World leader for Catholic women to CWL: ‘Keep listening to the cry of the poor, planet’

Argentine María Lía Zervino, president of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (WUCWO), meets with the officials of the Catholic Women’s League-Philippines at their headquarters in Manila on Aug. 20, 2022. CBCP NEWS

By CBCP News

August 23, 2022
Manila, Philippines

A global leader for Catholic women on Monday invited the Catholic Women’s League-Philippines to keep walking the path of social and environmental respect.

Speaking before CWL members in Metro Manila, María Lía Zervino, president of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (WUCWO), urged them to continue heeding the cry of the poor and of the planet.

“Continue to listen and respond to the cry of the poor and the cry of the planet as Pope Francis said in Laudato Si,” Zervino said at the Ermita Church.

The Argentine, who has been in Rome since 2013, particularly acknowledged the CWL’s roles and programs at grassroots level.

“What you have is this wonderful union here in your parishes and dioceses. I think all WUCWO organizations must learn from you,” she said.

Zervino, a known old friend of the pope, said she is in the country for a five-day visit “to listen and to learn” from the national CWL.

“If we want to serve the WUCWO organization, we must know them (members) better. We must know and realize what they are living, what they are suffering, and what they are needing so we must be nearer,” she added.

Zervino arrived in Manila on Aug. 20 and immediately met with the CWL national board and visited the tomb of former Manila Archbishop Michael O’Doherty at the crypt of the Manila Cathedral.

Archbishop O’Doherty founded the CWL Philippines in 1919. To date, the organization has about 60,000 active members nationwide.

On Sunday, Aug. 21, she visited a number of some of the organization’s projects in the dioceses of Cubao, Kalookan, Novaliches and Malolos.

Aside from its advocacies and charitable programs, the CWL also helps support seminarians pursue their vocations.

“We believe that we have to support our clergy so we are doing our best,” said its national president Rosa Rita Mariano.

Zervino recently made headlines after the pope appointed her and two nuns to the Dicastery for Bishops, the first time women have been allowed to serve the Vatican body that helps choose new bishops.

Ecumenical leaders: Be wary of the Marcos dynasty

World Mission August 24, 2022

Two bishops caution webinar attendees against further human rights abuses in the Philippines

The so-called “Negros Nine”: Fr. Brian Gore (seated, from left), Fr. Vicente Dangan and Fr. Niall O’Brien with the six lay leaders were detained at the Negros Occidental provincial jail on trumped-up charges in 1983. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Inquirer.Net

LOUISVILLE — During a Tuesday evening webinar, two bishops — one retired from the United Methodist Church, one Roman Catholic* — used their lived experience under martial law enacted by former Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos to urge viewers to be wary of what Marcos’ son, BongBong Marcos, the nation’s 17th president, could bring about for the nation of nearly 116 million people.

The webinar, the second of six planned by the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines-U.S. Chapter, was called “The Church in the Struggle Against the Marcos Dynasty.” The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), together with Church & Society and Global Ministries, were among the co-sponsors.

The presenters were Bishop Solito Toquero, who’s retired from the United Methodist Church, and the Most Rev. Gerardo Alminaza, Roman Catholic bishop of the Diocese of San Carlos. The Rev. Sadie Stone, a United Methodist pastor serving Bethany United Methodist Church in San Francisco, introduced them.

Next month marks the 50th anniversary of martial law as enacted by Ferdinand Marcos, noted Stone, who’s traveled to the Philippines five times, most recently in June. Elected alongside Bongbong Marcos this spring was Sara Duterte, the daughter of the outgoing president, Rodrigo R. Duterte. The new president has been invited to come to the U.S. this fall and will speak to the United Nations.

“We are already seeing oppression in the new administration,” Stone said. “Those of us in the United States need to realize the U.S. plays a role” in, among other policies, providing military aid. Since 2016, the U.S. has given more than half a billion dollars to the armed forces and national police in the Philippines, according to Stone.

Toquero called his talk “Ministry in the Context of Repression During the Time Marcos.”

Retired Bishop Solito Toquero

Toquero said Filipinos have inherited “the trinity of evil”: feudalism, fascism and U.S. neocolonialism. He traced Filipino history back to September 1972, when Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, closing the nation’s Congress and arresting opponents and demonstrators.

