| 2007: Evening, Midday and Dawn |
St Patrick’s Missionary Society was born on the 17th of March 1932.
It is fairly safe to assume that on that day its founder, Father Pat Whitney, could never have imagined eighty young men from Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, Brazil and Scotland preparing, seventy-five years later, to take over from the weather-beaten missionaries who had helped to realise his missionary dream.
It is also fairly safe to assume that Patrick, the newly-captured and bewildered sixteen year old slave sitting on Slemish mountain in the beautiful North Antrim area of Ireland hundreds of years before, could never have imagined that four young African men and a Scot of Irish/English extraction would be ordained to the priesthood in 2007 for a missionary society that bears his name.
That would have been a fairly wild dream too for Father (shortly to become Bishop) Joseph Shanahan when he appealed in February 1920 to the ordination class in Maynooth for volunteers to come and help him spread the news of Jesus Christ in Southern Nigeria.
The young Father Pat Whitney answered that call. “The appeal went to my heart,” he wrote, “If I can, I will go. God direct me. St. Patrick, pray for me.” December 23 of the following year, 1921, saw him sitting in the village of Emekuku in Southern Nigeria and writing in his diary: “I’ve thought out a stunt of a Maynooth Nigerian diocese, and I am going to submit it to his Lordship. If he approves, we shall aim at getting an organization set up at once in Ireland… I wonder what will become of it.”
Thus began the dream of a St Patrick’s Missionary Society in the mind of the twenty seven year old Irish priest. His dream, given shape in 1932, is still alive today, seventy-five years later. Then it was dawn: now, in 2007, for some it is towards evening, for some it is still midday, and for some it is another dawn.
FOR EACH DAWN AN EVENING
It is now towards evening for those Kiltegan priests who have lived long years in the different cultures of Africa, South America and the Caribbean, and who now look back with mild wonder at the successes and disappointments of a life so different to what they left at home as young men.
Above all, it is a look-back with quiet amazement at what the Lord has achieved through them. All are very conscious of how poorly equipped they were to carry out the missionary tasks given them. Most also share an amusement at the kinds of tasks they undertook in the enthusiasm of youth.
Young men who knew absolutely nothing about building techniques found themselves in the middle of a rush to build schools, hospitals, mission houses, churches. Almost always this meant learning on the spot, while praying that the thing would stay up and serve its purpose.
Men from cities and towns, not much acquainted with the life-style of farm animals, found themselves directing sheep-and-goat projects, knowing just how necessary these animals were for the welfare of the people they served.
And then there was the utter helplessness, on arrival, of not knowing the local language. One was reduced to being a child again and, for almost everyone, mastering the language was a slow torture.
Looking back now, towards evening, the main lesson seems to be not to worry too much about how ready you are for a task but to be brave and daring, and to hope that the Lord will look kindly on your efforts.
The other memory that evening brings is of the wonderful support that you received and that helped put some shape on the maze of things you tried to do over the years. This support came from your family, from your parish at home, and in many cases from the local club.
This may have been late appreciation for the point you scored from a very tight angle to win the County Championship, beating the neighbouring parish. But, whether you had dreamt that or not, the support given kept you rooted in your own people while serving the needs of others in a setting far removed from the one which made you what you are.
TIME PAST, TIME FUTURE
The support came also from the people you served. No matter what sort of a hash you made of their language, the people praised you for trying. And never would you go away from visiting a home without a gift of some kind. People, who put great value on relationships, taught you the importance of just being together; as opposed to dashing around doing great things for them and having no time to sit down and chat.
Perhaps the hardest adjustment of all was to realise that there are different views on how to keep time. To accept that nine o’clock Mass in an outstation could actually start around ten o’clock, without anyone other than yourself having a heart-attack, didn’t come easy.
Another satisfaction towards evening is knowing that the basic missionary thrust of making yourself redundant has been achieved in many cases. A missionary’s basic aim is to go, sow the seeds, form a local church, and then move on. The maturing local church does the harvesting.
Kiltegan priests have, over seventy-five years, staffed dioceses in many countries where once there were no local priests, sisters, brothers and very few lay people. In many of these now-thriving dioceses there are only two or three Kiltegan men. They are, however, a continuing link between the beginnings and the present.
MIDDAY AND A NEW DAWN
There are other Kiltegan men for whom the sun is still at its highest. They can face those places where there are no roads, where Jesus hasn’t yet found a home, where medicines are a long walk away. Above all, they are the ones to welcome those at the new dawn in our missionary society.
The four newly-ordained African priests, the first in Kiltegan history, and their Scottish classmate represent this new dawn for us, seventy-five years after Pat Whitney founded our Society.
Long years of seminary study are over. Now it’s into new languages, cultures, climates, food, friends, challenges; matching the ideals read about in study to the reality on the ground.
There’s also the sense of being pioneers; the first African priests in a so-far all-European set up; being at the front, with African and Brazilian seminarians behind. They are putting flesh on what is now an enormous change in African church life; an up-to-now mission church becoming instead an energetic and vibrant missionary church.
A new dawn for sure. So for us Kiltegan priests, whether it’s evening, midday, or dawn, 2007 is a wonderful year.
We’ve walked a long way together and we will continue along the path God has chosen for us. What Pat Whitney started seventy-five years ago lives on.
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