Bishop Du bids farewell to Dumaguete

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines  – A few days short of his installation as the new Archbishop of Palo, Leyte, outgoing Bishop John F. Du of the Dumaguete Diocese on Sunday thanked the clergy, laity and the community for their contributions in making the diocese stronger.

Du is scheduled to leave today (Tuesday) for Palo, Leyte, where he will be officially installed as the new archbishop of the Palo Archdiocese by the Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, Archbishop Giuseppe Pinto, tomorrow Wednesday.

Priests, nuns, lay ministers, religious organizations and various groups are sending off Du to Palo, Leyte and will be attending his installation on Wednesday.

The prelate has repeatedly called on the faithful to continue supporting the Dumaguete Diocese in its endeavors as he prepares to take on a bigger challenge in Palo where there will be around 160 priests in his care compared to the diocese here that has only about 80 priests in 42 parishes and six chaplaincies.

During his regular morning Mass last Sunday, and during the ordination of two deacons in a Mass later in the afternoon, Du spoke with sadness in his voice, noting that it was his last Sunday with his flock. 

Du said the programs and projects, in the almost 11 years of his leadership of the diocese, would not have been possible or successful if not for the support and cooperation of church members.

Among these is the feeding program for the poor, which he started by shelling out his own money, has already been fully organized. The project, now with the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor and other support groups, has benefitted many of the city’s poor . This runs the entire week at the ground floor of the Marian Center, complete with facilities such as a soup kitchen, Du said.

Msgr. Du said he is exultant to leave knowing the program will be sustained as it has funds allocated for it. Strangers, street children, beggars and the homeless have benefited from the feeding program, he added. “By the grace of God, the program has offered not just free food or temporary shelter for the city’s poor but basic medical and health care as well,” the archbishop noted.

Another project is the establishment of the new mission centers, complete with churches and convents, such as those in barangays Amio and San Francisco in Sta. Catalina town, Tayawan and Dawis in Bayawan City, Tambo in Ayungon, and the latest in Apo Island in Dauin.

The most recent projects the Dumaguete bishop launched before his departure for Leyte, besides the ordination of the two deacons, was the blessing of the five new classrooms of the quake-hit St. Anthony Academy in Tayasan and the first phase of a housing project in Brgy. Bajumpandan for the city’s typhoon victims.

Du yesterday blessed the first house at Bajumpandan, under the project of the diocese in partnership with the city government, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-National Secretariat for Social Action (CBCP) and the local Social Action Center.

He also announced that a health care program was already laid out for the Dumaguete clergy and the planned living allowance for the priests to allow them to have equal stipends.

While thanking the city government for returning the Santa Cruzan to the Church as a religious activity, Du also hoped the “aurora” (daily dawn prayer) and the catechesis (a teaching of the Christian doctrine to children and adults), held every May, will continue without letup. (FREEMAN)