Ministry goes beyond women’s issues for nun

WOMEN’S Ministry, especially among poor and marginalized women, was supposed to be her assignment.

But when Sister Clars Dolencio, ICM, was assigned to the parish of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary de Caracol in the coastal town of Rosario in Cavite, she found that her apostolate overflowed into practically all parish programs for the poor, including ecology, livelihood and even community organizing.

Immersion in a poor fishing community is a far cry from St. Theresa’s College (STC) campuses in Quezon City and Cebu that are still run by ICM sisters, but for Sister Clars and Sister Shirley Agoo, their work harks back to the original charism of the three Belgian missionary sisters who came to the Philippines 100 years ago.

They had also intended to work with poor communities and tribal minorities, but they set aside their plans upon the request of the then archbishop of Manila, who felt that education was a pressing need. They set up STC in Manila, followed by campuses in Quezon City and Cebu and St. Louis College in Baguio.

Sister Clars, who lives in a rented room near the Wawa River, recalls that her living arrangements were similar to those of the first Belgian sisters. “The three of them lived in a rented room with a leaky roof, and when it rained, they opened their umbrellas inside the room,” she said.

Report from Inquirer.Net