Syrilus and Maksimus, the newly ordained priests

The 4 hour celebration held by bishop Hubertus Leteng was well attended by around one thousand people from various villages

Dear Confreres,

Our brothers Syrilus Madin cs and Maksimus Ensi Sarjon cs were ordained into the order of priesthood by Most Rev. Bishop Hubertus Leteng, bishop of Ruteng, on Thursday the 27th of August 2015 at the parish Church of Lengkong Cepang, Diocesis or Ruteng, Flores, Indonesia.

Emotional Manggarai traditions

The 4 hour celebration, on the feast day of St. Monica, was well attended by around one thousand people from various villages who welcomed the newly ordained priests and visitors with very colourful and emotional Manggarai traditions. The Holy Eucharist was concelebrated by 21 priests and animated by the parish choir and liturgical dances organized by the local schools.

Our Scalabrinian family was represented by 7 priests, 46 seminarians from Maumere and Ruteng, our two theologians doing the pastoral year in Indonesia and two Indonesian theologians from Rome who are having their vacation. Fr. Syrilus has been assigned to our province and Fr. Maksimus to the South American region.

As we rejoice with the newly ordained priests, their families and the People of God from their villages, we accompany them with our prayers and we thank all our confreres who have been involved in their formation.

A special welcome

Attending the ordinations gave me the opportunity to visit our two seminaries in Maumere and Ruteng. In Maumere I met the Scalabrinian Lay Group with whom we shared ideas on how to be directly involved with the migrants in the area. A survey to gather data on the number of migrants is going on and in November a conference is planned to inform about the results.

After the 12 hour trip by land from Maumere to Ruteng we were welcomed by the new 26 seminarians who joined our formation program this year. We had special celebrations to formally welcome the new group and also to bless the newly built room for visitors. The caravan continued to the place of the ordination where we had three full days of celebrations and traditional rituals. Our missionaries and seminarians (76 in Maumere and 26 in Ruteng) greet all the confreres of the province with gratitude.

Fraternally yours

Fr Delmar Silva CS, Superior Provincial