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[av_heading heading=’Diocese of Bacolod ditches SJI church | School admin insists Hua Ming still ‘Catholic’’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MAE SINGUAY
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Friday, May 12, 2017
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BACOLOD City – Starting May 31, the Diocese of Bacolod will no longer hold ministries at the Queen of Peace Parish church inside St. John Institute (SJI).
The school’s Board of Trustees and the clergy agreed to “de-parish” the church.
SJI Board director and acting administrator Andre Palanca was quick to clarify that the school — also known as Hua Ming — will continue to comprise Roman Catholics.
“We will [still] have prayers. We will have rosaries. We will organize Catholic organizations from Grade 1 to Grade 12,” Palanca said.
The SJI will invite theologians to give lectures as they continue to teach Christian living, he said.
“It will be [an] even better Catholic school in [the] absence of the … imprimatur of the bishop,” the SJI official said.
Bishop Patricio Buzon told the press on Wednesday the SJI trustees were the ones who wanted to de-parish the church. Their decision was “final and nonnegotiable.”
“We (Diocese) never intended to leave Hua Ming,” Buzon said.
Buzon also decreed the removal of the Queen of Peace Parish as an oratory for three reasons:
* It has ceased to be a parish church and a shrine.
* It has ceased to be a school chapel
* Under the control of a private group, it is, for all intents and purposes, simply considered a private structure/building.
All previously scheduled services at the Queen of Peace Parish church, like weddings and baptisms, were cancelled and masses were moved to the Redemptorist Church, which was also near the SJI.
While speaking with reporters, Buzon recited a verse from Matthew 10:14 on the Jesus Christ’s advice to his disciples: “And if anyone does not welcome you or listen as to what you have to say, as you walk out of the house or town, shake the dust from your feet.”
But “we assure the displaced parish community that it will remain to be a parish and hopefully find a new home,” said the bishop.
On the other hand, the SJI trustees insisted in a statement that they were Catholics and “will never abandon our faith.”
While the SJI and the Diocese had a “peaceful disengagement,” the bishop’s pronouncements “will trigger not peace but more anger, hurt and persecution [toward] an institution that has, for the past 60 years, helped in the evangelization of the Filipino-Chinese community and drew thousands of them into the embrace of the Roman Catholic faith,” they said.
“Despite the vilification, we continue to humbly submit to the bishop’s decision even if this will strip our school of the status of being a ‘Chinese Catholic school,’” the trustees said.
They also said the school will “continue to use [the church building] as a place of worship.”/PN
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