Category: News

Cardinal Bo’s Homily for the Feast of Our Lady of Assumption

August 14, 2020 10:34
Cardinal Charles Bo | Local Church

Cardinal Charles Maung Bo., SDB, is Archbishop of Yangon, Myanmar, and President Federation of the Asian Bishops Conference.

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The Feast of Our Lady of Assumption

Mary’s Magnificat – Her search for the vaccine of Justice ( Sermon Preached by Cardinal Charles Maung Bo., Archbishop of Yangon-Myanmar)

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1st Reading:     Revelation 12: 1-6
2nd Reading:   1 Corinthians 15: 20-26
Gospel: Luke    1: 39 – 56 (Magnificat)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Happy Feast of Assumption

Today we gather to celebrate the greatness of our Lady.

Mary the maiden from Nazareth was raised to the pinnacle of glory today. The human family joins her in her blessings.   She is celebrated by the great English poet as ‘our tainted nature’s solitary boast;

Woman! above all women glorified,
Our tainted nature’s solitary boast;
Purer than foam on central ocean tossed;
Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn
-The Virgin-

At the end of her earthly life, she was assumed body and soul into heaven. It was indeed fitting that no decay would touch her body because she had given birth to Jesus – the Lord of yesterday, today and tomorrow – and also because she was sinless. She was immaculately conceived and remained sinless throughout her life. Death is the result of sin as Scripture tells us (Rom 6:23) so therefore she was assumed body and soul to heaven at the end of her earthly life.

One of the titles we give to our Lady is Ark of the Covenant and our first reading opens with John’s vision of heaven in which he sees something which would startle his contemporaries – he sees the Ark of the Covenant and he sees:

“A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars…” (Rev 12:1)

The woman in John’s vision was pregnant and giving birth to a male child and at the same time a dragon was waiting to harm the child but both the mother and child were spared by divine intervention.   We can understand this vision of John as Israel in the Old Testament giving birth to the Church in the New Testament and the dragon is the evil forces trying to destroy the Church.

This feast comes amidst the ravages of a pandemic.   The pandemic is the dragon waiting to destroy lives.   We stretch our hands to Our Mother today to save us.  As the COVID started its menacing dance of death, Pope Francis offered the human family to the protection of Our Mother.   Let our Mother whose body was taken without any damage totally to heaven, intercede with the Living God, to protect all of us.  Let all the bodies which are invaded by the virus be touched by the prayer of our Immaculate Mother.  Let the Mother who stood at the foot of the Cross, stand with our brothers and sisters, the front-line health workers and bless him.   The mother who urged her Son to change water into life-giving Wine in the marriage at Cana, made him touch the blood of millions of affected people, cleanse their blood

We are glad that as Catholics we have a Mother who intercedes for us.

We pity those non-Catholic Christians who chose to devalue Mary, who was extolled by Elizabeth as ‘mother of My Savior.’   Mary is humanity’s eternal interceder.

This feast reminds the world, the role played by the woman in salvation.   The Bible shows God works wonders through women:   the power of God is expressed through women, very special women, women who were neglected or ridiculed by the society, like old Sara and Hannah who could not have a child.  God intervenes in their life to continue the liberation of Israel.

In the Old Testament, barren women were blessed by God as a sign of his blessing of Israel.   In the New Testament, it is not the barren woman, but a virgin. In the life of the Virgin, Mary God intervenes to bring Savior to the world.  Mary is an integral part of Salvation history.  Denying Mary is denying the Bible, Denying Mary is denying the mission of Jesus.   Rejecting Mary is the rejection of the central message of the Bible.  It is rejecting the message of Yahweh who told the shepherd Moses: “I heard the cry of my suffering people, the slaves of Egypt.”

Today’s Gospel tells us the great mission proclamation by Mary through her Magnificat.  Today’s feast reminds us of those who struggle for the salvation of the world ‘never die’ but become part of God’s family.  Mary lives today.  When Jesus offered Mary to John as ‘Behold your mother,’ he offered to humanity for its salvific work, which continues today.

The Bible is a glorious story of God as Justice, God who takes sides with the suffering people, the God who hears the cry of his people (Exodus 3).

This God will establish his Kingdom through the lives of two sterile women in the Old Testament:  Sarah and Hannah.    After four centuries of spiritual darkness and moral decadence that had left the social fabric of Israel torn to shreds, Israel had become a nation in desperate need of change. The surprising instrument of change was Hannah, whose barrenness was symbolic of the nation’s spiritual state.

