Missionaries are migrants

Columban Fr Donal O'Keeffe after receiving the presidential citation for Immigrant of the Year. Photos: The Korea Times/Yonhap

Columban Fr Donal O'Keeffe after receiving the presidential citation for Immigrant of the Year. Photos: The Korea Times/Yonhap

As a Columban priest and a missionary, Fr Donal O’Keeffe crossed the seas from the home of his family in Ireland to what to him was a land of strange customs, unknown language and a religious tradition quite foreign.

That was in 1976, but during the ensuing 45 years, he worked to embed himself in the daily lives of the people by serving the last, the least and the lost of Korean society. His contribution to the most marginalised has not been forgotten, as shown on May 20 this year when it was recognised by the government with the conferring of a presidential citation by the Justice Minister, Park Beom-gye.

Donal was honoured as Immigrant of the Year on the internationally celebrated People of the World Day. It is a recognition of outstanding service to the community and while the government of today may honour and laud the manner in which Donal involved himself in the lives of the marginalised, there were times in the past when that was not the case.

Years spent learning to talk to and understand his new neighbours on the south-western island of Heuksan and later Mokpo, enabled him to move to the industrial area of Bucheon in Gyeonggi province, where he made his first structured commitment to the workers in the nation’s burgeoning industrial complexes, first joining forces with the Young Christian Workers (YCW) and later a group of religious sisters in running a drop-in open house.

Columban Fr Donal O'Keeffe receiving the presidential citation for  Immigrant of the Year at the award ceremony in Seoul on May 20, 2021. Photo: The Korea Times/Yonhap

Columban Fr Donal O'Keeffe receiving the presidential citation for Immigrant of the Year at the award ceremony in Seoul on May 20, 2021. Photo: The Korea Times/Yonhap

This was a brave move, as it was an era when South Korea was under the military dictatorship of Park Chung-hee and forming associations of any kind was forbidden. It was a time of tension and many people suffered imprisonment and even death for their involvement with the workers or their movements for social justice.

“Church groups were the only organisations able to get involved with workers,” he told The Korea Times, as Church gatherings were the only ones permitted. Blessed with a gentle disposition and a tranquil spirit encouraging comfort in his presence, Donal was able to provide spaces where workers, often as young as 15, that had moved from city slums or the countryside could be relaxed with each other and make friends in a world that felt as foreign to them as the surrounds Donal himself had stepped into from the plane that brought him from Ireland some years previously.

“Most of them had abandoned their studies after middle school. They were people who felt terribly inferior, because they had not studied, with very low self-esteem due to social pressures. We started with personal growth programmes, created groups where young people could make friends or engage in various activities, from learning to play the guitar to walking in the mountains,” The New Straits Times reported Donal as saying.

In a culture where Confucianism ranked the educated at the top of the totem pole and inspired despise for those who lived by the sweat of their brows, Donal’s accepting hospitality allowed the menial workers to flourish, grow in self-confidence and begin to take control of their own lives. “We made an environment where they could freely express themselves and share any stories about their lives. In addition, through studies on labour law and educational programmes on critical thinking and self-development, many of the workers became key people in the formation of labour unions in the late 1980s,” he told The Korea Times.

As time passed, conditions for workers gradually improved, but even though the military dictator had already been assassinated, the lethargy of government and exploitation of the poorer echelons of society remained.

While the 10 years he spent in Bucheon saw a resolution to many of the problems faced by the beleaguered factory workers, other issues attracted his missionary attention and in 1992, together with Columban Fr Chuck Lintz, he turned his eyes towards the city and became involved in the Urban Poor Apostolate in Seoul.

Commentator Noel Mackey describes it this way, “Large construction companies were being allowed to appropriate, by fair or foul means, portions of lands on which they would build high rise apartments… the poor renters were being left on the side of the street with their few belongings. Neither the construction companies nor Seoul’s authorities were willing to assist them in any way.”

The two Columbans gradually got to know people, ran day-care centres and study rooms in cooperation with a number of Christian Church leaders in the shanty town. They ran educational programmes to help the tenants become aware of their rights enabling them to demand their rightful compensation during the redevelopment process.

Today, the political and social environment of South Korea may be much more stable and far more prosperous, but the now-70-year-old Columban still sees issues worthy of attention. He points to the environment and the scourge of climate change. He joined a major campaign against the construction of a United States naval base in the south of the country that threatens the delicate natural marine life.

“The future of the world looks bleak if we do not change to a lifestyle which is sustainable,” he commented while adding that he has faith and confidence in the laity of the Church in South Korea to address the problems of the present as they did in the past. After all, the Korean Church is one founded by lay people, not the clergy.

In a surprising and touching moment at the awards ceremony, the Minister for Justice asked Donal to stand and take a bow. He then revealed that he had lived as a poor person in the very same shanty town where he had helped establish a tenant’s association.

Mackey relates the minister then confided that after his graduation as a lawyer, he had established a workers counselling centre in the town where many years previously Donal had worked at the open house for young factory workers.

When Donal began his apostolate to workers, there must have been moments when problems seemed insurmountable, but the day he was honoured by the government affirmed that seeds were sown in fertile soil sprout in many unexpected ways. As the minister remarked, “When I walk alone I can go fast, but when I walk with others then I can go further.”

Columban Fr Jim Mulroney resides in Essendon, Australia.

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