What a mission of Pugo has cost

Title

Language

Spanish

Year

1924

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

echists and ... And you who shall have given the monthly salary of a catechist, who shall have gfren ip this way to God the souls He thirsted after on Golgotha, do not be afraid to appear 83 before your Judge, when He calls you: you have given Him what He as Savior died for, He will grant you what as a Christian you live for: heaven multiplied by the number of souls you help to save. ' - pc+ o&q -· \Vhat the Mission of Pogo Has Cost during the last ten years. The Pugo mission is one of the best organized missions of the Mountain Province. Its center has a primary school and an intermediate too. The hamlets of Ambangonan, Maoasoas, Cuenca, Llaban and Linapao possess a primary school. Thus Pugo is endowed with six schools. In 1914-1915 425 pupils attended the classes. Every year the number increased and in 1923-1924 the enrollment was 781 pupils. From 1914 till 1924 the exact expenses were P43,970.27. Duringthe year 1923 -1924 they were r 8,397 .92. Thus Pugo seems to be a rich parish with many revenues? To be exact: the revenues of the Pugo mission can not keep one Father's body and soul together and there are two Fathers at Pugo. Not even twenty pesos a month enter the mission as revenues to support the Fathers and their schools. Now note that in all these expenses there is not at all included what was paid for the support of the two missionaries, for the building of their house (some of the schoolbuildings of Pugo are in better conditions than the convent) and for the construction of the nice chapel (this alone costs more than 6,000 peSOSJ. In round sums the Pngo mission has cost during these last ten years nearly r 80,000. And where did that enortnous sum of money come from? Tuition fees and industrial work produced in 10 years some P 10,000. The rest had to come and came from Providence, from charity, but, alas! very little from the Philippines. Was the result worth all these expenses? First : the salvation of a single soul is worth much more than all the money in the world: one soul is worth the price of the Blood of Our Savior. When the mission of Pugo was opened, very few of its inhabitants had been baptized, or if they bad, they bad received litt,le or no instruction. Actually very fpw heathens remain to be converted. For a population of about 3,000 in 1910, only 84 baptisms and 47 Holy Communions were registered that year. But in 1910 there was vnly one Cath· olic school at Pugo. In 1913 there wer~ three Catholics·~hools and the baptisms numbered that year 212 and the Holy Communions 900. And so the increase went on until 1923 when we can count 6 schools, 16,111 Holy Communions received and 205 baptisms administered. The number of Holy Communions is the barometer of living faith and devotion in a Christian town. To show how at Pugo Holy Communions are on a rapid increase. I quote here the numbers of the latter years: 1920: 5, 900; 1921 : 7 ,820; 1922 : 9,635: and. 1923: 16,111. Such an increase deserves the blessings of God upon the mission of Pugo, its benefactors and its catholic schools : true factories of praetical catholics.

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