Aptep in the Islamic City of Marawi

Abstract

In August 2022, the Asia Pacific Theological Encounter Programme (APTEP) sent ten (10) Jesuit scholastics from Arrupe House to Mindanao to live life with Muslims in the Islamic City of Marawi. For the scholastics, it would be a revisit to the 1850-1950 Jesuit mission in Dansalan before it was renamed to Marawi in 1956. In 1923, Dansalan got its first residentpriest with the arrival of Father Joseph Reith, SJ. He started and eventually completed the construction of the parish church dedicated to Maria Auxiliadora in 1934. He was appointed, thereafter, as its first parish priest. For the scholastics visiting the ruins of St. Mary's Cathedral, it was a homecoming to the first mission church in Marawi.

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