OMI welcomes 3 new priests

COTABATO CITY – Three ordinary men with extraordinary devotion to Mother Mary officially becomes priests Saturday at San Vicente Ferrer Parish in Antipas, North Cotabato.To be ordained as priests are Rev. Rey Emmanuel Amancio, OMI, Rev. Alvin Vicente C. Barretto, OMI, and Rev. Mark Yoniz C. Beley, OMI. sand//scontent.fmnl4-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13232942_10154787358828056_3271046317263709228_n.jpg?oh=5ef0ed42584251729a1639943935f026andampoe=57AC2771 (L-R -Reverend Alvin Barreto, Rev. Mark Yoniz Beley and Rev. Rey Emmanuel Amancio) His Eminence Orlando Cardinal Quevedo, OMI, DD will officiate the ordination rites.Rev. Amancio and two siblings were born to Emmanuel B. Amancio and Marilou R. Masongsong of Cotabato City. He had his elementary education at Notre Dame Elementary Training Department. His early vocation to the priesthood was molded since his parents worked in Justice and Peace and in the Social Action Program with Fr. Eliseo Mercado, OMI.As a youngster, he had no desire to enter priesthood, but this changed during his exposure to the Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) undertaking with Fr. Bert Layson, OMI in the evacuation centers of Pagalungan.He then realized that it was what he wanted to do – to give hope to people in their desperate situation.Rev. Beley is the sixth child of nine born to Marianito Beley and Erlinda Capili in Sta. Rosa, Nueva Ecija. Two of his cousins and an uncle are priests who awakened his awareness about priestly vocation as a child. This awareness grew into an interest when he served as a sacristan” in their local parish in his early youth.He took Philosophy and Human Resource at the same time in San Beda University and graduated at the age of 19.He decided to join the Oblates as a young professional after watching the life of Fr. Jesus Reynaldo Roda, OMI in ‘The Correspondent’, a TV show in ABS-CBN. I wanted to join a simple community and live a simple life. Touched by the life of Fr. Roda, I consider my Oblate vocation as a continuation of his vocation. His death was my beginning of Oblate life,” Beley said.Beley is the Summa Cum Laude in Bachelor of Sacred Theology - Class Valedictorian at Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo de Manila University in 2015.Rev. Barretto is a Cotabateño by birth, the middle child of Oscar and Aurora Barretto. He graduated from college with a degree in Commerce and desired to engage in business. Lacking the needed capital, the would-be entrepreneur became a contractual employee in a government agency.His vocation began in one gathering of the Lingkod ng Panginoon” movement in General Santos City. This group of young, single, male and female Catholic professionals were engaged in a movement that seeks fullness of life in Jesus Christ” as a community. My biggest struggle in the seminary was adjusting and juggling studies, community life, and prayer life. It was different with the way I live before. But through prayers I made it through, Barretto said.The path to Barretto’s vocation may have been altogether strange, accidental and providential but, his experience strengthened his belief in God’s enduring love and the chance to renew oneself.Amancio, Beley, and Barretto were ordained deacon by the Most Rev. Angelito Lampon, OMI, DD, Apostolic Vicar of Jolo, on December 3, 2015 at the Our Lady of the Assumption Scholasticate in Quezon City.