ASIA/PHILIPPINES - Eucharist is mercy: meeting of the priests of Mindanao

Tuesday, 23 February 2016 local churches   year of mercy  

Kidapawan City (Agenzia Fides) - The Eucharist is the source of each pastoral work with families, with the poor, in the Church and in society, in need of the mercy of the Father: is the belief which emerged from the assembly of more than 500 priests involved in the 21 dioceses of the island of Mindanao, gathered in Kidapawan for their annual convention, now in its 40th edition. As Fides learns, the Archbishop of Cotabato, Cardinal Orlando Quevedo to the priests of Mindanao underlined how "the Eucharist constitutes the nourishment for families who are entrusted to the pastoral care of the diocesan priests in their parishes and ecclesial communities". This is the sacrament which helps to give the grace and mercy of God to all those who are hurt in society, to the poor, to those who suffer, to refugees: this is the food that , cannot lack together with charitable help .
The Cardinal asked the priests to remain ever faithful to their priestly duty and not to celebrate the Eucharist as a "routine", remaining "faithful to their vocation" and to benefit from the permanent formation programs offered by the Bishops' Conference of the Philippines.
Among the figures that can inspire the clergy of Mindanao, there is the Italian Jesuit Father Francesco Palliola, of whom the diocesan process for the beatification was started in Dipolog, on Mindanao island. The priest, sent with a mission of 40 Jesuits in the Philippines, served the gospel on the island and was martyred at the age of 35 years in Ponot, now Jose S. Dalman, on 29 January 1648. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 23/02/2016)


Share: