Christmas Giving: Chicagoland Philippine Community Reaches Out to Help the Poor

 The nine days of Christmas preparation, known as Simbang Gabi, concluded last night in many Catholic churches throughout the Chicagoland area.  Thousands of Filipinos and their friends filled the pews of St. Catherine Laboure in Glenview, St. Linus in Oak Lawn, Church of the Holy Spirit in Schaumburg, Prince of Peace in Villa Park, the Cathedral of St. Raymond Nonnatus in Joliet and those within the Rockford Diocese.   With so many to choose from, this Examiner decided to attend the finale celebration at the Cathedral of St. Raymond Nonnatus, where the new Bishop of the Diocese of Joliet, Bishop R. Daniel Conlon, celebrated the Mass.

This was the Bishop’s first experience with the Filipino tradition of Simbang Gabi.  In fact, he was not aware of the tradition prior to being asked to be the celebrant of the final Mass.  In his homily, he spoke about his intrigue and admiration for it.  Like his predecessor, Archbishop J. Peter Sartain, he immediately embraced the splendor of this Filipino tradition and will likely be another prominent figure of future Simbang Gabis to come.

The new Bishop’s participation made the evening very special, but what really impressed this Examiner was the outpouring of prayers and financial support for people stricken by poverty.  For many years, I have been impressed with the charitable collections that the Simbang Gabis of the Joliet Diocese have been able to produce each year.  Not to deter from the specialness of the Simbang Gabis of the Archdiocese of Chicago or the Diocese of Rockford, but the Simbang Gabis of the Joliet Diocese strikes a special note each year when it comes to giving and helping the poor and suffering.

Joliet Dioceses' Simbang Gabis are organized into an east and west cluster.  Each cluster chooses their own recipient each year, but the process of collecting donations are noticeably different.  The west cluster places a donation basket at the entrance of the church, but the east cluster takes it a step further by adding a second collection during Mass for that particular charity.  By going pew to pew and passing the donation basket, the charitable cause stands less chances of being ignored and more people are compellled to make it a priority to contribute.  Successful fundraising is also aided by having a guest speaker or charity representative speak to the hearts of everyone in church.

This year’s charity for the east cluster is the island province of Romlon in the Philippines.  Guest concelebrant, Fr. Michael Semana from Romlon, has been at all of the nine Simbang Gabis speaking and educating people about the desperate needs of Romlon.  According to him, seven out of ten children are malnourished.  His sad, yet compelling stories of Romlon touched the hearts of so many people each night that a generous outpouring of money was collected each night.

Based on the dollar amounts that were collected at two of the Simbang Gabis I attended, it would be safe to say that approximately $9,000 - $15,000 would have been collected.  The money collected will primarily go towards the feeding of the children and adults.  In addition, the remaining moneys will be applied towards the education and infrastructure of this poor province.  

This spirit of giving exemplified by the Simbang Gabis of the Joliet Diocese made a great impact during the 2009 typhoon tragedies in the Philippines.  The east cluster was able to raise a substantial amount to help the victims in the Cordillera Mountains who were devastated by the landslides caused by the typhoons.  In light of the most recent typhoon tragedy in the Philippines that took the lives of more than 1,000 people; the spirit of giving needs to be made more prevalent during future Simbang Gabi celebrations.  Imagine the thousands of dollars that could be raised for various charities if each Simbang Gabi in the Chicagoland area made the conscious effort of placing the offertory basket in front of everyone attending.  Imagine the number of lives that we could help in the Philippines or any other country in need; not to mention, the positive effects this could have on the hearts of so many people living in America.

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