International Archives - Society of Mary

€20k needed to reopen Marist Camino pilgrim hostel

The Marist Albergue Santa Cruz in Sahagun, October 31, closed its doors uncertain if it will open next season.

During summer, health inspectors discovered significant work is required at the hostel to provide suitable drinking water for pilgrims on the way of St James, the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.

Having looked at various options the only possibility is to replace all the iron water supply pipes with brand new plumbing or close down, reports Rebekah Scott on Peaceable Blogs.

Estimates have the water pipe replacement costing €20,000.

The Marist Fathers rent the building from the Benedictine Sisters who depend on the rent to meet their expenses and fulfil their vow of hospitality.

Their ageing congregation cannot live on their cookie-baking business alone.

Scott asked Marist, Fr Daniel Fernandez if €20,000 were raised, whether the albergue would reopen its doors in the northern spring.

“Sure”, he said.

“And we could start as soon as possible”.

Scott is delighted to report Peaceable Projects has contributed €10,000; proceeds from an estate.

She is very keen to receive donations for the other €10,000.

Marist Albergue Santa Cruz in Sahagun

The project allows Marists to welcome pilgrims engaging in the Camino who are on their way to the tomb of St James.

The albergue welcomes pilgrims from noon until 8 pm daily.

The simple daily schedule includes

5 pm gathering for a chat over a cup of tea or coffee
6:30 pm Eucharist
Communal dinner where pilgrims are invited to contribute some food to share and continue the chat.

Launching the albergue in 2018, the Marist Fathers described it as “an exciting leap of faith“, and in 2019 the Marist albergue reports that almost 4,000 pilgrims stayed.

The suggested donation is just €5 per night.

Visitor’s comments

One pilgrim who stayed is Michael Burns, an English teacher at the Marist School in Atlanta, Georgia.

“As soon as I walked in the door wearing my “Marist XC” T-shirt and said in Spanish, “Hola, min ombre es Michael. Soy americano y Marista”, I was greeted like a friend”, he writes.

“I soon saw how the other pilgrims were greeted as they entered. Everyone got the VIP treatment.

He says that on this occasion there were pilgrims from Spain, Alaska, France, China, South Korea, Poland and England.

“We went around the circle, sharing our stories.

“Some were heart-wrenching, such as the young Spanish woman who was walking the Camino in memory of her recently deceased father who had not finished the whole journey before his death.

“Some shared stories of just looking for adventure or the chance to get away from the craziness of daily life and to enjoy the simplicity of Camino life.

“Others told stories of overcoming horrible pain and blisters yet remaining determined to make it to Santiago.

“A young Chinese woman told in a hesitant voice about being a Christian missionary in China, a country not often hospitable to religion.

“We were all strangers, yet there was an openness of spirit and a shared sense of camaraderie among us”.

Mass followed with around 25 people attending; each pilgrim receiving a blessing.

“Once again, I felt special. We all did”, he writes.

Burns described the supper as “plentiful and eclectic”, it had cheeses, cured meats, quiches, a casserole, homemade fries, baked carrots and broccoli, a salad, bread and some fantastic Spanish wine.

The following morning he departed and wished “Buen Camino” to the other pilgrims.

“These guys are doing it right.

“The Camino and the world need more places like the Marist albergue.

Sources

Marist Ranong secondary school reopens

The Marist secondary school programme in Ranong Thailand has re-opened.

News of their reopening on a part-time basis was confirmed Monday 21 October, by Fr Frank Bird, the Director of the Marist Asia Foundation.

“We have our school programme operating because the Marist Asia Foundation is a registered foundation and we have international volunteers and Thai staff”, Frank Bird said.

The school was one of 10 Burmese migrant learning centres closed as a result of the 24 August arrest and deportation of 32 Burmese teachers by Thai officials.

At present, the school is the only migrant learning centre able to open.

It re-opened after conducting a risk re-assessment and determining that by using only Thai and International volunteers the threat risk was “low”.

In making the decision to re-open, the Marist Asia Foundation decided that as well as catering for its secondary school students, the school would welcome students from other secondary schools to come and sit their exams.

