Be Centered in Christ and Not in Self: The Missionary Society of Saint Columban: The North American Story, 1918–2018 by Angelyn Dries (review)

Be Centered in Christ and Not in Self is the perfect title for this massive centennial history (1918– 2018) of the Missionary Society of Saint Columban (the Columban Fathers). Comprising over 400 pages, Angelyn Dries’s tome nevertheless tells a very simple story. What her book repeatedly underscores is the fact that this Irish-based community established themselves in the United States for just one reason: to add priestly recruits for their mission to China. Their particular aim was initiated very early in the twentieth century following the powerful statements, first by Popes Benedict XV (1919) and Pius XI (1926) and later repeated by Pope Pius XII (1952) concerning the church’s need to bring the gospel to foreign lands— especially to China. Dries details how the Columban Fathers answered this call first by seeking new foreign missionaries, then by expanding their aims and modes of evangelization as new challenges emerged. Thus, they have sought, often despite serious obstacles, defeats, and personal humiliation—in peacetime and war—to follow the model of missionary priesthood, living out what their American cofounder, Edward J. McCarthy, once referred to as “a great romance after all” (63).

Dries’s book lays out carefully the path taken by the U.S. Columbans to accomplish their goal. Once in the United States, they purchased land, built headquarters and seminaries—establishing themselves in locations near Omaha, Nebraska; Buffalo, New York; and Bristol, Rhode Island. While engaged in these undertakings, the community publicized their aims to an interested American public, especially through their popular magazine, the Far East (later, the Columban Mission) as well as through preaching retreats, offering photographic displays and lectures, and use of the film media. In addition, they reached out to U.S. women religious inviting some of their members to join them as missionaries. Among these would be the Sisters of Loretto, the Sisters of Mercy, and the Daughters of Charity. They also attracted members of newly organized lay groups that had developed after the 1920s—the Catholic Students Mission Crusade, the Better World Movement, and even ecological groups such as Saving the Environment. These simple, often understated, aims have continued to set them apart from other missionary societies. While keeping priestly formation as a priority, they have educated sisters and laity to proclaim the good news in new lands and to highlight the current challenges of economic and ecological justice. Thus, they opened and supported missions in Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Fiji, and beyond. More recently, they have established themselves in Latin America, especially Chile, Peru, and Brazil.

What particularly struck me in reading this voluminous text was how unsung the Columbans have been in both their practical and spiritual outreach. Whether in peacetime or war, they have worked quietly side by side with those who have been receptive to their message of peace and justice. During particularly tumultuous times, they have endured incarceration, torture, ignominy, and death for the sake of “saving souls.” Their long list of martyrs speaks for itself. Besides, they have worked as U.S. chaplains, once again witnessing to their respect for those who have given their lives to help their neighbor—near or far. How many Americans, I wonder, know of the widespread presence of Columbans in the Far East during this tumultuous century? How many also know of the more ordinary work that many Columbans have done simply as parish priests in the United States—and that they have continued to do this work in parishes where migrants and refugees have sought spiritual support? (Just this week, for example, I happened upon an article in a local Catholic paper celebrating Columban Father, Philip Brady, who has been a Bridgeport diocesan priest for 17 years and who is now celebrating his 100th birthday among devoted former parishioners!) And what of the inspiration...