“Innumerable are the traces of God’s presence”

August 21, 2017 Jim Fair   Francis

To His most Reverend Excellency 
Monsignor Francesco Lambiasi, Bishop of Rimini 
Most Reverend Excellency,

In the name of the Holy Father Francis, and mine personally, I address a cordial greeting to you, to the organizers and to the participants in the 38^th edition of the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples.

Every year the Titles of the Meeting invite to reflect on aspects of existence that the pressing rhythm of the everyday often makes us set aside. Everything seems to slip from us, caught as we are by the anxiety of turning the page in haste. Life becomes fragmented and risks becoming arid. Hence it is precious to stop every now and then to consider the great questions that define the human being and that it’s impossible to ignore altogether. In this connection, we can also read the theme of the 2017 Meeting as: “All that You Have, Bequeathed to You by Your Father, Earn It in Order to Possess It” (Goethe, Faust). It is an invitation to us to re-appropriate our origins from within our personal history. For too long it has been thought that the inheritance of our fathers should remain with us as a treasure, which it was enough to protect to keep the flame lit. It hasn’t been so: that fire that burned in the breast of those that preceded us has little by little been weakened.

One of the limitations of present-day society is to have little memory, to want to get rid of as useless and a heavy burden what preceded us. However, this has grave consequences. Let us think of education. How can we hope to have the new generations grow without memory? And how can we think of building the future without taking a position regarding the history that generated our present? As Christians we do not cultivate a nostalgic withdrawal from a past that no longer exists. Rather, we look ahead with confidence. We don’t have spaces to defend because the love of Christ knows no insurmountable borders. We live in a time that is favourable for an outgoing Church, but a Church rich in memory, driven by the wind of the Spirit to go and encounter the man seeking a reason to live. Innumerable are the traces of God’s presence in the course of the history of the world; all in fact beginning with Creation, which speaks of Him. The real and living God willed to share our history: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). God isn’t a memory but a presence, to receive ever again, as the beloved for the person that loves.

There is a sickness that can strike the baptized and that the Holy Father calls “spiritual Alzheimer’s”: it consists in forgetting the history of our personal relationship with God, that first Love that won us to make us His own. If we become :”forgetful” of our encounter with the Lord, we are no longer sure of anything; then we are assailed by the fear that blocks our every movement. If we abandon the safe port of our bond with the Father, we become prey to the whims and wishes of the moment, slaves of “infinite falsehoods’, which promise the moon but leave us disappointed and sad, in a spasmodic search for something to fill the heart’s emptiness. How can this “spiritual Alzheimer’s” be avoided? There is only one way: to actualize the beginnings, the “first Love,” which is not a discourse or an abstract thought, but a Person. The pleasant memory of this beginning ensures the necessary impetus to address the ever new challenges that also call for new answers, remaining always open to the surprises of the Spirit, which blows where it wills.

How does the great Tradition of the faith come to us? How does Jesus’ love reach us today? Through the life of the Church, through a multitude of witnesses that for two thousand years have renewed the proclamation of the advent of God-with-us, which enables us to relive the experience of the beginning, as it was for the first that encountered Him. For us also “Galilee is the place of the first call, where everything began!” and for this it’s necessary “to return there, to that burning point in which God’s Grace touched me at the beginning of the way. {. . .] when Jesus passed by my way, looked at me with mercy and asked me to follow Him; [. . .] to recover the memory of that moment in which His eyes met mine” (Francis, Homily in the Easter Vigil, April 19, 2014).

That look always precedes us, as Saint Augustine reminds us speaking of Zacchaeus: “He was looked at and then saw” (Discourse 174, 4.4.). We must never forget this beginning. See what we have inherited, the precious treasure we must rediscover every day, if we want it to be ours. Don Giussani left an effective image of this commitment that we can’t desert: “By nature, one that loves the child puts in his bag, on his shoulders the best that he’s lived in life [. . .]. However, at a certain point, nature gives the child, the one who was a child, the instinct to take the bag and to put it before his eyes. [. . .] Therefore, what we have been told must become a problem! If it doesn’t become a problem, it will never mature [. . .] Continue reading

Statement of the concerned Ateneo de Manila University faculty on the death of Kian Lloyd de los Santos and the recent spate of extra judicial killings

21 August 2017

On 16 August 2017, police officers accosted a 17-year-old Senior High School student named Kian Lloyd de los Santos in Caloocan City. Moments later, Kian, the son of an OFW mother, was found dead in what is believed to be yet another case of extra judicial killing. Kian was among those who were executed following the series of raids related to President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, a grisly operation that resulted in the slaughter of 74 people, according to The Manila Times.

