Nov 30 2015

Priestly Ordination of Deacon Dinh

On November 30, 2015, Feast of Saint Andrew, the Apostle, Deacon Dinh Van Nguyen, member of the SCJ District in Vietnam, was ordained a priest. The ceremony of ordination took place during the Holy Mass at in Tierra Verde Homes I Subdivision, Barangay Pasong Tamo in Quezon City, presided by the ordaining bishop, Most Rev. Antonio R. Tobias, D.D., the ordinary of the Diocese of Novaliches, where the parish and the SCJ Formation House belong.

Fr. Dinh is 39 years old and comes from the family of seven children in Dong Nai Province in Vietnam. He has two sisters and four brothers. In 2002, he arrived in the Philippines to study Philosophy at the Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro City, where he met the first SCJ students from Vietnam. Although his initial wish was to become a Jesuit, he got easily attracted to the spirituality of the Priests of the Sacred Heart and decided to be one of them.

His vocation to the priesthood started 21 years ago when he was an altar boy. He got attracted by his parish priest who was very simple and holy. His wish that time was to become one day like him, and now his dreams came true.

Fr. Dinh is the 8th SCJ, who underwent the formation process and was ordained in the Philippines. His plan after the ordination is to return to Vietnam, to work in the formation program and to teach Philosophy or Theology.

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The ordination of Fr. Dinh was attended by more than 30 family members and friends from Vietnam and many friends from the Philippines.

Congratulations Fr. Dinh and God bless you on this new way of life from all the members of the SCJ Philippine Region!

Nov 26 2015

Remembering SCJ Martyrs

November 26th is the anniversary of the martyrdom of Monsignor Joseph Wittebols, SCJ – the Bishop of diocese of Wamba – together with six other missionaries in Congo in 1964.

Twenty-eight religious altogether gave their lives in 1964, during the Simba revolution. Their deaths occurred during the month of November from the 3rd to the 27th.

There many more SCJs who died as martyrs:

Bl. Juan dela Cruz in Spain,
5 SCJs who died during World War II (one German, two from Luxembourg, a Belgian, and an Italian),
11 Dutchmen who died in concentration camps in Indonesia,
3 French missionaries who died in Cameroon in 1959
and another Dutch missionary from the North Brazilian Province who died in 1975 as a result of his protective assistance to poor fishermen in Northeast Brazil.

Their deaths were the consequence of a life choice made much earlier …

They are our inspiration and a source of strength for our vocation and mission.

For this reason, in a session of the General Council held on May 11th, 2004, an SCJ MEMORIAL DAY was decreed to be celebrated every year on the 26th of November, anniversary of the death of Bp. Wittebols, SCJ.

“This date should be opportunely prepared for and celebrated in all communities, especially in formation communities, and with lay people who share our pastoral, educational, and missionary activities.

Let the celebration of this day become an occasion to learn about and remember those persons who have impacted the history of a province / region / district and the Congregation, or a particular work or section of our mission”.

Fr. José Ornelas Carvalho, scj

We Pray…

God our loving Father, we praise you!

We thank for all our SCJ brothers who died as martyrs, for their faith and dedication.

Through their intercession, enable us by Holy Spirit of Love, to live and die for you and your beloved people, hoping that we may be transformed day by day into the likeness of your Son Jesus.

Lord God, may the witness of our SCJ brothers, who died as martyrs, strengthen our faith.

May their martyrdom be the seed for our growth in holiness. Give us the power of your spirit to promote understanding and reconciliation, that all may live justly and in peace as brothers and sisters of Jesus, your Son.

Amen.

Nov 8 2015

Blessing of New Parish House in Bagong Silang

The San Roque Parish Phase 9 in Bagong Silang, Caloocan City is being run by the SCJs for more than four years. The parish is a part of Santo Niño Vicariate and it belongs to the Diocese of Novaliches. At the moment the parish is being served by three SCJ priests: Fr. John Karl Cabaluna, Fr. Elpidio Luza, Jr., Fr. Christopher Alburo and one seminarian on exposure Bro. Alex Jumawid. It is located in very densely populated area with a little space for the parish church and some parish facilities. The access road is very narrow and not accessible to trucks or bigger vehicles. The whole area is covered with little, very close to each other, houses, a kind of squatter place inhabited by the very poor who have no access to tenured land of their own.

Among the different ministries and activities such as Lay Ministers, Catechists, Youth, Altar Servers, Legion of Mary, the parish has one of the strongest BEC (Basic Ecclesial Communities) Program in the whole diocese. Also, the parish, with the initiative and support of the Parish Priest, Fr. John Karl Cabaluna, scj, has organized many programs benefiting the poor, sick and homeless. One among them is the “Bath, Eat and Go Program”, where the homeless can come to the parish, take shower, have a meal and go back to their shelters. Everyday. the parish is serving more than one hundred meals and selling kilos of rice at a lower price.

