Fifty years a Columban

Fr Jim Mulroney, Fr Gary Walker and Fr Frank McKay - Photo: St Columbans Mission SocietyFr Jim Mulroney, Fr Gary Walker and Fr Frank McKay - Photo: St Columbans Mission Society

Fr Jim Mulroney

Five decades spread across Japan, Australia and Hong Kong was far more than I dreamed of when I was ordained on 20 May 1972 in my home parish at Edwardstown in Adelaide. It was a memorable day, but many more days have been equally, if not more memorable. Assignments in parishes, administration, vocation ministry and finally as a journalist all had their lessons, but perhaps the most valuable came early in my days in Japan.

Visiting a family in Tokyo, a photograph of an officer from the Imperial Japanese Army on the mantelpiece caught my gaze. My host noticed my attention and quietly informed me that the man was her uncle. He had died recently and, she added solemnly, “We all miss him greatly. He was such a good and kindly man.”

However, the cultural surrounds I had grown up in told me otherwise. To me, the insignia of his attire inspired fear and spoke of evil, negating any possibility of goodness. However, I am sure her uncle was, as she said, a good and kindly man. It was a stark lesson in how stereotyping can disguise the true interior. Inadvertently, she was gently explaining that profound goodness can indeed be bred in a religious or cultural milieu radically different from my own.

The young woman had laid out my challenge as a missionary; locate that goodness, touch it and appreciate it. I believe it remains the most valuable of lessons that my 50 years as a priest has bequeathed to me.

The riches of life have come from people of many nationalities. Those I worked with, friends in various lands that quietly and humbly shared the heroism of their everyday struggles. Those who trusted me with their stories, trusted me to understand, appreciate and cherish who they are have my deepest gratitude.

The dizzy times may be over now. The rush towards deadlines abated and the lengthened days that borrowed hours from the night belong to the past, but a reservoir rich in the humanity of trust in God and faith in neighbour has truly blessed my life. Projects were chased and completed, some with success, others varying degrees of conquest and failure. Perhaps it is fortuitous some failed, and perhaps a pity more did not succeed. So what to say of 50 years as a priest and missionary? I resonate with Mikhail Gorbachev describing his life with the simple words, “We tried.”

Fr Gary Walker

The thought popped into my mind recently that my life had worked out well when I consider the various appointments I received as a Columban missionary priest. Better, I say to myself, than if I had been able to choose my mission appointments myself.

To begin at the beginning, people have asked me through the years what led me to be a Columban missionary priest? The answer is simple: I believe that God issued the invitation and I accepted.

What does that mean? I went to the seminary to find out if this was what God was calling me to do.

I have always been a reader and been inspired by the stories of missionaries living adventurous lives and performing heroic deeds. I still am! I thought I was in the right place at St Columban’s College, our seminary in Sydney, to make the decision. Then I was finally ordained on 19 May 1972 at our parish church, Sts Peter and Paul at Bulimba in Brisbane. The rest of my class were ordained around that time in different parts of Australia, and in 1973, we set off to our mission countries: Fiji for me, the Philippines and Japan were the other mission appointments. Friendships formed in those days have endured to this day.

Looking back over the years, I reflect on the work of the Columban priests, sisters and lay missionaries and our long tradition of service to the people to whom we were sent. We have responded to the same call; it is something of a mystery – the call of God. I have been to many of the countries in which we worked or work. Seeing them through the eyes of Columbans who live there and speak the languages of the people has given me insights into the lives of the Columbans and the people they serve. It has been a privilege.

The Columbans were expelled from China and Myanmar but have returned to carry on the work of the gospel. We have so many stories to tell each other!

The world has changed so much, but people will respond to the Spirit of God who wants to breathe life into all peoples. In a small way, being a part of God’s adventure with us, his people, sharing their lives and God’s life has been simply wonderful for me. May it continue!

Fr Frank McKay

Fifty years seems like a long time when you are young. I remember at one Columban priest’s 50th anniversary party many years ago he said, “Half my class is dead and the other half is half-dead!”

We laughed but I thought, “Wow! Fifty years is a really long time.” And come to think about it, they had not yet invented the aeroplane 50 years before I was born! However, having reached that milestone, 50 years does not seem that long. It seems more like 30 years. I have had a really wonderful life in Japan over the last 49 years. Wonderful, literally filled with wonder. I have seen God bless so many people, give them hope, healing, freedom and joy.

I remember when I was in the seminary the purpose of the missionary priesthood was discussed. After Vatican II affirmed that God would not “deny the help necessary for salvation to those who… strive to live a good life” (Lumen Gentium 16), some began to wonder why send missionary priests at all if everyone can be saved. Of course, to get into heaven everyone has to receive the Holy Spirit and have all their sins forgiven whether it is in this life or in the next (“No one can come to the Father except through me” [John 14:6]). However, salvation is for this world too!

For me, missionary priesthood is about letting God use you to save his children. God wants to save us totally, body, soul and spirit. He wants to heal our sicknesses, our hurts, the places where we are not free. God wants to heal all our relationships: our relationship with him, with others and with ourselves.

He wants to save us from fear, fear of God, fear of others, fear of death. He wants to save us from anxiety and worry (Matthew 6:25-34). He wants to save us from division, hatred, resentment, jealousy, intolerance and unforgiveness. And he wants to save us from our self-dislike, our compulsions, attachments, impatience and selfishness.

I have been proufoundly blessed in experiencing God’s love for me and God’s love for others through me. When people experience how much God loves them, their whole world changes. I see that as part of my mission in Japan; helping people experience God’s love. As people change, those around them change and the environment changes too. For me, this is the Good News.

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