THE recent news of an Australian missionary nun who was almost deported for joining "political activities" had to do with her recent visit to Davao.
The missionary nun, Sr. Patricia Fox of the Notre Dame of Sion, who has stayed in the Philippines for 27 years, was here two weeks ago as a delegate to an international fact-finding and solidarity mission. She visited farmers detained in Tagum City Jail for their activism, and later met agrarian reform beneficiaries.
For that, immigration intelligence last Monday scooped her from her house in Quezon City, detained her for over 24 hours while checking her papers, and threatened her of deportation for being an "undesirable alien".
But church workers and farmer activists rallied for her release. The Vatican and Australian embassy interceded. Immigration officials released the nun for lack of grounds on their charge.
The presidential spokesperson admitted what happened was a “mistake.” The President though, admitted to have ordered the whole thing, claiming the nun's snooping and yakking on human rights is a no-no for a foreigner. We do know that the President doesn't look eye-to-eye on foreigners showing concern about human rights.
This scenario raises a question, should we call Sr. Pat or any other missionary or advocate for people's rights an "undesirable alien?"
Espousing for human rights is something "universal." When we share videos online of the plight of Syrian or Rohingyan refugees, change our Facebook profiles in sympathy of victims of mass shootings in the US, is it right to call these actions undesirable?
It is a sense of solidarity. So why blame missionaries who put these solidarity into action?
Sr. Pat said she never sees her work as something political, but rather a part of her missionary work. "Often, groups working for justice, are labeled Left. But to me it's just basic human social justice issue. It's very consistent with the teaching of the church," she said in a TV interview.
Sr. Pat is not the first foreign missionary to live this ministry. In the Martial Law years, there was the robust and bearded Italian priest Fr. Elegio Bianchi, who got jailed for siding with farmworkers in Surigao del Sur. There was also martyr Fr. Tulio Favali, PIME, who was killed by the paramilitary Ilaga in Tulunan in 1985.
There was Fr. “Pops” Fausto Tentorio, another Italian PIME priest who humbly talked the language of Ilonggo farmers and trekked the Arakan mountains to serve Lumads and farmers for 28 years before his life was snuffed by an assassin.
His colleague, Fr. Peter Geremia, is still much alive and serving the poor in Arakan and other nearby provinces at the age of 79. He has recently been awarded for Saint Teresa of Calcutta Award for his five decades of ministry.
We talk about being part of the global community and connectivity, one that is dominated by foreign aid, foreign investments, and foreign military support that are at all times one-sided. And we have a new set of Chinese loans, which keeps our government shut about Chinese military installations in Scarborough. Are these desirable in our quest for change?
But the likes of Sr. Pat act out a global solidarity, one that touches the lives of the poor. It may rub authorities "wrongly", but we should be reminded that we need a good neighbor, or good Samaritan in our times.
As Sr. Pat says: "We've always tried to remind the church that the promise to the people is the kingdom of justice, peace and love, which means you work for human rights, social justice and improve livelihood of people."