By Mila Glodava
On the feast day of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, I like to pay tribute to the Carmelites who left the comfort of their homes in 1947 not only to become priests a religious but also to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of God, in the far flung barrios and towns in Quezon Province. In April 1950 the Carmelites founded the Prelature of Infanta. Wow! We will be celebrating 75 years as a local church in two years, in 2022! Need to plan a celebration. Don’t you think?
The last time we honored the Catmelite missionaries, along with the Golden Sacerdotal Anniversary of Fr. Dominic Scheerer. OCD, was in 1997. Please note that while the Carmelite friars first entered the Philippine soil in January 1947, they were preceded by the Carmelite nuns who came on November 8, 1923, from France, via Nue, Indo-China (Vietnam).The nuns beat the Carlite friars by 24 years and should be celebrating their 100th anniversary in 2023.
There are only three Carmelites—Fr. Alan Rieger, OCD, Fr. Arnie Boehme, OCD, and Fr. Tom Martin, OCD—who have remained in the Philippines. They now belong to the Carmelite Province of St. Teresa of Avila stationed at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Broadway in Quezon City or serving in their house in Bacolod.
Metro Infanta Foundation sponsored the event, the first ever project of the Foundation and the beginning of many more projects that address the needs of the Prelature of Infanta and beyond.
Carmelite Bishops Patrick Shanley, Julio X. Labayen, and Rolando Tria Tirona shepherded the Prelature until 2015, when Diocesan Bishop Bernard Cortez, who has ties with the Carmelites through Notre Dame de Vie, took the helm. The Prelature is now completely under diocesan bishop and clergy, remains committed to Carmelite spirituality.
