My Personal History
In the stillness and silence of Bornish Church the Voice of God can be more easily heard.
The Hebrides are sometimes known as the enchanted islands of Scotland. They truly merit that distinction. South Uist occupies a central role in the string of island that comprises the Hebrides and I am pleased to have been born there, in the township of Bornish. The year - 1945.
My name is Colin MacInnes and I was ordained to the priesthood in 1970 after preliminary studies on the island, and in the junior seminary in Aberdeen and finally in the senior seminary in Spain. I was ordained for the diocese of Argyle and the Isles and worked there for fifteen years, first as curate in Castlebay, Barra; then in Oban for two years before becoming parish priest of St. Michael’s, Iochdar, South Uist where I spent six years before moving to my last appointment in the diocese, St. Barr’s, Northbay, Isle of Barra.
In January of 1985, without ceasing to be a priest of the diocese which I will always love and yearn for, I was accepted as a member of St. James’s missionary Society and was assigned to the diocese of Quito, the capital of Ecuador, to forge out a parish in what was regarded as the most populous and the most violent “invasion town” which had been formed in the country. A more experienced priest was to accompany me but he was taken ill and so I started my missionary journey on my own.
The twenty two years that I spent in my new parish of St Joseph the Worker were most eventful and exhilarating, for many years marked by conflict, at times highly dangerous, but at all times most rewarding. They were years of adventure in the priesthood, in pastoral, social and even political engagement. Justice groups were formed, Christian community cells established. Parish organizations to cater for the young, the old and for family units sprung up. From the pedestal of ignorance (through not knowing the possible consequence) I had to form a parish in direct opposition to the Leninist/Marxist, so called communist overlords who had established the town and excluded any participation by police, the national, regional or local city authorities, so as to be better able to exploit the poor.
I led many protest marches through the city, twice spoke in Parliament appealing for greater justice for the poor and down trodden, started and edited a newspaper which circulated in the city, had a weekly television programme and did many radio talks. Eventually the so called communists were removed from power and I became “president” of the town. During these years the town was transformed: a potable water and sewage system was constructed, electricity was extended to the whole town, the streets were paved, five medical centres and a hospital were put into operation, a strong Credit Union, similar to a small bank was consolidated, two more churches with catechetical and community centres were built and the town moved from being a despairing, conflict ridden shanty barrio to being a dynamic and progressive town, ever expanding and with a population of 100,000.
My commitment and that of the Society is to work with the poorest of the poor (“TO GET IN AND GET OUT”, in the words of our Founder, Cardinal Cushing of Boston). The parish was well structured, the community was organized and capable of running itself, basic infra-structure was in place and so in September of 2005 I moved to the coastal region of Ecuador to start, as they say “all over again”. I am engaged in forming a parish in an invaded area near the seaport of Guayaquil. There will be about 55,000 in this invaded territory. We have no roads, no streets, no potable water, no electricity, no telephones and no public facilities.
What we have is the hope that things will get better.
Interview by Sr. Mary Jo:
Sr. M.J.
How do you come to be serving in Ecuador? What attracted you to this mission?
I arrived in Ecuador by accident. I intended to go to Nicaragua or El Salvador but when I joined the Society of St James I discovered that only Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia were open to the Society. My reasons for going there were not deeply spiritual. I felt that the so-called first world were very oppressive and unjust to countries like Latin America and wanted to offer my services there and contribute my “granite de arena” grain of sand to alleviate the plight of the poor.
Sr. M.J
What do you most enjoy/ appreciate about your life and work in Ecuador?
What I most appreciate are the loving friendly people, their life of faith, their undying hope for betterment, their tolerance and patience in difficult situations and their constant sense of fun and enjoyment of their lot in life. As regards my work I have the daily satisfaction of seeing how so many poor and worthy people benefit from the various projects I have been able to establish. Though plagued by ill health and the resulting absence from the parish I am trying to establish, I have been able to construct three chapels, four nurseries and am planning for medical attention in each nursery and a central clinic to coordinate medical attention for the area. All of these things bring great benefits to the people. In my last parish where I was for twenty two years, we were able to rescue a whole town of 100,000 from a state of fear, oppression and poverty and liberate them so they could become masters of their own lives. I will always be proud of that involvement.
Sr. M.J.
What are your biggest challenges?
Personal health must be one. How to keep healthy in a very unhealthy environment having to carry a very heavy work load! How to respond to people’s deep spirituality though almost total ignorance of their Catholic faith? How to free people from political and social oppression in a situation where evangelists, pentecostalists and every other church or religious movement ever invented crowd the scene and try to win adherents through campaigns against the catholic church and where political dissent is more often than not responded to by means of the bullet. Tell us about the people you serve - the community, their daily lives, their faith….. The community I serve is a collection of peoples, tribes, ethnic races from different parts of Ecuador. It is a community where young families and young children abound. The generality of people live in bamboo huts supported on four stilts with zinc roofs, openings in the walls for windows but a generous amount of light and air coming in through all the walls and perhaps the floor. They have a lovely, simple faith and see the hand of God in all things but are now so confused by the various churches which have invaded their intimacy. Very few have permanent jobs: the men work in the construction industry and the women as servants in the “big houses”. They are a very relaxed people, live and laugh for the day and trust that the next will not be too hard on them. They are a happy people with a lively sense of fun.
Sr. M.J.
What are the main projects you and the people are working on at present?
I have been absent from the parish for prolonged periods during the past two years because of ill health. At the same time I have designed and built three churches and four nurseries and I am in the process of building another larger church and parish centre. In each nursery there will be a medical room and am at the moment planning a medical centre and pleading with all and sundry to give me financial help for the project. I am also supporting a centre for children and youths at risk (street kids, those from disorganized homes, who have run away from school etc). I also need funds to keep the centre going.
Sr. M.J.
How do you see the connection between your spiritual role (priesthood) and the work of providing facilities such as schools, healthcare etc?
I do not see any connection. A connection would imply two disconnected entities or activities. My priesthood is to the whole person, not as an isolated individual but as part of a community. It implies all aspects which dignify human life and living. As a priest the basic motivation for my commitment to the poor comes from a spiritual conviction: as Christians we have special responsibilities and obligations to the poor because ministry to the poor was a fundamental aspect of Jesus’ ministry. Secondly, material development not accompanied by growth in human and spiritual values is doomed to failure - our world provides ample evidence of this truth.
Sr. MrJ
How can we at home support you and your people?
Support must come from a conviction that your donations will be put to good use. I do not think that I have a bad track record as articles in newspapers, programmes on television, in Readers Digest and other magazines give ample testimony to people in this country. In Ecuador I have been honoured by the nation’s parliament and by the city council of Quito and I do not know of any other foreign priest who has been similarly honoured. I state this not in order to blow my own trumpet but rather to assure you that your donations would be put to good use. Basically I can do what others enable me to do people and your donations are the enabling factor. I am indebted to family; individual priests of the diocese and from other dioceses such as St Peter’s in Glasgow and St Margaret’s, Ayr; friends from New York to South Uist, the “pennies of the poor” in Castlebay, Barra; the Justice and Peace Group in Egalsham and recently of SCIAF. The accumulation of small contributions are the basis of bigger projects. In conclusion, I consider myself as being the diocesan contribution of the ministerial priesthood to the missions and I would like to be supported by the diocese as such. I would also like that every year each parish have a special collection for the mission in Ecuador so as to have a closer identification with what we are doing in Ecuador and thus express more clearly the fact that we are all the one church; that we are Christ’s family on earth; a people of God united in our journey towards God, the father of us all.