Snapshots of the faith in Ireland on St Patrick's Day

When I go home to Ireland I sometimes feel depressed at what I see as a colossal falling away from the Catholic faith. And reports I've read on some St Patricks' Day celebrations in recent years have led me to think that anything to do with the saint and with our Christian faith is purely coincidental.

However, there are signs of hope. Father Gerard Dunne OP highlighted on 22 February on his website, Irish Dominican Vocations, the first profession of Sr Lucy Conway OSsR, in the Redemptoristine Monastery, Drumcondra, Dublin. The Redemptoristines are contemplatives.

Father Dunne wrote: Yesterday, it was my great joy to attend the first profession of a Redempterostine nun, Sr Lucy Conway OSsR (pictured above), at their monastery in Saint Alphonsus Road in Dublin 9. The nuns at the monastery are neighbours of mine and I celebrate the Eucharist for them regularly. Sr Lucy's profession follows on from the recent first profession in the same community of Sr Maura Walsh. As you can imagine this event is one of significant importance to this enclosed contemplative community. I am deep in admiration for these nuns who four or five years ago had no vocations and were facing a very uncertain future. Their commitment to prayer and a deep desire to attract vocations has resulted in the fact that this community of thirteen nuns now has five of its members in formation. This is a truly remarkable achievement and a reminder to all religious orders, congregations, societies and dioceses in this country that if there is a will and a deep desire to foster, nourish and attract vocations then tremendous things can happen.

You can check out the Redemptoristines' website and find a report and many photos of Sister Lucy's profession on their blog.

Photo by Cyril Byrne: Brothers Tony Rice CSsR, Brian Nolan CSsR and Seán Duggan CSsR.

Meanwhile, Patsy McGarry reported in yesterday’s The Irish Times that three men made their final profession as Redemptorists in Dublin last Sunday:

They included Tony Rice (31) from Belfast. Educated at the Belfast Royal Academy he was a customer adviser with Abbey National before joining the Redemptorists in 2001.

Seán Duggan (29) is from Galway city where his parents run a family business in Renmore. He attended secondary school at St Joseph’s Patrician College in Galway, later graduating with a bachelor of corporate law degree from NUIG. He entered the Redemptorists in 2001.

The third man to make his final profession was Brian Nolan (30) from Limerick city. He attended secondary school at St Clement’s College, and studied at the Limerick Institute of Technology for two years, receiving a diploma in computer engineering. He worked in electronics for a year before joining the Redemptorists in 2000.

Another Redemptorist story was featured in The Irish Times on 14 February as Lorna Siggins reported on the annual novena in honour of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Galway Cathedral. This is a novena in the strict sense, ie, nine days, unlike the perpetual novena in honour of Our Lady of Perpetual Help that is so popular here in the Philippines since it was introduced by the Redemptorists in 1946 and which Filipinos have now brought to other countries.

The Irish Times has an excellent slideshow on the Galway novena here.

Ironically, the Redemptorists formally left Bacolod City, where I'm based, yesterday, handing over their church and monastery to the Diocese of Bacolod. The Irish Redemptorists came here around 1950. In 1996 the Vice-Province of Ireland, which covered the central and southern Philippines, became a separate province. Luzon is still a vice-province of Australia. As far as I know, the basic reason for the decision of the Redemptorists to leave Bacolod is lack of vocations to their congregation here in the Philippines.

May St Patrick, patron saint of Ireland and of Nigeria, who wasn't Irish, obtain the grace of a renewal of faith in Ireland.

Final profession of Sister Juliet Mantos TC

Last Saturday, 25 July, Sr Juliet Mantos TC (left in photo with Sr Maria Elena S. Echavarren TC) made her final profession as a member of the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family in Cagayan de Oro City, located in northern Mindanao.

As Sister Juliet offered her life for ever to God two of her companions, Sr Neri Rama TC and Sr Wennie Puyco TC, shower petals on her in St Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral.

