McAleese pays tribute to bravery of aid workers
Thursday October 29 2009
The kidnap of GOAL aid workers Sharon Commins and Hilda Kawuki in Darfur, and Fr Michael Sinnott in the Philippines are stark reminders of the risks faced by all development workers, President Mary McAleese said yesterday.
Opening a conference in Kimmage, Dublin, to mark the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Holy Ghost Fathers, now called the Spiritans, Mrs McAleese said that this danger confronted all aid volunteers, whether they were missionaries or lay people.
The kidnaps, the President added, gave the Irish people "an insight into the quiet world of selfless outreach that goes on each day and into the strong character and resilience such work calls for".
Privilege
President McAleese said she had been privileged over the years to meet many Spiritan missionaries serving in 55 countries, and she had seen them "place all their gifts, their talents, their energy and their best years in the utterly selfless service of others from whom they asked nothing and expected nothing".
In a double celebration, the Spiritans are marking a year of events in honour of their founding 300 years ago in France, as well as their 150-year presence in Ireland.
"Here in Ireland we associate the name of the Holy Ghost Father with education," said President McAleese, lauding the opening of the "legendary" Blackrock College in 1860, to the recent formation of the Des Places Educational Association to oversee an extensive Spiritan school network.
"Yours is a story of thousands of young men and more recently young women, educated in the Spiritan charism," she added.
Meanwhile, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said that political, economic and religious leaders in a number of African countries were educated by Irish Spiritans.
"The preaching of the word was accompanied by a strong sense of community-building and attention to the weakest," Archbishop Martin added.
- John Cooney
Irish Independent
