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‘I knew I was in the hands of the Lord’
A CONVERSATION with FR KEN BARKER, moderator, Missionaries of God’s Love
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| By BRIAN DAVIES
25 May, 2008 |
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| ‘SURPRISED’: ‘My goodness,’ thought Fr Ken Barker, ‘I’m meant to be a priest.’ |
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Q. Tell me about the Missionaries of God’s Love – MGL, how did that begin?
No one could have possibly expected the surprising gift of charismatic renewal which burst into Catholic life immediately after Vatican II. Different ecclesial movements and new communities sprang up all over the world ushering in a ‘springtime’ of renewal. I was travelling in the United States at the time – with Fr Julian Porteous, not yet a bishop – and we visited some of those communities. What impacted on me were the fruits of renewal being lived out in the lives of the members, the charisms, the commitment, the faith of the people, single, married or consecrated ... I listened to a priest giving testimony about how his life had changed and thought – my goodness, this is the way I should be involved. So back in Canberra where I was an assistant priest at the cathedral and diocesan youth minister, I decided to join the Disciples of Jesus Covenant, a charismatic community, but I had a sense of wanting a stable base for young people to hook into. Anyway, again totally unexpected, three young men from the community independently came to me in 1985 and said they wanted to become priests. So I said we should pray about it, which we did for nearly a year. Eventually I went to the bishop (Archbishop Francis Carroll ) and said I think something is happening; would he give us permission to go into a house in the suburbs as a community and rely on the
providence of God to see how it goes. And after consultation he agreed.
Q. And now – 20 years later?
We have 13 ordained priests, two deacons who’ll be ordained this year, 12 young men in the seminary in Melbourne and 15 in formation here in Canberra, in the pre-novitiate and novitiate.
Q. That’s surely an extraordinary result. So by now you’re your own congregation?
No, not yet; the archbishop oversees us and we’re grateful he’s so supportive. We meet regularly, but we’re not yet a congregation ... though close to it. We have to have 40 members and half of those in final vows and have been for seven years, so at the moment we’re a public association of Christ’s faithful, which means we’ve been elected by the bishop with a view to becoming a religious congregation.
Q. And you’ve also had a number of renewals, Pentecostal and personal, yourself?
In 1983 I went to a retreat at the Marists at Hunters Hill given by a Redemptorist charismatic, Fr Tom Forrest. It was the young people who’d urged me to go; and that retreat had such an impact on me. The need for order was an issue – that is I came to recognise I couldn’t bring any order into my own life. How then could I bring it into my ministry? So there at the retreat I knelt while the others prayed over me. I thought I might explode or something. Instead a quiet peace descended over me; I knew I was in the hands of the Lord for him to move me as he wished. Another time, just after we’d moved into the house in Canberra, Sr Briege McKenna and Fr Kevin Scallon came to see us; again I got them to pray over us; one thing they said was the need for us to have a name – we were just calling ourselves the ‘fraternity’. They suggested we pray to the Virgin Mary for a name and later when I was praying at the Redemptorist monastery at Galong, the name came to me: it was about God’s love and about bringing the love of God to those who didn’t yet know about it. So that was it – Missionaries of God’s Love, MGL.
Q. And later again, at Assisi, the year 2000?
Yes, that set me on the path to the Young Men of God movement. I was in Assisi enroute to WYD 2000 and praying at the Portiuncula (the small church about four kilometres from Assisi where the Franciscan movement began) when I had this profound sense of the Lord wanting to work in a new way with young men; and in Australia, because in this country there’s a crisis in the hearts of young men for lack of faith and moral leadership and an absence from lay leadership in the Church and, sadly symbolic of their malaise is their suicide rate – the highest pro rata in the world. So what could one do? Often it’s a case when things are at their very lowest point and at their most difficult territory for evangelisation, that’s where the spirit will be and when you think about it in terms of demographics – the most difficult demographic in the Australian church to evangelise would have to be young men.
