The following is a press release from the Maryknoll Society, Maryknoll, NY. For more about Fr. Healey, and thoughts from the man himself, look out for the Portsmouth Abbey School Summer Bulletin 2006.
Father Joseph Graham Healey, M.M., of Baltimore, Md., will celebrate his 40th anniversary of ordination as a Maryknoll missioner on Sunday, June 25, 2006. He is one of 50 Maryknollers who will be commemorating their ordination to the priesthood or oath as Brothers in ceremonies to be held at the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America headquarters in Ossining, N.Y.
After his ordination to the priesthood on June 11, 1966, Father Healey earned a master's degree in journalism and went to work for Maryknoll magazine. At the same time he produced religious television programs for the local New York City NBC affiliate station.
In 1968 Healey was assigned to Africa where he served as the social communications secretary of AMECEA (Association of the Catholic Bishops Conferences in Eastern Africa) based in Nairobi, Kenya. He was editor of AMECEA communications, conducted training workshops in communications media and served as Church press officer during Pope Paul VI's 1969 visit to Uganda (1969-74).
After a sabbatical leave and two years working in Rulenge, Tanzania, Healey returned to the United States in 1979 to work in Maryknoll's formation education department while teaching mission spirituality at Maryknoll Seminary. He returned to Tanzania in 1982 and worked in the Iramba Parish in Musoma, where he concentrated on building small Christian communities and developing an adult religious education program.
In 1987, Healey became social communications coordinator for the Maryknoll Missioners based at Makoko, Musoma. He did research on African proverbs, sayings and stories and lectured at the Makoko Language School.
A prolific writer, he has published 10 books since 1981 on such subjects as small Christian communities, African oral literature, communications and mission. His work has expanded into other media projects including: producing programs for Radio Tanzania, Radio Tumaini, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation and Vatican Radio; scriptwriting and production of videos for Ukweli Video and Video Tumaini, in English and Swahili.
His special interest in African oral literature led to his becoming moderator of the African Proverbs, Sayings and Stories Website, (www.afriprov.org), an ecumenical internet project based in Nairobi, Kenya, developed to promote the use of that literature in the spread of the Gospel.
Since 1994, Healey has lived in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, working in communications and pastoral ministries. He served as chairperson and later coordinator of the Mission Awareness Committee (MAC) for the Religious Superiors' Association of Tanzania. He currently represents the Maryknoll Society on MAC while serving as Local Superior of the Maryknoll Society Center in Masaki, Msasani. "I work in Tanzania because I'm rooting for the underdog," Healey explained. "There are a lot of needs and challenges in America. But if you want the classic 'underdog' it's Tanzania-the third poorest country in the world with all the problems and illness that poverty brings. Yet, Africans are some of the happiest, most joyful people that I have ever met-even in the midst of their material poverty.
"I feel that God's greatest missionary gift to me has been a deep love for the African people. I am deeply thankful for this precious gift and grace."
Father Healey was born on April 29, 1938, in Detroit, Mich., and moved at an early age with his family to Baltimore, where he attended Gilman School (1944-52). A graduate of Portsmouth Abbey High School in Portsmouth, R.I., (1956), he attended Princeton University , Princeton, N.J., for three years and then entered Maryknoll in 1959. He holds a bachelor's degree in philosophy (1951) from Maryknoll College, Glen Ellyn, Ill., (1961) and a master's degree in theology from Maryknoll Seminary in Ossining (1966). He later earned master's degrees in journalism, with a concentration in international communications, from the University of Missouri at Columbia (1968) and in Christian spirituality from Creighton University, Omaha, Neb., (1981).
Maryknoll, the U.S.-based Catholic missionary movement, includes the Maryknoll Society (Fathers and Brothers), the Maryknoll Congregation (Sisters), the Maryknoll Lay Missioners and the Maryknoll Affiliates. Maryknollers have been representing U.S. Catholics in overseas mission since 1911 and currently serve in 39 countries worldwide. For more information on Maryknoll, please consult the World Wide Web at www.maryknoll.org.
