Dear Columban friends,
Mission is often a tale of the unexpected. At one point during my ministry in South America I was rector of a Columban seminary in Santiago in Chile. When seminary training moved elsewhere, we had to decide whether to sell the seminary building or use it for mission.
Just at that time there occurred a disastrous social and economic collapse in Venezuela. Neighbouring countries were inundated by refugees, many of whom were travelling on foot. Pope Francis made a plea for generosity and hospitality to be shown to these exiles. So, listening to the call of the Pope, of those in need, and of our Christian and Columban values, God’s will became clear. We opened the doors of our former seminary to the migrants, re-naming it “Casa Bobbio”, a house of hospitality.
This is one of several Columban initiatives responding to the needs of displaced people. In the same current edition of the “Far East”, Columban Lay Missionary Nathalie Marytsch (who, coincidentally, is from Chile) describes how she and her husband Mauricio, for the last eight years, have been running “Fatima House” in Birmingham, a shelter for destitute women asylum seekers, which has so far provided 50 vulnerable women with “support, friendship and the courage to continue their journey”.
Increasingly, a vital part of our missionary vocation lies in ministering to migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people, indeed, all those who are fleeing conflict, poverty, injustice and environmental destruction.
On 29th September we will celebrate the World Day of Migrants and Refugees.
In Pope Francis’ message for this day in 2023, he recounts how, “An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to kill him’” (Matthew 2:13).
We imagine that someone, somehow, accepted the Holy Family in Egypt until they were able to return home. In the same way, we are being called to show hospitality today to the millions of “holy families” obliged to flee their homelands due to poverty, fear or desperation.
Thank you for your support. May God bless you and keep you always in his loving care.
Fr. John Boles SSC
Columban Director in Britain