In the beginning, the parish was served by Fr. John Karl from the Dehon House, an SCJ Formation House in Quezon City, who was helped by the priests from the formation community and some seminarians. Since four years ago, the priests assigned in San Roque Parish were living in the parish, first in the rented house and later on in a temporary, very simple and perishable hut, with no privacy and basic facilities.

To have a decent place, where the priests could rest, pray together and feel safe, was not only a dream of the priests assigned there, but also of the parishioners and the SCJ Congregation.

Finally, the dreams came true on November 7, 2015, when the new parish house was completed and blessed by Most Rev. Antonio R. Tobias, DD. The SCJs in Bagong Silang got their new house, fruit of cooperation between the priests, parishioners, the Diocese of Novaliches and the Philippine Region of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (SCJ).

The blessing was preceded by the raffle draw with motorcycle as the first prize.

Congratulations to the winners, to the SCJ priests and all parishioners!

Oct 26 2015

Congratulations to the New SCJ Bishop!

On Sunday, October 25, José Ornelas Carvalho, former superior general of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, was ordained and installed as bishop of the Diocese of Setúbal in his native Portugal. Joining the diocese in the celebration were Dehonians from around the world, including several bishops, as well as family and fellow bishops and priests of Portugal.

Aug 24 2015

Father José Ornelas Carvalho SCJ appointed Bishop of Setubal

Today, August 24, 2015, the Holy Father Pope Francis has appointed our confrere Father José Ornelas Carvalho SCJ, a member of the Portuguese Province, Bishop of Setubal Portugal, a city 40 km south of Lisbon.

The Diocese of Setúbal (Latin: Dioecesis Setubalensis) is a suffragan seat of the Catholic Church of the Patriarchate of Lisbon, and includes 9 of the 13 municipalities in the district of Setubal: Setubal, Alcochete, Almada, Barreiro, Moita, Montijo, Palmela, Seixal, and Sesimbra. It also includes some villages in the municipalities of Alcacer do Sal and Grândola. The cathedral of Santa Maria delle Grazie is located in the city of Setubal.

The 57 parishes are organized into 7 vicariates, with 86 diocesan and religious priests, 12 permanent deacons and one transitional deacon. The institutes of consecrated life that serve in the diocese include 7 men’s and 16 women’s communities. Currently the population is around 720,000 inhabitants in an area of approximately 1500 square kilometers. According to the latest census held in 2001, 508,053 people (70.%) say they are Catholic, while 25% did not respond or said they did not profess any religion. More than a quarter of the population (28.%) are under 25 years old. 57% are between 25 and 64 and 19% are over 65.

Father José Ornelas Carvalho was born on January 5, 1954 in Porto da Cruz, Madeira. He made his first profession September 29, 1972 in Aveiro and perpetual profession September 23, 1977 in Porto. He was ordained a priest in Porto da Cruz on August 9, 1981.

From 1979 to 1983 he studied for a Licentiate at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. From 1993 to 1996 he prepared for his Doctorate at the Jesuit University in Frankfurt Germany and in 1997 he received a Doctorate in Biblical Studies from the Catholic University of Lisbon. For many years he was professor of Sacred Scripture in Lisbon.

After serving the Portugese SCJ province as Provincial Secretary and Provincial Councilor from July 1 2000 to May 26, 2003, he was appointed Provincial Superior of the Portuguese Province. In the XXI General Chapter he was elected Superior General of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart (SCJ) and re-elected in the next General Chapter: he led the congregation from May 27, 2003 until June 6, 2015.

We are very grateful to Father José Ornelas Carvalho for the attentive service to the brothers of our congregation and for his inspiration, energy and foresight. In particular we feel the need to emphasize his great attention to implementing important yet difficult issues such as internationality and creating closer cooperation between the various entities. In his service he has never ceased to invite community members to follow the missionary impulse.

This attention stems from a missionary spirit cultivated during his training and biblical formation that moves one to proclaim the Gospel everywhere. Also he insisted that the Congregation reach out to new horizons. Despite the drastic decline in numbers in the European and North American provinces, the congregation remained numerically stable thanks to growth in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Fr. Carvalho made an important commitment to a more “real” and “critical” knowledge of SCJ foundational sources. Accessibility to these sources is possible today thanks to the work implemented in recent years by the Dehonian Center for Studies in Rome, and their site www.Dehon.docs.

For his new service in the vineyard of the Lord we wish him all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. May the God of surprises bless him abundantly, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus keep his sensitivity to the poor and to all those who suffer and who are on the margins of our societies, especially in his new diocese of Setubal. May the Mother of Jesus always give her comfort and Father Leo Dehon preserve him in his vision and his openness to new horizons.

The episcopal ordination of Father Jose Ornelas will take place Sunday, October 25, 2015 in Setúbal.

P. Heiner Wilmer SCJ

Superior General

SCJ Philippines Region

Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (SCJ)

Category SCJ Congregation