“The Sin I Knew,” a book of recollections of Cardinal Jaime Sin by Fr. Erno Diaz, was recently launched at Villa San Miguel, Mandaluyong City with Antipolo Bishop Gabriel V. Reyes, a former secretary of Cardinal Sin, as guest of honor.

Having known the late Cardinal “up close and personal,” Fr. Diaz said he was inspired to write the book in 2015, the 10th death anniversary of Cardinal Sin.

“My book,” he said, “does not so much highlight his role in the Philippines’ People Power of 1986, but rather, I want the readers to remember him as a gentle, loving, funny, yet firm and powerful spiritual leader, “ he said.

The same book was similarly launched at St. Pius X Minor Seminary in Capiz where Fr. Diaz had studied under the Cardinal, then rector of the seminary. It will likewise be launched in New Washington, Aklan, by the end of April and in New York and other states of America.

Proceeds of the book will fund the projects of the San Lorenzo Ruiz Global Ministry, one of which is the enthronement of the image in airports, San Lorenzo being the Patron Saint of migrant workers.

This is the seventh book of Fr. Diaz. His others books were “San Lorenzo Ruiz, Patron Saint of Filipino Immigrants” (1993), “On the Road with San Lorenzo” (2005), “His Footprints in New York” (2010), “A Filipino Priest’s New York Diaries” (2011), “San Lorenzo Ruiz and Filipinos in Diaspora” (2012), and “San Lorenzo’s Impresario” (2012).

The author was ordained in 1969 upon obtaining Philosophy and Theology degrees at University of Santo Tomas.

A staunch devotee of Lorenzo Ruiz, then a candidate for sainthood, Fr Diaz founded the Blessed Lorenzo Ruiz Movement in 1982 and became its director until 2009.

Among the numerous positions he held in the US were: first Filipino pastor in the Archdiocese of New York, founding director of the Philippine Pastoral Center, apostolate coordinator of the Archdiocese of New York, and administrator of St. Margaret Mary’s Church in Staten Island, New York.

Fr. Diaz is now the administrator of the Church of the Guardian Angel in the Chelsea area of Manhattan, New York, and founding chair of the San Lorenzo Ruiz Global Ministry-Philippines. —CONTRIBUTOR

Fr. Erno Diaz’s latest book is available at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines office, Intramuros, Manila; Manila Manor, J. Bacobo Street, Manila, tel. 5259065; San Jose Press, Quirino Ave., Manila, 3535862; on Amazon.com, Amazon books, Ex Libris US.