Newsletter of the District of Asia  April - May 1998 Chronicle of the Philippines March 1. First anniversary of the consecration of Our Lady of Victories Church. Quezon City Mayor, Mr. Mel Mathay, came to Our Lady of Victories to consecrate his city (pop. 2.2 million) to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. After Mass, he addressed the group of doctors preparing for the afternoon Medical Mission. From 2-6 pm, 17 doctors with 25 assistants performed our second Medical Mission in our own Barangay Mariana. The number of patients rose from 30 (in the previous years) to over 360. At the same moment in Cebu, at the foot of Magellan's Cross, Fathers Vernoy and Marie-Dominique OR founded the youth movement, "The Apostles of Mary ", by giving a recollection to the first 12 founding members. March 3. Five young Dominican Sisters made the heroic step of leaving their convent infected with modernism to join Tradition. Providentially, we were able to find and rent a 4 bedroom small house, a mere 200 meters away from our church. The presence of a community of real sisters in their full Dominican habits is the beginning of a new chapter in our history ... March 5. Monthly day of adoration. March 7. Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas. Bishop Lazo came for lunch. At 3 pm, our leading doctors gathered together to found the Academy of Catholic Traditional Biomedical Ethics (see elsewhere in this Newsletter). Bishop Lazo was hospitalized towards the end of the day. March 8. 200 college students came to Mass, received the brown scapular and a special catechism class. Sunday attendance: over 800 March 10. First day of the Novena to St. Joseph. The next door neighbor whose house was burnt down last January 15 having met "by accident"(?) Fr. Onoda, gave us the first choice in buying her property, adjacent to our church, which is now for sale. Before complines, that intention is put under the feet of our greatest benefactor... St. Joseph! In the evening, three of the priests visited Bp. Lazo in hospital. His lordship wrote his will there and then as his health was seriously affected. March 14. Outing for 75 children of the Santo Nino Catechism to Las Pinas, for a Bamboo Organ mini?concert, and to a nearby park. March 15. Our new, first class, woodcarved, soundproof, doubled-door confessional is brought to the church. As crowd increase, at Our Lady of Victories the confessional lines stretch as well ... Fathers Onoda and Couture attended the local Barangay council meeting to thank the officials for their help during the Medical Mission of March 1. The Barangay President, very pleased with the amazing success of "our" mission, invited us to repeat it frequently? March 17. Father Onoda became Father O' Onoda for one day ... Brother Gamaliel Masangcay from Aklan, Panay received his soutane at Holy Cross Seminary, in Australia. March 18. Our new safe arrived. It required 16 men to move it. Father Vernoy gladly recovered his belongings sent from India 9 months previously... March 19. In gratitude for all favors received and to come, from the great St. Joseph, at the occasion of his feast day, he is given a new baroque retablo, to ornate his altar in the same style as our main altar. he ad Joseph! March 21. Three of our pre-seminarians and aspiring brothers finally left for Australia. A fourth one should follow shortly from Manila, and a fifth one from Sri Lanka. March 22. Bishop Lazo's 51st anniversary of ordination. He celebrated the l lam Mass in the presence of many of the doctors who took care of him while he was in hospital. He gave a powerful sermon ... March 25. Father Vernoy returned from Singapore in the company of his parents. March 30 - April 4. Father Marie Dominique, OR gave, in Tagaytay, a retreat on the religious vows to our five Sisters and to seven other aspiring to the religious life. April 5. Palm Sunday The 11th consecration of a Barangay took place after the procession and Mass of Palm Sunday. Attendance for the whole day: 800+.