The Extraordinary Men for Others: Fr. Rocky and Fr. Oh (2)

About a month ago, after about 35 Filipino pilgrims from our Alabang village converged on a mountain retreat house and sanatorium complete with a hospital and residential dormitory in Kkottongnae in Korea to meet an extraordinary priest, Fr. John Oh Wong-Jin, who has made providing a home for abandoned elderly people his lifelong advocacy, I was intrigued by the prospect of finding a Filipino priest who was equally committed to helping the unfortunate and forgotten people in our own country.

It did not take too long to realize that there was such a man and very close to where I live. I refer of course to Fr. Rocky Evangelista, who came from humble beginnings, of the Salesian Order of Don Bosco, the moving spirit behind the Tuloy sa Don Bosco Children’s Village.

Fr. Rocky’s journey to care for abandoned street children began its road to fulfillment in 1993 when the Salesian Superior, after Fr. Rocky questioned the Bosconian mission, unexpectedly gave him the task of providing shelter for the homeless kids roaming like gypsies and surviving on sheer grit.

And like the handful of apostles and disciples who started to follow Jesus, Fr. Rocky’s initial “followers” were 12 children plucked from the streets in the seedy side of Manila during odd hours of the night and given shelter in a room at the Don Bosco church in Makati.

His nightly forays must have instilled in him a toughness of character I had not seen in other clergy. I can only imagine that as Fr. Rocky roamed alone on foot during the unholy hours, then as today in certain milieus, his clerical collar did not spare him from being accosted by hardened characters in search of easy prey.

But he was not one to run away or timidly give in to intimidation. In a book he wrote, “Finally I am Home,” I learned that he gained a reputation as a no-nonsense administrator who would not be cowed in situations such as strikes and demonstrations which would require a quid quo pro hardline stance, even to the extent of brandishing a gun.

It must have been the so many faces of the hardened desperate poor and the squalid conditions the street children lived in that prepared Fr. Rocky for the tough journey he chose to take. And this was perhaps the same passionate and determined grit that enabled Fr. Rocky, with the help of enlightened and generous benefactors, to enlarge his outreach to become a beacon of hope to so many.

From the original “chosen 12” to the thousands of street children who have found not only a home but a school of learning and holistic development, Tuloy Sa Don Bosco Village has enabled them to have a decent future.

On the other hand, Fr. John Oh of Kkottongnae, who grew up in the brutal environment in the aftermath of the Korean War, experienced his epiphany to help the impoverished homeless, particularly the elderly and terminally ill, in a totally different light.

It was in the middle of a cold, wintry morning that he saw an elderly beggar, Grandpa Choi Kwi-dong, toting a bagful of discarded food, and with great difficulty because of his limp, trudge slowly towards a wooden hut on the side of a mountain where other elderly beggars, too sick to walk, awaited their share of the food that Grandpa Choi had begged for.

This chance encounter inspired Fr. John to establish the House of Charity which he built up over the decades to become a permanent charitable institution and a movement, the Love in Action Center, for the abandoned elderly. Other Houses soon spread far and beyond the reaches of Korea such as the Philippines, Bangladesh, Nigeria, India and Indonesia.

Reflecting on these two extraordinary Men for Others, don’t you wonder what could possibly have been their common trait or background that enabled them to have a strong sense of empathy for the poor and the downtrodden to accomplish what only a few among us can? Was it their hardened childhood? Was it their religious upbringing? Was it their development years? Was it their God-given intellect? Perhaps it was a combination of all these.

But above all, one thing is certain—they were picked by God to be shining examples of how to be Men For Others.

Until next week… OBF!