Category: News

Shay Cullen
20 August 2021

Indigenous peoples are under threat as never before and need the international community to stand with them as they demand justice, their ancestral land rights and an end to the exploitation and abuse they suffer in many countries.

They suffer discrimination, stigmatization and racism. How disingenuous that is since all people in the world today descended from some indigenous tribal people through the ages. In fact, DNA tests show that everyone in the world is descended from one common ancestor in Africa. Real science does not lie. The human species emerged in the Makgadikgadi-Okavango wetland. It was not just any home, but the ancestral “homeland” for all modern humans today. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/controversial-study-pinpoints-birthplace-modern-humans

Today, there are more than 476 million indigenous peoples that live in 90 nations around the world. According to the United Nations, they make up 6.2 percent of the world population. They have their own unique languages, culture, customs and traditions and have ancestral rights to their lands having possessed these from time immemorial. They are people that are capable of self-governance and have survived for many thousands of years before nations emerged in history. In the last 500 years, colonialism spread across the world and foreign nations invaded the lands of indigenous people, killed millions and stole and occupied their lands. The indigenous people were infected with western diseases against which they had no defense and millions more died. Others were massacred and driven to the edge of extinction.

By Vatican News staff writer

August 24 2021

Pope Francis has sent greetings to the members of the Laudato si’ Inter-University Congress scheduled to hold from 1-4 September in Argentina.

In the video message delivered in Spanish, he expressed hope that the initiative will “advance social awareness and consciousness” for the care of our common home.

“The Encyclical Laudato si’ is not only a ‘green’ Encyclical, it is also a ‘social’ Encyclical,” the Pope said, hoping that the Congress will help its scope and consequences to become more visible.

Finally, with a request for prayers for himself, the Pope blessed the participants at the Congress.

Laudato si’ Congress

The Congress is organized by the National Inter-University Council (CIN) and the Council of Rectors of Private Universities (CRUP), in conjunction with the Bishops Conference of Argentina (CEA) on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of the encyclical Laudato si’.

The conferences, talks, and other activities, put together under the theme “Caring for the Common Home,” will promote dialogue on some of the main themes of the 2015 encyclical, including fraternity, personal dignity, intercultural dialogue, the environment, and integral development of people, among others.

The Congress will bring together both national and international experts that will share their expertise on the multidimensional complexities of the various themes in order to foster dialogue about joint action in the future.

The Laudato si’ Congress will be accessible virtually to facilitate participation from all over the country.

By: Bec L. Yao, Ph.D., AsMIC

August 8, 2021 is a remarkable day for the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (M.I.C.) as they commemorate the arrival of the first M.I.C. Sisters in the Philippines. A Eucharistic Celebration was held at Our Lady of the Assumption Parish Church, Davao City on that day officiated by Archbishop Romulo Valles, D.D., head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines and on August 9, 2021 at Mary the Queen Parish, Greenhills, presided by Fr. Guy Peter V. Guibelondo, SJ, the Parish Priest. This momentous event was celebrated with grace and thanksgiving by the M.I.C. Sisters and their benefactors, alumni of their schools and their lay associates, the AsMICs.

Interestingly, Archbishop Valles and Fr. Guy have known the M.I.C.’s in their personal capacity. Archbp. Valles gave testimony to the grace of celebrating 100 years of MIC missionary presence in the Philippines, as part of a tapestry intertwined in the last 100 years of the quincentennial celebration of Christianity in the Philippines. While the celebration is during the days of the pandemic, the Archbishop exhorted the faithful to imagine how daring MIC sisters were, to travel all the way from Canada at that time after World War I and the widespread of the Spanish Flu to come to the east. In his homily, he expounded on the theme of the celebration with the readings of the 19th Sunday in ordinary time:

