New faces of mission

Mags Gargan talks to the CEO of Viatores Christi about lay missionary work

While the profile of Irish missionaries may be changing, the legacy of their work continues to bear fruit through the work of young local missionaries and lay Irish missionary organisations such as Viatores Christi.

Originally set up in 1960 by a group of students at UCD who were members of the Legion of Mary, Viatores Christi specialises in the recruitment, training and placement of skilled volunteers in Africa, Asia and the Americas to help fight poverty, inequality, exploitation and injustice.

“We are a development organisation specialising within the faith-based missionary sector and linking in with the legacy of the traditional Irish mission, which is either now indigenous or has become lay-led, but where the need for capacity building remains.

“We are continually building on those links and the legacy of the past to try and make it something relevant to the future,” says Shane Halpin, who became the first CEO of Viatores Christi in 2013.

Faith

Hailing from Drogheda in Co. Louth Shane came from a strong faith-based background, where the Church was very much part of his upbringing. “My mother would have joined the sisters and my father would have joined the Jesuits if they had not met,” he says.

Shane had a very successful career in advertising and PR in London in the 1990s but felt that something was missing in his life and decided to volunteer at a homeless shelter. “I ended up being thrown in at the deep end working with a shelter in West London and it was quite heavy duty, going into areas of London that were all barred up. I was way out of my comfort zone but it started something in me that wanted to continue on, this idea of social engagement, and by the end of my time in London I was ready to go overseas ‘on mission’.”

It was on a visit home to Drogheda that Shane got talking to a Salesian priest, Fr Declan Collins [tragically murdered in 2002], who ran a project for street youth in Cape Town in South Africa and was invited to join him in his work. “I ended up living in a hostel for former street youth and working during the day in the Don Bosco hostel, which is a hostel and training programme for youngsters that were living on the streets. This was in 1994, before the elections [the first election for citizens of all races], and it was an amazing time to be in a Cape Town.”

He describes this time of “working with the poorest of the poor” as “eye opening” and a “life changing experience”, so there was no going back to the corporate world. Shane got more actively involved in social development, particularly homeless issues, and ended up starting a South African version of the Big Issue magazine which is sold by homeless and long-term unemployed people. Using his experience in advertising and PR he got the project to the point where it was employing 300-400 people a month.

After 10 years in South Africa, Shane moved to Scotland in 2004 to head the International Network of Street Papers. Two years later he decided to move home to Ireland and seeing the huge change in attitude towards the Catholic Church that occurred during his time away, he felt called to use his skills to help the Irish Church.

This led to him studying a Masters in Holistic Development and Pastoral Ministry in All Hallows and working in a number of roles with the Dublin diocese, Armagh diocese, the Jesuits, Net Ministries and the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, before being attracted to the new role in Viatores Christi.

Volunteering

There are 32 lay missionaries with Viatores Christ working in the field around the world at the moment. Those interested in volunteering overseas sit a primary interview, followed by an intensive training programme run over weekends in a four month period looking at issues such as cultural adaption, community development, health awareness, research methodologies and the missionary approach to development.

They are then offered the opportunity to apply for any of the available jobs that they may be interested in and form a panel of applicants for a formal interview. “The job description comes from our partner in the field. We put a few candidates forward and our partner has the final say,” Shane explains.

Each role would normally be for 12 months but some organisations may only need help for the period of a particular project. Funding for the projects comes from Irish Aid through Misean Cara, which also covers the volunteer’s accommodation and a stipend to cover day-to-day expenses.

Shane says this is an interesting time of change in the missionary world. Viatores Christi has faced challenges and as an organisation had to move forward and accommodate change.

Organisation

“I think the organisation has moved a lot towards a more inclusive role. My understanding of faith is that a key element is witness rather than proselyting. Some people might say I don’t have any issues with the Catholic Church but I don’t go to Mass, but what I find is that people often go over as development workers and come back as missionaries,” Shane says.

“It’s an interesting thing and I think they go through a personal change in their lives and I think that is a good thing. It is good for people to see other things, to broaden the mind, particularly with the refugee crisis and the situation here in Ireland at the moment where people are suspicious of what’s different. When you think of what we get excited about in Ireland, things like water charges, and what people in other countries have to deal with, it really does change people and society, so I am very much in favour of immersion in other countries.”

Shane says he feels very positive about the future. “God still calls people, but in a different way and I think organisations like this help people to answer that call,” he says. “People often say to us this is something I have always wanted to do. It is about exploring something deep inside you and listening to yourself.”

www.vcvolunteers.ie