Summer 2012 - The Mill Hill Missionaries

Summer 2012 Advocate:Layout 1 19/07/2012 12:14 Page 14“But we cannot abandon these people now”who shot many of their victims as they triedto swim across the river Nile to safety. Amongthem were several of their parishioners – andFr Jacob and Fr Damian could easily havebeen among the dead. Fr Jacob had said Massin Fangak on the day of the massacre, and heand Fr Damian only left the village a fewhours before the arrival of the killers. “Goddoes not sleep”, as they say in Africa!It was in this tense atmosphere that wegathered as a Mill Hill group on that Sundayevening in Malakal. We had decided a yearback to withdraw the two young Camerooniansand send them for formation that wouldenable them to take over important posts inour vocations and Formation Programmes(we have over 140 young men in training forthe missionary priesthood at present). I madea little speech and then asked each of the otherspresent to say how they felt, how they sawtheir future in the diocese in the light of thecurrent violence and uncertainty. I said I wasthere as a representative of the General Counciland that we would understand if they allopted to leave Malakal. They were both openand honest. Yes, they said, they were sometimesafraid and felt very fragile (and one ofthem pointed to the bullet holes in the house).Two of them had health issues.The future was uncertain and there weremany good reasons for packing up and going.But then it happened ….that old Mill Hillthing that I witnessed in Cameroon severaltimes…. “But we cannot abandon thesepeople now”, said one of them – and he wasspeaking for the whole group. “ Pass thewine,” he said, pointing to the bottle of goodSouth African red wine I had managed tobring in from Kenya. And I thought back tothe film Of Gods and Men – and those Frenchmonks sipping their wine, now at peace, becausethey too had made their choice…and Ifelt proud to be a Mill Hill missionary!13