Metro Infanta Foundation

Fr. Nonong Pili, spiritual director of the St. Joseph Formation House and recipient of the 2022 Bishop Julio X. Labayen, OCD, Memorial Award, led the Opening Prayer at the Metro Infanta Foundation’s 2026 Memorial Awards Presentation held at Luxent Hotel in Quezon City on Tuesday, June 16, 2026. Below is a copy of his opening prayer.

Loving God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, today we ask you to bless this gathering. From different corners of the Philippines, and across the continents, the Metro Infanta Foundation, through its President and Founder, Mila Garcia Glodava has gathered us to recognize and honor the individuals who will receive today the 2026 Bishop Julio X. Labayen (JXL) and Cardinal Ricardo J. Vidal (RJV) Memorial Awards:
His Eminence Cardinal Orlando Beltran Quevedo, OMI, receives the JXL Memorial Award. Sr. Angie Donado, O.Carm+ and Fr. Manuel Catral share the RJV Memorial Award for Stewardship.

Together with the other bishops, as the head of the CBCP, Cardinal Quevedo led the Church in the Philippines into formulating the 9 pastoral priorities: integral faith formation, lay empowerment for social transformation, active presence and participation of the poor in the Church, the family as the focal point of evangelization, building up participatory communities that make up the parish as a communion of communities, integral renewal of the clergy, journeying with the youth, ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue, formation and animation to missio ad gentes.

When he was head of the CBCP, Cardinal Vidal promoted the Spirituality of Stewardship, together with Bp Labayen.

Bless these Church leaders and the current President, Archbishop Gilbert Garcera.

Fr Manny Catral evolved in his parish an indigenous model of the spirituality of stewardship. Sr Angie Donado, O.Carm+with her team of co-missionaries worked quietly to support the development of these parish models.

Our gathering today is another significant moment in our journey as a living Church, being and becoming a Church that listens and accompanies God's people towards integral transformation.

Kindly bless the family of Mila who travelled a long way to be here today. I have been a recipient of their hospitality as they welcomed me in their home. Bless all who are present today.

Our common journey is like that of a seed that has been planted and is growing. Bp Labayen calls himself bearer of the Good News. That good news is your Son Jesus who walks among us. It is the foundation of our magnificent humanity. It is an incarnational spirituality, manifested into a spirituality of stewardship, the key to the sustainability of the living Church. It is a gift, and we are stewards of this gift.

And as psalm 85:11 says: "Truth has arisen from the earth, and justice has looked down from the heavens."
Kindly bless this gathering and each of us. Send ur Spirit that we may bloom where we are planted. As psalm 1:3 says: “… like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers."

Fill us with your Spirit that in this gathering we celebrate in joy being bearers of the Good News, stewards of your gifts and bloom where we are planted. We ask this in the name of Jesus your Son who lives and reigns forever in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever snd ever. Amen.

Today, the Metro Infanta Foundation recognizes Fr. Manuel Vicente T. Catral with the 2026 Cardinal Ricardo J. Vidal Memorial Award for Stewardship for his enduring work in strengthening Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs) and advancing stewardship as Christian daily life.

Grounded in missionary conversion and lay empowerment, his approach continues to help communities become more responsive and mission-oriented—fostering participation, service, and shared responsibility, and extending care to the poor and vulnerable.

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