Remarks by president mcaleese at the official opening of the capuchin franciscan order exhibition
remarks by president mcaleese at the official opening of the capuchin franciscan order exhibition centre, tuesday, 20 november
Tá an-áthas orm bheith anseo i bhur measc inniú. Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a chur in iúl daoibh as ucht bhur bhfáilte chaoin.
I am delighted to have this opportunity to be here with you today and to open this Exhibition Centre for the Capuchin Franciscan Order. My thanks to Fr. Peter Rodgers, Minister Provincial of the Order for the kind invitation which allows me to share your memories of missionary work with all of you.
In Áras an Uachtaráin, we have a wonderful collection of bound copies of the Capuchin Annuals dating back to the 1930’s. They took me on a journey back to often forgotten times, to very different days in Ireland, very different lifestyles through the wealth of stories and old photos they contained. In particular they give a real insight to what the life for a Capuchin was like both at home and on the missions. I was intrigued by accounts of the missionaries’ work abroad. The 1932 Annual has an article by the Rev. M. Slattery from Cork entitled “My Travels in Equatorial Africa” in which he tells of the many hardships those great adventurers encountered. He tells us
“ They are happy despite the fevers, climate, infinite obstacles, poverty, and other hardships. You may see them day after day trekking from village, reproving, guiding, instructing: all the time the African sun is beating down upon them, but all the time they are still happy for nobody serves Christ with such infinite sacrifice and is not filled with the mystic joys of religion”
A proud tradition of missionary work stretches back almost one hundred years, since the first friars went to North America and this exhibition centre represents a fitting reminder and formal recognition of the work that has been undertaken by the Capuchin friars across the developing world, in such far-away places as Cape Town, Zambia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, New Zealand and more recently to parts of South Korea. It is a celebration of the enormous contribution made by the Capuchin friars to the growth of the Catholic Church overseas and to the development of the poorest peoples in the world. It is a story shared with religious and lay men and women, a remarkable story of very remarkable people.
For many generations, countless numbers of your community have freely volunteered their help to the poorest, most neglected and overlooked of the world’s huge family. That outreach to strangers brought them to countries and cultures far from home and they faced huge challenges from the landscape, the climate, the languages, the customs, the sheer scale of the problems faced by those they made their friends and their care.
Your belief in community participation in projects encouraged self-help whether in schools or hospital building. You worked in partnership with local communities building up their capacity to cope, giving them the reassurance of skills and financial assistance. Resources were always scarce and the cost of building, staff and salaries were borne by the Capuchins. Long before the international development agencies spoke of the doctrine of integrated development, the Capuchin Fathers were already doing it.
There is a long litany of achievements which bear witness to the commitment, dedication and dogged determination of the missionary Capuchins. The Sichili Mission in the Western Province of Zambia provides a 120 – bed hospital, a leper village, home craft centre, boarding school for primary school girls and an orphanage. In Ethiopia in this year alone, the Capuchin Franciscan Order with the support of Ireland Aid are involved in the construction of a bridge with check-dams in Addis Alem in the Mahara Region greatly improving access to markets, schools and to clinics for the people in the area. In Wolaita, under the Ireland Aid NGO Co-Financing Scheme, the Order has assisted in the construction of a centre to allow the local community to organise social and cultural activities for the local people. All necessary, worthwhile projects and only a flavour of the full extent of what you have done, are still doing in the cause of others and the way that you do it – focusing on developing the ability to respond to their own needs – not just a hand out but rather a hand up. In striving to help communities in developing countries to participate fully and effectively in society, your Order has provided men and women with the education and training necessary to meet future challenges with a new confidence in their own abilities.
Some of your missionaries have paid the ultimate price, losing their lives through disease, illness and injury. On days such as this we are given an opportunity to reflect on those exemplary people, and all the wonderful people both religious and lay who left their homes and countries, often not knowing if they would return again, so as to relieve pain and suffering in strange and distant lands. We owe them a great debt of gratitude and our unending respect for what they have done, what they still do today. It was a great privilege for me to be able to celebrate their ambassadorship for a caring Ireland on a recent visit to Uganda and Kenya. There I visited a large number of projects which are life sustaining, life enhancing, comforting, hope bringing, capacity building and which only exist because Irish missionaries are there to make them happen. Each missionary can tell his or her own unique story and many of them are the stories of risk takers, innovators, ingenious lateral thinkers, men and women of enormous energy and talent and flexibility to whom the job was and is more important than thanks or recognition or payment.
And of course many have become better known for decidedly non-spiritual activities. I gather Fr. Jude McKenna a former boxer for Ireland, born in Ballymoney, Co. Antrim became known and respected as Fr. Judo for the many years he spent dedicated to introducing judo as a sport to Zambia and managing the Zambian national judo team. Just one example of many ways in which the Capuchins and Irish missionaries have helped to change life in their adopted countries for the better.
I congratulate you on what you have achieved through the years. You are entitled to look back with pride on a job well done. Your work has helped keep the Irish people’s caring conscience educated about its responsibilities to the world’s poor. You have brought the name of Ireland to many parts of that world and you have made that name a byword for generosity, kindness and compassion. I wish you every continued success in all that you do in the years ahead. I am delighted to declare this Exhibition Centre officially open.
Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.