VRAKKING VERSION

(Fr. Theodulf Vrakking made two versions of History, both were unfinished and he sent these to Fr. Bernard Roosendaal and Fr. Eddie Albino respectively)

VERSION 2A – History sent to Fr. Bernard Roosendaal

REMINISCENCES AND REVERIES

In 1957, provincial chapter of the Dutch Carmelites decided to open up a new field of work. The country decided upon was the Philippines. The Frs. Richard Vissers, Werenfried Viester and the undersigned were appointed for this undertaking. Towards the end of 1957, Fr. Brocard Meyer, provincial and Fr. Richard Vissers went to the Philippines to look around. Fr. Fidelis Limcaco, a Filipino Carmelite, was already in Manila. The two Dutch Carmelites – after many visits, talks and discussions – opted for a few parishes in the Diocese of Dumaguete.

March 20, 1958, we (Frs. Viester and Vrakking) embarked on S.S. Annekerk, when we woke up the next orning, we had already left the harbor of Rotterdam. On Good Friday, April 4, 1958, there was a stop-over in Djibouti for taking in fuel. Together with 2 Mill Hill Fathers (Frs. Zomerdijk and Praat) back from first leave, we visited a church and walked into the town. Incidentally, those two priests tld us lots of things about life in the Republic of the Philippines. It was a pleasant, easy introduction to acquaint us with what we were to face. All in all the trip took about four weeks.

April 18, Fr. Viester and myself arrived in manila, where Fr. Fidelis Limcaco was waiting for us. We were to stay with the MSC fathers; Fidelis stayed with relatives of his. The evening of our arrival, he took us to see Msgr. Epifanio Surban, the bishop in whose Diocese we were to take over a few parishes. After a few days shopping for things required by Fr. Richard Vissers and Fr. Fidelis Limcaco, we left Manila by boat and arrived in Bacolod end of April. Fr. Viester went on to Toboso to join Fr. Vissers. The undersigned left him and joined Fr. Limcaco in Central Danao. the last week of May, Frs. Viester and Vrakking changed places. Fr. Viester was to be introduced to Central Danao (by Fr. Fidelis), Fr. vrakking joined Fr. vissers. On the last day of May (Flores de Mayo) Fidelis and Teodulf went to Escalante.

In December 1958, the Frs. Benitius Egberink and Fr. Gervasius Lansink arrived. they had been met in Manila by Fr. Fidelis and brought a letter from him for the Superior, in which he told the latter that he was not coming back. Benitius went to Escalante, later on to Balintawak where he started Mount Carmel high School (now Mount Carmel College). Fr. Gervasius went to Toboso;later on he became the first Carmelite parish priest in San Francisco (Agusan, Mindanao).

PARISHES

The decision not to take over an entire diocese but only parishes meant somewhere a limitation (self-imposed) but gave us also more freedom. The need for schools made itself felt. This caused contact with other teaching institutions. The fact that we could depend on extra resources from abroad could become a danger for the near future when the Carmelite group in the Republic would become independent. The Carmelite schools in Holland were a financial insurance for the province, but this was hardly to be expected in the Republic of the Philippines. We should be happy to break even. The overall situation, certainly in the provinces, of the High Schools and higher institutions of education was below standard.

Many times priests in the same diocese or in neighbrouring parishes urged us to assign one priest to each place, so0 as to cover more centers. We did prefer, though, small communities and this did have quite a few advantages. It promoted teamwork, it enabled specialized fields of work. As we had just been dropped into a big sea,, we focused our attention intially on traditional points: barrio-visits, catechetical instructions, sacraments and the like. Over the years, some laymen, priests and bishops came to be known and seen as fighters for social justice. Foreign missionaries tended more and more towards Filipinization. Holland influenced the RP approach and vice versa.

Any priest would do! Before the end of 1958, the undersigned was Parish Priest in Escalante (then some 60,000 parishioners), with little knowledge of the language, the culture. When I told Ko Gooijer when he was visiting us how I had felt then, he said: it may be good that you were never in a parish before; otherwise you might have tried to do things in a Dutch way.

Gradually, we discovered an underlying problem of the whole backward situation: enforced poverty! attention grew for the needs of farmers and fishermen. The majority of church goers were women and children. The size of the parishes made it impossible for 90% of the people to be something like regular churchgoers. An annual visit by the priest was the most outlying villages could hope for.

