Fr. Richard Ho Lung - Diary Of A Ghetto Priest THIS WEEK I would like to share with you a letter I recently received from Father Hayden Augustine, a member of our religious community serving in our mission for the poor in Uganda, East Africa:
"Dear Fr. Richard,
Greetings of love and peace! Well, here I am in Kampala, Uganda!
The other day, as I was pacing about and meditating outside our monastery chapel when three little children, on their way to school, peered around our gate and waved to me. Then one of them made a dash of about 100 yards up to me and uttered, 'How are you?' I said, "Fine, what's your name?" She said, "Fiona Philomena Mbithi." I continued, "And in which class are you studying?" She exclaimed, "Middle class. God bless you!" and sped away to join her two waiting companions. Such precocity, such innocence!
Fiona is one of over 300 neighbourhood children who attend our children's mass on Sunday at 10:00 a.m.
FAITH WITH FERVOUR
Uganda, like most of Africa, is a developing country. In fact, one of the more advanced and stable of African nations. Like most nations today, Uganda, too, is exposed to all the influences of modernism. But Ugandans are also a people of tremendous faith. Over 80 per cent are Christian and half of that number belongs to the Catholic Church.
Today, Thursday, we shall have our weekly mass at our ministry for the poor in Kampala. The centre is called Good Shepherd, and it houses close to 100 homeless men, women and children. Like all our centres the world over, this houses the least of our brothers and sisters: the mentally and physically challenged, the aged, the abandoned, the diseased, and the orphaned. It is located in the middle of a great slum called Mengo Kisenyi on property belonging to the nearby Catholic parish and gifted to us by Cardinal Wamala of Kampala. The Brothers put up the structure and now they go there daily to tend to the broken body of Christ enfleshed in the broken bodies of our poor residents.
Maureen Nansamba, a lithe 22-year-old, is one such member of that body. I immediately took a liking to her for the simple reason that she remembered my name from the short visit I had made last year. She is completely paralysed from the waist down, and so is confined to her bed. She is very bright, conversant and fluent in English, always with a smile on her face. Despite her debilitating handicap, she takes time to care for others more severely disabled than she. For this reason, she always has somebody at her bedside, consoling, scolding, joking, and instructing: the poor serving the poor, one of the ideals of our spirituality.
Yet, despite the physical brokenness of these our poor brothers and sisters, their spirits are enlivened by the selfless and generous spirits of our missionaries of the Poor Brothers.
HARD WORKERS
There are now 34 of us: 11 aspirants, 14 postulants and nine professed. We all go to the apostolate. Brother Raul is in charge of Good Shepherd and goes daily along with Brother Gregory and Brother Bruce. The rest of us take turns, most doing an average of three to four days per week. The young aspirants and postulants also take turns alternating days for classes and apostolate, house duties, including cooking all our meals, and garden and maintenance duties, including taking care of pigs, rabbits, chickens and pigeons in large quantities.
The life here is full and rich, despite our limitations, and the youthfulness of the Brothers; why, at 45 I am by far the oldest! We comprise so many nations: Uganda, Kenya, Sudan, Haiti, India, The Philippines, Trinidad; and so many talents and personality traits, yet there is a unity, a brotherhood that emanates only from Christ and his Holy Spirit.
The Brothers still cherish your visit to them in September. When I wash dishes with them, they sing and chat about the songs and dances you taught them; the lessons you imparted to them; the profound spirit you bestowed upon them. They say it was like the coming of the Son of God! One Brother said he still couldn't believe that our Founder and Superior-General lived with them, ate and prayed and talked with them! He is still in awe of your visit, and counts himself honoured to have cooked the special meals for you!
I count myself doubly honoured to be amongst them, to be here in this great and enigmatic continent - Mother Africa! To be one of your sons, and elder brother to such a unique community of men, to have also received your inspiration in the many years of our journey in religious life as Missionaries of the Poor, and sons of such an adorable God."
In the coming weeks I hope to share with you good news from our Jamaicanised Brothers serving the poorest and destitute in other countries and their rich experiences of encountering Christ in the sufferings of lowly humanity. God bless you.
Father Richard Ho Lung is founder and Superior-General of the Missionaries of the Poor.
