Dear brothers and sisters,

Next weekend, May 21st & 22nd, will be our annual Mission Appeal weekend here at Holy Innocents Parish. We welcome Fr. Librado Baluarte from Saints Cyril and Methodius Church in Youngstown, OH who will make the appeal on behalf of the Most Reverend Arturo M. Bastes, SVD, DD, Bishop of Sorsogon, Philippines.

The Province of Sorsogon is one of the poorest in the region of Bicol, which is often hit by natural calamities such as typhoons/hurricanes and volcanic eruptions. The entire country suffered much catastrophe with the unprecedented Typhoon in November, 2013.

The proceeds of this Mission Appeal for the Diocese of Sorsogon help to facilitate the following:

• Education of 160 seminarians (90 in High School, 53 in College, 17 in Theology) – most of these seminarians come from poor families who are unable to support them financially for priestly education, the cost of which has become more expensive over the years (as those of you with children in college well know).
• Implementation of the Sixth Phase of the Diocesan Ecclesial and Evangelization Program (DEEP), which began in 2014 and continues through the next five years. This is one of their greatest needs, to be able to budget for the systematic formation of the leaders of various Commissions such as: Family and Human Life, Laity, Youth, Mission, Media for Evangelization, Worship, Education, Service, and Temporalities. These nine pastoral commissions are tasked to DEEP in the vicarial level, the parochial level, the chapel level and down to the smallest unit of their basic ecclesial communities.

So on behalf of The Most Reverend Bishop Arturo M. Bastes and Fr. Librado Baluarte, I ask that you keep them and the people of the Diocese of Sorsogon, Philippines in your prayers. I also encourage you to be as generous as your means allow with next week’s second collection which will be taken for this Mission Appeal.

Peace,

Fr. Mike