Join Our Prayerful Community

Sign up to receive the Columban Daily Prayer, Weekly Prayer, Monthly Newsletter or other news and information from the Columban Fathers.

Mission News


Fr. Andrei Paz, a native of the Philippines, is currently on mission at Our Lady of Remedies parish in the Malate district in Manila, Philippines…

Fr. Martin Koroiciri, a native of Fiji, has been at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Iquique, Chile since November 2022. He is currently working to…

Fr. Rafael Ramirez, a native of Chile, is currently on mission in Myanmar (formerly Burma). He and the students of Palana Orphanage thank Columban…

Regina with her family
Regina, and her children with Fr. Cireneo Matulac after Mass

Family Finds Welcoming Community

I am always grateful when our Columban missionaries write to me and share their mission experiences. So when they do, I can share their stories of hope, salvation, and the promise of a brighter future with all of you who make the good work we do possible. Columban Fr. Cireneo Matulac, who was ordained in 2002, did just that and related the following story.

When I am at home, I often say Mass in our barrio chapel (kapilya) on Sundays. One Sunday, I noticed that there were some new faces in the community, and I thought to myself, “I have been away a long ...

Stories from Columban Missions


Painting of an open bible
A Little Less Than Angels

We are fortunate that in our lifetime we enjoy a quality of life which would have been unthinkable just a few generations ago. Thanks to advances…

Painting of the Earth
World Religion Day in Hong Kong

After presiding at the Japanese Catholic Community’s Sunday Eucharist February 5, 2023, I attended a celebration of World Religion Day hosted by…

Participants of intercultural course, Fr. Keelan and Fr. Frank Hoare
The Way the World Should Be

In 1986, St. Pope John Paul II pronounced Fiji ”the way the world should be” — a country with different ethnic and religious communities living…

Children playing at Warmi Huasi
Creating Hope

When things are not going well, like the situation of Peru in these present years, people can lose hope. During the pandemic, a lot of people lost…

The Missionary Sisters of St. Columban
Generous Giving and Going

Earlier this year the Columban Sisters looked back to February 1922 when a group of young women came together in Cahiracon in County Clare. These…

Priests attending the retreat in Tarawa
Praying with the Priests

From Jan 8 to 14, 2023, I had the privilege of leading the diocesan priest’s retreat in Tarawa, the chief island of Kiribati. It was a joyous…

Hard-working mother and children carrying sacks of bananas
Finding Space for GOD

“I found the Columban missionaries through the internet,” John Paul Seung-Jun Ro recalls. He was at a crossroads in his life. Working in an…

Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic church
It's in the Box

The seafront at Ramsey on the Isle of Man boasts some impressive structures, but pride of place must go to the Catholic church. Dating from 1910,…

Fr. Cireneo, Regina and her children
Regina

When I am at home, I say Mass in our barrio chapel (kapilya) on Sundays.

From the Director

Fr. Chris Saenz, U.S. Director
Fr. Chris Saenz

Interfaith Dialogue

My first contact with people who professed a non-Christian faith was on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. I had done a summer experience and encountered those who still practiced the traditional ways of the Lakota Sioux people. The most vivid memory was participating in a Sun Dance ceremony. The purpose of the Sun Dance ceremony was to reunite and reconnect with the earth and spirits. It calls for a renewal of life and a prayer for life. In the ceremony I attended, there came a moment of great prayer and the raising of the tree. However, the community misjudged the raising of…