By Julie Ann Loong, for the North Star
This year marked the 35th Anniversary of the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa, which literally took centuries of blood, sweat, and tears to establish.
Nearly 400 years ago, the first Spanish missionaries arrived in the Marianas Island. Their goal: to plant the seed of Christianity and to bring the Good News of the love of God to every person in this part of the world.
Having come from Spain, Mexico, and the Philippines, the missionaries travelled thousands of miles over the rough waters and some made the ultimate sacrifice and died as martyrs. This was all for the sake of introducing the message of salvation to our islands.
Led by Bishop Ryan Jimenez, religious sisters, religious groups, parishioners of every parish, every priest, and all the deacons from Saipan, Tinian, and Rota celebrated the Mass of Thanksgiving, last Friday, November 8, 2019 in gratitude to God for the gift of faith and God’s love.
Bishop Ryan used the crozier (staff) of the late Bishop Aplonario Baumgartner of Guam, who used it in the presbyteral ordination of Fr.Tomas Camacho in June 14, 1961, and eventually given to Bishop Camacho during his Episcopal Ordination on January 13, 1985 by Bishop Felixberto Flores. Since then, this Bishop’s staff has been a symbol of unity for these two dioceses.
Rev. Fr. Jeffrey San Nicolas, who is the vicar general of the Archdiocese of Agana attended the celebration to represent Archbishop Michael J. Brynes. His presence was a sign of blessing and communion of the faithful of Guam with the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa.
Father Jeffrey was called to deliver the evening’s homily and his beautiful homily focused on the love of God for us.
“On this occasion of celebrating 35 years as a diocese, we celebrate 35 years of receiving this beautiful mission– to take this message of Jesus Christ and to spread it. A beautiful mission, a beautiful task, a beautiful calling that a beautiful people, you as a diocese, have taken on.
“The love that the Father has is a love full of knowledge. This Father knows his son. A parent knows his child, so when a parent says, ‘I love my baby,’ there’s meaning behind it. It isn’t a love based on ignorance. It is a love based on full knowledge of the strengths and the weakness of the child. It’s in this full knowledge that God loves his Son and loves all of us.
“When you look at Jesus’s eyes, if you look at the love he has for us, you see the Father’s love. What is the connection between sacrifice and love? Can there be love without sacrifice? Sometimes we need to see or experience the love. This is what Jesus does for us. It isn’t only in words that he shows us, but in actions in his sacrifice… Just as Jesus loves the church that he has given his life for, so must the husband love his wife. The cross is the most beautiful example of love. If anyone wants to know what love is, we need only to look at the cross. That is love. This is the greatest love that Jesus has for us.”
“Our hearts are filled with wonder as we contemplate the love of the Lord. Indeed, in this celebration, we as a people of God have contemplated the many works that he has done for our church these past 35 years as a diocese. And as we depart from here looking forward ahead to the continuation of our journey of faith our hearts will truly be filled with wonder and gratitude,” said Father Jason Granado, who was also celebrating the anniversary of his priestly ordination that same day.
Father Isaac Ayuyu recalled his memories from the earlier years during the establishment of our diocese.
“I was here for the ordination of the first bishop, Bishop Camacho as the Master of Ceremony in that mass. I was also his first ordination 33 years ago, and he ordained me as the first priest of the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa and the first priest of Rota. Bishop Ryan has a five-year pastoral plan which we are implementing. We are updating areas in line of outreach, social justice, liturgy, and the youth. I am happy to see the big crowd we had today since, of course, all parish masses were cancelled so that everybody could come and join the celebration. I want to say that God is good, always, and the church has survived and is growing under the leadership of Bishop Ryan. We are grateful to him, as well as to the clergy, and the people of God who have supported and maintained their faith.”
We celebrate every year only once the same way we are only given the moment of right now. The 35th Anniversary of the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa is now a part of history, and as we continue to move forward, we currently have our island’s shepherd Bishop Ryan guiding us as a flock, and we have our God keeping his hands over us.
35 years ago, many of those who were there to hear the blessing of St. Pope John Paul II’s proclamation that we would have a diocese are no longer here, including our first shepherd, the late Bishop Camacho. All members of our diocese can reminisce and appreciate the decades of personal memories within the history of our church to laugh, cry, and feel gratitude for. We have journeyed a long way over from where we once were, and in another 35 years, we can barely begin to imagine how much more is yet to come.
