ISA and Friends Say Good-bye to a Missionary of the Poor

A farewell Mass was held at St. Joseph’s College Auditorium on November 3, 2018 to show solidarity with Sr. Patricia Fox, advocate for poor and oppressed Filipinos.

Sister Fox was ordered by the Bureau of Immigration to leave the country because of her missionary works solidarity efforts for God’s Anawim, the poor and marginalized people in our times.

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In his November 3, 2018 Facebook post, Fr. Dannty Pilario, CM, Ph.D. the dean of St. Vincent School of Theology, and also a member of the Council of Leaders of Anwim Mission has this to say:

Sr. Patricia Fox was charged by the Duterte government of doing political activities in the Philippines. For this she is deported. If to serve the poor is to be “political”, then all Christians – foreigner or local — should be “political”. To refuse to do so is an act of cowardice. To profess Christianity is to do a political act. Jesus, the man from Nazareth and Christianity’s founder, died as a political criminal because he opted for the poor. Sr. Pat is just following him. Salamat Sr. Pat!

Sr. Fox is on the Council of Leaders of ANAWIM MISSION, an ecumenical group whose primary objective is to actualize God’s mission with the poor.

The Institute for Spirituality in Asia (ISA) is one of the convenors of ANAWIM MISSION, and ISA Executive Director Fr. Rico P. Ponce, O.Carm. was the main celebrant of the Mass for Sr. Fox.

Co-celebrants were Bishop Emeritus Deogracias Iniguez, Chairman, ANAWIM MISSION Council of Leaders, and a number of priests from various congregations. 

Sr. Fox has been an inspiration to the members of ANAWIM MISSION, and a source of strength and courage founded on faith. A member of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion, she was in the Philippines for 27 years.

She had learned to love Filipinos, she has repeatedly said in interviews and again at a press conference before her departure for Australia.

Sr. Fox’s petition to remain in the country was extensively covered by local and international media, and closely followed by friends, colleagues and human rights advocates.

She was escorted to the airport by a motorcade organized by representatives of inter-faith and other groups supporting her since April of this year.

 

 Carmen Alviar, Ph.D.