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Year: 2020

Fruitful catechesis: Healing mission and the New Evangelization

Rationale and Reflection on the Proposed Theme

Worldwide, the Year 2020 presents unimaginable complex challenges brought about by the Corona Virus Infectious Disease, known as “COVID-19” pandemic. In the Philippines, one vibrant part of everyday life that has been most affected is our religious practices as Catholics around the country. Yet despite the closing of our churches and postponements of the conduct of traditional sacraments and rituals, we, the Filipino Catholics, with the openness and creativity of our parish communities and use of information technologies and social media, our expressions and spirituality of Catholicism remained present and strong amidst this pandemic.

Thus, for this year 2020, our National Catechetical Month celebrates “fruitful catechesis” signifying the fundamental lessons of our Catholic faith, which bear its most precious fruits during the times of crises. These catechetical fruits bring forth the missionary character of how our Catholic faith heals, and how this faith shepherds us in becoming witnesses of the new evangelization.

With this in mind, we cull our Catechetical Month’s theme from Chapter X, Catechesis in the Face of Contemporary Cultural Scenarios, of the New Directory for Catechesis (2020) released by the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization. The chapter describes Catechesis in (a) situations of pluralism and complexity; (b) the context of ecumenism and religious pluralism; and (c) socio-cultural context. Our theme reflects the current year’s focus in our nine-year era of New Evangelization dedicated to Year of Ecumenism, Interreligious Dialogue and Indigenous Peoples.

Without God revealing Himself, man cannot know God. God always takes the initiative, not only with regards to salvation, but with regards to everything else in our lives. The faith, which is man’s response to what God has revealed (CCC, 26) must be reactivated “among men and render it conscious and fruitful by means of opportune instruction” (Christus Dominus, 14) through catechesis. From the early history of the Church, the name given to the total process of making disciples and imparting the teaching of God’s Word has been “catechesis” (CCC, 4-5).

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Season of Creation Events

JUBILEE FOR THE EARTH

September 3,2020

MOST. REV. BRODERICK S. PABILLO, DD
Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas

Dear Your Excellency,

Season of Creation special greetings of peace and wellbeing from the Heart of Creation and from the Heart of our Loving Creator!

First of all, our gratitude to all of you who have joined and shared the kick-off webinars for the first week of the Season of Creation 2020. You are invited to join and at the same time promote/share the webinars for this season. We are providing here the list of Zoom Links to all our webinars and other online activities.

May I call on you Dear Partners, particularly the members of the Committees, please help facilitate and coordinate the registration of Speakers, Moderators, Reactors, Artists and Prayer Leaders who are part of our programs. Please REGISTER and SHARE the Zoom Links below: (MS Word file attached)

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Unity Statement for 2022 Elections

September 9, 2020

Toward a C-22 (Covenant for the 2022 Elections): Our Unity Statement

Two years from now, we will elect a new President and Vice President, as well as other national and local officials. Even at the risk of stating the obvious, the national and local elections should push through on May 9, 2022.

Any excuse to postpone the elections as scheduled is utterly unacceptable. As the country adjusts to the effects of the global pandemic, we should all the more protect and uphold our basic rights, including the right to suffrage.

With this unity statement, we put on record our commitment to preserve our democratic institutions that freedom-loving Filipinos have fought so hard to restore, even at the cost of their own lives.

Let their struggles and deaths not be in vain as we fight those who think that elections can be dispensed with, as they plan to lift term limits of incumbent officials by changing the form of government.

We challenge the powers that be, as well as various political parties, party-list groups and the Commission on Elections, to similarly put on record their commitment to holding the elections on May 9, 2022. They should sign a Covenant for the 2022 Elections (C-22) with these words: “We commit to holding safe, free, fair, credible and transparent elections on May 9, 2022.”

We likewise call on the public to register. May this serve as proof that we want elections to push through.

Much as there had been various covenants for clean and honest elections in the past, our proposed C-22 is crucial as those in power need to dismiss speculations about a “no-elections” (no-el) scenario given the push for charter change and the shift from presidential to parliamentary system.

The right to suffrage should never be compromised. All of us should remain committed in promoting and upholding safe, free, fair, credible and transparent elections. Let it be said that our C-22 is hardly a catch-22.