Sister Juliet makes her vows in the presence of Sr Maria Elena, the superior of the Vice Province that includes the Philippines along with a community in India and another in Korea. Sister Elena is a former Superior General of the congregation and is from Spain. Also in the phots is Sr Luz Maria Buitrago from Colombia.

Archbishop Antonio J. Ledesma SJ of Cagayan de Oro places the ring on Sister Juliet's finger.

The Sisters sing their Congregational Hymn during the ceremony.

Sister Juliet with her parents and other members of her family after Mass.

Taken on 8 February at Mater Dolorosa Formation House, Talisay City, Negros Occidental after the first profession of Sr Antonieta Napone TC . She is the shortest Sister in the middle row and, at 57, became the oldest Filipino Sister. She is an inspiration to the young women, some of them from China, preparing to follow in her footsteps and those of Sister Juliet.

God has been blessing the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters abundantly since they came to the Philippines in 1982.

I had my first assignment in the Philippines, even if only for Holy Week in 1972 while I was still studying the Cebuano language in Ozamiz City, in St Augustine's Cathedral. Archbishop Patrick Cronin, a Columban, was the second archbishop, serving from 1970 until 1988. For 15 years before going to Cagayan de Oro he had been the first bishop of Ozamiz. He was one of the first batch of Columbans to go to Mindanao in 1938.

Archbishop Cronin was truly loved by priests, religious and people. He spent the years of the Second World War in the mountains, sharing the hardships of the people and had a wonderful memory for names.

When I arrived in the Philippines in 1971 the Columbans had quite a few parishes in the archdiocese, most of them taken over from the Jesuits, as far as I know, in the early 1950s. We have only one parish now, in the city itself.

Thanks to Sr Alma Alovera TC for the photos.

Religious Professions in Belgium and the Philippines yesterday

Sr Marie Elizabeth of the Divine Mercy OCD (standing)

Yesterday Sr Marie Elizabeth of the Divine Mercy, from the Philippines, pronounced her first vows in the Carmel of Our Lady of Consolation, Vilvoorde, Belgium, the oldest existing community of Discalced Carmelite nuns in the world, founded in 1469 by Blessed John Soreth. Her companion in the photo, Sr Marie Paul Therese, also from the Philippines will make her profession, God willing, within this year. The officiaiting priest was Fr Paul De Bois OCD, a former provincial of the Discalced Carmelites in Belgium.

I visited the Carmel in Vilvoorde in 2005.

A group of Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family in the Philippines



Meanwhile, another Discalced Carmelite, Fr Alan Rieger OCD, an American, was the celebrant at a Mass in the Diocese of Bacolod, where I live, when seven young women made their first profession as Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family. I was unable to be there as I am directing some retreatants at the Carmelite Retreat House, Ozamiz City, across the road from the Carmelite Monastery. The retreat house is right on the sea-shore. Father Alan is no stranger here as he has come a number of times on official visitation.

At our Mass yesterday morning we prayed for the new Sisters in Vilvoorde and here in the Philippines.

Sr Juliet Mantos TC, after her final profession in July 2009 in Cagayan de Oro Cathedral, with Sr Maria Elena S. Echavarren TC, Superior of the Vice-Province.

The Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family came to the Philippines in 1982 and are now part of the Vice-Province of St Clare, with its headquarters in Cebu City. The Vice-Province includes missions in South Korea and in India. There are plans to establish a community in Sri Lanka. There are now Filipino Sisters working in Korea, India and Tanzania. The Vice-Province has Sisters from China who have had their formation here, made their professions here and are working here. Their are also eight young women from Vietnam in the Philippines who are preparing to enter the aspirancy shortly. Sr Juliet Mantos, above, is the Directress of Aspirants in Bacolod City.

The newly-professed are Sisters Ronalyn C. Moreno, Megan M. Nudalo, Soseth P. Soliva, Maricel L. Fuerzas, Markris B. Bios, Myra F. Grijaldo and Maris Stella D. Magno.

