The Origin Of RMS, Guam

An anonymous person listed some very good questions.  His comment can be found here.  His/Her questions are: 

1. Has anyone asked why this RMS building was purchased in the first place?
2. Who's money was used to purchase it? 
3. What will CCOG have the church do with this building if RMS moves out of it? 

Let us go back to the beginning.....to the time when the RM Seminary on Guam had its beginnings.  You can find the following article here.  As anyone can see, it had always been the RMS seminarians and the NCW communities who contributed in developing and maintaining the seminary.  It was never the TLM Catholics or the members of CCOG. 

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The beginnings of the seminary were small, like a small seed, yet memorable. The pioneers arrived on Guam without having an established place to stay; everything was precarious. Fr. Pius Sammut, OCD, a Carmelite priest from Malta, was the temporary rector who took care of the seminary in its first months. Then the first appointed rector was Fr. Raymond Labranche of the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J. He arrived in 1999 along with the first group of ten seminarians. The first mission was to find a place to establish the seminary. God heard our prayers and we were able to find a temporary location in an abandoned building, which used to be a minor seminary, next to Father Duenas High School in Tai. The building was not in a good shape, but with the help of the people from the community immediately it was transformed into the first formation center. It had the space needed for our formation, namely, a chapel, an office for the rector, a small library, a classroom, kitchen and dining room. However, the building did not have enough space for the seminarians to live, so the seminarians were housed by families who generously opened their homes to them.

Living in family houses was a beautiful experience since it gave us the opportunity to begin to know the people of Guam and eventually to become part of the family. The generosity and kindness of the families was outstanding, with no limits they offered everything they could to us ‘strangers’ and ‘foreigners’ who had just arrived. There is no doubt that this first period of our formation gave us a clear picture of the mission the Lord was preparing for us.

Our daily schedule included a constant traveling back and forth between the Formation Center, the homes and the parishes. Yes, we had our formation at the temporary house in Tai all day long, but also we had to go back home to have our meals and to rest at night. This presupposed a lot of time which could have been used to build up communion among us. So, beginning in May, 2002, all the seminarians moved to the house of formation. This was an act of faith because the building had physically no room for so many. We were 14 people in the house and we needed a miracle to fit this crowd into such a small house. This meant that the small rector’s bedroom and library were transformed in order to accommodate everyone. The house became packed with people sleeping in bunk beds, with two bathrooms and literally no space to walk about. The rector was the only one by himself, however his room was the former sacristy which had no windows and was barely larger than a closet. At that point the seminary could not fit more seminarians.

This situation impelled us to search resolutely for a new facility. There were some options, but none seemed to be appropriate. Many prayers were raised to God so that He would give us a place, and indeed He did not delay in answering our prayers. He provided us with the building that is now our seminary, a previous hotel, built by Japanese, somewhat along the lines of a Spanish monastery. It was place too big for our little faith, but for God nothing is impossible. When God gives, He gives abundantly! Imagine, a property worth millions acquired by the diocese for free!

Yes, the Lord provided the place and the benefactors to make the purchase possible. Seek and you will find! Thus the new facility gave lots of room to accommodate more seminarians and to create new liturgical spaces needed in our formation. Ah! Remember the little house in Tai? Well, God had everything planned, because just two weeks after we moved into the new building Guam was hit by Super Typhoon Ponsogna which caused severe damage throughout the island including the house in Tai which was razed to the ground by the winds. The ten thousand books we had acquired up to that point, from the generosity of many people from around the world were also destroyed. Most likely we would have been killed if we remained there.

Since the house had not been used for a while many repairs had to be done. Walls needed to be knocked down to create larger rooms for a chapel and classrooms and also for a new library. Existing rooms had to be painted and rearranged. Fortunately we had the help of many people from the community who with their experience in different fields and good will gave us a hand to transform a hotel into a house of formation for priests.

Alongside the miracles worked in the physical structures of the seminary many other kinds of miracles happened. At first we had the problem of not having a school on Guam, neither of theology nor of philosophy, which is fundamental for us. Nevertheless, since the beginning the Lord provided us with teachers from all over the world for our academic formation, and I should say, not just teachers, but good ones!

Besides that, many volunteers, leaving behind family and homeland, have come throughout the years to serve us in different ways, namely, food preparation and nutrition, administration, logistics, maintenance, and many other humble and hidden tasks.

The fruits of such a tremendous work began by Archbishop Apuron through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, began to be seen. In March, 2005, the first seminarian was ordained to the priesthood, Fr. Jose Alberto Rodriguez Salamanca originally from Spain. Then on November 8, 2008, three more were ordained, Fr. Fabio (Italy), Fr. Jason (Philippines) and Fr. Antonino (Italy). And just a few months ago on November 7, 2009, four more became priests for the service of the Archdiocese of Agana, Fr. Aurelio (Austria), Fr. Edivaldo (Brazil), Fr. Julio Cesar (Colombia) and Fr. Miguel Angel (Spain). And, trusting in God, the fruits will continue.