Poverty of the soul

The word ‘missionary’ may have changed its meaning since those Victorian ‘pioneers in pith helmets’ but what’s so surprising to hear is that there are now more Christian missionaries than ever before. They no longer hack through the jungle to bring the Gospel to those who have not seen the light, carrying with them coffin-shaped suitcases in case they get murdered along the way or attacked by wild animals. Now they are more likely to be accompanied by a lorry-load of sewage pipes, or a batch of cheap computers, and their chief enemies are indifference and murderously hostile politicians.

So what makes Father Pat any different from an aid worker paid by a NGO? He became a missionary in 1959, when he went out to South America to work in one of the favelas of São Paolo. He soon realised that what the people there needed most was not religion but a boost to their self-esteem, which he could only help by first addressing their social problems. For five years he dug drains, installing a sewage system that got rid of the open sewers running through the shanty-town. A practical solution that not only took away the diseases which had plagued the people but also gave them a confidence that they could themselves make their lives better. Then, and only then, says Father Pat, could he reawaken the specific need that all people have for a spirituality that sustains their life.

‘I just wonder about that in Europe now,’ says Father Pat. Words that were echoed by Cyprian, from Nairobi, who in a reversal of our Victorian forebears travelled from Kenya to work as a missionary in a Manchester suburb. He believes the UK’s poverty is far greater and more difficult to cure than Kenya’s, because it’s of the soul rather than of material things. He was moved to begin his mission after a young boy of just 12 hanged himself on a stairwell outside the church he was visiting while evening service was going on inside.

Shocking and disturbing stuff for 3.30 in the morning, but also inspiring to hear the commitment of these updated missionaries, who travel with passion rather than money stitched into their inside pockets. (The producer was Kate Howells.)

On Radio Four on Monday, Winifred Robinson, talked to Jay, a 16-year-old living on the outskirts of Liverpool who already has a long scar on his right bicep and the possibility of a jail sentence for assault. In Gun and Knife Crime: Seeking Solutions she tried to work out what is going on with the young people on so many of our big urban council estates. ‘People make their own choices in life,’ grunts Jay. He needs to meet someone like Jade.