My father Frank, the “Hercules” of the family, has not been well lately.
I had heard from two colleagues how Father Fernando Suarez, who doesn’t seek publicity but whose gift for healing has spread like wildfire by word of mouth, has healed their loved ones. My colleague’s brother lined up for hours to meet Father Suarez and was so thirsty he almost gave up. His friend prevailed upon him to keep his place on the line, so he stayed on. When it was his turn to be blessed by Father, the first thing the priest gave him was a bottle of water to quench his thirst. The drink not only quenched his thirst, it apparently healed him — for two years now. My other colleague’s husband was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. He now has only stage 2 cancer.
The first time I met Father this year at the Bulong Pulungan press forum, he wasn’t at all what I expected. He was not an imposing figure. Instead, he was approachable and down-to-earth.
I had the privilege of being seated two seats away from the young-looking and amiable priest. I was curious about this human being who reportedly has supernatural powers, having “touched” with his healing hands some two million people in 2008.
The year before that, Father Suarez was requested to say Mass before a reportedly comatose Mike Arroyo at the St. Luke’s Medical Center just before the First Gentleman underwent a delicate open-heart operation. As everyone knows, the operation was a success.
Because I believe that healing is a grace from God, and that there are those who can be instruments of this healing in God’s name, I asked two friends (Deedee Siytangco and Beth Tagle) to bring me to Father in the home of Paz and Greg Monteclaro in Parañaque.
Beth actually drove all the way from Quezon City to Parañaque to bring me to where Father was staying.
I asked Father to pray for my Dad, and to talk to him via an overseas phone call. They prayed together on the phone. As of yesterday, my father has started to regain his appetite. We continue to pray that this very positive development continues.
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Father Suarez’s healing touch has made him a celebrity of sorts, but what makes me believe in his gift is his detachment from it. He says the ultimate purpose of healing is conversion — to bring the healed person closer to God.
Father Suarez, named by his parents for the “king” of Philippine movies Fernando Poe Jr., had just come from Puerto Galera in Oriental Mindoro when I met him at the Monteclaro home. He was awestruck. He was not awed by his “powers,” but by the healing of a family he met in Puerto Galera, the Atienza family.
“From the root to the fruit, every member of that family has been healed,” Father Suarez shared with me over lunch. The Atienza patriarch Rey was diabetic and on maintenance medicine. He was said to be an alcoholic. The mother Remy had hypertension. One daughter Yvel had a myoma that made her bleed for three months straight. A grandson was autistic and unable to speak. The family heard Mass celebrated by Father Suarez in Calapan, capital of Oriental Mindoro. Touched by their experience, they decided to continue attending Masses by Father by taking a banca to Batangas to hear Mass at Montemaria, where Father Suarez has built a shrine.
“We were all healed overnight,” declares Madie Atienza Acosta, Rey’s daughter. They didn’t know Father personally, they just attended his healing Masses.
Rey, who was so sick he couldn’t move the toes on one of his feet, found himself walking without a limp. His doctor has pulled him off his maintenance medicine for diabetes. Remy no longer has hypertension. Yvel has stopped bleeding. And Madie’s autistic son Carlo now talks and socializes and attends a regular school.
Father met them face-to-face for the first time only last week. He is equally amazed by their healing.
“Healing is the will of God,” Father Suarez says when asked why some people are healed by his touch, and others are not.
“That’s why I do not want to heal outside the context of the Mass,” adds the Canadian-ordained priest. “Otherwise, it is just magic.”
Father Suarez insists that, “God is just using me. I am just exhibiting God’s love and mercy. A real healer will not recognize himself, but God’s healing, in every miracle that takes place.”
I asked Madie what her family’s healing proclaims to the world. She said, “Totoo pala. Laging nandiyan Siya. (It is true. God is always around.)”
At the Monteclaros’ home, I also met Christine Recio, who Father remembers as having come to him “unable to walk and almost bent from her scoliosis.” Christine caught Father on his way to board his van on the way to the airport. Father stopped to pray over Christine (He didn’t miss his flight, by God’s grace). Christine is now able to walk. She may need an operation, but she can now walk to the OR if she chooses to push through with it.
Another of Father’s favorite stories is the healing of Mr. X, who forgave his father for killing his entire family. Only Mr. X survived the carnage but because of his anger and bitterness — which is perfectly understandable — he was afflicted by all sorts of ailments, was paralyzed and in a wheelchair.
After forgiving his repentant father after a healing session with Father Suarez, Mr. X stood up and walked away from his wheelchair.
“Forgiveness is the doorway to healing,” says Father Suarez.
How does Father explain the testimonials of healing attributed to him?
“I am a mystery even to myself,” he admits.
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More than 20 yeas ago in Batangas, Fernando Suarez was on his way out of the church when he noticed a beggar lying forlornly on the sidewalk. He approached the beggar, touched his leg and said, “Do you want me to pray with you?” Then they prayed.
The beggar then stood up and walked.
Fernando was terrified by the phenomenon that unfolded before his teenaged eyes and ran away.
For the next 20 years, Father Suarez, now 42, said he tried to deny his gift for healing. “I wanted to enjoy my life!”
But he couldn’t deny his calling for the priesthood. At the ripe old age of 35, after being rejected by seminaries in the Philippines, he was ordained a priest in the order the Companions of the Cross in Canada, where he had migrated.
It was his superior there, who, having noticed the many cases of healing attributed to Father Suarez, told him: “Fernando, this gift is not for you. It is for the people.”
According to Father Suarez, “All Masses are healing.” One need not seek a healing priest. In fact, the Atienza family of Puerto Galera did not know Father. They just attended Masses celebrated by him.
With each healing miracle that takes place, “God’s promise is being fulfilled in front of your eyes,” says Father Suarez.
Though a healer, he sees beauty in suffering. “Suffering makes you acknowledge God.”
He says he is now besieged by requests for healing, even while he is asleep on flights. But he tries to grant as many requests as possible, inspired by the effort Mother Teresa exerted to reach out to those in need.
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Father Suarez has been censured by some bishops, and supported by others. He says he also has received a message of support from the Vatican through the Papal Nuncio.
Being doubted by others, ridiculed even, “is part of the package,” says Father Suarez.
“I have been humiliated, humbled and been unwanted,” he admits.
But he is unfazed because he says his work is not for himself. In fact, he says that if his work should benefit anyone other than those who have been miraculously healed, it should be the poor.
He has a foundation called Mary Mother of the Poor, which is based in his birthplace of Butong, Taal, Batangas.
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Finally, I asked Father Suarez if he is able to heal himself when he has ailments.
“No, I take Tylenol,” he smiled.
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