Compassion: a Missionary Looks at Jamaica

A Missionary Looks at Jamaica
by Bishop Paul Boyle, C.P.,
at right with Mrs Ina Hylton, a parishioner

When I tell people I'm a missionary in Jamaica, they say, "Oh, how wonderful that must be, living by those beautiful beaches, in that beautiful country." Yes, Jamaica really is a beautiful land. But our diocese of Mandeville, in the interior of the country, offers another side of Jamaica.

We have dire poverty. It's something the tourists don't see, nor do the television ads feature. Our people are poor. Jamaica is the poorest nation in the hemisphere after Haiti, and our diocese is the poorest part of Jamaica. We have five hundred thousand people in our diocese. Sixty-eight percent have no running water, only outdoor latrines. We have people who need food, shoes, clothing, mattresses for their beds.

Answering the Needs

I'm sometimes asked what is the most pressing need in our diocese and honestly I'm hard-pressed to answer that question, because there are so many needs and they all pull at your heart-strings. At times, I think I respond to the last one who asks. But let me tell you some of the things we are trying to do.

housing for the poor

A Missionary Looks at Jamaica • One of a Jamaican Kind: Fr Bertram Chin, C.P.
A Retreat House Keeping Dreams Alive • Sister Una Is Building a College
Editor's Note • Act With Compassion