Year: 2020

Dear Friends,

We invite you to an Interfaith Family Forum webinar on Wednesday, September 23, 3:00 pm, as we celebrate the 28th National Family Week together with the National Committee on the Filipino Family and Uniharmony Partners Manila. With the theme “Mapagkalingang Pagtugon at Proteksyon sa Bawat Pamilyang Pilipino Mula sa Suliraning Pang-Ekonomiya at Karahasan sa Gitna ng Pandemyang COVID-19” (Caring Response and Protection of Every Filipino Family from Economic Concerns and Dangers Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic), we seek to discuss the many issues and concerns impacting the family in these trying times like mental health, social media, addiction, and pornography as well as celebrate the self-reliance and spirituality of families despite the current challenges. We hope you would join us in this special event on National Family Week.

You are invited to a Zoom webinar.
When: Sep 23, 2020 03:00 PM (Philippine Time)
Topic: 2020 Interfaith Family Forum

Register in advance for this webinar:
https://tinyurl.com/National-Family-Week-Webinar
Meeting ID: 966 6677 0170
Passcode: 968851

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Thank you.

National Committee on the Filipino Family

“SHEMA: HEAR THE GROANING OF MOTHER EARTH, HEAR THE CRY OF THE POOR, AND HEAR THE CALL AND PROMISE FOR UNITY AND SOLIDARITY”

Sep 15, 2020 at 4:41 PM

Dear fellow youth ministers,

Greetings as we remember today Our Lady of Sorrows!

As part of our effort to be near you and support you in your ministry in these trying times, may we share with you this resource/ reference material as regards COVID19 and mental health.

We are grateful to the CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Health Care for sharing this with us!

We hope that you will find this useful as we all strive to accompany our young people in this time of the pandemic, with its distressful effect on everyone’s well being.

Let us continue to keep one another in prayer.  Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother, may our sorrow be turned into joy–joy that comes from her Son, our Lord Jesus.

Yours sincerely in Christ,
Rev. Fr. CONEGUNDO B. GARGANTA
Executive Secretary
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines
EPISCOPAL COMMISSION ON YOUTH

Save-the Date: BYU International Law and Religion Asia Online Symposium, 12-13 October 2020, 3:00-5:00 pm (Philippine Time) on Zoom. Speakers from the Philippines, Japan, South Korea and Mongolia are joining this year’s symposium.

Join the BYU International Law and Religion Asia Online Symposium on October 12-13, 3:00-5:00 pm (Beijing Time). Please click on the link to register: https://tinyurl.com/BYU-Asia-Online

The President has once again raised his call for the passage of a bill that restores the death penalty, having campaigned for it during the 2016 presidential election. We note the support for the reinstitution of capital punishment (death penalty) in the House of Representatives and the Senate, with deep sorrow and regret.

We declare our absolute opposition to capital punishment and we call on all people of good will to join us in our fight. The second century Christian martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons, who received a sentence of death from the Roman Empire, once wrote, “The glory of God is a human person fully alive.” At the heart of our Christian faith is the belief that each human person is loved into being by God, created no less in his very image of God (Genesis 1:27), predestined from the beginning to become the image of the Son of God, Jesus Christ himself (Romans 8:29). There is no higher view of humanity than this: that each human person is given the gift of life to share in the image and likeness of God.

An attack on any human person, the image of God, is an attack on God. Moreover, at the core of our proclamation of the Good News (evangelion), the Gospel of Christ is that God’s Son came not to condemn (John 3:17), but to offer redemption, and forgiveness: “The Lord is long suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to turn to him.” (2 Peter 3:9)

Rather than take the life of sinners, Christ came to offer his own life for our redemption: “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8). Such is the depth of the love of God for us, sinners.

NOTHING- neither human sin, nor injustice, nor evil, “nor anything else in creation can separate us from the saving love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 8:39) This is the faith we confess, and we oppose the death penalty because it is contrary to the Christian principles of respect for human life, mercy, forgiveness and charity.