The Sisters in the group photo above are wearing the normal 'working' habit. Sisters Juliet and Elena are wearing the darker habit, worn on special occasions.

You can read about Holy Family Home, Makati City, here and about Holy Family Home, Bacolod City, where I'm unofficial chaplain and where the joy of the Sisters and of the girls they take care of gives me a real taste of the joy of the Lord, here. 'The Lord takes delight in his people' (Ps 149:4).

Every month, usually on the night of the first Saturday, the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters in Bacolod hold a two-hour vigil in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament exposed, a vigil to which the girls in Holy Family Home are invited, for vocations. As far as I know, the Sisters hold a similar vigil in their other houses.







Newest and oldest Filipino Sister in her congregation

Newly professed Sr Antonieta Navarro Napone TC

Yesterday, Sunday, Sr Antonieta N. Napone TC became both the newest and the oldest Filipino professed sister in the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family . At 57 she is also the oldest ever in the congregation to take her first vows. Sister Tonet, as she is known, came to Bacolod to work with the Sisters seven years ago as a house mother to the college students whom they look after in Holy Family Home. Most of the college girls live in a house in the city proper. You can read about this aspect of the Sisters’ work in Misyon, the Columban online magazine I edit, here and here .
Sister Antonieta’s experience with the girls prepared her for the great surprise of being asked directly by the Sisters if she would like to join them. And it happens that we have a mutual friend who took her first vows as a member of the contemplative branch of Blessed Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity on 12 December, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, as Sister Mary Anthony MC. She too is in her 50s. So I was very happy to see three Missionaries of Charity at Sister Antonieta’s profession yesterday at Mater Dolorosa Formation House, Talisay City, just north of Bacolod City. (There’s another Talisay City just south of Cebu City.)
Sr Antonieta with her mother and other family members.
The Capuchin Tertiary Sisters came to the Philippines 27 years ago and on the occasion of their Silver Jubilee in March 2007 the delegation, as the unit was called, was raised to a vice-province that includes a community in Korea and one in India. There are now nearly 30 Filipino Sisters and more than twenty in formation as aspirants, postulants and novices.



With Sister Antonieta, center, Missionaries of Charity and Sr Reinalda Zapata, a Colombian, of the Franciscan Sisters of St Anthony.

As I have come to know them, the Sisters live a simple and joyful Franciscan life in community, give importance to both liturgical and personal prayer, wear a simple habit and get on with their work which, in the Philippines, is mainly with girls who are poor and many of whom have suffered deeply.

The choir consisted of girls from Holy Family Home and the lunch afterwards was prepared by some of the college students who are studying Hotel and Restaurant Management.

Sister Antonieta is from Medina, Misamis Oriental, Mindanao, a parish that was run by Columbans during her younger years.

The profession of Sister Tonet was a truly joyful event. In my homily I mentioned Fr Nicolaus Kao Se-tsien from China who, after 49 years as a diocesan priest joined the Trappists in Hong Kong, made his final vows at 100 and spent 35 years as a monk before peacefully passing on at the age of 110 in December 2007. I put before Sister Antonieta the hope of celebrating her Golden Jubilee!

Capuchin Terciary Sisters of the Holy Family with novices and aspirants after Sister Tonet's profession.

'So that, faithful to Christ, we may proclaim and bear witness together to his presence in our time.' Sunday Reflections, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Saint Peter

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Matthew 16:13-20 (English Standard Version Anglicised)

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Pope Benedict XVI

[Wikipedia]

This week again I fall back on Pope Benedict XVI. This is the Angelus talk on today's gospel that he gave on 24 August 2008 in Castel Gandolfo. I have highlighted parts of it, something I found difficult to do as it is so deep and rich - and yet so clear and simple.

