Priests are constantly ministering to soldiers

The report titled “Church agrees to priests as Army chaplains again” (Inquirer 3/14/12) is confusing.

Catholic chaplains in the Armed Forces of the Philippines are under the ecclesiastical supervision of the Military Ordinariate of the Philippines (equivalent to a Catholic diocese). It had its humble beginnings in 1937. It became a military vicariate in the 1950s. When Pope John Paul II issued the Apostolic Constitution Spirituale Militum Curae on April 12, 1986, the military vicariates all over the world, the Military Vicariate of the Philippines included, were elevated to the level of ordinariates, placing them on the same status of territorial dioceses. In my recollection of the history of the Catholic chaplain service in the Armed Services, there has never been a point in time, since its organization, that it stopped deploying chaplains to the Army.

To date there are about 132 Catholic priests in the AFP ordinariate, the majority of whom are in the active service, on-loan and coming from other dioceses. They are serving in the Armed Forces, the Philippine National Police, Philippine Coast Guard, Bureau of Fire Prevention and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.

The priests referred to in the news item,  Revs. Bonifacio Ampoyas and Pedro Maniwang, belonged to the Archdiocese of Davao and Diocese Marbel. They opted to join the Army Reserve Force. They are not members of the Military Ordinariate of the Philippines and they are not in the active military service. The AFP follows the protocols on the procurement and appointment of the reserve officers. After their commissionship in the reserve force, they remain in their posts and assignments in their respective dioceses, and they cannot be deployed or assigned in the military installations to serve the Army, unless they apply for active service in the AFP.

—FR.  LEONARD E. DOLLENTAS,

(RES-CPT) chaplain, 1st Technical and Administrative Service Brigade, Armed Forces Reserve Command, Camp Aguinaldo, QC

The news report was based on an interview with Fr. Bonifacio Ampoyas at the Archbishop Palace in Davao City. When I asked him if they were the first to enter AFP as reservists, he replied: “Aduna na’y mga pari nga nagsulod kaniadto. Apan naundang kini sa dugay nga panahon…sulod sa martial law… tungod kay dili maayo ang pag tan-aw sa military kadtong panahona.” (There were priests who joined as reservists before, but this was stopped for a long time during martial law because of the negative image of the military.)

—AYAN MELLEJOR,

correspondent, Inquirer Mindanao