Missionary celebrates 60 years in the Philippines

A Clare missionary recently celebrated an important milestone in his ministry. Fr Donal O’Dea, a native of Quin, was ordained to the priesthood 60 years ago.
A member of the Columbian Missionary Order, Fr Donal has served in the Philippines since 1951 and for most of his life has worked with the tribal people of the remote province of Zambales in that country.
Fr Donal, whose brother Paddy and family live at Knocknagoug, Quin, returned to Ireland last summer to mark his 60th anniversary but officially celebrated the momentous occasion at his home in the Philippines on Wednesday, December 21.
Fr Donal Hogan of the Columban order in Ireland said he could not speak highly enough of his colleague.
He recalled his own time in the Philippines and visiting with Fr O’Dea on a number of occasions, including following some very grim natural disasters.
“I visited him on many occasions. He is a fantastic priest. The Philippines was his first station and so you could say he has been there 60 years. He comes home every three years. Having worked in parish work for a number of years, he went into specialised work with indigenous people in the mid-1990s. He is amazing and was one of the few foreigners engaged in that work. He would sit with them, listen to them, attend meetings and if they had rallies for their rights, he was in the middle of it,” he explained.
Writing for the Far East magazine some years back, Fr O’Dea explained how the Columban contribution to the tribal apostolate in Zambales began in 1951 and how it developed.
He joined the order there in 1951, when the largest concentration of tribal people, known as the Aetas, was living in the Botolan parish. 
“Joe Conneely took over the parish in the late 1950s and initiated a movement in the mountains of the Eastern Barrios through parish catechists. After a few years, Jude McGeough joined Joe as assistant and went to live in the mountains at Poonbato in 1967. He organised the building of the church and school, learned the local language and travelled through the whole area. As the population of the whole province grew, ever more lowlanders moved into Aeta territory, prompting the Aetas to withdraw further into the mountains. The church reached out to them with an initiative, with the parish priest, Paddy Duggan, inviting the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary to help develop the apostolate. These sisters put their mark on the church’s pastoral work with the Aeta people from the beginning and continue to do so,” he explained.
Together with the Aeta leaders, the apostolate worked towards securing justice for the Aeta people, helping to protect their ancestral land and preserve their cultural heritage.
“We decided to foster among the Christian majority a greater awareness and appreciation of the Aeta people in order to lessen the deep-seated prejudice against them. The sisters’ work was made particularly difficult during the martial law years (1972 to 1986), as they were suspected of being subversives.  They identified the people’s needs and hopes and worked with them to find adequate solutions. They also had to combat the prejudice of the majority, who generally referred to the Aetas with derogatory terms. It was slow work. Basic literacy programs suited to their culture and lifestyle were developed. Leadership training, health and nutrition, new agricultural methods, care for the environment, and protection for their ancestral lands were some of the topics they developed together. Many came to learn and imitate,” Fr O’Dea outlined.
Such was the ferment among the Aetas and other indigenous groups that it eventually led to the state recognising their rightful place in the nation through an Act of Congress.
The Aeta lived around Mount Pinatubo, which was a sacred mountain to them, but the mountain erupted in June 1991 and changed everything.
“The volcano dumped four cubic kilometres of volcanic sand (lahar) on the surrounding hills and valleys. The Aeta had to move. The Lakas, a group working with the sisters, managed to stay together and continue in a new location. Others were scattered and found it very difficult to cope with the new life. They had lost their land; their culture and customs were threatened; their future as a people with its own identity was in jeopardy; many were seen begging on the roads; they received a mere trickling of relief aid. A new journey began, a search for a new home,” Fr O’Dea explained.
In 1993, at the request of the local bishop to the Columban superior, Fr O’Dea was asked to work fulltime with the Aetas. 
“I began by finding out who was working with them and what were their short and long-term needs. I established that there were 14,000 Aetas in 22 areas. The large resettlement areas, those with 500 to 1,500 families, have schools, a clinic, doctors and centres for meetings and water distribution. However, even soon after the volcano’s destruction of their land, many Aetas were returning to their barrios to start again and the Sisters went with them.
“The Aeta people know from their own harrowing experience that life and growth have their pains and trials, hopes and disappointments, joys and sorrows. Three years ago, I resigned as diocesan coordinator of the apostolate to the Aeta people and the bishop appointed a Filipino priest. I am now over 80 years of age so am happy to continue in the role of advisor. The journey goes on, the challenges remain. There is much to be done here in the diocese of Iba and elsewhere,” he concluded.
Fr Donal Hogan recalls visiting Fr O’Dea in the aftermath of the Mount Pinatubo eruption.
“It was a world disaster, the amount of ash that went up left whole villages covered with ash. I remember visiting and in one area all you could see was the spire of the church and another area I visited with Fr Donal they had old Spanish structures and the ash had gone up so high that when you walked through what seemed to be the door you were walking into the second floor through a window.
“He left home in 1951 and stayed on mission and it is his love for the people and the empathy that he has with them. He has been adopted by the people and I can’t speak highly enough of him,” Fr Hogan concluded.
Sixty years on from his arrival to the Philippines, Fr O’Dea was among the last Columbans to serve in Parish Immaculate Conception, Barretto, Olongapo City. On May 20 it was turned over to the diocese and Fr Rodel San Juan was installed as pastor.
The community said farewell to the outgoing pastor, Fr Fintan Murtagh and his assistant, Fr O’Dea, on May 18, with a programme, and again on May 21 rejoiced with their new pastor, Fr Rodel. The occasion was graced by the bishop, local clergy, and religious, and large congregation of parishioners and friends.