VIRIDITAS: SOUL GREENING
Father Clyde Phillips, Maryknoll Fathers
Privilege and sadness: life of a missionary
Interviewed by Sister Malia Dominica Wong, OP
Hawaii Catholic Herald
I remember when Maryknoll Father John Joyce used to give us our report cards when I was in grade school at St. Joseph School in Hilo. He always gave them to us with a smile and a nice little advice that, if we didn’t do well, we can do well. He was our pastor then. Each year in high school we also had a Maryknoll priest for religion class. Their explanation of the Word and mission filled me for my life’s direction.
When Father John talked about his mission in China, I really paid attention. In 1996, when I was in Hong Kong for chapter meetings, I had the opportunity to go to Sanchung Island where he worked among leprosy patients as a young missionary. That brought me really close to him and his experiences.
I had the privilege and the sadness of closing the Hawaiian mission of the Maryknoll Fathers in Hawaii in 2007. We had a Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Makiki with Bishop Larry Silva presiding; I gave the homily. We, the Maryknoll missionaries, had come to Hawaii in 1927. Eighty years after, we were leaving the islands. It was my sadness because I always wanted to join the Maryknoll missionaries and here I was a Maryknoll priest, but the sole one who was delegated to close the mission because there were no other Maryknoll priests to send.
I continue to be enthused by mission. My whole life has been surrounded by mission. Wherever we go, I believe that we can grow where we are planted. As I placed on my ordination remembrance card, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5)
Maryknoll Bishop James Edward Walsh also wrote: “Go to a place where you are needed but not wanted, and leave when you are wanted but not needed.”
I practiced that in 1966 when the bishop of the Philippines wanted me to stay there for three more years. I was already there eight years. I said to the bishop, “It would be wonderful to stay. But it would be for me, not the people. So, I feel it is better to turn it over to the diocesan priests now, as the way had been paved by the Jesuits, priests from Quebec, and those from Maryknoll.” To the sadness of the people I said goodbye, but the church had been built and it was time to turn it over.
Next year I will be retiring and coming home. My mom just made 89; it is time to come home. But mission is on the horizon for my next assignment.
Maryknoll Father Clyde Phillips was born and raised in Papaikou on the Big Island. He entered the novitiate of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers (Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America) in 1972 and was ordained in 1978. He worked in the Philippine mission for 22 years. He currently serves in Rome as the procurator general for the Maryknoll Missioners.
