Cuba is in the midst of an economic crisis. Sanctions and the Covid-19 pandemic have led to deteriorating living conditions, electricity outages and acute shortages of food and medicine. Fr Bobby Gilmore recalls the day when Cubans Juan and Ada turned up on his...
Columban missionary Fr Daniel O’Connor writes about the killing of a landless farm worker in a dispute over water and wood and the fear landlords wield over whole villages in Pakistan. On a very hot day in May, Shomo working alone, was trimming back thorn bushes...
Columban lay missionary Hazel Angwani is from Bontoc, Mountain Province in the Philippines. She is currently on mission in Pakistan. She writes about a recent photograph she took of a Tribal woman. There is a saying, ‘A picture speaks a thousand words.’ When I...
In light of President Jovenel Moise's assassination, Fr Bobby Gilmore reflects on Haiti’s vulnerability, endless underdevelopment and destitution. ‘Haitianisation’ has a long shadow, he suggests. A runaway slave was, in fact a thief since he stolen his master’s...
On Tuesday of last week, I was invited to join a group of people going to the town of Xiaogan, on the northern outskirts of Wuhan, to visit Fr Joachim Shu. Over the past two years, Fr Shu's health has deteriorated seriously due to a number of blockages in his...
Our modern world depends on plastic to sustain its present lifestyle. But that lifestyle, built on the plastic revolution, has a dangerous dark side warns Fr Shay Cullen. Plastic was and is a magical invention. It is a material based on oil and has thousands of...
When I got home in 1994, World Cup fever was in the air, recalls Fr Bernard Steed. Jack and his men were heading for the US boosted by a great wave of enthusiasm and hopes of glory from the entire population. It was then that a young relation, having a summer job...
A selection of photos taken by Columban missionary Fr Alvaro Martinez of Hong Kong, where he works for the Society's General Council. Hong Kong has a unique place in the history of Columban Missionaries. In 1920, Fr John Blowick, the Society’s first Superior...
It was a massive international solidarity march in 1999 along the streets of Geneva, recalls Columban Fr Shay Cullen. Thousands of children and supporters from all over Europe and Asia were there to encourage and support the approval and signing by the world’s...
Immigrants are the energy band in today’s world. They energise economies at home by their remittances and away by their energy and ingenuity, writes Fr Bobby Gilmore. “A Christian world and a world yet to be evangelised. That situation no longer exists. The people...