Nearly every Columban faces a life-or-death situation in their lifetime when they have to face the question: will my presence here keep people safe or place people in danger? Mine was after the appalling 9/11 attack on the USA. I was in Pakistan and travelling towards the north of the country. As I prepared for the annual retreat, reports of the US attacks grew more and more concerning. As the world shook, we were not immune from the after-effects.
Gradually over the week the focus moved towards Afghanistan. As a Columban group we recognised the danger and the strong possibility of attacks on Christians. Columban seminarians were reassigned at the last minute to safer countries. We prepared to face the question of whether to stay or not. In a move reminiscent of different junctures in our history, we gave each other the option of travelling home for the duration of the war and to return when the tension had subsided. It was a personal choice to stay on.
I remember reflecting on what would I do if I was attacked and planning how to keep the community of Catholics safe from harm. It is chilling to contemplate possible outcomes of an attack. I found myself moving from fear to determination to keep others safe to making sure my own house was in order.
By way of a humorous aside the then Society Leader phoned me and mentioned in the conversation that the Columbans have a policy of not paying ransoms. I laughed because I was only contemplating dying rather than kidnapping.
The chilling stories of Columbans – the priests killed at Malate 80 years ago in 1945: Frs. John Henaghan, Patrick Kelly, Joseph P. Monaghan, Peter Fallon and John D. Lalor as well as the priests killed in the Korean War 75 years ago in 1950: Frs. Tony Collier, Jim Maginn, Patrick Reilly, Patrick Brennan, Tommie Cusack, Jack O’Brien and Frank Canavan, in addition to Fr. Thomas Flynn killed in 1950 in the Philippines, and Fr. Tom Murphy killed in the battle of Mandalay, Burma in 1945, are signs of people who did give their lives for their people.
They did not have the ability to fly out of Korea or the Philippines at the time but that does not take away from their decision to remain with their community or parish. They did not have phones or internet to monitor what was happening and a lot of their information was second hand.
I am sure they contemplated their existence as the bombing in Manila continued or as they listened to the radio to hear the advance of the North Korean troops. The Columban ethos would have spoken of being a soldier for Christ at that time, but we are not built or prepared for war and its random nature of death or dying. We cannot tell their individual stories because we were not there to witness it. We try to surmise the unknown by saying: ‘that was the last time he was seen alive’.
These men are signs of hope because they gave their lives for others. That is all you can ever ask of another human being. I am reminded of the words of Columban Fr. Niall O’Brien, who was imprisoned for a period in the 1980s in the Philippines: “It had become a place of deep anguish for me, but early on it had given me an experience of deep joy which still sustains me.”