The Old Testament God is a God of Justice.  God who takes side with the suffering people.  This message of salvation comes through the barren women like Hannah. She articulates this message through her Song:

The Lord makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and lifts. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap, to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory.  (1 Samuel 2: 1-10)

Hannah for the Old Testament, but for the New Testament, it is Mary. Mary’s Magnificat sounds like the Magna Carta of human liberation

Encouraging Dialogue, FABC President Underscores States Are Entitled to Arm & Defend Themselves ‘But Democracy’s Greatest Weapons Are Influential Tools of Reconciliation & Justice’

ZENIT| August 13, 2020 11:01 
Deborah Castellano Lubov | Features

“We can reverse a history of betrayal,” says Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon, Myanmar, noting dialogue is of the essence.

The President of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) underscored this in an Aug. 15 statement of encouragement which His Eminence has provided to ZENIT English.

Myanmar is emerging from decades of military rule after Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won the 2015 elections and subsequently took office.

The Muslim minority of the Rohingyas is considered by the UN to be one of the most persecuted. According to data from the Arakan Project, a humanitarian organization defending Rohingyas rights, since 2010, some 100,000 members of the minority have fled Burma (Myanmar) by sea. Violence between radical Buddhists and Rohingyas has left, since 2012, more than 200 dead and 140,000 displaced.

Longing for Peace

Beginning with “warm greetings of peace” in his Aug. 15 message, the Cardinal expressed his earnest prayers, together with my fellow religious leaders of Myanmar, for successful, tangible outcomes from the 21st Century Panglong Conference.

“We join you in longing for peace. Peace is our destiny. With you we commit to achieve it,” he said.

Noting they have gathered to honor the memory of General Aung San and the martyrs who dreamed of a new, united nation after “the wreckage of invasion and colonialism,” the Asian prelate reminded that their vision was to build on “the fertile, life giving differences among us, and so shape a proud, united people.”

“We honor their sacrifice,” he said, “by humbly committing to union as a nation.”

Their “cruel assassination” 73 years ago, he lamented, marked the beginnings of decades of divisions, conflict and darkness for our people – the very opposite of their lofty vision.  “That act of treachery began a merciless epoch with brothers and sisters pitted against one another needlessly. We weep for our loss as a nation,” he said.

With positivity, Cardinal Bo suggested: “We can reverse this history of betrayal.”

The current Covid-19 pandemic, he said, exposes “the folly” of continued conflict anywhere, noting that only through unity, the virus will be overcome.

The President of Asia’s bishops reminded that the United Nations Secretary General and Pope Francis passionately plead that all conflicts be suspended so that a greater, common enemy is defeated.

No Path Other Than Dialogue

Being unified, the Cardinal stressed, can enable the nation to be rebuilt after the socioeconomic, environmental and medical wreckage of the global pandemic.

In the aftermath of this Covid-19 pandemic and his nation’s history, Cardinal Bo asked: “what do we need to do that can truly transform our relationships, among people, with nature, and with the source of all being?”

By CBCP News | August 13, 2020
Manila, Philippines

Caritas Philippines has called for “justice and accountability” in the public health sector amid allegations of top-level corruption within state insurer Philippine Health Insurance Corp.

Its head, Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo of Kidapawan, said that corruption is widespread because the corrupt continue to get away with it.

“We are in solidarity with all the sectors calling for the suspension of these officials to give way to an independent investigation of the graft allegations,” Bagaforo said.

The bishop called on authorities “to uncover the truth, serve justice and let everyone involved be accountable.”

He made the statement Thursday as some ranking PhilHealth officials face investigation over P15 billion fraud allegations.

The prelate lamented that some health officials can afford to mess around despite the coronavirus pandemic.

He asked the government to have more stringent measures to detect corruption “before events like this escalate and pose bigger threats to public health delivery”.

“The public cannot always be at the receiving end of corruption in the government,” Bagaforo said.

“It is utterly devastating that cases of this scale and magnitude can prevail in public offices where accountability should have been the primary measure of moral aptitude,” he added.

This is also true with Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, according to him.

He stressed that the public health crisis due to Covid-19 has escalated in ways that could have been mitigated “had we acted with enough foresight and unbiased judgements”.

“Now we are not only cramming to prevent a virus from spreading full blown. We also needed to triple our efforts to address social injustice,” he added.

The Church’s social action arm has helped more than five million poor Filipinos during the pandemic through various forms of assistance such as food, hospital equipment and cash assistance.

Most dioceses, religious congregations and seminaries have also transformed their facilities to house medical frontliners, homeless families and as quarantine facilities.

Fr. Elias L. Ayuban, Jr., CMF
August 13, 2020
Manila, Philippines

I used to admire Manny Pacquiao when he was still Manny the boxer, not the “biblical scholar”. I remember when he knocked Eric Morales down, my brother priest who came with me to SM North Cinema to witness the fight, suddenly embraced me. Overwhelmed with joy myself, I embraced him back. Meanwhile, I wondered when was the last time we celebrated that way. When the bout was over, we were greeting the people around us and giving exuberant high five as if we were already friends for a long time. Manny taught us how to celebrate in a more intimate way and brought strangers a little bit closer, albeit only momentarily.

