Sunday, February 10, 2008

Novitiate in Granada: a piece of history

I had my talk this morning with Fr. Wong. It’s rather brief, around 40 minutes. About a quarter of that was spent on other matters. One of which is the history of the novitiate. He was the novice master when the novitiate which was then housed in Canlubang was transferred to Bacolod.

The brief article below is more or less the meat of what he shared with me.


The transfer of the novitiate in Don Bosco Canlubang to Granada was due to the fact that the two provinces (FIS and FIN) were separating. Relocating a formation house to the territory of the FIS would be a statement to the importance of formation in the newly established province.

Among the stages of formation, the novitiate would be the easiest to move. To date, the post-novitiate and theologate of the two provinces remained to be in FIN. The two provinces of the Philippines would establish their own separate pre-novitiate seminaries.

Granada in Bacolod was the place to welcome the novitiate house in the formation year 1989-1990 because of its recollected atmosphere and upon the observation of the then regional superior Fr. Tomas Panakezam that the novitiate house needed to transfer.

Fr. Andy Wong, the current superior of the FIN, served as the novice master in the novitiate house in Canlubang and until its transfer to Granada.

Soon, they would realize that the novitiate house in Granada would be too isolated from the Salesians. He commented that the novitiate house should be open to the presence of the Salesians.

Hence, the novitiate in Granada would be transferred to Cebu.

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