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Issue 90 December 2011
Nollaig Shona Duit
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Beannachtaí an tSéasúir
We wish all of our members and friends overseas and here at home every
blessing during this season of Christmas and best wishes for a happy
and peaceful New Year.
VC Christmas Candle Ceremony
You are invited to join with us for our
Annual Candle Ceremony
&
Christmas Eucharist
here at Viatores Christi
on Saturday 10 December 2011 at 7.30pm
followed by refreshments and party
Comings & Goings
Our best wishes to Marie Fitzpatrick & Maire Concannon who went back to Brazil in September. We look forward to hearing from you soon!
Also, very best wishes to Gabrielle Farren who returns to Kampala on Saturday 3 December, after having a break at home. It was great to see you, Gabrielle, in VC and safe journey back.
Stephen Burke will be returning home from his assignment in Mbarara, Uganda before Christmas. We look forward to welcoming you home, Stephen.
Best wishes to Amy O’Leary who will be our first Viator of 2012! Amy is preparing to travel to Ghana in January. She will be working with the Spiritans as Project/Programmes Officer in Kumasi. Amy will be invested at the December workshop Mass, on Saturday 10 December.
Welcome home too to Ronan Sharpley, Daniel Ferguson, Liz Lawne, Gena Heraty, Brendan Beirne, Eithne Lynch and anyone else who plans to be around over the Christmas period. Hope we will see you here in No 8 at some stage if possible!
Congratulations to Tara Ni Eochaidh and Alan Cunningham
on their marriage on 5th November. Tara and Alan were on assignment together in Brazil from 2007 to 2009 and obviously found team work life-giving! We wish them a long and happy married life together and look forward to seeing them soon again in VC. Maybe we should add the possibility of finding one’s life partner to the list of possible perks of overseas lay missionary work. It has been one of the positive outcomes for many over the years!!
Sad News! We recently learned of the untimely death in her early 50’s of Jacinta Kelly, who worked as a member of VC with the Frontier Apostolate in Burn’s Lake, British Columbia in Canada in the 1980’s. Jacinta was married to Pete Belanger was living in Ottawa and is survived by two children. We were happy to have her relatives Greg and Margaret Byrne at our recent Mass for Deceased members. Our sympathy too to Gabrielle Farren, whose Mam, Aileen, passed away early in November. Thankfully Gabrielle was at home on leave at the time and did not have to receive the sad news in Uganda. May they both rest in peace.
Prayers for a Speedy Recovery. We continue to pray for a quick return to full health for Mary Dowling, Kathleen Walsh and Nicole McArdle who have undergone surgery in the past few months and who are making good progress, thank God. At this time of year we also remember our faithful friend Mary Fleming who has been ill for many years now and other members of our VC family who may be unwell at the moment. May the baby Jesus bring you all his healing and consoling love.
Act Now on 2015 Campaign
In the light of the coming budget, The Act Now on 2015 Campaign is urgently encouraging people to contact their TDs and ask them to make sure we keep Ireland’s promises on overseas aid. By going to http://www.actnow2015.ie/action/current/ you can click on your constituency to send an automatic email to all your TDs. It’s a very quick action that will help to remind politicians of people’s support for committing to investing 0.7% of Ireland’s national income in overseas aid by 2015. The overseas aid budget is crucial to Viatores Christi as it is a significant source of funding for our members overseas and all Irish missionaries through Misean Cara.
VC Information Sessions
Please spread the word as we are now recruiting for our new Training Course starting in January 2012.
Dublin :
Irish Aid Centre, O’Connell St. Dublin 1
Saturday 3rd December 2011 from 11.00 pm to 2.00 pm
Newry:
The Pastoral Centre of St Patrick’s & St Colman’s Cathedral, Mall St. Newry on Saturday 3rd December 2011 from 1.00 pm to 3.00 pm.
Galway:
The House Hotel, Merchant’s Row Lower, Spanish Parade, Galway on Wednesday 7 December at 7.00 pm phone 091 538900
Cork:
The SMA Parish Centre, Wilton, Cork(near the shopping centre )
on Saturday 17 December 2011 at 2.15 p.m.
Fundraising 
An activity that none of us like but sure we have no choice and that’s that!
We would like to thank all those who have been so generous in helping us stay afloat in 2011 in various ways. Recent successful initiatives include a Night at the Dog’s in Shelbourne Park on 19th November, which was good fun and raised €2,800. Thanks to all who bought tickets and came along on the night and otherwise lent a hand!
