Category: Uncategorized

Clarifications to ‘Come Una Madre Amorevole’ and Office to Handle Abuse Being Examined

February 28, 2019 09:46 Deborah Castellano Lubov

We need to develop certain aspects of the Pope’s 2016 Motu Proprio Come una Madre Amorevole ….

An office to manage protection of minors, not the same as the current Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, is being considered…

Both these points were confirmed to ZENIT by Archbishop Charles Scicluna, president of the Maltese Bishops’ Conference, the Pope’s entrusted reformer in combatting and investigating sex abuse, and one of the four organizers of the recent Summit on the Protection of Minor’s in the Church in the Vatican, Feb. 21-24, and Archbishop of Mumbai, India, Cardinal Oswald Gracias, who is also one of the four prelates who have organized the encounter, a papal advisor and President of the Bishops’ Conference of India.

The comments were made at the Augustinianum, Feb. 24, during the final press conference of the meeting to combat sex abuse, convened by the Pope, which brought together the presidents of the world’s bishops conferences and other representatives in the Church and in religious life.

The speakers, along with Cardinal Gracias and Archbishop Scicluna, who also is an adjunct secretary in the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, included Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., president of the Joseph Ratzinger – Benedetto XVI Vatican Foundation, moderator of the meeting; Fr. Hans Zollner, S.J., president of the Centre for the Protection of Minors of the Pontifical Gregorian University, member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, part of the Organizing Committee; Mexican journalist Valentina Alazraki who had given an intervention at the summit; Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of Vatican’s Dicastery for Communications; and Alessandro Gisotti, Director ‘ad interim’ of the Holy See Press Office.

Each day began with prayer, then two interventions in the morning, another in the afternoon, each followed with a question and answer session, and then working groups based on language. Some highlights of these days were the Penitential Liturgy on Saturday afternoon and the Mass on Sunday morning. The Pope, following Sunday’s Mass and before the Angelus at noon, gave a concluding speech, where he called for an “all out battle” against abuse, stressing it must be eradicated. He said that where even one case of abuse should emerge, “it would be treated with the utmost seriousness.” He also decried cover up. Three immediate actions, among others still being considered, include a new motu proprio on abuse for the Vatican City State, a rule book provided by the CDF to provide bishops with an easy Q & A on how to handle various situations, and task forces for places without resources or adequate understanding.

Some victims, male and female, were present during moments of evening prayer and they gave testimonies. The organizers met some victims ahead of the conference.

The speakers have reminded during and before the Summit that there are already strong guidelines and protocols in place, for zero tolerance of sexual abuse toward minors and toward negligence of Bishops in Pope Francis’ 2016 Motu Proprio ‘Like a Loving Mother.’

A press conference on the Rice Trade Liberalization Law will be held on March 5, 2019, 9:30am-12pm at Max’s Restaurant, Quezon City Circle.

Below is the press statement of the Alliance of Rice Farmers Against Rice Tariffication  and participating organizations.

We, from various national farmer organizations, civil society groups, and food sovereignty advocates oppose the anti-farmer law. This law titled “RA 11203: An Act Liberalizing the Importation, Exportation and Trading of Rice, Lifting for the Purpose the Quantitative Import Restriction on Rice,” is not the solution to the ongoing rice crisis. This law favors the business interests of rice importers and suspected rice smugglers over poor rice farmers. This piece of legislation abandons the State’s capability to regulate rice importation. NFA is limited to maintaining buffer stock for an emergency situation and disaster relief. NFA functions such as registration, licensing and supervision of importers and all other grains businesses are removed. RA 11203 hands over regulation of rice importation to traders and importers. This is another form of legalizing rice cartel! Where does government figure in this setup? Think about this: Whatever rice production gains achieved in 2017 and in previous production years will be put to waste with tarrification without state support. Rice tarrification runs opposite to what rice farmers and other food security advocates campaigned for to level the playing field against rice importation. Its principal author, Sen. Cynthia Villar, must have thought that this law would make rice affordable to Filipinos along with improving local rice production. But the truth is that it will neither make rice cheap nor succeed in making local rice farming viable and productive. Here’s why: The bill liberalizes rice importation by the private sector without any restrictions. This means big corporations (San Miguel Corporation for example) can import rice freely at unlimited volumes and without applying for any license except a routine permit from the Bureau of Plant Industry. Corporations can now import as much as two million tons. So far, at least 180 corporations all over the Philippines have expressed interest to enlist as importers! Aside from that glaring oversight, the budget allocated for rice farmers is sorely insignificant? Take for example the lack of crop insurance for their produce, vital safety net measure for rice farmers. The law ensures the full mechanization of the rice production industry which will result in massive displacement of rice farmers and farm workers. Yet, half of the proposed Php 10 billion rice fund will be allocated for rice mechanization!