Furthermore, we also oppose the death penalty on the following grounds:

• Capital punishment will disproportionately impact poor communities. The poor do not have adequate resources and recourse for competent legal representation.
• In the Philippines, the death penalty had historically been meted out to some of the most vulnerable, for example, both children and the frail elderly. Given our broken judiciary, this could occur again.
• The very serious flaws in our judicial system could mean that the death penalty would be wrongly imposed on the innocent.
• A death penalty could be used to weaken democracy and silence political opposition, by sentencing human rights activists and political dissidents to death in the name of national security.
• Capital punishment does not act as a deterrent to crime, and serves only the purpose of revenge, contrary to the Gospel ethics of loving one’s enemies. (Matthew 5:44)

Our declaration of opposition to capital punishment should not be taken as a statement that persons who commit serious crimes should not be held accountable. In consonance with our Christian faith, we call on the government to offer offenders rehabilitation, so as to restore them to communion with God and the human community. Instead of crafting laws that marginalize the poor, we call on our government officials to devote their energies on the betterment of the majority of its citizens who live in poverty.

In these islands where the wealth of the fifteen richest individuals equals that of the poorest seventy-seven million Filipinos, the focus of our government should be on reducing social inequality that is at the root of so many of country’s problems. Peace eludes us because there is no justice. Furthermore, rather than weaken democracy and attack the defenders of democratic freedoms, the government ought to protect and strengthen our democratic institutions, our liberties, and those who guard them. The nobility of their vocation lies in the defense of human life and freedom, and service to the people.

To our President, to our lawmakers, and to our citizens, heed the word of God: “I set forth before you life and death. Choose life.” (Deuteronomy 30:19)##

Initial signatories:

Most Rev. Broderick S. Pabillo, D.D., Apostolic Administrator, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila
Bishop Reuel Norman O. Marigza, General Secretary, National Council of Churches in the Phils.
Most Revd. Rhee M. Timbang, Obispo Maximo, Iglesia Filipina Independiente
The Rt. Rev. Rex RB Reyes, Jr., D.D., Episcopal Diocese of Central Philippines
Bishop-Emeritus Edgardo Juanich, Bishop-Emeritus, Apostolic Vicariate of Taytay
Br. Armin A. Luistro, FSC, Provincial Superior, De La Salle Brothers in East Asia
Bishop Emergencio Padillo, Assigned to Middle Luzon Jurisdictional Area, United Church of Christ in the Philippines
Most Rev. Gerardo A. Alminaza, D.D. Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of San Carlos and Convenor, Church- people Workers Solidarity
Most Rev. Colin Bagaforo, D.D .Bishop Kidapawan , Chairman, CBCP-ECSAJP, National Director, NASSA- Caritas Philippines
Bishop Joel E. Tendero , General Secretary, Ecumenical Bishops Forum
Sr. Josephine Mata,FAS, Superior General . Franciscan Apostolic Sisters
Mother Ma. Sofia Taguinod, OP, Prioress General, Congregation of Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena
Fr. Tony Labiao, ECSA-JP/NASSA Executive Secretary
Sr. Ma. Lisa Ruedas, DC, Justice Peace and Integrity of Creation, Daughters of Charity
Sr. Rosalind Tanhueco, OSB, Justice Peace and Integrity of Creation, Missionary Benedictine Sisters
Sr. Mary John Mananzan, OSB
Sr. Elsa Compuesto, MSM, Rural Missionaries of the Philippines
Sr. Rowena Pineda, MMS, Unit Coordinator, Medical Mission Sisters
Deaconess Darlene Marquez -Caramanzana, Area Liaison for Asia and the Pacific ,
General Board of Global Ministries , The United Methodist Church
Fr. Rolly de Leon, Promotion of Church People’s Response
Fr. Arvin Bellen, CMF, Social Action Center, Prelature of Isabela, Basilan
Rev. Dr. Eleazar Fernandez, President, Union Theological Seminary, Dasmarinas Cavite
Dr. Edith Burgos, Ecumenical Voice for Peace and Human Rights
Jennifer Ferariza-Meneses, Association of Women in Theology
Dr. Marita Wasan, PhD, lay leader, Roman Catholic Diocese of Antipolo
Fr. Noel Bordador, Episcopal Priest

‘You shall thus hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim a release throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you’ (Lev 25:10)

September 01, 2020

Below is Pope Francis’ message for the 6th World Day of Prayer for Creation released this morning

***

“You shall thus hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim a release throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you”

(Lev 25:10)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Each year, particularly since the publication of the Encyclical Laudato Si’ (LS, 24 may 2015), the first day of September is celebrated by the Christian family as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and the beginning of the Season of Creation, which concludes on the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi on the fourth of October. During this period, Christians worldwide renew their faith in the God of creation and join in prayer and work for the care of our common home.

