MERRILLVILLE – The celebration of the Eucharist, followed by plenty of traditional food and a cultural dance, marked the first anniversary of the Filipino Ministry in the Diocese of Gary.
Bishop Robert J. McClory presided over the Filipino Mass held on Oct. 4 at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Parish – North Campus with concelebrants Father Ted Mauch, Father Jayababu Nuthulapati and Father Dante Quidaya, RCJ.
During the homily, Bishop McClory said that in his experience he would describe Filipinos as having a “joyful confidence.” He said that when the faithful come together, family is important, “and there's so much joy and laughter and smiles and encouragement and friendship and joy in our Lord, who loves us, and who gives our lives meaning and purpose.”
“But it’s not a superficial kind of joy,” he explained. “It’s rooted in confidence and a hope that we can trust in the Lord. He’s a good God. And because we know His love for us, we can be confident. We can express ourselves with kindness but with directness. We can make our confidence in the Lord known to others in a way that’s very appealing because the joy is so palpable and people want joy.”
The bishop acknowledged that some people may suffer from anxiety, and encouraged those who may have worries to make their request known to God with prayer, petition and thanksgiving.
“We present those to the Lord but with thanksgiving,” he said. “It’s not simply saying ‘Lord, here are all my needs and here are all the things I want,’ but we thank the Lord. At the same time that we present our needs, we call to mind those things for which we are thankful.”
Bishop McClory added that when we do this, the heart begins to fill up differently. Our anxiety is replaced with gratitude for these gifts.
“One of the things I could say is, ‘Thank you, Lord, for this community,’” he said, “for your dedication to expressing your faith and ensuring that it is passed on within the gifts of your culture, your land, your heritage and our common faith.”
Remarks after Mass and during the dinner inside Aquinas Catholic Community School’s gym were filled with gratitude as the Filipino Ministry Advisory Team personally thanked Bishop McClory, Father Mauch, Father Nuthulapati, Father Quidaya, Deacon Napoleon Tabion and the Philippine Professionals Association for their support.
Claudia Sadowski, coordinator of intercultural ministry, told those gathered that the idea of the Filipino community coming together monthly for Mass began with prayer. She shared that from the beginning of her own ministry in the Diocese of Gary, she prayed, and continues to pray, that the Lord will help her find the people, put the right people in her path, and help her recognize the gifts already present in different cultural communities.
“Again and again, He has answered those prayers through people,” she said. “And that is very much the story of the Filipino Ministry Advisory Team. FMAT did not begin in a meeting room. It began with relationships. It began with listening.”
Sadowski continued, saying that as she began meeting members of the Filipino community, listening to their stories, learning about their traditions, families, faith and their hopes for the Church, something became very clear… There was already a beautiful and vibrant Filipino Catholic community in Northwest Indiana.
“We did not have to create it,” she said. “You were already here. The faith was already here. The devotion was already here. The traditions were already here. The leadership was already here. What we needed was to bring people together and create a space where those gifts could grow and become an even more visible part of the life of our diocese.”
From those prayers, conversations, relationships and encounters, the Filipino Ministry Advisory Team was born. “People said yes,” Sadowski said, as she thanked members of the team and others who “began dreaming, organizing, praying, working – and probably sending more emails and messages than any of us would like to count!”
Crescencio “Boboy” Doma Jr. is a member of the Filipino Ministry Advisory Team. He has enjoyed meeting more Filipinos and non-Filipinos throughout the diocese who have shown interest in celebrating Mass together.
“This kind of enjoyment is personally inspiring, knowing that you share the same spiritual desire with other people, especially Filipinos,” he said.
The Filipino Mass, Doma said, has facilitated the “coming together” of Filipinos who share a common desire to worship God together. Praying together as one community of migrants, he believes, makes people feel comfortable and assured that they have someone to lean on; people who may share the same situation and perhaps pray with similar concerns.
Doma added that the fellowship after Mass allows participants the opportunity to share not just food common to Filipinos but also more time to exchange views and ideas about their faith and life. He noted it's also humbling to know that some people travel from other dioceses to participate in the Mass celebrated in Tagalog and officiated by a Filipino priest.
Doma said he prays for the Filipino Ministry to be sustained, grow stronger and become an instrument to bring the Filipinos within the diocese together and help everyone grow in faith. He also hopes the Filipino Ministry may be able to facilitate a more active participation of the people in their respective parishes, “knowing that we come from respective parishes within the diocese. And that their faith life may lead to concrete life-changing activities not just for themselves but more so in touching other people’s lives.”
“This way, we become really productive and caring Christians: becoming men and women for others,” he said. “Lastly, we are praying that the diocese would see the significance of having a permanent Filipino priest in the Diocese who would minister to Filipinos and other nationalities as well.”
Maureen Germany, another member of the ministry advisory team, explained that October is Filipino American History Month and shared that the school gym’s gathering space was decorated to represent a small-town festival. She stated the ministry plans to add more activities throughout the year to share cultural information for young Filipinos and awareness that “we are active, we’re together and enjoy being a family.”
Reflecting on the past year, Germany said, “From the first choir practices to the beginning planning stages, we’ve grown closer together. We’ve had more volunteers and people joining us from Indianapolis and Illinois. We’re stronger, and we’ve grown closer.”
