Category: News

To our brothers and sisters in Christ, and to all people of good will:

A lot of people have sought clarification about the recent remarks Pope Francis had presumably made with regard to “civil unions”. Allow us to share some thoughts on the matter through the following reflection entitled, “Where Pope Francis is Coming From.”

The Pope speaks mainly as a shepherd who is willing to leave behind the ninety-nine (99) in search of the one lost sheep. Just because they stray doesn‟t mean they don‟t belong to the fold anymore. He is like a loving parent who just would not give up on any of his children. Just because they behave differently, or they live their lives in a manner that he does not approve of, does not mean they are not his children anymore.

This Pope has been consistent with the radicality of Jesus of Nazareth whom he calls the human face of the Merciful God. It is easier to save the good and the law-abiding; it is something else to choose to save even sinners and law-breakers with no other motive than the fact that they too are children of God and have been entrusted to his care.

In his own time, Jesus was misunderstood and judged by people because he associated with people of questionable reputation in Jewish society: the tax collectors, prostitutes, the lepers, the Roman soldiers, the rebels, the Samaritans, the people who were regarded as “sinners” in orthodox Jewish society.

What did he do? He did not avoid them. He also did not tell them that what they were doing was right. He did not openly approve of prostitution, or the use of violence to gain justice, or collaboration with the Roman government. He didn’t openly say he approved of the religion of the Samaritans or the politics of the Romans. He just treated them with the same kindness and compassion that he extended to any human being; and he was judged for it. He refused to judge the woman who had been caught in adultery without saying that what she did was right. He just did not think that condemning people or judging them was right thing to do in order to work for their conversion.

He didn’t bring them to conversion by judging them, but by loving them, caring for them, being compassionate to them. He was never of the opinion that people who did bad things were to be treated as bad people. He hated the sin but continued to love the sinner.

He also did not approve of the manner in which the guardians of morality and orthodoxy in his time conducted themselves. He did not think building the kingdom of God was a matter of teaching people proper doctrine and morals. He did it rather by emptying himself, by immersing himself fully in the human condition.

Nais lamang po namin ibahagi sa ICSI ang isang video mula sa Deutsche Welle (DW) tungkol sa kung paano nagawa ng ibang bansa (partikular sa India) na kontrolin ang pagkalat ng COVID-19 sa mga informal settlements: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avc7jA00N18&feature=youtu.be. 

Bagamat hindi naman po natin nababalitaang malubha ang pagkalat ng COVID-19 sa mga siksikang pamayanan sa Pilipinas (o baka hindi lang ipinapaalam sa publiko), magandang suriin natin ang tugon ng pamahalaan sa COVID-19 at isa nga rito ang pagpapatupad ng Balik-Probinsya, Balik-Pag-asa (BP2) Program. May ilan din tayong naririnig na balita tungkol sa pag-evict ng mga pamilya sa gitna ng umiiral na community quarantine.
Speaking of Balik-Probinsya, ibinabahagi rin po namin sa inyo ang latest naming publication na Intersect Quick Facts (IQF) na naglalaman ng ilang datos na sana’y makatulong sa pag-unawa natin hindi lamang sa layunin ng BP2 kundi sa internal migration na nais tugunan (o i-reverse) ng programang ito ng administrasyon. Sana may mapulot po kayo sa mga ito.

PMPI Urban

Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas “Usapang Kaliwa Dam”
October 24, 2020
Save Sierra Madre Network’s Fr. Pete Montallana, OFM and Conrado Vargas together with Dumagat residents of Infanta speak on the consequences of the Kaliwa Dam project on climate change and the future of indigenous peoples of Sierra Madre.

“It is necessary to work with greater commitment at all levels to ensure that the right to health care is rendered effective… to establish a real distributive justice which, on the basis of objective needs, guarantees adequate care to all.”

– Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Message to participants in the 25th International Conference organized by the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, November 15 2010

Charity is at the heart of Catholic Social Teachings. One cannot ignore the present, immediate needs of the impoverished in the hope of building a just society. Charity is intrinsically linked with justice, for to love others requires that one must first be just towards them. Consequently, the antithesis or negation of charity is injustice, social exclusion, and marginalization.

The proposed 2021 national budget does not guarantee adequate health care especially to the poorest of the poor and those severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Research group IBON expressed concern over the burgeoning budget on infrastructure amid the worst health crisis and economic decline in the country’s history. IBON noted that the proposed budget prioritizes infrastructure, debt, and militarization over health and other social services, agriculture, and industry. This is evidenced by the colossal budget for infrastructure projects (Build, build, build programs) amounting to Php 1.1 trillion (taking up 24% of the total budget) compared with Php 212.3 billion for health, Php 454.1 billion for social protection, and Php 5.1 billion support for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The proposed budget likewise prioritizes debt-servicing and military expenditure amounting to a total of Php 740.6 billion over a minimal DOH budget of Php 131.7 billion or barely one-fifth of one percent (0.2%) of the total infrastructure spending.

IBON added that while the proposed Php 212.3-billion health budget is bigger than last year’s allocation, “allotment for facilities enhancement, epidemiological surveillance, for instance, were all reduced right when the country’s public health system sorely needs a boost.” Declines were also registered in the epidemiology and surveillance program, to P112.631 million from P115.501 million; and in the operations of national reference laboratories, down to P289.330 million from P326.330 million.

The proposed 2021 national budget is a glaring evidence that Philippine health recovery is not a priority for the Duterte administration as only a tiny fraction of the 2021 budget will be allocated for health.

A Catholic vision of health care promotes “[a] healthcare system… rooted in values that respect human dignity, protect human life, respect the principle of subsidiarity, and meet the needs of the poor and uninsured, especially the unborn children, pregnant women, immigrants, and other vulnerable populations.” (United States Conference of the Catholic Bishop, “Forming consciences for faithful citizenship”). The growing inequality in health care is due in part to the State’s abandonment of duty to protect and provide adequate health services. In a time where the county is hit by the worst health crisis and economic meltdown, the country needs to prioritize health and social assistance to the most vulnerable sectors of society. Amid economic hardships and massive unemployment, the poor needed not only charity but also justice.

Signed:

Fraternity and social friendship are the ways the Pontiff indicates to build a better, more just and peaceful world, with the contribution of all: people and institutions. With an emphatic confirmation of a ‘no’ to war and to globalized indifference.

By Isabella Piro

What are the great ideals but also the tangible ways to advance for those who wish to build a more just and fraternal world in their ordinary relationships, in social life, politics and institutions?

This is mainly the question that Fratelli tutti is intended to answer: the Pope describes it as a “Social Encyclical” (6) which borrows the title of the “Admonitions” of Saint Francis of Assisi, who used these words to “address his brothers and sisters and proposed to them a way of life marked by the flavour of the Gospel” (Par 1). The Encyclical aims to promote a universal aspiration toward fraternity and social friendship. In the background of the Encyclical is the Covid-19 pandemic which, Francis reveals, “unexpectedly erupted” as he “was writing this letter”. But the global health emergency has helped demonstrate that “no one can face life in isolation” and that the time has truly come to “dream, then, as a single human family” in which we are “brothers and sisters all” (Par 8).

Looking at others as brothers and sisters to save ourselves and the world

Chapter One: dark clouds cover the world

In the first of eight chapters, which is entitled “Dark Clouds over a Closed World”, the document reflects on the many distortions of the contemporary era: the manipulation and deformation of concepts such as democracy, freedom, justice; the loss of the meaning of the social community and history; selfishness and indifference toward the common good; the prevalence of a market logic based on profit and the culture of waste; unemployment, racism, poverty; the disparity of rights and its aberrations such as slavery, trafficking, women subjugated and then forced to abort, organ trafficking (see Par 10-24). It deals with global problems that call for global actions, emphasizes the Pope, also sounding the alarm against a “culture of walls” that favours the proliferation of organized crime, fuelled by fear and loneliness (see Par 27-28).

