Fr. Gerald Curry, S.F.M.

Guest Editorial

Than to lay down one's life

By Fr. Gerald Curry, S.F.M.
January/February 2008

Return to Table of Contents
Print Article

On Friday, October 19, 2007, when Fr. Lou Quinn died, Scarboro Missions lost one of its great missionaries and I lost a friend. The first time I met Lou was in 1969. I immediately felt close to him and to his way of being a missionary. Our paths did not cross often but when they did it was always a pleasure for me as well as a privilege.

For a period of time in the 1990s I was able to help Lou with some of the many projects he and the people of San José de Ocoa were involved in. Lou received financial help from many sources and I was able to help him access funds from the Canadian International Development Agency to make some of the projects become a reality.

Being with Lou meant being with the people, accompanying them in the planning of the projects right through to completion. The projects included the building of homes and schools, water reservoirs and wells, and irrigation canals to carry water to farmers' fields. Many kilometres of roads were cut through the mountains and hundreds of thousands of trees replanted on the denuded mountains of Ocoa to prevent soil erosion and landslides.

Lou would often set off in his truck loaded down with bags of cement and a mixer destined to help reconstruct homes destroyed by the powerful hurricanes that plague the Dominican Republic. Work boots, well worn pants and T-shirt, and an equally worn pair of work gloves were his typical attire as he laboured alongside Dominican men and women.

Many of my experiences of Lou are worth retelling. Early one morning I sat next to him as he navigated his truck across a river that only a few weeks before was a raging torrent, washing away the homes of the poor who lived along its banks. Plans had been made to rebuild the homes and Lou's truck was soon emptied of building materials and the task of building began. I stood in a small fenced-in kitchen area where two small children with distended bellies were picking individual grains of rice from a large blackened pot. Lou's words to me belied his anger and frustration at the silent suffering we witnessed.

On another occasion we left Ocoa as usual when the sun was just rising and made our way to the capital. Soon after our arrival at the Scarboro Missions centralhouse there, Lou dashed upstairs only to reappear dressed to the nines. He was on his way to see the Dominican president to ask his help with some large projects in Lou's parish in Ocoa.

These were Lou's people and he would implore presidents and deliver potatoes for them.

A few hours later he returned and changed into more casual wear. He invited me to go with him to visit a parishioner from Ocoa who was ill and staying with one of her daughters in Santo Domingo. The day was hot and humid. Traffic was congested and you could almost taste the air pollution. As we left the truck to enter a narrow alley, Lou threw a large bag of potatoes over his shoulder. They were sent by the family back in Ocoa. These were Lou's people and he would implore presidents and deliver potatoes for them.

As a boy, Lou had been a student at St. Michael's Choir School in Toronto. He loved to sing. I remember being serenaded outside my window in the midnight hours by Lou and his parish "troubadours." This was a special treat for overnight visitors to the rectory. It was Lou's way of saying thanks for the friendship and help given to the people of Ocoa.

Sunday Mass at the town's Church of Altagracia was always a celebration. The choir and Lou were joined by a large congregation. Lou always wove the words of the Gospel into the daily lives of the people.

Today, Scarboro missioner Fr. Joe McGuckin continues to labour in the Dominican Republic, standing with the people and supporting their efforts to improve their lives. Joe and Lou are among the many whose lives lived are a testimony for all of us. There is no greater love than to lay down one's life...

Fr. Gerald Curry, now retired, is a former editor of Scarboro Missions.

Return to Table of Contents
Print Article