The current issue of the Far East magazine is devoted to Columban missionary Fr Rufus Halley who was killed twenty years ago in August 2001. The Editorial was written by Fr Brendan Lovett.
In the past editors have often attempted to find a unifying theme for a given issue of our Far East. This may well be the first time that almost all those contributing to an issue are focused on just one of our members. The occasion is the twentieth anniversary of the murder of Fr Rufus Halley. We would like to thank Fr Donie Hogan, our guest editor on this special issue, for his dedication and vision in bringing this special issue to fruition.
Rufus was a very charming man with a great capacity for befriending people. Everybody loved him and everybody was happy and comfortable in his presence. They enjoyed being with him as one who never said anything hurtful to or about people. He talked little about himself but there was another deeply serious side to him.
He was always searching for what was really being asked of him in life’s unfolding. The searching was invariably a self-searching for that in him which was limiting his freedom to respond creatively. He went through an extended series of retreats and intensive spiritual guidance.
After such “time in the desert”, he was ready for a new challenge which came through encounter with Bishop Bienvenido Tudtud, then bishop of Iligan in the Philippines. Bishop Benny, on his own initiative, had gone to Pope Paul VI and proposed that it would be good if the largely Muslim upland part of the diocese be separated from the diocese of Iligan and set up as a distinct Prelature of Marawi.
Responding to the Pope’s understandable anxiety as to who he could possibly find willing to go to such a tiny and dangerous place, Bishop Benny volunteered himself, assuring the Pope that there would be no difficulty in finding someone to take over Iligan. Rufus was to become part of this new initiative.
Rufus applied himself to learning Maranao, opting to help out as a salesperson in the store of a Maranao businessman in Marawi. This immersion in the living linguistic community was not simply for language-learning. For Rufus and his bishop, involvement in inter-religious dialogue was far from being a matter for professional theologians. The path to life-enhancing inter-religious dialogue for all was to be that of participation in the dialogue of life with others: what the Flemish mystic Jan van Ruysbroeck called “the humility of a common task”, sharing life with each other.
Rufus was certainly not alone, either in his thinking or in the intensity of his prayer life. The others in the Prelature shared the same vision. And yet, I think it is fair to say that he was an inspiration for the others in creating a pathway in how inter-religious dialogue might be done. It was all about relating with people in profound respect and becoming close to them: only in this way is mutual trust built up at a very deep level.
This was a quite new venture, calling for a different mode of presence to another faith tradition, not with a view to conversion but with a view to creating deep-rooted relationships between two faith traditions. From the viewpoint of Columban missionaries, it seemed imperative to grow into the dynamics of this new initiative.
We are present in Asia to vast numbers of people deeply shaped by irreducibly distinct faith traditions. Despite the pluralism, there is to be found a significant commonality of profoundly religious values. These values must be affirmed and reverenced in mutual appreciation through what we refer to as inter-religious dialogue. It is a necessary part of humanity’s journey to the Kingdom of God.
Fr Brendan Lovett
Theologian Fr Brendan Lovett was ordained in 1966 and went on mission to the Philippines, where he taught theology for over thirty years. His most recent book ‘A Dragon not for the Slaying’ was published by Claretian Publications. He is now retired in Ireland.
But this issue of the Far East here: https://columbans.ie/product/issue-july-august-2021/