Th Summer of '60

In 1960, I took a year long sabbatical from my University studies( I could not adjust to Manila life then ). That was the summer of 1960 when I joined the Cathecism League in Asingan, headed at that time by Fr. Lazaro de Guzman, the town's Parish Priest. His assistant then was Fr. Geronimo Marcelino from Camiling, Tarlac (the hometown of CP Romulo ).. So during this summer of 1960, I and several out of school Asingan young people(YPs) took a crash course on Catechism, aiming to teach Catholicism in the Elementary schools for the next school term, 1960-61..

I joined this club before because there was nothing much to do in Asingan.Being idle in this town could be the pits. So I signed up with Lito Domaoan and Philip Martin. Pretty soon, Lito found a job in Manila and Philip Martin joined the US Navy. I was left alone in Asingan, but I persisted with the project where I met other friends in town, mostly women.

Anyways, before we entered the church at around 3:00 pm for the hour long lectures, , we socialized, played games, etc. For me, this is the best part of the afternoon's agenda.

After 20 afternoons of "intensive" studies, the "successful" students ( those who did not give up ) received a membership card and half a cavan of rice. Which was nice.

When school opened that June, we were assigned schools to visit. The school curriculum was adjusted through an arrangement between the priest and various schol principals so religious teachers could come 3 times a week and teach Catechism. I was assigned to South Central and North Central Schools.


A month before the closing of the school year, there was a first confession for all students taking up Religion. A week later, there would be their frst communion followed by a breakfast for all first time Communicants.

Fr. Gerry Marcelino was the priest who heard their confessions the kids who took Religion in South Central. We accompanied him to the school together with one altar server..

The confessions took over an hour, and after the session, he appeared to be in a mild nervous wreck.Then we heard from his altar boy some little stories about Fr. Marcelino's first encounters with the new would-be-members of the flock... "I heard the confession of about 30 pupils. They seemed to have the same "sins" like they were reading from a common piece of paper...

"But what really made me lose my cool is one kid who confessed..'I pinched my brothers, my sisters, my friends and I also pinched our cat..!" Fr. Marcelino, nearing his wits' end, blurted in a much louder voice" It is not a sin to pinch the cat!!!"

I added one story, that goes.."On our last day of school, I gave a short quiz ( the kids wrote their answers on a 1/4 piece of pad paper)..There were just 10 easy questions. One kid had only one answer from numbers one to ten. Just the word GOD. He figured that out of the 10 questions, there there would be a few whose answer would be GOD.."