Columban priest martyred in Korea commemorated in Louth, Ireland

This report appeared on CiNews, a Catholic online news service in Ireland. (H/T to Clerical Whispers for drawing it to my attention.) County Louth is one of Ireland's 32 counties. Father Collier had a brother, Father Kieran, who served as a Columban in Burma for many years. Their nephew, Father Ray, also a Columban, now in Britain, spent some years after his ordination working in Mindanao.

In the 1960s the Columbans made a movie called, I think, Path to Glory, which depicted the history of the Church in Korea. The 'narrator' was Fr Anthony Collier but the voice was that of Gregory Peck. I remember showing it to a group of sixth grade kids in Immaculate Conception parish, Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, some time in 1970-71 when I was residing there while studying. At least one student was alert as he asked me at the end, 'How could Father Collier be narrating when he was dead?'

I hope that the Columbans will reissue this movie. I hope too that all of us will feel inspired by the witness of such priests as Fr Tony Collier.

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

A memorial seat has been unveiled in Clogherhead, Co. Louth, to honour Fr Tony Collier, a missionary from the village who was summarily executed by communist North Korean forces during the Korean Civil War sixty years ago. (I've never heard this war referred to before as a civil war. It was at one level but it was also an international war involving the United Nations and the People's Republic of China but fought on the Korean peninsula).

The seat was carved form stone from the farm at Cruicetown outside Clogherhead where Fr Collier grew up. It was unveiled by parish priest, Fr Paul Clayton-Lea, a relative of the priest, Fr Raymond Collier and other representatives of the Columban missionaries.

Fr Collier was educated in Drogheda CBS (Christian Brothers' School) and St Patrick's College, Armagh, and in 1931, joined the Columban Fathers. He was ordained at Dalgan Park in 1938 and a year afterwards, went to work in Korea.

He was in charge of the second Columban parish in Chunchon city when civil war broke out.

Fr Collier lost his life on June 27, 1950, two days after North Korean soldiers had crossed the so-called 39th Parallel, which divided North and South Korea.

He and three colleagues had been advised by an American army officer to leave Chunchon but they decided to stay. When the North Koreans overran the city, he was taken into custody, briefly interrogated and then shot dead.

Ironically, Fr Collier, who was then only 37, had survived unscathed through the brutal World War II occupation of Korea by Japanese imperial forces.

He is buried close to the Jungnim-dong Cathedral in Chunchon, along with Irish Bishop Thomas Quinlan and other missionaries who refused to leave in the face of the communist invasion.

Fr Collier’s three colleagues were also taken into custody and were forced to take part in the notorious Death March to the far north of Korea.

by Fintan Deere

China: Martyrs and Missionaries

Bishop James Edward Walsh MM (1891-1981)

10 July 1970 is not a date that is etched on my memory, not even the year. I had to research online to check it. This morning at Mass I told the people it was 1976. But I distinctly remember the gospel at Mass the following day, Mt 10:16-23, and what I spoke about in my homily in a church somewhere in the Diocese of Rockville Center, New York. Verses 18 -20 read: You will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear testimony before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you up, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

Bishop James E. Walsh, a Maryknoll Missioner, was quietly released by the Chinese Communist authorities on 10 July 1970 after having served almost twelve years of a twenty-year sentence for the 'crime' of being a Catholic missionary. He never spoke a word of bitterness or anger about those who had jailed him and lived the rest of his life prayerfully and quietly in Maryknoll, New York. I cannot imagine a more appropriate gospel text than that read after the bishop's release.

This great missionary priest, who became a bishop at the age of 36, once said, Missionaries go where they are needed but not wanted, and stay until they are wanted, but no longer needed.

You can read more about Bishop Walsh here and here.

From the Vatican website

That same gospel reading happily coincided today with the memorial of St Augustine Zhao Rung and compnions, 120 martyrs of China, both Chinese and foreign, canonized in 200. They were killed in various persecutions down the years. St Augustine, a diocesan priest and former soldier, was martyred in 1815.

In his homily at the canonizations on 1 October 2000 Pope John Paull II reminded us, Young Ann Wang, a 14-year-old, withstood the threats of the torturers who invited her to apostatize. Ready for her beheading, she declared with a radiant face: 'The door of heaven is open to all', three times murmuring: 'Jesus'. And 18-year-old Chi Zhuzi, cried out fearlessly to those who had just cut off his right arm and were preparing to flay him alive: 'Every piece of my flesh, every drop of my blood will tell you that I am Christian'.

Pray for the Church in China which is still suffering.