By Fr Andrew Labatoria CICM and Fr Edito Casipong CICM
Father Andrew Labatoria, from Zarraga, Iloilo, joined the CICMs in 1991, and was ordained in 2003. Father Edito Casipong, from Victorias City, Negros Occidental, joined in 1986, and was ordained in 1998. They currently work as the founding pastors of the first CICM parish in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.
By Fr Edito Casipong CICM
Fr. Edito Casipong, CICM is a Filipino missionary assigned in Haiti since 1994 and now serves in the Parish of St. Louis on the island of Gonave. Here he shares with us how important it is for missionaries to take a break once in a while.
By Fr. Edito Casipong, CICM
When I was still in Belgium, learning the French language and receive the order to be in Haiti by 15 December 1994, I had hard time deciding whether to go or not to goat the given deadline. Not to go, of course, would automatically mean to celebrate Christmas with those whom I already knew and felt at home, with the five other Filipino CICM destined for Africa. I was wrestling with the temptation to stay with what is already familiar. I wanted to build a tent where I was because the situation seemed to be so secure. I was afraid to cross the bridge of uncertainty that goes with the realization of my dream to be a missionary. But the voice of God was stronger than my human tendencies. I went as requested and in Haiti I was warmly welcomed by my confreres. Little by little, my fears were transformed into feeling of joy and security.
By: Fr. Victorino Coronado, CICM
Unheavenly Haven
The parish of Phaeton in Haiti near the border with the Dominican Republic, it is not an ordinary parish. Phaeton is special in many ways as the poorest and the smallest parish in the diocese of Port Liberty. The place itself occupies 37,000 hectares of land formerly reserved for a sisal plantation its fiber being used for ropes, rugs, and other materials. Thousands of laborers and landless peasants coming from all over the country were employed in this desolate barren desert, euphemistically called “Plantation Dauphin” i.e. haven of the crownprince, by a US based company.
