MICHAEL
BASSANO, M.M.
Maryknoll
Priest
Describe
your present ministry.
From 1998 to 2000 I was living in the Khlong
Toey slum (Bangkok) working with abandoned children and HIV/AIDS-infected adults and
children at the Mercy Hospice Center. In August 2000 I moved to the north of Thailand
to a new mission site in the village of Mae Suay. I work out of the Catholic Center in the parish of the Holy Spirit with the indigenous Akha and Lahu hill tribe people.
How
would you describe the HEART of your ministry – the major aim or purpose
– that motivates you to continue in your present ministry?
The heart of my mission work is the art of a joyful, loving presence
to the Akha and Lahu children, youth, adults
and elders in word, action and song throughout 30 villages as well as
at our parish center. In collaboration with
the P.I.M.E. Fathers, we respond to the health, educational and spiritual
needs of our people, with a special outreach to HIV/AIDS-infected children
and adults in the village of Mae Suay. We are also helping our people obtain Thai citizenship cards, as
many are not documented or registered as Thai citizens.
What
possibilities for your ministry do you envision in the long term?
My five-year plan is to stay in our mission center
until 2007 as a means of inculturating myself
deeply into the language, life and culture of our Akha
and Lahu people in 30 villages up in the mountains. Our people
migrated from southern China into Burma and Laos, then came to Thailand
over 30 years ago. I believe it is an important mission endeavor
for us as Maryknoll.
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JOHN
BEECHING, M.M.
Maryknoll
Brother
I
work mainly with Buddhist monks in my apostolate – in four Buddhist
monasteries in Bangkok, and on a
limited basis at one in Rangoon. “Work with” isn’t perhaps the best term, nor is “minister to.” Sharing,
presence, openness, compassion (which means “suffering with”) – all
these words better capture some aspect of what I do.
Most
of my time (about five hours a day) is spent teaching the monks English,
but I work closely with the monks ministering to Mon and Shan ethnic
refugees from Burma, especially in meeting some of their medical needs,
assisting with resettlement, affording them opportunities for education,
and in working with the refugee children living at Wat
Prok temple. About half of the Buddhist monks
I work with are refugees from strife-torn areas in Burma, and
the other half are young Thai monks studying at the monks’ university
in Bangkok.
Besides
teaching and working with the Buddhist monks, I help to facilitate the
work of the Maryknoll Mekong Mission in Burma. We
don't, as of yet,
have a permanent presence in Burma. Rather, we assist the local Church by giving seminars and funding
some projects – and to some extent I help facilitate that work.
At
the request of the bishop, I also spend a month each year in the far
north of Burma, up
near the border with China and India, helping the pre-major Kachin hill tribe
seminarians prepare to undertake the English
examination – a prerequisite for acceptance into the philosophy program.
More recently I have begun as well to assist a group of 17 ethnic Mon
monks in Rangoon by sponsoring
their studies in English and computer, and I am presently working to
develop an English language program with them using some of our Maryknoll
Affilaites as teachers.
Since
I’m convinced that part of Maryknoll’s call is to facilitate the presence
of the American Church in mission,
I expend a good deal of energy building up the program of short-term
mission service for Maryknoll Affiliates and volunteers in Thailand.
This involves developing ministry placements, screening inquiries, inviting
them to come, giving them orientation and accompaniment, and encouraging
them to engage in mission education upon their return to the U.S. Church.
Although their numbers are small – annually, only about 12 or so short-term
missioners serve in Thailand and a couple in Burma –
this program has evidenced considerable growth. Short-term mission service with the Maryknoll
Mekong Mission is beginning to be recognized today as an important part
of our effort to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel.
I
have no particular plans to expand my ministry in the immediate future,
and the only long-range ministry opportunity presently beckoning to
me is a request by the Kachin bishop to help establish a community of local diocesan
brothers, who like the Buddhist monks would make only a temporary commitment,
and whose community would have a contemplative dimension as well as
an active apostolate. Given my present level of involvement with the
Buddhist monks, this request remains a mere possibility. I have no plans
to act on it quickly.
