Strange Visitors?

It happened for quite a long time now, if I can recall.

The first visitor came in early or mid 1980s. I call it strange because I didn’t know him. He must have heard about Bishop Benny S. Tudtud and me. But Bp. Benny could not recall knowing him when he was studying in the US.

Why do I call it a strange but inspiring visit? For several reasons:

01: He was an American Muslim, 02: totally blind! 03: he traveled alone; only with a cane; all the way from New York to Marawi! He’s married with 2 kids; a man of interreligious dialogue. He came because he heard about us. He was interested how we carried out our relationship with Muslims in Mindanao.

The other visitor was an American Protestant pastor. He also traveled alone. He asked respectfully why I believed in ecumenical dialogue and did I really believe full unity would be finally achieved? I said definitely, “Yes!” “Why do you say so?” he asked. “Because Jesus prayed we would,” I answered.

Yes, why do I call these visits strange yet inspiring?

“Strange.”

Yes. Why should our form or way of engaging in interreligious dialogue be a subject of interest to similar practitioners in faraway New York, USA?

The reason was our practice of joining our Muslim neighbors in their month-long Ramahdan fast! Yes, we bishops, Carmelite nuns and missionary priests did it!