Amnesty International reports that the latest development in the president’s bloody campaign is reaching “new depths of barbarity.” Meanwhile, the Commission on Human Rights considers the scale of the recent killings to be “unprecedented.”

We, the concerned faculty of the Ateneo de Manila University, condemn in the strongest possible terms the horrendous spate of extra judicial killings. We denounce the state terror that President Duterte is unleashing upon the citizenry. The culture of violent impunity that he instigates is a threat to the fundamental virtues that bind us as a nation.

Since the introduction of Oplan Tokhang on 30 June 2016, the Philippine Daily Inquirer would report on 16 February 2017 that about 2,127 people had been killed. In May, as ABS-CBN stated, that number would balloon with no less than the Philippine National Police admitting to terminating 12,000 suspects. One shudders to think of the current numbers of the dead summarily executed without access to their legal rights.

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Pambansang Pagtitipon ng Katutubong Kababaihan 2017
“Our Stories, Our Struggles for Rights, for Justice”

Kami, mahigit isang daan na mga katutubong kababaihan mula sa 31 na katutubong komunidad ay nagtipon sa Lungsod ng Kalookan mula 24 hanggang 27 ng Hulyo, 2017 upang sama-samang ipahayag ang aming mga saloobin at pagsusuri sa kasalukuyang kalagayan at kaganapan sa aming komunidad, sa kalikasan at sa buong bansa. Kami ay mga kababaihang kumikilos noon pa man para sa depensa ng aming mga lupain at teritoryo, at sa pagtutulak ng aming mga karapatan bilang katutubong kababaihan. Kami ay bahagi ng mga organisasyon sa aming komunidad, gayon din sa iba’t ibang mga kilusan at kampanya para sa karapatan at tunay na pagbabago ng lipunan.

Kami ay mga kababaihan sa kanayunan, at ang aming mga lugar ang tunay na nakakaranas ng karukhaan at iba pang porma ng karahasan. Ang aming pagdalo sa pagtitipon na ito ay isang malakas at aktibong pagpapahayag na kaming mga katutubong kababaihan ay hindi mananahimik at kiming tatanggapin na lamang ang mga polisiya at mga pahayag ng administrasyon ng Pangulong Duterte, nang walang pagtatanong at kritikal na pagsusuri.

Sa kanyang unang SONA, pinahayag ni Pangulong Duterte sa sambayanan na kaming mga katutubo ay may armas para depensahan ang aming sarili, at ito ay ang batas IPRA. Ngunit ang batas ay mananatiling isang sulatin na mismong papatay sa amin kung hindi ito gagamitin sa maayos na paraan. At ang batas, kahit gaano kaganda, ay mananatiling mga pangako lamang, kung ang kaayusan ng ating lipunan ay mananatiling pinaghaharian ng mga mayayaman, at may matinding diskriminasyon laban sa mga mahihirap, kababaihan at sa mga katutubong mamamayan.

Magpahanggang ngayon, kami bilang katutubo ay di pa rin bilang sa opisyal na talaan o national census. At kung hindi kami bilang, kami ay hindi kinikilala, at di kabahagi sa mga programa at batayang serbisyo ng pamahalaan.  Kami ay walang representasyon sa mahahalagang “governing structures” at limitadong partisipasyon sa paggawa ng mga desisyon.  Kami ay napipigilan sa aming pagsasabuhay ng sariling pagpapasya sa aming reproductive rights, o ang aming reproductive self-determination.

Tulad pa rin ng mga nakaraang mga administrasyon, ang Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2017-2022 ay salat sa mga programa na tutugon sa mga batayang pangangailangan naming mga katutubong kababaihan. Bagkus, malaki ang aming takot na ang PDP ay lalong paiigtingin ang agawan at tunggalian sa aming mga lupain at teritoryo; at pagkawasak ng mga natitirang kagubatan at likas yaman; at magpapalala ng aming kahirapan at marginalisasyon.

Ang likas yaman na nanatili sa aming lupain, dahil na rin sa aming pangangalaga at pagpapahalaga, ay patuloy na nagiging sanhi ng militarisasyon, ng pagpasok ng mga dambuhalang korporasyon, at nagiging mitsa ng aming buhay bilang mga tagapagtanggol.