I am very pleased that the theme chosen by the ecumenical family for the celebration of the 2020 Season of Creation is Jubilee for the Earth, precisely in this year that marks the fiftieth anniversary of Earth Day.

In the Holy Scriptures, a Jubilee is a sacred time to remember, return, rest, restore, and rejoice.

1. A Time to Remember

We are invited to remember above all that creation’s ultimate destiny is to enter into God’s eternal Sabbath. This journey, however, takes place in time, spanning the seven-day rhythm of the week, the cycle of seven years, and the great Jubilee Year that comes at the end of the seven Sabbath years.

A Jubilee is indeed a time of grace to remember creation’s original vocation to exist and flourish as a community of love. We exist only in relationships: with God the Creator, with our brothers and sisters as members of a common family, and with all of God’s creatures within our common home. “Everything is related, and we human beings are united as brothers and sisters on a wonderful pilgrimage, woven together by the love God has for each of his creatures and which also unites us in fond affection with brother sun, sister moon, brother river and mother earth” (LS, 92)

A Jubilee, then, is a time of remembrance, in which we cherish the memory of our inter-relational existence. We need constantly to remember that “everything is interconnected, and that genuine care for our own lives and our relationships with nature is inseparable from fraternity, justice and faithfulness to others” (LS, 70).

2. A Time to Return

A Jubilee is a time to turn back in repentance. We have broken the bonds of our relationship with the Creator, with our fellow human beings, and with the rest of creation. We need to heal the damaged relationships that are essential to supporting us and the entire fabric of life.

A Jubilee is a time to return to God our loving Creator. We cannot live in harmony with creation if we are not at peace with the Creator who is the source and origin of all things. As Pope Benedict observed, “the brutal consumption of creation begins where God is missing, where matter has become simply material for us, where we ourselves are the ultimate measure, where everything is simply our property” (Meeting with Priests, Deacons, and Seminarians of the Diocese of Bolzano-Bressanone, 6 August 2008).

The Jubilee season calls us to think once again of our fellow human beings, especially the poor and the most vulnerable. We are asked to re-appropriate God’s original and loving plan of creation as a common heritage, a banquet which all of our brothers and sisters share in a spirit of conviviality, not in competitive scramble but in joyful fellowship, supporting and protecting one another. A Jubilee is a time for setting free the oppressed and all those shackled in the fetters of various forms of modern slavery, including trafficking in persons and child labour.

We also need once more to listen to the land itself, which Scripture calls adamah, the soil from which man, Adam, was made. Today we hear the voice of creation admonishing us to return to our rightful place in the natural created order – to remember that we are part of this interconnected web of life, not its masters. The disintegration of biodiversity, spiralling climate disasters, and unjust impact of the current pandemic on the poor and vulnerable: all these are a wakeup call in the face of our rampant greed and consumption.

Particularly during this Season of Creation, may we be attentive to the rhythms of this created world. For the world was made to communicate the glory of God, to help us to discover in its beauty the Lord of all, and to return to him (cf. SAINT BONAVENTURE, In II Sent., I, 2, 2, q. 1, conclusion; Breviloquium, II, 5.11). The earth from which we were made is thus a place of prayer and meditation. “Let us awaken our God-given aesthetic and contemplative sense” (Querida Amazonia, 56). The capacity to wonder and to contemplate is something that we can learn especially from our indigenous brothers and sisters, who live in harmony with the land and its multiple forms of life.

3. A Time to Rest

In his wisdom, God set aside the Sabbath so that the land and its inhabitants could rest and be renewed. These days, however, our way of life is pushing the planet beyond its limits. Our constant demand for growth and an endless cycle of production and consumption are exhausting the natural world. Forests are leached, topsoil erodes, fields fail, deserts advance, seas acidify and storms intensify. Creation is groaning!