Chapter Two: strangers on the road

To many shadows, however, the Encyclical responds with a luminous example, a herald of hope: the Good Samaritan. The second chapter, “A stranger on the road”, is dedicated to this figure. In it, the Pope emphasizes that, in  an unhealthy society that turns its back on suffering and that is “illiterate” in caring for the frail and vulnerable (see Par 64-65), we are all called – just like the Good Samaritan – to become neighbours to others (see Par 81), overcoming prejudices, personal interests, historic and cultural barriers. We all, in fact, are co-responsible in creating a society that is able to include, integrate and lift up those who have fallen or are suffering (see Par 77). Love builds bridges and “we were made for love” (Par 88), the Pope adds, particularly exhorting Christians to recognize Christ in the face of every excluded person (see Par 85).

Chapter Three: vision of an open world

The principle of the capacity to love according to “a universal dimension” (see Par 83) is also resumed in the third chapter, “Envisaging and engendering an open world”. In this chapter Francis exhorts us to go “‘outside’ the self” in order to find “a fuller existence in another” (Par 88), opening ourselves up to the other according to the dynamism of charity which makes us tend toward “universal fulfilment” (Par 95). In the background – the Encyclical recalls – the spiritual stature of a person’s life is measured by love, which always “takes first place” and leads us to seek better for the life of the other, far from all selfishness (Par 92-93). The sense of solidarity and of fraternity begin within the family, which are to be safeguarded and respected in their “primary and vital mission of education” (Par 114).

Laiko online conversation on Fratelli Tutti on October 17, 2020, 2:00 – 4:00 PM, via Zoom, with Fr. Amado Picardal, CSsR, STD, a Redemptorist Priest, who is now in the Vatican serving as Co-Secretary at the JPIC ROMA.

October 10, 2020, 2-4 PM. via Zoom.

The speaker-sharer is Fr. Dominic Derramas, from the Diocese of Bacolod, who is currently a Student-Priest at the Collegio Filippino in Rome Italy. He spoke about CARLO ACUTIS-THE 1ST MILLENIAL BLESSED. It is hoped that this conversation will inspire and prepare young saints in this generation.

Held in Paul VI Hall
The text was provided by the Vatican.

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

As we read the Bible, we continually come across prayers of various types. But we also find a book made up solely of prayers, a book that has become the native land, gymnasium and home of countless men and women of prayer. It is the Book of Psalms. There are 150 Psalms to pray.

It forms part of the books of wisdom because it communicates “knowing how to pray” through the experience of dialogue with God. In the Psalms, we find all human sentiments: the joys, the sorrows, the doubts, the hopes, the bitterness that color our lives. The Catechism affirms that every Psalm “possesses such direct simplicity that it can be prayed in truth by men of all times and conditions” (CCC, 2588). As we read and reread the Psalms, we learn the language of prayer. God the Father, indeed, with His Spirit, inspired them in the heart of King David and others who prayed, in order to teach every man and woman how to praise Him, how to thank Him and to supplicate; how to invoke Him in joy and in suffering, and how to recount the wonders of His works and of His Law. In short, the Psalms are the word of God that we human beings use to speak with Him.

In this book, we do not encounter ethereal people, abstract people, those who confuse prayer with an aesthetic or alienating experience. The Psalms are not texts created on paper; they are invocations, often dramatic, that spring from lived existence. To pray them it is enough for us to be what we are. We must not forget that to pray well we must pray as we are, without embellishment. One must not embellish the soul to pray. “Lord, I am like this”, and go in front of the Lord as we are, with the good things and also with the bad things that no-one knows about, but that we inwardly know. In the Psalms, we hear the voices of men and women of prayer in flesh and blood, whose life, like that of us all, is fraught with problems, hardships, and uncertainties. The Psalmist does not radically contest this suffering: he knows that it is part of living. In the Psalms, however, suffering is transformed into a question. From suffering to questioning.

