Filipinos in Texas pause from teaching, join Good Friday ‘visita iglesia’

Filipinos teaching in Houston public schools brought family and friends to seven churches for Good Friday ‘visita iglesia’ starting here at Saint Anne church

HOUSTON, Texas – More than a dozen women and men from the Philippines teaching in one of America’s largest cities drove in a convoy on their holiday, Good Friday, to pay a visit to seven churches in keeping with Filipino tradition of ‘visita iglesia‘.

In the Philippines, the general practice is to visit seven churches on Holy Thursday or Good Friday and make the Stations of the Cross in them.

Where the teachers’ group went and what they found?

1. re-enactment of the Stations of the Cross at Saint Anne church

Actors act out Stations of the Cross at Saint Anne church in Houston. NJ Viehland Photos

2. warm welcome and kind accommodation from parishioners of St. Raphael the Archangel

They had moved the Blessed Sacrament for exposition in a small chapel, covered all statues and locked up the church, but opened it up briefly for the teachers’ visit.

Saint Raphael church, Houston on Good Friday 2015. NJ Viehland Photos

Saint Raphael Houston                              

3. Saint Francis De Sales was busy with some service so the teachers’ group prayed in the hallway before a cross draped with red cloth.

4. Saint Thomas More Catholic community has built a shrine in memory of aborted babies

The group also visited St. Michael the Archangel, Holy Ghost and Corpus Christi churches.

Filipino teachers and their families visit Saint Michael the Archangel church in Houston on Good Friday, 2015 

Holy Ghost church in Houston is run by Redemptorist Fathers. NJ Viehland Photos

Blessed Sacrament Fathers (SSS) administer Corpus Christi church in Houston. NJ Viehland photos

The Catholic Church recognizes the great responsibility teachers bear for building a society instilled with values and hope.

Pope Francis, in a recent meeting with educators called teaching a “beautiful profession” noting that it “allows us to see the people who are entrusted to our care grow day after day.”

The pope said only mature and balanced personalities can take on the “serious  commitment” to teach.  A former classroom teacher himself, the pope also reminded educators, “no teacher is ever alone: ​​They always share their work with other colleagues and the entire educational community to which they belong.”

He told members of the Catholic Union of Italian Teachers, Managers, Educators and trainers  (UCIIM) on their group’s 70^th anniversary in March that being teacher is “like being parents, at least spiritually.” 

Statement of Archbishop Socrates B. Villegas, CBCP President, RH Law

Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines addresses a press conference at the end of the 2012 CBCP plenary assembly at Pope Pius XII Catholic Center in Manila.                          NJ Viehland Photo

I encourage our Catholic faithful to maintain respect and esteem for the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has decided on the RH issue based on existing laws in the Philippines.

The Church must continue to uphold the sacredness of human life, to teach always the dignity of the human person and to safeguard the life of every human person from conception to natural death.

Although the Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the RH law, it has truly watered down the RH law and consequently upheld the importance of adhering to an informed religious conscience even among government workers. It has also stood on the side of the rights of parents to teach their children.

We cannot see eye-to-eye with our pro-RH brethren on this divisive issue but we can work hand-in-hand for the good of the country.

On the part of the Church, we must continue to teach what is right and moral. We will continue to proclaim the beauty and holiness of every human person. Through two thousand years, the Church has lived in eras of persecution, authoritarian regimes, wars and revolutions. The Church can continue its mission even with such unjust laws. Let us move on from being an RH-law-reactionary-group to a truly Spirit empowered disciples of the Gospel of life and love. We have a positive message to proclaim.

April 8, 2014

+SOCRATES B. VILLEGAS
Archbishop of Lingayen Dagupan
CBCP President

[to follow- Full text of Supreme Court ruling on Constitutionality of the RH Law. NJV]

“Garden of Angels” in memory of aborted babies

By N.J. Viehland

NazarethFormation House, built and founded in 1999 by Bob and Emy Garon, and accredited by the Department of Health, pioneers in the field of rehabilitation and behavior modification in the Philippines.

Tombstones placed by mothers on retreat in memory of babies they had aborted, as part of a ritual for spiritual healing at Nazareth Formation House in San Jose Batangas owned and run by Bob and Emy Garon with their psychologist daughter Vanessa. Photo by N.J. Viehland

Bob Garon, former La Salette priest and founder of DARE rehabilitation center for addiction, tells the story of the Garden of Angels in his Nazareth Formation House in San Jose, Batangas where mothers who had aborted their babies can go on retreat for spiritual healing. Photo by N.J. Viehland

Tombstones are placed after mothers who had aborted their babies undergo a penitential and healing ritual after a retreat at Nazareth Formation House in San Jose Batangas. Photo by N.J. Viehland

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