In this handout photo provided by the Philippine Coast Guard, rescuers assist residents over floodwaters caused by Typhoon Odette as they are evacuated to higher ground in Cagayan de Oro City on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021. (ONE News)
December 17, 2021
To ALL DIOCESAN COUNCILS PRESIDENTS AND NATIONAL LAY LEADERS
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In the light of the sudden and unexpected intensification of Typhoon Odette and its massive impact on the towns and cities along its path, calls for immediate disaster response are being made. The Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas is appealing to our member organizations in the NCR and those nearby areas to initiate among their members, friends and relatives an emergency appeal for goods-in-kind which can be brought straight to the Disaster Response Center of the Office of the Vice President, which has launched an organized transportation and distribution plan with the AFP and other responsive government agencies. (Please watch the announcement below)
For those in other Dioceses who can also help, please do the same and coordinate with your Diocesan Social Action Centers. They might have similar plans to respond to this.
Let us also pray for the safety and recovery of our countrymen from this disaster and ask the Lord to continue to put peace and joy in their hearts during the Christmas season.
Please, we ask you to exert the effort to respond swiftly to this national emergency.
Pope Francis celebrates Christmas Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica Dec. 24, 2020. | Vatican Media.
By CNA Staff
Greccio, Italy, Dec 17, 2021 / 04:00 am
In 2019, Pope Francis issued an apostolic letter on the meaning and importance of the Christmas nativity scene. He signed the document, Admirabile signum (“Enchanting image”), on Dec. 1 that year, at the Shrine of the Nativity in Greccio, a hilltown in the Italian region of Lazio.
The choice of Greccio was significant, because it was there in 1223 that St. Francis of Assisi created history’s first nativity scene.
In the apostolic letter, widely regarded as one of the most moving documents of Francis’ pontificate, the pope sets out “to encourage the beautiful family tradition of preparing the nativity scene in the days before Christmas.”
Here are 10 things that Pope Francis wants us to learn from the nativity scene, drawn from Admirabile signum.
1. The nativity scene is like a living Gospel. The depiction of Jesus’ birth is “a simple and joyful proclamation of the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God,” the pope writes. The nativity scene invites everyone who contemplates it “on a spiritual journey, drawn by the humility of the God who became man in order to encounter every man and woman.”
The Vatican Nativity scene. Agencia Andina
2. The custom is rooted in the Bible. The pope underlines that the nativity scene rises from “the pages of sacred Scripture.” St. Luke’s Gospel says that Mary “gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn” (2:7). The manger is the focus of nativity scenes. Indeed, the Italian word for nativity scene is “presepe,” from the Latin word “praesepium,” meaning “manger.”
Pope Francis visits the site of the first nativity scene in Greccio, Italy, on Jan. 4, 2015. Vatican Media.
3. The tradition was born in an unassuming Italian town. St. Francis of Assisi stopped in Greccio in November 1223, probably on his way back from Rome after receiving papal approval for the Rule of his religious order. Fifteen days before Christmas, he asked a local man named John to help him “bring to life the memory of that babe born in Bethlehem, to see as much as possible with my own bodily eyes the discomfort of his infant needs, how he lay in a manger, and how, with an ox and an ass standing by, he was laid upon a bed of hay.” On Christmas Day, St. Francis was joined by his friars and people from the surrounding area before a manger full of hay, watched over an ox and a donkey.
Pope Francis meets young people from various parts of Greece on Monday morning in Athens, ahead of his departure for Rome, urging them to be truly social by engaging in real encounters with those around them as an experience of God’s love.
Vatican News 06 December 2021 By Robin Gomes
Pope Francis urged young people to allow themselves to be amazed by God’s love, have real encounters with others and dream big. He made the exhortation to young people from various parts of Greece at an event on Monday morning at Saint Dionysius School, run by the Ursuline Sisters in Maroussi, in the northern suburbs of Athens.
The event included testimonies from three young people from the Philippines, Greece and Syria, on which the Pope shared his reflections.
School children welcome Pope Francis to the venue
The wonder of God’s love and forgiveness
To the recurring doubts of faith that Katerina Binibini from the Philippines experienced, the Holy Father pointed out that doubts are not a sign of the lack of faith. On the contrary, doubts are “vitamins of faith”: they help strengthen faith and make it more conscious, free and mature. Faith is precisely a daily personal journey with Jesus.
But doubts that make us gloomy and depressed are to be rejected as temptations from the devil. We need to go back to the starting point, and allow ourselves to wonder and be amazed that we are God’s beloved children.
Meeting of Pope Francis with young people in Athens
“So,” said the Pope, “instead of starting the day by looking in the mirror, why not open your bedroom window and focus on the beauty that you see all around you?”
