Catholic On Yap

Please join us this Friday evening for the Vicariate memorial mass for Fr. John H., to be held at St. Mary Church starting at 5:00 PM. We hope that many people from across the island can join us in prayer for Fr. John, as he returns to the God whom he served with such love and devotion.

Click to see Fr. John H. Obituary

Please pray for the soul of Fr. John Hagileiram, SJ, who died last evening in Quezon City, P.I. Fr. John requested to be buried there in the Philippines, but the Vicariate of Yap will have memorial Mass for him some time after Easter.

Bishop Julio has issued new guidelines for the celebration of our liturgies from Palm Sunday to Easter. These changes will be announced at the Sunday masses, and the priest-celebrants for mass well be available to answer any further questions you may have. Liturgical Directives for Holy Week 2020.pdf Note: The Palm Sunday procession normally starts outside and moves into the church. When the Bishop says that the Palm Sunday procession this year will be "form 3", he means that nothing will take place outside. 

Below are links to recent letters from Bishop Julio and Fr. Rich keeping us informed of proper church protocols for keeping church members healthy in body and soul as we stroke to keep the coronavirus from our island. Bishop Julio's Later to the Diocese Fr. Rich's Letter to the Vicariate (read at the March 22nd masses)

The murder of six Jesuits of El Salvador 30 years ago last Saturday--a reflection by Mgr Peter Magee, Vatican diplomat to El Salvador at the time. "It was an experience I will never forget. I became sick at the sight of the carnage. There was something else, though. While I could feel the terror of the moment (I wondered if I myself might be shot, too, at some point in the ensuing days if a persecution of the Church was underway), I also felt something that I can only describe as holiness. Not holiness as a moral or spiritual state, but a holiness ‘out there’ in front of me, covering the slain and covering those of us there. If I can put it this way, it was an ‘objective’ holiness, something I touched as if touching the breeze or as if I were being touched by it. On reflection, I think it fair to say that we were touched by God in that horrible, terrifying place and time, because those who had been slain had been slain for putting the gospel into practice. They had quite simply...