Brothers and Sisters,

This Sunday's liturgy addresses to us Christians but also at the same time to every man and every woman the double question that one day Jesus put to his disciples. He first asked them: ‘Who do men say that the Son of man is?’ They answered him saying that some of the people said John the Baptist restored to life, others Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. The Lord then directly questioned the Twelve: ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter spoke enthusiastically and authoritatively on behalf of them all: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’. This solemn profession of faith the Church continues to repeat since then. Today too, we long to proclaim with an innermost conviction: ‘Yes, Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God!’ Let us do so in the awareness that Christ is the true ‘treasure’ for whom it is worth sacrificing everything; he is the friend who never abandons us for he knows the most intimate expectations of our hearts. Jesus is the ‘Son of the living God’, the promised Messiah who came down to earth to offer humanity salvation and to satisfy the thirst for life and love that dwells in every human being. What an advantage humanity would have in welcoming this proclamation which brings with it joy and peace!

‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’. Jesus answers Peter's inspired profession of faith: ‘You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven’. This is the first time that Jesus speaks of the Church, whose mission is the actuation of God's great design to gather the whole of humanity into a single family in Christ. Peter's mission, and that of his Successors, is precisely to serve this unity of the one Church of God formed of Jews and pagans of all peoples; his indispensable ministry is to ensure that she is never identified with a single nation, with a single culture, but is the Church of all peoples - to make present among men and women, scarred by innumerable divisions and conflicts, God's peace and the renewing power of his love. This, then, is the special mission of the Pope, Bishop of Rome and Successor of Peter: to serve the inner unity that comes from God's peace, the unity of those who have become brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.

In the face of the enormous responsibility of this task, I am increasingly aware of the commitment and importance of the service to the Church and the world that the Lord has entrusted to me. I therefore ask you, dear brothers and sisters, to support me with your prayers so that, faithful to Christ, we may proclaim and bear witness together to his presence in our time. May Mary, whom we invoke with trust as Mother of the Church and Star of Evangelization, obtain this grace for us.

Young Jew as Christ

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

Pope Benedict's short reflection touches on so many fundamental things. Our faith as Christians is in the Person of Jesus Christ, God who became Man. Jesus calls us into a personal relationship with him, not in an exclusive 'You and I only' sense but in an intimate 'You, I and all of us' sense as members of the Church with a common mission given by Jesus to the Church.

As members of the Church we share in the mission given us by Jesus Christ. Pope Benedict says, I therefore ask you, dear brothers and sisters, to support me with your prayers so that, faithful to Christ, we may proclaim and bear witness together to his presence in our time. 

Our common mission is to proclaim and bear witness together to his presence in our time. That means that Jesus calls each of us to realise that every person we meet is meant to meet Jesus in us - in every aspect of our lives, private and public. 

Yet so many politicians, for example, who announce to the world that they are faithful Catholics promote the evil of abortion. Many voters who see themselves as faithful Catholics support them in this. This, in effect, is saying that Jesus Christ our Saviour promotes the killing of unborn children. 

Pope Benedict by addressing us as Dear brothers and sisters, reminds us of our deepest identity: we are sons and daughters of God the Father through our baptism. We are brothers and sisters of Jesus through our baptism. As such, we are brothers and sisters of one another through baptism.

Our baptism, through which we have received our Christian faith, is pure gift from God. Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. We are called by baptism to proclaim the presence of Jesus in the world so that others may come to know Him. Pope Benedict doesn't mention baptism specifically but everything he says makes sense only in the context of our having been baptised.

Jesus through his Church does not identify himself with any particular nation or with any particular ethnic group. Yet he speaks to each nation, to each group, to each individual within their own culture. Some years ago in the Philippines when celebrating Sunday Mass in a home for girls most of whom had been abused before going there, I showed during my homily a very poor black-and-white reproduction of Rembrandt's painting above. One girl, aged about 14, asked me if she could have the picture. (I later had a proper copy made and framed for her). I asked her what had attracted her in the painting. He is so human, she said. This painting done in Amsterdam nearly 400 years before spoke to her heart. Rembrandt, through his painting in which he had a Jewish refugee from Spain as a model, was able to proclaim and bear witness to the presence of Jesus in our time to a young girl in the Philippines in the 21st century who had suffered greatly.

