To see the world or to solve

After decades of living and working in remote places Gary MacEoin (right) still has no intention of settling down. Peter Stanford profiles this energetic activist.
I HAVE always had this hankering to cast all worldly worries aside, and set off with a rucksack and discover the real issues in the the world. That is precisely what Gary MacEoin has done. He has simply upped and travelled the world — most corners of it.
But then there is always one area that fascinates you more than others. And for Gary that has been Latin America. Perhaps the fact that he has studied and speaks Spanish is the reason. But, in conversation during a recent trip to London, he revealed that his fascination with that part of the world is more specific than just an affinity with the language. It is based on an identification with the poor and oppressed, and an unprecedented knowledge of the area.
In the course of his long and varied career, which took him from his native Ireland to editorships in Trinidad, media posts in Washington and other parts of the United States, as well as the coveted post of Latin American correspondent of the Catholic Herald, Gary MacEoin covered the second Vatican Council for the Spanish edition of Life magazine. During his period in Rome he got to know the leading Latin America bishops and thinkers — he speaks with particular warmth of Dom Helder Camara.
He is a passionate supporter of liberation theology — the "option for the poor". "For the first time in history, the poor have become the subjects of history, rather than the objects, they are now the actors and agents of history". It is this conviction and his web of connections that has led Gary MacEoin to focus on Latin America.
He is a frail man, weatherbeaten, and sun-tanned, unassuming but able to intimidate you in the nicest possible way with his wealth of experience and information, all delivered in a quiet understated Irish-American drawl.
Yet whatever the frailties of his advancing years, Gary MacEoin is not frail in his convictions. In contrast to many of his contemporaries, his views have become more radical as he has got older — "it takes time to develop the courage to swim against the tide" he remarked with a smile.
That courage first came when he was part of the Caribbean Commission of European powers with colonial interests in the area. "That gave me an opportunity to see from the inside the difference between profesion of power and practice". He was "outraged by the hypocrisy" of the former colonial powers who were' determined to keep the Caribbean in a state of economic dependence on the west.
It was such double dealing that determined Gary MacEoin to place his lot firmly on the side of the poor and the oppressed. And in that he is in league with the Church in Latin America. He is a great supporter of those liberation theologians who by their concern for the state of the poor and the injustices meted out to them have "transcended the Reformation" and brought Catholic and Protestant efforts together in a united effort to liberate Latin America.
In voicing such convictions, Gary has often been accused of being a Marxist. It is a false and misguided tag, liberally handed out by those who don't understand what they are saying, he contends. "No-one wants to deal with Marxism at an intellectual level — they are always emotional". Marxism for many people, to Gary's mind, is equated with communism and especially with the "system of state capitalism in Russia". Yet the Marxist analysis can be useful in looking at the world's problems. And to use it does not make one a Marxist — "why", contends Gary, "we all use elements of Freudian analysis in our approach to relationships, but no-one calls us Freudians".
Even Paul VI used Marxist analysis in his 1971 apostolic letter, Octogesima Adveniens when he looked at the responsibilities of the rich nations, Gary MacEoin points out.
As a particular example of the misuse of the tag Marxist in an emotional way to damn, Gary quotes the attacks on the democratically-elected Nicaraguan government. "In Nicaragua with limited options because of political circumstances, the government are working on a project to create a better society in terms of education and health for the mass of the people". Yet they are condemned as Marxists.
For Gary, his life has become a choice well summed up by John Sobrino SJ when he said "we must chose life or death". For Gary must always be on the side of life, part of the living organism of the people of God that makes up the Church.
It is such a stance that makes Gary MacEoin a man who demands your attention, and respect. It is such views that make his memoirs * essential reading for anyone interested in the Church.