oleary

A seed is planted
by Sean O'Leary, CSSp in Taiwan

What did I know of the Orient? I had images of verdant rice paddies climbing, like steps of a stairs, the flanks of mist-shrouded hills. I had images of crowded cities with narrow streets alive with movement, noise and commerce. I had images of friendly, hardworking, smiling people.
But when I touched down on Taiwanese soil, as the first Spiritan ever to be appointed to work on what the Portuguese named Ilha Formosa, the Beautiful Island, I entered a world far more complex than that portrayed on travel posters.

I was dumb-struck by the neon signs in Chinese characters and wondered to myself if I ever would be able to master such a seemingly complex language. More than three years later I'm still wondering.

I soon came to learn that Taiwan is one of the most densely populated places on earth. More than twenty-two million people, of whom 1.2% are Catholic, crowd this land which has developed in recent years a dynamic industrial economy. Although most have benefited from the "Tiger" economy in material terms, the cost has been high. The environment has been ravaged, pollution of air and water is a major problem, and the political future of the people is in doubt as China presses its claims to this off-shore "province".
First impressions
I will never forget my feelings of awe and bewilderment as I made my way from the airport that rainy December evening. I was dumb-struck by the neon signs in Chinese characters and wondered to myself if I ever would be able to master such a seemingly complex language. More than three years later I'm still wondering. A huge challenge facing the Spiritans here is the Chinese language, which at the beginning is totally confusing. My attempts to repeat these unfamiliar sounds with my Irish accent must be mystifying to the locals who have to endure listening to their beautiful language being murdered. One such victim was our Bishop with whom I stayed for the duration of my language studies. He had to endure being called Pigs' Feet every day as the Chinese words for Bishop and pigs' feet are far too similar for my unpracticed tongue to differentiate. This feeling of belonging to a different tribe and different world was further intensified when I sat down for my first lunch at the Bishop's residence. I was given chopsticks with which to eat my food and I wondered how on earth I was going to eat my spuds with these implements. Well, that problem never materialized as the next time I would be seeing potatoes was back home in Ireland, that other beautiful island.
Other lasting impressions were the endless stream of motorcycles, the noise, the pollution and the lack of space. Everywhere seemed so crowded. In Ireland I used to love to go for a leisurely walk, but in Taiwan, venturing out by foot is not for the faint-hearted.
Within a year I was joined in Taiwan by James Sandy from Sierra Leone, Jean-Pascal Lombart and Jean-Paul Hoch, both from France, followed a few months later by Philip Wang of Nigeria. Our multi-ethnic and multicultural group represents a typical modern Spiritan team.
For over three years we have been learning to understand the ancient and gracious culture of the people. In the meantime, James works with immigrant workers, Jean-Pascal is chaplain to the team responsible for youth work in the diocese, Jean-Paul is the pastor of a city parish and I have become involved in prison ministry.
Rather than talk of this ministry in general terms, maybe a story of one of my regular contacts, Kun Ming, will catch the flavour of my work.
"A vicious bad person"
Kun Ming is 17 years old, one of four children. He likes singing, beer, and playing pool. He was brought up in a culture of violence from a very young age. His father served a prison term for murder. Guns and knives were always part of the family scene. At the age of 12, Kun Ming joined a triad gang where 200 members made money in a variety of illegal activities such as running protection rackets, selling drugs, operating gambling dens and prostitution rings. The bonds within the triad are extraordinarily strong, discipline is tight and obedience to Big Brother, the gang leader, is absolute.
Last year Kun Ming was committed to prison as he was involved in a fight which led to a man being killed. He sees himself as "a vicious bad person" who cannot control the violent part of his nature. He believes that this instinct to violence controls him. He tells me that his life is already mapped out, and that after serving his term he will return to the only life that he knows, back to the gangs and to a life of violence and crime. He hopes one day to be a Big Brother.
My relationship to Kun Ming is basically one of friendship and I try to listen to him in a non-judgemental way. I also try to understand his life, his joys and hopes, his fears and anxieties, his dreams as well as his frustrations and difficulties. Over the past few months as I have come to know Kun Ming, I don't see him as a "vicious bad person", forever condemned to a life of violence and crime. I see him as a frightened young man, whose psychological prison is much worse than the physical prison in which he finds himself. Slowly I have been trying to get Kun Ming to believe in himself, and to discover the strength within himself to break the chains of being controlled by impulses and gang law. I have been trying to help Kun Ming see that he is a victim in need of healing and that he needs to step off the roller-coaster that is leading him to self-destruction. I encourage him to learn to walk a new road, a road which has as the foundation a love and respect for himself and a love and respect of others. I have been encouraging Kun Ming to envisage a new story about himself and about his life. I don't know what the future holds for Kun Ming and so many others like him, but I do believe that people can walk into a new future one step at a time, and as a Christian I believe the words of Paul, that "wherever sin abounds, God's Grace abounds even more."
This contact may appear to be a drop in the ocean, one among 22 million, and not a very promising one at that. But my work with Kun Ming and the other occupants of the youth prison is, in some ways, a paradigm of our Spiritan mission to Taiwan. It is in its infant stage, it is mysterious, it is based on contact between people, it has no plans for the future. Wherever the Holy Spirit leads us and at whatever pace, we will follow.
We, like all the Spiritans gone before us, are but planters of seeds. The seeds we sow are tiny indeed, the stones and weeds and birds of the air ever present, but we know that it is God who gives the increase.