Missionary Jubilee

"In your 50^th year, you are suppose to do four things," says Father Enright as he reflects on his Golden Jubilee. "You don’t work, you take a vacation, pay debts, and count your blessings … I’m doing just that."

" I became involved in peace and justice indirectly," declares Father Enright. "At the time I was in a situation of great abundance…I was in an overcrowded place,"

  "listening is the key to missionary work. We’ll never be teachers until we become listeners. "

"If there is any place where we can learn about peace it ought to be in the church,"

Father Enright sees missions as "the new hope of the church."

by Mystique Adams - CCHD summer intern

While he enjoys working for peace and justice, he admits that it was never a planned path for him. " I became involved in peace and justice indirectly," declares Father Enright. "At the time I was in a situation of great abundance…I was in an overcrowded place," so when he heard Pope John XXIII call on the church to send help to Latin America, he started to think about volunteering. And in 1964, he did just that, volunteering in Panama for a 12-year duration.

"Panama lived in violence," says Father Enright. "One morning we woke up with the barrel of a tank in our face." The social violence he experienced there was a total shock; another shock was discovering what the people of Panama thought about God. "Society was unstable," said Father Enright, "they had a very different view of God." To them God was "an unjust God." Who else would place them in the horrible position so many of them were in? To the Panamanians only an "unjust" God would leave them in poverty and pain and then forget about them.

Here Father Enright faced a complex situation. How do you preach the gospel to a people who have such a strong animosity for God? The answer, while it seems simple, was one of the biggest challenges Father Enright ever faced. "You just had to shut up and listen!" He believes "listening is the key to missionary work. We’ll never be teachers until we become listeners. "

When Father Enright started to listen to the Panamanians, he began to understand why they felt the way they did about God. Then, and only then was he able to reach the people and educate them about the God he knew existed, the God who had love for all, especially the poor and disadvantaged. Once they began to know the "loving Father," they were "willing to commit themselves," both to God and each other says Father Enright. The people began to minister to each other and soon the lay people of Panama had the ability to lead, in both the community and in their own faith.

In 1976, Father Enright returned home to the Epiphany parish of Chicago. Away from the social violence of Panama, he now faced a different type of violence.

One Sunday afternoon, after a baseball game at a local park, a street gang entered the park firing bullets into the crowds of people still gathered, the result of the senseless act of violence was three dead and five injured. One of the gunmen was a graduate of Father Enright’s Epiphany Parish Grade School. Horrified and shaken by the news, Father Enright knew "if this is what kids are learning, then we’re doing it all wrong."

He, the teachers and staff decided there needed to be a change; someone needed to initiate peace in the community. Inspired by Ethel Payne, a Washington correspondent for the Chicago Defender who said, "If there is any place where we can learn about peace it ought to be in the church," Father Enright started the "Peace Book." Within his own parish, he encouraged people to make a commitment to peace by signing the book, therefore binding them to the cause of spreading and practicing peace. The campaign was not exclusive to the church; a revised curriculum was instituted into the school, one in which children were taught how to solve problems in peaceful manners. The children participated in a yearly peace project and the school’s prayer program was started.

Father Enright realized "it just wasn’t teaching kids, it was listening to them as well," and when they listened, they discovered many of the children were leaving school at 2:30 p.m. and going back to an empty house. Concerned with this issue and how it may contribute to the problems in the community, he and parish staff worked to extend school hours and to create a number of positive after school activities for the students. With a new commitment to peace, the children decided to rename the school, and in 1985, it was named the "Epiphany Peace Primary." The Epiphany parish now has an exhibit in the Peace Museum located in Chicago, Illinois. Father Enright admits, " it’s incredible meeting the kids and finding out what they’re doing… it’s overwhelming."

Currently working with the Joliet Missions, Father Enright sees missions as "the new hope of the church." He feels the shift from the days of only priests and nuns attending missions has changed for the better. Today, says Father Enright "the lay people are going, families are getting involved … there is no finer way." He feels "a mission is one of the most purifying experiences you can find."

The veteran missionary advices others working for peace and justice to think about, "what you’ve heard from the victims," because "if you haven’t listened, you’ll never really connect."