Acknowledging Greg McEnnally MSC, 80, January 9th.
Greg came from Randwick parish. He made his first vows on February 26th 1963 and was ordained on 9th May 1970. He taught in schools but later worked as a teacher of English as a second language in China. In recent years, he has been chaplain at the Little Sisters of the Poor in Randwick. He has published several books on his experiences in China.
Some excerpts from a Catholic Weekly interview in 2018
As a priest of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart—an order that sends missionaries all around the world—Fr McEnnally reluctantly went to China in 2002 to teach English at the request of his superiors. He had been working in Indonesia at the time and loved it there so much that the prospect of going to China had little appeal.
After more than a decade in the country however, he came to love the Chinese people greatly, especially the students he taught at universities in Fuzhou, Tongren and Chongqing. His gained appreciation and understanding of the Chinese culture led Fr McEnnally to write his recently-published book, China: Behind the Mask, after his return to Australia in 2014. The book explores several dominant cultural aspects of China including nationalism—loyalty and love for China alone.
Fr McEnnally said he knows of two women who were arrested by police and “belted up” for distributing bibles in a market place. One of them died from her injuries, he said. In order to retain his position as an English teacher, Fr McEnnally could not reveal his identity as a Catholic priest to anyone, not even to other priests. “Some of the priests were spies for the government. We had a spy in our building too. There were spies at every Mass, reporting on who was there and who wasn’t there.” He would say Mass secretly in his own apartment and on Sundays would attend the Patriotic Church for Mass, sitting in the pews seemingly as a lay Catholic.
He even found ways of teaching Christian values in his English classes by organising students into small discussion groups—for the purpose of practising their English—and giving them topics to discuss such as love, relationships and happiness.
