The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-07-27
IRISH REDEMPTORISTS
IN THE PHILIPPINES
Aiding Bishop Hendrick in Uphill
Battle in Province of Cebu.
CFrom "Rome.'D

Battle in Province of Cebu.
(From "Rome.'O
Last week while Rome was writing
about the old religious of the Philip
| pines, now living in Spain, a vessel
! touched at Naples bearing small de-
| tachment of the new religious who are
to carry on the work of the Spanish
missionaries. This little group was
from Ireland, and consisted of Re
demptorists, and they were on their
way TO the immense diocese of Cebu,
where the bishop, Mgr. Hendrick, is
| fighting an uphill battle to keep the
| faith alive among his people. Even in
the days of the Spanish domination
Cebu was but imperfectly equipped
with clergy, but after the removal of
the friars its resources became linn
| tied indeed. Two millions of Catholics,
scattered through a number of islands,
with less than 200 priests to minister
to themi Mgr. Hendrick, in his eX-
tremity, turned to the Redemptorists
to help him, and just a year ago the
superior general of the congregation,
the Most Rev. Father Raus, at the in
stance of Father Boylan, the Irish pro-
vincial Cnow bishop of Kilmore), sent
five fathers and two lay brothers to
make a beginning. They went out
with the special object of giving mis-
sions, and the bishop assigned to them
the church at Opong, with the convent
attached. But Opong is also a parish
with about $4,000 people scattered
through seven islands, and the fathers,
at the pressing request Of the bishop,
took charge of the spiritual interests
of these. The nearest island to Opong
is about nine miles distant, and the
farthest is quite thirty; and as the lit
tie community cannot afford to own
or to hire a steam launch, they are
obliged to pay their visits to their peo-
pie by threading the islands of the
Pacific in cockle-shell canoes, which
are anything but safe, for the Pacific
does not always deserve its name.
1t might be supposed that the five
Redemptorist priests had their work
fully cut out for them in looking after
this gigantic parish, but they went out
TO give missions, and before long the
bishop turned to them to bring some
help to the poor people Of Compostela,
a parish not very far from the city of
Cebu, which, like sixty other parishes
Of Mgr. Hendricks diocese, is without
a resident priest Two of the fathers
who had sufficiently mastered the Ian
guage of the people went to the place
for a visit for a week, and the visit
peCduIe dI oIlce transformed INTO
mission. All day long the missionaries
were engaged in preaching, marrying,
baptizing, hearing confessions, - and
when they had to leave at last the
poor people did everything possible to
keep them among them.
So the little group that touched at
Naples last week have a great, mis- |
field opened out for them as |
soon as they have mastered the Ian
guage; and they certainly deserve the
the help and the prayers of |
Catholics at home. There is need for a |
whole army of workers in the Philip |
pines, and especially of nuns, whose
work among their own sex would be |
simply invaluable. Unhappily, at pres
snt the means are lacking for confer
ring this last great boon on the