A
final dimension of my apostolate is the effort to promote inter-faith
dialogue activities and seminars for Maryknollers
in the Mekong Mission and elsewhere in Asia. This interest and effort stems not only from my daily contact with
the Buddhist monks, but also from my previous mission of eight years
living and working among Muslims in the Middle
East. In fact, I would say that the major focus of my apostolate for the
past two decades has been in the area of inter-religious dialogue.
Asking
someone to give a rundown on their mission ministry as a means of finding
out who they are as a missioner, what mission
means to them, or how mission shapes them is a bit like trying to capture
the essence of an orange by talking about its rind. The first thing
I will say about my being in Asia is that I come as a Brother – and
that very much shapes the way I perceive things, do things, feel things.
It affects my whole being. Both in terms of being a Brother and who
I am as a person, I feel most comfortable in my ministry merely asking
people, “What would you have me do for you?” Or simply listening carefully to what someone
is hoping for, and just responding as best I can. It is one of the approaches
I see Jesus taking in the Scriptures.
Another way of putting it, I suppose, is to say that with seasoning,
I’m getting a bit better about not coming into mission with ideas of
what others need, what is good for them, or what I’ve come to do for
them.
The
other thing I’m learning to be a bit better at, in terms of my ministry,
is not to be too concerned about the future, about plans, about where
I’m heading. I feel more comfortable just trying to be wholeheartedly
present to what I’m doing right here, right now. Planning, perhaps,
works for small things like an apostolate, but for larger things in
life our own plans or intentions often come to naught. There is a “will”
beyond ours that seems to compose the events of our life into an ordered
pattern.
Being
involved with Buddhist refugee monks, for example, certainly wasn’t
a part my thinking in coming to Thailand. Actually, I’d spent nearly two years working in the AIDS unit at
St. Luke’s Hospital in New
York as a preparation for what I thought would be my ministry overseas.
But a month after arriving in Thailand, a seemingly chance meeting with
a young Buddhist abbot who had led a number of students, monks and war
wounded out of Burma after the military dictatorship crushed the 1988
democracy uprising changed all my plans.
The
Mon monks and students had fled through the jungle on foot for a number
of days in the monsoon season, five of their number dying on the way
out. Arriving near the border with Thailand,
they’d come under attack by Burmese army troops and fled south, carrying
the wounded with them. Wearied, overwhelmed by malaria and sickness,
lacking shelter, the young abbot finally led a small band of his followers
down to Bangkok. Moved by
their plight, an elderly abbot afforded them shelter in a small temple.
But like the other illegal Burmese refugees, they were unwelcome in
Thailand.
In a very real way, they had no identity and not much of a future. In
a chance encounter the abbot asked me to help him. Initially I ignored
the request, as it ran contrary to my own plans. He asked again, and
again I put him off. Again he asked, and I responded by getting involved.
Shortly
after beginning work with the monks, someone asked me how I liked being
in Asia, and I answered spontaneously
that “I felt I’d come home to Asia.” Thinking about it afterwards,
I thought my answer had been strange. I was 50 when I came to Thailand,
and culturally and linguistically the adjustment had been much more
difficult and far less successful than with my earlier assignments to
South America or the Middle East. And I suddenly realized that I’d meant to say,
“I felt I’d come home to Brotherhood.”
We
are not just “missioners” but are in mission in ways that are particular
to our call to be priest, sister, lay person or brother. Being a Brother
has always shaped my being in mission.
At times it has seemed a bit lonely – there just aren’t too many
of us around. It is perhaps a bit difficult to explain, but when I met
up with the Buddhist monks, I felt an immediate kinship – it was like
finding family again. And I think that has something to do with a common
call to a brotherhood.
I
felt immediately at ease with their sense of community, common worship
and work – with what they were committed to trying to discover in life.
I sense that in their lifestyle and in their compassion, these Buddhist
monks were not only sons of the Buddha, but were also – strange to say
– “disciples of Jesus” without being denominationally Christian. Conversion
doesn’t mean stepping from one religion to another, but turning your
face to God – by whatever term is used for ultimate reality.
I feel quite at ease with the Buddhist monks, sitting with them
at evening chanting and meditation, ministering with them, sharing moments
of easy banter.
Interfaith
dialogue, listening to the Spirit at the crossroads of religions, is
an important dimension of my mission. Asians will not tend to ask about
the uniqueness of Jesus, as we do, but about his relatedness – how he
relates to the other great religious teachers. Plurality of religions
is God’s gift to Asia.
