Should we wait for more blood on our altars before we march from our parishes to the halls of justice?

A priest carries a cross during a march in Manila on May 17 to protest the spate of attacks on church people in recent months. (Photo by Jire Carreon)

UCAN News Mark Saludes, Manila Philippines
July 16, 2018

Shepherding is among the oldest occupations in the world, beginning about 5,000 years ago in western Asia. A shepherd would put his life in danger to protect his flock.

If a sheep got separated from the group, the shepherd would search for it and not come back without the lost sheep. Once found, the shepherd would use his crook to hook and recover the fallen animal. If any predator threatened the flock, the shepherd would use the crook as a weapon to protect the congregation and fight any menace without hesitation.

The crook has been used as a religious symbol of care by the Catholic Church. It has become the crosier or the pastoral staff of Catholic bishops.

The bishop’s crosier or crook or staff symbolizes his being the shepherd of the flock of God. It signifies his authority and responsibility over the Catholic community under his canonical jurisdiction.

In the Philippines, Catholic bishops are using the shepherd’s crook to draw back those who have gone astray from the faith and to guide the flock to the right path.

Only a few of our church leaders are using the crook to hit hard at adversaries of the faith, the promoters of killings and impunity, and the murderers of the church’s gallant knights.

Many of our bishops are only tapping a soft blow with their not-too-lengthy press statements, theological reflections, and do nothing at all, especially if their dioceses are not affected by a pressing issue.

Another Catholic priest was gunned down recently while preparing for the celebration of Mass in the northern Philippine province of Nueva Ecija. Father Richmond Villaflor Nilo was killed on June 10 inside a chapel in Zaragoza town in the Diocese of Cabanatuan. He was the third Catholic priest to be killed in the country in the last six months.

The killings of the priests were condemned by religious leaders around the country. The bishops of the dioceses where the killings happened issued strongly worded pronouncements. But out of the 86 dioceses in the Philippines, few other bishops have really made strong statements against the killings and against the individuals who endorsed the acts.

To say that Filipino bishops do not speak out against killings is an overstatement. They claim to be against the culture of death and are supposed to defend the sanctity of life. But instead of loud shouts, we hear whispers. Instead of outrage in the streets, we see protests inside churches.

Concrete actions from Catholic Church leaders to press authorities to solve and prevent the killings are lacking. Statements remain soft, cautiously written, wanting or even insignificant.

This culture of silence, or should I say culture of softness and carefulness, among church leaders is nothing new. Many have been silent even as President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs has killed thousands of people.

Bishops have been denouncing the spate of drug-related killings, but only a handful mobilized their flock to put more weight to the protests.

We have already tried the soft and gentle way to urge the government to act on the killings and to diplomatically appeal to the president to stop endorsing them. Soft and cautious press releases seem not to work. Catholic Church leaders have to do more by organizing and mobilizing the flock to collectively defend the faith.

Should we wait for more dead priests before we decide to get out of our comfort zones and stand against tyranny? Should we wait for our priests to be shot before we utter stronger words of condemnation?

Should we wait for more blood on our altars before we stand, congregate and march from our parishes to the halls of justice?

As Catholics, it is our duty to pray for the realization of justice, peace and integrity of creation. As followers of Christ, it is our mission to defend life even with our own lives.

Filipino Catholics need a shepherd who can dare use the crook to hit the fox that is preying on the flock.

Mark Saludes is a freelance journalist who covers social justice issues for ucanews.com.

The Loyola School of Theology of the Ateneo de Manila University is offering a scholarship for the Certificate Program in Integral Ecology.

This Program is designed for religious, seminarians, and faith-based workers, including teachers and catechists, and environmental activists, the five-month course is an answer to Pope Francis’ call for ecological conversion.

Download the application for scholarship form here http://bit.ly/2ISuluP

Visit this link for admission requirements & procedure – https://bit.ly/2MMwQ4U

Rights campaigners in the Philippines and around the world have sought to protect human dignity

Nuns lead a procession in Manila on June 22 to draw attention to the killings of Catholic priests in the Philippines in the past six months. (Photo by Angie de Silva)

Father Shay Cullen, Manila,  Philippines |
July 11, 2018

What is independence but freedom from the domination and control of others?