“If nature is beautiful in our eyes, in God’s eye each of you is infinitely more beautiful!” We should feel the wonder of the Father’s forgiveness who embraces and lifts us up.
Know yourself
The Holy Father told the young people to know themselves, stressing, “your worth is in who you are and not what you have” – the “brand of the dress or shoes you wear”.
Meeting of Pope Francis with young people in Athens
He urged them to watch out against “today’s sirens” of easy gains, consumerism, the cult of physical wellness, entertainment at all costs…” which like fireworks flare up for a moment and turn to smoke in the air.
“That is why it is important to cherish the wonder, the amazement, the beauty of faith!” he said.
“We are Christians not out of duty, but out of beauty,” the Pope stressed, inviting the youth to “wonder at creation, at friendship, at God’s forgiveness and at the faces of other people.”
Meeting of Pope Francis with young people in Athens
Pangasinan green groups, advocates hold solidarity bike ride for the environment
December 5 | Pangasinan, Philippines – Pangasinan green groups, in partnership with toxic watchdog, EcoWaste Coalition, held a bike ride for the environment. Dubbed as “Padyak Para sa Kalikasan,” 30 Pangasinense bikers joined a 13 KM bike ride to strengthen the call to ban single-use plastic and incineration in the province. The group also expresses its stand against offshore mining.
BAN Single-use Plastics, Stop Incineration
Bike Ride lead organizer EcoWaste Coalition Policy Advocacy Officer Coleen Salamat explained that “The COP26 has identified that plastic pollution is a major driver in the climate crisis. We urge our lawmakers from the local to the national level to include the people and the planet in their electoral agenda. We continue to call for a nationwide ban on single-use plastics, to ban incineration.”
It can be recalled that in July 2021, the lower house has passed House Bill 9147, Single-use Plastic Products Regulation Act. Meanwhile, the upper chamber has Senate Bill No. 333 or the Single-Use Plastic Product Regulation Act of 2019. No movements on these bills at the moment.
The group also scored the number of WTEs lined up in the province with five proposed Dagupan, Umingan, Urdaneta, and San Fabian. Citing a 2018 report from GAIA, the groups explained that incineration provides more problems than solutions. The process merely transforms the waste into other forms of trash, such as toxic ash and air and water pollution, which are harder to contain and usually more harmful than the original form of the waste.
No to Offshore Mining
Bike Ride Co-lead Pangasinan People’s Strike for the Environment (PPSE) expresses the groups’ indignation over offshore mining. The Proposed Iron Ore Pangasinan Offshore Magnetite Mining Project in Lingayen Gulf covers the municipal waters of Sual, Labrador, Lingayen, Binmaley, and city waters of Dagupan, Province of Pangasinan, covers a total area of 9,252.4506 hectares.
PPSE convenor Eco Dangla explained that “The offshore mining project will directly impact coastal and marine resources, exacerbate climate and disaster risks, permanently alter natural ecosystems, and economically displace fisherfolk and communities.”
Grassroots at the center
“It’s always the local communities who are the receiving end of environmental destruction. We say time’s up. We are here to show our solidarity to the call to end the toxic plastic pollution and to stop the offshore mining.” Joaquin Alano of Alano Biker’s Club.
The coming together of green groups in Pangasinan is remarkable proof that the frontline communities are vital to defending the people and the planet against pollution, plastics, and profit. “We are readying our ranks to push forward this agenda as the election season warms up.” Salamat ended.
The bike ride event was also participated by members of KUMASA NA, Partido ng Mangagawa – Pangasinan, Bayan Pangasinan, Bayan Muna Pangasinan, Anakbayan Pangasinan, Alano Bike Rider’s Club, and Metro Dagupan Cycling Club, Inc.
The EcoWaste Coalition is a national network of public interest groups pursuing sustainable and just solutions to waste, climate change, and chemical issues towards a Zero Waste community.
The Plastic-Free Pilipinas project collaborates with #breakfreefromplastic members EcoWaste Coalition, GAIA Asia Pacific, Greenpeace Southeast Asia, Health Care Without Harm Southeast Asia, and Mother Earth Foundation. The #breakfreefromplastic is a global movement working towards a future free from plastic pollution.
Your Eminences, Excellencies and Reverend Administrators:
RE: December 8 National Consecration to the Immaculate Conception of Mary and St. Joseph
December 8, 2021 is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and also the closing of the Year of Saint Joseph.
In an earlier circular issued last 8 November 2021, we already mentioned that on the said day, His Excellency Most Rev. Pablo Virgilio S. David, Bishop of Kalookan and who by that time will be the CBCP President, will lead the praying of the Holy Rosary and the Act of Consecration of Families to St. Joseph at the Cathedral of San Roque in the Diocese of Kalookan at 11:00a.m. He will be joined by some representatives of families in his diocese. This event will be livestreamed by CBCP News, Dominus Est, Radio Veritas, TV Maria Philippines and cross-posted in various Catholic Social Media platforms all over the country.