That
doesn’t mean that I sit about discussing religion with the monks – far
from it. Religion rarely comes up in conversations with the monks, except
now and then in a casual way. Nor does my effort at interfaith dialogue
imply that I’m becoming a sort of hyphenated Christian. If anything,
my being with Buddhist monks so much of the time deepens my commitment
to being a Christian. Interfaith dialogue is something that takes place
primarily inside of myself, interfaith dialogue
implies intra-faith dialogue. The challenge is to get beyond religion
rather than getting stuck in it.
Buddhism
says, “Look within, for thou art Buddha!” And we Christians are called
to be centered in the Spirit, to get spiritually centered. Meditation, which for me is a big part of the dialogue,
is something Christians and Buddhists have in common. Meditation comes form
“meditare” – to go to the center.
My sharing my life with Buddhist monks challenges me to look deeper
inside myself – to look at my own faith commitment and see it in a in
a different light. And through that dialogue, one begins to understand
that the Jesus we bring to Asia must be brought from “within” rather than from “without.” But in finding
Christ within myself, I also discover the Buddha and Mohammed. In a
real sense they, too, are my spiritual ancestors, and in Asia, honoring
ancestors has a particular importance.
That
doesn’t mean that I see all religions as the same – they are not. There
is something specific to the revelation of Christ that is different
from the specific revelation that is given to all of us in the other
great scriptures such as the Qur’an or the
Upanishads. But I think the revelation that is specific to Christ is
more deeply grasped in dialogue with other religions. Dialogue is the
new way of doing mission.
Perhaps
from feelings of frustration over the narrowmindedness
of Western missioners, or perhaps from the recognition that Jesus was
actually born in Asia, an Asian made the following remark over a century ago: “Go to the
rising sun of the East, not the setting sun of the West, if you wish
to see Christ in the plenitude of his glory!” As a missioner
in Thailand today, I rejoice that we don’t have to choose either East or the West.
We are learning that the world is soaked in the divine. The gate of
heaven is everywhere!
I
suppose if someone were to ask me to describe my mission ministry in
Thailand,
I might merely say – I’m a co-pilgrim with a small band of Buddhist
monks.
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JAMES
CAMPION, M.M.A.F.
Maryknoll
Lay Missioner
Describe
your present ministry.
After
joining the north Thailand mission team in 2002, I have continued my art-writing project that
was part of my social communications apostolate in Bangkok, but particularly
to assist hilltribe people and Burma refugees,
marginated from Thai society, through my journalism
and art. My general service also assists Maryknollers
and others who help marginated people in the
Maryknoll Mekong area or elsewhere in Asia through newsletters, websites and other journalism such as corresponding
for Maryknoll magazine.
What
developments in your ministry do you envision in the short term (near
future)?
Previously
I visited detainees at Bangkok's Immigration Detention Centre, edited
the Maryknoll Mekong Mission newsletter and wrote for Maryknoll magazine
and UCA News (in 2000 I visited Burma, Cambodia, Israel, the Philippines,
Rome and the U.S. as well as Thailand), while encouraging other journalists
who engage in social communications. I continue writing for Maryknoll
(I visited East Timor in November 2001) and UCA News (I interviewed
refugee workers who were put out of Afghanistan by the Taleban
shortly after the Sept. 11 suicide attacks in the U.S.) and encouraging
other journalists.
What
possibilities for your ministry do you envision in the long term?
Continuing
social communications, helping tribal communities and groups to also
do so through newsletters and websites, and collaborating with our own
lay missioners who want to participate.
How
would you describe the HEART of your ministry – the major purpose –
that underlies your daily activity? What is it that motivates you to
continue in your present ministry?
The
heart of my ministry is "Gospel," telling the Good News. Maryknoll's
social communications continues to tell the ongoing story of mission
started by the Gospel authors. I'm not self-motivated but motivated
by the ever-renewing lives of those I write about.
Would
“partners” be helpful in your ministry? How do you “network” with others,
whether Maryknollers or NGOs, etc., or how
might you like to do this?