“We want to show the students our care and support”, said Frank Bird.

“We don’t want them to miss out on the opportunity.”

While the school has some surplus capacity, it worked in co-operation with a local monastery to provide space for students to sit their exams.

Like others in the region, the Marist Asia Foundation laments its inability reintroduce its Burmese teachers into the classrooms.

“We feel deeply the pain and anxiety of the Burmese Migrant Community as their children are not able to attend school and their own teachers are not allowed to teach”, says Frank Bird.

The Thai Government considers the Burmese learning centres as illegal and their Burmese teachers are also illegal.

It is a situation that has been permitted for the past 15-20 years.

While the students are not at school, they are either unsafely wandering the streets, locked up at home while their parents went to work, or follow their parents to work in the unsafe fish and charcoal factories.

Fr Paul Walsh resigns as General Councilor

Fr Paul Walsh has resigned his post as General Councilor of the Society of Mary.

A message to the Society says that after a long period of prayer, discernment and consultation and for reasons of personal health and well- being he has decided this is not the right place for him.

Among his responsibilities, Paul Walsh was the Assistant General for New Zealand.

Superior General, Fr John Larsen describes Paul’s contribution as “a wonderful team-member for the last two years – generous, competent and wise.”

Fr Larsen says he is deeply grateful for his service.

“We wish him well as he returns to his Province of Europe, presumably after a time of rest and recuperation”, Fr Larsen writes in a newsletter to the Society.

In the same newsletter, Fr Larsen informs the Society that Father Albert Kabala, the District Superior of Africa, is to accept the additional role of General Councilor.

“He will remain based in Africa and will contribute from there, while coming to Rome regularly, at least for the plenary sessions twice or three times a year”, explains Fr Larsen.

Fr Larsen says he is most grateful to Albert for accepting this extra responsibility.

Calling the part-time General Councilor approach to leadership in the Society as a possible new way of working into the future.

Fr Larsen says the General Administration will experiment with this new way, discerning as they go and evaluating it ahead of the Council of the Society in 2021.

Marist Ranong schools close doors

Thai authorities in Ranong, Southern Thailand recently arrested and deported 32 Burmese migrant teachers.

The arrests come as a result of an order from the Thai Department of labour to search and scan all ten Burmese migrant learning centres in Ranong.

In an attempt to keep the Burmese staff in the Marist mission school safe from possible arrest the Marist Director of Mission, Fr Frank Bird decided to close its preschool and secondary programmes.

The Marist Ranong schools are not the only ones to close.

“As we closed our doors, we went visiting the families and listening to their stories. They are struggling with not being able to go to work as their children cannot go to school. Some children wander the streets, are exposed to the dangers of fish factories, child labour, trafficking, prostitution,” writes Fr Frank Bird.

Frank Bird asks for prayers as the mission continues to dialogue with the Thai government to find a way to get the children back into the classroom.

Marist Moscow mission moves forward, quietly

The Marist mission in Moscow, Russia nudges quietly forward.

Working in traditional Marist way, ‘as if hidden and unknown’, the mission “continues to hold up the Marist spirit if not the Marist flag”, writes Michael Ryan SM.

He described the normal inclination for the mission in Moscow as “low profile”, however, recently, friendly nudges from the Moscow City Administration are encouraging the mission to lift its heads a bit higher.

Fr Ryan explains that recently the parish has been taking part in local committee meetings and have done so at the invitation of the Department of Nationality Policies and Inter-religious Relations, of the Moscow City Administration!

“Be slow to say no to an invitation”, notes Fr Ryan.

Among some positive results, the best is that on the evening of Palm Sunday the parish’s French-language choir, took part in the “Paschal Marathon of Choirs”.

This Marathon brings together choirs worshipping in minority religious groups and associations.

“If you look for us, Our Lady of Hope Parish, you won’t wander across some Baroque masterpiece, or a Gothic or a Romanesque edifice with our name on the front door”, says Fr Ryan.

“The parish usually meets behind closed doors, in hired halls, quietly in private residences.

“At other times it meets in embassy premises or occasionally in prayer rooms of a morgue, crematorium or the open air at a cemetery”, he says.