These are some random thoughts. Pope Benedict's Angelus message has so much in it and can be a source of prayer and contemplation in trying to answer the question Jesus puts before us today: But who do you say that I am?

Collect from the Mass for the Pope

O God, who in your providential design 

willed that your Church be built 

upon blessed Peter, whom you set over the other Apostles, look with favour, we pray, on Francis our Pope 

and grant that he, whom you have made Peter's successor, may be for your people a visible source and foundation 

of unity in faith and of communion.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Tu es Petrus

Setting by Palestrina

Sung by The Tallis Scholars, directed by Peter Phillips

Tu es Petrus et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam et portae inferi non praevalebunt adversum eam.

You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). 

Four Filipino Franciscan Sisters' First Profession on Feast of St Francis

St Francis Meditating, El Greco, c. 1595 [Web Gallery of Art]

This morning I attended the First Profession of four Religious Franciscan Sisters of St Anthony in Pontevedra, Negros Occidental, part of the Diocese of Bacolod and about an hour's drive south of Bacolod City. Srs Farrah B. Partol, Lisel T. Genes, Jelanie P. Gonzaels and Elsie M. Larrot are the first sisters to do all their formation in the Philippines. The Sisters, an Italian congregation, came here in the 1990s with a small group from El Salvador and Colombia. They've had many ups and downs over the years but, thanks be to God, now eleven or twelve young Filipino Sisters.

The Mass took place in the parish church and Bishop Vicente M. Navarra of Bacolod was the main celebrant. Mther Gaetana Maria Nicolaio RFSA, the Italian Superior General, received the vows of the young Sisters.

The Sisters have only two convents in the Philippines, that in Pontevedra and the novitiate in the Diocese of San Pablo, Laguna, south of Manila. They serve both children and old people and visit these in their homes in the areas near the convent in Pontevedra, which is three or four kilometres south of the town proper. We went there after Mass for lunch and most of the guests were the people the Sisters serve. We all shared in the simple lunch of chicken, pansit (noodles) and rice, with some roast pig added. I was touched by the fact that it was such a simple lunch,m very Franciscan.

Please pray for the Sisters.

The familiar words of St Francis in Italian and English, in a setting by contemporary Filipino composer Ryan Cayabyab and sung by the Chinese University of Hong Kong Chorus directed by Leon Chu. St Francis is surely one of the most universal of all saints in his appeal.

‘To serve the unity of those who have become brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.’ Sunday Reflections, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

St Peter

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

'You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it' (Matthew 16:18; Gospel). 

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Matthew 16:13-20 (English Standard Version Anglicised)

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Benedict XVI in 2010

[Wikipedia; photo]

This week I'm using what I used three years ago, with some slight editing. Again I fall back on Pope Benedict XVI. This is the Angelus talk on today's gospel that he gave on 24 August 2008 in Castel Gandolfo. I have highlighted parts of it, something I found difficult to do as it is so deep and rich - and yet so clear and simple.

Brothers and Sisters,

This Sunday's liturgy addresses to us Christians but also at the same time to every man and every woman the double question that one day Jesus put to his disciples. He first asked them: ‘Who do men say that the Son of man is?’ They answered him saying that some of the people said John the Baptist restored to life, others Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. The Lord then directly questioned the Twelve: ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter spoke enthusiastically and authoritatively on behalf of them all: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’. This solemn profession of faith the Church continues to repeat since then. Today too, we long to proclaim with an innermost conviction: ‘Yes, Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God!’ Let us do so in the awareness that Christ is the true ‘treasure’ for whom it is worth sacrificing everything; he is the friend who never abandons us for he knows the most intimate expectations of our hearts. Jesus is the ‘Son of the living God’, the promised Messiah who came down to earth to offer humanity salvation and to satisfy the thirst for life and love that dwells in every human being. What an advantage humanity would have in welcoming this proclamation which brings with it joy and peace!

‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' Jesus answers Peter's inspired profession of faith: ‘You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven’. This is the first time that Jesus speaks of the Church, whose mission is the actuation of God's great design to gather the whole of humanity into a single family in Christ. Peter's mission, and that of his Successors, is precisely to serve this unity of the one Church of God formed of Jews and pagans of all peoples; his indispensable ministry is to ensure that she is never identified with a single nation, with a single culture, but is the Church of all peoples - to make present among men and women, scarred by innumerable divisions and conflicts, God's peace and the renewing power of his love. This, then, is the special mission of the Pope, Bishop of Rome and Successor of Peter: to serve the inner unity that comes from God's peace, the unity of those who have become brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.

In the face of the enormous responsibility of this task, I am increasingly aware of the commitment and importance of the service to the Church and the world that the Lord has entrusted to me. I therefore ask you, dear brothers and sisters, to support me with your prayers so that, faithful to Christ, we may proclaim and bear witness together to his presence in our time. May Mary, whom we invoke with trust as Mother of the Church and Star of Evangelization, obtain this grace for us.

Young Jew as Christ

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

Pope Benedict's short reflection touches on so many fundamental things. Our faith as Christians is in the Person of Jesus Christ, God who became Man. Jesus calls us into a personal relationship with him, not in an exclusive 'You and I only' sense but in an intimate 'You, I and all of us' sense as members of the Church with a common mission given by Jesus to the Church.

As members of the Church we share in the mission given us by Jesus Christ. Pope Benedict says, I therefore ask you, dear brothers and sisters, to support me with your prayers so that, faithful to Christ, we may proclaim and bear witness together to his presence in our time. 

Our common mission is to proclaim and bear witness together to his presence in our time. That means that Jesus calls each of us to realise that every person we meet is meant to meet Jesus in us - in every aspect of our lives, private and public. 

Yet so many politicians, for example, who announce to the world that they are faithful Catholics promote the evils of abortion and the genital mutilation of confused minors who think they want to be the opposite sex. Many voters who see themselves as faithful Catholics support them in this. This, in effect, is saying that Jesus Christ our Saviour promotes the killing of unborn children and the physical/sexual abuse of minors. 

Pope Benedict by addressing us as Dear brothers and sisters, reminds us of our deepest identity: we are sons and daughters of God the Father through our baptism. We are brothers and sisters of Jesus through our baptism. As such, we are brothers and sisters of one another through baptism.

Our baptism, through which we have received our Christian faith, is pure gift from God. Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. We are called by baptism to proclaim the presence of Jesus in the world so that others may come to know Him. Pope Benedict doesn't mention baptism specifically but everything he says makes sense only in the context of our having been baptised.

Jesus through his Church does not identify himself with any particular nation or with any particular ethnic group. Yet he speaks to each nation, to each group, to each individual within their own culture. Some years ago in the Philippines when celebrating Sunday Mass in a home for girls most of whom had been abused before going there, I showed during my homily a very poor black-and-white reproduction of Rembrandt's painting above. One girl, aged about 14, asked me if she could have the picture. (I later had a proper copy made and framed for her). I asked her what had attracted her in the painting. He is so human, she said. This painting done in Amsterdam nearly 400 years before spoke to her heart. Rembrandt, through his painting in which he had a Jewish refugee from Spain as a model, was able to proclaim and bear witness to the presence of Jesus in our time to a young girl in the Philippines in the 21st century who had suffered greatly.

These are some random thoughts. Pope Benedict's Angelus message has so much in it and can be a source of prayer and contemplation in trying to answer the question Jesus puts before us today: But who do you say that I am?

Collect from the Mass for the Pope

O God, who in your providential design 

willed that your Church be built 

upon blessed Peter, whom you set over the other Apostles, look with favour, we pray, on Francis our Pope 

and grant that he, whom you have made Peter's successor, may be for your people a visible source and foundation 

of unity in faith and of communion.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Tu es Petrus

Setting by Palestrina

Sung by Yonsei University Concert Choir, South Korea

conducted by Hae Ock Eunice Kim Bang        

Tu es Petrus et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam et portae inferi non praevalebunt adversum eam. Et tibi dabo claves regni caelorum.

