Fr. Arroyo delivers his SOPA

Fr. Amado Arroyo, the new parish priest of San Antonio de Padua Parish, in Agdao, this city, came earlier than his parishioners for their parish’s first general assembly last Sunday afternoon. At exactly 2:00 he opened the program and forty minutes after delivered his State of the Parish Address (SOPA) before hundreds of GSL from the nine zones of the parish, the staff, members of the mandated organizations and religious nuns whose congregations are found in the parish of Agdao.

Fr. Arroyo’s SOPA enumerated what is to happen and what is not to happen during his time as their parish priest. Among them are his 10-item agenda:

1. Thank you and think you. I should think back with gratitude in thanking Fr. Toto and Fr. Don. “Ipadayon ang nakat-onan kay Fr. Toto ug Fr. Don kung makatabang ug padayon nga makatabang kaninyo. Thank them and think them.”
2. We were chosen not because we were capable but simply we were chosen by God.
3. If you have nothing to say to a person, better not say anything at all. Just pray for him/her and more prayers for you and me.
4. What is worth doing is worth doing well. I will do my task and you will do yours.
5. Schedule your plan and plan your schedule. No instant decision.
6. Do not walk in front of me, I may not follow you. Do not walk behind me, I may not lead you. Just walk beside me as a friend, as a brother, as a priest, and let us share life and love and service to God.
7. Do not think what the Parish can do to you but think what you can do to the parish.
8. We have to use wisely the capital (income of the parish) God is giving us.
9. I am your new parish priest. I am your servant leader. I am your wounded healer. Please pray for me, understand me, support me and forgive me.
10. We live together as one parish in union with the Archdiocese of Davao and the Universal Church, one community, one family.

He assured his parishioners that changes are coming after the SOPA. Fr. Arroyo categorized the changes as urgent or ASAP, immediate, soon, can wait, and let us plan them please, and put the system inside the Church and parish office among the urgent. He also asked the parishioners’ plans/suggestions about the parking and security issues especially during Sundays and on daily Masses, on vendors inside the church grounds, on the proper loading and unloading of tricycle passengers, on plant donations for the parish, and about creating a plan for the plans and suggestions.

He closed his SOPA with these words, “Think for the betterment of the parish. Think that the parish is your home. Think to fall in love again and again with your parish.”

What have we to say but these, as Doming Lopez, Coordinator of the Parish Pastoral Council said, “salig lang sa taga San Antonio de Padua. Buhi kaayo ang taga San Antonio, sama sa tubig sa dagat.” (Elena Corazon Mozo | SADP SoCCom)