Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
GospelMatthew 10:26-33 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)
At that
time: Jesus instructed his Apostles: ‘Have no fear of them, for nothing is
covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I
tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim
on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the
soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two
sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart
from your Father knowing. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who
acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in
heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who
is in heaven.’
I think it was during the summer of 1968, a few months after my ordination, that my parents and I visited the motherhouse of the Columban Sisters in Magheramore, County Wicklow, on the east coast of Ireland. We were deeply struck by the extraordinary gentle warmth of Sister Joan Sawyer from Country Antrim, Northern Ireland, who showed us around.
In December 1983 when I was giving a retreat to Columban Sisters in their convent in San Juan, Metro Manila, we got the shocking news of her violent death in Lima, Peru.
Joan Sawyer was a Columban Sister who was shot dead in Lima, Peru, in December 1983. She used to go to the Lurigancho Prison in Lima three or four days a week to visit the prisoners there. The prison held over 5,000 men. Conditions were bad. Out of 5,000 prisoners only 1,000 were sentenced. The rest were pending sentence or perhaps innocent. Joan used try to bring them some relief - medicines for some, a kind word for others, news about how she was progressing with their legal papers in the ministry for Justice, etc.
The large majority of prisoners came, in her own words, 'from the poor sectors of Lima where they never had enough to eat, didn't finish school and couldn't find decent work'. On the morning of 14 December 1983 a group of prisoners decided that at all costs they were going to escape. They took as hostages Joan Sawyer, three Marist Sisters and social workers. After all-day negotiations with the prison authorities it was agreed that the prisoners and their hostages would be allowed leave the prison in the evening in an ambulance, the most inconspicuous mode of travel for getting out unnoticed.
They were no sooner outside the prison gate than waiting police riddled the ambulance with bullets from all sides. Four bullets struck Joan, one through the back of the neck, two through her leg and one through her finger. When removed from the ambulance she was dead. Joan Sawyer was born in Donegore, County Antrim, in 1932. She entered the Columban Sisters in 1949 having previously worked as a secretary in Belfast. Subsequently she took her BA degree in Mundelein College, Chicago. She went to Peru in 1977 and was 51 years old at the time of her death.
Hilary Cross, Sr Joan's niece, visited Lima for the 30th anniversary of the death of her Aunty Joan. In an article in the English newspaper The Guardian she tells of the two great sacrifices made by her grandfather, George Sawyer, Sister Joan's father. George was a Protestant who married a Catholic, Brigid Deegan, in the 1920s in the newly independent Irish Free State, now the Republic of Ireland. They had a mixed marriage in the 1920s, and it was hard to find their place in a free state that wasn't really so free. So they moved north; my grandfather, George, the eldest son, losing his family farm for love of a sweet girl, Brigid, from 'the other side'. They settled in Donegore, near Antrim, where George's love of the land led him to labour on another man's farm.
The article continues: Joan was the youngest of seven. Although all were much loved, it was said that 'wee Joan' held a special place in her father's heart. Gentle, slight, spirited and with a deep faith, she left at the age of 17 to join a convent in the remote west of Ireland. That day George retreated to the land, unable to say goodbye. A man of great faith himself, he must have struggled to reconcile whose sacrifice this was, his love of a Catholic girl had lost him more than just his farm.
Hilary Cross at her Aunty Joan's grave
The Story of Sr Joan Sawyer, formerly on the website of her native parish in Northern Ireland, quotes from a letter written by a prisoner named Julio in Lurigancho Prison: Minutes before Sister Juanita [as she was known in Peru] was taken hostage I was speaking to her when she came with a packet sent in with her by my mother. I can still see her eyes which reached to eternity. Her love, pure and gentle, which reflected her great love for people. Her spirit of kindness and sacrifice towards us prisoners will be my most precious memory.
Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul (today's Gospel).
You may read more about Sister Joan on the website of the Columban Sisters here, here, here and here. The website is also the source of the photos above.
Today we Columbans received this email from our Superior General Fr Andrei Paz:
With a heavy heart, I write to request your prayers for our dear
brother, Fr Aminiasi Ravuwai. Recently, Amini has been hospitalized in Lima,
and after undergoing a series of tests, it has been confirmed that he has an
inoperable tumor in his pancreas. He is experiencing significant pain, which
has left him unable to travel for medical treatment outside of Peru. This news
has deeply affected him and all of us who care for him.