You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:18-19). 

Traditional Latin Mass

Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 08-27-2023 if necessary).

Epistle: Galatians 3:16-22. Gospel: Luke 17:11-19.

Codex Aureus of Echternach

German Miniaturist [Web Gallery of Art]

The lowest panel depicts the Gospel, the healing of the ten lepers.

Do we take oaths too easily?

I learned just now from Catholic Culture that St Pancras, whom the Church honours today, is the patron saint of fidelity to oaths. he was martryred in Rome in 304 at the age of 14.

Here in the Philippines oaths are taken very lightly. A regular photo in newspapers is that of a politician or group of politicians being sworn in as members of their latest party. At school sports festivals children take an 'oath of amateurism'. Years ago, when I was a chaplain in a Catholic school I was asked to celebrate Mass for the opening of the games. I did so on condition that there would be no oath of amateuris. These were high school kids. The teacher in charge promised me that there wouldn't be an oath. hardly was the Mass finished than this same teacher led the students in their 'oath of amateurism'.

I was also a member of the committee of the diocesan directors of vocations and no less than than the bishop swore us in. I just remained silent as I didn't see it as proper.

I've been at countless graduation ceremonies in both public and Catholic schools here where the graduates, even at elementary level, swear their allegiance to the alumni association.

When my Columban colleagues, Fr Niall O'Brien and Fr Brian Gore, were on trial for trumped-up murder charges along with Fr Vicente Dangan of the Diocese of Bacolod, and six laymen, Church workers, lies were told freely in the court. Perjury meant nothing.

I see an oath or a vow as being made only on such solemn occasions as a wedding, a religious profession or on receiving the sacrament of holy orders, as well as when you give testimony in court or become president of your country. But not when you join an alumni association or your next political party. (Here in the Philippines political parties as understood in the West simply don't exist. They are temporary alliances of convenience).

Catholic Culture carries an excerpt from the writings of the late Fr Pius Parsch on St Pancras:

St Pancras or Pancratius was the descendant of a noble Phrygian family. As a youth of fourteen, he came to Rome while Diocletian and Maximian were in power (about 304). He was baptized by the Pope and given instructions in the Christian religion. Arrested for his action, he steadfastly refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods and was condemned to death. With manly courage, he bared his neck for the sword and received the martyr's crown. During the night his body was removed by the pious matron Octavilla, anointed with sweet smelling balsam and interred on the Via Aurelia.

Pancratius is the patron saint of fidelity to oaths. The basilica that Pope Symmachus erected over his remains about the year 500 later became a station church (since 1798 his relics have been lost). On the first Sunday after Easter the saint exhorted the catechumens gathered at his station church to remain loyal to their baptismal vows. The saint warns us to proceed slowly and prudently before taking an oath or vow. But once our word is given we must remain true to our pledge, true unto death itself, whether it concerns baptismal vows, ordination vows, profession vows, or marriage vows.

— Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch.

I had the full set of The Church's Year of Grace in my seminary years and it nourished me liturgically. It followed the calendar that was changed after Vatican II.

A Columban ordination on the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul

Saints Peter and Paul, El Greco, painted 1605-08

Earlier today I attended the ordination of Columban Fr Rodolfo Christopher Kaamiño IV in Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Ozamiz City. The ordaining prelate was Archbishop Jesus A. Dosado CM of the Archdiocese of Ozamiz. As a deacon Father Chris was working in Malate Parish, Manila, which the Columbans have been taking care of since we came to the Philippines in 1929. He will continue to work there as a priest for some months before receiving an overseas assignment. He spent two years in Taiwan as a seminarian on his First Mission Assignment.