1.          Go to the peripheries. This has been the character of the church … and that is what the M.I.C.’s did 100 years ago, to go nowhere …. to people they don’t know.
2.          Walk for a Mission. From the first reading from the Book of Kings, Elijah walk for a mission…exhausted….to go up to the mountain of the Lord… to find the Lord. When the M.I.C. Sisters arrived in Mati, Davao Oriental in 1947, exhausted from travel, the first order of the day was to go to the presence of the Lord.
3.          Christlike attitude. In the second reading, St. Paul exhorted the Ephesians to be kind to one another, do away with anger, and every kind of malice. This was paramount in the lives of the M.I.C. Sisters, so that they can become Christlike when they go out and serve… bearing the aroma, the atmosphere, the aura of Christ. On a personal note, Archbp. Valles related his personal experience when he served in Mati in the 70’s as a young priest on how the Sisters educated him in good manners and right conduct and even making sure that his English was impeccable.
4.          Daily Holy Eucharist.  Jesus is the Bread of Life. We are asked to become one, to be familiar with the people. Though we smell like sheep, our service should be bringing people to heaven.

Fr. Guy on the other hand, congratulated the M.I.C. Sisters on their 100 years of missionary presence in the Philippines. He reminded the M.I.C.’s to always remember: “who chose you”, “why you were chosen” and “what you should do”. He also stressed on the need of a re-examination of hearts; to go back to what you learned in the Novitiate, in the initial formation; to adapt without losing one’s soul. Above all – Edification! To be mindful of your spiritual attractiveness…. because before we can inspire others, we have to inspire each other. Most importantly, do not lose hope!

Presently, the M.I.C. Sisters have three schools, two in Metro Manila and one in Mati, Davao Oriental. These are Immaculate Conception Academy, Greenhills, Immaculate Conception Academy of Manila in Gagalangin, Tondo and Immaculate Heart of Mary Academy in Mati, Davao Oriental. They also engaged in the evangelization among indigenous people in the parish of Kiburiao, Quezon, Bukidnon and on the defunct mission with the Mangyans in Mindoro Occidental that enabled the Mangyans to secure ownership of their ancestral lands.

In Davao City, the MIC Retreat House (MRH), beside Our Lady of Assumption Parish, is a preferred place for spiritual renewal among many groups not only in Davao but also from other parts of the country .

One hundred years ago, on August 8, 1921, five (5) Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (M.I.C.) arrived in the Philippines upon the request of Dr. Jose Teehankee, one of the community leaders of the Manila Chinese, to take charge of the Chinese General Hospital and the new School of Nursing. Dr. Teehankee found an ally in Msgr. Michael O’Doherty, archbishop of Manila who sent a cablegram to his counterpart in Montreal, Canada, Archbishop Paul  Bruchesi. The M.I.C.  foundress, Venerable Delia Tetreault  moved by the Spirit, responded favorably to Msgr. O’Doherty.

MICs have embraced the theme for their platinum jubilee, “In joy and thanksgiving!” which the present pandemic have not managed to dampen.

The organization allocated Php65.5 million for its educational assistance as part of its Alay Kapwa Legacy Stewardship Program

LiCAS News
August 10, 2021

Local counterparts of the social action secretariat of the Philippine Catholic Church attend a workshop conducted by Caritas Philippines. (File photo by Mark Saludes)

Caritas Philippines, the social action arm of the Catholic Church in the country, has set up a scholarship fund for “academically challenged” junior high school students.

The organization allocated Php65.5 million for its educational assistance as part of its Alay Kapwa Legacy Stewardship Program.

Bishop Jose Collin Bagaforo said the aim of the project is to provide at least 525 poor children “with equal access to primary and secondary education and skills and opportunities.”

“We need to invest in the education of our youth if we want more gold medals, better government and next-generation leaders,” said Bishop Bagaforo in a report on CBCP News.

Father Antonio Labiao, executive secretary of Caritas Philippines, said the educational assistance covers online learning and other school fees, tutorial services and training.

By Roy Lagarde
August 5, 2021
Manila, Philippines

The Philippine Catholic Church will hold a virtual congress on the Eucharist in “solidarity” with the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress in Hungary’s capital of Budapest next month.

