The 100 Years of Lola Toning
By Dr Ellen Alegrado-Chavez
Then I heard the voice of the Lord, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for me?’ I answered, ‘Here I am. Send me!’ (Isaiah 6:8)
Good shepherds
In those early years the priests in Misamis were Jesuit missionaries, among them Father Thomas Gallagher and Father Gabriel Font. In 1939 the Columbans took over, Father Peter Fallon becoming parish priest. He was one of four Columbans killed by the Japanese in Malate in February 1945 during the Battle of Manila. Among the Columbans who worked in the parish over the years were Fr Francis McCullagh and his classmates Fr Francis Chapman who died in March this year aged 90 and Fr Patrick Cronin who became first Bishop of Ozamiz in 1951. Others with whom Inang Toning worked were Fr William Hennessey, Fr James Lillis, Fr Michael Breen and Fr Seán Lavery, all gone to their reward. Still happily working in different places are Fr Con Campion, Fr Seán McGrath, Fr Aodh O’Halpin and Fr Kevin McHugh, to mention but a few.
Catechist by blood
But Inang Toning wasn’t a ‘one-person show.’ From the beginning she trained young women in whom she saw the potential to be catechists. They worked voluntarily not only in Molicay but in the neighboring barrios of Capucao, Gutocan Daku, Gutocan Diyot, Viray, Labo, Embargo, Calabayan, Liposong and Panta-on, to name only some.In 1973 diocesan priests took over from the Columbans in the Cathedral parish. (Now they are in charge of all but one parish in the Archdiocese of Ozamiz.) Around this time my grandparents donated another piece of their land for a school. It is still thriving and is named Domingo A. Barloa Elementary School after Lolo Inggoy who passed away in 1975. Lola Toning continued to teach catechism in the school up to 2000.
Her hundred years
God blessed Tatang Inggoy and Inang Toning with two children. One is my mother, Mrs Dulce B. Alegrado, a retired public school teacher who has spent most of her time helping Ozamiz City Cathedral Parish under Archbishop Jesus A. Dosado CM. She’s still active in the Catholic Women’s League, the Sagrado Corazon de Jesus and the Cofradia del Santo Niño, in which she has served as president for several years now.
‘Spiritual’ descendants
Their only son is Architect Henry C. Barloa, based in Manila, active in the first 400 core devotees of San Lorenzo Ruiz. He has served the Church for free in the designing and restoring of many churches including those in Clarin, Archdiocese of Ozamiz, Kolambugan, Diocese of Iligan, Pagadian Cathedral and the Shrine of La Virgen del Triumfo de la Santa Cruz in Cotta, Ozamiz City.
I am the eldest of Lola Toning’s grandchildren but she, an orphan, has countless ‘spiritual’ descendants in those whom she taught as a catechist and in those taught by the many catechists she trained.
Worker of God
On 14 October 2003 at 10:15 in the evening Lola Toning answered
the call of our heavenly Creator after receiving the Last Sacraments. She left
behind a legacy of service to the Lord through her descendants. In God’s glory
are hopes that just as ‘a sturdy oak eventually falls to give way for young
trees to take root, such is a person of great character who succumbs to death to
be resurrected in the youth and vigor of the descendants.’ Mr & Mrs Domingo and Antonina Barloa, Tatang Inggoy and Inang Toning, Lolo Inggoy and Lola Toning, responded to the mission. We pray that there will be more like them, ready to make themselves available to spread the Good News, the Word of God. God never asks about our ability or inability, just our availability.