From Tribes Of Bukidnon To Korea
By Fr. Leo Distor mssc
I remember that I first wore a “sotana” and held a Bible close to my heart at age 10. That was in a school pageant performed in an elementary graduation ceremony. I was in the 5th grade then but I was asked to deliver the priest’s line making the young minds understand that priesthood is also a choice that one can make. I didn’t have a clue why I was asked to do that. Maybe the role was really not that popular among the graduating students that nobody among them played that role. I believe they would have rather imagined they’re a lawyer in a courtroom or working in the hospital or in school. I liked that role anyway. Now, if I’ll tell about my priestly vocation I would my priestly vocation I would say that the story should begin there.
As a new century and a new millennium begins, Pope John Paul II is anxious that the lives and deaths of those who suffered and died heroically in the service of others be recorded and documented. The sufferings and death of Fr. Francis Vernon Douglas at the hands of the Japanese Military Police in the Philippines during World War II is one story that must not be forgotten. Fr. John Keenan, a Columban missionary from Ireland, tells us about it.
Between the ages of 10 and 17 my ambition in life changed many times, from truck driver to scientist, to photographer, to engineer, policeman, soldier – until one day I came home from high school and told my family that I was going to join the Columbans and become a missionary priest.