Ngayong ikalawang SONA ni Pangulong Duterte, may mga binitiwan syang pangako – pagpupursigi sa pangangalaga ng kalikasan, paghihigpit sa mga minahan na nakakasira ng kapaligiran; at ang pagtugon sa mga epekto ng pagbabago ng klima lalo na sa seguridad ng pagkain.  Maganda sanang marinig ang mga ito.  Pero hindi namin nakakalimutan ang di pagkumpirma kay dating Sec. Gina Lopez ng DENR, na siyang nagpapasara sana ng mga marurumi at “korup” na mga minahan.  Sa pagkaka-alis kay Ms. Lopez, nanalo ang interes ng korporasyon ng mga minahan at ng mga tao nito sa pamahalaan.

At ano ang magiging silbi ng mga pangakong ito tungkol sa kalikasan, kung kami mismong mga katutubo ay di man napangakuan ng pag-aruga, at pagkalinga? Imbes, ang mga nabitiwang salita ukol sa amin ay pananakot at pagbabanta. Nariyan ang pagbanta na bobombahin ang iilan na lamang na paaralan ng mga katutubo dahil ito daw ay nagiging training ng mga rebelde. Nariyan ang pagsabi nya na ang lakas ng pwersa ng mga NPA ay ang mga Lumad.  Napaka iresponsable ng mga salitang ito – lalo nyang pinalalala ang problema namin sa seguridad. Naiipit kami sa tunggalian ng mga NPA at militar – kung hindi kami rebelde o komunista, kami naman ay informer ng mga militar.

Paano na ang mga lehitimong pagkilos naming mga katutubong kababaihan para sa aming mga karapatan? Ang mga ganitong pananalita ay tahasang pananakot, pag-gigipit at pagpapatahimik sa amin. At kung iisipin, ito ay nanggagaling mismo sa Pangulo ng ating bansa; ang tinuturing na ama ng ating bayan. Napakasakit naman na magkaroon ng ama na puno ng karahasan, at kalupitan. Nangako sya na lalong paiigtingin ang gyera laban sa droga, ang gyera laban sa terorismo – na sa loob ng kanyang unang taon, ay pinatunayan nyang ang mga ito ay gyera laban sa aming mahihirap. Ito ay napakalungkot, at hindi katanggap-tanggap na mismong ama ng bayan, ang syang patuloy na nanghihikayat ng patayan, ng karahasan, sa kanyang sinumpaang pangangalagaan.

Pero kahit may takot man sa aming kalooban, para sa aming pamilya, sa aming komunidad, at para sa aming sarili, kami ay di matitinag. Kami ay hindi patitinag sa isang Pangulo na hindi marunong kumilala sa salitang “karapatan” at “paggalang”. Sa paghamon ni Pangulo Duterte, lalo kaming titindig upang ipaglaban ang aming karapatan bilang katutubong kababaihan, at ipagpapatuloy ang pagdepensa sa aming lupaing ninuno.

Ang dangal at dignidad ng kababaihan ay patuloy na niyuyurakan ng tila naghaharing presidente. Kung kaya’t ang aming pakikibaka ay pakikibaka para sa lahat ng kababaihan.

Kami, higit isang daang katutubong kababaihan, nagmumula sa 31 na katutubong komunidad, ay nangangako na aming palalakasin ang aming mga sarili, organisasyon at komunidad, palalawakin ang aming hanay, upang ang boses ng katutubong kababaihan ay mas maging maigting at kasama ang tinig ng buong katutubong mamamayan, at kilusang kababaihan, na bibiyak sa kulturang mapang-api, mapanupil at mapagsamantala.

Sama-sama kaming kikilos at igigiit ang mga sumusunod –

Angkop na kaunlaran at ekonomikong kapangyarihan ng Katutubong Kababaihan

Karapatan ng Katutubong Kababaihan sa Edukasyon

Karapatan sa Lupaing Ninuno

Hustisyang Pangkalikasan

Reproductive Self Determination o Sariling Pagpapasiya sa Pangangalaga sa Sarili at iba pang usaping pangangatawan at pangkalusugan

Dignidad at Karapatang Pantao ng Katutubong Kababaihan

At ng iisang tinig, kami ay nananawagan –

Itigil ang militarisasyon lalo na sa loob ng aming lupaing ninuno.

Itigil ang di makatarungan giyera laban sa mga mahihirap at katutubo.

