by Dr. Iain
Corness
The world may have a new Pope, but Pattaya has a new
Catholic priest at the St. Nikolaus Church on Sukhumvit Road, with
Redemptorist missionary Father Lawrence (Larry to close associates) Patin,
CSSR. While he may be new to Pattaya, he is not new to Thailand having
been in the kingdom for 40 years, working in various missions throughout
the country.
He comes from good Catholic stock, who were farmers who
settled in Grand Rapids Michigan. That the family followed the Catholic
doctrine goes without question when you find that Fr. Lawrence has four
siblings who are Redemptorist Brothers, a (fostered) “step-brother”
whom he laughingly referred to as a “failed Redemptorist” and one
married sister.
It is no exaggeration to say that Fr. Lawrence has been
a Redemptorist, man and boy, having entered the seminary when he was still
only 13 years old. I asked whether he really knew what he wanted to do at
that very tender age, but he apparently had felt that he was bound for the
seminary from the age of seven. Was there any parental pressure, was my
next question, but he said not at all, in fact his father repeating many
times, “If you go to the seminary, you can always come home - there’s
no pressures.” Mind you, he did admit that on his first night there he
was very homesick, “I wanted to go back home, but I didn’t have any
doubts about it (the calling).”
The seminary was his home for the next six years, with
the time taken up by high school studies and then two years of college,
with the emphasis on the humanities (languages in particular).
After this period he then entered as a novitiate, to
wear the Redemptorist habit for the first time and take his initial vows
of poverty, chastity and obedience. Despite the fact that he was getting
closer to being a fully fledged priest, during the next three years he was
integrated into the society at large, doing jobs in the local farming
community. For Fr. Lawrence, having a farming background, this was much to
his liking. “My job was on the tractor, and I liked that.”
After three years of further study, as well as
part-time tractor driver, it was time to make his final vows, known as the
‘Perpetual Profession’ and he was asked if he wanted to consider
overseas service in one of the Redemptorist missions. By that stage
(1962), priests were being consulted to see as to their direction in life,
to attempt to make sure that the correct candidates were chosen. Fr.
Lawrence made it known that he was happy to go, and the choices were
Brazil or Thailand, but it was Thailand that captured his imagination.
“Michigan had a mission here. It was attractive. Maybe it was the
language,” he mused.
He was ordained on July 2, 1963 and began taking Thai
language lessons from Thai seminarians in the US. In the interim he was
also sent to some fairly rough and underprivileged neighbourhoods in the
US, but this did not deter the young priest. “They had numerous problems
for me to try and help. It was a marvellous experience,” was his reply.
He arrived here and in short succession spent time in
Sriracha and then Udon Thani, where there had been a directive from Rome
to develop the area. This was a time of change and hardship in the region.
The Vietnam war had begun, Communist insurgency was rife and life was
rough for the villagers.
An area that was very needed was in medical aid, and
Fr. Lawrence rolled up his ecclesiastical shirt sleeves, after being
guided by a Jewish American doctor, and began doing his own paramedic
work, even to the point of suturing and the odd dental extraction. He was
helped with direct assistance of equipment and supplies from the US forces
in the region. “Dad paid taxes, and I just said that the benefit was
going to the people who needed it,” said Fr. Lawrence by the way of
justification.
However, after three years in the jungles he was sent
to Sriracha again, to help the late Fr. Ray Brennan (a man who needs no
introduction in Pattaya). This was a difficult time for Fr. Lawrence.
“It wasn’t my style at the seminary.”
The next move he described as, “Another plush
appointment to leprosy work,” but in reality this was very much to his
liking. “It was particularly rewarding. We were helping human beings who
were outcasts from society,” said Fr. Lawrence. He was also working in
the north-east, an area he had come to love.
However, when duty calls, he had taken that vow of
obedience, and after almost eight years he was recalled to a growing
parish in Bangna in Bangkok. He described this next three years as another
“rewarding time”, probably because many of his parishioners were Isaan
people coming to Bangkok seeking work.
The life of the missionary is not one where you lay
down your roots for your life, it is one of change, and Fr. Lawrence was
soon back to the north-east, as a novice master preparing novitiates, and
then as a priest for two displaced Vietnamese parishes in rural Thailand,
a group of people nobody wanted to admit existed.
His next postings took him to Bangkok, where he became
enthralled with body building, then the north east again and finally (for
the meantime) Pattaya, starting here April 5.
With the new Pope, I asked Fr. Lawrence if he saw
changes ahead for his Church, and he did, but all of them positive.
“I’m not a pessimist. Our ‘German Shepherd’ is humble, a good
listener and has a good grasp of the problems. I’m looking forward in
great hope.”
Finally, I asked him if he had read Dan Brown’s
‘The Da Vinci Code’, which he had and enjoyed. “His research is well
done,” said the smiling cleric.
Welcome to Pattaya, Fr. Lawrence Patin.
