C
olumban Fr Barry Cairns choked with emotion when he saw his entire Parish Pastoral Council come to pray at the home of a certain dying man. This man had betrayed members of the parish community to the ‘thought-police’ during the war years in Japan. This is an Easter story. The Risen Christ challenges all of us to move on, to forgive, to let go off what is dead and to seek new life in Him.
This issue has many other Easter stories. Columban Fr Shay Cullen tells the story of the PREDA Foundation that seeks to bring new life to street children such as six year old Rosi, who are victims of poverty, of human trafficking and the sex industry.
In May of this year, Fr Shay and the PREDA Foundation will receive the Shalom Prize for Justice and Peace from a Catholic University in Germany.
In Adelaide, ‘The 12 Stars Boxing Club’, run by founder and coach Deacon Anthony Hill, offers spiritual growth and pastoral care as well as physical fitness training to its members. From November 2016 to the end of February 2017, Club member Joel Webber brought new life to the impoverished young people of the Columban parish of San Matias in Santiago, Chile.
In the March issue of the magazine, Christian Brother Reginald Whitely wrote of his brother, Columban Lynn Whitely, who died in Chile in 1971 at the age of 31 from hepatitis. In this issue, several of his former parishioners share about the new life in Christ that Padre Lino had brought to each of them during his journey in the parish of San Marcos. He would have also received this new life in return from them.
Columban Fr Paul Prendergast went to Peru in 1966 from his native New Zealand. For the last 30 years he has ministered in the high mountain valleys of the Peruvian Andes. After first spending 13 years in Columban parishes in Lima, the Peruvian capital on the coast, he shares with us the circumstances that led him to step out in faith, leave the coast and go up to a new mission territory, a place where impoverished indigenous peoples live in the high mountain valleys.
After almost 20 years in China, Columban Fr Warren Kinne shares his China swan song with us. He will be “coming in from the deep”, returning to his roots in Australia later this year. Columban Fr Sean Connaughton writes about his early years in the Philippines, learning to be a parish priest.
As we did in the March issue, we focus once again on the disaster at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station, Japan, on March 11, 2011. Columban Sean McDonagh writes of the astronomical costs of cleaning up this disaster.
The Easter Season is about new life in Christ. We hope you enjoy these stories from Columban Missionaries around the world who bring new life in Christ and find new life in Christ amongst the people they minister to.
Fr Daniel Harding
tfe@columban.org.au
Related Links
- Read more from The Far East - April 2017