In this difficult time, prayers are needed for Amini’s strength and
peace, as well as for the grace to face the challenges ahead. I also ask for
prayers for the Columbans in the Region of South America and for his family,
who are dealing with this difficult news. The Columbans in Lima are deeply
moved by his suffering, and his family is grappling with the emotional weight
of this situation. Amini’s loved ones, both near and far, are struggling with
the uncertainty of what lies ahead.
Please remember Amini in your Masses and prayers, asking for God's
comfort and healing presence. Through our prayers and the intercession of St
Columban and our Blessed Mother, the Immaculate Conception, may Amini
experience the strength and peace that only God can provide. May he feel the
solace of Christ’s love and the courage to persevere through this difficult
journey.
Thank you for your support and prayers for Amini, his family, and the
Columbans in South America. In times like these, it is through God’s love and
grace that we find hope and peace.
Father Amini with his family on his ordination day in Suva, 22 December 2020
You can read more about Father Amini here. He was a teacher before he joined the Columbans. He went to Peru as a priest in 2021 but had spent two years there on First Mission Assignment as a seminarian. He also spent a year in Manila for his Spiritual Year, the equivalent of a novitiate.
In the video Fr Frank Hoare, an Irish Columban who went to Fiji about 50 years ago, interviews Father Amini shortly after his ordination.
GospelMatthew 10:26-33 (English Standard Version
Anglicised, India)
Jesus
said to the Twelve:
So
have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or
hidden that will not be known.What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what
you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.And do not fear those who kill the
body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul
and body in hell.Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?[b] And not one of them will fall to
the ground apart from your Father.But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.Fear not, therefore; you are of more
value than many sparrows.So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will
acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,but whoever denies me before
men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
I think it was during the summer of 1968, a few months after my ordination, that my parents and I visited the motherhouse of the Columban Sisters in Magheramore, County Wicklow, on the east coast of Ireland. We were deeply struck by the extraordinary gentle warmth of Sister Joan Sawyer from Country Antrim, Northern Ireland, who showed us around.
In December 1983 when I was giving a retreat to Columban Sisters in their convent in San Juan, Metro Manila, we got the shocking news of her violent death in Lima, Peru.
Joan Sawyer was a Columban Sister who was shot dead in Lima, Peru, in December 1983. She used to go to the Lurigancho Prison in Lima three or four days a week to visit the prisoners there. The prison held over 5,000 men. Conditions were bad. Out of 5,000 prisoners only 1,000 were sentenced. The rest were pending sentence or perhaps innocent. Joan used try to bring them some relief - medicines for some, a kind word for others, news about how she was progressing with their legal papers in the ministry for Justice, etc.
The large majority of prisoners came, in her own words, 'from the poor sectors of Lima where they never had enough to eat, didn't finish school and couldn't find decent work'. On the morning of 14 December 1983 a group of prisoners decided that at all costs they were going to escape. They took as hostages Joan Sawyer, three Marist Sisters and social workers. After all-day negotiations with the prison authorities it was agreed that the prisoners and their hostages would be allowed leave the prison in the evening in an ambulance, the most inconspicuous mode of travel for getting out unnoticed.
They were no sooner outside the prison gate than waiting police riddled the ambulance with bullets from all sides. Four bullets struck Joan, one through the back of the neck, two through her leg and one through her finger. When removed from the ambulance she was dead. Joan Sawyer was born in Donegore, County Antrim, in 1932. She entered the Columban Sisters in 1949 having previously worked as a secretary in Belfast. Subsequently she took her BA degree in Mundelein College, Chicago. She went to Peru in 1977 and was 51 years old at the time of her death.
Hilary Cross, Sr Joan's niece, visited Lima for the 30th anniversary of the death of her Aunty Joan. In an article in the English newspaper The Guardian she tells of the two great sacrifices made by her grandfather, George Sawyer, Sister Joan's father. George was a Protestant who married a Catholic, Brigid Deegan, in the 1920s in the newly independent Irish Free State, now the Republic of Ireland. They had a mixed marriage in the 1920s, and it was hard to find their place in a free state that wasn't really so free. So they moved north; my grandfather, George, the eldest son, losing his family farm for love of a sweet girl, Brigid, from 'the other side'. They settled in Donegore, near Antrim, where George's love of the land led him to labour on another man's farm.
