The Extraordinary Fr. Rocky of Tuloy Sa Don Bosco (1)

After a recent pilgrimage to Kkottongnae where I experienced firsthand the spirituality and the inspiring works of mercy advocating Love in Action for abandoned elderly people that a Korean priest, Fr. John Oh Woong-Jin, a Ramon Magsaysay awardee, established over three decades ago in the mountains about two hours from Seoul, I wondered if there was someone in the Philippines who had done something similar.

Upon my return, it didn’t take me long to realize that right in my neighborhood, there was this extraordinary man who had done something extraordinary as well.

His name is Fr. Marciano “Rocky” Evangelista, a Salesian priest who founded 30 years ago Tuloy Sa Don Bosco, a center for vagrant and destitute abandoned street children devoid of nurturing love, who are given the opportunity to start a new life and fill the void of what surely would have been a hopeless future.

Tuloy is located in a four-and-a-half hectare compound composed of a cluster of classroom buildings for boys and girls, a vocational training area, a dormitory, a football field, a ballet studio, and a modest but beautifully designed spacious brick church that almost in front of the Alabang Town Center in Muntinlupa City on a property donated by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Fr. Rocky is now well over 80 years of age, but he still looks very fit, except for trouble with sunlight, which prompts him to wear dark glasses even indoors. He apologized for this when we sat down for an interview about the genesis of Tuloy.

He narrated that he came from a poor family. His father, Mang Gorio, was a farmer and construction worker, while his beloved and devout Imang Goria, who only reached grade three but was enterprising, peddled vegetables for a living well enough to ensure the family never went hungry.

As a young boy, a middle child, his Ima viewed him as mischievous, stubborn and the naughtiest of her six boys who would rather play “jolens,” a game with marbles that kids nowadays probably never heard of, that would endlessly occupy him even when it was time for the evening Oracion prayers.

He never dreamed he was going to live the life of a clergy until one day upon the prodding of their parish priest at their home in Pampanga, as was the custom of yesteryears, his Ima selected him as their family’s “contribution” to the Church. And so off he went to the diocese for an education and preparatory training to enter the priesthood. A few months after, however, he found himself in the office of the principal for his angry demeanor in refusing to accept his lower grades after having previously topped the class. He was expelled and promptly returned to his mother.

But God apparently had other plans for him when his Ima reached out for advice to a Salesian priest, who promptly sent him to the Don Bosco seminary, where he finally settled in. He excelled, went on to major in Mathematics, earned a Doctorate, and was eventually ordained a priest in 1970 in Rome.

On his return to the Philippines, he was designated principal and rector of the Don Bosco schools in Makati and Mandaluyong and eventually appointed president of Don Bosco Philippines. After 23 years in that post, Fr. Rocky’s journey shifted unexpectedly as if it was God’s plan all along when during a meeting of all Don Bosco priests with the Salesian Superior, he asked why the Order did not seem to be doing much for street children who were all over the streets of the city. The Superior explained that nobody was available to take charge of that task.

Fr. Rocky volunteered immediately as he realized this must be the meaning behind a vivid dream, he had a few days before the meeting in which he saw himself surrounded by several kids that grew suddenly to thousands of homeless and hungry children when an image of a beautiful gate appeared in their midst.

As he approached the gate, the children sat motionless as one child explained to him that they did not dare approach the beautiful gate to accompany him. When he asked why, they said it was because they were poor and would never ever be able to enter. He woke up with tears in his eyes because he felt deep in his heart that abandoned street children believed they would never amount to anything because of their poverty.

And right there and then he vowed to do something about the poor and hungry homeless youth. A few days later, his prayers were answered during the Salesians Council meeting with their Superior.

Thus began the extraordinary Fr. Rocky’s extraordinary quest to establish the Tuloy Sa Don Bosco Street Children Village.

(To be continued)

Until next week… OBF!

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