Home 2019 August

Month: August 2019

Caring for Our Web of Life

August 19, 2019 MOST. REV. BRODERICK S. PABILLO, DD Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas Dear Your Excellency, Greetings of Christ’s love and peace flowing from and through out Creation! As discussed in our previous meetings, we agreed to intensify our efforts for this year’s Season of Creation. Moreover, we agreed to…

Continue reading

Gina Lopez As A Laudato Si Champion

Citizens Environment Network (CEN) laud Gina Lopez as a “Laudato Si’ champion.” When Gina assumed the post of DENR Secretary, she declared that the papal encyclical, Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home will guide her. Indeed, her environmental stewardship  of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)…

Continue reading

A signature campaign for peace and justice in Negros

Stop the Killings in Negros

August 9, 2019

Dear Friends and Compatriots,

Peace be with you!

In line with the various initiatives to help put a stop to the surge in killings in Negros Island, we would like to solicit your signature for the attached urgent appeal titled “Stop the Killings in Negros.”

We hope to gather the broadest range of concerned citizens to sign on to the appeal which we will to send to all parties and individuals who can act to stop to the carnage.

Your help will be very much appreciated especially by the people of Negros who have suffered enough.

Hoping for your positive response, we remain,

Respectfully yours,

Stop the Killings in Negros
An urgent appeal

A bloodbath is now happening in Negros.

In less than a week, from July 23-July 28, 15 civilians were killed by unidentified vigilantes in Negros Oriental following the July 18 ambush of four policemen by the New People’s Army (NPA).

Prior to this, last March 30, 14 civilians were killed in coordinated operations by the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Canlaon City and the towns of Manjuyod and Sta. Catalina.

Human rights groups have reported at least 87 killings of unarmed civilians in Negros since the government intensified its campaign against suspected rebels and their alleged front organizations in 2017.

This cannot go on. The killings must stop.

In solidarity with the people of Negros, we urgently call for the following:

• An impartial and independent investigation on the facts, circumstance and underlying causes of the surge in killings so that the perpetrators are identified and brought to justice. Such an investigation cannot be simply left to the PNP and AFP who have been implicated in the killings;

• For Pres. Rodrigo Duterte to stop inciting the PNP, AFP and even firefighters to kill more in retaliation for alleged rebel atrocities, leading to even more indiscriminate killings and exacerbating the spiral of violence;

• For the government and the CPP-NPA-NDFP to resume the peace talks so that a stand down can be negotiated leading to a de-escalation of armed conflict and reduction of the climate of fear enveloping the province. The talks should address the roots of the armed conflict without resorting to all- out war and its ensuing human rights violations.

Continue reading

Transgenders and Toilets

Transgender women (biological men who claim to be women) are invading our safe spaces, especially that of women.

            Men getting into women’s sports (and dominating these, of course).
            Men getting into beauty contests (and winning over real women, as Miss Spain did).
            Men insisting on relieving themselves in women’s comfort rooms.

There have been a number of instances in other countries where such men have sexually assaulted women, including young girls, in such comfort rooms. Transgender women claim the right to use a comfort room of their choice. Well, what about the rights of women and girls, who are not safe in such a situation?

Women’s safe spaces are being invaded. Tomorrow, the space to be invaded will be our freedom of speech. The SOGIE bill will stifle any critical speech that is perceived to be offensive to transgender women insisting on using women’s comfort rooms. Let us have none of it.

Otherwise, there will be no more safe spaces. There will be no more comfort in comfort rooms.

Come Together for Nature

Inspiration:  IN POPE Francis’ latest encyclical Laudato Si’, he reminds the faithful that humanity’s common home is “like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us.” He also quoted from St. Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of Creatures: “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with colored flowers and herbs.”

Continue reading

105th World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2019

Your Eminence/Beatitude/Grace/Excellency/Rev. Fathers/ Rev. Sisters/Rev. Brothers

Greetings from OHD/CCD !

In a word, it is not only the cause of migrants that is at stake; it is not just about them, but about all of us, and about the present and future of the human family. Migrants, especially those who are most vulnerable, help us to read the “signs of the times”. Through them, the Lord is calling us to conversion, to be set free from exclusivity, indifference and the throw-away culture. Through them, the Lord invites us to embrace fully our Christian life and to contribute, each according to his or her Proper Vocation, to the building up of a world that is more and more in accord with God’s plan: Excerpts from the MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS, FOR THE 105th WORLD DAY OF MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES 2019 [29 September 2019]

The World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2019 (WDMR) will be celebrated on Sunday 29th September and the theme is ‘It’s Not Just About Migrants; It Is About All of Us’.

Given below is list of resource materials attached here with, Please feel free to use and circulate it to all your networks, communities and individuals who can use it further for celebrating the day.

  1. Resource material by M& R (Migrants & Refugees) Section of the Vatican.
  2. Posters and short video (high resolution & for Social Networking sites like Facebook, whatsapp) by FABC-OHD/CCD,
  3. A tentative plan of action suggesting possible activities and programs that can be undertaken to celebrate the WDMR 2019.

May God bless our work and efforts in reaching out to our Migrant Brothers and Sisters and May Mary our Mother guide us constantly.

Fr. Joseph Gonsalves
Executive Secretary
OHD Office of Human Development/
CCD: Climate Change Desk of FABC: Federation of Asian Bishops Conference
St Pius College, Aarey Rd,
Mumbai-400 063
Maharashtra, India