We also did Bag Packing in Supervalu in Deansgrange, thanks to Joan Byrne who set it up and to the owners of Supervalu and all our members who gave up their Sunday to help out. This was also surprisingly productive, raising €700 and enjoyable, with a lot of interest shown by the shoppers as an added spin-off.
What’s next? Well you will find a Christmas Voucher in your VC Christmas mailing. We have plenty more here in No 8. You only have to ask! You can send these voucher cards to your friends at Christmas, letting them know that you are making a donation on their behalf to VC to help us continue the work which we all believe in, training and sending lay missionaries to areas of need, where they can make a real difference in the lives of the poor and marginalized.Through them we can all play a part in the building of God’s Kingdom and the transformation of the world. Why not get some of these vouchers,which you will find come in handy when you need something more than a Christmas card to send a friend. The recommended minimum donation per voucher is
just €5.
Members’ Car Draw.
You may remember this time last year we launched a big Draw in association with Raheens GAA Club. We had a great response and the proceeds of the draw saved our lives for the first few lean months of the year. Well we are hoping to run the same draw again for 2012. Last year our members were really lucky, winning a car, a holiday and many cash prizes ranging from €750 down to €150. Tickets cost €25 euro per month or €100 for all four and can be paid for by direct debit. We hope to have tickets available early in the new year.
Maureen Halion winner of a holiday Marion Ryan winner of a Renault Clio in our draw last April in Florida last year.
VC Reunion in Galway/ Cambodian Evening: One of the aims of our Strategic Plan 2010 to 2014 is the setting up of Regional VC Groups outside of Dublin. For various reasons we have not made much progress with this. A Golden Jubilee Mass and Reunion in Galway this time last year was thwarted by the snow. When Pat Mooney said that he would be coming to Ireland with his Cambodian Co-worker Khuon Sokundy and would like to visit Galway, where they had received support from the County Council Third World fund we decided this would be a good opportunity to meet up with VC members and friends, especially those who knew Pat.
An invitation was sent and we got a very encouraging response. There were 14 there on the night to hear Pat and Sokundy talk about their work and show their DVD. It was so great to see you all, some having travelled from far afield, Moate, Mullingar, Elphin, Sligo, not to mention Phnom Penh! The attendance included VC members Muriel Nolan and Rose Carroll Gaughran both of whom are also on the County Council Third World Committee, Ger Costello, Bridget O’Leary, Caroline Kelly, Brian Sheridan, Therese Kinahan, Pauline Mulcair, Marie Nerney, Therese O’Driscoll and Dympna O’Hara Farry. Apologies were also received from others who would have liked to be there, Larry and Mary (Donnellan) Hynes, Breege Neary, Mary Murphy, Roseleen Crowe O’Neill, Norita Clesham, Helen Fahy, Catherine Vaughan, Carthach Mooney and Fr. Michael Connolly, who unfortunately was outside the door and somehow didn’t gain entry. Sorry if I’ve missed anyone. This was a wonderful response to our invitation.
VIATOR REPORTS
PAT MOONEY CAMBODIA/THAILAND
Pat Mooney fitted in a visit to Ireland with his colleague Khuon Sokundy from Partners in Compassion, Cambodia in late September/early October. This trip was primarily to visit funders in Germany. On his return, Pat sent the following:
Greetings and apologies! There has been no time since coming back to say HELLO & send thanks to you all.
The visits to Germany and Ireland were not only fruitful but also enjoyable. Sokundy proved to be an easy person to be with. Everywhere we went we were warmly welcomed and received hospitality. Not wanting to mention anyone in particular but Sokundy is still talking about the rice he had at Therese & Ben’s on the way back from Galway – take a bow Ben. He says the meal tasted like Khmer food. So when I heard that I thought of the time he spent so far at my home...so what was he saying if anything about the type of food he got there and other places as well!
In some ways Germany was easier than Ireland because in Germany there was not too much travelling. We were situated for 10 days at the Ursuline School in Dorsten from where we were able to visit other friends and supporters. While in Ireland we travelled from the east to the west coast – and back again in one day. In addition we met with three groups who are interested in supporting us in Cambodia. The big surprise of the visit was the tremendous success of the Art Paintings (done by children who lost one/both parents from HIV/AIDS) and the accompanying DVD. These paintings will now be used in a mobile exhibition in Germany.
