By Fr Raymond Ugwu CSSp

In the past, missionaries to the Philippines were nearly all Westerners. That has changed. Here a young Nigerian priest tells us of his experience in Mindanao. This article, reprinted with permission, first appeared in the May 2006 edition of Spiritan, the quarterly of the TransCanada Province of the Spiritans, the Congregation of the Holy Ghost, www.spiritans.com

The author with some of his companions in the youth ministry

My desire to ‘go teach all nations’ was re-affirmed when news of the first group of Spiritans in the Philippines came to us in the seminary in Nigeria: they built nipa huts and churches, and made ways where there seemed to be none. This touched my adventurous spirit and evoked in me a desire for the Philippine mission. When the time came for me to apply for my first appointment, without hesitation I chose the Philippines because of the new Spiritan focus on Asia, the internationality of the group, their contribution to the diocesan seminary, their move to begin a formation program, their ministries to the sick, the imprisoned, the youth, the Filipino-Chinese and the mountainous people of Digkilaan and environs.

Without much preparation about the people and their cultures, I arrived in the Philippines on 10 September 2004, exactly two months after my ordination on 10 July. My first night brought me face to face with a new language, new food, new culture, people and customs. The following Sunday we went to the Maryknoll Language School, Davao City, where I was to spend six months learning the Cebuano language, which is widely spoken in Mindanao. During my time there, I spent three months in a Chinese-Filipino Parish, in Barrio Obrero, Davao City. I also had a week’s language practice in Calidngan parish in Carcar, Cebu. These exposures made me appreciate the people’s way of living, thinking, culture and civilization. It also equipped me to face the ongoing tension I felt because of the way they practiced their Christianity and what I was used to at home.

After five weeks’ exposure to Filipino families and Basic Ecclesial Communities in Cebu, I finally came home to Iligan, where the Spiritan mission is. Here I am chaplain of two colleges: The Lyceum of Iligan Foundation, with only a college department, and Iligan Capitol College, with elementary, high school and college departments. My work includes a monthly celebration of the Eucharist, spiritual direction, organizing recollections and retreats for the students.

Teaching ministry

One day, the rector of the college seminary asked me, ‘Are you ready to teach here?’ I agreed at once because my desire was to contribute to the intellectual, moral and spiritual formation of students searching for happiness, knowledge, truth, and meaning in life. So I teach a variety of courses to the young men training for the priesthood.

Though teaching isn’t easy, it offers me joy, an opportunity to study and reflect, and to serve God and humanity. Due to our different cultural backgrounds, and because of some institutionalized academic standards, the students and I struggle to understand each other’s way of life, language, principles and ethics. These obstacles teach professors and pupils to accept the setbacks, frustrations and objective discipline found in any formation process.

When not teaching in the seminary, I am available to replace my Spiritan brothers if they have to be absent from their mission. Being a ‘Mobile Pari’ has helped me gain experience of many types of ministry.

Hospital ministry

For more than two months, I was the acting chaplain of Mercy Community Hospital run by the Mercy Sisters. There, we administer the sacraments to the sick and those who take care of them, bringing Christ to them on their sick beds, giving them hope, comfort and strength to share in Christ’s sufferings, and helping them to understand suffering as a mystery and to bear their pain bravely. At the same time we minister to the spiritual needs of the doctors, Sisters and other staff dedicated to helping the sick in their struggle for life, and against sickness and death.

Youth ministry

Working with the young is a ministry that keeps you always youthful, current with the times, alive and active. It leaves you with an ever exciting experience of growing up. For four months in 2005 and since February 2006, I served as chaplain in the Catholic Center Campus Ministry run by Sisters of the Company of Mary. It is a center for students from different colleges who come for spiritual enrichment. This ministry keeps me working and thinking about the welfare of students, how to liberate them from all vulnerable and dangerous exposure, and how to bridge the age-old gap in communal living caused by years of religious suspicion between Muslims and Christians.

The challenge of this work is the constant struggle to understand the day-to-day life, language, interest, signs and symbols of the youth. How do I penetrate the youth circle, articulate and understand their problems, inner fears, shyness, loneliness, old hurts, and feelings of inadequacy, awkwardness and love? How do I open up new possibilities for them to understand themselves, to encounter new depths in life, and gain their support and trust? In my homilies, retreats and boarding house meetings, as well as in social gatherings, I try to address these concerns.

Prison ministry

Serving in the prison ministry

Another ministry I have been doing in Iligan is visiting prisoners. It has helped me to realize the plight of prisoners and their families, to see the prison community as a community of God’s children and it pulled me away from an initial ‘I don’t want to get involved’ attitude. From September 2005 to January 2006, as the acting chaplain of Iligan City Jail, I became a prisoner, not in chains, but in ministerial association with prisoners, prison staff, prison volunteers and prison dependents. Together we formed the prison society which participates in the suffering of the inmates. Hence, I thought like a prisoner, thought for the prisoners, acted like a prisoner and worked with the prisoners and prison associates.

However, accepting this ministry was not so easy when my mind was set on the fact that prisoners are receiving due punishment for the offences they’ve committed, and so don’t merit protection and care. But daily encounters with them and listening to their stories have given me a new understanding of who a prisoner is – someone who deserves mercy, concern, kindness and protection.

In Iligan City Jail, the living conditions are dreadful, yet with different activities like games, talent shows, songs and dances, catechism classes and the celebration of Mass, we keep ourselves busy, alive and happy. The challenge in this ministry is getting volunteers and financial support to take care of the prisoners in their sub-human living conditions, the slow judicial process and rehabilitation of the ex-convicts.

Parish ministry

In Iligan, the Spiritans take care of two parishes, one in the mountains and the other in the city, and for six separate weekends, I supplied in the absence of their pastors. The one in the mountains is a mission of primary evangelization. There, the parishioners are poor tenants taking care of the rice fields, banana and coconut plantations of their landowners. The parish of Our Lady of Fatima, Digkilaan, is made up of 32 barrios divided by mountains and streams. I call my first experience there my ‘missionary baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit.’ I had to be driven for forty minutes and hike for another fifty to reach the people. The weekly collection is about P250 and the basic necessities of life can’t be easily found. I sometimes end up spending P500 or more helping the needy, the sick and the financially pressed.

The Resurrection of the Lord, Del Carmen, is a city parish for the Filipino-Chinese in Iligan. It helps to bond them and to uphold their Chinese spirituality and heritage in line with the gospel message as adopted by the Philippine church. Ministering to a community like this opened me up to another cultural world-view and way of life.

To call me a ‘rolling stone which gathers no moss’ might be a name befitting such a ‘mobile pari’ as myself. My eighteen months’ contribution to the Spiritan mission and presence in Iligan has been a fruitful and enriching experience with ever unfolding joy, inspiring me with zeal only more. Thanks to this ‘missionary availability’, the propelling force of our ministry, and my confreres who have always inspired, encouraged, supported, motivated, and challenged me to forge ahead in this evangelical mission of God in the Philippines, I look forward to many fruitful years in this small corner of the Lord’s vineyard.

You may email Father Raymond at his community’s email address: spiritansphilippines@yahoo.com or write him at: Spiritans, c/o Luga-it Post Office, LUGA-IT, 9025 Misamis Oriental.