Bishop Paul Dempsey with members of different international communities “The very faith Irish missionaries once spread to distant countries is now being brought back to Ireland by the descendants of those evangelised,” noted Catholic speaker, Paul J. Kim in an interview with The Irish Catholic.
“Last time I visited Ireland, it was both beautiful and ironic,” said Mr Kim, whose family was evangelised by Irish Columban missionaries in Korea in the 1960s. “I had this stereotype that I’d be speaking to redheaded Irish people,” Mr Kim remarked, “but when I arrived, the majority were Indian.” He highlighted the nature of this reversal, explaining that the Indian Catholics he encountered are, in a sense, the spiritual children of the Irish missionaries who once evangelised in India. “Now, they were the ones evangelising in Ireland. It was quite profound to see how the faith had come full circle,” he added.
This shift speaks to a broader trend in contemporary Ireland, where immigration has brought a renewed faith to the Catholic Church in the emerald Island.