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Color Blind Missionaries Just Love
First Published: Reflections - Philippine Daily Inquirer Publication Date: 19th February 1992 Author's Name: Father Shay Cullen SSC The letter of Col. Hector M. Tarrazona (PDI 2/2/92) listed his likes and dislikes for the writers of this newspaper. In reference to myself he had little positive comment and used terms like "Alien" and "Foreign Meddler" in a disparaging and even racist way. Mr. Alberto M. Albano agreed with Col. Tarrazona on this last bit of name calling and commented that : "I may even observe that that Fr. Cullen seems to have one favorite target in Mayor Richard Gordon". Like many writers I write a good deal from personal experience and contact with people. I have been privileged to share their joys and sorrows, their oppression and suffering. Some of my columns are reflections and comments on these experience. For the last 22 years I have witnessed a lot in Olongapo from the perspective of helping drug dependents, abused women and street children, urban and rural poor. I have reflected on my experience in the light of the Bible and I must admit that I feel great compassion for these powerless and vulnerable people. I confess that I side with them and their longing and hopes for justice and freedom from the crippling poverty and sexual and economic exploitation in which they are trapped. I stand with the Inquirer in exercising the right of all human persons regardless of color race or creed to express their views and to write about what is right and true. If I don't they will say I am condoning evil by remaining silent. Those who are in part responsible for the economic system of organized prostitution, back street abortion and child abuse as a way of life for thousands of Filipinos without providing any alternative employment are understandably angered by my writing and have done many things to stop it. I expect that and accept it. But I have to defend what I believe to be true. Other writers and editors of this newspaper have been threatened and intimidated because they wrote the truth they discovered because they believed it was the right of the public to know what is happening and why. I too have received threats, but we writers and journalists have to accept these as occupational hazards. They go with the job of telling the truth and refusing to condone evil by silence and cover up. But there is another side to this too. I am also a missionary working in the Philippines as a response to God's call to be with the poor and minister to them as Jesus Christ did. Because I did not have the good fortune to be born a Filipino does not make me any missionary "alien" or "Foreign" no more than a Filipino missionary in Africa, (and there many of them), is an alien or a foreign meddler there. In many cases missionaries can have a unique role and contribution in a culture not their own. Hundreds of missionaries around the world have left their homes and families and gone to live in difficult circumstance to be of service to the needy and bring God's love and redemption to them. The missionary contribution has been enormous throughout the world. In the Philippines together with the Filipino church they helped set up countless schools, colleges churches and many other projects and thousands benefited. Many readers will remember with gratitude and joy being able to go to a mission school where before there had been none. To have been treated with dignity and respect in their poverty and having lifted themselves out of it because they had a school and church to go to. Today hundreds of Filipinos abroad are being helped by missionaries in other lands. They go to the churches and community centers and get immediate help, acceptance and understanding. They have a friend when they are in trouble. For example, Columban Missionaries, of which I am one, have special apostolates for Filipinos abroad, especially those being exploited and abused. Many Filipinos today are joining missionary groups like the Columbans. Then there are hundreds of Filipino missionaries abroad : lay people as well as brothers and sisters and priests working on other continents, sacrificing themselves for the poor there and bringing them God's love and hope. Is not Col. Tarrazona and Mr. Albano going to call them "foreign meddlers" in Africa and Latin America? Are these brave and dedicated Filipino missionaries "aliens" to their adopted people? and who among our readers will defend their sacrifices? Many Filipino missionaries have already given their lives and suffered harassment and threats in other countries for their adopted people because they took a stand for their human rights. We missionaries of all nationalities are one in serving God's people, we are "aliens" to no one, we just love people and we are mostly color blind.
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