From the Director
Sometimes the older Columbans sit around the dinner table sharing stories of the eccentricities of one or another brother Columban — strange habits, eccentricities, etc. And it has been mentioned more than once how “it’s amazing that the people still have faith” even with that guy having been their pastor or curate. We joke about ourselves being odd.
And yet, looking around here in the United States, we find so many people who knew Columbans in the Philippines, or Korea, or China, or Fiji and continue to look for us and keep in touch with us after so many years. Something good obviously happened.
It’s very hard to pin down what impact we have actually had because we don’t know what would have happened if we weren’t there. The Spirit moves as the Spirit moves.
When I was discerning about my vocation in 1975, working as an engineer in a glass manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania, I sent inquiries to three missionary congregations. One sent a lot of nice literature. One did not respond. The Columbans sent me a brochure and a letter. I responded to the letter. It was then followed up with an offer of a visit by a priest. Fr. Paddy Madden, an “old Burma hand,” came to visit me and we talked. He was so sincere about how the presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament was such a comfort to him when he was alone in a parish in the mountains of Burma (Myanmar). And he offered to buy me a steak dinner that evening. I rejected the steak, telling him how my aunt sent $5 a month from her Social Security check to the Columbans and it would not be fair to waste that money on a steak for me. We had hamburgers.
It’s very hard to pin down what impact we have actually had because we don’t know what would have happened if we weren’t there. The Spirit moves as the Spirit moves.
These two little incidents and then coming to the Omaha offices to do my psychological evaluations and interviews and seeing that my room was furnished with odds and ends, a lumpy bed, old army blankets, etc. convinced me that the Columbans were for me. The point is that simplicity of lifestyle was important to me and I saw it with the Columbans. Many have shown it to me. When I see some insisting on “nice” things, it bothers me still.
I recently left the parish of St. Mary’s in Fontana, California after 13 years as pastor. Before me were two other Columban pastors and five or six other Columbans. It is fair to say that most of us lived fairly simply and the people noticed it. And they noticed how we were not overly directive in our styles of leading the community. Being “missionaries,” we had learned in our overseas experience to “inculturate,” to appreciate that there are many ways to “skin a cat” and we don’t have all the answers. So, while many pastors insist that things be done their way, we often allow things to unfold more organically. And many folks appreciate it. In a way, we were practicing what Pope Francis called “synodality” before we knew the word. We were watching and listening, trusting that people know more than we realize. This gives the people faith in themselves and their leadership abilities.
Here in Omaha, the Columbans have a “Community Garden” with 45 little plots for folks in the area to grow their own food. Very small, but we insist they be organic. I’m new here but I’ve always liked to garden. The garden is a place where people can work together, exchange ideas and food, and reinforce our desire to grow healthy food for our families and live a little outside the corporate culture of packages and plastic. They already know a lot, but our being with them here reinforces all of our commitment to simplicity and in a tiny way our sense of community. It’s good for everyone to have some different kind of people among them. That’s who we are as missionaries.
