Changing realities of mission
by Patrick Duffy
The Xaverian Missionaries have been present in Britain for over 75 years.
The story began at the end of the Second World War amid the changing realities of the post war world. In China, the long march led by Mao-Tse-Tung (1947), meant Christian missionaries were subjected to arrest, trial, prison, torture and ultimately expulsion. The last Xaverian expelled from China was Bishop Bassi in 1954.
The Xaverians had been founded in Italy in 1895 by Fr Guido Conforti, to complete the journey of St Francis Xavier to China in the sixteenth century. He died as he attempted to enter the country. The first Xaverians left Italy for China in 1899.
The changing realities of our mission in China offered scope to grow in new ways. The arrival of the Xaverians in Britain came about through a chance meeting in 1945 when Fr. Luigi Ferrari met a British Lieutenant Colonel on a boat from Tunis to Naples. There is no record of their conversation, but it was to open new avenues for the Xaverian world. It led to contact with Archbishop Grant of Glasgow, where there was a large Italian diaspora. Archbishop Grant wrote to Fr Luigi:
‘Come to Glasgow… there you will find a number of Italians who will certainly help you. Do not forget that Scottish Catholics are famous worldwide for their generosity and enthusiasm’.
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Fr Patrick Duffy sx is Regional Superior of the Xaverians.
Photo: The first Xaverians who studied English in Scotland receive their mission cross before leaving for Sierra Leone.