Mechanization aside, the government ignores a bleak reality: The staggeringly high prevalence of bankruptcy among rice farmers (baon sa utang ang karamihan ng magsasaka sa palay!). By penning this law, Sen. Villar ensures the death of the rice industry! Pres. Duterte should review and junk this law and in its place, draft another measure that represents the interest of rice farmers and producers, consumers not only the interest of importers.

A plea to the government and the NFA for transparency: Release the list of 180 corporations who plan to import rice.

Alliance of Rice Farmers Against Rice Tariffication
Participating Organizations:
Pambansang Kilusan Kababaihan sa Kanayunan (PKKK)
Centro Saka, Rights Watch, PKSK
Save Agrarian Reform Alliance
Integrated Rural Development Foundation
Pambansang Kilusan ng Magbubukid sa Pilipinas
DKmp (Ka Jimmy Tadeo)
National Movement for Food Sovereignty (NMFS)
Kilusan para sa Repormang Agraryo at Kataturungan Panlipunan (KATARUNGAN)
Rice Watch Action Network
Federation of Free Farmers

Rappler
Paterno Esmaquel II @paterno_ii
Published 6:30 PM, January 15, 2019
Updated 6:40 PM, January 15, 2019

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Tuesday, January 15, that it “can give no assurances” on the safety of “some data” related to Philippine passports, as a passport data controversy hounds the agency.

“Only a Senate investigation will assure the public that there was no breach or loss of data. Until then, the Department can give no assurances on the safety and security of some data,” said Foreign Secretary Teodoro “Teddyboy” Locsin Jr.

This was the first formal statement of Locsin since the controversy erupted. Locsin has made most of his pronouncements through Twitter.

“For now, the Department of Foreign Affairs is taking the word of APO Production Unit that there is no breach in passport data and as sufficient justification in removing the birth certificate requirement in the renewal of passports,” Locsin said.

Locsin said earlier on Tuesday that there is no runaway of passport data as he earlier claimed.

On the same day, he scrapped the birth certificate requirement for passport renewals, in response to public complaints against the DFA’s services.

The reported loss of passport data, which came from Locsin himself, ignited a firestorm in a country still reeling from a data leak that involved 70 million voters’ records in 2016. Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said this is a “serious and grave matter,” while Vice President Leni Robredo and senators called for an investigation into the passport data mess. (READ: Senate probe sought into DFA passport data loss) – Rappler.com

Fr. Shay Cullen
17 October 2018

He was born the son of poor farm workers and he grew up hungry and deprived and he was like the millions of poor who don’t know the root causes of their rural poverty. The poor struggle to overcome those sufferings and hardships as they bury the pain within them and strive to forget and survive and find a better world for themselves and their children.

The corrupt leaders of family dynasties are the oppressors of the poor. They have always lived in sumptuous luxury and ignore the deprivations of the poor. The poor are the wretched of the earth. Oscar Romero was one of them. His parents saw the only chance for him to have an education and escape poverty was to send him to the seminary to be a priest in El Salvador. This is what Oscar Romero said about himself:

“I was born into a poor family. I’ve suffered hunger. I know what it’s like to work from the time you’re a little kid … When I went to the seminary and started my studies, and they sent me to finish studying here in Rome, I spent years and years absorbed in my books, and I started to forget where I came from. I started creating another world. When I went back to El Salvador, they made me the bishop’s secretary in San Miguel. I was a parish priest there for 23 years, but I was still buried in paperwork. . .”

