His typical Sunday consists of 6 a.m. Mass in his home base church. Afterwards, he makes the rounds of at least four other chapels to say Mass, and by the time he gets home, it is already late evening. For the other chapels, lay ministers hold liturgical services, and read a homily which had been pre-prepared by their diocese to be read in all places where the priest cannot say Mass.

Fr. Jerome shares that the faith of the people is not yet deep and so a lot has to be done for their evangelization. He has organized the families of his quasi-parish into groups called Gagmay Kristohanong Katilingban or GKK, Visayan for Small Christian Communities. Each GKK consists of between 15 to 20 families, and this is where they promote prayer, devotions and bible sharing. He also holds a monthly parish general assembly to keep the communities in touch. Around 100 people represent the different barangays for this whole day affair which consists of seminars, people development and meetings of the different ministries.

For this first semester of 2025, Fr. Jerome did something different with COPA’s financial support. He started a livelihood project by buying two mother pigs and entrusting them to a lay minister with proven skills in pig raising. He also provided him the necessary feeds. His plan is for the lay minister to turn over two female piglets from each of the two original mother pigs when they reproduce. The four piglets will then be turned over to other community members with the same condition of giving back piglets once the mother pigs reproduce. And so on down the line, so that more members can join the program and get livelihood assistance. Participants to the program are asked to sign a contract detailing the conditions of their participation. Fr. Jerome says it is one way to instill transparency and accountability.

Poverty is one of the challenges of the community. Those living in the coastal barangays depend on fishing for their livelihood while those in the mountains depend on farming, which can sometimes be not very stable sources of income.

St. James COPA Foundation extends financial support to some 230 needy parishes in 39 dioceses all over the country. If you would like to help COPA support these parishes, please get in touch with Ludy Barcelona at the following numbers:

8842-6369/ 8842-5140 loc 1006

You may also deposits donations to the following accounts:

BPI 8291-0107-85

Unionbank 0019-0000-4425

COPA is a certified donee institution by the Phil. Council for NGO Certification. As such, all donations are tax-deductible.