Besides the sad reality, which is the death of Fr. Joseph Butlig, SCJ, the SCJ Philippines Regional Assembly had started as scheduled on April 18, 2022. The theme chosen for this year’s event is “Valuing personal maturity as Dehonian in relation with others in the community for a better and more meaningful pastoral and social apostolate as PHI Region”. It’s based on the theme of the IX General Conference in Rome “The impact of God’s Love for our society”.

It started with the moment of reflection entitled “Our Community Life, Our Vows” conducted by Fr. Norlan Julia, S.J., the rector of St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Cagayan de Oro

The assembly was being held in the Sacred Heart Formation House in Cagayan de Oro City and is attended by 40 SCJ’s including seminarians on exposure PHI (3) and VIE (3). It was the first face-to-face assembly since the start of the pandemic COVID-19 in 2020.

As usual, besides the reporting of different activities, there were several workshops. The workshops have had three specific objectives: a) to evaluate “the community aspect” in our pastoral and social engagement (from community level to regional); b) to propose courses of action that will be of greater help to enhance “the community aspect” in doing our pastoral and social work; c) to articulate the proposals as a common guide to be integrated into the Community Plan of Life CPL).

The assembly will conclude on Thursday, April 21, 2022, with the funeral of + Fr. Joseph C. Butlig, SCJ, a day ahead of the original schedule.

All in all, it was nice to meet each other after such a long time. Praise the Lord!