Fr. Christian Jesse Taliping of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Tuguegarao seeks comfort in the arms of Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. after sharing his struggles about his cancer-stricken mother. (CONTRIBUTED)
It was an emotional afternoon session on the second day of the 51st International Eucharistic Congress held in Cebu City.
Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. had just finished his presentation, “The Christian Virtue of Hope” when a priest stood up to engage the Dominican friar in Spanish.
Except for those familiar with the reactor, everybody thought he is Spanish. But 35-year-old Fr. Christian Jesse Taliping of the Diocese of Tuguegarao is a pure Ilocano.
He introduced himself to the congregation as a Filipino who speaks both English and Spanish.
Fr. Jesse then talked in Spanish about his widowed mother, 64-year-old Redencion, who is suffering from breast cancer. He then asked the congregation for prayers on her behalf.
The interaction in Spanish between Fr. Radcliffe and the young priest lasted for about 15 minutes, with the latter shifting every now and then to English.
In the end, the English-born speaker said there is hope in the midst of Fr. Jesse’s struggles to cope with a cancer-stricken mother, but above all, he has shown “eternal love” for a mother.
Fr. Timothy then embraced the Filipino priest who was unable to hold back tears.
The touching scene was one of the highlights of the 1st plenary session of the 51st IEC featuring Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, a much sought-after speaker and author.
Fr. Jesse said he was struck by an anecdote in Fr. Radcliffe’s presentation, about a dying man who asked those around him to sing him religious songs like, Salve Regina.
Before coming to Cebu for the IEC, Fr. Jesse said he was by his mother’s bedside praying the Holy Rosary with her and singing to her Marian songs in Ilocano. He also heard her confession.
After the program, Fr. Jesse told CDN that he is a reserved person who cannot imagine himself standing up before a huge international gathering to “bare his soul.”
“But I did it for my mother. Priests don’t have women except their own mothers,” he said.
His mother, Redencion was a public high school teacher who taught ethnic Tuaois living in the hinterlands of Cagayan province.
Fr. Jesse lost his father when he was in his teens. The third child in a brood of four, Fr. Jesse studied in a Catholic high school, where he became close to the parish priest who encouraged him to enter the priesthood.
But it is his mother, he said, to whom he owes his vocation.
“I was about to drop out of my third year in seminary college because I struggled with my weaknesses. But my mother sternly warned me against my plan to leave because she had already spent a lot of money for my education. So I went back and I realized it was just a test,” he said.
Fr. Jesse finished his degree in Philosophy in the Lyceum of Aparri in Cagayan. The university rector and the then prelate of the Archdiocese of Tuguegarao now Archbishop Emeritus Diosdado Talamayan recommended that Jesse take up Theology in Spain where he studied for four years.
“I was ordained a deacon in Spain. My mother attended my ordination, and that’s when she told me she was converted by my vocation,” he said.
After becoming a full-fledged priest in 2004, he returned to Tuguegarao to serve the diocese for five years. Then he went back to Spain to pursue his Masters in Theology.
According to the Ilocano priest, he and his siblings didn’t know about their mother’s condition until last year when she had to be rushed to the hospital for an operation. Her condition has since deteriorated because her body was too weak to undergo chemotherapy and another operation.
Fr. Jesse said his mother’s condition will cut short his attendance in the IEC because his brother called him to rush back to Novaliches, Quezon City.
He left Tuesday afternoon.
Right now, Fr. Jesse could be consoling his mother with her favorite Marian hymns, perhaps singing some of them in “the language of love,” Spanish.
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