SCHOOLS

Judge Strachan offered to sell to us a lot parallel to the highway from Escalante to Sagay, beginning near the site of his house. This house was later rented by the municipality for temporary municipal hall. In June 1958, the seat of the town was transferred from Old to New Escalante. The existing national hih school was situation between Old and New Escalante (formerly Balintawak). The lot offered by Mr. Strachan was not fit for agricultural use. There were few or no people willin to buy a lot there because of the increasing traffic – to be expected in years to come – would cause constant annoyance because of the noice of the traffic. After Fidelis' sudden leave (December 1958) apparently Mr. Strachan's dealings with Fidelis had gone fairly far. the first Sunday after, he approached me in the sacristy of Balintawak to tell me about the whole affair, and what was he going to do now? And what were we going to do? I told him how in a religious order no suject could make final deals of the kind without consent of the Superior. Mr. Strachan was quite upset, as he did notexpect any other interested buyers to turn up. I went to Toboso where the Superiro, Fr. vissers was Parish Priest, in order to tell him about Fidelis' sudden departure. The latter had not breathed a word to me; he only was going to meet Frs. Benitius Egberink and Jan Lansink who were then about to arrive in Manila.

Later on a lot was brought from Mr. Epifanio Lopez, whose property was mortgaged to the Bank. so he could not sell without the bank, nor the bank without him. It was managed later on via an extra payment (under the table) to his son Mr. Cesar Lopez. The rest of the family was not told about this apparently.

The arhitech for school, church and convent of Balintawak was found in Manila, Mr. Jose Lopez and the contractor was Mr. Arturo Manalac on the advice of the SVD Fathers in manila. The latter was God-sent in many respects.

NUNS

Towards the end of 1958 some Carmelite Nuns fro Madrid (Las Maravillas) arrived in the RP for a foundation in Dumaguete. Fr. Fidelis had arranged everything with Nuns and bishop, without telling Fr. Vissers about it. The Nuns were thinking that the Carmelite Fathers would take care of their spiritual and financial needs. Their first living quarters were a house abandoned by the Irish Redemptorishs near the old cemetery. Later on, the nuns moved to a new monastery next to the airport where they still are. They have plenty of friends and of noise! Their house is ver siimple; the church of later construction is a concrete affair, and could be a parish church. In later years, the nuns made a new foundation in Roxas City (Romblon) where a former priest of the dumaguete Diocese had become a bishop.

Fr. Fidelis Limcaco had also been contacting the bishop of Surigao (a Dutch MSC) and the nuns of Elzendaal not realising probably that the nuns in Holland were under the jurisdicion of the Order and had a special provincial delegate assigned to them. The negotiations came to nothing. The Bishop showed us later the lot he had already purchasedfor the nuns. For a tropical country, the size of the lot was impossible small; it was situated between the city of Butuan and its airport. Fr. Fidelis had not idled this time away. He contacted – with success – the Third Order Congregation of the American sisters of Mount Carmel situated in Louisiana. They started later a school and a hospital in Dumaguete City. Fr. Fidelis kept close contact with his protegees. In 1964, the Sisters of Julie Postel came to the Philippines, where they started a hospital in Balintawak. It was then the second hospital between Bacolod and San Carlos, a distance of some 150 kilometers.

PASTORAL WORK

After a few years the CURSCILLO movement made its appearance, from abroad. It went on like wildfire. It turned out a disappointment. Three days of intensive brainwashing was not enough to bring any lasting changes. Religious knowledge was very low. Hence also religious fervor expressed itself often in devotional practices, but many times there was an altogether wrong picture of God. God was often seen as a taskmaster, ready to punish the slightest trespesses, somebody to be feared instead of loved or trusted. GABA was frequently used word when anything untoward happened. It meant more or less; serves him right. God punished him. The development in pastoral care was on the one side influenced by religion and made also a social impact on the pastoral care. The initial stages were at times confusing and tended sometimes to become bones of contention. Gradually, things became clearer, mutual understanding grew.

LANGUAGE

In Negros, the only language that could be used outside the greater settlements was Cebuano. Our first candidates came from the same area. At present, students from various places have been entering, and so the national language, a derivative from Tagalog, is becoming more common. In the first years Latin was a great help. Newcomers to the RP could say Holy Mass, escort processions, read sermons, and the seniors took care of weddings, baptisms and funerals, etc. The changes in the wake of Vatican II were gradual. First songs were translated from the English (before the main sources were Spanish), and gradually an entire collection of original visaya songs came into being. Church attendance increased considerably. Many male parishioners started to turn up.

The local language was easier for Dutchmen than for Americans, Irish or English. The build-up of the language was hard on all foreigners. I guess, but as far as pronunciation went, the Dutch certain assets. In a newcomer were to read aloud a Visayan sermon, most of it would be understood by his audience. Not so with the English speakers, e.g. Kasingkasing ni Jesus (Jesus would be : Geeso'es). An Englishman would come out with something like: keesingkeesing nie Djiezus).

