Thankful for the productive year 2019 and looking forward to a more prosperous 2020 for the Port Management Office of Misamis Oriental/Cagayan de Oro, a mass was offered on the first Friday of the year, 03 January 2020 at the PMO GAD Hall, Administrative Building 2, Barangay Puntod, Cagayan de Oro City.

The mass was presided by Msgr. Eutiquiano M. Legitimas, PC, SSJV, the Director of ACDO Migrants Ministry/ Stella Maris – Apostleship for the Sea Center. Sisters of the Stella Maris also attended the mass.

A Eucharistic mass is being conducted at the PMO every Friday since 2016. It is one of the activities of the PMO to foster spiritual growth among the employees, in addition to the provision of programs and activities for their health wellness and psycho-social development.

The PMO has long been in partnership with the Stella Maris – Apostleship for the Sea Center that provides practical and pastoral care to the PMO employees, seafarers while at the Ports, and even extended the services to the seafarers’ families and relatives.

The Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro Commission on Social Apostolate had awarded the PMO MO/C last 2018 as one of the partners under the Migrants Ministry with the Apostleship of the Sea (Stella Maris), for its ongoing mission and apostolic work of the ministry in collaboration with various stakeholders for the promotion of peace, justice, and social transformation.

Stella Maris or the Our Lady Star of the Sea is the patron saint of the seafarers whom the Virgin Mary is believed to guide and protect the seafarers in their journeys. Coastal churches are named “Stella Maris”.—by IMR Lam