He clarifies that all the parish’s work fits within the law laid down for officially registered, local religious organisations.

How best to describe a Catholic parish without a parish Church in the middle to Moscow?

Fr Ryan says it seems best described by an Italian deacon.

“You merit the ‘Standard and Poors’ assessment table for national economies; a Triple AAA rating Parish; an African, American and Asian Parish in the capital of the Russian Federation, with, of course, Russians and Europeans, Latinos and an occasional Syrian.”

Sources

Marist Europe
Image: Blogspot

Marist Mission to Japan marks 70 years

Mission to Japan Lionel Marsden — Soon after Ordination in 1940 Fr Lionel Marsden SM volunteered to be a Chaplain in the AIF and was appointed to the 13 Division of the 8th Battalion and arrived in Singapore in August 1941. Singapore was captured on the 15th February 1942 and Lionel was one of the tens of thousands of allied troops who became prisoners of war.

Seventy years on, the Marist Fathers Australia and supporters of the Marist Mission Centre, May 1, joined together in Sydney to mark the birth of the mission to Japan.

The idea of the “Japanese mission” was born in a Japanese Prison camp.

At the fall of Singapore in 1942, Fr Lionel Marsden SM was serving as Chaplain to the 13th Australian General Hospital (AGH), part of Australia’s 8th Division.

Captured by the Japanese, as Chaplain in the prison camp, Fr Marsden was a prisoner too and with them in sickness, buried them when they died, and worked with them on the Burma Railway.

Determined to go to Japan as a missionary, Fr Marsden took as his slogan: “For every sleeper lain; a Christian Japanese, for every Australian life; a Christian Japanese.”

“For every sleeper lain; a Christian Japanese, for every Australian life; a Christian Japanese.”

Eventually, Rome gave its permission to establish a mission to Japan.

The permission came with two requirements: the Australian Province would supply the men and fund the enterprise.

On April 3, 1949, Fr Marsden was appointed the first superior of the Japanese Marist Mission.

Over 400 supporters gathered in the vestibule of the Lower Town Hall in Sydney to listen to Fr Marsden share his story, his vision, his enduring hope as they farewelled him on his journey to Japan.

Fr Marsden may have had the vision and determination, but with so many emaciated images of prisoners of war returning home, anti-Japanese feelings were strong in Australia and establishing the mission was a slow and challenging process.

Captured Allied POWs 15,400 (1900 of them Australians) were herded into barracks, an area of about 8 acres, because they refused to sign a promise not to escape.

A mission cannot survive on vision, determination, good intentions and prayer alone.

A vital component of the success of the mission to Japan was the Marist Japan Mission League.

The League’s was to assist Australian Marists in their efforts to share the Catholic faith and its ideals of Christian life especially those of compassion and forgiveness to the Japanese.

Educating Burmese children in Ranong, located on the Thai-Burma border, gives them a real chance of hope for their future.

Over the years the shape of the mission has changed.

Much wider than Japan the Marist Mission Centre makes a significant contribution in

“Balay Pasilungan” – a safe place for young street boys and Davao City, Philippines.
Balay Banaag – a safe house for girls at risk in Davao City, Philippines.
Solomon Islands.
Ranong – Southern Thailand.
Cambodia.

It also has a significant role to play in the Society of Mary’s global international mission.

However, throughout its 70 years and seven directors, the focus of what is now called the Marist Mission Centre has always been on the other, the disadvantaged, the alienated, the dispossessed.

Not content to be an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, the Marist Mission Centre also also focusses on development projects and the alleviation of poverty.

While needs and circumstances change, the Marist Mission Centre hopes that some things will not change.

Namely, the Centre hopes that the vision of one man, Lionel Marsden, and the first members of the Japanese Marist Mission League is enshrined in an enduring legacy of generosity.

And, that succeeding generations of friends and donors, who from the most unlikely of beginnings, continue to produce such unexpected and extraordinary outcomes.

A brief history, marking 70 years 1949 – 2019

From Unlikely Beginnings: Marking 70 years of mission to Japan by the Marist Fathers. (PDF)

Supplied: Jim Carty SM