'austraLasia' #622
A MISSIONARY AMONGST HIS OWN
Fr. Felix Furlan SDB
(The following item came as part of a personal
letter from Fr. Felix Furlan, who has worked in PNG for some years but is now
back in the Philippines. It provides an insight into Salesian parish
ministry in a very poor area. Felix can be contacted on furlan@ihc.com.ph these days)
Greetings from Mambucal, the poorest
parish of the Philippine South Province: 90% of our parishioners are very poor
farmers, plantation workers etc;.many of them, especially those in the
furthest villages up in the mountains have not gone and will never go
to school...There are no schools up there and the government seems to have
no intention of providing schools and not even roads for those people. We
salesians are here since 1991, we started with a Retreat House and now we have
also the parish, the poorest parish of the diocese, 57 square km up and down the
mountains and valley on the slope of Kanlaon volcano, a monster to be watched,
because it can spit fire and ashes any time.. I am here as Rector and parish
priest of 15,000 faithful, many of whom know very little or nothing at all about
our Christian faith, even if they are baptized... This is a real mission land,
similar to Papua New Guinea. The first priest many of our people have met was
Fr. Franco Uras, the founder of our presence here. It is a real salesian parish
with plenty of young people who are running most of the parish activities.
We are developping basic Christian Communities with their own chapel as the very
center of the community. The people are responding very well, although in many
areas or outstations we have to start from the first evangelization.
Please say a little prayer for us here ( we are only two salesians) for life in
this part of the world is not easy... especially when at end of the month you
don't know where to get the money to pay the parish personnel and workers. So
far the Good Lord has blessed us. We pray and hope He will continue help us; we
depend almost exclusevely on donations and on the generosity of our
benefactors..
