In what he calls an “age of diminishment” for the Church, promoting foreign mission to congregations is not getting easier for Columban priest Fr George Hogarty.
While the numbers he is preaching to are shrinking, the pleas for their charity are ballooning and he wouldn’t blame parishioners for feeling “somewhat beleaguered”.
As he has travelled throughout the Archdiocese of Canberra/Goulburn this year, talking about the work of the Missionary Society of St Columban, Fr Hogarty has faced the challenge of cutting through the “noise” of an increasingly secular society to create an awareness of communities far less privileged than our own.
Having worked with the poor and disconnected in Chile and Peru, Fr Hogarty says Australians don’t realise how privileged they are.
“I always say to people, ‘Just be thankful for the life you have here. Live in peace and don’t be pressured by all those other forces challenging their faith.”
At the same time he asks parishioners to “participate” in the lives of poor and exploited people around the world by reading about them in the Columbans’ monthly publication, The Far East magazine and “helping as you can”.
“It’s not just about money,” he says of his work. “It’s about making people aware there is such a thing as foreign mission – that, apart from their own parishes, there is another reality they are called to take an interest in".
The Columbans work as missionaries in more than 16 countries, but Fr Hogarty says they are just part of a wider “world church … working together to cross language and cultural barriers”.
Fr Hogarty spent more than 20 years in Chile and Peru, helping poor and isolated populations to build parishes and communities on the foundations of their “natural religiosity”.
“There is already a strong cultural Catholicism and we work with that to give them a fuller picture of their faith. It’s not just about religion, but about helping them create a better world for themselves,” he says.
Fr Hogarty, who grew up in Victoria, returned from Peru in late 2014 to take up a four-year role promoting mission around Australian dioceses.
He admits it’s a rewarding but “unsettling” gig, which requires him to live off the goodwill of parish priests willing to share lodgings for a few days or, if they need help (as with a recent stint in Yass and an upcoming one in Batemans Bay), a few weeks or months.
The upside of his rolling-stone life is he meets “many marvellous people doing a lot for the Church and the world”. The downside is he barely has time to get to know those people before moving on. Despite the inherent challenges of his role, Fr Hogarty says the Archdiocese “should hold its head high”.
“We might be in the age of diminishment but the people of this diocese are still showing faith and life, and a lot of good things are being done,” he says.
Fiona van der Plaat, Journalist, Catholic Voice, Canberra/Goulburn.
Related links
- Read more from The Far East, January/February 2018