Partners
or others doing similar work are helpful, not only fellow Maryknoll
lay missioners who already produce their own newsletters and websites,
but the people with whom we work. I already collaborate with Maryknoll
magazine and other Maryknoll social communications outlets, as well
as through the Maryknoll Mekong Mission newsletter and UCA News and
membership in the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand. I would
also like to collaborate more with tribal communities and NGOs.
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MEG
GALLAGHER, M.M.
Maryknoll
Sister
Describe
your present ministry.
The philosophy of the Women’s Desk is to assist each woman and
young adult to realize her dignity as a person, to increase self-confidence
and to be empowered in order to be an agent for change in society.
Here at the Women’s Desk we continue to assist Thai women and
young adults in the areas of personal dignity, growth in self-esteem
and self-confidence, spiritual and intellectual development, leadership
training within their own environment, and development activities geared
toward financial self-sufficiency. These goals are carried out in a
consistent way in our outreach centers in
Ubon Ratchathani,
Nongbualumphu and Nakorn Ratchasima through workshops and seminars with the villagers.
Here in Bangkok, a Savings Group of 53 members, after four years of training, are
now launching out and leading their own small enterprise of sewing and
marketing their products. Special programs have been set up for migrants,
both internal and external, in order to assist them in understanding
the micro and macro factors in society governing their lives.
An important part of our work is collaborating with other agencies
and partners engaged in like areas in service to people.
Attendance at regional and international meetings is very much
a part of our ministry.
What
developments in your ministry do you envision in the short term (near
future)?
In the short term, my staff and I envision continuing our programs
of workshops and training sessions as stated above, with strong emphasis
on leadership training among the women and youth.
What
possibilities for your ministry do you envision in the long term?
The plan we are working toward is to encourage more local sisters
to join us in our work, leading to their taking over our centers
under their congregations’ ownership.
How
would you describe the HEART of your ministry – the major aim or purpose
– that motivates you to continue in your present ministry?
The heart calls us to believe in the innate goodness and potential
within each person we minister to, and empower each in this belief.
How
do you “network” with others, whether Maryknollers
or NGOs, etc., or how might you like to do this?
We have always welcomed partners, affiliates and associate members
in our ministry, and we will continue to do so. We also collaborate
with other NGOs, government offices, universities and the private sector.
If
you were to revised the information about your
ministry contained in the Apostolic Plan 2000, what would you change,
add or delete? What would you now want to share with others that was
not included in that document?
We have discontinued our Safe Shelter facilities here in Bangkok, the reason
being that the cases that have come during the past months have shown
us the need for trained social workers. We do not have such staff, so
to better assist those in need we refer them to other centers
where their needs can be met more effectively.
As we enter the new millennium, we envision for our Women’s Desk
developing more programs and materials for our centers,
and sharing those materials with other groups that have asked for our
assistance. A feasibility study and data-gathering will be featured
this year in an effort to determine where else the needs might be greater
for a presence and programs. In a planned way, we will continue to work
toward a timeline where our work and centers can be turned over to local personnel.
A final message I would like to share with others: “Vision is
what I am willing to spend my life trying to make possible for others.”
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KELLY
O’BRIEN, M.M.A.F.
Maryknoll
Lay Missioner
Describe
your present ministry.
Isan is the poorest region in Thailand.
Most of the people eke out a meager living
as rice farmers. Growing up on a farm myself
in rural Iowa, I felt strongly
called to serve in a rural area. Being only the fourth foreigner in
my town, I think that one of my greatest ministries is the ministry
of presence – to be a light and to say that I care enough to move here.
Having a woman probably my own grandmother's age come up and randomly
hug me on the street or having a young student be so excited to talk
to me that the student literally laughs with glee is an affirmation
to me of the importance of the ministry of presence.
I
chose to come specifically to Nong Bua
Lamphu because of (Maryknoll) Sr. Meg Gallagher's Women's
Desk Office here. Combining my passion for women's issues with my experience
of working with an employment project for women refugees, the Women's
Desk seemed to be a good fit for me. I will be joining her staff as
we work towards the empowerment of women through a holistic program
that serves Thai migrant workers and their families.
Also
with the aim of empowerment and out of my concern for the people here,
I chose to teach English part-time in the local public high school.
The young people in this school do not have many opportunities – if
their parents (who are primarily poor rice farmers) had more money,
they would send them to a school in Udon Thani. English is important for them to get better
jobs later, and if these young people become migrant workers they will
need English to communicate with the people in other countries.
