Fr. Benjamin Alforque

Benjamin Escosura Alforque, MSC is a Roman Catholic priest of the religious congregation of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC). He was born in General Luna, Surigao del Norte, the Philippines on January 20, 1953 to parents who were both farmers in origin, but who worked their way through college to become leading educators in Gen. Luna, Surigao del Norte, the Philippines and in Minglanilla, Cebu, the Philippines.

Fr. Ben finished his elementary education with high honors in San Fernando Central Elementary School, San Fernando, Cebu, the Philippines and was graduated salutatorian in the secondary education from the Sacred Heart Seminary, Lawaan, Talisay, Cebu. He obtained his AB-Pre-Divinity with minor in Philosophy from the Ateneo de Manila University, and his MA in Theology from the Loyola School of Theology, in Quezon City, the Philippines. He then specialized in the studies of Sacred Scriptures, obtaining a Licentiate in Sacred Scriptures, cum laude, from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. Fr. Ben is a professor in Sacred Scriptures in various theology schools and houses of formation in the Philippines.

Prior to his coming to the United States of America, he served as parish priest in the mission of the MSC in San Luis, Agusan del Sur, in the Philippines, where he lived and worked with the indigenous peoples of the Manobo, Banwaon and Talaandig tribes. He organized a secondary school for the native Filipinos, with an alternative curriculum that uses mathematics and the sciences to further the cause of the native Filipinos that promote their cultural identity, ancestral domains claim and prosperity.

As a biblical theologian, Fr. Ben was engaged in various activities that promoted Justice and Peace and Integrity of Creation. He co-chaired the Justice and Peace Commission of the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines (JPC-AMRSP) and the Promotion of Church People's Rights and Response (PCPR). He has given conferences, lectures and retreats on the biblical perspective in the work for Justice and Peace and Integrity of Creation, both in the Philippines and in Asia, Europe and the USA.

Some of the works that he published have been translated into various European languages. Because he was detained as a political detainee under Martial Law, Fr. Ben became a founding member of the association of former political detainees in the Philippines (SELDA) and founding member too of the human rights group, KARAPATAN.

In the United States, Fr. Ben is Parochial Vicar of St. Catherine of Alexandria Parish, Riverside, California and was chosen, after his one year stay in the Diocese of San Bernardino, as Vicar Forane for the Riverside Vicariate by Bishop Gerald Barnes. He continues to work for justice, peace, human rights and integrity of creation by involving himself as spokesperson for PRISM and as chairperson of NAFCON even as he continues to lecture on the bible and theology at the Ministry Formation Institute in the Diocese of San Bernardino, California and elsewhere in the US and abroad.