Church needs any info on Pinoy teen declared as ‘Servant of God’

FILE: Serviteur de Dieu Darwin Ramos (Photo By Postulateur – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)

MANILA — The Diocese of Cubao on Monday asked the public to provide it with any document on the life of Darwin Ramos, who has been declared as a “Servant of God” by the Vatican.

In his edict, Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco urged the people who have information about the life of the boy to give them a copy of such documents.

“In accordance with the laws of the Church, we hereby direct all those who are in possession of any writing, published or unpublished, which can be attributed to the Servant of God, and which has not yet been recorded in the Postulation of the Cause to submit these and all documents relevant to this Cause as soon as possible to the President of the Commission of Enquiry,” he said in an order dated June 16.

The Catholic prelate noted that they will accept an authenticated copy if the provider wishes to keep the original copy of the documents.

Ongtioco noted that they want to gather as many information on the life and faith of Ramos as part of the process towards his sainthood.

“We want to gather as much data as we can regarding his virtues, his life, to prove his sanctity. We need feedback from people who knew him,” he said in a separate interview.

With this, he added that those who have information to send them to Diocesan Tribunal of First Instance of the Cubao Diocese or through email: tribunal@dioceseofcubao.ph.

Also, Ongtioco directed parishes and Church institutions in the diocese to keep the edict posted for two months.

Last March 29, the Vatican declared Ramos as “Servant of God”, which is the preliminary step towards sainthood. It is the second of four steps in the Church’s canonization process for one to be declared as “Venerable”.

He spent his early years in the slums of Pasay City, where he became a scavenger along with his younger sister, in a bid to help his family. He was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which made him unable to stand as his muscles had weakened.

In 2006, Ramos entered one of the centers that help street children after getting acquainted with a group of street educators from Tulay ng Kabataan (TnK).

Discovering the Catholic faith, he received the sacrament of baptism in the same year and the first communion and the sacrament of confirmation in 2007.

Ramos had developed a deep personal relationship with Christ, and not a day passed that the boy did not take time out to entrust himself to God.

He died at the Philippine Children’s Medical Center in Quezon City on Sept. 23, 2012, at the age of 17.