Willie D. Manlapaz: The GKK Bishop

One time Jesus shocked the Pharisees when He told them, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see the time of my coming; he saw it and was glad.” Incredulously they said, “You are not even fifty years old – and you have seen Abraham?”. Then Jesus declared, “I am telling you the truth, before Abraham was born, I AM!”
(Jn. 8:56-58)

With these words Jesus was revealing a secret, that turning 50 did not apply to Him. He could not age like Abraham because He is God!
On turning 50 as a priest Bishop Willie, as friends and admirers fondly call him, is telling us an open secret that, though he shares in the eternal priesthood of Jesus Christ and is rightly called Alter Christus, that is, Another Christ, he has not seen Abraham personally but he has seen something Abrahamic since he came to Tagum several years ago.

‘Abrahamic’ is a fitting accolade to the vibrant faith of the ‘Gagmay Kristohanong Katilingban’, literally ‘Small/Basic Christian Community’. Rooted in the faith which originated in Abraham whom our Liturgy addresses as “Our Father in faith” (Eucharistic Prayer 1), these clusters of livitically-oriented families have been giving many priestly vocations and active lay leaders to the Church not only in the Diocese of Tagum but also in parishes abroad. Their number tends to multiply endlessly that perhaps might acquire another Abrahamic quality – like “grains of sand along the seashore (Gen. 22:17).

Bishop Willie loves the GKKs. He nurtures their faith and serves their needs aided by his priests. Like many of us bishops he believes that the GKKs are the strength of the Church because they are in the grassroots, easily formed, virtually young, and eucharistically rooted, evangelically oriented and episcopally enamored.

They started being that way because of Bishop Willie’s predecessors – Bishop Joseph Regan, the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers the original GKK founders, and the Bishop Pedro Dean with Bishop Ramon Villena.

This love for their bishops and priests, among other communal qualities, has made the GKKs a unique feature in the Church in Mindanao and perhaps throughout the country. Because the GKK is the apple of his eyes, this former Bicolano seminary Rector, former auxiliary bishop of Maasin Diocese and presently the golden priestly jubilarian Wilfredo D. Manlapaz, Bishop of Tagum, deserves the name GKK BISHOP!