In
addition to teaching English at the local public high school, I will
be teaching an English class at the minor seminary in Udon
Thani. The Diocese of Udon Thani has been very good to Maryknoll, and I would like to
do something to help out the Church here in return.
What
developments in your ministry do you envision in the short term (near
future)?
I’m
just starting out.
What
possibilities for your ministry do you envision in the long term?
It’s
too early to say. It depends on many factors.
How
would you describe the HEART of your ministry – the major aim or purpose
– that underlies your daily activity? What is it that motivates you
to continue in your present ministry?
The
Paschal Mystery – life, death, and resurrection. Perhaps the best illustration
of this is the Stations of the Cross. I think that we are all living
out the Way of the Cross every day. People fall, people like Veronica
help, people have small deaths, and through these deaths they grow/have
new life/are resurrected. At different times, we represent different
people in the Stations of the Cross. I hope to be the Simon and the
Veronica for others sometimes. I want to walk with others to help them
when they fall, as walking with them helps me when I fall. In helping
people find new life, I hope to inspire them to develop their talents
and potential.
Would
“partners” be helpful in your ministry?
The
school and seminary could always use assistance.
How
do you “network” with others, whether Maryknollers
or NGOs, etc., or how might you like to do this?
The
Women's Desk is a Maryknoll office. At the school I work with an SVD
brother. At the seminary, I work with the Joy of the Lord Community.
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PHYLLIS
O’TOOLE, M.M.
Maryknoll Sister
Describe
your present ministry.
I visit the elderly and handicapped in Udon
Thani at Ban Jik, the diocesan home
for the elderly, and in the country. I also help a Thai Sister with
English conversation.
What
developments in your ministry do you envision in the short term (near
future)?
The diocesan home will change location next year (2002).
What
possibilities for your ministry do you envision in the long term?
I plan to continue my presence with the poor in Udon
Thani until 2004.
How
would you describe the HEART of your ministry – the major aim or purpose
– that motivates you to continue in your present ministry?
Being with the poor is essential to my vocation, which is to
be with God.
How
do you “network” with others, whether Maryknollers
or NGOs, etc., or how might you like to do this?
Ban
Jik is run by a Lover of the Holy Cross Sister with an advisory
board of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. In the country I visit the
handicapped with a local worker of the CBR (Community-Based Rehabilitation)
Program of Ban Dung run by the Daughters of Charity. I also provide
English instruction to a Capuchin sister who is preparing for ministry
in Burma.
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HIEP
VU and TAWNY THANH, M.M.A.F.
Maryknoll Lay Missioners
Describe
your present ministry.
We work at Baan Mitratorn (Home of
Caring Friends), a project in Chiang Dao, northern Thailand,
managed by the Siaters of St. Paul de Chartres. The project is sponsored by the Ubolratana Foundation, which is under the royal patronage
of Her Majesty the Queen.
This is an orphanage for children with HIV/AIDS. There are 46
children, aged 6 months to 12 years. We spend time playing with the
children, talking to them, teaching English to some of them, and being
with them when they are sick and cannot go out of the sickroom.
Hiep also teaches computer system maintenance and various
software programs at a local Catholic school of 800 students. He is
also working with fellow lay missioner Jim
Campion to develop a web site for refugees. This would help
promote and increase awareness of Maryknoll’s mission to refugees in
Thailand.
How
would you describe the HEART of your ministry – the
major aim or purpose – that motivates you to continue
in your present ministry?
The heart of this ministry lies in the love and care that we
have for the kids. They are not only left alone, without shelter and
someone to depend on; they are also shunned by society. They each need
more attention, love and care than the facility’s personnel can give
especially when they are not well and have to stay inside their room
with other sick kids. This motivates us to continue to come and play
with them, even when we have free time during weekends and holidays.
How
do you “network” with others, whether Maryknollers
or NGOs, etc., or how might you like to do this?
We work together with the Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres.
What
possibilities for your ministry do you envision in the long term?
The children often fight with each other for personal attention,
wanting to be held, to sit on someone’s lap or to play one by one with
an adult. They are always hungry for affection. We envision in the long
term the possibility of a home with more happy children.
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