Death of a Peacemaker
November 2001
| On 28 August 2001 Columban missionary Fr. Rufus Halley was shot dead in Malabang, Mindanao, Philippines. The death took place during an attempted kidnapping. The Far East asked Fr. John Brannigan who also works in the Philippines to write about his life, death and legacy |
His name was Michael Halley but, because of his red hair, he was never known as anything other than Rufus.I entered St Columban's College, Navan two years ahead of Rufus but both of us were assigned to the Philippines, arriving there in 1969.He was marvellous with people and learned to speak Tagalog, the predominant language, like a native.Some 20 years ago, he volunteered to work on the southern island of Mindanao, which had seen many conflicts between Muslims and Christians and between Muslim separatists and the Philippines army. (The death toll is about 100,000).In order to build up good relations with the Muslims and to better understand their culture he lived with a Muslim family and learned one of their languages, Maranaw.He also learned Cebuano and later Arabic.He was appointed parish priest of Malabang in Lanao del Sur and was deeply involved in promoting Muslim-Christian dialogue.Catholic parishioners sometimes joked that he spent more time with the Muslims than with them.Last year, as the troops of now deposed President Estrada pounded the Muslims in Lanao Rufus took up the cause of the refugees, mainly Muslim, and refused to celebrate Masses for the military because of what they were doing.Estrada supporters attacked him bitterly in the Manila media.
On Tuesday 28
August, around teatime, I got news of his death.He had been shot dead as he
returned on his motorbike to his parish of Malabang from the neighbouring
parish of Balabagan.He was on his way to assist at the marriage of a poor
couple.On the outskirts of the town six armed men stopped him.Students of
the nearby elementary school had seen them lurking around earlier in the
day.Someone saw him talking to the men.It is not clear what happened at that
point.Some say Rufus appeared to make a run for it. He was felled by a
bullet and then shot four more times.
On the following
Friday I took the one-hour flight from Manila to Cagayan de Oro in Mindanao
to attend his funeral.At 3.00 pm we got to the church of Bulua in the city
suburbs.Hundreds were already waiting.At 4.00 pm the hearse, followed by 37
vehicles, arrived after the six-and-a-half hour trip from Malabang.The white
coffin was carried in and Fr Dick Pankratz led the prayers to a background
of uncontrolled weeping.
Afterwards the
mourners from Malabang told us what had happened in the days following the
shooting.Local Muslims had immediately taken his body to be cleaned and
Christians brought an embalmer from Cotobato City.All day Wednesday and
through the night a wake was held in the parish church of Our Lady of Peace
in Malabang.Although the Catholic community in the area is small a constant
stream of people arrived.The local Muslims, led by the mayor, laid aside for
the time being the laws of their own religion and thronged the Catholic
Church to mourn for Rufus.On Thursday the body was moved to the Catholic
High School - which has 70% Muslim students.There the coffin was shaded by a
large ceremonial umbrella with Muslim Maranaw motifs, used only at the
funeral of sultans.The community prayed the Koran around the coffin.
On Friday morning
a final Mass was celebrated in Malabang by the local Bishop Edwin de la
Peña. Cagayan de Oro, a city of over 700,000 people and with many Columban
links, was chosen as the place for burial.There could be no guarantee for
the safety of those who wanted to attend the funeral if it were held in
Malabang.As the cortege left Malabang the road was lined on either side for
a distance of three miles.Mourning people, mostly Muslims, intermingled with
members of the Catholic community holding lighted candles."it was a
heart-wrenching scene" Columban director in the Philippines Fr Colm
McKeating said afterwards.
On Saturday
morning the five brothers of Rufus arrived.Eight bishops were among the
concelebrants at the Mass, which was attended by some 3,000 people.The
language used was Cebuano, but out of consideration for the family, Bishop
Peña preached in English, a language also understood by many in the
congregation.A fruit of the work of Rufus, he said, was the presence of so
many Muslims at his funeral. Belfast man Fr Colm McKeating, referring to his
own experience, spoke forcefully of the need to continue the search for
reconciliation and peace.He spoke in Tagalog because he wished his message
to be heard especially by those who might be tempted to seek revenge for the
murder.
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(The affectionate name Filipinos used for Rufus was Popong) “Popong accomplished in death for all of us what we have tried to achieve with our own hand. God himselfdid it in that solemn offering of his life. Am I talking about something up in the air? No, I am talking about what happened in this sleepy town of Malabang for the past few days. I think you must have seen the TV pictures of people lignin up in the aisle just to be able to catch a final glimpse of the man they love. We are not talking about two communities here. We are talking about people who love Popong dearly. We are not talking about Muslims and Christians together sharing their grief and their anger, their hatred, their difficulty to forgive. Rufus, I am sure you would never want that. You would be the first to say “I forgive you” to your assasains. The fruit I am talking about is that the community of Christians and Muslims.” “Unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains just a grain of seed, but if it dies it bears much fruit.” Bishop Edwin de la Peña of Marawi, preaching at the funeral of Fr. Rufus Halley in Cagayan de Oro 1 September 2001 |
Gerry Halley, a
brother of Rufus, thanked the people on behalf of the family.The last
speaker was Bai Connie Balindong, a niece of the mayor of Malabang.A devout
Muslim she is a teacher in an integrated Christian/Muslim school, a project
dear to the heart of Rufus.The Muslims had a special name for him she said,
Alongan, meaning CEsun, because he radiated light to those who came in
contact with him.
