Marathon Missionary
by the editor, Fr. Niall O'Brien
There are various ways to do mission – some true and tried, some original and creative. The following article tells of a missionary who is truly creative and indeed successful in his approach to mission. Read on.
The recent World Cup soccer finals in Korea and Japan have turned all minds in Asia to sport. The Philippines unfortunately was not represented as football is not our thing but athletics are and that gets me to thinking of a certain person. You probably have not heard his name. When it comes to sport he is one of the most successful sports coaches in Negros and maybe the Philippines. A couple of years ago his little group of athletes won 6 golds, 5 silvers and broke 2 national records at the National Open Track and Field Championship in Manila. Many top class Asian athletes competed at these games. So that made the victory all the sweeter. It was a fitting climax to a string of successes over many years.
Fr. O'Halpin with young athletes during the Centennial Palarong Pambansa in Bacolod City
Sports Buff
But why am I mentioning this man here in Misyon magazine? For the simple reason that he is a missionary and has been here in the Philippines for half a century. This Columban has dedicated himself to sport as a means of helping the young to a healthy and wholesome life. His name is Colm O’Halpin and he hails from Ireland. Rugged and lean with blue eyes still sparkling under shaggy brows, Fr Colm O’Halpin does not look like his age, though he has already celebrated 50 years in the priesthood. Most of those 50 years have been spent in the difficult and faraway parishes of Negros but even in those remote locations he gathered prospective athletes around him and gave painstaking hours training them. So many of these barrio boys and girls have gone on to make their mark in the world of sports.
I recall visiting him over the years. Calling into his remote parishes you would always see a running track laid out carefully and if you ventured into his bedroom you stumbled over volleyballs, basketballs, baseball bats, javelins, discuses and iron balls for the shot put. For a moment you wondered if you were in the parish priest’s bedroom or in an abandoned sports shop.
Way out from drugs
So why sports? How does that fit in with the missionary vocation? “Very much!” answers O’Halpin. He sees sport as the healthy way for the young to get to grow up away from the world of drugs, drink and decadence. He feels that the government would have to spend a lot less on drug rehabilitation centers and prisons if they spent more on sports and sports facilities for the young. Fr O’Halpin sees this as part of his call. Some years ago, before Bacolod Diocese was divided up, Bishop Fortich gave him a special appointment as the Director of the Sports Ministry of the Diocese.
His famous friend
I suppose hundreds of students have benefited from his training and recently he felt honored when the world famous Olympic runner, Sonia O’Sullivan, sent him equipment for his athletes and a sports stopwatch for himself which he wears with modest pride. He never complains that he has to do all this training on a shoestring. The money for it he scrimps here and there. He himself lives an ultra-frugal life spending nothing on himself – though he cannot resist a sports book.
Parish schedules
And in spite of all this hectic sports activity, he has never neglected his priestly duties. The farthest barrios of Negros will attest to this. Long past the retiring age, he still has a parish schedule in Biscom, Binalbagan, in the South of Negros.
All this is why so many of us were delighted at his triumphs in Manila. Winning all those golds and silvers plus broken records (or should I say records broken?). But not only that. What pleased his companions most of all was that he had been recognized by the Manila sports gurus and no less than the National President of Track and Field in the Philppines had asked him to help in developing the national pool of athletes. They could hardly have asked a better man.