Fr. Ewald Dinter, SVD, 88, died at 9:07 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, at UST Hospital in Manila, according to a social media post by Fr. Anthony Ibarra Banawa Fabella, SVD.
A friend and spiritual daughter of Dinter, Carole Diamante, said he had been brought to UST Hospital on Oct. 17, a day after his birthday.
‘This morning, Fr. Mike Yasis, SVD, arrived to give him the sacrament of anointing. According to the doctor, Amang (Fr. Dinter) is still fighting. But the doctor prepared us to say our goodbyes,’ she said.
The Societas Verbi Divini (SVD) – Philippines said Dinter was born Oct. 16, 1937, in Steinwitz, Wroclaw, Germany. He made his religious vows in 1961 and was ordained in 1965.
His first mission assignment was at the St. Raphael Mission House in Calapan, Oriental Mindoro. After an initial orientation to pastoral work in the mission parishes of Bongabong and Mansalay and the Mangyan missions for three years, he was assigned to formation work at the newly established St. Augustine Major Seminary in Tagaytay as rector, spiritual director and procurator.
The seminary, under the Apostolic Vicariate of Calapan, trains diocesan priests for Mindoro. He served in formation work from 1969 to 1976.
Dinter returned to Mindoro for parish work and the Mangyan missions at the Panaytayan Mangyan Settlement.
In 1979, he was elected provincial superior. In 1982, when the Philippine SVD was divided into three provinces, he continued as provincial superior of the Central Province. In 1985, he had a short stint as rector of Christ the King Seminary while also serving as a provincial councilor.
Beginning in 1986, his advocacy for the Mangyans led to a lengthy stay in the Mangyan missions. While still a provincial councilor, he chose to remain at the Panaytayan Mangyan missions, eventually establishing the Mangyan Education Center and serving as its director. He was appointed episcopal vicar for the Mangyan missions.
The Mangyan Mission Secretariat was later established in Calero, Calapan City, and he became known simply as the Mangyan Missionary.
While working with the Mangyans, he was appointed executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission on Indigenous People (ECIP) of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines. He also served as vicar forane at the Risen Christ Vicariate Forane.
Fabella said Dinter was at Villa Cristo Rey, the SVD retirement house at the Christ the King Seminary compound in Quezon City, when he became ill. He was semi-retired at St. Raphael Mission House before being brought to Villa Cristo Rey and later confined at UST Hospital.
On Nov. 12, while hospitalized, the provincial government of Oriental Mindoro recognized him as one of its awardees for his contributions to the province during its 75th founding anniversary.
Mindoro priest Fr. Edwin Gariguez paid tribute to Dinter, calling him ‘a missionary whose life was marked by steadfast service, solidarity, and love for the marginalized.’
Gariguez said Dinter’s ‘gentle way of entering Mangyan communities, not to dominate, but to listen, to learn, and to walk with,’ became for him ‘a shining model of what true missionary discipleship means.’
He added that in the schools Dinter helped build and in the ‘young Mangyan professionals who emerged with dignity and pride,’ the late priest left behind ‘a legacy that is unmistakably missionary in spirit