CAINTA, Rizal—The priest of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in this town, Fr. Gervacio Evarola, will soon be reassigned to another parish early in 2017, per official sources who stopped short of mentioning the exact date of his departure.
Evarola, who turned 62 in September, has been the parish priest of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish inside the middle-income Brookside Hills Subdivision since October 2009, soon after tropical storm Ondoy (international name Ketsana) cut a swathe of 789 deaths and $6.2 billion in destruction.
The good-natured Angeles City-born priest recently celebrated his 25th sacerdotal anniversary with a nine-day novena caravan that began in his village in Angeles City through Marikina, Antipolo City, Binangonan, and culminating in this first-class town.
In the run-up to the start of the Midnight Masses in this town and in other towns of this predominantly Christian country, which received the Cross in 1521, the parish Elderly Ministry, which he created in 2010, will give the priest a Certificate of Appreciation on December 9, said Maria Rosa Cabie, chair of the Awards committee.
Evarola, a former chemist at the Clark Air Base before he joined the priesthood, has been cited for initiatives he pushed while he was off the Sunday pulpit, including the strengthening of the lay ministry, the charismatic movement in the parish, and groups that attend to prisoners and overseas workers.
Parishioners also remember his efforts at constructing the three-story Multipurpose Hall fronting the church, which underwent a multimillion-peso renovation with fund-raising projects like the “Lola ng Parokya.”
Evarola also created the Elderly Ministry, and appointed Eunice Fermindoza of Iloilo in 2010, succeeded by Wilhelmina Imperial of Ilocos Sur in 2013, as a cohesive group of Catholic seniors in the multi-faith subdivision east of the capital city.
