Reflections of a sea going priest
Fr Roland Doriol SJ spent 22 years at sea as both priest and ship’s electrician. After coming ashore in 1998 he became AOS chaplain in the port of Cebu in the Philippines.
Fr Doriol and a seafarer onboard |
During the Christmas period of 2006, he spent time with his international colleague David Burke, the AOS lay chaplain to the port of Hull in Great Britain. In his own words, Fr Doriol reflects on the experience.
Christmas on the docks in Hull
Each year, Christmas reveals a different perspective but it always has the ability to reach out into unfamiliar places and situations. From far away, we may observe that the stars are fixed and in the same place but some strange chemistry causes them to move or to flicker and move us as well in surprise and astonishment. Christmas is given to ponder and wonder all this, I guess!
As I walked around the docks and ships in the port of Hull with David Burke, he invited me to discover every corner of “the port he is beginning to love”. We met seafarers making themselves ready for the celebration or welcoming Dave during his daily visits, joking and promising Christmas gifts: a woollen cap for the cold season filled with gifts for everyday use such as chocolate, toiletries, a Christmas card and a prayer card.
During my six days with Dave, spending time at the centre or roaming around the docks and gangways, I have shaken hands with many seafarers:
Herbert preparing for his wedding in two months time in the Philippines;
the chief cook from a Thai vessel who showed me a postcard received from his wife which is to be a signpost at the door of his cabin;
Isa the Portuguese entertainer on a P&O ferry, born of a Jewish mother and a Muslim father who attended our Eucharist on board because “God will always invite us to the truth”;
Robert taken with emotion during the reading of Paul’s letter to Titus inviting us to believe “that God’s grace has been revealed”;
the Indian captain with his true life story which was a litany of reasons for stress now on ships;
Win the Myanmar Chief officer who called me by my first name right away after shaking hands;
the young Thai crew on duty, reluctant to walk in the cold weather to the centre;
the Thai cook who generously filled the bowl with his smelly soup for a taste and ice-breaker, his secret language and show of friendship beyond his limited English;
Roger the German Captain who managed to watch and listen to our Eucharist in the crew mess at a short distance, seemingly busy in the small kitchen on Christmas morning.
Alongside with seafarers through the year
Many ships stayed in port, we visited some during the Christmas weekend and Boxing Day, thus giving relief to human engines and mechanical ones as well. It was enough to allow a handful of Filipino seafarers from those regular feeder container ships to stroll along the deserted streets, where all shops and malls were closed, and to enjoy a baptism party with their “kababayan” who work as nurses in hospitals there.
It is a break also for these seafarers from the daily pressures of work of lashing and unlashing the containers during short stays in Hull, Rotterdam or Zeebrugge. There is no other option in order to maximize the fast turnaround of these ships, day and night on duty. This work brings more fatigue than financial compensation or a Christmas bonus !
At night, a part of the centre is left open for late comers and those addicted to using computers, telephones and webcams with a cup of tea or coffee. There is a “secret” access code to the part of the centre that is open 24 hours. This access code is posted on the door!
Through the year, “hellos”, “goodbyes” and “miss yous” resonate with blessings and wishes to somebody in another part of the world spoken by these men from Ukraine or Poland or from the lonely Lebanese among them. They bridge the gap of half the world between them and their loved ones.
Fr Doriol and crew celebrate Eucharist onboard |
Eucharist onboard
Without my days spent climbing gangways and getting invitations for tea or lunch on ships, the real invitation for a Eucharist onboard would have kept these seafarers at a distance. Perhaps they would have been afraid or even shy in welcoming a liturgy which they are used to seeing from afar in churches. The right approach and language, promises and jokes and telephone numbers, are the daily bread of our visits to seafarers onboard, whether their ships come regularly every couple of days or they are arriving from far away and for the first time in Hull.
At the time of our Eucharist with Filipinos on Christmas Eve, it was already midnight in their country. The Christmas liturgy invites us always to believe in “today”. This is true especially during this midnight Mass where angels seem also to know better the value and the secret of this “today”. Is there also a “today” in heaven? And so, is this eternity? when we are afraid of what is happening or when we rejoice in a prayer and a blessing becoming true, in flesh and bones, like the shepherds!
Christmas is truly for these “outsiders” first, the shepherds, the magi, for those seafarers or travellers coming from a great distance who are far away from those churches of their childhood where the families are gathered without them. They need the presence of a helping hand or smile during these special moments.
Can it also be true that “today” Christmas is a good news for those at sea or “all at sea”, lost in their life’s direction or afraid of what they will find at home when they return? What kind of blessing is in store for them at Christmas, or at ordinary times, when they find time, space and good will with those colleagues who are alongside them day and night, in time of routine and in time of crisis? Would it be a dream that some companions will accompany these shepherds or magi or seafarers in walking the extra mile to the place where the Child is pondering how it is that this Child “is with us” and a sign given to us.
David Burke offers a Christmas gift to a seafarer. |
The hardest question
Dave introduced me to his “way of proceeding” and to the friendship he has built up working alongside the seafarers. He even went to the trouble of a 30 mile trip just to visit Albertino, a lonely seafarer from Cap Verde who felt isolated from his crewmates from Ukraine. Dave knew how to give time, patience and a smile, how to wait for an answer to the sometimes difficult question: “how are you?”
This is the kind of question asked during our visits and, needless to say, may bring embarrassment if we are not seated at table having finished the preliminary talk about the weather or transport or telephone cards and when the seafarer is not pressured by duty or sleep or phone calls. Many thanks, Dave, for finding ways and means to let this question surface and touch hearts. Maybe only angels, during the Christmas season know how to ask questions without embarrassment!
“Do not be afraid. Let us go and see and walk. I am with you and this is today”!
click here for contact details of AOS in Hull
click here for contact details of AOS in Cebu
click here to read about the experience of another seafarer priest
