N
ext year the Columban Fathers will be celebrating the centenary of our foundation in Ireland in 1918. Since the middle of last year we have been publishing in The Far East magazine a series of articles that look back at different aspects of our history, highlighting some key events and some important Columban personalities.
In this May issue, we publish two articles looking back at Columban history as well as several contemporary mission stories from around the world. Recently two Korean Columbans were ordained priests in their home dioceses, Fr Antonio Seok from the Archdiocese of Daegu and Fr Andrew Ryu from the Archdiocese of Gwangju. It was to Daegu that the first group of Columban missionaries in Korea arrived in 1933 and soon took over the area that became the Archdiocese of Gwangju.
Columban Sr Damien Rooney died at the end of last year. She had been the oldest living Columban Sister. In a lively manner she shares her memories of her calling long ago and her later work in China with the Columban Fathers Co-founder, Bishop Edward Galvin. We also remember in this issue to pray for Columban Sr Kathleen Melia, who was recently attacked in the Philippines.
Drugs are a major world problem. Columban Fr John Keenan writes of The Philippine war on drugs and the unnecessary cruelty and injustice this war inflicts upon the poor.
Writing from Myanmar, Columban Sr Mary Ita O’Brien informs us that more Kachin people in the north of Myanmar have died from drug-related problems than from the civil war that has been raging there for more than 50 years. Columban Fr Alo Connaughton writes of the opium trade as well as the Catholic Church across the border in Thailand.
In Sydney, Columban Fr Patrick McInerney is the Director of the Columban Mission Institute (CMI) which runs the Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations. Fr Pat was a missionary in Pakistan for many years. He writes of the importance in our contemporary societies of countering Islamophobia and gives some concrete ways to do this.
Parts of Peru have received more than ten times their normal rainfall during the month of March. Columban priests working in parishes throughout Peru report on the flooding.
On a lighter note, Columban Fr Bobby Gilmore shares his experience of meeting country music singer Johnny Cash and his wife, the singer June Carter, while he was a missionary in Jamaica.
Special celebrations are being organized next year in New Zealand and Australia to mark the centenary of our foundation. There will be opportunities to attend these celebrations in the major cities of New Zealand and Australia. We will keep you informed in the magazine. Please remember Columban Missionaries in your prayers.
Fr Daniel Harding
tfe@columban.org.au
Related Links
- Read more from The Far East - May 2017
