Father Raymond Brennan CSSR

Pattaya Person of the Millennium

Regular readers of the Pattaya Mail will know that recently we ran a competition for the most significant Pattaya Person of the Millennium. From the host of nominations we received at the Editorial Office, three names were dominant. Sopin Thappajug, Alois X. Fassbind and Fr. Raymond Brennan. Over the past two weeks we profiled Sopin Thappajug and the late Louis Fassbind. This week we give a little of the story of Father Raymond Brennan.

Fr. Raymond Brennan CSSR

Just what do you say about the man who has “fathered” more than 600 children in Pattaya? While all of us who have raised our own families have considered that child rearing was our own personal cross to bear, this man’s child rearing cross that he carries has also been the Celtic cross of Catholicism. By his calling he was denied fatherhood, but that very calling, in the end gave him more than 600 children.

Father Raymond Brennan and Mother Theresa.

The story of Raymond Brennan, the boy from Boston in America, is undoubtedly an interesting one. With one brother and one sister in the family, Ray was not the quiet studious one. In fact Ray was the wild adventurous one and when he told his family that he had received “the call” to become a priest no-one thought that this lad who had previously said that his ambition was to make a million dollars before he was thirty years old could possibly last the rigours of the training, let alone the priesthood itself. As he was recalling those times past, musing over his boyhood ambition he said, “In a way I have made a million in a different sense.”

Fr. Ray’s sense of adventure took him to SE Asia, where he spent time as a Vietnam Auxiliary Chaplain. He was then based at Jang Wat in the Loei province and spent ten years there. However, fates were to conspire and Fr. Raymond Brennan found himself in Pattaya twenty eight years ago.

Pattaya in those days was a different place. “It was certainly not a heavenly city,” he said, but Fr. Ray was also a different man way back then, even if he was “heaven sent” for Pattaya. Father Raymond Brennan, though he did not know it, was about to become a “real” father and found an orphanage!

After the Vietnam conflict some Thai women found themselves abandoned by their American boyfriends leaving them with fatherless small babies. Enter the Father from Boston. “The first baby was given to me by a mother who couldn’t look after her. I gave her to the women who were caring for the church. I went out and bought bottles, but not teats. I had to go back to buy teats and diapers. Then word spread and one baby became two, then two to four and four to eight,” he said and laughed.

Father Brennan and one of the children under his care.

In that first year, Fr. Ray, now “father” to eight, cared for his children at the church. But the supply of needy children did not stop with eight. Not only the abandoned, homeless orphans found their way to his all supportive arms, but deaf children, handicapped children, blind children and street children were taken in. The church house had to give way to purpose built schools, dormitories, kitchens, playgrounds and refectories, till today we have the Orphanage, a Deaf School, Old People’s Home, Street Kids Projects, Handicap School and a Blind School. From that initial eight, there are now over 600 kids who look upon Fr. Ray as “father”.

These places of care and education for the children would not have happened without the guiding hand of their Father, even though he shrugs this off with a self effacing, “I get all the credit, but I don’t do anything.”

While Fr. Ray has undoubtedly required many helpers over the past 28 years, from the very first woman who sent him back to get teats, through his favourite nun, “Mother Shark”, other devoted staff and volunteer helpers, it has been Fr. Raymond Brennan who has guided, coaxed, pushed, cajoled, begged and pressured to get the world behind him and his children.

The wild boy from Boston has needed all the street “smarts” in the world to keep his family’s heads above water from time to time in those 28 years. Like the occasion when he “appropriated” a large army container. “I needed it more than the army did!” was his response. On the walls of his cramped and chaotic office hung a faded poster proclaiming, “How much can I get away with and still get to heaven?”

No, Fr. Raymond Brennan has been prepared to fight for his Pattaya children. It is no wonder that he and his works have been honoured by the Thai Royal Family members, the Thai Prime Minister and the Queen of Belgium amongst many others. However, you the citizens of Pattaya, have also added to those honours. You have made Fr. Raymond Brennan CSSR a Pattaya Person of the Millennium.

“Father” Ray, your children and in fact all of Pattaya joins with the world to salute you. On behalf of the Pattaya Mail, we thank you for your wonderful contribution to our city in this millennium.

by Vichan Pladplueng

The other day I watched as tourists, both Thai and foreign, watched a cute baby elephant curiously playing around during its infancy, amusing the onlookers at a local tourist attraction. But beneath the enjoyment, I sensed the two-year old elephant displayed a distressing story.

I could only assume what happened to the parents of the baby elephant. They may have died from the hands of poachers, angry farmers, or illness, but whatever happened, it was a warning signal, indicating an uncertain fate for the elephant.

“Step-Mom” carries the burden while the little orphan tries to run and play.

During the hot hours of the day, wild animals normally seek shade and rest. However, this mid-afternoon show is packed with visitors from Europe and Asia wanting to be entertained, so these majestic beasts of burden are forced to perform in the heat. Tours are arranged, money is made, the show must go on.

The constantly changing world has seen the disappearance of a number of animals and the once noble elephants of Thailand have been turned into performers, along with other rare animals, to turn a profit. Their former way of life, if not the breed itself, seems destined for the extinction list. But where else is there for the elephant to go?

As curious as the large creatures are to everyone, it is evident that the animal is out of place walking the streets of provincial cities as a novelty. But if the elephant owner is not employed at one of the entertainment shows, the city is where the elephant ends up, looking for handouts to help offset the considerable daily cost of food.

City rules prohibit these wandering elephants, because many residents complain of the dangers. An elephant is not accustomed to the sounds of a big city - a tire blowout can send the animal into a frantic run. No, the city is not where the elephant belongs.

To a lot of people the elephant appears out of place in the entertainment shows too, especially compared to the rank the proud elephant once held as a vehicle of war, status symbol of Kings, decorated with flags.

The elephant was also man’s assistant in the lumber trade prior to machinery. Actually, man’s assistant in the lumber industry is where the elephant helped man destroy the elephant’s own habitat, and future.

So where is there left to go? The concrete jungle, tourist shows, or the circus? During the latter 1800s the American Indian ended up in similar situations, performing in Wild West Shows with few alternatives other than the reservation.

Reservations or animal reserves - is this the answer? Maybe, but the few reserves remaining are steadily shrinking, and this is where poaching often takes place. Elephants in “reservation” areas also roam at will, often wandering off into adjacent farms looking for food.

Some visiting tourists are aware of the elephant’s plight but when confronted with the noble animal with its sad eyes they will still buy the fruits provided by the owner to feed the elephant. Various animal protection and preservation societies ask people to refrain from doing so in order to keep the owners from bringing the elephants into the cities.

The elephant owners themselves will say they don’t want to bring the elephants into the cities either, but they have no choice. It’s not only feeding the elephants, they must feed their families too and there is no employment in their home villages.

The government is not displaying much interest in the problem, possibly because the solution is not readily at hand. There are a few private organizations and foundations searching for the answers and raising funds to support different efforts to preserve the elephants. But the 5,000 or so animals still roaming the jungle areas remaining in Thailand and the 300 roaming the concrete jungles are steadily decreasing.

Maybe the only safe place left is in the entertainment arena where the elephant can survive without angry farmers poisoning them, or becoming victims of poachers, or victims of land mines in border areas, or roaming the streets of the concrete jungle.