Columban Fr John O'Connell died peacefully in hospital in Lima, Peru, on October 24, 2013, aged 80. The story of his missionary life amongst the Peruvian people exemplifies the Columban vocation of priests, sisters and lay missionaries across the world, who in the words of our patron St Columban, leave their own land and people to become voluntary pilgrims for Christ amongst other peoples in other lands.
Australian Columban, Fr Leo Donnelly, ordained in the same year as Fr John and a close friend of his during their many years together in Peru, wrote to us about his friend Fr John. While the majority of Fr John's missionary life as a priest was spent in Peru, he also spent several years back in Ireland promoting Columban Mission amongst supporters and benefactors. The story of Fr John O'Connell is the story of Columban Mission in Peru and indeed the story of every Columban and every Columban supporter and benefactor.
The Wake
During the three-day wake that followed Fr John's death, hundreds of parishioners and friends from the four parishes in Lima where he had served, queued up to touch his coffin and to express their deep love, respect and thanks to their beloved "Juancito".
Fr John will be missed by the many people who made up his Peruvian family - people whose lives he touched in so many different ways, working to bring dignity to their lives through projects related to education, health, transport, food, shelter and housing. At a Eucharist celebrated during the wake Columban Fr Noel Kerins used the words of Pope Francis during the 2013 Chrism Mass to describe how the life of a priest should be. He said Fr John was "a shepherd with the smell of the sheep."
The first few years - The invasion of Lima
Fr John was ordained a priest at Dalgan Park, the Columban Seminary in Ireland, on December 22, 1957, and within a short period was informed that he was being assigned to Peru. On January 4, he sailed to the United States to see relatives and friends. From there, he flew down to Lima, arriving in late March 1958.
The Columban mission in 1958 in Peru was only six years old. In 1951 two Columbans had arrived in Peru to discuss with the different bishops which diocese would be the best for the Columbans to work in. In the end, they accepted the offer of the Cardinal Archbishop of Lima, to take pastoral responsibility from 1952 onwards for an area of 100sq.kms on the northern outskirts of the city.
This area was covered by 15 haciendas, growing cotton through irrigation and worked by farm labourers living in wretched conditions. It had a total population of around 15,000 people.
Over the next 60 years of Columban presence in this area, the Columbans would establish 24 parishes and the population would grow to two million people. Fr Leo writes of the background to Fr John's mission and that of all Columbans, during those early years.
"The invasion of Lima had begun. Thousands and thousands poured into Lima from their tiny farms in the mountains. They came in search of jobs, education and a future in our world. They began to invade and occupy land further and further out from the city. We followed them. Mass and the sacraments were our priority, but with tremendous emphasis also on trying to feed them as they struggled to establish themselves in the factories and in the State Schools being built. Stretching out into the north of the city we set up parish after parish thanks to the marvellous support of our Columban benefactors."
Fr John's first assignment was as an assistant priest in the new Columban parish of Blessed Martin de Porres. Within three years, he was given the task of building a Basilica with the name of Martin de Porres, who was about to be canonized in Rome in 1962. Fr John undertook this task with great effort and soon had the Basilica of Saint Martin De Porres built.
Fr John - the man
Fr Leo Donnelly says that his friend, Fr John, was a Kerryman to his fingertips (coming from County Kerry, Ireland). He could be often seen in his parish in Lima sporting the jerseys of the Kerry Gaelic Football and Hurling teams. According to Fr Leo, this meant that as a true Kerryman, Fr John would often go off visiting people at 11:00 at night.
It has been said that Fr John was loyal to three Kingdoms - the Kingdom of Kerry, his birthplace, the Kingdom of Peru where his heart lay and the Kingdom of God in which he lived, moved and had his being. (Act 17:28)
According to Fr Leo, Fr John was among our finest, "Dealing with mostly poor and often semi-literate migrants, he helped so many to become aware of their dignity as persons and to trust one another. He countered the racism inherent in the culture while he empowered the despised ‘nobodies’ to achieve grassroots social change.
Finally, what gift in this prayerful man identified Fr John as a priest for his people? There was a warmth to the man that we don't all possess and on one occasion this was presented as he being likened to a peat fire in the hearth gently warming the room and its people."
The Far East acknowledges the contribution of Columban Fr Leo Donnelly and Sylvia Thompson in Peru and the Diocese of Kerry, Ireland for material for this article.
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LISTEN TO: The smell of the sheep (Duration: 7.29mins, MP3, 3.42MB) |