New Filipino chaplain for German-speaking Switzerland

Last October 6, 2005, the Filipino Community and Swiss Church officials met with Bishop Precioso Cantillas, SDB of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines. We finally received the good news: TP’s long quest for a Filipino priest to permanently serve the pastoral needs of the community had come to fruition and a priest would be arriving in January 2006. Here are some details from that meeting:

The nominated priest, Fr. Johann Dumandan, SDB has been officially accepted by Migratio. Fr. Dumandan was a Salesian priest presently incardinated to the diocese of Maasin, Southern Leyte which falls under Bishop Cantillas. Fr. Dumandan finished his higher education in Rome, and has also had the opportunity to work with various Filipino groups there.

Fr. Dumandan is scheduled to officially start his work in Switzerland in January 2006. He reports to Migratio and Fr. Franz Stampfli, who has been designated by the Swiss Bishops’ Conference as the over-all person in charge for Migrants’ Pastoral Care.

Fr. Dumandan’s office will be at the Slovenian Mission, which will give him the opportunity to familiarize himself with how a mission works. He is designated to head the Filipino chaplaincy in the entire German-speaking region of Switzerland.

More details on the structure of the new chaplaincy and the schedule of Masses will be forthcoming. Bishop Cantillas expressed his desire that eventually some kind of Pastoral Council could be formed to work with Fr. Dumandan.