Trust and Responsibility

by: José Antonio Pagola
May 17, 2015

Mark 16:15-20

At some point an appendix was added to the original gospel of Mark in which this final mandate of Jesus is recorded: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature." The gospel must not remain within his small group of disciples. They are to go out and travel to reach the "whole world" and bring the Good News to all the peoples, to "all of creation."

Undoubtedly, these words were heard with enthusiasm when Christians were fully expanding and their communities were multiplying throughout the Empire, but how do we hear them today when we see ourselves as powerless to retain those who abandon our churches because they no longer feel a need for our religion?

The first thing is to live based on absolute trust in God's actions. Jesus taught us so. God continues to work on the hearts and minds of all His sons and daughters with infinite love, even though we consider them to be "lost sheep." God isn't blocked by any crisis.

He isn't waiting for us to put our plans for restoration or our innovation projects into action in the Church. He is still acting in the Church and outside of the Church. No one is abandoned by God, even though they might have never heard about the Gospel of Jesus.

But all this does not dispense us from our responsibility. We must begin to ask ourselves new questions: Through what paths does God go looking for men and women of the modern culture? How does He want to make present the Good News of Jesus to the men and women of our time?

We are to ask ourselves something more yet: How is God calling us to transform our traditional ways of thinking, expressing, celebrating, and incarnating the Christian faith such that we propitiate the actions of God within modern culture? With our inertia and inaction, don't we run the risk of becoming a deterrent and cultural obstacle to the incarnation of the Gospel in contemporary society?

Nobody knows how the Christian faith will be in the new world that is emerging, but it will hardly be a "cloning" of the past. The Gospel has the power to inaugurate a new Christianity.

Bishop Antonino Nepomuceno, OMI, DD: A Man for the Poor and the Oppressed

Bishop Antonino Nepomuceno, OMI, DD

By: Fr. Eliseo ‘Jun’ Mercado, OMI

Bishop Nepomuceno or simply Tony to his friends was born on June 13, 1925 in Bustos, Bulacan. He entered San Jose Seminary at an early age. At the seminary, he met Fr. Joseph Boyd, OMI and through him got to know about the mission of the Oblates in Cotabato and Sulu. He was attracted to the Oblate Missionary life and later joined the Oblates.

Tony was sent to Texas for his novitiate and scholasticate. He made his first vows in 1948, and his perpetual vows in 1951. in his fourth year of Theology, he was ordained priest (July 10, 1953), and came home to the Philippines on July 10, 1954 to begin his missionary life in Mindanao.

His early ministry was in the parishes of Cotabato and Grace Park. His outstanding characteristics were noted during his stint in parish priest of Kidapawan. He was, indeed, an exemplary pastor that when the OMI Province and the Prelature of Cotabato was looking for a Filipino Auxillary Bishop, his name was immediately submitted to the Holy See for appointment. Thus, he became the first Filipino Oblate Bishop on August 31, 1969.

After his appointment as auxillary Bishop of Cotabato, he was given the task to organize the Notre Dame Social Action. This was the period when the Catholic Church was beginning to get involved in development. His dynamic leadership and his firm commitment to the poor transformed the Notre Dame Social Action ministry into one of the most active in the whole Philippines.

With religious and lay co-workers, the Social Action ministry reached practically every nook and corner of the Prelature. His pioneering and innovative approach to Social Action put him in the limelight not only in the Prelature nut also in the whole Mindanao and entire Philippines.

His work among the poor and the oppressed went into difficult times during the Martial Law period. He was a lone voice in the whole Prelature in denouncing the abuses of the Marcos regime. While many church leaders adopted a critical collaboration stance (which actually was more collaborator than critical), Bishop Tony was firm in his struggle for justice and freedom of our people.
His commitment to the poor and the oppressed cost him a great deal. People who were for the status quo labeled him “leftist”, or at times “communist”.

It was a difficult time. He chose the unpopular and painful struggle, the cause of the poor and the oppressed. While many church authorities were collaborating with Marcos, and receiving all praises from all sides, Bishop Tony was being subjected to all kinds of black propaganda. Sad to say, some of his confreres both in episcopate and the priesthood had lent themselves as tools in assailing Bishop Tony’s commitment to poor and the oppressed. Ecclesiastical pressures (from the “balimbinmg sectors) were put on him. When he could no longer stomach the insidious intrigues, he announced his retirement on November 11, 1979 as Auxiliary Bishop of Cotabato.

After his retirement he worked as Director for the Communications Foundation of Asia under Fr. Lagerway, MSC. In this position, he was able to continue his commitment to the development of the poor and his struggle for freedom and democracy.

Another outstanding labor of Bishop Tony was his commitment to Muslim-Christian understanding. Together with Ustadz Omar Bajunaid, he organized the Christian Clergy (Catholic and Protestants) and the Muslim religious leaders. This organization was effective not only in paving the way for reconciliation and understanding, but also in giving protection for the people who were harassed, imprisoned, and salvaged during the Martial Law years.

The other strong passion of Bishop Tony was the ouster of the US Bases in the Philippines and his commitment to Nuclear Free Philippines. He would be present in major rallies against US Bases and his presence would, in many ways, ‘provide’ the ‘semblance’ that the Church, was present there in the struggle of the Filipino people against colonial vestiges like the military bases.

Bishop Tony lived in the OMI Community at the OMI Regional house in Manila. For his pastoral work, he was always available to help at Bagong Barrio, the OMI squatter parish, in Greater Manila area. He was very active in his struggle fro a Nuclear-free Philippines. His commitment to the poor and oppressed remains his ardent passion as Oblate, a veritable missionary of the poor and the most abandoned.