The burial took
place under blazing sun in a cemetery several hundred metres away.The five
Halleys laid the coffin of their brother beside the four other Columbans
buried there.The last to leave the grave was the group of Muslim Maranaws,
devastated by his death and ashamed that outlaws of their own faith should
have murdered Rufus.
What legacy did
Rufus leave?As I sat waiting in Manila airport that Friday morning I came to
appreciate that much of it may be hidden.A young woman came up to me and
asked in Tagalog the exact time of the flight to Cagayan de Oro. ,,Are you a
priest?%. ,,Are you going to the funeral?%.Then the floodgates opened.Her
name was Beibing.As a young girl she was bright but had no money for
education.Rufus helped finance her high school and college education.Some
years ago she was caught in an ambush outside Balabagan, near where Rufus
died.Her father and brother were killed and she was left with serious leg
injuries.Again Rufus helped pay for hospitalization and rehabilitation.Now,
against the wishes of her boss, she had travelled six hours by road from her
new home in the north, in Pangasinan, and would now fly on to Cagayan de Oro
for the funeral.
As she limped on
board it was clear that, although the trip would cost an entire month's
salary, this was a very small price to pay for the opportunity to say
goodbye to her friend.
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Dear Rufus
I now regret more than ever not having written much to you since I came
to Ireland.
After you
visited me in Tullamore last June I hoped to send you a lovely letter
but my habit of connecting with close friends through thoughts and
prayers rather than by letters got the better me. But you know than my
silence was a silence that feels and remember.
As St Paul says in one of his letters “I thank my God each time I think
of you and when I pray for you I pray with joy”.
On your visits to us there was never a chat that did not include
your experiences of Marawi, Karomatan, Malabang and Balabagan.
You had stories of struggle and hope and there was a passionate
love of God that kept your fire alive.
I have always feared for your safety and although my payers were
always of gratitude when I thought of you I often asked God to protect
you. God did that for the last 20 years - until 28 August the feast of
St Augustine.
“You made us for yourself O Lord and our hearts cannot rest until they
rest in you.” You remember the retreats we used give for the Catholic
students in Mindanao State University (MSU)?
I used write those words of St Augustine for you on a long strip,
of paper and put it up on the chapel wall.
I was too young to understand the depth of the quote or to share
my insights with those students of MSU but I have always treasured that
experience.
You were my
first book of payer as a teenagr Prayer was your oxygen and you always
said that if it were not for it you would not be able to face the
challenges Christian/Mslim dialogue brings. But even before I could
understand what interreligious dialogue meant you, and the rest of those
who have tried to promote it, always struck we as being the very
incarnation of what it is.
Every time I think of Gospel people I think of you.
You were an inspiration to so many, a beacon of hope for dialogue
in Mindanao, a place so much in need of it.
You were always a model of courage for other missionaries, a
giver of faith and life, a faithful friend, a brother.
Like the blood that Christ shed on the cross, your blood will not go to
waste It will turn into water of life that will make peace triumph and
bring light into darkness.
I can see your gentle smile and hear you say “I’ve given it my best
shot.”” In choosing to shoot you they made the mistake of spilling your
ultimate gift to the land and to the people you chose to love and serve.
You now live there among them closer than ever you thought.
Now it will be my turn to visit you in St Augustine's Cemetery when I
return to my home in Cagayan de Oro next year. Although I will miss you
very much I will keep singing in my heart “I thank my God each time I
think of you and when I pray for you I pray with joy.
You are mission alive.
With love and payers. |
While Venus Guibone was a student of political science at Mindanao State university in the Philippines, on of the chaplains, Fr. Rufus Halley, had a profound influence on her life. at present she is a Columban lay missionary in Tullamore. She writes a note of farewell to her friend of many years.
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Michael Anthony (Rufus) Halley, was born in the parish of Ballybricken, Waterford in 1944. He received his primary education at Waterpark College, and Ring College, Dungarvan. On completing secondary education in Glenstal Abbey he joined the Columbans in 1962. He was ordained in 1969 and assigned to the Philippines. he died in Malabang, Mindanao on 28 August 2001 and was buried in Cagayan de Oro Philippines on 1 September 2001. |
