Our new home
01.10.2008
Fr Burger explains how the Columbans made the decision to move their headquarters from Ireland to Hong Kong.
The Superior General of the Columban Fathers and his Council transferred the Society’s headquarters from its traditional home in Ireland to Hong Kong on May 1, 2008, becoming what is believed to be the first Western missionary congregation to locate its leadership team in Asia.
Speaking at the Society’s new offices in Kowloon, Hong Kong, the Superior General, Fr Tommy Murphy said the move is a response to the changing face of mission in the 21st century. He pinpointed the Society’s 1982 decision to accept vocations from the local churches where Society members were working as a paradigm shift for the Columbans.
“Almost all ordinations in the Columbans over the past 10 years have been from the Philippines, Korea, Tonga, Fiji, Peru or Chile,” he said in an interview. “All 40 seminarians are either from Asia or the Pacific rim,” he went on. “So we see the move to Asia as a response to the current situation and a decision for the future.”
The changing face of mission
Fr Eamon Sheridan, a member of the Council framed the move in an interesting, personal way by asking, “How does the world look from your window?” From the new residence one can see, among other things, a street market, a mosque, ferries leaving for Macau and mainland China. The residence in Ireland was set in a walled suburban garden.
Fr Robert Schreiter, a theologian who has extensive experience visiting missions and perceptively putting his finger on trends, was invited to address the Columban General Assembly in 2006. In that talk he spoke of the importance of the emergence of what he called “the missiological South.”
The context of mission has certainly changed in the 90 years since the first Columbans sailed up the Yangtze into the heart of China. Globalisation, violence and the resurgence of fundamentalist religions are all part of our world today and challenges for mission.
An evolving missionary call
Even the motivation for mission, that inner call and response that motivates some baptised people to cross boundaries of nation and language and culture as missionaries, has evolved over the last 90 years, particularly in the decades since the Second Vatican Council. There is a deepening understanding that instead of saying ‘the Church has a mission, it is probably better to say ‘the Mission has a Church.’ With so many things changing, the Church’s response in mission cannot remain unmoved.
Ninety years ago lay movements were practically unheard of in the Church, now these groups are a sign of hope. Columban Lay Missionaries are examples of the generosity of people responding to a call from God without taking the traditional route of joining a religious order, and taking vows.
The demographic shift, from the Europe-centred Church of 1918 to a world church is indeed progress.
Nonetheless, what many would call the advent of a post-Christian era in Europe is a trend that deeply concerns Pope Benedict XVI. In contrast, Catholic communities in many regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America are expanding dynamically. In fact, in a major shift, these young churches, instead of receiving missionaries, are sending their own missionaries overseas.
The Church in the global South
An Italian professor of missiology in Hong Kong, Fr Gianni Criveller PIME*, agrees that the move reflects that the missionary dimension of the Church in the global South is coming of age. “Traditional missionary Societies were located in Catholic countries like France, Spain Italy and later Ireland, the United States and Canada,” he commented. “Nowadays these countries have few missionaries.
The global South is no longer only receiving missionaries, places like India, the Philippines and Indonesia are now actually the source of vocations and mission outreach.” So he says, “The Columban Fathers relocating their headquarters to Hong Kong is understandable. It is in the middle of missionary activity and is a move from North to South, West to East.”
In the interview, Fr Murphy said that he and his council were greatly encouraged by Cardinal Joseph Zen and Bishop John Tong of Hong Kong when they were investigating the possibility of the move in 2007 and the move has sparked interest among other missionary groups.
So as Fr Murphy views the mission world from Hong Kong, the signs are evident that the Gospel has the power to move people’s hearts. One thing he can see from his window is a several-storeys high billboard that says: “Jesus is Lord.”
Fr John Burger SSC is currently on the General Council of the Columban Fathers.
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