Fr. Miguel Garcia, executive secretary of the bishops’ Permanent Committee on International Eucharistic Congresses (PCIEC), said the local event will be hosted by the Sta. Cruz Church in Manila on Sept. 11.

“Sta. Cruz Church will be the center of the activity but all the talks will be pre-recorded and will be broadcast online,” Garcia said.

Among the speakers include Bishop Dennis Villarojo of Malolos, who served as secretary general of the 51st IEC in the city of Cebu.

The priest from the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament said that preparations are still ongoing and final details will be announced in the coming weeks.

The IEC in Budapest will start on Sept. 5, with Pope Francis scheduled to lead the closing Mass on Sept. 12.

The major religious gathering was originally set for September 2020 but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The PCIEC had previously planned to send at least 500 delegates to Budapest, but was shelved because of the prevailing health crisis.

The target number of participants was aimed to highlight the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines.

“Unfortunately, we have to cancel the plan because of our situation,” Garcia added.

But he said that Archbishop Jose Palma of Cebu, the current chairman of PCIEC, is planning to attend the global event.

According to him, it has been a tradition that one of the Masses during the one week celebration is presided by the bishop of the previous host of the IEC.

“He (Palma) is trying his best but I’m still awaiting for any development,” he said.

The IEC first took place in France in 1881 with the goal of increasing devotion to the Eucharist.

It has continued to be held once every four years in a different city across the globe, taking place in Jerusalem, Nairobi, Melbourne, Korea, the U.S., and throughout Europe.

The last congress was held in Cebu in 2016, with more than 12,000 registered delegates, though more than a million people took part in the closing Mass.

It will be Hungary’s second time to host the IEC, with the first one also held in Budapest in 1938.

Pope Francis releases the prayer intention for the month of August, inviting everyone to work for a transformation of the Church – a work that begins with “a reform of ourselves” through an experience of prayer, charity and service, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

By Benedict Mayaki, SJ

In his video message for his prayer intention for August, Pope Francis reminds the faithful that “the vocation of the Church is evangelization,” and even more, “the Church’s identity is evangelization.”

In this month, the Holy Father reflects on the situation of the Church, its vocation and its identity, and calls us to renew it “by discerning God’s will in our daily life,” and “embarking on a transformation guided by the Holy Spirit.”

“Our own reform as persons is that transformation,” the Pope said. This allows the “Holy Spirit, the gift of God in our hearts, to remind us what Jesus taught and helps us to put into practice.”

Evangelization and a more missionary option

Pope Francis begins with the specific vocation of the Church, which is to evangelize. The Holy Father dreams of an even more missionary option: “one that goes out to meet others without proselytism and transforms its structures for the evangelization of today’s world.”

He emphasizes that he is not talking about proselytism but rather a reform of the Church through “a reform of ourselves, without prefabricated ideas, without ideological prejudices and rigidity.”

To make progress in this regard, Pope Francis invites all to move forward based on spiritual experience: “an experience of prayer, an experience of charity and an experience of service.”

Reforming the Church

“Let us remember that the Church always has difficulties,” the Pope said, explaining that the Church goes through crises because she is alive; not like the dead who do not go through crises.

In a statement accompanying the Pope’s prayer intention, the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, which prepares “The Pope Video” each month, explains that in the recent letter Pope Francis wrote to Cardinal Reinhard Marx, in which he refused his offer of resignation, the Holy Father acknowledged the crisis in the Church brought about by abuse cases, emphasizing the need for reform.

Fr. Shay Cullen
6 August 2021

The recruitment and sale of humans is an age-old crime against the rights, freedom and dignity of everyone exploited and forced to work for little or no wages and controlled and trapped by their traffickers and slave-masters.Young women and boys are especially targeted and offered fake jobs and given empty promises to get them to sign documents that put them in debt and under the control of their recruiters. Worse, when trafficked to work in the Philippines or abroad, they are forced to work in brothels, as domestics, in factories and are living mostly in sub-human conditions and are underpaid. Many are brought to brothels and sex parlors, sexually abused and trapped in sex work from which few escape.