The article continues: Joan was the youngest of seven. Although all were much loved, it was said that 'wee Joan' held a special place in her father's heart. Gentle, slight, spirited and with a deep faith, she left at the age of 17 to join a convent in the remote west of Ireland. That day George retreated to the land, unable to say goodbye. A man of great faith himself, he must have struggled to reconcile whose sacrifice this was, his love of a Catholic girl had lost him more than just his farm.
Hilary Cross at her Aunty Joan's grave
The Story of Sr Joan Sawyer, formerly on the website of her native parish in Northern Ireland, quotes from a letter written by a prisoner named Julio in Lurigancho Prison: Minutes before Sister Juanita [as she was known in Peru] was taken hostage I was speaking to her when she came with a packet sent in with her by my mother. I can still see her eyes which reached to eternity. Her love, pure and gentle, which reflected her great love for people. Her spirit of kindness and sacrifice towards us prisoners will be my most precious memory.
Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul (today's Gospel).
You may read more about Sister Joan on the website of the Columban Sisters here, here, here and here. The website is also the source of the photos above.
Fr Robert I. O’Rourke died on 3 October 2018 at St Elizabeth
Manor, Bristol, Rhode Island, USA. Born on 13 June 1932 he was the son of the late Eugene Joseph O’Rourke
and Mary Bridget (O'Connor) O’Rourke. He was the brother of the late Joseph,
Timothy, Richard, Eugene, Br Terrance O’Rourke of Glenmary Home Missions,
Margaret Baffoe and Loretta Coogan. He
is survived by many nieces and nephews.
Young Bob attended St Ailbe's Grade School
and Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary, Chicago. He later attended St. Mary of the Lake Seminary and after
spiritual year at St Columban's,, Silver Creek, New York,he went
to St Columban's Major Seminary in Milton, Massachusetts.He was ordained on 20 December 20, 1958 in the Seminary Chapel by Bishop Eric MacKenzie, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston.
In
the summer of 1959 Father Bob did a course in Social Science in Antigonish, Nova
Scotia and in December 1959 he was appointed to Burma (now Myanmar).
St Columban's Cathedral, Myitkyina, Myanmar [Wikipedia]
In
November 1962 he arrived in Myitkyina and began language study in Tingsing. The
following November Father Bob was assistant in Makawkzup in the Myitkyina diocese
and in October 1965 he opened up a new parish in Kamaing about 65 miles west of
Myitkyina.In September 1966 the Burmese
government compelled Father Bob to leave Burma before the end of that year due to new
visa restrictions.
After returning to the United States he was
appointed to do vocation work in Los Angeles in March 1967. He was appointed
superior of the Los Angeles house in 1969.
In
1975 Father Bob was assigned to Lima Peru. Starting in May 1977 he began serving
in Tahuantinsuyo where there was a charismatic ministry, youth groups and a
catechumenate.In December 1983 he was
assigned to Huasahuasi.
Cathedral of St John the Evangelist, Lima, Peru[Wikipedia]
Fr Bob O’Rourke and Fr Michael Donnelly were the first resident priests in the
parish for some time. Until leaving there in December1989, they worked a
pastoral programme catering to the varied needs of the widespread parish. The
majority of the people were potato farmers. During those years Tarma and
adjoining areas were the scene of escalating terrorist violence on the part of
the Maoist- Leninist group Sendero Luminoso, 'The Shining Path'. Many
towns were without police or other civil authority. Fathers Bob and Michael
continued to carry out their pastoral work while the terrorists became more
audacious and brutal, generating an atmosphere of fear and tension throughout
the country, especially in isolated zones such as Huasahuasi. When the priests
were told by a reliable person that they were on a death-list and that the
terrorists were coming to the town at Christmas, Fathers Bob and Michael prudently
decided to go to Lima and left within days for their respective countries where
they recuperated from the stress.
In
January 1990 Father Bob was assigned to US Region of the Columbans. He became associate editor of
Columban Mission magazine and at Easter 1991 he became Editor of the Regional
Newsletter.