Itigil ang red-baiting o ang walang katibayan at malisyosong pagtatak sa mga katutubo bilang kaaway ng administrasyong Pangulong Duterte.

Itigil ang batas militar.

Tiyakin ang representasyon ng katutubo sa usaping pangkayapaan bilang isang independent IP voice.

Pinagkasunduan nitong 26 ng Hulyo 2017
sa Villa Consuelo Retreat House, Camarin, Lungsod ng Kalookan
​(photos by: Susan Corpuz/LILAK)​

GREEN CONVERGENCE FOR SAFE FOOD, HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY 
(GC-Philippines)

Dear Friends,

We would like to invite you to the

Annual General Assembly of
Green Convergence for Safe Food, Healthy Environment and Sustainable
at the Environmental Studies Institute Conference Room, Miriam
on Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2017.  

Whether you are a member or not, we would like to share with you our past and ongoing activities and to invite you to be part of our future programs. Elections to the Board of Trustees will also be held.  An informative talk and bonding activities will add interest to the day. Below is the draft program.

8:30 am     Registration
9:00          Opening Ceremonies
Prayer
Introduction of Participants
9:15             Welcome Remarks and President’s Report
9:45            The Wonders of Benham Rise by Oceana Team
Open Forum
10:45             Break
11:00         The Making of the Philippine Native Trees:
Up Close and Personal Series:  A call for greens to join in the making of  this legacy
by Imelda Sarmiento, Hortica Filipina Foundation, PNT Series Director
Open Forum
12:00       Lunch
1:00         Bonding Activity
1:30            Treasurer’s Report
2:00            Elections
3:00            Closing Remarks
Snack

Attached are the 1) form for renewal of and application to membership and 2) election rules.
Prizes and mini-raffles held at intervals will add to the fun.

So that preparations will be adequate, please confirm your attendance with 

            Maribeth Jose at 8990675 or 5805400 lcc 1253 

Thanks, God bless-

Angelina P. Galang
President
Green Convergence for Safe Food, Healthy
Environment and Sustainable Economy

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Brother Ciriaco Santiago is walking from St. Jean Pied de Port in France to the tomb of St. James in Spain to raise awareness.

Joe Torres, Manila, Philippines August 10, 2017
La Croix International

A Filipino Redemptorist is walking about 800 kilometers on an ancient pilgrim route to the tomb of St. James in Santiago de Compostela in Spain to raise awareness about drug-related killings back home.

Brother Ciriaco Santiago began his “pilgrimage for a cause” on the “Camino de Santiago” or “Way of St. James” on July 21 for “the poor who fall victim to the senseless killings every night”.

Some 10,000 suspected drug users and dealers have been killed, mostly in the Philippine capital Manila, since President Rodrigo Duterte declared an “all-out war” against narcotics last year.

“Brother Jun”, as he is known to his friends, joined a group of photojournalists documenting the almost nightly killings last December.

Several months later, the religious brother accumulated thousands of photographs of the grisly murders, the wakes of the victims, and the reactions of their families.

During his pilgrimage, which started in St. Jean Pied de Port in France, the Redemptorist brother was leaving images of victims along the road with a note calling for a stop to the murders.

At Alto de la Grajera, one of the highest points over the city of Logrono in Spain, Brother Jun said he was “struck by crosses that have been made out of strips of bark [of trees]” that are placed on a wire fence that separates the pilgrim road from a busy motorway.

He left three images of the killings, describing it as “a timely reminder of the crosses” of a “sacred journey” and the “people’s crosses”, especially those carried by the families of the victims.

On his Facebook page — “Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage for a cause” — the religious brother said pilgrims asked him about the stories behind the images.

Brother Jun posted the first photograph on July 28. It was a picture of the lifeless body of a suspected drug pusher cradled by his partner beside a cardboard sign that read “Drug pusher, don’t emulate.”

“With this, I offered a simple prayer,” said the religious brother whose journey has already taken him “to the wet and cold, and to the hot and dry roads” of Spain.

“It is beautiful, calm and peaceful, a perfect time for reflection,” he said of Estella, Spain.

Despite his blistered feet, the Brother Jun said he is “fueled by faith and the stories of the families that perished back home”.

“The vast open plains under the scorching sun seems like a test of will and endurance,” he said. When he is exhausted, he noted that the “clouds would shelter us and we find the strength to continue on”.

