Pastoral message: Two Bishops-elect

for May 2010

Last February, over the space of a fortnight, we received in Cagayan de Oro the announcements from the Vatican of two bishops-elect coming from our archdiocese – a most unusual occurrence that was met with much joy and thanksgiving.  The two priests were actually working in neighboring parishes on the extensive upland area of Cagayan de Oro, comprising practically half of the city’s land area.

Fr. Jose Cabantan was parish priest of Lumbia, which includes the airport, the city jail, and a House of Hope for the mentally sick. The parish itself, including the sub-parish of Taglimao, has 32 kapilyas scattered among twelve rural barangays that used to be a logging area.  Now that the trees are gone, another “invasion” is taking place in the guise of small-scale and medium-scale mining operators.  Most destructive of all these operations is the unabated hydraulic flush mining that continues to color Iponan River reddish-brown even during the dry season.

Conserving the environment was one advocacy that preoccupied Fr. Joe as the Social Action Director of the archdiocese.  Under his coordination were several “ad extra” ministries – i.e., social action services directed to anyone in need, and not only to Catholics.  These ministries included: Sustainable Agriculture, Enterprise Development, Good Governance, Women’s Desk, Migrant Workers, Prison Inmates, Social Communications, several orphanages and a home for the elderly.

Lumbia Parish also became a training ground for seminarians from St. John Vianney Theological Seminary.  They would spend their weekends there to help form Basic Ecclesial Communities under the guidance of Fr. Joe who was also teaching on weekdays at the seminary.  With a licentiate from Loyola School of Theology, Fr. Joe as professor-cum-parish priest was able to make Lumbia parish the social laboratory for future pastors, steeped in the social teachings of the Church.

Before entering the seminary himself, Fr. Joe had been working as a chemical engineer.  He also taught science subjects briefly at his alma mater high school run by the RVM sisters in Lagonglong, Misamis Oriental.  Upon entering San Jose de Mindanao College Seminary, he took philosophy courses at Xavier University.  He then joined the first batch of theology students for St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, founded by the bishops of Northeastern Mindanao in 1985.  Fr. Joe thus becomes the first alumnus of SJVTS to be raised to the episcopacy, coinciding with the seminary’s silver anniversary this year.  He is also the first diocesan priest from Cagayan de Oro to become a bishop.

In his 20 years with the Oro clergy, Fr. Joe came to be respected as a natural leader.  With his height, he would usually play center for the Oro clergy basketball team.  In his unassuming way, he took up various parish posts in Catarman, Lumbia and other places.  He was elected for a term as President of the Society of St. John Vianney, a voluntary association of Oro diocesan priests for mutual support and spiritual growth after the example the patron of all priests.  Over the past three years, I appointed him one of three Vicars-General in the archdiocese with the task of coordinating the various social action activities.

One of the lasting legacies left behind by Fr. Joe in Lumbia will be the nearly-completed formation center using the Interlocking Compressed Earth Block (ICEB) technology, which he picked up from a housing foundation in San Carlos diocese.  This technology uses a mixture mostly of limestone with cement to produce low-cost building materials that are durable and also pleasing to the eyes.  Other parish priests are beginning to adopt this technology for building their chapels through bayanihan labor.

Another form of bayanihan spirit was adopted by Fr. Vilsom Basso, the second bishop-elect, in building up the kapilya communities in his chaplaincy of Dansolihon.  This is an area comprising five barangays that was carved out from Lumbia Parish.  The building block used by Fr. Vilsom was an 84-page catechetical booklet entitled, “Ngano man? Ang mga pangutana sa mga kristianos!” (“Why? Questions raised by Christians!”)

Despite his being a Brazilian missionary, who first had to learn the local language, Fr. Vilsom was able to produce his catechetical librito wholly in Bisaya.  This consists of 25 concise chapters filled with biblical quotations and short explanations.  Each chapter title starts with a basic  question: “Why is it important to pray? . . . Why is there Baptism? . . . Why are there saints? . . . Why do we go on mission?”  A low-cost librito (worth P20 in price) in every home was the strategy of Fr. Basso.  And it has indeed helped catechize all the Catholic households in his area.  When I joined their fiesta celebration in honor of Señor Jesus Nazareno last year, I could feel the fervor of the parishioners’ participation, starting with the songs composed by Fr. Vilsom himself with a Brazilian beat and culminating with the confirmation rites for two kapilya communities.

Fr. Vilsom is a Priest of the Sacred Heart (SCJ).  Before his assignment over the past two years in Cagayan de Oro, he was briefly stationed in Kumalarang Parish in Ipil Prelature.  However, he had to be pulled out because of the kidnapping of Fr. Giancarlo Bossi, PIME, in nearby Payao.  Before coming to the Philippines, Fr. Vilsom spent 16 years working in mission stations in the north-eastern part of Brazil and four years in the nationwide Youth Ministry of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Brazil.  His new appointment will bring him back to Brazil as Bishop of Caxias, Maranhào.

 

The diocese covers 35,000 square kilometers, equivalent to one third of the island of Mindanao.  “It is a challenging missionary area,” remarks the 50-year old Fr. Vilsom, “and I consider it an opportunity to serve the people, especially the poor.”  His episcopal motto is “Ecce venio, Domine” (“Here I am, Lord”), which summarizes for him his motivation for accepting this unexpected assignment: humility, simplicity and service.

On the other hand, the 53-year old Fr. Joe chose as his episcopal motto the title of Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical, “Spe salvi sumus” (“In hope we are saved”).  It is a reminder of the whole of creation-environment groaning in pain, awaiting the fulness of God’s redemption.

Fr. Joe Cabantan was ordained bishop on April 30, 2010, in Cagayan de Oro and installed on May 15 as Bishop of Malaybalay consisting of 45 parishes. Fr. Vilsom Basso was ordained bishop on May 30 in Tuparendi, Rio do Sul, in southern Brazil.  He will be installed as Bishop of Caxias on June 19.

Cagayan de Oro Archdiocese has lost two faithful servant-priests from its ranks.  But the universal Church has gained two new bishops in different parts of the world. May God’s providence always be with them in their new-found sees.

Abp. Antonio J. Ledesma, S.J.