Newly Completed Parish Church in Balabac Island, Palawan is Consecrated
A group of SVDs from Manila were joined by the confreres of Palawan District and the Diocesan priests from the Southern Vicariate of the Vicariate of Puerto Princesa for the consecration of the newly completed church of the Immaculate Conception Parish in Balabac Island. They left Puerto Princesa in the morning of 7 September 2015 and stopped for lunch in Rio Tuba before taking a boat trip to Balabac Island which took almost 5 hours.
There was a warm reception at the pier on their arrival; all were welcomed with music by the youth who presented the guests with beautiful shell necklaces. Upon arrival they were shown their accommodation and introduced to the small town with heavily armed navy seals for security reasons.
The occasion was the consecration of the new Immaculate Conception Parish Church, a very beautiful church overlooking the little town and the sea, the source of hope and survival for the minority of Christians in an area where 80% of the population are Muslim. Unfortunately, due to bad weather, the Bishop of the Vicariate, Bishop Arigo, had to cancel his trip and so he directed the provincial superior of PHC, Fr. Nielo Cantilado, to officiate the consecration of the church. Fr. Cantilado was assisted by more than 20 priests at the ceremony which was witnessed by almost everyone from the town, and by other balikbayans and guests from some other parishes in Palawan, including Catholics and non-Catholics.
The highlight of the celebration was the anointing of the altar with chrism, the holy oil, together with the lighting of the lights on the pillars and the clothing of the altar. The rites were solemn and grace-filled with prayers and beautiful songs from the Palawan Chamber Choir.
Fr. Cantilado congratulated the community and thanked their benefactors. Fr. Willie Escalante SVD, the parish priest, thanked, too, the community and all the volunteers; he emphasized that this achievement would not have any value if not for the involvement of the community which was so diverse in faith yet worked together to build the church. He described it as a model of interfaith dialogue, with people of various faiths working as one community. Building a church is not easy, Fr. Escalante said, and one could imagine the sacrifices one had to go through in transporting the materials over rough roads and seas over such a distance.
The building of the church did not happen overnight. It started about 4 years for it to be completed. The church’s material, mostly brick, was donated by the Consunji family and a few other benefactors.
The event was fully covered by Fr. Escalante with the support of the community, making this occasion a very special day to remember. After the consecration, the whole congregation gathered for a sumptuous lunch served beside the church. The visitors left for island hopping in the same afternoon, their way of celebrating the day which happened to be the SVD’s foundation day. They went to the island of Unok, and then on the next day they left for Puerto Princesa before flying back to Manila.
