Missionary Society of the Philippines (MSP) Bursar General Fr. Rommel Cruz at an MSP thanksgiving dinner on Oct. 11 at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club in Mandaluyong City (Photo: John Frances Fuentes)
MANDALUYONG City, Oct. 29, 2015 – An official of the Missionary Society of the Philippines (MSP) reminded the seminarians of the society that they are the hope and future of the missionary endeavors of the Church.
“You are the pillar of the mission,” MSP Bursar General Fr. Rommel Cruz told the seminarians during the MSP’s thanksgiving dinner on Oct. 11 for 50 years of doing mission in the country and in the different parts of the world.
According to the priest, whenever an area’s MSP priest gets reassigned to another assignment, people would always, “What will happen to us? What will happen to the mission? Who will replace you?”
Pure hearts
“The seminarians will be the ones to continue the mission. The mission of the MSP,” said Cruz to the benefactors and friends of the MSP present at the dinner held at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club in Mandaluyong City.
“I believe in the purity of their hearts,” he said, adding that the seminarians have pure hearts that is why they submitted themselves to seminary formation’s rigorous training in the preparation for the priesthood and missionary work outside the Philippines.
The Bursar General also asked them to pray for more young men who will join the MSP so they can serve more areas where missionaries are needed.
“Through your help and through your prayers, the mission will continue. More seminarians means more mission,” he added.
Old seminary
The MSP, which was established by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in 1965 in gratitude for the gift of the mission done by foreign missionaries before, houses their seminarians in a 40 year-old seminary in Tagaytay.
“Our seminary is already dilapidated and we fear for the safety of our seminarians staying there,” Cruz told the congregation.
He said the thanksgiving dinner is one way of raising funds for the putting up of a new seminary building in the same location to replace the old one.
The dinner was also the MSP’s way of thanking benefactors for supporting MSP projects like the ongoing construction of the Parish of the Our Lady of the Abandoned in Mandaluyong which is under the care of the MSP. (John Frances C. Fuentes / CBCP News)
