Following the right path, across the world

Considering that he has spent much of his life teaching philosophy to students in various parts of Asia it's hardly surprising that a sizeable part a conversation with Fr Alo Connaughton on his life and career should be taken up discussing weighty matter such as the meaning of life itself.

Yet it's wasn't all heavy stuff like that either. There were the lighter moments too. He doesn't see himself as an all-seeing, all-knowing philosopher or guru but he undoubtedly has amassed a vast array of knowledge and experience in his 76 years.

"I suppose it helps to have gray hair it might suggest that I have all the wisdom of the world but I'm afraid that's not the case," he says with characteristic modesty before breaking into a smile that is evident even behind the anti-Covid mask he wears throughout our conversation.

Fr Alo was back in his native Ballinacree for the festive season. He was due to go to fly to Myanmar this week but the ongoing pandemic has put paid to that, ensuring he will be around Meath for another while at least.

Ballinacree is where he grew up and it's there he meets up with the Meath Chronicle for a chat about his life and times. We meet - with masks and social distancing strictly enforced - outside the local Community Centre. It was just before the latest lockdown kicked in - and the world closed in on itself again.

Rural, picturesque Ballinacree, bordered as it is by hills and woods, is a place Fr Alo knows very well. The Community Centre is based just across the road where he resides and it was built in the same plot of land where the local school was once based. The same same school he attended as a youngster. Now here he is back home once again; back to where it all started - for the moment at least.

While he might at an age when many people are already deep into retirement, Fr Connaughton does not give the slightest indication he is ready to call it a day. You suspect, in fact, that as soon as circumstances allow he will be jetting off to someplace like Yangon (Rangoon) or Beijing; two cities he has more than a passing acquaintance with.

Fr Connaughton marked 51 years as a priest in December with 37 of those spent abroad; large chunks of it in Chile and Myanmar and more recently in Bangkok and Beijing.

While he has nothing but praise for the Irish clergy, he is perturbed by the way young people in his native land (and in Europe) have turned away from the church. He contrasts that sharply with how many young people, in places like China (yes Communist, supposedly God-less China) look to Christianity to find some meaning.

"They've had 70 years of absolute materialism and a lot of them are beginning to ask; Is there anything else in life? I think there is a pathway to follow. I think that is the life of Jesus, his teaching, I think the Church has gone down all sorts of sideroads, but the basic message of the Gospel is there, the message that He has come to bring good news, to open the eyes of the blind, to set captors free, to bring good news."

Fr Alo says he has had his own struggles with his faith over the years. "My faith is a struggle for me as much as it is for anyone else, I've had my ups and downs. I have found myself walking in the dark as well," he admits.

However his questioning, brings him back to the kind of philosophy that has sustained him; kept him working as a priest for all those years now - his belief that there is, indeed, a God who can show us the righteous path; a better way; a source of great hope in the darkest hour.

BALLINACREE

When he is asked about why he choose a life devoted to helping others, Fr Alo refers back to the days of his youth and growing up in Ballinacree, the fifth in a family of eight. He refers also to his parents and how they, and what they did for the local community, became a major influence in his life.

Both his parents were teachers and worked in Ballinacree but the way Fr Alo remembers it they did much more besides. "My parents were teachers but they were always involved in the community, they would always be helping out families. They were very aware that that children would not be humiliated by having to wear poorer clothes for say First Communion or Confirmation.

"Many times I saw them buy clothes for children who were taking part in those celebrations, they were like a one-family St Vincent de Paul before St Vincent de Paul started. I grew up with that idea. That the natural thing was to help other people, but the community around Ballinacree, generally, was like that. There's a great spirit of community around here, a spirit of solidarity. I grew up in that and it has continued like that down the years.

"The biggest influence om my own life wasn't the doctrines or teachings or books, it was all started here in Ballinacree when I saw the goodness in the life of so many people."

When the time came to pick a career young Alo opted to join the Dalgan Park-based Columbans, joining the programme for new recruits in September 1962. He was, not surprisingly for a young man, full of ideals.

"I wanted to become a missionary priest for all kinds of mixed reasons but the 1960s was a time of a lot of idealism, a lot of young people back then would say they were idealistic and wanted to do something for other people and going into a seminary was part of that wave of idealism."

He wasn't the only member of his family to opt for the priesthood - his brothers Sean (a Columban who spent many years in the Philippines) and Finian (now the parish priest in Drumconrath) also took the same route.

In one of his first postings Fr Alo was sent to Chile in 1974 - and it was there some of that early, youthful idealism was severley dented. General Pinochet took over as President after a military coup and unleased a reign of terror, torture and severe repression. It was a challenging time of great uncertainty for the Chilean-based Columbans.

