During the Saturday morning Mass at Sacred Heart Monastery the community held a formal missionary send-off ceremony for Sr. Ramona Pandan and Sr. Grecely Tangcogo. Both are members of the Missionary Congregation of Mary (MCM), a diocesan religious community founded in 1970 in the Philippines with the mission of educating children, caring for people with an intellectual disability, and ministering to indigenous peoples. This week they will move to South Dakota to continue their preparation for ministry with our Dehonian pastoral team.
“Today at Mass we expressed our sincere gratitude for their willingness to serve God, God’s people and collaborate with us in our South Dakota missions,” said Fr. Mark Mastin, SCJ, superior of the monastery community. “Sr. Ramona expressed her own gratitude for being here at Sacred Heart and the warmth she always felt from Fr. Yvon Sheehy and the entire SCJ community. They will truly be a blessing to the people they serve. We wish them the very best.”
Prior to her arrival in the United States in 2024, Sr. Ramona served as a missionary in Australia where she was involved in high school education as a teacher and in religious life formation as a novice director. Sr. Grecely’s ministry has also been in education, serving as a campus minister and as an assistant principal at a high school in the Philippines. Safe travels sisters!
