THE PRIEST AND FAMILIES OF OCW’s

For this topic the class invited a priest who is actively working in the Apostleship of the Sea (AOS). He talked about the seafarers. Ninety percent (90%) of world trade is carried by sea giving work to more than a million seafarers. Life at sea means separation from family and community. Globalization can mean fierce competition, low wages and harsh working conditions. AOS works in solidarity with all those whose lives depend on the sea offering them welfare, hospitality and spiritual support.
To handle its apostolate, AOS interacts with all national and international organizations, private agencies and maritime institutions in a constant work of advocacy and protection on behalf of seafarers. Its concerns are all seafarers, anywhere in the world. It is estimated that at the present there are 1,200,000 seafarers roaming the seas and oceans of the world on commercial transportation vessels and passenger liners. This apostolate has a particular significance in the Philippines since at present this country is the major supplier of seamen on board ocean-going vessels.
Seamen deserve the particular attention of this apostolate on account of their difficult employment at sea. By the nature of their work, they are the invisible members of the community and often of their families. They are vulnerable people because they often have to stand alone to face problems related to relationships at home or at work; to faith and cultural challenges; to difficult and dangerous occupational conditions on board. The most challenging factor in the life of seamen is to face loneliness and months of separation from their loved ones. Communication with their families is what they need most, but at the same time is also the major source of their worries when they receive discomforting news from home or they themselves wish not to reveal unhappy circumstances of their life on board for fear this would cause unnecessary anxieties to their families. It is a hard and lonely life that only the strong in heart, in spirit and in character can endure it.
According to Fr. Saavedra, our speaker, the AOS ministry in the Philippines includes advocacy or lobby works concerning the wages and benefits of the seafarers. Christian value formation and legal information seminars are also conducted. Manuals, magazines, and newsletters are also published and distributed. There are also family programs and cooperation with seamen’s wives that are undergone by the AOS. But to a wider extent the local parishes could help in this ministry by giving formation and activities to the families of seafarers or the families of the OCWs in general.
The ministry to the families of the OCWs is not yet very well carried out in every parish. This needs proper attention considering that there are problems occurring especially in terms of family relationships and income management. The parish priest could tap the coordination of the Family and Life Apostolate (FLA) and the Commission on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Workers so that parish programs could be laid down and implemented. The families of the OCWs can also be encouraged to be actively involved in church activities. Considering that the members of these families are separated for a time because of their economic needs, the parish could organize a group or a form of a ministry that would organize the families to protect them from becoming dysfunctional. There are a lot of things that could be done to defend the welfare of these families and the priest has a very important role because he is also the pastor of these families.
To put it concretely, the church with the headship of the priest could assist the families of OCWs to overcome the problems of how to enhance their capability on financial management. There could also be a visitation to these families. Gatherings and other social activities may also be conducted to cater the social needs of these families. Through these programs the parishes even far from the seaport could become partners to those in the AOS who has direct contact with the seafarers and to other people ministering the OCWs.