By Gretchen Keiser

A Jesuit priest who is concerned about building bridges between the poor he works with in Jamaica and the rich who have resources to give came to Atlanta recently and spoke in two parishes.

Father Richard Holung, a native of Jamaica whose ancestors came to the island from Hong Kong as indentured servants in the 19^th century, is a highly active priest working in very poor areas of Kingston. He is also a gifted and prolific composer of liturgical music, set to Jamaican rhythm, which is used in churches throughout the Caribbean.

Ordained in 1971 at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kingston, Father Holung was educated in the United States, at Boston College, Boston Theological Institute, which is affiliated with Harvard University, and Syracuse University where he received a doctorate in humanities. He has taught at both the University of the West Indies in Kingston and at Boston College. But Father Holung said he was drawn away from the university to work with the poor whose “terrible suffering” seemed to call upon the center of his priesthood. For this work, and for his liturgical and spiritual compositions to Jamaican folk revival rhythms and reggae, he has become widely known. One of the most destitute areas where he works in Eventide, a government-owned poor house where over 500 men, women and children live in raw poverty and abandonment. Some are the old who are dying alone; others are mentally ill. Some are children who are physically handicapped and who were abandoned at hospitals at birth and some are mentally retarded. Victims already, they are victimized again and again at Eventide, which has been visited by gunmen who rape and steal from the poor living there. Over the last few years, Father Holung’s work has focused attention on conditions there and brought a measure of hope to the inmates of Eventide.

Father Holung also works in Gun Court, a prison holding 1,300 young men who were seized during political turbulence in the 1970s when possession of a gun meant immediate jailing for life without possibility of release or appeal. Gun Court inmates are “political prisoners,” Father Holung said, some of whom were simply caught in the political crossfire and imprisoned for guilt by association. With a team of volunteers, Father Holung works at Eventide and Gun Court to bring food, mattresses and foam rubber pads and simple items such as pens, paper and pencils for school work.

In an interview, Father Holung said that the poor are suffering more in Jamaica as the island’s currency continues to be devalued in relation to the American dollar. Over the last three months, the currency devalued again so that one American dollar now equals about four Jamaican dollars. This means the $40 a week minimum wage is equivalent to about seven American dollars to provide for all needs. At Eventide and Gun Court and on the streets, he said, people are visibly suffering from hunger and lack of food and “there is a tremendous amount of stress.”

“The world is going crazy with poverty,” he said, and Christians must be drawn away from materialism and selfishness toward a poverty of spirit that leaves a person free to be generous, insecure in the world, but trusting in the Lord.

“Unless the First World and the Third World get together there will just be real destruction” in the world, he said. “The poor will hate the rich and the rich will believe the poor are poor because they want to be.”

Whether or not a world catastrophe can be averted, it is the call of Christianity to move toward greater and greater sharing of what one has, he said. It is the spirit of Christianity to grow in generosity and to be willing to live with less material and more spiritual security.

In talks at Holy Cross parish in Tucker and Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in Atlanta, Father Holung asked for donations of canned food, mattresses and foam rubber pads to be used for the poor at Eventide and Gun Court. Both parishes are hosting a drive in May and items collected are being stored at Immaculate Heart of Mary parish. Healing for the Poor, an Atlanta group working to send volunteer medical teams, medicines and supplies and food to the poor in Jamaica, will arrange for shipment of the donated goods to Father Holung in June.