St. Anthony of Padua Parish – Tabontabon

It was on November 8, 2013, when the reportedly strongest typhoon ever to make landfall, ravaged everything along its path. Like a silent, yet the horrifying movie, the early aftermath began with looping images: a flattened town, vehicles on top of each other, downed trees, roads littered with debris, and worst of all, lifeless bodies everywhere, – nothing less apocalyptic than the tsunamis of recent past. It claimed thousands of lives. Men or women, rich or poor, young or old, didn’t matter. Yolanda didn’t choose anyone or anything. Even Tabontabon was not an exception to this. The Church that once stood a few meters from here was totally brought down by Yolanda. It left a clear message that our battle against nature is something that we will never win. But little by little we rose from the debris, we stood up and shook off the dirt on our garments. We let the heroes in our inner selves out and hand in hand we helped each other start anew. And with the help of other nations, we showed the world that not even the strongest typhoon can shatter the strongest people. Even amidst our darkest hours, we found hope and this story of hope serves as an inspiration to the whole world. and who was with us throughout this story of hope and ascent? It was God. It was God working. I would like to quote Pope Francis’ message to Yolanda survivors. He said, “Even amidst disaster and suffering, God is constantly at work, making all things new.” And because of that, now we have this new Church here. Yolanda was truly a disaster for all of us, but at the same time, it also gave way for new doors opened.

God worked through the US Bishops who felt the need to help and to donate a large sum of money for the total construction of a Church here in the Archdiocese of Palo, thru the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines. We felt blessed and privileged that our Archbishop, Most Rev. John F. Du, immediately thought of and uttered Tabontabon, Leyte when he was asked to select just one parish here in the Archdiocese that would receive this blessing. Tabontabon, Leyte is undeniably fortunate for having been selected out of the 78 Parishes to receive this blessing of having a grandiose Church worth 88 million Pesos situated in the town. Just a year ago, the construction of this new Parish Church was commenced. and now it has been more than a year, and we can already see the grandiose product of what used to be a mere plan only. And you know what makes Tabontabon even more blessed? Even before the construction of this Church was completed, last April 25, 2016 hundreds of people all over the Archdiocese came to witness the pray over relics of San Antonio de Padua from Italy.

Hence, this Church was already initially blessed by San Antonio De Padua himself. You see, this Church is indeed very blessed and rich in history. This Church stands for hope as this was erected as an aftermath of a disaster. The Church represents blessing and fortune for having been selected of many. And above all this Church is a clear message of God’s immense love for us – that he is indeed our God And our creator who works in mysterious ways we cannot see but only understand in the end.