While in Germany we found out that a partner organization would visit Cambodia for the annual monitoring. Consequently on the day of arrival back in Bangkok, I headed to Cambodia. When I eventually returned to Bangkok, I was glad of a restful weekend, the first in about two months.
Another piece of news is just a few days before leaving Ireland I accepted an offer for the sale of our family home – good news as the house has been on the market for three years. So no more visits to Mulgrave Street.
Flooding is now a big problem in both Thailand and Cambodia. I travelled from Phnom Penh to Bangkok overland and some of the roads in Cambodia have been washed away. In Thailand it is a bigger problem with many people having to leave their homes. Bangkok is threatened with massive flooding over the next number of days with some reports saying it will take 6 weeks to recover when the flood levels have receded, up to now they have not peeked!
Christmas is just around the corner, time is flying. Again...a million thanks for your welcome, hospitality, friendship and support.
Sincerely, Pat
Since Pat returned to Thailand, he has been keeping us updated weekly on the flood situation. The official report on 25 November stated that 615 have been killed in the floods with three people missing. 4.9 million people are affected. Flooding continues in a number of districts. Huge areas of farmland (6,872 square miles) and 210 roads have been damaged by the flooding which began in late July. The flooding situation in Bangkok is easing and should be completely dry by New Year’s Eve. We empathise with the people of Thailand, at this very difficult time.
Pat with Muriel Nolan in Galway Sokundy presents a small Cambodian token of
appreciation to Rose Carroll Gaughran, at a
lovely lunch hosted by the 3rd World group
Aisling Foley South Africa
Moving to live in Cape Town South Africa was not the huge culture shock I thought it would be. I am blessed to live in a country that is so green that some days during the rainy winter, I feel like I’m back home.
Two years have gone by so quickly since I set up camp in Cape Town and I have never regretted my move here. I have learned so many valuable lessons by working with children. My job here is to work as a project manager setting up a special needs school but part of my task also is to take our children to their hospital appointments. These visits always make me appreciate how lucky I am to be so healthy.
In the out patient section of the hospital, local women wait patiently to see the doctor. In usual African style, the women carry their children on their backs and it breaks my heart sometimes to see older ladies carrying children as old as 10 years on their backs who suffer from conditions like cerebral palsy. Africans seem to have endless patience and wait in line for hours silently waiting their turn. As one of the few white people in a government hospital, people have often mistakenly called me “Doctor” when for example I’m in the lift!
Because most people live in shacks in townships, you see children with the most awful burn injuries from oil or heaters which fell on top of them. In the orthopaedic wards, children are laid up in beds for weeks on end waiting for bones to heal. Their families often live hours away and so they look so sad in their cots. When I visit there I try to play with each of them for a while just to break the boredom. Like most third world countries, there is not enough hospital staff to look after the day to day caring of the children, so mothers spend night after night sitting in chairs caring for their children. I have such a new found respect for parents of sick children who have to put on a happy face every day even though their heart is breaking because their child is very ill and often there is nothing they can do to help them. One major progress in the last few years in South African health has been the improvement of ARV drugs for HIV children. Some of our children in Home of Hope take this medication and they do really well on it and can lead normal lives.
I leave my hospital visits happy that the children in our care are doing so well and thanking God for that and for the many blessings he has given to us by giving us good health – may we never take it for granted!
Two of the kids in the Home of Hope Special Needs School,
‘Amathemba’ (meaning "our hope").
Miriam Bannon writes from her place of mission, in Santa Fe, Mexico
A year has passed since coming to live at Assumption parish in Santa Fe on the south western outskirts of Mexico City. Mexico is a very different reality to what it was when I left for Michigan in the late nineties. Although official statistics say that 40,000 people have died in four years, 75,000 is a more realistic estimate. I sense the fear, silence, horror, sadness and desperation of the people. Last April in the march for peace to the Zocalo lead by Javier Sicilia, a small group of us joined them from Metro Universidad to the city center. It took over 6 ½ hour walk. We support Sicilia, a poet and writer for the magazine Proceso, whose teenage son was tortured and killed earlier this year. We are also soon to begin workshops on pardon and reconciliation. A group founded in Columbia which has experienced a downward spiral of violence for many years, will be conducting them. The idea is to promote a culture at popular level of pardon and reconciliation. Sicilia himself and Bishop Raúl Vera have taken the workshops which is evident in negotiations at national level with the government. I’m attaching a photo of a woman who has barred the windows of her house and whose appearance is profoundly sad. The second photo, one which I titled “Silenced” because it speaks our present reality was taken on the Sicilia lead peace march.
