Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle, Archbishop of Manila, flew down to Bacolod City on 26 January to receive the Fides Award ffor his contribution to Quality Christian Education.

Despite his trip being a one-day one Cardinal Tagle made room in the afternoon to meet Deaf students and staff of Welcome Home Foundation, Inc. (WHFI), started in 1986 by Columban Fr Joseph Coyle who died in 1991. His work was continued and expanded largely through the efforts of the late Mrs Salvacion V. Tinsay, known as ‘Tita Salving’, who had worked for many years with Father Joe and who died in 2008. Her daughter Mrs Agnes T. Jalandoni now directs the work as President of WHFI. The Columban connection has remained down the years, with Fr Seán Coyle the current chaplain.

Fr Joseph Coyle

When Cardinal Tagle used some Sign Language with the young Deaf people at the Carmelite Monastery in Bacolod City, where he later met the nuns, their faces broke into large smiles. Cardinal ‘Chito’, as he is widely known in the Philippines, bantered with the Deaf and asked if any of them had been at the Papal Mass in Manila on 18 January. The young Deaf taught him to count in their language.

Cardinal ‘Chito’ in turn asked them to pray for Pope Francis and to reach out to more Deaf persons. He shared with them a particularly poignant moment when Pope Francis met survivors of Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda (7 November 2013) and the earthquake in Bohol (15 October 2013). The Holy Father was quiet and groaned as he listened as they recounted their painful ordeal of losing loved ones. When Cardinal Tagle asked him if he had anything to say to them he answered, ‘What can I tell them?’ He was just one with them and that was what mattered.

All were silent as they listened to the Cardinal. All the Deaf present approached him to be blessed and to show him how much they appreciated him.

Thank God for Cardinal Tagle and for Pope Francis!  

Renato G. Cruz and his wife Anastacia, a profoundly deaf couple, and their five children, all hearing, teach Pope Francis how to say ‘Thank you’ in Sign Language.