Since it is a Holy Day of Obligation and an important Feast of Our Lady, all the archbishops and bishops of the country are kindly reminded and requested to participate in this event together with the clergy, religious, lay men and women, and all families at their homes. It is also suggested by the Episcopal Commission on Liturgy that after the Post-Communion Prayer of the Mass, the Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Conception be prayed first followed by the Act of Consecration of Families to St. Joseph.
Please find attached links to the following prayers:
Let us, as one nation, earnestly pray for the continued protection of our Blessed Mother Mary and seek the assistance of our dear father St. Joseph, as we continue to face together the effects of the global pandemic.
With every best wish, I remain Sincerely in the Lord,
Militarized government behind widespread human rights violations: upholding civilian governance and respect for democratic rights essential in addressing roots of the GRP-NDFP armed conflict
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
– Matthew 5:9-
Last week’s meeting between military leadership and presidential hopeful VP Leni Robredo caused quite a stir with VP Leni appearing to walk-back her campaign commitment to abolish the National Task Force-End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). In a bid to win-over military leaders, VP Leni expressed her support to ending the communist insurgency in the Philippines through the so-called “Whole of Nation Approach.” As peace advocates, we urge VP Leni to engage dialogues and study further how to address the roots of the armed conflict in the country.
Executive Order 70, which created the NTF-ELCAC, is a militarist construct to further embed and ca-pacitate military leadership and maneuvering of the civilian government. The onslaught of human rights violations like Red-tagging, harassment, fabricated charges and arrests, extra-judicial killings, and forced and fake surrenders are a natural outgrowth of placing militarist war-hawks at the helm of governance. Their tentacles into essentially every department of government have severely restricted democratic space, while inversely encouraging the commission of unbridled violations of human rights with impunity as well as fostering the questionable and unchecked use of funds for supposed intelli-gence/“peace and development” operations throughout the country.
The unraveling of the peace process under the Duterte administration has resulted in more violence on the ground even as the roots of the armed conflict—poverty, landlessness, inaccessibility to services and inequitable distribution of resources—continue to worsen in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. We appreciate VP Leni’s desire to bring relief and development in real and tangible ways, especially in far-flung and under-served communities; however, militarizing “peace (and development)” is an out-and-out oxymoron. Whenever those who are exploited, marginalized and underserved are further oppressed through militarization and threats of violations of their democratic and political rights, they may seem to be silenced or assuaged by infusions of funds through the military or local government unit, but historically, the most oppressed are only further compelled to resistance.
Cardinal Jose Advincula, Archbishop of Manila. PHOTO BY MARICAR SANTOS/RCAM-AOC
By CBCP News November 23, 2021 Manila, Philippines
With the election season beginning to heat up, a top Catholic official urged the electorate to study the track record and platform of candidates.
Cardinal Jose Advincula, the archbishop of Manila, said that voters must look at the integrity before choosing candidates to support in the May 2022 elections.
“We pray that there will be a deep assessment of the programs and platforms of every candidate, as well as their track records,” Advincula said in Radio Veritas.
One thing to do, according to him, is to form “circles of discernment” among lay people to guide them in their choice of political candidates.
He said it is imperative for voters to deeply discern as a community on the characteristics and track record of each candidate.
“It is our call for the people to create their ‘circles of discernment’ so that we can hear and follow the will of God,” Advincula said.
The cardinal also encouraged voters to consider the position of candidates regarding respect for human dignity, common good, social justice, and societal charity.
“We hope that these will be the prevailing considerations of the people in choosing our next leaders,” he said.
We are pleased to endorse to you this invitation from the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Youth to the “Sana Ol” part of the series of virtual gatherings for young public servants and their supporters this Friday, November 26, 6:00 PM.
As we communicated to you before, this is part of the Young David’s Program where ECY, NASSA & LAIKO are collaborating to promote good governance especially to your young people.
Kindly encourage your youth groups to actively support and join this very important advocacy.
To: All LAIKO Members: Arch/Diocesan Councils of the Laity & National Lay Organizations
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
Good day!
As we thank you for your constant support to the Online Conversations that we were conducting to highlight the areas of concerns identified in the Resolutions of our Biennial Convention, we invite you once more to the last conversation lined- up for this year.
For this Saturday, November 27, 2:00pm to 4:00 pm, we are pleased to invite you to the Online Conversation on “The Principled Partisan Politics”. We have invited the “LAIKO Warriors” to talk on us on our possible political engagement as lay faithful in the 2022 national elections.
Kindly invite the members of your organizations to join us too. To register, please email/inform Mr. Joseph Jesalva at laiko_phils@yahoo.com.ph.
