AMID financial crises due to the global decrease in the number of Catholics extending charity through Dominican parishes and students studying in Dominican institutions, Philippine Dominican Prior Provincial Fr. Edmund Nantes, O.P. challenged Thomasian priests to stay true to their evangelical mission.
“The experience of poverty can re-enkindle priestly zeal, which is otherwise forgotten in the Philippines, where priests are pampered,”said Nantes in a conference last Jan. 24 to mark the 72nd homecoming of the UST Alumni Priests Association (UST-ALPA).
Themed The Thomasian Priest and the Evangelization of Asia, the conference was part of the two-day homecoming of the UST-ALPA.
Nantes said reliance on God has helped the Dominicans pull through their missions in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Ethiopia despite the insufficient support from the Dominican curia in Rome and the Propaganda Fidei, the Vatican congregation that promotes evangelization.
Promote interfaith harmony
Nantes also talked about the Dominicans’ missionary work in Pontianak, Indonesia, with the establishment of the Center for Research and Inter-Religious Dialogue where Christians and Muslims can talk on interfaith cooperation.
“In Ethiopia, the bishops’ conference approached our curia in Rome, asking for help, because the government is willing to give the Catholic Church 80 hectares of land to be the future site of the Ethiopian Catholic University of St. Thomas Aquinas,” he said. “Our Roman curia in turn approached us in the Philippines because of our many educational institutions.”
Nantes said that short term missionary options are also open to diocesan Thomasian priests who are interested in joining other forthcoming missionary works.
Aside from the conference, a luncheon recognizing new Thomasian bishops and homecoming jubilarians was held at the UST Central Seminary Gym. Among those honored were Apostolic Nuncio to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands Bishop Francisco Padilla, Lingayen Auxillary Bishop Renato Mayugba, Manila Auxillary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, Urdaneta Bishop Jacinto Jose, Bontoc-Lagawe Apostolic Vicar Rodolfo Beltran, San Fernando Bishop Roberto Mallari, and Hsinchu Bishop John Baptist Lee Keh-Mien of Taiwan.