Among the five Irish Columbans in Malate killed by the Japanese in February 1945 during the Battle of Manila, when around 100,000 died, mostly civilians, was Fr Peter Fallon, the first Columban parish priest of what then was the town of Misamis, now Ozamiz City, when we came to Mindanao in 1948. The first bishop of the Prelature of Ozamiz, set up in 1951, was Columban Bishop Patrick Cronin, later Archbishop of Cagayan de Oro.

Photos from website of Cathedral Parish

Among the many priests who concelebrated was Columban Fr Desmond Morrison from Derry, Northern Ireland, an engineer by profession, who designed the Cathedral, built in the late 1950s or early 1960s. (Right now I can't find the exact date).

Today, the Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul, is also the 93rd anniversary of the canonical establishment of the Missionary Society of St Columban in the Diocese of Galway, Ireland. It late became a society of pontifical right, meaning it wasn't under the jurisdiction of an individual bishop.

In the January-February 2011 issue of Misyon I published an article by Father Chris on his experience in Taiwan as a seminarian, ‘Come after me and I will make you fishers of men’ (Mark 1:17). He describes directly and with humour what he was doing. I tried to find a more 'polite' way of describing this, but couldn't. I'll let the newly ordained priest speak for himself and I know that you'll keep him in your prayers.

‘Come after me and I will make you fishers of men’ (Mark 1:17)

By Rodolfo Christopher Kaamiño IV

The author, from Ozamiz City, was ordained deacon in Malate Church, Manila, on 12 December and priest in Ozamiz Cathedral 29 June 2011. He writes here about his experience as a Columban seminarian on First Mission Assignment in Taiwan.

Father Rodolfo Christopher Kaamiño IV

Friends ask me what I’m doing here in Taiwan. Half-jokingly, ‘Washing asses’ is my frequent reply, and they laugh, thinking I might be joking or that I mean something else. Here is somebody who has studied for four years in graduate school in the USA now washing other people’s asses. It led me to wonder what’s ‘wrong’ with this, probably because it’s a ‘dirty’ job, or because it’s not a ‘classy job’, a ‘sophisticated profession’ such as engineering or accountancy. A friend asked me why I’m doing this. I told him I don’t do it on my own, or else I would have quit a long time ago. I have some help from above.



After being in Taiwan for almost two years, I felt I was an ‘amateur in every field and professional in none’. Probably that's what being a missionary is all about. Being in the ministry for several months now, I feel that I don’t have to be a professional or a rocket scientist to be a minister. I arrived here with ‘professional ideas and concepts’ about mission and ministry learned in school. In ministry here at AiJia these don’t matter much. Mentally challenged adults don’t necessarily need a professional. They need a human companion, somebody who can ‘waste’ time with them.



The ministry at AiJia, of course, also requires professional nursing and care-giving and I learned both on the job. Probably it was my willingness and openness that enabled me to also take on those roles. It wasn’t easy. Being an adult, I don’t want to be told what to do. Yet being a ‘tongue-tied’ foreigner, I depended much on others in the ministry. In AiJia a professional nurse, caregiver or social worker may efficiently take care of the physical needs of mentally challenged adults but not necessarily of their human needs. It has been my continuous struggle in the ministry to provide the people here with professional care and at the same time to be a human companion to them.

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Most of the first followers of Jesus knew only of one trade, and that was to fish. These disciples could have remained professional fishermen and serve the hunger of the people by providing them with fish. But Jesus invited them to a whole new level of fishing, to ‘fish’ for people, a whole new field beyond their professional expertise. It required less of their professional skills but more of their hearts and minds. A tall order, but they were willing and trusting. Despite their being slow to understand, Jesus patiently journeyed with them as they continued ‘fishing’ for people.

Like the first disciples, I too am slow to understand what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Yet I continue this journey in trust and with help from above. We missionaries try to put some flesh on God’s love in this world. Each does it in different ways depending upon the different gifts each has been given. One can be a professional when the situation calls for such. But most of the time, people need a human companion, somebody who is willing to go the extra mile with them.

You can find the Father Chris on Facebook.