Photos by Rev Harry Setianto Sunaryo SJ
Kalookan, a highly urbanised and cramped section of Manila’s urban sprawl, has a bloody reputation. In August 2017, a 17-year-old boy from Kalookan was killed, fatally shot in the head as he was kneeling on the ground. The incident caused a huge public uproar in the Philippines, but is only one among thousands of cases of extra judicial killings in the name of the war against illegal drugs.
In response to the call of Pope Francis to go to the peripheries, the Philippine Province of the Society of Jesus established a mission station in the very heart of Kalookan. Fr General Arturo Sosa visited the area on December 9.
Fr General Arturo Sosa’s first stop was Kalookan City’s San Roque Cathedral to meet Bishop Pablo Virgilio David DD. He was accompanied by Philippine Provincial Fr Primitivo Viray SJ, JCAP President Fr Antonio Moreno SJ, Regional Assistants Fr Daniel Huang SJ (Asia Pacific) and Fr Victor Assouad SJ (Western Europe), and Fr Jose Quilongquilong SJ from the Philippine Province and point person for the visit. Vicar General of San Roque Fr Jerome Cruz was also present.
Their meeting lasted half an hour. Bishop David conversed with Fr General about the Diocese, and the issues surrounding the community. The Jesuit-educated Bishop spearheaded a community-based drug rehabilitation programme with partners including lay, religious, the government, and the private sector. In the homily during the recent Ordination to the Diaconate of 15 Jesuits, Bishop David said: “We have therefore resolved to consciously redirect our pastoral action…towards those in the margins and peripheries. We have been particularly mindful of those who have been condemned as non-humans by the present government. We have constantly pleaded with those in authority on their behalf. We say to them with all due respect, ‘No, sir, they are not evil people. They are human beings like you and me. They are sick; they are victims. They are driven into desperation by poverty and hopelessness.’”
The Philippine Province of the Society of Jesus established a mission station in Kalookan upon the invitation of Bishop David. Philippine Provincial Superior Fr Primitivo Viray SJ assigned Fr Willy Samson SJ and two scholastics, Br Madz Tumbali SJ and Br Nikki James Lee SJ to the Sacred Heart Mission Station in Kaulanran Village. (Kaunlaran means “progress” in Filipino.)
Children from the community welcomed Fr General Sosa, waving banners that said “Bievenido!” The children chanted “Welcome Father!” and Fr General stopped to greet many of them, who touched his hand to their foreheads, a traditional gesture of respect of Filipino children for their elders.
Even the babies were brought outside for Fr General’s blessing. The mothers of Sacred Heart are particularly vulnerable in the government’s drug war. Bishop David writes: We often forget about their families: about the wives who are widowed and the children who are orphaned, and who end up like stray dogs and cats roaming our streets.
Fr General Sosa along with Bishop David greeted the elderly and sick people who waited eagerly for them to pass by on the way to Sacred Heart Chapel. Many were infirm and could not walk down to the main gathering area in front of the chapel, which was already crowded.
Bishop Ambo, as he is fondly known in the community, is one of the fiercest critics of President Rodrigo Duterte. Recently the Philippine president accused Bishop David of theft and said in Filipino: “I suspect… you are into illegal drugs.” Bishop David’s succinct reply was posted on his Facebook page: “No sir, I’m not into drugs of any sort, whether legal or illegal. Never been. I only help in rehabilitating people addicted to drugs… Thank God I am not even taking any maintenance drugs yet. I only take vitamins with fruit shake blended with malunggay (moringa leaves) in the morning. You might want to try it, Sir. It will do you a lot of good. God bless you.” The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines released a statement in support of Bishop David: “Very many of us bishops have come to know [him] as a very good bishop, a dedicated shepherd and father of the flock in the Diocese of Kalookan. He is very passionate in his ministry, bringing ‘mercy and compassion,’ especially to the poor and suffering among his people.”
Bishop David addressed the people of Sacred Heart who cheered loudly for him. He introduced members of the community to Fr General Sosa, including local officials, benefactors and lay partners. One lady, a psychiatrist, works with the drug rehabilitation programme, which takes a more compassionate and holistic approach. Bishop David acknowledges that mental health is an important thing to consider: those who are living in extreme poverty are exposed to violence, abuse and develop mental issues, which can lead to drug use.
Fr Willy Samson SJ is much loved by the community of Sacred Heart after only two months on the job. “I couldn’t believe that I was actually installing as chaplain of this humble mission station a Jesuit who was the former vice-president of Ateneo de Zamboanga,” wrote Bishop David of Fr Samson. “This man does not seem to mind being small among small people in society. No wonder the people of Kaunlaran were instantly at home in his company.”
After the warm welcome and opening remarks, Fr General Sosa blessed the monstrance for the mission station on Salmon Street also in Dagat-Dagatan. There are 13 mission stations in the area, Sacred Heart is the newest one, inaugurated only last October.
Fr General Sosa also blessed the new belfry of the chapel, the icon of the Jesuits presence in the Kalookan urban mission, to serve the poorest of the poor. Fr General then blessed the entire crowd with holy water.
The little chapel was converted into a dining area. Filipino hospitality was felt as the community prepared a simple lunch for Fr General and the other guests. The students performed folk dances. All the kids–including the adults–enjoyed ice cream, while the elderly had soup and bread.
“I was very consoled to visit the new mission station that the Jesuits of the Philippines has opened in the Diocese of Kalookan,” said Fr General Sosa during the homily on the Second Sunday of Advent. “In a place where so many poor people have been killed, it is one small mission station, but it seems to me to be a beginning in the way John the Baptist was a beginning: full of the promise of new life. That seems to be the way hope is built in this world, one small step at a time.”