COTABATO CITY–The Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) in the Philippines are mourning the demise of missionary priest, Fr. Richard Pommier, due to a lingering illness. He was 78 years old.
The OMI congregation has been serving the Cotabato area for missionary works since 1939.
Father Charlie Inzon, OMI provincial superior of the 120-strong missionary priests, said Fr. Pommier, more known as “Fr. Dick”, died at 12:45 p.m. Thursday due to cancer of the colon at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in Manila. Brother Noel P. Garcia, OMI said that Fr. Nuel Sison, OMI was with Fr. Pommier when the priest died.
Pommier’s cancer was diagnosed last March. He was able to complete two sessions of chemotherapy. Garcia said Pommier endured the chemotherapy and other procedures but his body eventually gave up.
Garcia said Fr. Dick’s body will be brought to Cotabato City on Monday, July 9. The OMIs have yet to schedule his burial at the OMI cemetery in Barangay Tamontaka, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao.
“Fr. Inzon asks for our prayers and include Fr. Dick in our mass intentions,” Garcia said in a message to all OMIs in the Philippines.
Fr. Dick was born in a little town in Minnesota, called Tracy on January 10, 1940. He was raised on a farm, the eldest of four boys. The four brothers looked forward to having a girl in the family, but God saw otherwise. His mother died, as did his baby sister during birth in 1947. While in 8th grade, two Oblate vocation directors visited the school and showed slides about the OMI missions.
The young Pommier was attracted by the work of the OMI’s in the Philippines, and so he entered the minor seminary after 8th grade. Fr. Eliseo Mercado, OMI, said that during Fr. Dick’s Novitiate and Theology years, he was given the privilege to develop painting and sculpturing skills, which helped him so much in his missionary endeavors in the Philippines.
Upon arrival in the Philippines in 1967, Pommier was assigned at Grace Park as Assistant Pastor and to study Filipino. In 1968, he was assigned to Alamada (then Edcor) in North Cotabato, and there he had been privileged to hand on to hundreds of young people at least some mastery of these same gifts.
From Alamada, he was assigned Pastor of Matalam in 1972 up to 1977; and from there re-assigned Pastor of the newly-established Parish in Bulacanon in 1977 until 1980. Pommier was director of the Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine in Tamontaka for many years (from 1980-92 and from 1994 to 2011 – over 20 years).
In between his stint at Shrine or more popularly known as the Grotto, he served as Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate director based in Grace Park from 1992-94. Then he moved to the OMI Missionary Center for few years until he finally settled at the Bolduc Residence for a reduced ministry in 2012.
Fr. Pommier is best remembered by fellow Oblates as a singer, artist, engineer, animal lover, teacher, and preacher. (Edwin Fernandez/PNA)