The “Not for Sale Fund,” an international charity says, “Today, there are approximately 45.8 million people caught in the trap of modern slavery around the world. This includes 10 million children, 15.4 million people in forced marriage, and 4.8 million people in forced sexual exploitation. However, it is difficult to determine exact statistics because so many cases of human trafficking go undetected and unreported.”

Poverty and the desire for a life of economic liberty and well-being of one’s family make poor men and women vulnerable and in danger of a life of slavery. Human trafficking is a form of modern slavery and it is facilitated in the Philippines by individuals’ and syndicates aided by corrupt officials. It is a global business worth billions of dollars to traffickers around the world. It is a crime that will never be vanquished unless the victims are healed and cared for and the criminals convicted and jailed. Most criminals operate with impunity and walk free. Only 89 were convicted in 2019 and 73 were convicted in 2020 in the Philippines.

The Philippines is considered a hot spot for human trafficking and slavery and while hundreds of suspected traffickers are arrested, few are convicted. The US Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report for 2020 points out how very few convictions there are in a population of 110 million people.

In part the report says, “The government convicted 73 traffickers under the anti-trafficking act and related laws (89 traffickers in 2019). Most of the convicted traffickers subjected children to sex trafficking, including 25 who sexually exploited children online (compared to 32 in 2019); three committed labor trafficking (five in 2019).”

This low conviction rate is because some investigators, government social services and rescue NGOs have limited facilities and therapeutic centres to protect, treat and empower the rescued victims of sexual abuse, exploitation, and trafficking. Many victims after giving statements, staying a few days or weeks in a temporary shelter without therapeutic and psychological intervention, are sent home, traumatized. There, the relatives and friends of the accused trafficker threaten them not to testify. Protection, healing and empowerment are the most important services needed to help the victims and stop human trafficking but they are not available in most cases.

When a case does get to court, the delaying tactics by the defence, where endless postponements, allowed by complicit judges, frustrate the victim witness and they give up attending hearings not having testified.They are vulnerable to threats or a payoff. As a result, hundreds of legal cases are dismissed- for lack of evidence- to the frustration of law enforcers. Some other traffickers can recruit the victims again and they return to sex work to pay off debts. The anti-trafficking law needs review and a new section must be added that says victims must be given specified therapeutic care, protection, and professional intervention. This has to be for a time and the victim financially compensated while in the therapeutic centre for a longer period of time until they have healed and are empowered to testify in court. Then they will be provided with aftercare, education and livelihood.

There are some success stories, however. Most of the girls in the Preda Foundation Home for trafficked and abused children belong to dysfunctional families and were victims of domestic abuse and violence from an early age. These neglected and abused children then take to the streets to survive and to find freedom from the beatings and sexual abuse in their homes. On the streets, they are most vulnerable to unscrupulous traffickers who pick them up, offer them money, food, clothes, jobs and cheap smart phones. That puts them in the power of the traffickers.

When five girls aged 14 to 16 were trafficked by Michael Macaranas in Subic, he brought them to his house and with other men abused them sexually many times. After a tip off, they were rescued by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and put under the protective custody of the Preda Foundation. They were protected, cared for, had many months of therapy and were healed from trauma and empowered to testify against their trafficker Michael Macaranas. He was convicted on two counts of trafficking and was sentenced to life in prison and to pay his victims moral and exemplary damages which he never did. The Preda aftercare helped the victims finish school and lead a happier, better life. That was one more conviction in the annual success rate of an average of 15 convictions by the Preda children.

That’s because the victims were healed after a few months of Emotional Release Therapy and were self-confident and changed young girls. Their testimony was direct, clear and convincing.

In her decision dated October 7, 2019, Judge Ma. Cristina J. Mendoza-Pizarro conducted a no-nonsense speedy trial, brooked no delaying tactics and noted that the defence of consent did not apply as the minors were forced and tricked into the sexual exploitation, a noteworthy decision.