Fear and Sadness invades our Homes " SLIENCED"
I’m working in two areas: pastoral planning at Assumption parish and in urban pastoral field investigation with the urban pastoral team headed by Fr. Benjamín Bravo. In pastoral planning there’s a group of some 30 + of us meeting every Monday. Working with SEE – JUDGE – ACT method we’ve conducted well over 500 interviews (social, family, political, religious, economic, faith practices, etc.) to better understand reality. We are confirming what is very evident. Santa Fe is a big parish with major problems of addiction, family violence, poverty, aggression and unemployment. Last month we invited Fr. Sebastián Mier, SJ, a well known moral theologian to give us an ethical frame of reference to begin our analysis. In the coming weeks we’ll be analyzing the results of the survey and going deeper in order to understand the root causes of what’s happening. The planning process is highly participative (based on Agenor Brighenti’s book on participative planning and combining it with the theological methodology developed by Fr. Tom Florek, SJ, with whom I worked for the last 11 years in the U.S. Midwest). I’ve adapted it to popular level.
I am finding the process a challenge and intensive. We’ve ten teams and each one presents a part of the process each week. Starting with our history and identity, the process is setting a foundation for pastoral planning. Each theme highlights an important aspect of our community life such as quality of service and collaboration; gifts people bring to the community; our way of proceeding; results of the preliminary interviews; Early Christian community, etc.
In my second area of work with the urban community team, this has centered on a series of interviews in three dioceses: Nezahualcoyotl, Valle de Chalco and Toluca. The purpose of the interviews is to ascertain how people who’ve taken the diploma course ( with the Iberoamericana university) are developing new ways of doing ministry based on their insights and learning in the diploma course. To give a simple example, one leader became very conscious of the use of power. Instead of seeing herself as victim when people don’t respond, she now approaches people proactively and finds creative ways of involving them in the community. After conducting some 24 interviews, the team asked me to do an analysis with a view to publishing the findings. These two areas of work are connected in that we have 12 people from the parish plus myself presently attending the diploma course and we hope that they will form a think tank and give feedback on the planning process, reorienting its direction when necessary.
V.C. through Misean Cara is supporting the project which is a great help. In fact Sally Roddy came to visit last month and it made a big difference. Sally and I talked at length and she had a number of opportunities to meet key people connected to the project. It meant a lot to me to have someone such as Sally take the time to really understand the project in depth. We feel really understood and were honoured by her presence although no doubt she was probably exhausted by the time she got back to Ireland.
Gena Heraty writing to the Godparents of the children in Kay Christine ……
“The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other”. This is a very nice quote from Burton Hillis and I think it is a fitting way to start my Christmas letter to all of you dear Godparents. If there is one thing that I LOVE about Christmas, it is being in Kay Christine on Dec 25th and surrounded by all the kids and staff and truly feeling the sense of family we have here in Kay Christine. It is always a beautiful celebration of life and love and it is also a celebration of each of us in this family. So it is in this spirit of love that I will now give you an idea of how all your godchildren are. (First let me look for a piece of chocolate! Ye will remember that I told you I always need goodies when I am writing this letter!).
Let’s start with the sad events of this year and loosing Jonnie in July was awful. It is always awful when one of the kids die and Jonnie had been with us for almost 18yrs. This gentle young man was a joy to live with and we miss him a lot. After Jonnie died we decided to see if Indira would sleep in his bed. For years she had been sleeping on a mattress on the floor alongside Alexis. As she has grown a lot it was becoming difficult to lift her from the floor so we wanted to see if she would tolerate sleeping again in a bed. We also worried how it would be for her to be separated from Alexis and how he would like this arrangement! Well, Indira was all excited to get into Jonnie's big bed. She was a bit sad to see Alexis on the floor but for the first day we put him sitting right next to her bed for a little while and they both liked this! Indira sleeps very well in her new bed and the night staff tells us that she sleeps much more soundly and rarely wakes up.
