Dr Carmel Gallagher: Opinion Column in the Irish Times on Irish Missionaries
Sun Aug 11 2024 – 00:30
Irish missionaries’ heroism and selflessness abroad is often overlooked today
The contributions of this unique group of the Irish diaspora have been overlooked to the detriment of contemporary Irish society and the Catholic Church
Link to article (printed in full below):
As the numbers of Irish missionaries serving overseas have declined to well under 1,000 and few younger people in Ireland today have any knowledge of the missionary movement, it is worth reflecting on the contribution of missionaries and what lessons we can learn from them as a society and in terms of faith.
The ‘golden era’ of the missionary movement in the mid-20th century saw thousands of young Irish men and women join Catholic missionary and religious orders and work overseas, mainly in countries of the Global South. For example, between 1920 and 1970 more than 30,000 men and women joined missionary orders.
As well as providing education, health/social care and pastoral support through parish development and ‘church planting’, missionaries took on difficult social issues. They often became the voice for people who had little agency – people who had HIV/Aids in the early days of the disease, women in prostitution, prisoners, landless labourers, refugees, etc.
The fortitude, heroism and selflessness of these people who went to remote and sometimes dangerous parts of the world are often overlooked today. With few material comforts and inaccessible travel, they also endured the loss of family, friendship and cultural ties.
They did this to spread the gospel: “I have come that you may have life and have it to the full” (John, 10:10). In empowering poor people to have better lives for themselves they worked closely with and learned from local people and civil society groups.
Speaking to a group of retired missionary men and women about their lives and work, you are struck by both their ordinariness and the extraordinary things they did. They had typical conventional backgrounds in an Ireland that was monocultural and traditionally Catholic.
Yet, they made their faith relevant across cultures and were pioneering in responding to a myriad of human dilemmas. Their faith developed in tandem with their mission work, and they availed of opportunities for learning, reflection and renewal. In particular, they drew inspiration from the theology of Vatican II (1962-1965).
The missionary experience could inform our thinking about global inequalities, threats to democracy, care of the planet, racism and injustice and help contribute to a flourishing society
Despite many challenges and setbacks, the missionaries generally experienced great joy in their work. Missionaries’ spirituality was nurtured through their relationships with joy in their work. Missionaries’ spirituality was nurtured through their relationships with communities of poor people.
Mission was meaningful for them because it entailed a process of learning about yourself and others that was rooted in gospel values but had to change and adapt with new challenges, experiences and insights.
So, what can we learn from this unique group of the Irish diaspora who are now in their older years and who seem to have been forgotten in the general climate of antipathy towards religion and the decline of the institutional Catholic Church in Ireland in recent decades?
Firstly, they provide a blueprint for creating a bridge between faith and society in the holistic approach they took to living and proclaiming their Christianity.
Secondly, their positive intercultural encounters demonstrate the possibilities for achieving greater intercultural understandings and solidarity.
Thirdly, their courage and resilience in the face of many challenges, dilemmas and paradoxes provide a paradigm for our society where we often expect quick-fix solutions to personal and social problems.
Fourthly, their work demonstrates a myriad of flexible ways of ministering and serving as a Christian.
Fifthly, they recognised that the gospel had to be spread through collaboration and in a spirit of companionship and empowerment of local people.
The question arises as to why missionaries do not appear to have had a greater influence on Irish people’s religiosity or why the diocesan church in Ireland was not more impacted by the missionary experience? While the teachings and spirit of Vatican II permeated missionary work, it was not embraced to the same extent by the diocesan church in Ireland.
How many Catholics understood or were encouraged to learn about this way of being a member of the church and being a Christian? Irish people were generous in supporting ‘the missions’ financially but seem to have had little knowledge about the real work and approach of our missionaries.
I suggest that the contributions of this unique group of the Irish diaspora have been overlooked to the detriment of contemporary Irish society and the Catholic Church. Their strong social justice focus, holistic approach and theological openness have increasing relevance for us in Ireland today.
The missionary experience could inform our thinking about global inequalities, threats to democracy, care of the planet, racism and injustice and help contribute to a flourishing society.
We are running out of time to hear their stories and the possibility of learning valuable lessons from their experiences and wise perspectives.
Dr Carmel Gallagher is emeritus research fellow at the School of Social Sciences, Law and Education, TU Dublin
This article is based on narrative interviews with 37 Irish missionary women and men and recently published by Routledge as Gallagher, C (2024) Retired Missionaries and Faith in a Changing Society.
The publication of this book is well overdue and will be welcomed by all who heard about the ‘missions’ and remember ‘missionaries’ coming home for a visit to their parishes after years away. My mother and all the other women in the local sodality of Children of Mary used to make vestments and source linen from the ‘big houses’ to make altar linen for missionaries. And every year they held a sale-of-work to raise money for the ‘foreign missions’. All done without “inspiration from the theology of Vatican II”.
The present book appears quite costly so maybe I will wait to purchase a paperback edition. Meanwhile I treasure my copy of ‘A Road Less Travelled: Tales of the Irish Missionaries’ by Aidan Clerkin and Brendan Clerkin (2011).The book includes a foreword by then Irish President Mary McAleese, as well as special contributions from – amongst others – Church of Ireland primate Archbishop Alan Harper, Catholic primate Cardinal Seán Brady, and the heads of several prominent Irish NGOs. Royalties from the book were donated to the Mukuru Arts and Crafts Centre in Nairobi, Kenya. The Church of Ireland Diocese of Connor Website published a review of it at the time it was published in 2011.
I don’t think the journeys of the wayfaring Celtic saints so beautifully researched and written about by Eleanor Duckett in her ‘The Wandering Saints’ (1959) and those who follow them in later years relied on anyone only the Holy Spirit. I think the inspiration and prompting that comes from the heart is what inspires missionaries at home and elsewhere. In a tribute to her friend and fellow scholar Mary Ellen Chase, on her diamond jubilee, Eleanor Duckett writes “We kneel Sunday after Sunday in St John’s Church. Northampton. I in the pew in front of her, she in the one directly behind. We like to be a little alone; but at the altar she sometimes tucks her hand in mine.” [Colby Library Quarterly 1962]. Surely the love of God, Father Son and Holy Spirit more than anything else inspired “Missionaries’ spirituality”?