About
Our late founder, Rev. Fr. Leonardo A. Polinar was a Catholic Diocesan Priest from the Diocese of Tagbilaran, Bohol, Philippines. In May 1975, when he experienced the darkest period of dryness in his life and priestly vocation he was then introduced into the Charismatic Renewal. This was the time his priestly vocation was lifted up to immediate transformation through the power of the Holy Spirit. His personal encounter with God inspired him to commit himself into the Charismatic Renewal.
In March 27, 1988, the Pastoral Assistance Community Education Mission (PACEM) was established, and now having its Generalate House located at 0080-B, F. Torralba St., Brgy. Cogon, Tagbilaran City, Bohol.
After having received the nihil obstat from the Congregation of Institutes for Consecrated Life and Apostolic Life (CICLSAL) in its letter dated October 1, 2018, now, the Pastoral Assistance Community Education Mission, popularly known by its acronym PACEM, is already a Clerical Society of Apostolic Life of Diocesan Right after its Constitutions and Directory have been thoroughly examined and approved according to the observations of the Holy See.
In the course of Fr. Polinar’s work of building communities in the Philippines and in other countries, the Lord impressed in him, deep in his heart, the desire to train a special group of people to take care of the communities as shepherds. At that time the communities were already growing in number and he realized that the work is getting immense. Definitely, he could not do the entire job anymore. Then all of a sudden a wild idea came into his mind, to form a new group of priests that could be trained and molded in the Charismatic Renewal environment. They will then be the ones to take care of the communities.
The big problem was how to realize that “wild idea”. Who will do the work? “Of course, not me”, he said, because he has no idea about formation of priests and he was never assigned to the seminary. It was the work that he tried to avoid as a young priest. From then on, he began to pray to the Lord to lead him to the right person to do the job. He has spoken to several priests who were involved in the Charismatic Movement but none of them said yes. So he prayed harder, asking the Lord to touch a priest especially, one who is connected with the seminaries. Seven years passed and nothing happened. One day in his prayer he said,” Lord, until now nobody is willing to do the work. If you want this idea to be realized, I am willing to do it but You have to provide everything because I have no background in forming priests. You really have to give me the wisdom of Your Holy Spirit to guide me on what to do, what to teach and how to form or mold seminarians to become good priests. You have to provide a house and all the finances because You know “I have no money!”
Indeed, God moves in a very mysterious way. He was just sharing with a friend about the Lord’s promptings to form a new group of seminarians to become charismatic priests. Immediately, the person said, “Father, get a house and I will take care of the monthly rental”. He was astounded by the response. To make the long story short, he got a two-room apartment, empty – no beds, no chairs, no dining table, bare of all the necessary essentials. The Lord had been very good; He touched some friends’ hearts. In a week time, we were able to furnish our small apartment. Praise the Lord, thanks be to God! It was then that Fr. Polinar started to announce to the people about the plan of forming young professionals for priesthood, everything free of charge. In a few weeks’ time, there were five applicants, thus, they started their formation; that was on March 27, 1988, the feast of Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Thenceforth, the community of PACEM MISSIONARIES was born!