THE TRANSFER

Bienvenido N. Santos

Characters :

Mr. Conrado Arabia - old government

employee, chairman of the CAC for the
past 5 years.
Father Simplicio Ruivivar - a parish priest
from nearly half century.
Bishop

Settings:

Bishop's Palace
Cathedral Church
Bishop's Office

Summary :

At the meeting, of the local Catholic Action Committee held on Sunday

morning at the bishop's palace after the high mass, Mr. Conrado Arabia
mentioned casually the need or practical retirement system for the
church. They also met to discuss about the final details on welcoming
for the 1st bishop of the diocese who will be residing in the town.
Mr. Arabia suggested the need for retirement system for the priest
especially for the Fr. Simplicio Ruivivar because of his old age, that had
been parish priest nearly half century. He refused to acknowledge what
was obvious. Fr. Ruivivar happen to stop the course of the mass, he just
cant go on and only stand up there no matter how long it is.
The CAC handed an amount to Fr. Rruivivar to buy the much needed
pews of the ruined church. They suggested that a local furniture maker
will do the job, but the old priest had his own plan and ordered the
pews from an out of town carpenter. The committee saw the pews
huge, oversized that are like for giants.

When the day came, they gave magnificent welcome for the
bishop. The papal nuncio let the visiting church dignitaries
by himself. Even Mr. Arabia was very busy , every time he
saw Fr. Ruivivar he remembered what had been discussed at
the meeting.

The parishioners learned to love the human ways of the

bishop. His simplicity, understanding, wonderful listener and
got things done. After a year, no one had come to him about
fr. Ruivivar. the church had been rebuilt and developed. But
still the parish priest is there.

Fr. Ruivivar seemed eager they were caustic, often violent.

He read lengthy pastoral letters, scolds his parishioners
openly, single out women who wore short sleeved dresses
and low necklines, and the "devil hairdo" teen ager has.

Mr. Arabia found himself avoiding the masses of the priest

because of the situation.

Mr. Arabia went to the Bishop's office to hand the letter

about the replacement of their parish priest. But the day
almost ends, he didn't had the strength to gave the letter
until Fr. Ruivivar came.

The Bishop said to the priest that he will be send in Malabo

a beautiful to stay. After the conversation the old man had
a frozen expression. He stayed for a while in front of the
altar, after that he went in the room with Mr. Arabia.

"Good night", Mr. Arabia said, he went to the door to leave,

but before that the old man raised his head and asked Mr.
Arabia: "Is it the end of the month? I'm going alone? So, I'm
not going along. You're young. Look at your hands".

Mr. Arabia moved to meet him, cried and hugged him.

Suddenly he wasn't aware of the bloated body and an odd