Youghal-born priest Fr. John Keane
By Christy Parker | Photo: Michael Hussey (YoughalOnline.com)
Christy Parker talks to a Youghal priest now dedicated to helping Ecuador’s poor
Fr. John Keane with Carmel and Helen Brookes, Cllr. Barbara Murray, Breeda Phillips, Gillian McKechnie and his friends from Equador: Marcia Rojas, Maria Renee de Sanzetenca, Dorian Sanzeenea, Fritzy Sambrana and Karla Rojas
The earnest tones of Youghal-born priest Fr. John Keane will address Mass goers in his native town over the month’s final weekend. The former Dungourney curate is on a working vacation from his Ecuador mission and is seeking some urgent funding to assist his work amongst the “poorest of the poor.” He describes the region on Ecuador’s west coast as a place of “no wealth, no jobs, no land to cultivate; just a daily struggle to survive.”
Fr. John Keane with his friends from Equador: Marcia Rojas, Maria Renee de Sanzetenca, Dorian Sanzeenea, Fritzy Sambrana and Karla Rojas
Ecuador is not the first place to test the durability of Fr. Keane. The eldest of five children born to the late John and Norah of Emmet Place, he moved to Belfast soon after his ordination in 1982. The hunger strikes were in full flow. “I saw a lot of bigotry and hatred and the soldiers were often very hostile,” he recalls. He compromised his comfort by being friendly to all persuasions, but “there’s only one God”, as he asserts
As a hospital chaplain, he regularly administered to victims of bombings and shootings. “At 23, it was often difficult to deal all that,” he remembers. Two incidents remain sharp in his memory. “Once, a 30 year-old man had been shot several times in his home. I got there before the ambulance and it was very upsetting. Amazingly he survived.”
Fr. John Keane with Carmel and Helen Brookes
On another occasion another priest and he attended the cultural assertion of an Antrim County hurling final, where the attendance “sang rebel and religious songs, from Faith of Our Fathers to Kevin Barry. And they watched to see if you were singing along too!” Driving home in the dark, soldiers stopped them. “They gave us a gruelling interrogation. It was very frightening,” he says. For all the abounding bitterness, hostility -and off-key singing- he remembers “very warm, friendly communities on both sides.
His year in Belfast was followed by two years in Aghinagh, near Macroom and six as chaplain at Coachford Community College, where he would combine youth work with weekend retreats. “We’d have up to 70 young people attending youth masses. It was a lovely time,” he smiles.
Next came seven years at Ballindangan, a nearby region where he organised lengthy healing masses -candlelight occasions where the regular liturgy was interspersed with much singing and guitar playing. “I feel Jesus wants to heal now as much as in the Bible,” he explains. The physical and the psychologically troubled, Catholics and non-Catholics, agreed. His healing services continued through a Dungourney posting from 2000-2006. All were “beautiful years with fantastic people.”
Carmel Brookes presents Fr. John Keane monies from the fundraiser coffee morning with Marcia Rojas, Maria Renee de Sanzetenca, Dorian Sanzeenea, Fritzy Sambrana and Karla Rojas
Throughout his vocation, the priest was “involved with aid projects in Tanzania and Ethiopia. In 1991, he organised an aid convoy before spending three months helping displaced and destitute Kurdish refugees in Northern Iraq, following the 1991 Iran-Iraq war.
In 2006, his request to work in South America was acceded and last year he arrived in La Libertad with the St. James the Apostle Society. “It’s a vast area, where thousands of people live side by side in small, cane shacks,” he explains. “There is no work, no money and nowhere to grow crops. There is some electricity and basic schooling but cooking is done on sticks and sanitation and health services are almost non-existent for these beautiful, friendly people.”
On arriving at La Libertad he immediately abolished an ethos whereby non-Catholics were excluded from Catholic aid distribution. He proceeds, “Food and clothing are the greatest needs. We distribute bulk food fortnightly and about €2,000 feeds 2,000 people for that period. I’m also trying to organise school breakfasts and basic medicine supplies, as well as a nutrition programme for malnourished babies.”
He being their only parish priest, many of his huge congregation need the kindness of his Irish connections for hope. A recent coffee morning organised by Youghal’s Church of Ireland community was highly successful and various other community initiatives and donations have permeated his home visit. “Absolutely every cent goes directly to the poor,” he stresses. “There are no administration costs. People have been extremely generous. This is not John Keane’s project, it’s everyone’s.”
Meanwhile, he sees the religious/spiritual side of his vocation as complimenting his social strategy. Working alongside Evangelical orders, he believes “religion matters because in their poverty and pains, people need to find hope in Jesus. Faith is important if it’s given in a meaningful way. That’s what He wants. The Church should give these people inner peace and hope, not beaurocracy.”
A man of seemingly endless energy he again strives to do this with enterprise, vigour -and more guitars. “I don’t want to bore them, or talk over their heads or talk rubbish stuff. We have youth services on Saturday nights, which are great. I want church services to be alive and meaningful and life-giving, as well as relevant to their lives.” Conversely, he’d “feel a hypocrite if I was doing all that and then ignoring their poverty. I try to see Jesus in every person and treat them with the love and dignity which they are entitled to have as much as anyone else.”
Having learned Spanish prior to his Ecuador post, he favours another language. “Love and respect is a more important way to communicate,” he concludes. That’s the message he will be bringing to local congregations in the coming weeks. Meanwhile contributions can be through the Bank of Ireland to the Fr John Keane Poor of South America, A/C no. 53658949
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Hello,I’m just wondering if I could get a contact address or email address for Fr.John Keane.He was a Priest in our parish of Glanworth , Co.Cork and I would really like to get in contact with him again.I would be very grateful for your help ..Thank You..Joan Mortell Roche