north east regional extra | July 3 - 9, 2019
nemedia.com.au
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July 3 - 9, 2019 ◆ DEDICATED TO COMMUNITY: Fr Dean Bongat at St Patrick’s parish in Wangaratta. PHOTO: Kylie Wilson
Faith without borders By KYLIE WILSON FROM working with orphans in the Philippines, to spending time with the elderly in and around Wangaratta, Fr Dean Bongat, currently assistant parish priest at Wangaratta’s Catholic parishes, has fit a lot into his life. Originally hailing from the Philippines, his mother died when he was five, and his father arranged for him to be raised by his aunt. Fr Bongat remembers that he first realised he wanted to enter the priesthood when he was in year nine, and a priest visited the school as part of a lesson on vocations. He said that although his aunt - who gave him some of his early lessons in faith by teaching him to pray the rosary - could not support him, he became determined to go to seminary and become a priest. Not being able to complete seminary at first, but determined to help people, he studied psychology, utilising his new skills to help orphans with special needs at an orphanage in Manila, as well as being a university lecturer and working as a guidance counsellor.
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