Sheen’s priest role hope

By Julian Brouwer
(Sunday Mirror, October 29, 2006)

Hollywood star Martin Sheen has said he would love to play campaigning Irish priest Fr Shay Cullen in a movie of the missionary’s life.

Sheen has had firsthand experience of Fr. Shay Cullen’s fight against child poverty and prostitution in the Philippines and is a great admirer of the cleric.

Amid talk of a movie based on Fr Cullen’s powerful autobiography, Sheen said: “Fr. Shay Cullen truly is a hero. I would be honoured to portray him in a movie.

“Thank God for Fr. Shay. He is a very powerful inspiration and has saved the lives of thousands of these poor children, and he’s helped jail some of the world’s most evil paedophiles.”

The two men have become friends since meeting at the notorious Payatas rubbish dump in 1979 when the actor went to the Philippines to film Apocalypse Now.

Sheen, star of the US hit drama The West Wing said: “I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw what was happening to those poor kids-children treated like contraband, sexually abused and simply thrown away.

“Fr. Shay took me to witness the plight of 5,000 families surviving on a garbage dump. It was totally unimaginable.

“This was one of the most desperate situations in the world. I couldn’t understand why more was not being done to highlight it. There is no one more deserving of a Nobel prize than Fr. Shay. I can personally vouch for that.”

Dublin-born Fr Cullen has lived in the Philippines since 1969. End.