Sunday June 1st. 2008

He had to leave the studio hurriedly by a back door to escape the armed police who were ordered to arrest him. For several months, he ran his parish from his hiding place by a mobile phone.

Finally, a sympathetic lawyer defended him in court, and the case was dismissed. Everyone knew what he said was in fact true.

Fr Colin has now been moved to Guyail, a town on the coast where the conditions are even worse than when he went first to the shanty town outside of Quito. The weather is constantly humid, the people are living in tin shacks, infant mortality is high, and the town services are almost nil. There are frequent break downs of electricity, no running water, the roads are in terrible conditions with large holes, people are regularly mugged, and murders are quite frequent.

He has been in this town for two years, and already he is beginning  to turn around things, but it will take time. In the meantime, he was rushed into hospital because of heart trouble, and advised by a surgeon friend to come home for a heart by-pass operation, which he later had in Glasgow. He returned to Ecuador soon after the operation to continue his work among the poor.  He was back home again this Spring to have a hip joint replacement, and within a few

months he was back again among his beloved poor.

The poverty in the town is heart rending, and he asks for any help we can offer to give a better quality of life to his people. In his last parish, and his new one, people call constantly at his door from early morning until late in the evening, and they are all received with Fr. Colin’s  customary kindness and compassion, and given whatever help he can offer them. His former parishioners worshipped him, for what he achieved for them, and his new parishioners have already taken greatly to him as some one whom they can trust for they know he has their interests at heart.

Yes, Fr Colin is an a humble man, whose whole life is devoted to living among the poorest of the poor and  bringing them the love and compassion of Christ.

It was his recent Newsletter from  his parish in Guyail, Ecuador, that prompted this article. Look up www.fathercolin.org.uk and you will learn more about this amazing priest. Anyone wishing to help Father Colin’s work can send a donation to:

Scottish International Solidarity Trust,

20 West Gerinish, South Uist HS8 5RW

Left:  This shows the extent of Fr. Colin’s  parish and  the extreme poverty of the people.
For most of them, home is a tin shack

Bottom left: Fr Colin saying mass in the open for his parishioners

Bottom: One of his churches.