Is God calling you to be a missionary priest, to follow Jesus across the boundaries of nation, culture, language, religion and race? Today Columban priests work in 19 countries around the world. Here is the story of one of them.
Fr Tomás King, a native of Ireland, is a young Columban missionary priest and the Columban Mission Unit Coordinator in Pakistan. Most mornings he rises very early to avoid the heat, which can be up to 48 degrees during the day in summer.
After morning prayers and a breakfast of some rotis and fruit, he is soon on his way, out into the desert in his four-wheel drive jeep on a visit to one of the 25 villages that make up his parish. Each of these villages have a small number of Catholic families.
The parish of Fr Tomás is located in the remote and arid, Thar Parkar Desert in south-east Pakistan. His parishioners are comprised mainly of an impoverished and oppressed tribal group called the Parkari Kholis. They are classified as a non-scheduled caste, which bears the connotation of being untouchable, leading to much discrimination and prejudice.
"Number wise it is a small parish but in terms of geography it is large. I spend on average 10 to 12 days a month out in the desert visiting the isolated villages," says Fr Tomás speaking of his parish. "Previously the visit entailed a seven day trek across the desert by camel. Now the journey is reduced to 12 hours."
When Fr Tomás arrives in a village, he meets the different families, listens to their concerns and tries to find practical and concrete ways to support them. Fr Tomás also celebrates the Eucharist and the other sacraments with the people and guides them in their faith.
For more information contact:
Fr Dan Harding, Vocations Director in Australia
Email: dharding@columban.org.au
Read another Vocations article: Columbans at PROCLAIM 2014
or
Read more from The Far East, August 2014