A million thanks to the following distinguished recipients who embody the late Carmelite Bishop Labayen’s vision of caring for the poor, standing up for their rights and forming stewards in the Kingdom of God.
The 2023 Award goes to the Eleanore Mullen Foundation, with support from its board of directors headed by Mr. Michael Polakovic and his wife, Terry Polakovic. For many years, the Eleanore Mullen Foundation funded significant grants beginning with a grant to build the headquarters of the Hardin ng Kalikasan (Nature’s Garden) — a workplace for women producing paper products using culturally traditional products and techniques. The foundation also has funded and continues to fund educational pursuits, building projects, disaster relief responses, parish financial assistance, cultural preservation and our mission to spread the message of stewardship in the Church in the Philippines.
Father Andrew Kemberling shares the 2024 Award with Saint Thomas More Parish, because started supporting Metro Infanta Foundation when he was pastor there. Father Andrew believes in the Church’s teaching about the solidarity with the poor and promoting stewardship as a way of life in the Church in the Philippines. His teaching on stewardship as a way of life inspired bishops to see stewardship as a key to the sustainability of the “Church of the Poor.” He did not have to leave his comfort zone the parish and could have just sent funds to the Philippines. Traveling to the Philippines five times is testimony to how he lives stewardship as a way of life—giving of his time, talent, and treasure.
Saint Thomas More Parish deserves the other 2024 Award for its investment in the Church in the Philippines since the time of Father Michael A. Walsh. He not only supported the children and youth’s “Pennies from Heaven” campaign to help rebuild a church in Panukulan, Quezon, he also donated to the campaign himself. St Thomas More Parish continues to this day addressing not only the needs of the poorest of the poor, but also planting the seeds of stewardship in the “good soil” of the Philippines. These seeds now grow and bear Fruits of the Holy Spirit. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines’ Pastoral Statement on Stewardship and the establishment of an Office on Stewardship offer clear examples. The parish stewardship also has reached outside the borders of the Philippines to Myanmar in Asia, and Guam in Oceania.