Brother Jun first thought of undertaking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage as a thanksgiving for his religious vocation, until it became a “journey of prayer” for those who perished in the war against drugs.

In an Aug. 4 post on Instagram, the Redemptorist brother reminded himself to “never worry about the outer path” and instead focus on the “awareness for the inner journey”.

He said he does not notice on the road to Villafranca whether it is flat or mountainous, whether there is sunshine or cloud.

“The outer is fixed, the inner was once again challenged by the ringing of the bells of justice, that still needs to be heard,” said the religious brother, adding that “May justice prevail in the Philippines”.

Missing head, hands of statue mar 400th-year festivities for Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the Philippines

 

Mark Saludes,  UCAN  Manila,  Philippines   August 16, 2017

A missing head and pair of hands is casting a shadow over the 400th-year anniversary of the arrival of Our Lady of Mount Carmel statue in the Philippines.

The Order of the Augustinian Recollects expressed hope Aug. 15 for a return of the ivory parts stolen four decades ago from the Minor Basilica of San Sebastian.

Clergy also discussed the possibility of a ransom to get back the relics before the anniversary celebration on July 16, 2018.

They addressed their appeal to an unnamed antique collector believed to be holding the artifacts.

“It will be a great gift for the Quadricentennial celebration of the arrival of the Blessed Mother (statue) to Manila,” said Father Dionisio Selma, provincial of the Augustinian Province of St. Ezekiel Moreno in the Philippines. The Augustinian Recollects were the first religious order to arrive in the Philippines and known for pioneering missionary work in the country.

“We hope that the keeper will hear our appeal and give us back the stolen parts of the Marian statue,” said Father Antonio Zabala, rector and parish priest of the basilica.

Thieves took off with the statue’s ivory parts on July 9, 1975 when the Philippines was under martial law.

Father Zabala said the order “would not press any criminal charges” nor ask questions once the relics are handed back.

“If they want us to pay for it, we are willing to gather enough funds just to bring them back to its rightful owner — the Catholic faithful,” Father Zabala added.

The statue, a gift from the Discalced Carmelite nuns of San Jose Monastery in Mexico, arrived onboard a Spanish galleon.

The devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel is widespread in the Philippines.

The launch of the year-long commemoration coincides with growing concern across Asia over North Korea’s nuclear capabilities.

The image is associated with anti-nuclear proliferation efforts. In 1990 Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy initiated a day of prayer “for forgiveness and protection’ at the New Mexico site of the first U.S. atomic bomb test called Trinity.

Every July 16 since then, the day is dedicated to prayer vigils for peace and the elimination of nuclear weapons.

July 27, 2017

In view of various societal, secular and radical efforts to redefine the definition of marriage away from God’s original plan, by including legal unions between and among homosexual relationships, and Divorce, we as a community state:

Couples for Christ Foundation for Family and Life (CFC-FFL), a Catholic evangelistic missionary community, committed to the renewal of the family and the defense of life, faithfully to a set of beliefs and ideals from which flow its Christian attitudes, values and behavior as well as its programs, teachings and approaches to Christian renewal within the context of family relationships.

WE BELIEVE that God created marriage primarily for love between man and woman, their unity and for the procreation and proper rearing of children.

WE BELIEVE in the sanctity of marriage, as an indissoluble institution as taught by our Lord Jesus Christ (Mt 19:6).

WE BELIEVE that the family, with the father and the mother as the leaders, in practicing the gospel message, shares in the life and mission of the Church—through prayers, evangelization, and service to others, especially the poor.

WE BELIEVE that Christian family renewal can best be achieved by inviting Jesus to be the Lord of our homes, by allowing the power of the Holy Spirit to lead our family lives, and through the full use of all spiritual gifts at our disposal.

WE BELIEVE that efforts to promote homosexual or same-sex unions point to a disordered definition of marriage, and inherently can never be equivalent to and be defined as marriage, because it is contrary to nature. God ordained a union between a man and a woman, for the procreation of children. This complementarity, including sexual difference, draws them together in a mutually loving and indissoluble union that should be always open to the procreation of children. Divorce and same-sex unions contradict the nature and design of marriage.

We look on homosexual persons with respect and compassion. We do not condemn but call them to chaste friendships.

We invite all in unity to a life in Christ Jesus, wholly dedicated to loving God and serving Him. Marriage, although regulated by civil and church laws, originates neither from the church nor the state, but from God. Therefore, neither church nor state can alter the intrinsic definition of marriage, with its indissolubility.