By Sr Mary Ignatius C Aquino OSB
Sister Ignatius, who has written before in these pages, tells of her experience in forming the first Tanzanian members of the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing. This congregation, founded near Munich, Germany, opened missions in the Philippines and in Tanzania in 1906.
Fr Francis Chapman, born in Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1913, studied Theology in Ireland and was ordained there in 1937. In 1938 
he went with the first group of Columbans to Mindanao as pastor of Tangub, Misamis Occidental. During the War years he stayed in the mountains with the people. In 1950 he led the first group of Columbans to the southern part of Negros Occidental, an area that in 1988 became the Diocese of Kabankalan.
From 1954 Fr Frank worked in Australia and later served as Regional Director there. He was a member of the General Council in Ireland from 1966 to 1970. He then returned to Mindanao and did parish work in the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro.
By Gee-Gee O. Torres, assistant editor
Before I left for Manila to attend the National Congress of the Laity last year, I received an email from our editor, Fr Niall O’Brien, who was on vacation in Ireland. He said we would feature Fr Robert Reyes in Misyon. Fr Niall sent me some materials for the article but we needed a personal story to go with it. Since I was on my way to Manila, I decided to visit and interview Fr Robert in his parish in UP Diliman, Quezon City.
This was my first time to interview a prominent figure. I was nervous. I had to ask a friend to accompany me. I waited outside his office and after a few minutes of bearing the agony of anticipation, a man came out and invited me in. It was no other than Fr Reyes himself. He was very accommodating. During the interview I was just like having a casual conversation with a friend. Thirty minutes was all I got for he had another appointment at 5:00 pm so I had to get down to work right away.
Fr Robert Reyes, popularly known as The Running Priest, is from Malabon, the eldest in a family of four, studied AB Philosophy in Ateneo de Manila University, joined the San Jose Seminary and ordained into priesthood in 1982. Presently he is the parish priest of the Holy Sacrifice Church in UP Diliman.
Running wasn’t really Fr Robert’s sports since childhood. However when he contracted tuberculosis a year before the joined the seminary, his doctor told him that if he really wanted to recover and stay away from TB he must become almost an athlete. He had to develop his cardiovascular abilities. “I had to learn to bike, to run and to swim regularly. In the seminary there was a swimming pool, lots of open space for running and there was a bicycle. So talagang doon, sineryoso ko na. From 1970 up to the present, I run, I swim, I bike,” said Fr Reyes.
By Michael Dalton
Enriqueta, once one of Fr O'Brien's community leaders, visits him at Misyon Office with her husband, Michael Dalton
In 1993, Enriquita arrived in Western Samoa to begin her role as a lay missionary at Paul VI College and as an Incola Mariae of Legion of Mary to share her gift and to learn about life outside the Philippines. After two years in Western Samoa she moved to American Samoa in 1995 to work at Fasso High School and work as Math and Science teacher for another two years.
By Doris Rayner
I came from a poor family. I am the oldest of five siblings. My father worked as a Factory worker inManila and earned a meager income. He couldn’t afford to bring his family to live with him so my Mother and us children, stayed in Pangasinan. He came home only on long weekends or Holidays. In 1974, I finished High School. I took Medical Secretarial Course at Luzon Colleges,Dagupan City, but was notable to finish it because we had no money.
Columban Fr. Michael Gormly has been monitoring the arrival of Australian mining companies to the Philippines. It worries him that the local people are not really being consulted. Disaster and death are the consequences! Here he tells us of his efforts.
From mid 1996 my Columban colleagues in the Philippines began to contact me with a growing concern at the arrival of Australian based companies seeking mining concession in ecologically sensitive areas –named in many cases as ancestral domains of tribal people. The transnational quest for mineral wealth became an issue for joint consideration in both countries. We were challenged to face the core issue about what can be done when powerful political, commercial and technical forces threaten a powerless community of the poor.
Photo Courtesy : http://www.royal.gov.uk/List%20Images/List%20images%202/PSSOW/EMP-4483534.jpg
A year ago Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash in Paris.
Our readers know that MISYON has been carrying the campaign against anti-personnel mines for a long time now. So we were delighted when Diana, Princess of Wales, took up the campaign. It gave a very high profile image to the anti-mine work and highlighted the horror of 26,000 casualties a year. These casualties are mostly children, women and farmers. The Holy Father himself has singled out these weapons as been particularly inhuman when he said, “I should once again like to make a vigorous appeal for the definitive cessation of the manufacture and use of these arms called anti-personnel mines. In many countries of the world they compromise the return of peace over long periods of time because they have been placed either on the roads or in the fields with the intention of causing indiscriminate harm to a maximum number of people. In fact they continue to kill and cause irreparable damage well after the end of hostilities, giving rise to severe mutilation in adults and above all in children."
By: Sr. Marimil Lobregat, FMM
Sr. Marimil Lobregat, a good shepherd missionary has started a marvelous care for the carer’s program in Australia. Now she has opened a center here in the Philippines: This should be a boon to returned missionaries. Read on, it is all described below in a beautiful article by Ceres Doyo.
Wounded Healers. Lost shepherds. Carers in Crisis. At some point people perceived to be strong and imperturbable, and who for a long time have been sturdy to the weak and weakening, themselves become people in need. The rock threatens to crumble, the fountain starts to dry up, and that big heart suddenly wants to cave in. Burn out.