A difficult sound, for the Dutch too, was the link word “NGA”. The white house =the house that (is) white = ang balay NGA puti. Samengetrokken: ang balang puti of ang putting balay.

Fancy having to pronounce that nasal sound at 14 stations of the Way of the Cross. We had to keep blowing our nose. A well known church song had the words: Harin nga yukaristiko samengetrokken: Haring yukaristiko which sound a little surprising to Dutch ears.

CULTURE

When we got stuck for a certain word, it was quite acceptable to ask the audience of someone could tell you the equivalent of a certain English word in the vernacular. You said 'thank you' (salamat) and continued. No bother at all.

I had not been in Escalante for very ong, when at a certain day i visited a barrio Elementary School. There had been no catechetical instruction for ages. The whole school was sent to the chapel. i tried to teach them how to make the sign of the cross, after explaining in primitive way what that meant. Facing the kids I used my left hand, so as not to confuse them while they would copy my gestures, and off we went:

Agtang (forehead) tiyan (belly) wala (left) too (right)

After doing that a couple of times, we added the proper words:

Sa ngalan sa Amahan (forehead signed) ug sa Anak (belly signed) ug sa Espiritu Santo (right and left). After repeating that some 10 times, I asked one of the boys if he could do it all by himself. He did not hesitate, but it proved more difficult than he had foreseen. What came out was this. “Sa ngalan sa Aman ug sa Espiritu Santo.” I asked, “hain man ang Anak?” (Where is the son child?). The whole group shouted in chorus: sa tiyan (in de buik). Hilarity among adults.

When misunderstandings arose or conflicts threatened people would turn to a male teacher who gave us daily instructions in the intricacies of the local language. In San Francisco, they would turn to the principal of our High School. At a certain occasion, some people asked him to go to one of the priests at the convent and ask if he would mind to try to change his conferere's mind about a certain decision. The principal answered: It's no use my asking, they all draw the same line at the convent.

HOSPITALITY

The abundance of it is overwhelming to us Westerners. On the other hand, the lack of it is understandable for Filipinos who visit Holland. Dutch hospitality is often little more than a cup of coffee and a biscuit. In the RP ordinary people but also priests and bishops would be offended if you did not appeal to their hospitality. One night, Fr. Vissers and myself arrived at Dumaguete past midnight. A trip by bus to the other end of the island had started well in time, but unforeseen troubles had delayed the arrival. The whole floor of the big room of the bishop's house was crowded with sleeping seminarians. In no time, we had something to drink and to eat. Beds were prepared. The next morning the bishop scolded us for not having alerted him at our arrival! Filipinos take that absolutely for granted, and thanks to god, the do not hesitate to take it for granted from us, too.

SURPRISES

The first week after our arrival in Escalante we used to say Mass early in the morning after one another. Conceleration was not allowed then. Every morning, wefound a large white she-dog on the altarsteps. She used to belong to the former Parish Priest, a Spanish Recolect. We dressed more or less the same as he must have done, but after a few days the dog stopped coming. Apparently, she did not recognize or take to our smell. A week or so later I discovered her in a shop near the convent. The owner had been a close acquaintance of the Spanish priest.

A sunday morning. A full half hour before Mass one of the altar boys or the sacristan used to ring the churchbell to call the people. The bells were hanging in the plaza before church and convent. The sound was made by moving (by hand) the clapper against the side of the bell. Two bells were hanging beside each other. It was arather monotonous sound, and it would have sounded much better if the bells had been hanging in a tower, but in the absence of a tower, this primitive way, had to do. About five minutes before the beginning of the Mass both bells were used to make a 'rhoeda', i.e. they were moved by hand to turn around their axes. It took some time to them into full swing and at the end it took again some time to stop them.

Ii had been sitting in the confessional hearing confessions. At five minutes before the hour I went outside to warn the sacristan that it was aout time. On the way from the confessional to the front door I met a little pig in the side aisle. I meant to kick the animal so as to get it out of the church, but then I was in for something. My slipper missed the pig, and flew into thee air. The pig ran out of the church, screaming its head off. People laughing about my losing my slipper which I had to retrieve a few meters further on. I had never known pigs could run that fast.

