Incredible Generosity
People close to Bishop Teofilo Camomot would give him things – like clothes, mosquito nets and the like – for his own use. But the bishop would in turn give these to the poor. Concerned friends would advise him not to give money to people who would just spend it for gambling and buying liquor. But his simple response was: “I need to give them something because they need it. I do not commit any sin in giving and helping people like them. It's [their problem] if they were just deceiving me. I will really feel sad if I send them away and [later] find out that they were really in need.”
His Eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal recalled at least two instances when he noticed that Bishop Camomot was not wearing his ring and pectoral cross. The Cardinal asked the bishop jokingly, “Did you pawn your ring and your cross again?” Most probably, the bishop did, for it had happened several times before. Finally, the cardinal gave Bishop Camomot a new set of cross and ring – with the admonition never again to use these as collateral for his charitable deeds.
Yes, many times Bishop Camomot had used his episcopal ring and pectoral cross for his kind acts. The bishop's ring would disappear from his hand, only to surface later at a pawnshop – because someone's wife was in the hospital, or one needed money to pay his child's tuition fees, another's family was being thrown out of their house for unpaid rent, and many other forms of emergencies.
The Most Reverend Fernando Capalla, D.D. was a first year philosophy student at San Vicente Ferrer Seminary in Jaro, Iloilo, when he was tasked to assist Bishop Camomot during Masses and other pastoral works. The young Capalla personally witnessed the bishop's selflessness and incredible generosity – traits that many would find hard to fathom and difficult to follow.
“Whenever he would see a poor coming,” Reverend Capalla recalls, “[Bishop Camomot] would leave everything just to pay attention to somebody who was asking for help. And what is more striking is that when he had no money himself, he would borrow money from me to give to the poor. Well, he never paid me.” But the young Capalla never complained, because he knew the bishop. “For him, the needs of the people were more urgent than that of the seminarians. I felt that was something very unusual. I felt very happy to be able to help. Whatever I had, I gave it to the poor, too.”
Capalla soon witnessed Bishop Camomot gave away his episcopal ring. As a student yet at the time, the young Capalla did not quite understand the bishop's act. “I thought it was just too much, so I told the parish priest of the cathedral about it… I was [afraid] the bishop might give is his pectoral cross next.” Every time Bishop Camomot gave away his ring, the parish priest would get it back. “Maybe the parish priest got it from the pawnshop. And when Bishop Camomot could no longer give anything, he would give his rosary,” Capalla said. “One time, when he had no rosary, he asked for my rosary, and gave it away. The behavior of that man really overwhelmed me; he was such a saintly man. He was so different from the other priests and bishops I know.”