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Fr Alo Connaughton

Christmas with Jesús

By Fr Alo Connaughton

The author is one of two brothers who are Columbans. His older brother Father Sean worked in the Philippines for many years, in Zambales and Manila. Father Alo spent his early years as a priest in Chile.

The first thing I need to clarify is that the Jesús I’m talking about is from Madrid and his family names are Galeote Tormo; and of course his name is pronounced ‘heSUS’. He is a doctor who got his degrees in medicine from the University of Salamanca; and he is a Franciscan priest. He has 17 years of medical practice in rural Bolivia behind him, seven of those as a hospital director.

God’s Servant First

By Fr. Alo Connaughton mssc

We had the privilege of welcoming “Fr. Thomas Y” to the office of the Irish Columban magazine, The Far East. Occasionally his name had cropped up in conversations of older Columbans who had worked in China. The casual observer could be forgiven for assuming that this lively, smiling 70-year-old had probably live a tranquil, uneventful life.

He was born into an old Catholic family in 1929. As a young boy in Nacheng, he had known some of the Columban missionaries and the local bishop, Patrick Cleary. He decided to study for the priesthood in Shanghai. His studies were interrupted by a 16-months jail sentenced for being a member of the Legion of Mary. On his release he continued his theological studies on his own and was ordained priest in 1957.