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A diocesan priest from the San Jose Diocese in California is igniting mission sparks in Jamaica, hoping to fan missionary fires in his home diocese 3,000 miles away. Father Timothy Kidney is serving in a cooperative mission project between Jamaican Bishop Charles Dufour of Montego Bay, San Jose's Bishop Patrick J. McGrath and Maryknoll. Responding to Dufour's request for personnel, McGrath asked for volunteers among his priests and chose Father Timothy Kidney from St. John Vianney parish to join Maryknoll Father Leo Shea to develop lay leadership on the Caribbean island.
"We will never have enough priests," the Jamaican bishop says, noting that among the 13 priests in his Montego Bay Diocese only one is Jamaican. "Our lay men and women have to understand that, by virtue of their own baptism, they have a real role to play in evangelizing their neighbors. Laity do not usurp the role of clergy. They complement it."
Monsignor Francis Cilia, vicar general of the San Jose Diocese, recalls how Dufour impressed McGrath when the Jamaican prelate visited San Jose. "He tugged at my heart strings," McGrath said, "because instead of asking for funds, he pleaded for personnel—for a priest or even a lay person who could come to train lay leaders."
When McGrath asked Maryknoll to lend its mission expertise, the mission society's Superior General John Sivalon responded immediately. "We commend the San Jose Diocese on its initiative," Sivalon says. "Maryknoll is more than happy to collaborate. We stand ready to lend assistance to more dioceses that personally engage in mission and support their own lay and clergy overseas."
Kidney hopes that the faithful in San Jose will not only come to visit their Montego Bay project but also come to serve as short- or even long-term missioners. He also hopes that parishes in San Jose will twin with parishes in Montego Bay for mutual benefits.
When he arrived in Montego Bay last January, Kidney had to acclimate himself to the Afro-Caribbean culture, reggae music, the humidity and the jerk food (meat dry-rubbed with a fiery spice mixture). For Shea, less so. Fresh out of Boston College, he came to Jamaica as a lay missioner 45 years ago. "I found my vocation here," he says, explaining that he joined Maryknoll soon afterwards.
Kidney and Shea teamed up with Jamaican lay people Baldwin Powell and Janice Duhaney to develop an evangelization course as a prelude to a lay ministries program. They are team-teaching the basic doctrines of the Church in eight classes in six centers to some 20 to 40 men and women in each place. They will move to other centers to cover the diocese and complete the first course by the end of the year. A typical 90-minute session involves song, prayer, teaching, role-playing and group dynamics.
"The problem," Dufour says, "here and in many parts of the world, including the United States, is that people have been sacramentalized but not evangelized."
Kidney explains, "Not recognizing their call to spread the Good News of Jesus, too many Christians have not been trained for special ministries, such as, explaining the Gospel message to their neighbors, or reaching out to young people, or visiting and praying with the sick or working with a justice and peace group." The soft-spoken priest is well suited to the task, having graduate degrees in theology and ministry plus teaching experience in seminaries and pastoral work in San Jose parishes. "I love people," he says, "and I love teaching."
Powell, who serves as program coordinator for the lay formation program, says, "We are starting with the basics because people cannot really practice their faith, much less spread it, unless they understand it." His wife Ellen is a cradle Catholic and serves as diocesan treasurer, but Baldwin considered himself a lapsed Catholic until he had a faith experience seven years ago. He gave up his job as a resort hotelier to do, he says, "more meaningful work." He serves as an overseer for the Food for the Poor relief program in Montego Bay and plans to become a deacon.
"The Church's role," Shea says, "is to transform society, but we need trained and dedicated lay leaders to do it—and there is a lot of transformation needed." The Church's challenge is formidable. Almost 68 percent of the island's 2.6 million people are Christian but divided into various denominations and independent pentecostal Churches. Roman Catholics form only 2.6 percent of the population, but the Church has a public impact far beyond the numbers.
Jamaica is a relatively small island, about the size of Connecticut, in the northern Caribbean. With tropical weather, white beaches and warm sea, the island is dotted with plush seashore hotels and resorts that make tourism the principal industry. But the profits do not go very far.
Shea, a native of Boston who served the poor in Venezuela for 16 years and taught university students in China, notes that 14.8 percent of Jamaica's people live in abject poverty. Few jobs pay a living wage. Many young men and women do not finish high school. The education system is poor, especially in the rural areas.
As in any high poverty region, Jamaica's crime rate is high, and the police respond with violence. Resort managers tell their guests not to leave the grounds at night without an escort. In one instance this year, after a robbery by two teenage brothers, the police killed one brother who was 15. An outraged neighbor told Shea that the boy had surrendered when the police killed him.
One of the core problems is weak family structure. There are many teen pregnancies. Men, whether young or old, often do not take responsibility for their children. "The Church has a great challenge in strengthening the family structure," Shea says. "When the family structure is strong, good things happen."
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Kidney explains Scriptures to the congregation at Chestercastle town.
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Involved Catholics include Hal, who serves as chancellor and Lonna Lynch, who volunteers as medical tech at the Montego Bay Diocese.
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