NOV. 21 marked the centennial of the arrival of the first Good Shepherd Sisters in the Philippines.
On this day, people gathered at the hills of Banawa, Cebu City — the sisters’ place of mission.
The Good Shepherd Sisters came to Cebu in 1951 at the request of the late Cebu Archbishop Julio Cardinal Rosales.
Last July 15, 2011, was the Diamond Jubilee of the Good Shepherd Sisters’ mission in Cebu, a time for appreciating the sixty years that had come and gone.
As women called by God to a mission of reconciliation, the Good Shepherd Sisters express their merciful love through an apostolic or a contemplative life.
Today, the sisters’ places of mission in Banawa are the Villa Maria Residence for single mothers and women in crisis, Maria Droste Residence for streetchildren, Good Shepherd Training Center Seminar House and Good Shepherd Training Center Bakeshop where out-of-school youth work to continue their studies, SME Day Care and St. Joseph Cooperative.
In downtown Cebu City, they will continue with their mission in Good Shepherd Welcome House — a drop-in center for trafficked girls and women — and at the Kahupayan Counseling Center in Sto. Rosario Parish.
They also work in Alay Kapwa centers for the youth and women from Villagonzalo, Cebu City and port area.
They also have the Good Shepherd Recovery Center for trafficked girls and women in Liloan town in northern Cebu and the Dangpanan Residence for streetchildren in sitio Laray, barangay San Roque, Talisay City.
At St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, Cagayan de Oro City and St. Mary’s Theologate, Ozamiz City, their mission will be done six to seven weeks every year.
They teach missiology and foundational philosophy courses towards priestly formation, a primary concern of St. John Eudes.
At Silsilah Dialogue Institute in Zamboanga City, their mission is held every summer.