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Our History
The Columbans are a Catholic missionary society (not a religious order) of priests. We work in cooperation with the Columban Sisters and the Columban Lay Missionary Program in Australia/New Zealand, Britain, Chile, China, Fiji, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Taiwan and USA. In our documents we describe ourselves as an exclusively missionary society sent by the Church "to the nations", to proclaim and witness to the good news in Jesus Christ of the full Christian liberation and reconciliation of all peoples.
Crossing boundaries of country, language and culture, we define our objectives as:
- establishing the Church among peoples to whom the gospel has not been preached;
- helping churches mature until they are able to evangelise their own and other peoples;
- promoting dialogue between Christians and those of other religious traditions;
- facilitating interchange between local churches, especially those from which Columbans come and those to which we are sent;
- fostering in local churches an awareness of their missionary responsibility.
As Columbans we approach our work from a standpoint of solidarity with the poor and the integrity of creation. We take this option because the poor are unjustly marginalised. Basically solidarity with the poor means that, regardless of the particular context of the work which we do, we recognise the moral challenge of worldwide and local poverty. This recognition of the impact of poverty means that all the work we undertake as Columbans is evaluated in terms of what effect it has on the poor. It means supporting the struggle of the poor for real participation and against injustice. Ultimately it is to strive to be poor in the Spirit, to be, like Jesus, thirsting for God's justice.
As missionaries, Columbans are called to be deeply involved in the lives of others and in the service of the Kingdom. We resonate with the words of Jesus,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. (Luke 4:18-19 NRSV).
Within this framework, we often find ourselves in situations where the people are suffering great injustices. We believe that the Church must challenge the scandals of structural poverty (poverty caused by the way governments and institutions function) and spiraling violence. We believe that such challenges are basic to what the gospel demands of Christians. As Columbans, we see this concern for justice, peace and creation as central to our work.