A cartoonish version of Irish history portrays priests and nuns as conservative, and the general public as relatively liberal or progressive.
But then how do you explain Br Kevin Crowley (90), the Franciscan friar who was remembered at his funeral as a “tireless advocate” for the most vulnerable in society? Or how do you explain Sr Mary Kileen, a fearless campaigner for children’s right in Kenya who features in a new RTÉ documentary series, The Last Irish Missionaries?
Becoming a missionary doesn’t sound very woke. But it was the sort of thing you did if you were young, Irish and idealistic 60-plus years ago.
At the age of 16, Killeen was set to get married to a farmer with “a lovely tractor, a lovely house”, she explains to presenter Dearbhail McDonald in the series. “It could have been a beautiful life ... He became the richest man in that district.”
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Instead Killeen went back to school, trained as a teacher and joined the Sisters of Mercy. She has spent her life since working for neglected children in Nairobi, helping to establish a string of schools while also blowing the whistle on cases of clerical child sex abuse.
The first major wave of Irish Catholic missionaries a century ago were largely focused on “saving souls” but gradually they moved into education, healthcare and social justice. Evangelisation is a dirty word today. But for many Irish missionaries, it meant demonstrating in practical ways what it meant to be Christian.
By the time of Vatican II in the 1960s, the Irish missionary credo was that of Francis of Assisi: “Preach the Gospel everywhere, and if necessary use words.”
The influence of Irish missionaries could be seen in Ireland’s official aid programme as well as the founding of agencies such as Trócaire, Goal and Concern. The latter was started by Spiritan priests Fr Jack and Aengus Finucane. Bob Geldof, who went to a Spiritan-run school, became friends with the Finucanes, as did Bono. The U2 singer said Jack Finucane “turned my life upside down” when he met the priest on a trip to Ethiopia shortly after the Live Aid concert in July 1985; the visit “began my life as an activist”, Bono later said.
It is worth remembering these positive influences at a time when basic human values are under attack. The Trump administration is dismantling the US Agency for International Development under the pretext of combating “liberal” ideology and reducing wasteful spending. A study in the Lancet last month estimated the agency’s closure could result in more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030. “If this isn’t murder, I don’t know what is,” Bono said in a message to USAid staff on their last day of work. “It’s not left-wing rhetoric to feed the hungry, heal the sick.”
Within Trump’s political movement, only the Maga ideology is tolerated – everyone else is an extremist, corrupting the minds of Americans. You may think Pope Leo XIV is a reasonable sort of chap – he worked with the poor in Peru for more than a decade, and has urged people to “to be missionaries ... of true love for a suffering world”. But, no, according to social media activist and Trump loyalist Laura Loomer, the new pope is “a total Marxist like Pope Francis”.
Evangelising on diversity, equity and inclusion has become particularly fraught in the US, with a purge ongoing in education. Last month University of Virginia president James E Ryan was forced out of his job due to an “overt commitment to social equity”. Jim Bacon, a conservative commentator who led the charge against Ryan, explained: “Pursuing social justice, as opposed to focusing on the core mission, means that instead of educating kids, he’s indoctrinating them.”
Away from the divisive rhetoric of US politics, we in Ireland have our own reconciliation to make with agents of “indoctrination”. There is a live debate about whether to overhaul school patronage. About 90 per cent of primary schools and half of secondary schools have a Catholic patron. Is it time to run them from the door?
One possible solution is for Catholic schools to evangelise but not indoctrinate. In other words, all the St Marys and St Patricks would retain their Catholic identities – and demonstrate their Christian ethos through the good example of the school community.
But crucially, faith formation, and especially sacramental preparation, would take place outside the school gates. This would be a win-win. It would end the anomaly of the State paying teachers’ salaries to instruct pupils in Catholic Church teaching. But it would allow Catholic patrons to remain in place – and to evangelise, in the best missionary tradition, by modelling what it is to live a Christian life.
[ A teacher writes: Sacramental preparation should not be a school responsibilityOpens in new window ]
The Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai, who in 2004 became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, was taught by Loreto sisters – they had set up a school in Limuru in the 1930s for girls who would otherwise go without an education. Maathai credited a Kilkenny woman, Sr Colombiere Kelly, with giving her both a love of science and a sense of social responsibility. Kelly died in 2021 in Nairobi aged 101.
“After my education by the nuns,” Maathai later wrote, “I emerged as a person who believed that society is inherently good and that people generally act for the best.”
If that’s evangelisation, let’s have some more.
* The Last Irish Missionaries is broadcast on RTÉ One tonight at 9.35pm, with the second episode next Monday.
