JCAP

Martin Luther King’s speeches gave release to the yearnings of a people for freedom from a tortuous history of oppression in the United States. The martyrdom of the poor and their church leaders in Latin America helped to bring down structures that kept the rich, rich and the poor, poor.

In the social justice nest I am a cuckoo that leaves its egg and flies away. My ministry has been to teach theology, and more lately to write for Jesuit publications and for Jesuit Social Services.

It is Saturday night, a night for PEACE PRAYER OUTREACH. We are on a prayerful night-walk through the lanes where migrants and trafficked women await customers at Geylang, Singapore. This is an initiative of the Franciscan Missionary of Mary, endorsed by the Association of Major Superiors of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, to respond to the burning issues of migration and illegal human trafficking, a modern form of slavery.

At the end of August in 2011, I boarded a plane to Jeju Island, the largest island located in the southern part of South Korea to go to a small village called Gangjeong. Who would have imagined that my simple journey to a small village in an island will end up being in the jail?

It is Saturday night, a night for PEACE PRAYER OUTREACH. We are on a prayerful night-walk through the lanes where migrants and trafficked women await customers at Geylang, Singapore.

Kyabé is located in the Lake Iro Division, in the southwest of the Republic of Chad. It is the capital of this division and is 900 km from N'Djamena, the capital of Chad. It is a rural environment where Arabic speakers live alongside the Sara-Kaba, the indigenous people of the region.

"Our lives depend on the flow of the Mekong. When it comes up to high tide during the rainy season, the waters of the river flood the riverbank. That is the right time for planting; we become farmers. When the river is in its low tide, the land is drained and there is no possibility to water the riverbank and to continue planting. Then we turn to be fishermen again."

I would like to speak about a foreign worker I tried to help. When I met him, he asked me to help him to change companies. From the first, I realized it would be difficult. At present our Korean government imposes some impediments toward migrant workers changing companies because employers want the migrants to continually serve their company.

My involvement with the Tertians – Jesuits who are undergoing a final formal period of formation before taking their fourth vow - began at a joint birthday party. The Tertian Master, Pat O’Sullivan SJ, was pleased to meet me there.