Dec 4 2015

“Thank you” from Tanauan, Leyte

Tanauan is one of the oldest towns in the Province of Leyte, Philippines dating back to the year 1710. It is a second class municipality composed of fifty-four (54) barangays. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 50,119 people. The town has been baptized the title of “Cradle of the Intellectuals” or “Bungto Han Kamag-araman” since the Spanish colonial period. Tanauan is approximately eighteen (18) kilometers south of Tacloban City which is the Capital of the Eastern Visayas Region. It is bounded on the north by the Municipality of Palo, on the south by the Municipality of Tolosa, on the west by the Municipalities of Dagami and Tabon-Tabon, and on the east by San Pedro Bay. The town was heavily damaged by Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in November 2013. (From Wikipedia)

Recently, the Priests of the Sacred Heart in the Philippines, who helped the victims of Typhoon Yolanda in Tanauwan, received a plaque of “Thank you” from the Local Government of the said town. The group of seminarians from Dehon House in Quezon City, under the guidance of Fr. Delio Ruiz, SCJ, spent their Christmas break extending their help to those who lost everything they had, including members of their families. Here the SCJ Philippine Region would like to thank all those, who through their generosity and open hearts made it possible.

Dec 3 2015

St. Francis Xavier – One of Our Patrons

Xavier10b (1) St. Francis Xavier, (1506-1552). Born in the family castle of Xavier, near Pamplona in the Basque area of Spanish Navarre on Apr. 7, he was sent to the University of Paris in 1525, secured his licentiate in 1528, met Ignatius Loyola and became one of the seven who in 1534, at Montmartre founded the Society of Jesus. In 1536 he left Paris to join Ignatius in Venice, from whence they all intended to go as missionaries to Palestine (a trip which never materialized), was ordained there in 1537, went to Rome in 1538, and in 1540, when the pope formally recognized the Society, was ordered, with Fr. Simon Rodriguez, to the Far East as the first Jesuit missionaries. King John III kept Fr. Simon in Lisbon, but Francis, after a year’s voyage, six months of which were spent at Mozambique where he preached and gave aid to the sick eventually arrived in Goa, India in 1542 with Fr. Paul of Camerino an Italian, and Francis Mansihas, a Portuguese. There he began preaching to the natives and attempted to reform his fellow Europeans, living among the natives and adopting their customs on his travels. During the next decade he converted tens of thousands to Christianity. He visited the Paravas at the tip of India. near Cape Comorin, Tuticorin (1542), Malacca (1545), the Moluccas near New Guinea and Morotai near the Philippines (1546-47), and Japan (1549- 51). In 1551, India and the East were set up as a separate province and Ignatius made Francis its first provincial. In 1552 he set out for China, landed on the island of Sancian within sight of his goal, but died before he reached the mainland. Working against great difficulties, language problems ( contrary to legend, he had no proficiency in foreign tongues ), inadequate funds, and lack of cooperation, often actual resistance, from European officials, he left the mark of his missionary zeal and energy on areas which clung to Christianity for centuries. He was canonized in 1622 and proclaimed patron of all foreign missions by Pope Pius X.

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.

D20A0422

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).