Fr. Herman Manuel, SVD
Fr. Herman Manuel, SVD, is originally from Laoag City, Ilocos Norte, Philippines. He is the youngest of six children in his family. Fr. Herman, a registered pharmacist in the Philippines, came to the United States in 1986. He first worked with Bank of America as a customer service representative to gain work experience. While doing a pharmacy internship in both a hospital and a pharmacy store, he was actively involved in his parish as a lector, Eucharistic Minister and catechist. Because of his involvement in the parish and his long time desire to be a priest, he applied to enter formation with the Society of the Divine Word. He entered the seminary at Divine Word College in Epworth, Iowa, where he completed his Philosophy requirements. Following a year of novitiate, he professed First Vows as a Divine Word Missionary on August 15, 1999. He was ordained to the priesthood in June 2004 and was assigned to ministry at St. Bernard Church in Oakland, CA, where he was parochial vicar. He later served as the Office Manager at the Divine Word Residence in Riverside, CA before being assigned in June 2011 to a mission ministering to Native Americans in Pala, California.
When I was young, most of my favorite TV shows were Western movies and more often, it was always a war between Cowboys and Indians. I noticed something—the Indians were always portrayed as the “villains” whereas cowboys were the “good guys.” This perception grew with me until I finally met the Indians in person, everything changed.
On June 15, 2011, I moved to San Antonio Mission Church in Pala, CA, as a Parochial Vicar. When I first set foot at the mission, I could not wait to see the Indians. Fr. Rey Manahan, the Pastor, told me that in order to meet a bunch of Indians, eat breakfast or lunch over at that little store,
Pala Store, in front of the Mission Church. This store looks like one of the stores that we have in our barrios in the Philippines known as
sari-sari store or
tiangge. This store is as old as the mission church built in 189
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7.
True enough, the first time I went with Fr. Rey, the store was full of Indians eating breakfast. However, because of what TV shows and movies have created in my mind, that Indians are people to be feared, I was quite hesitant and nervous to talk to anybody looking dark-skinned, strong, and having long hair. However, eventually, the tension within me broke when suddenly one of them commented, “O-ow here comes the trouble maker and he brought another one with him.” And we all laughed together. After having introduced myself to them, I befriended them right away. The funny thing was the owner of the store said, “Fathers, don’t worry about it. It’s Randy’s turn today. He will treat you both.” Randy by the way is a Pastor of a protestant church close to the Mission. What a truly memorable day for me.
Mission San Antonio de Pala has three other mission churches that we minister at in order to celebrate Mass on Sundays. These churches are “Chapels” of three different reservation tribes around Mission Pala. They are St. James in Pauma, St. Bartholomew in Rincon and Our Lady of Refuge in La Jolla close to the Palomar Mountains. Casinos are a major presence here and four of them surround us. They are gateways to the Reservation Chapels!
In addition to meeting the Indians in the Pala Store, we also share stories with them. A good source of
their history is to hear the stories from the elders. It seems that they are more reliable than the books written by foreign authors. They shared how “whites” treated them badly. It makes me remember my own Filipino history of how we were also treated badly by the Spaniards for so many years. Some of their rituals were removed because they were branded as “pagans,” causing more pain to them.
One ritual retained is what they do during Indian funerals that make the funerals more solemn. They show great respect to their dead by not allowing anybody to take pictures and it should be in complete silence. When I presided at my first Indian funeral, one of the things that connected me right away to our Filipino custom was the turning of the casket clockwise and counterclockwise before entering the cemetery. The reason is that nobody will follow the deceased right away. Then there are bird singers who sing several chants for the dead. The burial ends with the priest throwing a handful of dirt onto the casket followed by the members of the family, relatives and friends of the deceased. The funeral lasts for about 3 to 4 hours.
I am now in my fifth month here in Pala. The longer I stay, the more I realize that I am a missionary in America and the more I am immersed into the Indian culture.