Category Archives: Documentos

International meeting def. of the responsibles for the Jesus Caritas priest fraternity in Cebu. Guido DEBONNET

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After a tiring journey (you can’t deny your age!), we, Helmut dean of Eupen, represented the French-speaking priest-frat and I, the Flemish priest-frat, arrived at the small airport of Cebu City (Philippines) in the afternoon of 15 January. . We were welcomed by Filipino brothers and a seminarist who brought us along with 6 other participants in a van from the archbishop and a taxi to the beautiful house Talavera on a hill, just outside the center of Cebu City. During the rush hour, the young bus driver staggered between a tangle of traffic with cyclists, pedestrians, motorbikes, overloaded vans, tricycles, sidecar motorcycles, passenger cars,… and brought us safely to Talavera after an hour and a half. I have never been in such a witch-boiler traffic. With over 900,000 inhabitants, Cebu is a very important commercial city, an island located just south of the center of the Philippines. The country is an island of more than 7000(small) islands, of which 2000 are inhabited. For me it was a first introduction to a “third world country”. Apart from Israel and Tamanrasset, I had never been outside of Europe. Immediately noticeable was the modern city with its tall buildings, luxurious supermarkets, but also a lot of small, poor shops along the main roads, hundreds of people on foot, overloaded vans and taxis and a lot of young people … A different world with a ‘heavy’ tropical climate at 27-30 degrees (luckily we were in the Philippines during the winter months!)

After a short welcome we were allowed to visit our “sleeping place”. There was nothing left of the rooms but two dorms. With two Brazilian priests, Helmut and I, we had a spacious dormitory, air-cooled. In retrospect, this was a better solution than that we would be housed in a single room. There was “light and space.” When you had to get up at night, it was comforting to notice that Carlos could not sleep either and the emails were answering on his tablet! Only in the morning when we had to get up was it less pleasant, because just around the morning the tiredness and the willingness to sleep struck … I did not sleep much during the first week (and afterwards …).

Read the complete document (PDF): International meeting def. of the responsibles for the Jesus Caritas priest fraternity in Cebu

Iesus Caritas priests visiting priests. Klaus BEURLE

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In this report you find daily notes of Fr. Klaus Beurle, German diocesan priest who was visiting priests, bishops and cardinals in the Philippines from October 23 to November 15, 2018. He is a learning traveller depicting observations of daily life along with people in the streets of Manila, on the roads in northern and southern Philippines. He was eager to meet people of all walks of the society so as to get a vivid understanding of history,
culture and society and the values of the ever-open minded population of the Filipino society.

Dr. Klaus Beurle was invited by Filipino priests and encouraged by the Asian Responsible Fr. Arthur Charles from Pakistan of the Priests Fraternity Jesus Caritas inspired by Charles de Foucauld to visit priests and to share with them human and spiritual experiences, questions and visions. Charles de Foucauld, a French noble who first tried to make career as soldier and as researcher and who had lost his faith until he rediscovered the meaning of Christian faith. From his conversion on he wanted to live like Jesus in Nazareth. This led him to live among people who are farthest away from Jesus. He ended among the Tuareg in the Sahara where he was killed in 1916 among people to whom he became brother to all, universal brother. The Priests Fraternity, one of numerous associations or communities inspired by Brother Charles, emphasizes simplicity of life, adoration, sharing of personal life experiences.

The booklet invites readers to follow Fr. Klaus on his way to some places of the fascinating country with its 7101 islands and a population of 107 million people. Observations, conversations, discussions and reflections are touching basic issues of the Society and of the Catholic Church.

Read the complete report (PDF): Jesus Caritas Priests visiting priests 2019 0222-1