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Vol. XVIII x No. 2 JANUARY 2006 |
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"I FEEL AT HOME HERE." Interview by Jose Rebelo
Fr. Romulo Vela Panis is a Filipino Comboni Missionary. He has been working in Central America for five years now. After studying Spanish in Antigua, Guatemala, he started working as a Vocation Promoter. Then he moved to El Salvador where he continued helping young people in finding out what God wants from them and in discovering what their true vocation is. He is a pleasant person and people love him. In spite of language and cultural barriers, he confesses: "I feel at home here." What were the major difficulties you encountered in Central America? The first difficulty is the language. Spanish is a very complex language. There are many words that have several meanings. For each word, there is an article (feminine or masculine). All the verbs are conjugated according to the person and the tense. And to make it worst, there are many tenses! The language problem is aggravated whenever the Italian missionaries with whom I live, speak Spanish mixed with Italian. How do you feel as a Vocation Promoter? Are the youth receptive to your work? I am very glad to help the youth to find out their vocation. This is a big challenge because I must know the boys very well. I always go out to invite the boys to come to our searchs in. Of all the boys I invite, only some come to our house and only a few start the discernment process. However, my job is not to bring all the boys to the seminary. My job is to plant a seed in their hearts and later on God will do His part. I"m only the instrument that God uses to make His call heard. Do El Salvador and the other Central American countries need missionaries? Why? Our presence here in Central America is very necessary. We have been called to animate the local Churches because the pastoral work doesn′t take into account yet the missionary dimension. To raise awareness for the missions justifies fully our presence here. It is difficult to describe how much they need missionaries. These countries are not yet into any missionary job. The first goal of a missionary here is to start an interest in the missions. Also, there are many people, especially natives (indigenous), like the Guatemalan mayan, who are just in the first step of evangelization. As an answer to this urgency, we have just started a new commitment among the indigenous people in El Petén, Guatemala. What are the values you see in the people of El Salvador? The people of El Salvador (Salvadoreños), are very nice people. They are very caring, outgoing and confident even though this country has had a hard history. Such hardships increased their capacity to understand, accommodate and be united with those who suffer. The hard times they had been through helped them to be more compassionate and be supportive of others when the latter experience hard moments, too. As a Filipino what can you give to them?
I think the most important thing I can share with them is my faith. In spite of being born in a different and far continent, with a different culture and traditions, the fact that I am here is already a way to show how much I want to share my life with them. They know that I have left everything just to follow Jesus and to tell the world about His great love. My desire to serve and my efforts to be able to speak good Spanish are already proofs that I want to share and show the greatness of God to them.
I have many stories to tell, enough to write a book! But I will only give a general idea of the importance of our presence here. Every year we go with young boys to a city where we spend a week with the community. We live there to serve them, to share our life, to learn from them and to plant the seed of the missionary vocation in the hearts of young boys and girls. Usually those villages are far from the city. I have been to places where the communities have no chapels and the nearest priest visits them only once a month or only whenever he can (there are only a few priests here and the communities are far from each other). When I get there, the people who are usually very poor of material things always give me the best they have. They are very glad to have a missionary who comes to talk to them about God′s love, listen to their problems and share their happiness. God never forgets to multiply what we give with love. To give from their poverty is the greatest gift. , and sometimes they are people who are not suited to be bishops." Is it difficult to be a missionary here? Where do you get strength to carry on? What is the secret of missionary life? People have a hard life here in El Salvador. The daily violence is something I could never get used to. Oftentimes, I am a witness to a youth′s death and families divided and shattered by violence. It is very hard to deal with boy gangsters and difficult to accept that many young people die every day because of violence. Here I have to face the reality of broken families because of money or violence. Then there′s the migration phenomenon. A lot of people travel illegally to USA and many of them die on the way. In the face of such situations, only prayer sustains my life. In it I find peace and strength to stand the burden of this tough reality in which I live. Personal and community prayers are the source of my strength, my life secret. Talking to the Lord gives me the enthusiasm to go on. The gestures of friendship and tenderness offered by so many people also make me feel that I am not alone and that is reason enough to continue my mission. <WM"My dream has come true!"
Romulo Vela Panis was a civil engineer and had worked for five years before meeting the Comboni Missionaries. He was once invited by two Comboni postulants to attend a three-day-retreat in Quezon City. After some hesitation, he decided to go. There, he made his decision: "I was really impressed when I realized how hard their mission work is in Africa. On that same day, I told myself I want to be like them. I knew that was my way, too."
Romulo entered the seminary. After his first period of studies in the Philippines and his temporary profession, in 1995, he left for Nairobi, Kenya, to study Theology at Tangaza College of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. He had the opportunity to study with youth of other countries, languages and cultures and to appreciate the missionary work in Africa, especially among the remote communities of Kenya. These years of formation helped him to confirm and consecrate his life for the mission.
He was ordained to the priesthood on June 30, 2001 at Marikina City in the Nativity of our Lady Parish, Diocese of Antipolo. He was 37 years old. El Salvador After war, gang violence
Between 1980 and 1992, El Salvador was devastated by a fearful civil war. That nightmare has ended, but violence continues, perpetrated by gangs of young delinquents, known as "maras." They kill an average of ten people a day. This makes the little Central American country one of the most dangerous and violent in Latin America.
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