Conversation with Dr. Jose Mario Bautista Maximiano

A conversation between Tavnet Volunteer Tyler:

Tyler: Right now I want to ask a question on behalf of my friends and brothers and sisters in the St Nichols Tavelic Network for Morisco Catholics.

I belong to a digital community of many people who are converts from Islam around the world; many of these brothers and sisters have been excluded by their own churches for being converts. It’s like an ethnic thing: ‘Oh, you are converts, now I don’t want to be associated with you because you’re going to take over our churches’.
These people have only very limited access to the sacraments: with approval of the Holy Father, they have to fly in to give them the sacraments, because they are not granted that in their own parishes.

We are a digital community making use of online communication to foster an environment of prayer and studying. They learn the traditional spirituality of the Church, they are taught proper theology and given proper instruction.
Do you have a message to give for my brothers and sisters around the world, to encourage them to continue the good work?

Cdl David:
I would encourage you to continue doing what you are doing.
To build communion will always transcend time and space, and you are discovering the digital space. That means you are taking the digital universe very seriously, and I would consider you the modern Evangelisers: this is the new Areopagus.
I think the challenge is on young people to really find a new environment; the communion you build is the foundation of the new communities you are creating.

I encourage you to carry on with what you are doing.
With regard to traditional communities which have the tendency to be closed-in on themselves: it’s okay to be disturbed! We should never make our communities impenetrable. I feel sad when some Catholics, who are so involved in ministries, are not open to second or third liners. They guard their ministries so zealously that they do not make way for new members, or successors!

Do not forget that one of the virtues of the Catholic Church is succession: we think beyond ourselves. I myself am a bishop of Caloocan, but we come and go! We are not indispensable, and can always be replaced – so we think beyond ourselves.
The ‘beyond’ is very important: the capacity to transcend, to create new bonds beyond the limits of time and space.
I encourage you to continue doing what you are doing.