Broken Healer By Sheila Crisostomo (The Philippine Star) | Updated July 7, 2013 - 12:00am Fr. Arnold Abelardo gives an inspirational talk to patients and their watchers at the healing garden of the Philippine Orthopedic Center (main photo) in Quezon City. He prays with a patient’s companion (top left). Participants in wheelchairs join the POC’s annual Santacruzan (above left). MANILA, Philippines - “It has become my calling to serve at the Orthopedic,” says Abelardo. “But back in 2000, I swore to myself that I would not work in a hospital again.” Abelardo was about to graduate as a seminarian when he underwent training at the hospital of the University of California Los Angeles. He did not savor his stint there. “I was always confronted with violence, victims of gang violence, shooting and even HIV,” he recalls. “It was really exhausting, so toxic for me.” When he finally became a priest, he was assigned at the Nuestra Señora Reyna delos Angeles (Our Lady Queen of Angels) parish in Los Angeles with a mostly Latin American population. His ministry then was for the homeless so everyday, he had a soup kitchen organized for 150 people. “My advocacy was also for immigrants’ rights so every day for six years, I was accompanying undocumented migrants.” But in 2006, severe back pain started troubling him. It turned out that he had a slipped disc caused by his constant carrying of heavy casseroles for the soup kitchen. Homepage ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 He was confined to a wheelchair and became dependent on others. “I had to endure terrible pain. My legs were starting to shrink and I could not walk.” The following year, Abelardo decided to come home to be with his family and to undergo treatment at Orthopedic. It so happened that the chaplain had just left so the hospital staff turned to the priest-patient. “One day, they requested me to officiate mass. Many masses followed after that. They would also tell me ‘Father, a patient is dying and he needs to be blessed’ so I would go to that patient to anoint the holy oil,” he says. Beyond that, Abelardo saw the need of the patients. Those who lost a limb or were diagnosed with a terminal illness needed to be comforted. There were hospital personnel, on the other hand, who were burdened by the heavy workload and the suffering of patients and they needed reassurance. Abelardo came to realize that he wanted to serve these people. “I knew that these people need spiritual accompaniment. They need someone to console them, especially the cancer patients, as they face their illness.” He quickly won the trust of the patients. They believed him when he spoke about their pain and fears and how they could cope with their illnesses. “It helped that I knew what they were going through because I was also a patient. I knew their suffering, their brokenness and the pain of having your back opened during the operation. I knew how it feels to be uncertain of whether you can walk again,” he adds. Aside from providing spiritual comfort to the patients, their watchers and the hospital workers, Abelardo got involved in various projects. Through the help of the patients, doctors, nurses, and other hospital personnel and donors, he had a chapel constructed. He also put up a healing garden where they gathered to hear inspirational messages from him. During the Flores de Mayo in 2008, he organized a Santacruzan among patients and hospital staff. It was a big hit, with more than 60 sagalas, mostly patients in wheelchairs and crutches, participating. “It was heartwarming to see patients parading in the neighborhood around the hospital during the Santacruzan. Some struggled to walk but they did not mind,” he says. The Santacruzan has become an annual event, with participants growing in number every year. Last May, 130 to 150 sagalas joined the parade. Promoting the welfare of people with disabilities (PWDs) has become Abelardo’s advocacy. He embarked on a project to provide artificial legs not only to POC patients but to other PWDs as well. Recently, he gave out artificial legs to 80 amputees in Dumaguete. He became the go-to guy when patients run out of money for medicine, MRI and even transportation fare. He has also come to be known for the taho (sweet bean curd) that he distributes twice or thrice a week. Aberlado says he had also been touched by the patients, like 12-year-old Ram, who was in the end-stage of bone cancer. After performing the rituals on him, Abelardo asked Ram what he wanted to have, and the boy asked for a bottle of RC Cola. “I was surprised. Here was a boy who was asking for a bottle of RC,” he adds. “He was not complaining. RC was enough for him. For me, as a priest, as a missionary, it was rally empowering and touching. In life we really do not need a lot of things.” Unfortunately, his stint at the POC ended last month. Abelardo is now the director of the Claret Urban Poor Apostolate, but he intends to continue helping the hospital and PWDs. “My ministry in Orthopedic was a grace moment for me. There, I encountered face to face the suffering and the broken body of Christ, the poor and the marginalized. As a patient, I looked to God as my guide to becoming a wounded healer,” he says. Abelardo will never forget the patients who taught him about “simplicity and humility with grace.” “I learned from them to rely on the providence of God, and also the joy and gifts of caring for and serving the sick and the broken. To care for the sick is to care for Christ. Never abandoning us, God heals,” he says.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 05:45:26 +0000
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