Part 5: Transition

The week after my talk with the Provincial, I was finished with my letter to the Rector Major requesting for secularization, plus a letter of request to the Bishop of Yokohama that I be incardinated into his diocese (including my bio-data). I mailed the letter to the Provincial and personally handed my letter to the Bishop on November 4, the day when he came to Yamato for the Confirmation of around 70 members of our parish. Months later, when the Provincial was in Rome for the General Chapter, he called me up directly at my cellphone and requested me to repeat the letter according to the form that was prescribed by the Salesian Congregation. It turned out the Provincial first showed me the wrong form. Anyway, this time, the letter (called Indult for Secularisation) was addressed to the Pope. It has been months now, but I have not gotten any notice that I am already granted the permission to live outside a religious community.



But how is it that I am now presently living with 2 diocesan priests in a parish not handled by Salesians? That is another story... and I do not intend to write about it anymore. Let it just be known that my staying here in Shizuoka is a temporary thing... a product of some trauma from some past misinterpretations, judgements and cold shoulders. I have been deeply hurt by the treatment I have gotten as maybe they have been hurt by my going away. But anyway, it's past, even if I have to still grapple with the pain that was inflicted in my heart.



I love Don Bosco and I love the Salesian Congregation! I love the Salesian ideals and its mission! And believing that the Salesian Congregation has also loved me, I put my whole trust to the fact that this very Congregation is helping and supporting me in this new path of being priest. Character and personal idiosyncracies are merely decorations. Though they can deeply hurt, all I can do is just go on and follow my heart.



I have been virtually with the Salesians since I was 3, when my brother entered the aspirantate. I have been actually with the Salesians since I entered the aspirantate myself at the age of 12. My very prayers, my very thoughts and ideas, my very dreams and apostolic spirit... they all come from Don Bosco. I may not be with the Salesians living these things now... but let it suffice that I am one of their own, spreading the very work that they do now in their communities, schools and other works.



May Don Bosco always guide my every step.