Q. So where is that now?
This is a time when God is pouring out his grace for young men because the current situation seems so dismal. Here in Canberra we usually have about 40 or so turn up for our meetings and other, smaller groups active in Sydney and Melbourne. The crisis of troubled young men in our culture is the very opening for God to work in surprising new ways. Their brokenness attracts His mercy. His hidden grace is moving. Young Men Rise Up is a cry for them to do that: to become men of faith, with moral integrity and hope-filled visionaries as leaders for the future. Missionaries of God’s Love is for men and women wanting to
commit themselves to consecrated lives – as priests, brothers or sisters. The Young Men of God movement is for young laymen to reach full-Christian manhood or, as Archbishop Hickey of Perth said, “for those who are reaching maturity in a society confused about its values so as to set them right”.
Q. What about your own childhood and adolescence – how do they compare?
I was born in Harden-Murrumburrah in 1948, sort of in the middle of two brothers and two sisters. Dad was
non-practising Methodist. Mum was a Catholic and encouraged us all to go to Mass. Anyway, we moved to Rye Park, between Boorowa and Yass, and Dad managed the general store there. We lived out the back, so I guess we were fairly poor ... a poor but happy family. Nonetheless, I went to the Christian Brothers, St Pat’s College, Goulburn, as a boarder and in 1965 we were the last year in NSW to sit for the old Leaving Certificate. I won a Commonwealth scholarship to Sydney Uni in the faculty of Science.
Q. And there you had another spiritual experience?
I’d finished second year and was due to return to uni. I was sitting in a park in Ashfield and just finished reading The Keys of the Kingdom, a novel by AJ Cronin about a priest in China. I was surprised and deeply moved by the book. For the first time in my life I thought: ‘My goodness, I’m meant to be a priest.’ So I went straight down to the local church at Ashfield, St Vincent’s, and prayed before a statue of Our Lady. Well, I shouldn’t say pray, I guess. I just sat there before the statue, waiting, somehow expecting something, some knowledge to come into my heart. I lit all the candles – lit it up like a Christmas tree and sat there. By the time the candles burnt down I knew that that was what I was going to do.
Q. Not go back to university?
Yes. I gave up my Commonwealth scholarship. I hitchhiked down to Canberra and presented myself to a priest there who then took me see the bishop – all in the same day. And I was in the seminary at Springwood within the week.
Q. What did your parents think?
I went back home after I’d seen the bishop and I thought I’d better tackle Dad first, Dad not being a Catholic. He was outside sitting under the stars when I told him; astonished, he let out an expletive. I thought I’d better let him settle down and went and told Mum; she cried her eyes out, happy ... then Dad came in and, even though he was a Methodist, he said to me, ‘Son, if you’re going to be priest, you’d better be a bloody good one, like Monsignor O’Connor,’ our PP at Harden-Murrumburrah.
Q. When were you ordained?
In 1974, for the Canberra and Goulburn archdiocese, went to Cootamundra as assistant priest for two years and was then sent to the Catholic University of America in Washington for two years to study for a master’s degree, upgraded, however, when they said I could sit for a PhD in Religious Education. It was during that time I was able to travel in the US, experiencing the charismatic renewal of Catholic life there that came after the council, visiting new movements and communities, marvelling at the renewal being lived out in the lives of the members, with the dawning in my understanding that this might be the way I should be involved. So I came home in 1980 and fell into the beginning of a youth ministry in Canberra, something I led, shared, with very vibrant young people – the very ones who convinced me to go to the retreat at Hunters Hill at which I met Fr Tom Forrest and where the others prayed over me and I knew I was in the hands of the Lord to move me as he wished.
Q. Dare I say you’re an agent for change?
My understanding is that the Spirit is moving in a new way to revitalise consecrated life; while moving also to stir up the lay vocations, but that’s not in any way detrimental to the consecrated life. I think the Spirit’s doing both. I’m speaking from my experience in both fields and of the new Pentecost. When things seem bleakest that’s the time the spirit moves in new ways. It’s always happened this way through the history of the Church.
A Radical Way of Love and Young Men Rise Up are available from Mustard Seed Bookshop, Lidcombe – tel 9643 3670 or email bookshop@ caec.com.au – or Connor Court Publishing at
www.connorcourt.com
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