TMCnet News
Ecclesiastical brain drain(Manila Standard Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)The "brain drain" phenomenon that has seen Filipino doctors, nurses, engineers, and other professionals seeking better opportunities abroad has also not spared Filipino priests. Standard Today columnist Bishop Teodoro Bacani in a recent interview in our daily radio program over dwIZ said that Filipino priests are going abroad at an alarming rate and aggravating the current shortage in Philippine Catholic churches. Bishop Bacani gave the example of one diocese in California where there are at present more than 40 Filipino priests serving as parish priests and doing other ecclesiastical work. The retired bishop said that the 40 Filipino priests in that California diocese are enough for one diocese. He said that there must be hundreds of Filipino priests now working in the whole United States. He said that the recruitment by American dioceses of Filipinos is not limited to priests. He pointed out that the US Catholic churches are also recruiting seminarians who are offered scholarships to study in American seminaries with the commitment, of course, to serve in the diocese which shouldered his studies after he finished his theology course. Filipino priests must find it difficult to refuse offers from US-based Catholic dioceses. The "recruiters" offer to work on the immigration papers as well as free airfare. American Catholic churches which are the richest in the world also provide for all the needs of their priests including comfortable accommodation, generous allowances, a car and other needs. The offer is tempting especially for priests who are assigned to poor parishes and who must get other jobs for their needs. There was a priest, for example, assigned in Laguna who was featured in a story because he was working as a jeepney driver on the side to augment whatever contributions he gets from his parishioners. His story is repeated in poor communities all over the Philippines. Seminarians are even more vulnerable. Just the prospect of a scholarship would make many of them jump at the offer. They do not have to go around, as many of them do, to ask for contributions to finance their studies. Going to the US is also easy to justify. Many of the Filipino priests are serving in communities where there are large numbers of Filipino parishioners. In fact, in many American Catholic churches, it is the Filipino churchgoers who are keeping them open. Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Episcopal Commission on the Doctrine of Faith chairman Imus, Cavite Bishop Luis Antonio Tagle during the holding of the National Congress of the Clergy at the World Trade Center said the situation is ironic because before, it was Europe and America who were sending missionaries to the Philippines but now we are the ones sending priests to them. He said many churches in the US would have closed down but it is the Filipinos keeping many of them open not only because of the growing Filipino attendance but also because of the recruitment of Filipino priests. Indeed Filipino priests are needed to minister to Filipino-Americans. In the past few years, the sheer number of Filipino-Americans has forced parishes to recognize their presence. For example, in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Filipinos comprise approximately 18 percent of the church-going population. Many dioceses in the US have offices that focus on Filipino ministries. One of the outstanding Filipino clergy who had immigrated to the US is Bishop Oscar Azarcon Solis who made history when he became the first Filipino-American to be ordained a bishop in the US. Solis is auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles which has 400,000 Filipinos out of a total of five million Catholics. Solis who is from San Jose, Nueva Ecija is a member of the Dominican order and he studied at the Divine Word Seminary in Tagaytay City and the University of Sto. Tomas Central Seminary. He came to the US to visit a sister but he was recruited to work in a church in Newark, New Jersey before serving in Louisiana. A survey conducted in 1995 showed that there were approximately 300 Filipino priests, brothers, and deacons, and 200 sisters in the US. Many of these priests were appointed parish priests and many religious were appointed Catholic school principals and many Filipinos hold responsible positions in diocesan chanceries. At present the figures must have quadrupled. Clearly, Filipino priests and seminarians have a key role to play in the US and other countries where there are large Filipino communities. The exodus of Filipino priests, however, would exacerbate the shortage of priests in the Philippines. The CBCP estimates a shortfall of 25,000 priests. The current ratio is one priest per 15,000 parishioners. This is far from ideal since the ideal ratio is one priest for every 2,000 commissioners. Perhaps the CBCP when it meets later this month should focus on this problem of shortage of priests instead of concentrating on political issues and concerns. |