In
August 1992 Father Bob began work with the Spanish Apostolate at Immaculate
Conception Church in Grand Prairie, Texas. The people there appreciated his
homilies for their stories and brevity. In 1998 he returned to Omaha as
house bursar and presided over the 47th and final Annual Columban Festival
there.The Festival was the last of a
successful cycle that at its peak, in the early 1970s, drew over 20,000 people
to St Columban’s on a summer weekend and raised over $80,000 for the
Society.Father Bob noted that the Festival
was less about funding than connecting with the local community. In October
2001 he was elected as Chairman of the Regional Reconciliation Board.
Father Bob
retired to St Columban's, Bristol, Rhode Island, in March, 2004 where he resided in retirement, participating
actively in community life for the last 14 years.
Fr O'Rourke was buried in St Mary's Cemetery, Bristol, RI, after the funeral Mass in the chapel at St Columban's. May he rest in peace.
St Columban, Bristol, RI, USA
Fr Bob O'Rourke served in Peru from 1975 till 1989.
Flooding in Peru. In wake of the unprecedented flooding in
Peru, Columban Fr Kevin McDonagh in his parish in Samanco near Chimbote [420 kms north of Lima], has
been cut off from the outside world. He is managing ok, but the situation is
getting precarious for the people.
The worst is not quite yet over as rain is still expected
over the next few weeks, with some of it moving south. The challenges ahead are
enormous in terms of reconstruction, etc. There is little bottled water
available, but fortunately there is water flowing again in Lima though with low
pressure. It is worrying to think of so many people without clean water
especially in the provincial areas.
So far there are 75 known deaths and over 100,000 people who
are homeless. That figure will be multiplied when help reaches all the areas
that have been incommunicado since the flooding began. It is mind boggling. We
had bad flooding in 1982, and we all thought it was terrible. But that was
child’s play in comparison to now. The question is how much more can the people
take. Their response and solidarity so far has been nothing short of heroic.
Even in the midst of all the suffering, we are seeing Peru and Peruvians at
their very best. It is inspiring and heartbreaking all at once. These people are
really heroic.
Please, we are asking for prayers and positive thoughts in
solidarity with the people of Peru in these times of suffering, especially
those most directly affected.
Fr Maurice
Foley was born at Castlefinn, County Donegal, Ireland on 2 February 1933. He
was educated at Dunbeacon National School, Ballydehob, County Cork, Belvedere College
Preparatory School and Belvedere College, Dublin, St Patrick’s College, Armagh,
and University College Dublin. He entered St Columban’s, Dalgan Park, Navan, in
1952 and was ordained priest there on 21 December 1958.
Appointed
to Korea in 1959, Father Maurice was assigned to Ulchin and Chunchon after language studies.
After the division of the Diocese of Chunchon, he was assigned
to the new Diocese of Wonjuand to the
new parish of Tokgae.
He ministered there for most of the remainder of his years in Korea
during the difficult period of the military dictatorship.
By
1977, it was clear to him that the Church in Korea was growing rapidly
and producing enough priests to cater to its own needs. He asked
the Superior General to be assigned to Peru; as he wrote himself ‘I saw
space for my missionary zeal in the land of the Incas’. After language
studies his initial assignment was to Huancavalica, working at high
altitude in the Sierra, until he was advised that working at sea-level
would be easier on his health.
Assignments
in the Lima area included the parishes of Santíssimo Redentor,
Santa María de la Reconciliación and Nuestra Señora de la Paz. In
all these areas he enjoyed a happy and successful ministry. He could
come across at times as rather abrupt, and could be impetuous, especially
when the poor were being treated unjustly. However nobody could
doubt his goodness and kindness, and the love that he lavished on the
people was repaid with interest.
In 2012
his health had begun to deteriorate and he returned to Ireland.
For a short period he had enough energy to ride his beloved bicycle
but in recent months his illness confined him to his room. There
he loved to welcome visitors. Father Maurice
was blessed with a childlike
simplicity, a generous heart and a quality of being so genuine
that his sincerity could not be doubted. We will miss his truly
unique presence.
Father Maurice was buried in St Columban's Cemetery, Dalgan Park, on 21 December, the 58th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood.
May he
rest in peace.
Crucifix, St Columban's Cemetery, Dalgan Park
Silent Night / Sumaq Tuta
Sung in Quechua, the mother-tongue of the majority of people in Huancavalica, where Father Maurice first worked in Peru.
Hilary Cross at her Aunty Joan's grave
Columban Sisters carrying Sister Joan's coffin [Source]
