RMHM 2009 page 2

DAY 3: 29 July

« And there was a great calm » (Mt. 8,26)

A jewel box of greenery for a church radiating hope.
 Daily prayers have finally been heard: the big black clouds, always near and threatening, seem to slide on the mountain tops and avoid the little village of Sampaloc and its Medical Mission.

A rainless day allowed all the gears to be greased and the Mission took its cruising speed. A superficial glance could even indicate that all is well: the dentists are on dry dock, in the precincts of the small chapel, blue rosaries shine on children’s chest, the patients smile to their doctors. All could appear wonderful under these bananas trees waving under a gentle and warm breeze. However…

The famous taxi-tricycle – a real Filipino symbol – ready for the patients in front of one of the Mission’s Banners ‘downtown’ Sampaloc.
Difficult cases were frequent today. This ovarian cancer discovered too late, really too late; this basal pneumonia, or this tuberculosis obliging the patient to cry out in pain at the contact of the doctor’s needle. And this child with a bilateral otitis letting the pus run down along his hallowed cheeks. Then there are eczemas, and the cysts which need to be extracted immediately on a wooden plank used as operation table…

But there are also rays of hope, such as this severely burnt man who came on the first day and whose skin is already healing at the great joy of his nurse, or this other sick in pain yesterday and relieved today.

With great love, our nurse changes the bandages of the badly burnt man.
Scapulars are imposed in hundreds in the waiting area, requests for house blessings abound and priests must cover kilometers on the uncomfortable, noisy and famous tricycles to answer these calls.

Doctors’ labor was constant and fulfilled calmly.

From far-away, Kerry Sinead awaits baby to calm down before she can start her work as a nurse.


The pharmacy alone was under intense action. Hugues Martin, our chief pharmacist from France, who came with two of his grown-up children, could only thank his collaborators at the end of this great day for their dynamism, their commitment and their remarkable team spirit.

The Mission’s first set of twins are a delight for Dr. Kim.
The friendly ambiance of this day without a single drop of rain even allowed the priests and a few volunteers, towards the end of the afternoon to initiate Filipinos to the famous Prison Ball game watched with visible joy by many bystanders.

But relax doesn’t mean laziness, since a total of 634 person benefited of the cares offered by the volunteers of Rosa Mystica.

End of the day with the rosary at the feet of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy.
DAY 4: 30 July
                                         “Heal the sick!                                    
                                                   You have received….
                                                           … Give!”
                                                                      (Mt.10:8)


Previously we had a father and son team, today we have a mother and daughter, the Kims which are together in the pediatric section.
Fourth day of the Mission, fourth day of sorrows, of smiles, of questions.

 There are the eyes filled with tears of this little boy who cannot manage to squat… Diagnosis: myopathy.

 There is the emaciated face of this breathless man… He shows his x-rays: tuberculosis in its final stage. The priest alone can bring him the first and last rites.

 Again, this young girl coughing and spitting her soul out. New diagnostic: broncho-pneumonia.
Sometimes, cries of children, heart breaking screams of “Mommy!” indicate that the pediatricians Dras. Kim or Viray are opening head abcesses, also of the legs or of the neck.

Care of bodies, care of souls: Sr. Maria Filomena prepares a group of children for their first holy communion.
In our makeshift pharmacy, the seriously burnt man a daily visitor to our Mission, whose wound continues to show encouraging signs of healing, falls, victim of an epileptic fit… which, thank God, was immediately controlled.

 This morning, an ophthalmologist brought her help which was most appreciated. But for her first patient, a devastating diagnostic: glaucoma, discovered too late. This little old lady will gradually become blind, and she leaves holding the arm of her daughter into the unknown of her dark future.
A great addition to the Mission, Dra. Elaine Araneta, ophthalmologist.
At the same time, evangelization is going full blast, and helps the medical personal to bear the hard cases presented to them. Hundreds of rosaries have been handed out, as well as scapulars, which have now run out.

 In the nearby local University of Rizal, Fr. Couture presents the wonderful Holy Shroud. He managed to captivate the crowd of about 500 students listening and questioning him on the various scientific, historical and spiritual aspects of this monument of the first century. Right after the talk, all the students rushed to take their own photos – both in positive and negative mode – of this Venerable Relic.

Reactions are always the same worldwide:the Holy Shroud fascinates by its mysteries.

True photographic negative of the Passion of Our Blessed Lord, the students want to immortalize it… in the positive mode!
The end of the day was darkened however by the announcement of two tragic deaths hitting the family of one of the volunteers. All over the world, prayer alone strengthens the soul at the moment of grief.
Sinead (on the right) and Tara (on the left), respectively Irish and English, gave a great boost to the Mission with the donations of the Irish and English faithful: €4,000 and STG 2,000.


DAY 5: 31 July

The Cape of the 3,000 has been crossed

20 years old and only 17 kg … with such a sweet smile asking for compassion.
There was an important visit today at the heart of the Mission. Fr. Alain-Marc Nely, 2nd General Assistant of the SSPX has indeed braved mud and the always violent rain to honor with his presence our Rosa Mystica Medical Mission, barely a few hours after landing in the Philippines. 

