By Father Luciano Pili, Spiritual Director, St. Joseph Formation House & Vice-Chairman, Socio-Pastoral Institute
Celebrating Metro Infanta Foundation’s 25th Anniversary: a personal witness on the role Metro Infanta Foundation played in the stewardship movement in the Philippines.
Last January 28, 2021, the leadership of the 90 million Catholics in the Philippines, the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) through its President Archbishop Romulo Valles D.D. came out with a historic decision. In its Pastoral Statement on Stewardship on the occasion of the 500th year of evangelization of the Philippines, it declares:
“We commit ourselves to education, formation and catechesis in the Spirituality of Stewardship for our clergy, religious, and laity in our dioceses, parishes, communities and families in view of adopting a concrete stewardship program in our dioceses to replace the arancel system as soon as possible.”
This decision ushers in a push for Church renewal and renewed integral evangelization for the next 500 years, including a new system of relationship between gift offerings and the Sacraments with the core value of stewardship to replace an outmoded arancel system.
What are the odds that Metro Infanta Foundation is a key participant in the process leading to this historic decision?
To backtrack a little, year 2005, at the Pius XII Center in Manila, there happened a surprising, graced encounter. The CBCP was gathered for a one-day reflection on the Spirituality of Stewardship, facilitated by the team of Fr. Andrew Kemberling, Pastor of St. Thomas More (STM) Parish in Centennial, Colorado, and Ms. Mila Garcia Glodava, Director of Communications and Stewardship, in partnership with Socio-Pastoral Institute led by Bishop Julio X. Labayen OCD. The theme was: Sustaining the Church of the Poor through the Spirituality of Stewardship. Fr. Andrew shared with the bishops the STM parish model of stewardship as a way of life and the four core values of the Spirituality of Stewardship: identity, trust, gratitude, and love. Me. Mila presented the how-to’s of stewardship as lived at St. Thomas more Parish, where she worked from 1989 to 2014.
It was immediately preceded by a 4-day conference at the same venue for 120 priests, religious, and lay leaders from 21 dioceses of Luzon where the model of St.Thomas More Parish, and the model of Sts. Anne and Joachim Parish in General Nakar in the Prelature of Infanta, were presented. Both models showed how the integration of finances and spirituality is possible, and a path for the sustainability of the Church of the Poor.
Two years back in 2003, Cardinal Ricardo Vidal hosted pastoral conference in the Archdiocese of Cebu on a similar theme of sustaining the Church of the Poor through the Spirituality of stewardship. The resource persons were also Fr. Andrew and Ms. Mila. Eight dioceses and five congregations attended. Fr. Andrew and Ms. Mila shared St. Thomas More Parish as a vibrant and dynamic parish, with a model of Church that had successfully integrated the spirituality of stewardship with every facet of Church community life, including finances, prayer life, ecology, vocations, volunteerism, leadership, liturgical and sacramental life. They were using as guide a paradigm shift: the need to give, rather than giving to a need. It was a model worth sharing with the Church in the Philippines. The conference leaders decided, therefore, that stewardship as a way of life should be shared with the CBCP.
A few years back in 1999, a gathering was held dubbed: An Encounter of the Pastor and the Flock towards a new way of being Church. Convened by Cardinal Vidal and Bishop Labayen, it was attended by 7 dioceses and their pastoral teams. This gathering became the stepping stone of all the other stewardship and the sustainability of the Church of the poor conferences mentioned above.
An active animator in this process was Ms. Mila Garcia Glodava, who was a product of the Prelature of Infanta, and who was Bishop Labayen’s scholar in the mid 60’s. Her work in the Archdiocese of Denver for more than 30 years, especially as the Director of Communications and Stewardship at STM inspired her to give back to the Prelature of Infanta and Bishop Labayen. She was also the founder and president of Metro Infanta Foundation (MIF).
The MIF in the person of Ms. Mila became the active link for St. Thomas More Parish, the Socio-Pastoral Institute, the Prelature of Infanta, the Archdiocese of Denver, the Archdiocese of Cebu, Fr Manny Catral and the Archdiocese of Tuguegarao, Michael Murphy, Sharon Hueckel, Rick Jeric, Jim Kelley, Mary Ann Otto, and Shannon WebsterLee, of the International Catholic Stewardship Conference, Cardinal Charles Bo of Myanmar, Parishes in Guam, Filipino and US Friends in the USA, Mike and Terry Polakovic and the Eleanore Mullen Weckbaugh Foundation, and other funding agencies, and several others.
MIF is a key participant in this dynamic, pulsating process of being and becoming a living Church today, particularly in the Church in the Philippines as she prepares for the next 500 years, Its theme, Gifted to give, definitely conveys stewardship and inspired by Matthew 10:8: “Without cost you have received, without cost you are to give.”
I have witnessed all these in person, and truly MIF is a gift of God to God’s people. I join in congratulating MIF in its 25th anniversary, and wishing it wellness, wholeness, wisdom and the fulness of the gifts of the Spirit, as it journeys on into the 21st century.
