From the Editor - Offering one's life for Christ

From the Editor "If these brave lads are ready to die for Ireland, I, as a priest, ought to be ready to die for Christ.” With tears in his eyes, Fr John Heneghan said this to a fellow priest during Easter Week 1916 the morning after hearing the confession of the Tuam Volunteers on their way to join the Easter Rising.

Fr John went on to become one of the early Columbans six months later. He became the first editor of The Far East magazine. In 1931 at the age of 49 he went on mission to the Philippines and along with three other priest residents at the Columban parish of Malate in Manila, 'died for Christ', on February 10, 1945, during the Battle for Manila. Their bodies were never found. Fr John was 62 years old.

As the Missionary Society of St Columban prepares to celebrate the centenary of our foundation in 1918, Columban Fr Frank Hoare explores the influence of the 1916 Easter Rising on the development of the Irish missionary movement, of which the Columban foundation was a part. In this issue, he also writes of four humorous moments during the many decades he has served as a missionary in Fiji.

This November/December issue offers a wide panorama of the way Columban Missionaries have spread around the world since our foundation in Ireland in 1918. For almost 100 years Columban missionaries have spent their lives 'for Christ' in other countries, answering His call to leave their homeland like Abraham and Sarah, for another land, another people.
 
Columban Sr Margaret Murphy explains how the Columban Sisters would be celebrating Christmas this year in Mandalay and the Kachin State in Myanmar. Columban Fr Bobby Gilmore reflects on how the story of the Holy Family’s flight as refugees into Egypt is repeated daily across the world. Sadly it is a story, never old, always new.

Columban Fr Shay Cullen has been selected as this year’s winner of the 'Hugh O'Flaherty Humanitarian Award', for his work in defence of child and women victims of the sex industry and trafficking in the Philippines.

Erl Dylan J Tabaco, a Columban seminarian from the Philippines, shares with us his powerful missionary experience in the Andes Mountains of Peru. Columban staff member Steff Fenton writes of the largest interfaith event for young people in Australia - Youth PoWR.
 
One important development in the almost 100 year history of the Columbans has been the recent decision to divest from fossil fuels and invest in renewable energy, community-based microenterprises and peace initiatives. This is an important response to the dangerous problem of global warming and the call from Pope Francis.

On behalf of all Columbans and staff members of The Far East magazine, we wish all our readers a holy Christmas and Happy New Year.

Fr Daniel Harding
tfe@columban.org.au

Read more from The Far East, November/December 2016