With his brother OMI’s from Manila, they went to Jolo for the funeral of the martyred Bishop Benjamin de Jesus, OMI. After the funeral on the 14th February 1997, instead of taking his flight the day after as scheduled, he managed to get a flight in a small place on the afternoon of the same day. That plane took off but failed to gain steam and crashed landed against coconut tress few kilometers from the end of the runaway in Jolo Airport.

Bishop Benjamin de Jesus, OMI

Bishop Benjamin de Jesus, OMI

In Sulu, Tawi-Tawi missions, Bishop Ben got used to riding on boats to visit the different islands to administer the sacraments or visits the school. He was exposed in dealing with top government officials of the province/municipality and military officials.

This was particularly true in Sulu. Bishop Ben spoke in several occasions when his life was endangered and trembling with fear he carried on the work. He would share ‘the times of difficulties in trying to be faithful to the vows’. During the 50th Jubilee of OMI presence in Jolo, he shared ‘Thanks be to God I preserved in His service! If God gave me the grace to be faithful for the past 27 years as a religious and 21 years as a priest, I hope and pray that by the grace of our OMI Golden Jubilee celebration, I will be able to persevere unto the end, singing praises to God for the good things He has done in me and through me to the people that I serve. Oblate vocation is truly a gratuitous gift of God to me. I am an ordinary human being, weak, vulnerable, but God used me to proclaim his love and compassion to others.’

Bishop Ben was kindness and friendship personified. When he was shot in front of the Jolo Cathedral in the morning of February 4th, 1997, shock waves reverberated to the entire Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and to the Philippine Church. He was the first Bishop brutally killed few months after the Final Peace Agreement between the Philippine Government and the Moro National Liberation Front was signed on September 2, 1996.

Bishop Benjamin de Jesus, OMI

Two weeks before the bishop was martyred, a devoted woman came to tell an Oblate of her vision. She said, “Father, I have seen a vision. I’ve seen throngs of people in the clouds and they were carrying lighted candles. They surrounded someone who was dressed in white robe.” Then, the lady asked innocently, “What does that vision mean, Father?” The priest did not know what it meant but he wanted to be polite with her and so he explained that perhaps what she saw in her vision was the Last Day of Judgment as told in the book of Revelations and depicted by artists in some of those medieval paintings. When she left, he forgot everything about that encounter. But during the wake Bishop Ben, that same woman approached him again and said, “Father, do you remember the vision I told you about”? He was temporarily suspended. He looked at her and said, “Yes, I remember.”

If indeed it was God’s will that Bishop Ben would die, then, we believe it was not without purpose. Bishop Ben’s death has moved many peace advocates throughout the country to work even more for peace to reign in the Philippines. His dream of a harmonious relationship among Muslims and Christians has inspired the hearts of a new wave of dialoguers. Bishop Ben’s martyrdom became a symbol of dialogue and peace.

Fr. Benjamin Inocencio, OMI

He was born January 17, 1958 in Ugong, Pasig City, Metro Manila. Having obtained a college degree in accounting and he worked in a bank prior to novitiate. He made his first vows at Tamontaka in 1986 and was ordained a priest in 1992 at the age of 34. After ordination he was parish priest at Timanan, South Upi, Maguindanao for a year before being assigned to Cagayan de Mapun, Tawi-Tawi one of the remote island stations of the Apostolic Vicariate of Jolo. He spent eight years the reserving the Badjaos the poorest among the poor in the southernmost part of the Philippines before being appointed Chancellor of the Vicariate in June this year.

Bishop Angelito LAMPON Vicar Apostolic of Jolo who has known Fr Inocencio for many years describes him as a very kind and open person easy to get along with.“He would regularly meet the staff and pray with them in inter-religious worship – because we have Muslims on our staff. They prayed together.He was very kind to people and they did not hesitate to approach him to talk. He was very transparent the kind of person of whom you can say ‘what you see is what you get’” said the bishop.

Others who knew Fr. Inocencio say he was “a very quiet meditative person… a very kind and gentle person… quiet and simple.”

According to Bishop Lampon Fr. Inocencio was on his way to the market to buy items needed for the Jolo Vicariate’s combined Christmas and Hari-Raya celebration to be held the next day. A day before the incident Jolo celebrated Eid’l Fitr marking the end of fasting in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the end of a Vicariate sponsored seminar on the culture of peace.

Fr. Inocencio, 42, was martyred on Thursday, December 28, 2009. He was ordained to the priesthood at Grace Park, Caloocan City, Metro Manila on April 25, 1992. He was first assigned to Timanan in June 1992. Three months later he was assigned to Cagayan de Mapun in Tawi-Tawi, where he became the Parochial Vicar of Mapun Parish and at the same time the Director of Notre Dame of Mapun. He spent more than eight years of humble and faithful service to the people of island.

In June 2000, he was assigned Chancellor of the Apostolic Vicariate of Jolo with Bishop Angelito R. Lampon, OMI, DD. At the same time, he served as Chaplain of the Notre Dame of Jolo College.

Beside the Cathedral of Jolo, Fr. Inocencio was shot on the head that caused his sudden death on the feast of the Holy Innocents, December 28, 2000.

The Martyrdom of Fr. Benjamin Inocencio, OMI fondly called as Fr. Benjie, is a second brutal murder of the servant of the Catholic Church which took place in Jolo. The first was the senseless killing of Bishop Benjamin de Jesus, OMI, DD on February 4, 1997.