35 Years of Living Out the Charism of “Love and Reparation”
Fr Eduardo Emilio Agüero, SCJ
On May 17, 2024, the congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Philippines (Dehonians) celebrated the 35th anniversary of the arrival of the first eight missionaries to this country. We will interview two priests who, on May 31st, the Feast of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary to Elizabeth, celebrated the 20th anniversary of their religious profession: Fr. Donald Longno, SCJ, and Fr. Rechie Gier, SCJ. Lastly, we also interviewed the newly-assigned superior of the SCJ Philippine Region, Fr. Niño Etulle, SCJ.
O Clarim: You come from Margosatubig, Zamboanga Sibugay, one of the first three parishes where the Priests of the Sacred Heart began their mission in the Philippines in 1989. What is it that attracted you to join the Dehonian congregation?
Fr. Donald Longno, SCJ: I was attracted to the SCJ or Dehonians because of their missionary life. I was moved by the availability of foreign missionaries to come to the Philippines even though they were also from different nationalities. I liked their community life; they were united despite being a multicultural group. They came from Poland, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Germany, England, Argentina, and Italy. To be one, as Jesus prays to the Father in the Gospel of John – we call it the “Sint Unum” in Latin – is at the core of our spirituality, and I could see it in our first SCJ missionaries.
What are some meaningful experiences that you have had as a Priest of the Sacred Heart?
Fr. Rechie Gier, SCJ: First of all, I have had the experience of community life. I learned from our older brothers how to live as “Prophets of Love and Servants of Reconciliation”, as our Dehonian charism teaches us. We see in our first missionaries an example of availability and openness to welcome others. I experience joy and peace as a sign that we are willing to live out our charism of “love and reparation” here in the Philippines.
This is the first time that we have a Filipino superior and your counselors are also all Filipinos. How do you see the growth of the SCJ Philippine mission through these 35 years?
Fr. Niño Etulle, SCJ: It’s really a gift that after the efforts and sacrifices of the foreign missionaries, and a sign of our growth and maturity that after 35 years, the administration of the Philippine Mission is entrusted to us, the Filipino priests. The congregation sees the potential in us Filipinos to lead this mission. However, we intend to maintain the internationality of our presence here in the Philippines.
O Clarim: What are the values that you would like to animate during your administration?
Fr. Niño Etulle, SCJ: Precisely, one of the things that we discussed, at our first meeting, is that we want to be open to welcome missionaries from other cultures and nations to join our mission. Besides, our formation house in Manila welcomes other priests and religious from other countries to study or do renewal courses.
Secondly, we also want to maintain the regularity of our community gatherings. From the beginning, our missionaries had monthly regional gatherings of the communities. This was interrupted by the pandemic and we want to resume now, not just to deal with our business matters, but above all to pray and to celebrate our life together.
We also want to stress the involvement of the laity in our pastoral activities, especially in our parishes. We want to involve the pastoral council leaders to be part of some of our meetings so that they will also share in our spirituality and SCJ way of doing pastoral and social apostolate.
O Clarim: What is the specific service that the Dehonians can offer to the Philippine Church and society?
Fr. Niño Etulle, SCJ: Our specific service, here in the Philippines, is the social apostolate. Fr. Eduardo Aguero, SCJ, with the support of our community, founded the “Kasanag Daughter’s Foundation”, which helps in the healing and rehabilitation of sexually abused girls. From the very beginning, we had a scholarship program for the youth and various livelihood programs. We believe that we need to serve to the whole person; the sacramental life needs to integrate the social and developmental needs of the people. This is the Dehonian way because the spirituality of the Sacred Heart contemplates both the spiritual and the social aspects of “reparation” and “reconciliation”.
O Clarim: In Macau, we are celebrating the year of vocations. How are you dealing with the vocational ministry, taking into account that the number of young people entering the seminaries and religious communities is decreasing in the Philippines?
Fr. Niño Etulle, SCJ: Over the past years, we didn’t have a full-time vocation director. Last year, we appointed Fr. Candido as vocation director, and things began to change. Vocation ministry is one of our priorities now. There was a change in the educational system here: the government added two more years to high school for students. That, along with the pandemic, affected our formation and vocation work. Now we have four postulants and four novices, which gives us much encouragement.
O Clarim: What are the challenges that you face today?
Fr. Niño Etulle, SCJ: The first challenge is to go back to the origins, to be able to remember our history and the service of the first missionaries. We have been here for 35 years and we need to prepare our members in different fields of specialization, for example Canon Law, liturgy, social services. We have social programs, but we need people to continue and improve them. So far, it seems that after the study of theology, our members are ordained to the priesthood and then, immediately, are sent to the pastoral field. One of my proposals is to continue the on-going formation. So far, we had a plan for priests under 10 years of priesthood. We need to take care of the mental health and spiritual growth of all our confreres.
(Fr Eduardo Emilio Agüero, SCJ, is the current Director of O Clarim)