The
Catholic Weekly
Online
Sydney
19 October 2003
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Peace
in our hands
Jubilee
week for Pope
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School
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Honoured
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to lectors, acolytes
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deeper reality
Editorial:
Time for tribute
Letters:
Barrel of a gun
Conversation:
Terry Hanley, lay missionary who has spent nearly 15 years in the field - Happy
to ‘spend rest of my life in Africa’
What
is peace like?
Religion
test upsurge
Malouf
on campus
Ministry
of Jesus to the sick and dying
‘Father,
this is your life’
‘Priest
in residence’ honoured
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Full-on
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Active
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Requiem
Mass for ‘Bacon Priest’
Conversation: Terry Hanley, lay missionary who has spent nearly 15 years in the field - Happy to ‘spend rest of my life in Africa’
By Chris Lindsay
“I would be happy to spend the rest of my life in Africa,” says Terry Hanley (pictured). “In many ways I now feel more at home there than in Australia.
“I like the responsiveness of the people, their warmth. I feel more connected to the people in Africa.”
Terry has been working in East Africa for nearly 15 years as a lay missionary for PALMS, with the support of Catholic Mission.
Not only is he the only Australian working in his area, but - he says - “for almost all the years I have been working in East Africa, I have been the only white person living and working where I found myself”.
He began studying Swahili - the dominant language in East Africa - at his first posting in Tanzania, and is now so fluent he gives all his lectures and classes in theology and catechetics in Swahili.
Terry was born in Mosman and went to Marist Brothers, Mosman, before joining the Dominicans and studying for the priesthood for five years in the late 60s.
He decided not to continue, though, and went to Sydney University where he did an honours degree in history.
“My studies with the Dominicans were very enriching,” Terry says, “and while at the university
I was still studying theology in my own time.”
Terry worked for the Justice and Peace Commission from 1973-75.
“I wanted to complete my studies,” he says, “so I attended the Catholic Institute of Sydney at Manly in 1977 and did a bachelor of theology.
“I then decided to do further studies and went to the Catholic University of Louvaine-la-Neuve in Belgium from 1979-82 and received a licentiate degree.”
It was in Belgium that Terry had his first real contact with Africa.
“There were a large number of students there from the French-speaking parts of Africa, such as the Congo, Burundi and Rwanda,” he says.
“I was captivated by the openness and warmth of the African students. They seemed more receptive to the Christian message than those from the industrialised countries.
“Nearing the end of my time in Belgium one of the priest/professors asked me where I would be going when I finished.
“I said I was thinking of going to Africa and he suggested I contact a former student who was now a bishop in Tanzania.
“I did and soon after I was working in the Kighare parish in his diocese as a catechist at a remote rural village.
‘I liked the place, the people and the work, but a number of times I found myself completely exhausted.
“I had to come home for several months in 1986, just to get my strength back.
“I had no physical illness; I was just worn out.”
“The area I covered was very large and I had to walk everywhere. They gave me a motor bike, but it functioned so erratically that I just walked instead.
“In the end it became too much and I began to think there might be another place I could work which would not be too taxing.
“A priest I met said a catechist training centre might just be the place for me, and he was prophetic because in 1988 I went to Kenya and was offered work at the training centre in Kitale, in west Kenya.
“Kitale has a population of about 100,000 people in a very fertile part of the country.
“It is on a plateau about 2000 metres above sea level. It is near the equator but the elevation keeps the climate very agreeable.
“My principal ministry there is teaching catechists,” he says. “Most of the time this is done through residential courses, although I also do workshops for catechists in parishes.”
He has also lectured in theology at major seminaries in Kenya.
A typical day sees Terry rise at 5.15am for private prayer before attending Mass with the other catechists.
Then he lectures in scripture, catechetics or theology for two to three hours.
After lunch and a siesta he usually meets ex-students to offer advice, lend books or help them in their catechetical work.
“About 20 per cent of the catechists are very gifted for the work,” he says.
“I make a special effort for the gifted ones because they have the qualities allowing them to relate to people, and are dedicated and zealous. I try to keep in touch with my students when they return to their villages.”
Life in Africa, however, is not without its dangers and difficulties.
“A few years ago the director of the catechetical centre was driving at night with a deacon and some nuns in his car,” Terry says.
“Some thugs had put a line of spikes on the road which of course flattened his tyres. The thugs tied them all up and took all their valuables - even their shoes --and then stole the car. That is one of the reasons I don’t travel by night.”
Corruption can also be a problem in Africa, at any level.
“In August 1992 some of the catechists visited sick people in the Kitale District Hospital,” he says.
“There was a man in his early 20s whose home had been raided by thugs and he was shot through the thigh.
“The result was a compound fracture with part of the bone sticking through the skin.
“Six months later it was discovered he was still at the hospital with the bone still protruding.
“It turned out his surgeon wanted to transfer him to a private hospital where he could charge for the operation, but the man’s relatives did not have enough money to pay.
“I was very angry when I was told this and rang some friends in the health care system to find a Church hospital that would treat him properly.
“We eventually found a hospital some hundreds of kilometres away and I drove him there, where he was treated for free, which gave me great satisfaction.
“He was very lucky he did not die from infection … as it was, some of the bone had to be cut away, which means he has one leg shorter than the other.”
Terry says corruption is a heavy burden for Kenya.
“It means a lack of jobs and puts the economy in a bad state,” he says. “The student catechists are in many ways the victims of this.
“They are struggling to educate their children and often can’t afford to send them to secondary school.
“They often delay seeking medical treatment until the last moment, because they can’t afford it.”
Terry has been receiving training in spiritual direction over the past two years and is able to “help some of the catechists and other people I come in contact with grow in prayer and their relationship with God”.
His contract at Kitale has just been renewed for another two years.
“I would be happy to make Ministry of the Word in East Africa my life’s work if my circumstances will permit,” Terry says.
“The openness and respons-iveness of many Africans to a religious message, and to my work, is very gratifying. “This sort of responsiveness cannot be experienced on any comparable scale in industrialised countries such as Australia.
“In Africa, I often derive great satisfaction from witnessing how some people are growing spiritually and in ministerial skills.”
Terry said that he would recommend missionary work to others, but only if they were suitably motivated and had the personal qualities which will enable them to adapt to a foreign culture, and give themselves generously in the service of others..
Terry is one of the many missionaries around the world who help Catholic Mission achieve the vision of ‘Life for All’ through their work in developing countries.
Donations to help achieve this goal can be made to Catholic Mission by calling freecall 1800 257 296 or visiting www.catholicmission.org.au