redemptorists-cebu

TACLOBAN PARISH

The Redemptorists came to Tacloban sometime in the 1940's. For many years the pioneering confreres gave missions in the Islands of Leyte & Samar. It only accepted a parish in the 1960's. The date of the parish canonical erection was on April 16, 1967. Since then we are serving a vast portion of the Archdiocese of Palo. And we named our parish in honor of our patroness, Our Mother of Perpetual Help. From the original jurisdiction of our parish, there have been 7 newly erected parishes and mission stations, manned now by diocesan priests. But we still have 21 barangays that we serve.

The following are the list of concrete pastoral activities and social initiatives that we have in our parish: 1. catechesis - school based and barangay catechesis, 2. evangelization - family, pre-jordan, MES, natural family planning, gospel sharing, etc., 3. strengthening of BEC's, 4. Sacramental and Liturgical celebration like community masses, fiesta celebration, penitential service, novenas, prayer meetings, block rosary, 5. social services: meeting and assemblies, disaster relief, cooperative, ecology campaign, human rights education, health & nutrition, herbal dispensary, bigasan sa parokya, income generating projects like fish and food vending, piggery, pedicab, bakery, etc., street and working kids scholarship/formation program, alternative learning system for out of school youth, prison ministry, candle making livelihood for post released prisoners, skills training for womens group, medical and dental mission, gift giving for ndigent families, general charity for the poor, feeding for street kids and underweight children,

The different programs and activities in the parish are our concrete way of responding to the parish Vision/Mission and Goals:
Parish Vision: We, the people of the parish of Our Mother of Perpetual help, envision ourselves to become: a community of Christ's disciples, rich in faith, nourished by the Eucharist, inspired by the Word of God, and strengthened by prayer; a community, free from injustice and poverty, enjoying the good things in life, witnessing to gospel values and filled with hope for the fullness of life for ourselves and for all people.

Parish Mission: Led by the Spirit of God and guided by Our Mother of Perpetual Help, we commit ourselves to the following: faithfulness to Christ, to the Gospel and to the teachings of the church; perseverance and growth in our prayer life; witnessing to the cause of justice for all; service to all, especially the poor; being sources of hope for those wholive in darkness and the shadow of death.

Parish goals: To build communities that are fully human and totally Christian; Fully human because the members know each other, they respect the rights and dignity of each other, they strive to serve and love each other. Fully Christian because they believe all life comes from God our Father; they hope for all things through the Paschal Mysteryof the death and Resurrection of Christ; they love because they experience that the love of God is poured into their hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to them.

In terms of personnel, we have have 6 parish staff and a number of catechist and volunteers (members of the WESTY Commissions), who are active in guiding and implementing our parish programs and thrust which is building and sustaining BEC's. There are 6 CSsR's who are helping in the parish & church work. Three of them are full time in the missions but from time to time involved themselves in the parish work. The parishioners are generally active and cooperative. But there is a need to further strengthen the parish life by making a strategic planning sometime this year. This is in line of the Archdiocesan Program of reviewing and implementing the new parish structure that is more geared towards BEC.