Vugt: The story of my life (Conclusion)

THERE, I had a traumatic experience when an active church worker and catechist in our parish lost her husband in the Antongalan massacre in the mountains near Butuan City.

Forty activists were suspected to be infiltrators in the ranks of the New People’s Army (NPA). They were called up to the mountains and forced to admit that they were infiltrators. The army had discovered the camp in the mountains and started bombing the area. They were all buried in mass graves and the husband of our parish worker was probably one of those killed through the bombing.

I remember, we went up to the mountains and dug up the bodies. They were all in a state of decomposition, except the body of that catechist, who could still be recognized. His hands were in chains.

We carried his body down the mountain and at the foot of the mountain we washed it in a lake. We brought him to San Francisco and had him blessed in the church and buried in our cemetery.

Our church worker had six young children. I pitied her so much that I decided to leave the priesthood and adapt her six children. We got married before a judge.

We wanted to also have a child of our own but when I went to a doctor, he said that I had a low sperm count. But when I went to another doctor in Cebu, he said there is nothing wrong with your sperm count. He gave me some medicines and then my wife got pregnant and we received a daughter. I considered her really as gift of God and saw her as a sign from God that He had agreed to marry my wife and leave the priesthood.

We left the parish of San Francisco and went together to Cagayan de Oro City. There I set up a non-government organization, Horeb Center. I had a staff of six church workers who taught the Christian communities in the diocese to organize themselves into basic Christian communities with an organizing component (BCC-CO). We received funding from a foreign funding agency. We ran the agency for six years. When the funding was stopped, we had to close down our program and close the office.

I, myself, retired but I made a contract with SunStar Cagayan de Oro to write a column every week for Sunday and Thursday.

The theme of my column was at first “Kairos,” which means “the right time.” I changed it later to “The living Spirit,” because I strongly believe in the presence of God’s Spirit in all of us and the whole of creation. I write in my column about spirituality, usually the spirituality of the Carmelite Order but often also about spirituality in general.

[Email: nolvanvugt@gmail.com]