Return to the heart of the mission

The kidnapping and safe return of Fr. Michael Sinnott is the latest incident in the long and eventful history of Irish Columbans in the troubled islands of the Philippines.

It’s one day after his release, and Fr. Michael Sinnott managed to sleep half of last night, although he is terribly restless since his ordeal. But a lot of this restlessness seems related to his itching to return to Pagadian, to get back to the place from which he was roughly taken by an armed gang, nearly five weeks ago. Back to the Hangop Kabataan Foundation, the school for children with learning disabilities and for deaf children that Fr Sinnott opened 12 years ago.

What an autumn it has been for him. Thirty-two days in captivity, then a boat ride to freedom, followed by meeting president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at a Manila airport.

In the Columban headquarters, there is joy at his release, but also a peculiarly Irish desire that no one gets too full of himself. In the oratory, when I ask Fr Sinnott to sit in a particular seat for a photo, one of his colleagues says: “Why don’t you levitate for us there, Mick?”

As with so much else in the Philippines, domestic politics played a big role behind the scenes, and it seems that remarks by senior security officials that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front was involved could have slowed his release.

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