By Bro. Luke Maloloy, SDB

Talisay City, the Philipines, 21 October 2016 -- The annual John Paul II Cebu Conference, now on its 8th year, had another successful gathering of religious and lay people from various places of Southern Philippines as Around 250 catechists, teachers, students and parish minister came to Don Bosco Formation Center, Lawaan Talisay City, Cebu. This year’s theme, Communication and Mercy: A fruitful Encounter, takes off from the Pope’s declaration of the Jubilee Year of Mercy.

The three day event was hosted by FIS Commission of Social Communication in close collaboration with the province’s Center for Lay and Youth office e (CLAY) and the Commission on Youth Ministry.

The first day was blessed to have His Excellency Bishop Dennis Villarojo, DD celebrating the Eucharist, Rev Fr Louis Punzalan, SVD on the second day and the Provincial Superior of the Salesians of FIS, Rev Godofredo Atienza, SDB, on the third day— all expanded on the theme of communicating God’s Mercy. The Plenary speakers for each day—Fr Fidel himself, Dr Emma Llanto, MD and FIN Social Communication Head Rev Fr Bernard Nolasco, SDB respectively, charged the participants’ eagerness with wit and interesting strategies in the field of communication.

The usual afternoons were reserved for the nine (9) various seminar-workshops, each a unique piece broken from the theme. In culmination, a feast of food, music, and friendly networking were rightly placed in a dinner program— a successful end of the event yet ever hopeful to a fruitful ripple effect as everyone returned home to their various ministry in response to Jesus’ call of Evangelization.

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