"I was never arrested but as I was the director of the Columbans, it meant innumerable visits to police stations looking for people who had been arrested, people we couldn't trace," he recalled. "About half of the 40 Columbans who were there at the time were detained at some stage, briefly in most cases, they were protesting against the torture of people and asking questions about the people who disappeared.

"You lived in a lot of tension a lot of the time because there wasn't a month that passed that I didn't have to go to a police station looking for someone, trying to get someone released. I never felt in any personal danger but three or our group were expelled. There was a lot of courage demanded from people, I wouldn't include myself in that, but the people who were at the head of the church showed great courage.

In 1993 Fr Connaughton returned to Ireland and worked as the editor of the Far East magazine for 10 years. It was a lot less stressful than trying to grapple with an oppressive regime. One of his more pleasant tasks was saying Mass for Sean Boylan the Meath football team who trained in Dalgan.

Having already studied philosophy in UCD in the 1960s he went back to brush up on the subject before embarking on what he calls the "third phase" of his life - the Asian phase. It has included spells in Myanmar, Bangkok and Beijing where he has thought philosophy to college students.

For a time he was prevented from entering Myanmar. "I went there in 2004 but in 2007 I was put on the black list and couldn't go back. I think my bad luck was that I was living in a town where there was a huge military installation, the same town where the collage was I was teaching in. I suspect they didn't want me around that area but I was in good company, there was 5,000 people on the banned list, including journalists."

For the past 11 years Fr Alo has divided his time between teaching philosophy in Bangkok and Beijing but now he has cut back on that schedule too. Now he just focuses on his work in Beijing.

No longer banned from entering Myanmar, Fr Alo had planned to go back there to teach a term in the national seminary but because of Covid-19 that is no longer an option. Instead this gentle, affable priest-philosopher is required to stay in rural, picturesque Ballinacree - for the forseeable future at least.

FR ALO CONNAUGHTON ON...

THE SUPPORT HE RECEIVES FROM THE COMMUNITY IN BALLINACREE

"I always get a great welcome here. I grew up here, played football with the local club, took part in all sorts of community activity - but that friendship has continued despite the fact that I have been away all those years. I never fund-raise here but in spite of that every year I've been in Asia I have been able to channel up to €20,000 a year to different groups and causes such as surgery for poor children of Myanmar, rural schools, miserably poor rural schools, clinics, to the people or Bangkok who are working for rehabilitation of sex workers, a fair percentage of that money comes from people in Ballinacree. They just come to the door and hand me an envelope.

HIS REASONS WHY HE REMAINED A PRIEST

"As the years passed I began to see different reasons for continuing as a priest. It wasn't always a happy life but there was plenty of tensions at times when I would ask myself why in God's name did I ever get involved in this. I think of those years in Chile, those years of stress or whatever but the thread that runs through it all is that it was something that gives meaning to my life. The realisation that there is a God and some kind of sense that God has called me to do what I'm doing. That has remained all through the years, whatever about the temptations of doing something else. Theoretically I could have been happier in another life but for me this was the decision and I have kind of updated my thinking and reflection as the years went on."

HIS YEARS SPENT ABROAD

"In Chile I was part of a Church that who were working for the people who had very little hope in life. At the time they had very limited horizons but we sought to give them hope by helping to bring them together in communities. They did fine a meaning in life in the Gospel and the central message of our faith and I think that was a very useful thing. When people are in a very bad situation faith and hope is generated in communities where people support each other. I think you have some sense of God's presence when you do that."

THE IRISH CHURCH AND HOW IT HAS BEEN UNDERMINED

"The scandals have undermined the Church but at the same as trying to make up for them we shouldn't just focus on the scandals. I always feel sorry for nuns in the diocese of Meath for example. They have made an extraordinary contribution over the last 150 years in education, care of the aged, house visitations, all those ways. Now you see them referred to almost totally in the media in a negative light but 95 pen cent of nuns have done terrific work but got almost no recognition for it."

"I have spent too long out of Ireland to be able to offer anything more than a guess. While there are well-known local reasons for decline it is also important to diagnose the situation within the context of what is happening nearly all across Europe. The extraordinary revolution in communication and is influence, the multiplication of competing value systems and the general acceptance that ethical issues are decided by majority vote are examples of the changes. One thing that is hlpful in the countries where I work, and something I think could b helpful in Ireland, is the big effort put into the ongoing religious education of adults. A friend of mine in Bangkok, a Bible expert, presently has 450 people taking part in his weekly online course."