An enlightening pilgrimage

One reason why I failed to submit my column for Tuesday was the fact that I had to join two Neo-Catechumenal communities – from Iloilo City and Bacolod – on a pre-Lenten pilgrimage to Manila and Antipolo.

Just to sum it up, it was a Lenten excursion that was both enlightening and spiritually uplifting.

The two communities were those of Molo, Iloilo City and Our Lady of Lourdes Parish of Bata, Bacolod City. There were 75 of us. Some took the boat, and the others the ferry from Iloilo.

First stop was the New Betania Retreat House in New Manila, Quezon City. The pilgrims enjoyed their stay at the New Betania operated by the AVM Sisters.

The first stop of our pilgrimage was the San Agustin Church in Intramuros. Now, for me who had stayed in Manila for almost 40 years, that was supposed to be a routine visit. But it also opened my eyes to the reality that I had most of the time viewed the Church only as a structure. Yet, my visit enabled me to see the contributions of the Augustinians to the spread of the Faith among Filipinos and the sacrifices many Augustinians and those of other religious orders had contributed to the evangelization of the Philippines.

For many in the group, it was their first time to visit Manila. We were led by Fr. Angel Mojica, a priest from Colombia who was ordained as a priest in Italy. With him was a seminarian from San Salvador and now staying in California, but studying in Redemptorist Mater in Madagascar. Another member of the team was Isa, an Italian.

But that was the second day. The first day brought us to the Pro-Basilica of San Lorenzo Ruiz in Binondo. This was a place I was familiar with. The area used to be the favorite haunt of police reporters who enjoyed eating at the Pasignao, which specialized in fish with garlic and oil.

Later, we visited the smaller chapel where San Lorenzo Ruiz was baptized. This is operated by the Dominican Order. And Fr. Serra provided us with fresh insights into who Lorenzo Ruiz was and how he unexpectedly became the strength of the missionary team that went to Japan to spread the Gospel.

The next day, as I’ve said, was at the San Agustin Church where Fr. Angel gave us a catechesis on what the missionaries from the various religious orders had done to spread the Good News of God’s love for the Filipinos.

Later, from the New Betania, we motored to the St. Michel retreat house in Antipolo. Surprisingly, although we had stayed there once during the Family Day presented by Kiko Arguello, I was surprised to learn that the retreat house belongs to the Manila Diocese and not Antipolo whose present bishop is Msgr. Gabriel Reyes, formerly of Aklan province.

But before Antipolo, we touched base with the seminarians at the Redemptorist Mater seminary where the formator, Fr. Paolo, briefed us on seminary life – and the many problems of the seminary.

The seminary is now run by Msgr. Benjamin Almoneda, a retired bishop of Bacolod. But as he pointed out, there is no such thing as retirement for him. He was immediately invited to be rector of the seminary, one of the 70 in so many countries of the world.

Since the seminary was a small house, we found ourselves divided into two groups. We had to get our briefing from the seminarians and the formators one after the other. The first time, we were in the dining room, while the other group (Molo) was in the chapel. Later, it was vice versa.

From St. Michel, our group proceeded yesterday morning to the Our Lady of Peace and Bon Voyage in Antipolo. It was an impressive structure, which my wife and I used to visit in the late-50s.

We sang and participated in a liturgical rite there and later, returned to St. Michel to spend our remaining hours there praying and listening to the catechesis of Fr. Angel and the itinerant missionary team.

But while going around on a purely religious quest, I could not as a journalist have my ears closed to the goings-on in the metropolis.

And the first thing that hit me was that a lot of people just went about their daily grind with hardly a notice of what was reportedly going around them. Vendors in downtown Manila and elsewhere, especially Antipolo, went about their chores hardly talking about the political problems hounding the country.

Many family members, including friends and relatives, hardly said anything about their impressions of Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. and the turmoil now gripping the country over the ZTE-NBN investigation.

In short, despite claims to the contrary, it seems that majority of the people remain simply apathetic to what is going on and the insistence by noisy groups to force President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to resign her position.

But I heard some disconcerting news that Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo has had his list of problems. He not only has to contend with clamors by some members of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines to resign his position because of the ineffectual and ambiguous position by the CBCP on the Arroyo resignation, but he also has his problems with recalcitrant priests who are defying his reshuffle of parish priests.

Now that seems to be the more troublesome problem for the Jaro archbishop. And, I suppose, that by Holy Week, most of these tensions shall have ebbed. Otherwise, he is in for a lot of trouble.