As secretary to the bishop, he never met poor people or saw the reality of life in the cities or countryside. He had suppressed the childhood memories of pain and hunger. He became an archconservative. He was considered a safe traditional priest who would disturb no one and he was recommended by the Papal Nuncio to be made a bishop. When he was assigned as bishop to the rural diocese of Santiago De Maria, he was exposed to the world of poverty and military and police oppression of the poor.

“. . .Then they sent me to Santiago de María, and I ran into extreme poverty again. Those children that were dying just because of the water they were drinking, those campesinos killing themselves in the harvests,” he said.
There was a massacre of peasant farmers in the village of Tres Calles that truly shocked him. He protested the killings to the president in a letter, who at the time was Col. Arturo Molina, who headed a military dictatorship. He lives on as a mass killer in historical disgrace and shame.

Bishop Romero wrote to the president: “. . . the way in which a “security force” had wrongfully acted, as if it had the right to mistreat and kill. … [I went there] to console the families that had been attacked … by a squad of National Guardsmen. On the way to their homes, I stopped to pray by the body of a still-unburied victim who had been shot in the head. His wife and mother were beside him, weeping. When I arrived at the houses that had been invaded by the armed forces, it broke my heart to hear the bitter laments of the widows and orphans who, sobbing inconsolably, told me about the attack.”

It was then that his conscience and awareness of social truth began to slowly awaken. He came back to the capital and was still considered a very conservative bishop and was chosen to be elevated as archbishop of El Salvador. Most of the progressive, socially committed clergy and Catholics were shocked and disgusted. They were unaware that Archbishop Romero was growing in knowledge of social teaching of the gospel. He was evolving as he said and he was beginning to apply it practically. He reconciled with the socially progressive Jesuit priests who he had previously criticized and asked them to start a diocesan radio program on human rights. He was realizing the extent of the human rights violations by the military that were oppressing the poor.

When his best friend Fr. Rutilio Grande was brutally murdered by the military, it propelled him to speak out all the more forcefully against the killing of the poor and the defenseless. His conversion was complete. He had changed from a conservative to an activist archbishop. He spoke to protect the priests and religious and church lay workers who were falsely branded and marked as communists and subversives plotting to overthrow the government. Several priests and sisters were murdered, which was a warning and threat to all the people and a ploy to justify the militarization of the country and maintain the rule of the elites and landlords.

Archbishop Oscar Romero was now the voice of the voiceless and he preached justice, spoke out against murder and killing, taught the sacredness of life and the rights of the people. He stood against the aggression, violence, and murder that were all around El Salvador. He received death threats but ignored them. In one powerful homily that was broadcast, he told the police and soldiers they should not obey unjust orders to kill.

“Before an order to kill that a man may give, God’s law must prevail: Thou shalt not kill! No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. . .It is time to obey your consciences rather than the orders of sin. In the name of God, therefore, and in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I beg you, I beseech you, I order you in the name of God: Stop the repression!”

Two days later when he was celebrating Holy Mass, an assassin shot him dead as he held up the sacred cup. He died for his faith and last week Pope Francis declared him a martyr and a saint.
www.preda.org

September start due to businessmen who want to exploit Filipino culture, bishop says

Vendors have started selling traditional Christmas lanterns in Manila as early as September. (Photo by Bernice Beltran)

Mark Saludes, Manila Philippines
October 19, 2018

It was only the first week of October but Jenny Garcia, a 28-year old marketing executive, was already busy putting up her Christmas lights.
Jenny was worried she was already a month late in observing the Christmas season.

“My family in the province starts putting up decorations on Sept. 1,” she said.

In her window, she placed Christmas lights below a star-shaped lantern. Inside, Jenny decorated a Christmas tree with a traditional Nativity scene under it.

“It really feels like Christmas already. I remember my childhood every time I decorate for the season. It is fun and exciting,” Jenny told ucanews.com.