Man on a mission
Fr C. Burrows OMI
It is now more than 30 years since Fr Charlie Burrows, a young Oblate priest from Dublin, arrived in Indonesia with three Australian colleagues to establish a mission in Java. He was assigned to the Cilacap region, on the southern coast of the island.
Extreme poverty, poor infra-structure, or none, and communal tensions were among the problems then facing the population. From the beginning, he worked with great imagination and energy to make life better for the people, 96% of whom are Muslims.
Uppermost in his mind has been a determination to organise projects in a way that would build bridges of understanding between people. The projects are labour intensive and require people to cooperate with one another. He calls this, ‘inter-religious dialogue in action’, and it works.
Recently, Andrew Lynch, a journalist with the Sunday Business Post, spent a week shadowing Charlie as he moved around the many projects for which he is responsible: from schools to road-building, from banking to emergency relief work. A highly readable account of his impressions appears as the lead story in this weekend’s (October 21 2007) 'Agenda' section of his newspaper.
Fr Charlie has just returned to Indonesia after a few weeks holidays back home in Dublin. Instead of relaxing, however, he spent much of his time reporting to the charities and aid agencies which support his work. He also established contact with others who have expressed interest in backing these projects in the future. Much of the funds come from the German Catholic charity, ‘Misereor’, from American Catholic charities and, increasingly, from Ireland.
His story is typical of the stories of many Irish men and women missionaries working in the developing world. A recent pilot study on the effectiveness of Irish Government Overseas Aid found that support of the work of missionaries represents ‘excellent value for money’, and that theirs is a powerful but ‘untold’ story.