Typhoon Problems at Filipino Seminary

From ciNews:

Young Filipinos – many of them future priests – may be forced to leave a leading seminary amid increasing fears over the safety of buildings ravaged by a string of typhoons.
Students at St Gregory the Great Seminary, in the Philippines, have already had to abandon almost half the buildings and now the rector has announced that unless repair work speeds up, growing structural problems mean some pupils will be withdrawn from the school.
In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, seminary rector Fr Nic Bilono explained that funds were desperately needed to finance the building work.
He said: “If we cannot do some repair work, we will have to cut the number of students.
“Our facilities are not safe enough to continue accommodating as many as at present and there is nowhere like St Gregory’s where they can go instead.”
The seminary, in Legazpi, 250 miles south of the Philippines capital Manila, was just one of countless buildings devastated by three typhoons late last year, ruining people’s lives in parts of South East Asia.
Immediately after the freak weather, ACN provided emergency assistance to an appeal for help, but the repair bill still stands at over £60,000.
With many of the buildings out of action, the shortage of dormitories mean that students are sleeping in bunk beds.
Classrooms are doubling up as halls for large gatherings. Food is now prepared in an out-house 20 metres from the main building. Many of the library’s books were lost.
Fr Bilono stressed how at least a quarter of the 12 to 16-year-olds at St Gregory’s go on to priesthood and that the college was essential for laying the foundations for seminary formation. He went on to highlight its leading academic credentials.
He said: “In the Philippines, we are still a very Catholic country. We have plenty of vocations but not enough seminary places – that is why we are in hurry to repair St Gregory’s.”