Oppose all developments that will advance the green revolution and the corporate capture of food systems

Aug 4, 2021
MASIPAG Advocacy

Greetings!

Last July 21, 2021, the Department of Agriculture of Philippines approved the permit for the commercial propagation of the highly contested GM yellow rice, called ‘Golden Rice’ (GR). Several CSOs, experts, and other concerned individuals gathered to craft an action plan on how to combat Golden Rice in different areas and platforms.

We attached a unity statement reiterating our calls to junk the recently approved and railroaded permit, oppose other advances of the Green Revolution in the country, and end the corporate capture of our food and agricultural systems. We request that you and/or your organization become a signatory. We also request that you and/or your organization help us reach out to other audiences and potential allies in this campaign. This statement will be posted on our social media pages and website. This will also be presented in our activities.

For individual signatories, sign here: https://forms.gle/13GRghpY2aVcMS177

For organizations, you may upload your logos here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Oewj6Z28bZPz6GDa11Tw5ElGxwMJkc8M?usp=sharin or you may send it directly to us.

The deadline for signing is on August 8, 8:00 PM.

Thanks,

MASIPAG

Last July 21, 2021, the Department of Agriculture – Bureau of Plant Industry (DA-BPI) approved the commercial propagation of GR2E, a genetically modified type of rice that it calls Golden Rice due to its yellow color. The approval blindsided the broad coalition of Filipino farmers, consumers, scientists, lawyers, and the general public who have been campaigning for greater public participation, transparency in the results of the biosafety process, and independence in the risk assessments of this GM product given rice is a daily staple in the Philippines and its production has profound impacts on health, the environment, the economy, and Philippine society and culture. Neither Da-BPI nor the Philippine Rice Research Institute has given any in-depth satisfactory response to the Filipino public’s request.

On August 9, 2021, 10 AM, the Stop Golden Rice! Network is hosting a press conference to provide various perspectives on this surprise approval of GMO rice for production and consumption. The Philippines is being hailed for being the first government and country in the world to commercially grow, distribute and eat this GMO rice. Is it really a cause for celebration…or concern? Did the joint agencies follow regulatory procedures or were there lapses? What are the legal implications of this latest move from DA-PhilRice? What are the immediate and long-term impacts of GMO rice in the Philippines on Filipino people, especially the local rice farmers and poor households who are at the crosshairs as the growers and consumers of this GM food? How does this affect the local rice industry on top of the Rice Liberalization Law? Are there other sectors that may be gravely affected by the GR2E propagation?

To offer a holistic perspective, the press conference will be joined by doctors, scientists, lawyers, consumers, farmers, and local government leaders.

#DefendOurRice
#FightForOurRights
#FoodSecurityForAll
#StopGoldenRice

Diocesan Youth Councils
National Councils of FNYO Member Organizations

Dear fellow youth ministers,

Greetings in our Lord Jesus!

The Young Davids program of the CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Youth is conducting a non-partisan voter registration and education campaign.  The CBCP-ECY seeks to partner with you to promote value-based civic engagement to prepare our young people for this coming May elections.

Our voter registration campaign is based on the “Tamang Kandidato sa Eleksyon 2022” (or “TamaKa”) module of Bawat Isa Mahalaga citizen’s movement for godly governance.  The TamaKa module is a 2-hour interactive and facilitated voter education session.  Its aim is to lead young learners to appreciate the value of voting as their right and responsibility as Filipino citizens, and of democracy as a gift and a stewardship from God as followers of Christ.

We offer to share the TamaKa module for implementation in your setting.  A commissioned team of facilitators will train leaders of your ministry to implement the module among your members (young people/ youth leaders/ youth ministers).  This is free of charge without any obligation on your part.

For your reference, please find attached:

1. concept brief for the TamaKa voter registration module

2. some photos of TamaKa workshops for different churches and religious organizations

May we hear from you: kindly read and then fill up this sign-up form to signify your interest in this offer–

https://forms.gle/7A8nJxPFWaAE3onJ7