In San Francisco, we used to have a moneky,fastened by chain to a long horizontal bamboo pole. On a certain Sunday morning the money had got loose, and came to the church. After sitting in the windowsill for a while and look around he saw me and recognized me but he had never seen me dressed up in liturgical vestments. He jumped to the floor and started moving towards the middle aisle. There were a couple of dogs, lying near the pews of their owners. No sooner had they seen the monkey or they started barking like mad and tore after the poor beast. he was too quick for them, though, and escaped through the windown. It took only seconds but the noise, barking and screaming made it sound like a redskin attack in the wild west. (The words “to be continued” was indicated but it was never finished.)


VERSION 2B – History sent to Fr. Eddie Albino on the 18th of July 1997)
CARMEL IN THE PHILIPPINES
(By: Theodulf Vrakking)

The Carmelite foundation in the Republic of the Philippines did not come quite out of the blue. If my memory serves me well, a plan for foundation there was first broached in 1940 in one of our American Provinces. The Second World War interevened. Shortly after the War a young filipino, Fidelis (Ruben) Limcaco entered the Order in America (New York Province). After his studies in rome, he was ordained there in 1956. Back in the Philippines, he started moving heaven and earth, pulling all kind of strings to have the Carmelites open a mission in his native country.

In the aftermath of the same War, the Dutch Province had difficulties in sending new missionaries into the Carmelite mission in East Java (Indonesia). In 1957, two veterans of this mission happened to be on leave in Holland. Discussions between the Generalate in Rome and the Dutch Province induced the Dutch Provincial Chapter of 197 to open negotiations for a foundation in the Republic of the Philippines. Superior designate was Fr. Richard Vissers and as companions were assigned Fr. Viester and Fr. Vrakking. The latter was assigned on account of his English and his outspoken wish to work in the mission; Frs Vissers and Viester were men with troica, oriental experience.

In the meantime, Fr. Limcaco started contacting several authorities and bishops. In October 1957, Fr. Brocard Meyer (Provincial) and Fr. Richard vissers left by boat for the Republic to look for a possible foundation. it was decided from the start not to commit the Order to care for a Diocese of Prelature, but to look for parishes.

In the beginning of 1958, an agreement was reached with Bishop Epifanio surban of Dumaguete whose newly erected Diocese was mainly under staffed by a few secular priests, and several foreign religious (OFM, Augustinian Recolletos). The Bishop gave the Carmelites a free hand to visit the whole Diocese before a decision would be made. Fr. vissers, dyed-in-the-wool as he was, opted for two parishes, at the other end of the Diocese and island (Negors) far from the Bishop. This must have had its advanatages, but a disadvantage was there was little contact with the Filipino clergy. From Escalante town to vallehermose were no secular priests. The bishop agreed with the arrangement, as he could keep an eye on his own clergy. Early in 1958, things were settled: Fr. Vissers would become Parish Priest in Toboso, the parish of Escalante would be manned in September 1958. However, the Parish Priest of Escalante left in a huff right after Easter that year. A temporary Parish Priest was appointed, the later Msgr. Antonio Ferrerons. Fortunately, Frs. Viester and Vrakking were already on their way. Upon arrival in Manila, where they stayed with the MSC Fathers, they were met by Fr. Limcaco.

That same evenin they had a chance to visit Msgr. Epifanio Surban at the Paulistas. The learnt there that Fr. Vissers would be the parish priest in Toboso, Fr. Limcaco the parish priest in Escalante, Fr. Viester assistant in Central Danao, an outstation of Toboso. Fr. Vrakking would accompany Fr. Limcaco to Escalante. the assignments were to begin on May 31, 1958.

The week after their arrival in the capital, the 2 newly arrived Carmelites went to Negros. Fr. Viester went to Toboso to join Fr. Vissers in what we called 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'! Frs. Limcaco and Vrakking stayed in Central Danao, until May 24th. Frs. Viester and Vrakking then switched places until June 1st. The take-over waws too soon in so far as the 3 Dutch Fathers had no proper time to get acquainted with the local languae. This had its funny sides but also certain drawbacks as one will understand. The Monday after our arrival in Escalante, the temporary Parish Priest left after the midday meal.

After his departure, Fr. Viester, who was visiting, and Fr. Fidelis and Vrakking went to the Church, a 20th century Spanish building, sturdy enough, but neglected. On leaving the building Fr. Viester remarked, 'Terribilis est locus iste'. Compared to toboso, though, it was a Cathedral. The church in Toboso was open at all sides (except in the sanctuary) for goats, dogs and such like. About a meter from the floor, there was akind of walling (1½ meter high) of flattened corrugated iron. The holy water spouts were regular emptied by the neighbor's horse. (To be continued promised Fr. Teodulf Vrakking but it was never finished...)