor Discovering and responding to the needs of others n July this year, Hildegard missionary vocation to respond to the While missionaries are called to I Kang, a first year high needs of others. respond to the desperate situations school student from Korea, visited For 40 years the Columban Sisters like those Hildegard met, Columban poverty-stricken neighbourhoods have responded to the needs of Fr Noel Connolly reminds us in Manila, the Philippines, as part the poor in Chile. Columban Sr Ita that missionaries must do this of a Columban-organized mission McElwain shares their story with us. with attitudes of attentiveness, experience. Hildegard found the Columban Fr Donald Hornsey made graciousness, humility and experience difficult, quite shocking, a recent visit back to the parishes contemplation to discern with the emotionally draining and horrible among the poor in Chile, Brazil and people what the Spirit is calling all of at times. The experience helped to Peru where he worked for more than us to do. change her thinking and attitudes to 40 years. Columban Fr Feliciano Fatu others. Her powerful story challenges shares with us his missionary journey all of us to move out of our comfort from Tonga to Fiji, to the Philippines, Fr Daniel Harding zones and encounter the reality of to Peru and to Pakistan and now to [email protected] those in need. It challenges us to find the Columban Formation programme. ways to respond to these needs. Mushtaq Asad is a catechist in This issue carries the stories of many Pakistan. He writes of the way his Columban missionaries as they vocation has changed and developed R seek to respond to situations, often over the years, particularly after the desperate, such as those which death of his wife. He works closely Hildegard encountered during her with the Columbans there. Become a Columban Priest mission experience. This issue also has an advertisement Columban Missionary Priests: Among poor families in Juarez, for the 2017, 'In the Footsteps of St 'Crossing Boundaries' Mexico, Columban Fr William Morton Columban Pilgrimage', through helped develop an educational five European countries. This programme for 280 children from pilgrimage follows the same route kindergarten to university. This as the successful 2015 pilgrimage programme helps offer a way out of following the missionary journey poverty through education for these of St Columban from Ireland, young people. Matilda Lee is a Korean through modern day France, Austria, For more information: www.columban.org.au Columban Lay Missionary assigned Switzerland and Italy where he died E: [email protected] to Taiwan. She writes movingly of in 615AD. the role her mother played in her The Far East - October 2016 3 A dream becomes reality FR WILLIAM MORTON he first time I met Cristina in 1998 she was carrying Jose nailed a couple of sheets of plywood onto some T a bundled-up infant and rushing down the rutted, two-by-fours and created a neat little porch right in front dusty road in Anapra to board a green and white employee of their house to protect the young students from the bus that would take her to a foreign-owned factory in piercing desert sun. We obtained some tiny plastic tables nearby Juarez, Mexico. The baby, Margarita, would be and chairs and soon there was a little gaggle of laughing handed over to her husband, Jose, who after finishing his children coming after school and receiving help with their shift would be returning to Anapra on this same bus. The homework, reading and writing and, of course, getting a Columbans had recently purchased a simple pallet house in little treat from Cristina! Anapra and Cristina, Jose and their four children were our I noticed that some of the adolescents were not attending neighbours. school and asked Cristina if she could visit the parents and Both parents worked in an auto supply factory, soldering find out why. Some had no birth certificate and so Cristina parts onto the automotive harnesses that carry electrical became a self-taught social worker who went to the registry wires to operate the lights, radio, windows etc. Between of births and deaths and using whatever documents the them they made about $60.00 (AUD) a week. One parents had, eventually got them birth certificates. When afternoon, Cristina was rushed home from work with I saw some of these same children were not attending terrible pain after the soldering machine she was using school, again I asked Cristina to investigate and she said exploded causing chemical burns on her hands and wrists. the parents couldn’t afford the various fees for the public While she was home recuperating I got to know her and schools. At that point a light went on and we said the her family better often over a plate of stuffed chilis or some After-School Programme was not enough. We needed other tasty Mexican dish that Cristina expertly prepared. scholarships, too. Though she had only finished a couple years of primary Through the generosity of Columban benefactors and a school, she had a deep concern for the children in Anapra host of other donors we started what came to be known who were often missing school or not even registered to as the Good Shepherd After-School and Scholarship attend. She shared with me her dream to have some kind Programme. After more than 15 years of slow but steady of programme where she could help these kids get the growth, the programme is now housed in its own building education that she had never received. with five classrooms, a kitchen, two bathrooms and an Cristina returned to work and requested a position where outdoor space where Cristina has egg-laying hens, some she wouldn’t have to solder. After being refused she vegetables growing and a nice area for our Guadalupe, decided to come back and work in the community. Call it Christmas and other 'fiestas' for the children. Divine Providence or whatever you wish, but at the same Our programme has about 280 students from kindergarten time, a young missionary couple who lived nearby decided up to university. As the children advance through the to return to the States and asked Cristina if she would programme they learn to help the smaller students continue the children’s library that they had begun. Cristina and eventually some become Cristina’s official helpers. said “Yes” and her dream began to take shape. Compared to Australia and New Zealand education costs, ours are not great. But in comparison to a daily wage earner in Juarez, especially a single parent, they are formidable. But our programme is not just about scholarship money or paying bills for the students. It is a personal commitment on the part of Cristina to know each and every student and to be personally engaged in their education and home life.