NDCC HISTORY

History of Notre Dame Catholic Community

Notre Dame Catholic Community (NDCC) owes its birth from a group of 16 encountered couples led by Ensong-Zeny Aquino. This group took Marriage Encounter Weekend Seminar from one of the recognized sector of the Marriage Encounter Foundation of the Philippines (MEFP) - the 'Pag-ibig sa Diyos Catholic Community or PDCC in 1987. This led the couple to participate actively in church activities and later held key positions in the parish.

Inspired by their Spiritual director, Fr. Ross T. Olaybal, the group decided to introduce the Marriage Encounter Weekend Seminar in their Parish - St. John the Baptist, Taytay, Rizal. Despite the many challenges, oppositions, and tribulations encountered by the founding elders, they were able to get the approval of their Parish Priest, Msgr. Teodoro Perez, and hence NDCC became one of the mandated organization of SJB Parish.

Fr. Ross Olaybal, the Spiritual Director of the group coined the name NOTRE that means 'Our Lady' and DAME is an acronym of 'Diocese of Antipolo Marriage Encounter'. The group also adopted a logo which includes the Holy Spirit, the white background is an image of the Blessed Mother, the Holy Eucharist because it was conceived during  the Year of the Eucharist in 1987, wedding rings with lighted candle inside and underneath the white bsckground are Olivo and Tipolo leaves.

Armed with a strong desire to be of service to the community and to bring couples closer to God, the group started the first Marriage Encounter Weekend Seminar (MEWS) on Nov. 5-7, 1987 at Las Brisas Hotel and Restaurant, Antipolo City. The Ecclesial Team then was Fr. Ross Olaybal, team priest and Ensong-Zeny Aquino; Caloy-Auring, and Rolly-Lina De Leon as presentors. Ensong-Zeny A. was the Shepherd Couple of ND-1. After a month, another MEWS was scheduled and for five consecutive months with ND-9 having the most number of participants (49 couples) followed by ND-12 with 45 couples. The community decided to schedule MEWS every quarter of the year to give ample time for Sponsoring Class' preparation for the next batch.

Meanwhile the community was able to spearhead some of the activities like free Medical and Dental Services, Blood letting, Fun run, Concerts and other fund raising activities where proceeds went to support various Christ-centered seminars like CLSS, GSS, Deepening, MEWS, and some portion went to the construction of the Multipurpose Building which now house the grade school department of the parish. One of the apostolates of the community includes suporting other nearby parishes to put up their own MEW Seminar. The group was able to extend their Outreach Program to Our Lady of Light Parish in Cainta, Rizal; Our Lady of Good Voyage Parish of Antipolo City; St. Rose of Lima Parish in Teresa, Rizal; Sta. Ursula Parish of Binangonan, Rizal to name a few. As the community continues its apostolates, the founding elders also supported some members of the community, Ministry heads to enhance and further their knowledge by attending seminars given by our parish and mother organization - MEFP.

After almost ten years of these apostolates, the group through the leadership of Ino - Shirley Tolentino asks the approval and blessings of Bishop Protacio Gungon of Diocese of Antipolo to allow us to form a Core group composed of heads of different M.E. communities; but did not materialized due to time constraint, although the community continues its outreach program up to the present. 

  At this time, NDCC has 11 different ministries, 80 batches graduated from Marriage Encounter Weekend Seminar with total of 1,722 couples.