The Second General Assistant meets in the Philippines with his former doctor from far-away Marseilles.
He has seen the precarious conditions in which the mostly French volunteers were working. Many of them were familiar faces to him. He appreciated everyone’s commitment to relief the suffering of these men, these women, these children.


 He has admired the apostolic work given by the priests, the religious and the Bethanians.


Surprised and impressed by this underground but quite complete pharmacy, Fr Nely congratulates its team.

Fr. Nely welcomed by the military dentist helping the mission.
What would he have felt had he stayed a little bit longer and witnessed the visits done to some remote villages only accessible by a miserable dirt path linked to a roughly cemented road?

 The priests with the help of a few faithful had come at the request of the mayor to visit 200 undernourished children in local daycares. “It is harder to pray to God when you do not have a healthy body”, commented Fr. Marcille during the food distribution. A few moments before their arrival, the Legion of Mary had offered rice, vegetable and fish so that once a week these forgotten children may have a proper meal. From now on, ACIM-ASIA will continue this new weekly apostolate of “Feeding the poor”.
The launch of a new apostolate for ACIM: feeding the children of this remote village.
During that time, around St Filomena chapel, the crowd has grown more tense, since it is the last day of the Mission, and everyone tried to benefit from it, whether it was to remove a nasty wart, or a mammary cyst before it becomes malignant.

Dr. Elisabeth Phalen, American, is a bit frustrated “because don’t stay long enough, we treat them without healing them”.

But Dr. Jean Pierre Dickès, ACIM’s President, who managed to mobilize 22 French volunteers for a week, and who succeeded in finding numerous benefactors to make this mission a success, agrees with her for the sickness requiring long treatment and which need to be followed up, but he lists the great number of the children healed from their boils, or of these adults who have already forgotten their pain after a few days of treatment.

Numerous glass frames had come in the bags of the French volunteers. Magali advises these ladies in a difficult choice.
One had to see the victorious smile of Hugues Martin, our pharmacist, who had obtained a rare medicine to treat the child affected by myopathy; as well as the relief of Dr. Gilbert Dichard having detected the early signs of a tuberculosis.

What shall we say of the zeal of these five priests (Frs. Onoda and Ghela having joined the Mission), crisscrossing the area in most uncomfortable conditions for what seems to be a simple house blessing, for an easy scapular imposition, to welcome a new faithful to the weekly mass, or to administer an extreme-unction in extremis…

Faced with such encouraging fruits, and for the first time in the last three years, it was unanimously decided to extend the Mission an extra day, since at the end of this day, 2,775 have been seen, and there are still so many that the cape of the 3,000 will easily be crossed tomorrow. It sure is a wonderful decision when we look at the conditions in which this beautiful work of mercy is taking place.

Having gain the trust of her dental ‘masters’, ‘apprentice’ Helen makes her first steps in the profession.
 At the end of the day, the Philippine army, deeply impressed by this powerful mission of ACIM, wanted to thank and honor the organizers by inviting them to visit their nearby base and to assist at the next raising of the flag.
The “Rosa Mystica Medical Mission” has once more succeeded in gathering people from all horizons for one simple goal: to help and and to help again, to struggle and to struggle again against what appears to be a fatality for these unfortunate populations.

As a conclusion of this day, every participant, whether doctor, priest, simple volunteer, soldier or patient, had only one word to say; Thank you, Rosa Mystica! Thank you, ACIM! Dr. Jean Pierre Dickès, president of ACIM: a merciful doctor for the most abandoned patients.

Dr. Jean Pierre Dickès, president of ACIM: a merciful doctor for the most abandoned patients.


DAY 6: 01 August

“He went by doing good.” (Acts 10:38)


Conditions of the medical team until the very last day of the Mission.
Every night we had to refuse some sick people. Every night these unfortunate went back home, bringing back the sickness they had brought with them.

 And every night, the volunteers felt frustrated in front of the impossible.

 Then, they decided, in spite of the rain, the mud of the road and their fatigue, to offer another day to those who had been refused medical assistance so far.
Dr. Jean Pierre Dickès, during one of his numerous surgical interventions.
And thus, it was an ultimate bandage for this newly healed thumb. The old patient smiling gave his nurse Bernadette a grateful “Salamat po!” (Thanks!)

 Sr. Maria Concepcion, the pharmacy’s exemplary translator having left, she was replaced by Magali who explained in a very basic Tagalog the various prescriptions to the patients. Sometimes, though, a generous young Filipina had to come to her help.

The last moments of the Mission at the pharmacy in the early night with that single little lamp.
 Tanay’s mayor, under whose jurisdiction is Sampaloc, came in person to thank the team of volunteers and gave each, as a token of gratitude, a personalized certificate.
The mayor of Tanay insisted in visiting the mission and thanking in person the priests and the generous team of volunteers.
The Philippine army who played a great part in this truly Catholic Medical Mission also expressed its wishes to see our Mission return next year with its tarps and tents around our little chapel.

 This will be a difficult decision for the leaders of ACIM since the authorities of Sarangani, 1000 km to the South and who received us last year, have also made the same request.
Finally, at the end of this very last day, the volunteers were radiant when they heard the final number of patients treated in the short six days: 3,130.
A new record!
As the line of patients is reaching its end, Fr. Ghela organized games for the joy of all, children and adults.

Only a solid pyramid can make them reach the summit of this greasy pole!

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