Once Indira was all set we wanted to see how Alexis would handle being in a bed. For the first few days after Indira “left” him, he was happy out lying next to the night ladies when they were on a break and he just LOVES these ladies. We brought in a bunk bed (knowing) we would be accepting a new child at some point) and decided to try Alexis in the top bunk! Like Indira, Alexis loved his new bed and has been sleeping very well there. So this is a great relief as for months I was trying to see how I could find a solution for Indira and Alexis. In my mind Jonnie has been smiling over these changes. For the life of me I cannot understand why he died or how he died as it was so fast and unexpected. However I believe he decided to move on and I have to respect his decision.
While we grieved Jonnie, all the family was wondering if we would accept a new child. I knew the hospital had several that were abandoned but I did not want to go and choose one and leave the others. I told God he had to choose one for us and he had to make it obvious to me who we should accept. After a few weeks a whole bunch of new kids were accepted to come to the orphanage and lo and behold, amongst all those kids was one little boy that has Downs Syndrome. Sister Altagrace (orphanage director) said “Gena, I think one of the new kids should be for your house”. The weird thing is that earlier that morning I was travelling up from our rehab centre and Norma asked me when I was going to get a new child. I replied ‘I dunno but God better find one for me fast and he better bring one straight to me’. Little did I know that when I would get home there would be a child waiting for me!
Well you can imagine the excitement in Kay Christine when the kids heard we were having a new “baby”! At four years of age Olivier is not a baby but to us he is our new baby! The day we brought him to Kay Christine was like Christmas day as the kids were all so happy. Djenie rushed into the bedroom to make up his bed, Fabienne raced off to get a flower and put it on his bed for him and the others crowded around him to take it in turns holding him. The kids in the wheelchairs were equally delighted. For the first time ever Yves was not afraid – he has always been afraid of the new kids if they are small. This time he was smiling and waving his delight. Cleevens scooted around in his chair to get a good view of Olivier and Tifle in her usual way, took all in and smiled like a gracious queen overlooking her subjects! Rose-therlie was especially interested in seeing Olivier because she knew he looked like her and she was telling everyone he was hers as he looked like her!
Really it was very beautiful to see how the kids reacted to their new brother. And as I watched them I realised how grown up they are now and how they were very protective of little Olivier. They have moved from being the little ones and now they enjoy being the older siblings. Olivier himself is a very capable little man. He has Downs Syndrome but he is very high functioning and his biggest problem is related to his defects in his heart as he has two big holes there. We are now in the process of making a passport for him and we will bring him to the Dominican Republic to see if he is a candidate for surgery. On a day to day basis he is very active and into all kinds of mischief all the time. It is years since we had an active toddler so you can imagine how nice it is for all of us. Due to his heart condition he cannot do too much but no one told him that and he is forever on the go! His lips are usually purple as are his little fingers.
Olivier grew up with a lot of love and he has a loving family that come to see him. His mother was unable to take care of him any more and still struggles to support her three other kids. The first few times she came to visit she had tears in her eyes when she talked to us about Olivier and it was obvious to us how much she loves him. So we are happy that she comes regularly to see him and we chat often on the telephone. Olivier himself is always happy to see her but does not seem to be sad when she leaves. So this is good!
It is amazing the difference one little man can make in our home. We all feel very lucky to have Olivier with us and I suppose the message in our home is always the same: in times of darkness we must always be open to the light and we must always keep our hearts open to love again. When Jonnie died I felt very tired of always saying goodbye to the kids when they die. At one point I looked around at all of the kids and wondered how long more we have with them (while recognising they could all outlive me!) and I was not really in the mood to welcome another fragile child into our home. Now, I cannot imagine our home without him!
A Christmas Prayer by Robert Louis Stevenson
Loving Father, Help us remember the birth of Jesus,
that we may share in the song of the angels,
the gladness of the shepherds, and worship of the wise men.
Close the door of hate and open the door of love all over the world. Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting. Deliver us from evil by the blessing which Christ brings, and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.
May the Christmas morning make us happy to be thy children, and Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
A PRAYER FOR THE CURRENT FINANCIAL SITUATION
Lord God, we live in disturbing days:
across the world, prices rise, debts increase, banks collapse,
jobs are taken away, and fragile security is under threat.
Loving God, meet us in our fear and hear our prayer:
be a tower of strength amidst the shifting sands,
and a light in the darkness; help us receive your gift of peace,
and fix our hearts where true joys are to be found,
in Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Viatores Christi | 8 New Cabra Road | Phibsboro | Dublin 7
Tel. 01- 868 9986 | info@viatoreschristi.com
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