Columbans Frs Trevor Trotter (left) and Rev Dr Patrick McInerney (right), hold the Columban constitutions during their leadership commissioning Mass. - Photo: St Columbans Mission Society
“A life unlike your own can be your teacher.” St Columban
The new Columban Regional Council of Oceania began its ministry of leadership on 1 October 2024. Appropriately, it was the feast day of St Thérèse of Lisieux, Patroness of the Missions, whose missionary spirit soared beyond the confines of her Carmelite Convent to embrace all peoples around the world in the love of Christ. That same missionary spirit inspires Columbans to reach out to people in other countries, especially the poor and marginalised.
I was appointed by our Society Leader as the Regional Director for three years, and our four Regional Councillors were elected by the respective Members in Australia, Fiji, and Aotearoa/New Zealand. Fr Jung Euikyun Carlo from Korea was appointed our Vice-Director and is parish priest of the Holy Family Parish, Labasa, Fiji.
Fr Felisiano Fatu is from Tonga and works at our Columban Mission Office in Suva, Fiji. Fr Tom Rouse works at our Columban Mission Office in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. Fr Trevor Trotter is the Columban House Superior at Essendon, Victoria. Our Columban co-workers, Maha Shawky, Regional Business Manager and Katarina Mukai, Columban Lay Missionary Coordinator, work collaboratively in leadership with our Regional Council.
Our new leadership team has a rich diversity of cultural heritage. We are from Australia, Egypt, Fiji, Korea, New Zealand and Tonga. Our Columban missionary journeys have taken us to countries beyond our homelands - Chile, Fiji, Myanmar, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines and the United States of America. In our lives as missionaries, we have learned the truth of St Columban’s words: “A life unlike your own can be your teacher”. The many people of different nationalities, cultures, and faiths we have been blessed to live among became our teachers.
After ordination, I worked for twenty years in several parishes in the Archdiocese of Lahore, Pakistan. I enjoyed sharing the sacraments with the people in rural villages and urban neighbourhoods. As education is a major need, in each of the 3 places where I worked, building on the work of my predecessors, I oversaw extensions to the parish schools. In the last parish, I oversaw laying the foundations of a church/community-hall which my successor completed. In the mid-eighties, I did post-graduate studies at the Pontifical Institute for the Study of Arabic and Islamics (PISAI). I was involved in some of the fledgling efforts at dialogue that were getting underway at that time. I am grateful to the benefactors who by their generosity made all that work possible.
I returned to Australia in 2000, and after completing a Master's in theology, was assigned to the Columban Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations in Sydney. I later completed a Doctorate in theology. My lived experience among the 96% Muslim population in Pakistan and my academic qualifications in both Islam and Christianity gave me both credibility and competence in Christian-Muslim relations which overflowed into interfaith relations in general. Collaborating with lay and ordained colleagues, I worked as a staff member at the Centre for seven years and as Director for the past 15 years.
My missionary work at the Centre has included contributing to the Centre’s publications, Bridges, the Interfaith e-Bulletin, and social media, and talks to a wide variety of Christian, Muslim, interfaith, and multi-faith audiences. In collaboration with Muslim scholars, I have taught tertiary-level courses on Islam and Inter-religious dialogue. I have attended conferences, talks, feast days, and religious, social, and cultural occasions with Muslims and believers from various faiths.
It has been an enriching and fulfilling time, confirming the truth of St Columbans’ dictum, “A life unlike your own can be your teacher”. My mind and heart have been expanded by my missionary experiences of interfaith in Pakistan and Western Sydney.
I bring that wealth of experience to my new role as Director of the Region of Oceania. The leadership team began our term when participants were gathered for the General Synod on Synodality in Rome. Pope Francis has said, “It is precisely this path of synodality which God expects of the Church of the third millennium.” This was confirmed by the Columban General Assembly in Lima in May this year.
Synodality is the path I will follow in leadership, with my Regional Councilors, with my fellow Columbans ordained and lay, men and women, old and young, of different nationalities - and with the peoples we serve.
All of us walking together, supporting each other, listening to and learning from each other, but above all, listening to the Holy Spirit, following our shared missionary vocation to promote the Reign of God in the Region of Oceania.
Columban Rev Dr Patrick McInerney is the Regional Director of Oceania.
