DANILO CASTELLO
Mission accomplished
London’s Missionary
Institute closed its doors for the last time on
Friday June 29. For 40 years it trained people
to work in the developing world; now students from Asia or Africa will be
trained at honk. Here its president celebrates its short but intense history
Over
the past 40 years, hundreds of people have come to the Missionary Institute. Seven of
them became Bishops. Some of them became martyrs, includtng three priests who gave their life for the cause of faith and justice — in Algeria in 1994 Fr. Christian
Chessel M.Afr.; in Uganda in 2004 Fr.
Declan O’Toole MHM, and, a
just couple of months ago in Kenya, Fr. Martin Addaie M.Afr. They fulfilled
the prophecy of Cardinal Heenan in 1969, when he
told the students at the official opening of the Missionary Institute
London (M I L) that martyrdom
is a grace reserved for few,
and that some of them might become martyrs. As teh MIL prepare for its closing ceremonies, its former president, Larr Nemer, says it should not be allowed to just fade away
without being noticed. Nemier describes the MIL as a unique institution, born of the
second Vatican Councel’s call for collaboration. Nowhere else in the world have missionary congregations come together to form a theological school in which misslon has heen at the heart of the curriculurn
and in the ethos of the school. He attributes this to the faculty, most
of whom have had extensive missionary
experience. The MIL
was initiated by the Mill Hill Missionaries and the White Fathers at the end of the
1960s, when they realised that the juxtapositon of their two lage seminanes in north Londen was wasteful. The Second Vatican Council spoke about pooling
resources, such as seminaries
and other centres of training, and this inspired the two rectors at the time to
think boldly. Patrick Fitzgerald M.Afr, who
was rector at St Edward’s College in
Totteridge. and James Cowan MHM, who was rector
of St Joseph’s College, became
the promoters of an idea that
stirred considerable interetst among the missionary
Societies. A meeting was convened af St Josephs College for those interested in the project and representatives attended
from the Mill Hill Missionaries, the Missionaries of
Africa, the Consolata Missionaries, the
Comboni Missionaries, the Spiritans,
the Divine Word Mis sionaries
and the Society of African Missions. It was to become a milestone in the h
istory of the missionary endeavour in Within a couple of years, these seven
Missionarv societies gave their definitive cornmitment as founders of what came to be In the
middle of the 1970s, St Mary’s |
The structure of MIL was consolidated first by
affiliation with The collaboration with the local secular One of the constant preoccupations of the staff
was to preserve the pride of place for mission in the theological programmes;
and certainly the short life of the Missionary Institute contributed in a
variety of ways to rekindling the spirit of mission in There have been about 2,500 students at the MIL and nearly 700 of them have
been ordained to the priesthood. But
things have changed dramatically over these last few
decades. Superior General of the Mill Hill Missionaries, Tony Chantry,
says that a new missionary imagination is needed and we have to face the
challenge to train missionaries in other areas of the world as we respond to
the reality of our changing times. In
recent years, the majority of the clerical students of the founding societies
have not come from Britain or Europe, and the
societies have gradually begun to move their programmes of study and formation
to areas of the world where their candidates originate from. In Danilo Castello is the president of
the Missionary Institute |
The Missionary Institute
London
‘When we speak of a crisis of faith in today’s world much depends
on where in the globe we are standing’
In 1900
there were 459 million Catholics in the world, 392 million of whom lived in Europe and
By 2000 there were 1.1 billion
Catholics, with just 350 million in Europe
and
The missionaries who have gone out from the Missionary Institute London are immersed in this rapid and sweeping transformation of Catholicism actively contributing to these new developments. Over the past 25 years the Church has seen a growing emphasis on a search for a stronger sense of Catholic identitv. The emphasis on identity cuts across debates large and small. Our present Pope is keenly concerned that Catholics do not assimilate the broader secular mentality.
Much concern is also expnessed over the rise of Islam. Islam, it would appear, plays the role for Catholicisrn once occupied by Communism, meaning that it has becorne the Church’s chief ideological rival on the world stage around which so many debates revolve — debates such as the Christian identity of Europe, the limits of interfaith dialogue, the nature of missioniary efforts, the fate of Christians in the Arab world. We can expect further drama ahead in this area,
The biotech revolution is challenging Catholicism with
a whole new series of ethical headaches. What are the limits, for example, to genetic manipulation of human beings? Where does the distinction lie between ordinariy and extraordinary measures in preserving human life? These
questions and scores more - bedevil moral theologians, lay activists, pastors and bishops, pulling Catholic debate into uncharted
waters.
The Church also seeks to work with
the wireless world. The monopoly of the clerical caste on cathechists, faith formation
and education — in short, on anything that shaped the Catholic imagination
— has been eroded. The blogosphere is fuII of Catholic offerings: “Relapsed Catholic”, “The Cafetaria is
closed” and ‘Whispers in the Loggia”, to name a few. Bloggers can do more to mobilise Catholic activism than pro— nouncements from either
bishops’ conferences or the
local hierarchy.
These are
but a few of the trends affecting the Church we belong to today. It’s the world into which
you go to minister and mission. You face a world with no fixed plan but with the skills to understand humanity and minister with integrity. Remember that when you are down to nothing God is up to something.
Thomas Ryan
SMA gave the homily at the final graduation ceremony at the Missionary
Institute,
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