Jerusalem: Updates from the Middle East

By Fr. Eric Wyckoff, SDB

The Salesian theologate community began the year with the special joy of hosting the priestly ordination of one of our recent graduates, Fr. Rodil Lladones, SDB, on Wednesday, September 16. The ordaining bishop was the Papal Nuncio to the Holy Land, Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli.

Fr. Rodil is a missionary to the Middle East Province. Originally from the Philippines, he is currently assigned to the Salesian school in Nazareth. His ordination had been scheduled to take place in the Philippines in June, but travel restrictions due to the pandemic made this impossible. Please pray for Fr. Rodil and for the eternal rest of his mother, Virginia, a saintly woman who recently passed away after a long illness. Our faith reminds us that she was able to be there for her son’s ordination without the need for Zoom.

At the Jerusalem campus of the Salesian Pontifical University, the academic year began on Monday, September 14 with the four Salesian theologians from the USA (Brs. Lenny Carlino, Steve DeMaio, Josh Sciullo, and Craig Spence) emerging from their mandatory two-week quarantine to join classes. First-year students still awaiting visas to Israel are following classes online from eight different time zones.