What impressed me most, though, was the way he promoted our faith through symbols and gestures before and after every event: the rosary hanging around his neck, the repeated signs of the cross and the silent prayer on his corner, now converted into a “chapel”, that seemed more powerful than any Sunday sermon. He was not only a boxer; he was an evangelizer in his own right, promoting the devotion to Mama Mary and demonstrating how to be magnanimous in victory. For me, he epitomized the Filipino spirit: faith and resilience rolled into one.

But he suddenly changed. He now appeals to the Scriptures to pursue his cause. However, everything that is written in the Old and New Testaments should be understood and interpreted from the optic of Jesus Christ. He is the definitive revealer of God the Father so that if Jesus did not approve the capital punishment of the woman caught in adultery through lapidation (Jn. 8:1-11), there is no way that we can use the name of God to legitimize the death penalty. As simple as that!

On May 11, 2018, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis declared the death penalty unacceptable in all cases and thus modifying number 2267 of the Catechism. Before, Church doctrine accepted the death penalty if it was “the only practicable way” to defend lives against unjust aggressors. According to the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, SJ, the new formulation of the Catechism expresses “an authentic development of doctrine that is not in contradiction with the prior teachings of the Magisterium.”

The Prefect clarifies, “Today, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state.” He adds that “there are more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.” It is for this reason that the Church teaches that the practice is now inadmissible.

August 22, 2020
Dear Bothers & Sisters,

We wish to inform you that our Online Conversation for this afternoon has been cancelled.

Our resource speaker became very busy on the Senate hearings and the preparation of the evidences.

Our apology. We will inform you on the schedule of our next conversation.

Thank you. God bless!

LAIKO Secretariat

August 17, 2020

Dear Brothers & Sisters:

The peace and love of the Lord!

As we continue with our journey of faith through our online conversations on pressing social issues, we would like everyone to be enlightened on the PhilHealth case that besieges our health care system today.

With this, we are pleased to invite you once again to a “SHEMA” Listen and Do Conversations IV: “The PhilHealth Issue“ on August 22, 2020, 2pm to 4:00 p.m., via zoom. We have invited ATTY. THORSSON KEITH, former Fraud Officer of PhilHealth to enlighten us on the controversies surrounding our health care system that triggered his resignation.

Please invite the members of your organizations, your family members and friends. Kindly register by sending an email to: laiko_phils@yahoo.com.ph indicating your name & organization on or before August 21, 2020.

Thank you. Our prayers for everyone’s safety.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

August 18, 2020

The National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) welcomes the decision of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to resume the registration of voters for the 2022 elections on September 1 nationwide, except in areas under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) or Modified ECQ. NAMFREL also commends the COMELEC for taking steps to implement anti-COVID precautions, like preventing symptomatic applicants from entering Comelec premises, ensuring physical distancing, requiring applicants to wear face masks and face shields, and encouraging applicants to bring their own pens.

In a press release on August 15, the Comelec said that they are “encouraging applicants to download the application forms from www.comelec.gov.ph,” and “strongly recommended that downloaded forms be filled out before going to the COMELEC office for registration.” NAMFREL believes that the COMELEC could improve the upcoming registration process by implementing elements of their previous iRehistro system, previously offered to OFWs, and expanding them nationwide.

Online submission of requirements

NAMFREL believes that Comelec could take the anti-COVID precautions further by making it a requirement to download and accomplish the forms, and for the applicants to bring their own writing materials, instead of being merely recommendations. The Comelec could also take the precautions even further, by exploring the possibility of digitally transforming the registration process, by allowing a voter registrant, using any electronic device like a laptop, tablet, or smartphone, to fill out a registration form online and submit the same electronically to the Comelec.

Appointment system

To further prevent the crowding of people at Comelec offices, NAMFREL further urges the COMELEC to implement an online appointment system during the submission of requirements. As has been observed in previous registration activities at the Comelec offices or even in satellite registration locations, the Comelec can only accept a finite number of applications a day. An appointment system will help ensure that registrants would come to their respective Comelec offices only on the appointed day and time that they can be served. An online appointment system would not be new to Filipinos, as this is the kind of system being used in securing appointments for processing of passports and NBI clearances, among others.

Released on August 15, 2020
Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

We, the Missionary Families of Christ, reject in every way, the proposed re-imposition of the Death Penalty in our country. We are against the Culture of Death and commit to defend faith, family and life. We are against the Death Penalty because:

1. The death penalty disregards the inherent dignity of the human person.

“Where life is involved, the service of charity must be profoundly consistent. It cannot tolerate bias and discrimination, for human life is sacred and inviolable at every stage and in every situation; it is an indivisible good. We need then to show care for all life and for the life of everyone.” (Evangelium Vitae, 87)

2. The death penalty affects those living in poverty.

Based on statistical evidence, the death penalty tilts more against the poor. There is real and imminent danger of convicting the innocent. Our imperfect criminal justice system can put to death innocent persons and as such, is cruel and inhuman. Instead, we should intensify our work to help uplift the lives of the families who live below the poverty line through various moral and life-giving material interventions.

