success without a successor is failure 2

Again I would like to take this opportunity to thank the parishioners of Jaro for the 9 mass collections that you have given to the St. Vincent Ferrer Seminary last May 29, the fifth Sunday for the month of May, which you designated as Seminary Sunday. The collection amounted to a hundred thousand pesos and we have used this amount as a reserve for our scholarship program starting school year 2012-2013. We have purposely called this program the Eskolar sang Kristianong Katilingban (EKK) because it is a joint scholarship program participated by members of the Christian communities in our parishes beginning with the parish priests (who will contribute PhP1,000.00 per month for 12 months); the religious organizations of the parish (who will contribute PhP1,500.00 per month for 12 months); the family of the scholar (PhP500.00 per month for 12 months); the seminary benefactors (who will contribute PhP2,000.00 per month for 12 months); and lastly, a foundation who will shoulder the bulk of the cost paying PhP40,000.00 a year per scholar.
We are involving the parish priests because we believe in the saying, “success without a successor is failure.” We will open this up also not just to parish priests but also to assistant priests, those who are working in various ministries of the Archdiocese and those who believe that working for the future of the church is not just charitable work or a work of mercy but a moral obligation.
We are involving the religious organizations of the parish because we believe that it is the duty of the parishioners to support the training and formation of its future leaders. It is the Christian community which is most affected when we have a scarcity of priests and thus they have to render a greater effort in order to assure their very own future.


We are also involving the family of the qualified scholar because there has to be a process of owning on their part and they have to show serious effort even to the point of sacrifice in offering their son for service in the church. We are involving the seminary benefactors, benefactors who have pledged a certain amount for the seminary on a regular basis, some for PhP500.00 a month, others having given us a lump sum for a year or so. This way their contribution will really go to deserving but poor seminarians who have a real desire to become priests. And finally, we are in the process of making applications to foundations giving out scholarships, especially religious ones, who understand our predicament and the need of the church. The foundations will provide the major funding because as we all know that the cost of forming one seminarian nowadays have skyrocketed to more than Php80,000.00 per year.
This scholarship program is open to all young men who have served some time (at least two years) in the parish as an altar boy, a member of the choir, a member of the youth ministry, etc. We want that their longing to enter the seminary is solidly founded in their love for their parish and the parish work. This is an assurance for us that their desire is genuine.
They should come from a poor family and this is attested to by the parish Committee on Vocations. He must be a high school graduating student with an average grade of not less than 85% or it’s equivalent during his third year in the high school and with no grade lower than 85% in all his subjects in the first quarter in the fourth year. They may also be high school graduates of SY 2010-2011 and are currently enrolled in college provided that their fourth year high school grade shall meet the requirement. And lastly, they must pass both written and oral exams including interviews given by the St. Vincent Ferrer Seminary Admissions Office. The exams will be given every Saturday of the month of September 2010.
To assure further that their desire for the priesthood is genuine, we will require those who passed the exams to have a spiritual direction with a seminary spiritual director from October to March. They shall also undergo a discernment retreat in December (2010) and the required search-in with all other applicants in April 2012.
It is indeed commendable that we see so many lay people involved in the activities of the church through the synod implementation and the house to house visitation. We are happy to see that religious organizations are doing their share in the apostolate of their parish, the catechists doing thier tasks, and the various ministries doing their duties in the parish, etc.. Most of these work address the present need. What we are asking you in helping us in this endeavor for the EKK, is to work and be equally concerned for the church of the future.