Freedom is firstly an inner, non-material spiritual value. The desire for it is natural and, when achieved, a joyful experience.

Freedom to practice our religious beliefs with dignity and without bondage, poverty or fear — and freedom of expression — are the greatest of human values and universal rights.

Working for freedom and independence from all kinds of oppression — whether it be discrimination, racism, sex slavery and exploitation, land grabbing or unjust imprisonment — should be spiritually motivated, not driven by political ambitions.

It is a commitment to stand up for moral and Gospel values.

The great Mahatma Gandhi, a man of deep spirituality and conviction, protested against British oppression of India’s people.

He was a rights campaigner, not a politician, yet his demand for freedom was wrongly branded as subversion by British authorities. As a result, he was vilified and jailed. But he won independence and was named the Father of the Nation

In the Philippines, Filipino Catholic priests Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora were garroted to death in Manila’s Bagumbayan (now called Luneta Park) by Spanish authorities after a sham trial.

The priests were falsely accused of political treachery arising from an 1872 mutiny that gave rise to a rising tide of nationalism In fact, they were human rights activists in a struggle against Spanish-born clerics, but accusations of political crimes were a handy way to get rid of critics.

In Negros province in the Western Visayas region of the central Philippines in the 1980s, Catholic missionary priests Brian Gore from Australia and Niall O’Brian from Ireland, Filipino priest Vicente Dangan and six lay workers were jailed by the Marcos regime on false charges related to the death of a mayor.

Communist rebels admitted that they had carried out the killing, but the priests and church workers were unjustly blamed to silence them from speaking out against social injustice. After many months, they were eventually freed.

Nowadays, assassins are continuing to kill advocates of freedom and independence, human rights activists, media practitioners and priests as well as pastors.

On the southern island of Mindanao, for more than 32 years, Father Fausto Tentorio was dedicated to helping poor tribal people in their struggle against mining interests that were grabbing their land and destroying their environment.

He was murdered. Fellow Mindanao missionaries Father Tullio Favali and Father Salvatore Carzedda were also murdered. They gave their lives for the freedom of the oppressed people. Their work for the poor was not political; it was humanitarian.

Father Marcelito Paez, 72, who dedicated his life to human rights and justice for prisoners, was shot and killed on Dec. 4 last year in the town of Jaen, 100 kilometers north of Manila, immediately after he secured the release from jail of a political prisoner.

Father Mark Anthony Yuaga Ventura, a Catholic priest, was shot and killed after saying Mass in the northern Philippine town of Gattaran on April 29 this year. He was known to be active in supporting the struggle of indigenous peoples for their rights against land grabbers. Leading political authorities vilified his life of service with baseless sordid allegations.

On June 10, Father Richmond Villaflor Nilo was gunned down inside the Nuestra Senora dela Nieve chapel in Zaragoza town, 125 kilometers from Manila. Police said the priest was shot while he was putting on his liturgical vestments to start the celebration of Mass.

Continue reading

God never created hell because if he created hell, he must be a stupid god, Philippine president says

President Rodrigo Duterte attacks church leaders anew in a speech before a gathering of businessmen at Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga province on July 10. (Photo courtesy of the Presidential Communications Office)

Jose Torres Jr., Manila Philippines
July 11, 2018

Less than 24 hours after he declared a moratorium on attacks against the Catholic Church, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was at it again with another tirade against religious leaders.

In a speech before businessmen on July 10, the president lambasted critics who “come here under the cloak of whatever religion and start to blabber their mouths and attack us.”

Duterte was apparently referring to Australian missionary nun Patricia Fox, who raised the ire of the president for joining an investigation into alleged human rights abuses in Mindanao.

The president said the “separation of powers between any church and state” does not allow church people to criticize his administration.

“Do not include your god in your platform of your criticism in your attacks because when I attack, if you include God in the issue, son of a bitch, I’ll get back at that god,” said Duterte.

“I have the right to answer. There is a separation of powers. Why are you f*****g … the name of the Lord against me?” he added.

The president’s latest tirade came a day after he met Archbishop Romulo Valles of Davao, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

A statement released by the presidential palace after the meeting said Duterte had “agreed to a moratorium on statements about the church.”

In an interview with the media, the president said “some modality of behavior” was discussed during his meeting with the bishop, although he said it “would not prevent me from just saying the truth.”

