Priests take mission from pulpit to the depths

Jocelyn R. Uy - 

At least once a month, Fr. Tito Soquiño slips into a scuba diving suit and joins fellow priests as they take their mission from the pulpit to the sea.

Down there, they scoop out trash, feed the fish and do what they can to revive the country’s vanishing coral reefs.

Soquiño is the founder of Sea Knights, a faith-based group in Cebu who has been enlisting Catholic priests to become “scubasureros” (a play on scuba diving basureros or garbage collectors), one of its many initiatives aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change and pollution on the environment.

At least 10 priests mostly from the Visayas have signed up with Sea Knights since its founding in 2008.

Before hitting the water, they take a two-day crash course in diving to better prepare them for what Soquiño calls “ecological evangelization.”

Formally known as Knight-Stewards of the Sea, the group has also attracted other volunteers—professionals, athletes, journalists, policemen and government officials—for its diving expeditions.

“We are taking seriously what Pope Benedict XVI is telling us and the fact that climate change is upon us.

Being Christians, we are asked by our faith to take active participation in protecting our environment,” Soquiño said at a recent press conference in Intramuros, Manila.

Apart from ridding the sea of trash, the mission also involves setting up marine sanctuaries and promoting local ecotourism to wean fishing communities from illegal, destructive practices, Soquiño also told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The priest, the executive director of the Sto. Niño de Cebu Augustinian Social Development Foundation, flew to Manila early last month to promote the first out-of-town tour and fluvial procession of the centuries-old image of the Sto. Niño de Cebu.

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