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Missionaries like Fr Shay are Ireland’s true heroes

irishmail070227Last week, every household in the land received an expensively produced 16-page booklet about how the government is helping the world’s poorest people. It was summary of the Government White Paper on aid for developing countries.

But in the booklet there is only one, grudging mention of the great work done over the years by Irish missionaries. I know it is not fashionable to praise clerics but let me tell you of the work of just one Irish missionary, Fr Shay Cullen, whom I have admired for years.

Fr Shay is one of the world’s leading campaigners against child-sex trafficking. Just this week, he began a campaign against another insidious form of exploitation – the purchase of human organs by the wealthy of the poor.

He has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize and has received numerous human rights accolades across the world.

Born in Glasthule in south Dublin, Fr Shay, 64 next month, became a missionary in 1969 and was assigned to the Philippines. He immediately decided his ministry should focus on challenging the horrific sexual exploitation of women and young children by international sex tourists and members of the US military based in the former American colony.

Reading Fr Shay’s writings, it is hard to believe the extent of the horror he discovered – swarms of hungry and abandoned street children, many on drugs, some sold as sex slaves. Others, as young as six, were imprisoned.
The Philippines became a haven for paedophile rings. Facing opposition not just from the vested interests but from other priests and the Filipino and US governments, Fr Shay took on the roles of campaigner, detective and politician as he tried to free the children from this sex slavery.

In 1982, he began a campaign to shut down US bases in the Philippines, the source of much of the sexual abuse of locals. Some 10 years later, he was successful.

In 1974, he set up PREDA – People’s Recovery Empowerment and Development Assistance. It is dedicated to defending children’s rights and is now one of the most respected NGOs in the world.

Many of us recall the work of another great Columban missionary, Fr Naill O’Brien, who died tragically three years ago. He was famously imprisoned on trumped up murder charges by the corrupt Marcos regime.

This weekend, as you read the Government’s document on Third World aid, remember with pride the work of missionaries like Fr Shay who will in time, I hope, receive a Nobel Peace prize for his work. End

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Preda Foundation Inc.

The work of Preda Foundation is focused on alleviating the physical, emotional, psychological and sexual abuse and suffering of children and preventing abuse through community education and social media.

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