He said he was also not attacking the church in his speech before businessmen in Pampanga province earlier in the day.

During his speech, Duterte continued to attack God, whom the president said “never created hell because if he created hell, he must be a stupid god.”

“My god is not stupid to create man just to burn him in hell. I do not believe in that,” he said, adding that he also does not believe in heaven “because if I do, only a fraction of you will ever enter heaven.”

The president said his god is the “six million Filipinos plus the others who voted for me above the margin, and those who really voted for me.”

During the 2016 election, Duterte garnered 16.6 million votes.

In a meeting later in the evening with Evangelical leader Eddie Villanueva of the Jesus Is Lord Movement, the president made a qualified apology to God.

“If it’s the same god, I’m sorry, that’s how it is. Sorry God. I said sorry God. If God is taken as a generic term by everybody listening, then that’s well and good,” said Duterte.

“I only apologize to God, nobody else. If I wronged God, he would be happy to listen. Why? Because my god is all forgiving … Why? Because God created me to be good and not bad,” he said.

The president said church leaders should “never use the name of God as a front to attack government [because] that is not the proper way to do it.”

Earlier during the meeting, the president again attacked Sister Fox, saying that she was agitating people.

This week, the bishops’ conference issued a strongly worded statement condemning the government’s anti-narcotics war that has killed thousands of suspected drug users and dealers in the past two years.

The bishops’ pastoral statement titled “Rejoice and Be Glad!” also condemned the killings of three Catholic priests in recent months.

The bishops, however, said the statement was not an indictment of Duterte’s administration.

Clementine Hall
Friday, 6 July 2018

Your Eminences, Your Excellencies,

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

I welcome all of you assembled for this International Conference marking the third anniversary of the Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ on care for our common home. In a special way, I would like to greet His Eminence Archbishop Zizioulas, because he and Cardinal Turkson together presented the Encyclical three years ago. I thank all of you for coming together to “hear with your hearts” the increasingly desperate cries of the earth and its poor, who look for our help and concern. You have also gathered to testify to the urgent need to respond to the Encyclical’s call for change, for an ecological conversion. Your presence here is the sign of your commitment to take concrete steps to save the planet and the life it sustains, inspired by the Encyclical’s assumption that “everything is connected”. That principle lies at the heart of an integral ecology.

Here we can think back on the call that Francis of Assisi received from the Lord in the little church of San Damiano: “Go and repair my house, which, as you can see, lies in ruins”. Today, the “common home” of our planet also needs urgently to be repaired and secured for a sustainable future.

In recent decades, the scientific community has developed increasingly accurate assessments in this regard. Indeed, “the pace of consumption, waste and environmental change has so stretched the planet’s capacity that our contemporary lifestyle, unsustainable as it is, can only precipitate catastrophes, such as those which even now periodically occur in different areas of the world” (Laudato Si’, 161). There is a real danger that we will leave future generations only rubble, deserts and refuse.

So I express my hope that concern for the state of our common home will translate into systematic and concerted efforts aimed at an integral ecology. For “the effects of the present imbalance can only be reduced by our decisive action, here and now” (ibid.). Humanity has the knowledge and the means to cooperate in responsibly “cultivating and protecting” the earth. Significantly, your discussions have addressed some of this year’s important steps in this direction.

The COP24 Summit, to be held in Katowice, Poland, in December, could prove a milestone on the path set out by the 2015 Paris Agreement. We all know that much still needs to be done to implement that Agreement. All governments should strive to honour the commitments made in Paris, in order to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis. “Reducing greenhouse gases requires honesty, courage and responsibility, above all on the part of those countries which are more powerful and pollute the most” (ibid., 169), and we cannot afford to waste time.

Along with states, local authorities, civil society, and economic and religious institutions can promote the culture and practice of an integral ecology. I trust that events such as the Global Climate Action Summit, to be held from 12-14 September in San Francisco, will provide suitable responses, with the support of citizens’ pressure groups worldwide. As I observed, along with His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, “there can be no sincere and enduring resolution to the challenge of the ecological crisis and climate change unless the response is concerted and collective, unless the responsibility is shared and accountable, and unless we give priority to solidarity and service” (Message for the World Day of Prayer for Creation, 1 September 2017).

Continue reading