Past Magazine Stories

The snow outside is tapering off. There is a Christmas concert on public television. Surely it is time for me to reflect as Christmas approaches.

On a September morning in 2014, I arrived in Iquique in northern Chile on a flight from Santiago.

I just came from town for a visit with an Indian family and sat down on the very comfortable chair in the mission house.

A few years ago my priest companion in the Columban international seminary in Chicago, Fr. Leo Distor, and I were invited to join a pilgrimage in the footsteps of St.

The Paris Foreign Mission Society handed over pastoral responsibility for Jeju Island to the Columban Fathers in 1933.

Ever since I returned to Korea, people have asked me, “How old are you?” “Why don’t you dye your gray hair?” whether I’m at the market or waiting at a bus station.

Since childhood I have been fascinated with geography. At times I would build different islands and mountains on the seashore and imagined myself at the top of them.

Thinking back on my life in South Korea, there was the humdrum of daily living along with surprises and the excitement that went with being part of new things happening…

Over the course of nearly 100 years, Columban missionaries have been caught up in major wars and insurrections in the countries where we live and serve.

I call this article “men of the road” because in all my years in Japan, only one woman came to me looking for a handout.

That encounter inspired me to be more with the people with my true self. You don’t have to pretend because people would notice it.

It would be a disservice to truth for me not to acknowledge that there have been and are serious challenges for religious and civil society in China from sections of the…