You are not here to convert the Chinese; you are here to make yourself available to God.
Bishop Galvin and Chinese Priests
This was the advice Fr. Edward Galvin gave to the first Columban priests and Sisters in China in the early 1920s. His words go to the very heart of who we are as Columban missionaries.
Ours is a story about missionaries of remarkable faith and courage. Most suffered, some died for what they believed in, and all have given themselves to the people to whom they were sent. By our baptism, we are all missionaries. Each of us lives our missionary role in a different way. Through lives dedicated to missionary service, Columban Fathers, then and now, serve as living examples of the message, “Go, teach all nations.” Columban missionaries are serving in poor, often remote corners of the world, giving spiritual and physical care to impoverished, sick and persecuted people. In Chinese bandit country in the 1920s, in the Korea of the 1950s, in areas where insurgents roam the mountains of the Philippines today, or in areas controlled by drug cartels in Mexico, Columbans have had to live with danger because the people they serve also live with danger. They live among people who have few basic necessities; those items are often absent from life in the deserts of Mexico, in the factories of Taiwan, and among persecuted minority peoples in Pakistan. Working with the poor who live on the fringes of society, the Columban Fathers have become advocates for justice and basic rights for all God’s people.
The Missionary Society of Saint Columban was founded by Father Edward Galvin (later, Bishop Galvin) and Father John Blowick in 1918 with the blessing of Pope Benedict XV. Although the mission of the Society at its founding focused on evangelization in China, Columbans came to understand their task more broadly:
To cross boundaries of country, language and culture to establish the Church among peoples who have not heard the Gospel;
To help local churches mature until they are able to evangelize their own people; and To promote dialogue between Christians and those of other religions.
The Society maintains an international headquarters in Hong Kong and a U.S. regional headquarters in Saint Columbans, Nebraska, which is near Omaha. For over nine decades, the Society has served children and adults of all faiths in Asia, Latin America and Oceania. Columban Fathers touch thousands of lives each year in the following countries:
Australia, Ireland, Japan, Peru, South Korea, the Philippines, Britain, Mexico, Taiwan, Chile, Myanmar, United States, Fiji, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Pakistan.
As a sign of a mission come full circle, Columbans ordained in recent years come from countries that were once the site of their missions: Fiji, Ireland, Tonga, Peru, Chile, South Korea and the Philippines.
Lay missionaries and Columban Sisters are also important members of the Columban missionary family. The Columban Sisters, a separate community of religious women, grew out of the same missionary movement. They work cooperatively with Columban priests in many of the same countries, sharing the hardships and joys, and often evangelizing in ways only open to women. Lay missionaries have worked with the Columbans from the earliest days, but a more formalized program has taken shape in the last two decades.
Continuing the Mission
Bishop Edward Galvin
The work of the Columban Fathers is made possible and fruitful through the spiritual and material support of thousands of benefactors. With their support, Columbans share the Gospel
and the Eucharist and restore dignity to God’s children by building churches, homes, clinics and schools. As needs increase rapidly around the world, the Columban Fathers are dedicated to strengthening their ability to respond to requests from local churches. It is clear that Bishop Galvin’s dream is alive and continues to develop. He would be gratifi ed to know that thousands of people support the missions that have spread throughout the world.
At the same time, Bishop Galvin would be saddened to know that miserable living conditions, political injustice and spiritual poverty continue to be the only reality so many people know. Guided by the vision of Bishop Galvin, the hope of Jesus Christ, and the support of the generous and loving people of the world, the Columban Fathers’ missions will continue to be a force for spiritual growth and social justice well into the future.
Enduring Stewardship
Father John Blowick
When Fr. Edward Galvin prepared to depart from his native Ireland and begin mission work in China, he said, “You can get no idea of the Chinese from books. The greatest fault is lack of truth.” For those of us accustomed to the modern-day convenience and ease of finding information, the idea that the West held little information about China, the most populous country on the Earth, is astounding. With few firsthand verbal accounts of foreign lands combined with the dearth of printed material, people were hungry for information about different cultures and peoples. Popular magazines of the time sensationalized other cultures and people to increase revenues—accurate, true-life accounts were exceedingly rare.
With the Society in its infancy, Fr. Galvin launched its magazine, originally titled The Far East, with little money and an initial order of 2,000 copies. Through the magazine, Fr. Galvin conveyed the stories in print and photographs of the Society’s labors in China. He felt the need to provide a descriptive study of the Chinese and their customs, to make them known to others in an honest way. By humanizing the Chinese, Fr. Galvin succeeded in making their struggles real to readers as he inadvertently became a cultural and social anthropologist. Columban priests’ spun their first-hand accounts of learning the languages of China, the customs of their new homeland and the social mores of the Chinese people while struggling to build their missions and acclimate to new surroundings. The magazine articles made these priests in the far-off land friends with the people back home.
Since our founding in 1918, we have seen incredible change in our world. China, once a sleeping giant of a nation, has emerged from the darkness and is seeking legitimacy as a world leader. Information is available instantaneously over the internet, and people are mobile as never before thanks to modern transportation. Columban Mission continues to bring our missionaries’ stories in now not-so-distant lands
to our readers. And our website, www.columban.org, Facebook and Twitter have taken us into a new era of communication with you. We may use new communication tools, but we continue to tell timeless
stories of Catholic missionaries bringing the Good News and doing good works to build the Kingdom of God.
The wind blows wherever it pleases; you hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. That is how it is with all who are born of the Spirit. (John 3:3-8)
The Holy Spirit had more than China in mind when He stirred up a missionary vocation in the heart of Fr. Galvin and those who followed his dream for China. When you make yourself available to God by
putting yourself windward of the breath of the Holy Spirit, you can be taken in new and unexpected directions. We invite you to explore these different directions and join us in whatever way you feel is right
for you.