And among the many questions, there is one that remains suspended, like an incessant cry that runs throughout the entire book from beginning to end. A question that we repeat many times: “Until when, Lord? Until when?” Every suffering calls for liberation, every tear calls for consolation, every wound awaits healing, every slander a sentence of absolution. “Until when, Lord, must I suffer this? Listen to me, Lord!” How many times we have prayed like this, with “Until when?”, enough now, Lord!

By constantly asking such questions, the Psalms teach us not to get used to pain, and remind us that life is not saved unless it is healed. The existence of each human being is but a breath, his or her story is fleeting, but the prayerful know that they are precious in the eyes of God, and so it makes sense to cry out. And this is important. When we pray, we do so because we know we are precious in God’s eyes. It is the grace of the Holy Spirit that, from within, inspires in us this awareness: of being precious in the eyes of God. And this is why we are moved to pray.

The prayer of the Psalms is the testimony of this cry: a multiple cry, because in life pain takes a thousand forms, and takes the name of sickness, hatred, war, persecution, distrust… Until the supreme “scandal”, that of death. Death appears in the Psalter as man’s most unreasonable enemy: what crime deserves such cruel punishment, which involves annihilation and the end? The prayer of the Psalms asks God to intervene where all human efforts are in vain. That is why prayer, in and of itself, is the way of salvation and the beginning of salvation.

Everyone suffers in this world: whether they believe in God or reject Him. But in the Psalter, pain becomes a relationship, rapport: a cry for help waiting to intercept a listening ear. It cannot remain meaningless, without purpose. Even the pains we suffer cannot be merely specific cases of a universal law: they are always “my” tears,. Think about this: tears are not universal, they are “my” tears. Everyone has their own. “My” tears and “my” pain drive me to go ahead in prayer. They are “my” tears, that no one has ever shed before me. Yes, they have wept, many. But “my” tears are mine, “My” pain is my own, “my” suffering is my own.

Before entering the Hall, I met the parents of that priest of the diocese of Como who was killed: he was killed precisely in his service to others. The tears of those parents are their own tears, and each one of them knows how much he or she has suffered in seeing this son who gave his life in service to the poor. When we want to console somebody, we cannot find the words. Why? Because we cannot arrive at his or her pain, because her sorrows are her own, his tears are his own. The same is true of us: the tears, the sorrow, the tears are mine, and with these tears, with this sorrow, I turn to the Lord.

All human pains for God are sacred. So prays the prayer of Psalm 56: “Thou hast kept count of my tossings; put thou my tears in thy bottle! Are they not in thy book?” (v. 9). Before God, we are not strangers or numbers. We are faces and hearts, known one by one, by name.

In the Psalms, the believer finds an answer. He knows that even if all human doors were barred, God’s door is open. Even if the whole world had issued a verdict of condemnation, there is salvation in God.

“The Lord listens”: sometimes in prayer it is enough to know this. Problems are not always solved. Those who pray are not deluded: they know that many questions of life down here remain unresolved, with no way out; suffering will accompany us and, after one battle, others will await us. But if we are listened to, everything becomes more bearable.

The worst thing that can happen is to suffer in abandonment, without being remembered. From this prayer saves us. Because it can happen, and even often, that we do not understand God’s plans. But our cries do not stagnate down here: they rise up to Him, He who has the heart of a Father, and who cries Himself for every son and daughter who suffers and dies. I will tell you something: it is good for me, in difficult moments, to think of Jesus weeping; when He wept looking at Jerusalem when He wept before Lazarus’ tomb. God has wept for me, God weeps, He weeps for our sorrows. Because God wanted to make Himself man – a spiritual writer used to say – in order to be able to weep. To think that Jesus weeps with me in sorrow is a consolation: it helps us keep going. If we maintain our relationship with Him, life does not spare us suffering, but we open up to a great horizon of goodness and set out towards its fulfillment. Take courage, persevere in prayer. Jesus is always by our side.