Pope Releases Video to Accompany September Prayer Intention: Responsible Care for Creation

September 01, 2020 | JIM FAIR

Pope Francis on August 31, 2020, released a video to accompany his prayer intention for September 2020, that we learn to respect the planet’s resources

The full text of the prayer intention is below:

We are squeezing out the planet’s goods. Squeezing them out, as if the earth were an orange.

Countries and businesses from the global north have enriched themselves by exploiting the natural resources of the south, creating an “ecological debt.” Who is going to pay this debt?

In addition, this “ecological debt” is increased when multinationals do abroad what they would never be allowed to do in their own countries. It’s outrageous.

Today, not tomorrow; today, we have to take care of Creation responsibly.

Let us pray that the planet’s resources will not be plundered, but shared in a just and respectful manner.

No to plundering; yes to sharing.

Each year, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation is observed on September 1. The international celebration marks the beginning of the Season of Creation, which extends to October 4, the feast of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology.

The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network of the Apostleship of Prayer developed “The Pope Video” initiative to assist in the worldwide dissemination of monthly intentions of the Holy Father in relation to the challenges facing humanity

New Zealand Bishops on Social Justice Week 2020: Catholic Social Teaching

Observed September 6-12

September 03, 2020

Each year the Catholic Bishops of Aotearoa New Zealand set aside a week in September for Social Justice Week, inviting the faithful to reflect and take action on a current social justice issue. Caritas prepares the resources for this week, which this year takes place from September 6-12.

This year the Social Justice Week theme is Catholic Social Teaching, which provides a moral framework to guide our decisions and actions.

The bishops have written a statement for Social Justice Week.  In it, they say Catholic Social Teaching has never been more relevant than now: “From navigating through a world still responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, to an increased awareness of racism and historic injustice, and the ever-increasing socio-economic disparities, the Church’s social teaching helps us focus our concerns about the world. It provides a lens through which we can try to make sense of how our society is being changed, particularly by COVID-19 at this time.”

Social Justice Week
2020 6-12 September

New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference Statement on Catholic Social Teaching

Never has Catholic social teaching been more relevant in New Zealand and in our world than now. From navigating through a world still responding to the COVID- 19 pandemic, to an increased awareness of racism and historic injustice, and the ever-increasing socio-economic disparities, the Church’s social teaching helps us focus our concerns about the world. It provides a lens through which we can try to make sense of how our society is being changed, particularly by COVID-19 at this time.

Catholic social teaching is a body of thought on social issues that has been developed by the Church over the past one hundred and thirty years. Its foundations are rooted within Scripture and can be found in writings by a succession of Popes and other Catholic leaders. Catholic social teaching helps us to apply Gospel values such as love, peace, justice, compassion and community to modern social problems such as poverty – including homelessness and hunger, conflict, migration, access to goods and the environment.

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PHILHEALTH Corruption Violates the Right to Health and Life

Statement of GOMBURZA

Corruption in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) is not only colosStatement of GOMBURZA sal thievery, robbing Filipino workers and taxpayers of their contributions to the fund.  It also violates the right of Filipinos to universal health care, bleeding billions of pesos away from state resources intended for this purpose.  In a pandemic that has caused thousands of deaths in our country, it violates the right to life.

PhilHealth corruption has taken many forms: diverted premium payments of up to P114 million in 2012, unnecessary or sham cataract removals worth PHP2 billion in 2014, fraudulent dialysis claims, the “upcasing” of mild respiratory infections to pneumonia, membership rosters with 500,000 people aged 100 to 121, and recently, a bid to procure overpriced and obsolete information technology equipment.

Sadly, the pandemic that is devastating our people and our economy has opened more opportunities for corruption: inordinately expensive COVID-19 test kits; an Interim Reimbursement Mechanism that expedites COVID-19 related advances to hospitals in regions with low infection rates, while hospitals in high infection areas, including government facilities, still await reimbursement.

Yet even as the Duterte administration coddles its appointee, PhilHealth President and CEO Ricardo Morales—requesting him to resign for the sake of his health—its supporters have viciously used the issue of corruption in PhilHealth against those it perceives as its enemies. 

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