3. The death penalty does not make society safer.

Heinous crimes such as rape and drug-related cases cannot be prevented because of death penalty. In 2015, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty says that death penalty does not solve the world drug problem.

Also in 2015, Stanford University Professor of Law, John J. Donohue III, JD, PhD said in his article dated August 8, 2015 that, “[T]here is not the slightest credible statistical evidence that capital punishment reduces the rate of homicide.” He goes on further to state that “[t]he best econometric studies reach the same conclusion…there is no detectable effect of capital punishment on crime.”

Bloodless methods of deterrence and punishment are preferred as “they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person. (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 405)

It is our individual responsibility to exert effort in transforming society and the collective responsibility of our leaders to create measures and policies that uphold human dignity and promote and protect the quality of life.

As members of the Missionary Families of Christ, we will work together to uphold the beauty and sanctity of life and to encourage families to oppose the legalization of the death penalty in our country. We are in solidarity with the Catholic Church in defending the sacredness and inviolability of human life.

Let us create laws that can save lives.

The new evangelization calls for followers of Christ who are unconditionally pro-life: who will proclaim, celebrate and serve the Gospel of life in every situation. A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. . . . I renew the appeal I made . . . for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary.

— Pope John Paul II Papal Mass, St. Louis, Missouri, January 27, 1999

Resources:

– https://catholicsmobilizing.org/catholic-social-teaching-death-penalty

– http://www.worldcoalition.org/media/resourcecenter/2015WD-LeafletEN.pdf

– https://deathpenalty.procon.org/questions/does-the-death-penalty-deter-crime/

– CFC-FFL Position Against the Re-imposition of the Death Penalty (March 2017)

– Upholding the Dignity of the Human Person Today, Live Life Blog (July 2020)

August 12, 2020

To: All Laiko Members: Arch/Diocesan Councils of the Laity & National Lay Organizations

Dear Brothers & Sisters,

We have just released a Statement expressing our strong opposition to the Death Penalty Bill being considered in Congress. A copy of which has been sent to you yesterday. We urge the Heads of member organizations to disseminate this to your respective members and encourage each to make your own statement in support of our united stand for Life.

The following are concrete ways you may consider to make our position be heard:

1.      Make banners with messages to express our stand and place them in our group’s offices/centers or if possible, even in our homes;

2.      Encourage your members to write / visit the Senators and their Congressmen to express our strong opposition to the Death Penalty;

3.      Encourage everyone to participate in fora or other activities where this issue will be discussed;

4.      Watch and share with your constituents / members the webinar on Death Penalty given by CHR Commissioner Karen Dumpit last August 8, 2020 and all the other webinars on societal issues sponsored by LAIKO. They are all posted at the Facebook page of Laiko & CBCP News;

5.      Visit the Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas Website (cbcplaiko.org) and FB page as well as the CBCP News FB page for updates;

6.      Pray! Pray! And Pray!  Let us redouble our prayers so that our legislators will be enlightened and listen to the voice of God and the majority of the Filipino people.

WE MUST MAKE A STAND FOR LIFE!

“CHOOSE LIFE …THAT YOU AND YOUR DESCENDANTS MAY LIVE.”(Deuteronomy 30:19)

Sincerely yours in the service of the Lord,

Noted by:

+MOST REV. BRODERICK S. PABILLO, D.D.
Chairman, CBCP Episcopal Commission on the Laity

Restorative, Rehabilitative and with Access to Effective Legal Representation

The Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas laments and decries the actuations of our elected lawmakers in calling back from its grave the death penalty proposals. 

We urge you to remove the blinders that prevent you from seeing that death penalty is an offense ‘against the inviolability of life and the dignity of the human person.’ Its reimposition will single out for punishment the most vulnerable sectors of society who have no means to defend themselves. Moreover, as a country, our failure to honor our commitment, with the International Community, not to bring back death penalty, will not only put us in a bad light but lose their respect as well.

We would rather that you focus your attention on:

•          how to combat the effects of COVID-19 through a comprehensive program for the health and safety of your constituents; 

•          the speedy enactment of laws that will reform our judicial and correctional systems and;

•          how to stop the flagrant reality of graft and corruption.  

SHEMA! Listen and heed the words of some of our greatest Presidents:

“Those who have less in life must have more in law” (President Ramon Magsaysay)

“Respect for basic human rights must continue to be one of our prime concerns. We must live up to our pledge to act as guardians of the dignity and worth of the individual.” (President Manuel L. Quezon)

We Must Stand for Life! Let us Choose Life!

For the Laiko Board of Directors,