MANILA, August 10, 2011— At 40, the chaplain of the Filipino community in Berlin has succumbed to pancreatic cancer last July 29.
Fr. Adonis Narcelles, Jr., a missionary from the Society of the Divine Word, was parish priest for the past eight years at the Heilig Geist Church in Bayarnalle, a local church frequented by Filipino Catholics in Berlin.
His Sunday Masses, celebrated in engaging mix of Filipino, English, and German, were popular among Filipinos, Germans and other nationals, according to the Philippine Embassy in Berlin.
Fr. Jerry Orbos, director of the SVD Mission Office in the Philippines, said the priest was a talented writer and artist “who did much work for our fellow Filipinos in Germany.”
“He was a true missionary till the very end, never complaining of the pain, and he continued relying on the mercy God,” said Orbos.
On July 30, Philippine Ambassador to Germany Maria Cleofe Natividad and other officials joined the Filipino community in bidding farewell to Narcelles in a Mass at the Bayernallee Church.
Natividad recalled the close cooperation extended by Narcelles to the Philippine Embassy in Berlin, and his “outstanding” contributions and efforts to unite the Filipino community in Germany.
She said the missionary also ably shepherded the pastoral council of his parish and worked closely with the Embassy in its various projects for Filipinos there.
Narcelles, a native of Pozorrubio town in Pangasinan, studied his Theology at the Divine Word Seminary in Tagaytay and was ordained in Germany in 2003.
He was also a news contributor to the CBCPNews.com, the information service of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
Orbos said Narcelles will be laid to rest on August 19 in Berlin. [CBCPNews]