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“The 2nd National Priests’ Encounter affirms a renewed Cursillo Movement: a help in the renewal of the local church.”

“The 2nd National Priests’ Encounter affirms a renewed Cursillo Movement: a help in the renewal of the local church.”

RATIONALE

The Cursillos in Christianity Movement has been in its existence for 59 years in the Philippines which for times was phenomenal among movements and organization in the Church.

The Cursillistas adopts the lay, apostolate concept but sad to say no common understanding in different Arch/Dioceses.

Through the years, the experience of the Cursillo in the different Arch/Dioceses had led to different practices and such led to missing the purpose and essence of the movement.

MAIN OBJECTIVE

Re-introduction of the Cursillo Movement.

In response to the current situation in the Cursillo Movement in the Philippines, the Philippine National Cursillo Secretariat (PNCS) organized an encounter for priest, the Cursillos de Cristiandad 2nd National Priests’ Encounter, attended by 3 Bishops and 53 priests held at St. Francis Seraph Convent, Talisay City, Cebu on June 6-10, 2022, the clergy represented 25 Arch/Dioceses in the country.

His Excellency Jose S. Palma, D.D., Archbishop of Cebu celebrated the Opening Mass and Auxiliary Bishop-Emeritus of Cebu, Emilio L. Bataclan, former Spiritual Director of Cursillo in Cebu attended sessions during the Encounter.

The Archbishop of Durango, Mexico, Most Rev. Faustino Armendariz Jimenez was one of the speakers in the encounter. He is the Spiritual Advisor of the World Organization of the Cursillo Movement, the Organismo Mundial de Cursillos de Cristiandad (OMCC) in 4 years now. Another speaker was Juan Adolfo Moguel Ortiz, President of OMCC and Juan Ruiz, former President of OMCC and USA National Hispanic Coordinator.

From left, PNCS VP Jose “Pepe” Hilario, OMCC Pres. Juan Adolfo Ortiz, OMCC Spiritual Advisor Abp. Faustino Armendariz Jimenez, APG Pres. Margaret Morris, Former OMCC Pres. Juan Ruiz, APG VP Peter McMahon, PNCS Pres. Conrado “Boy” Dizon and PNCS Spiritual Advisor Msgr. Roberto Espenilla.

The topics in the encounter focused on the History, Charism, Purpose, Method and Structure of the Cursillo Movement. Margaret J. Morris, President of one of the international groups of Cursillo Movement, the Asia Pacific Group (APG) presented the scope and updates of the Movement and the Philippine Cursillo’s involvement. Margaret was joined in gracing and observing the encounter along with Peter McMahon, Vice-President of the APG; both from Australia.

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A Statement On BBM’s 1st SONA

Religious Discernment Group

If BBM’s inaugural speech was any indication, then we may expect more of the same from his first SONA.

In terms of delivery, BBM’s inaugural speech was not bad at all.  Marcos Junior was smart enough (or, perhaps, was instructed) to stick to a text shrewdly tailored to his personality.  That stance allowed his trollers and some critics to agree that his inaugural speech was well-delivered.  Diehard trollers even quipped: “ang galing mag-ingles!” (He speaks English quite well!)  It was finely calibrated to encourage his support base.  He is apparently more disciplined than his predecessor who was famously wont to set aside a meticulously prepared speech (by his ghost writers) and go ad lib employing vulgar ad hominems with glee and peppered with gutter language.

The content of the speech, however, was another story.  It was a sad mix of false claims and lies, with motherhood statements and subtle revisionist flashbacks to his father’s golden age, as loose binders.  BBM’s victory was not the biggest electoral mandate in the history of Philippine democracy; the Bangui Bay Wind Farm was not his project; a lot of Filipinos went hungry because there was no food security during his father’s dictatorship.  And what can you do with his call for a unity that he claimed echoed the people’s yearnings and expressed their hopes for a better future?  Considering its content from a soberly critical perspective, BBM’s inaugural speech doesn’t augur well.  And if it’s any indication of what his first SONA would be, then expect that he’d be fine-tuning the persona his handlers have meticulously crafted for him: a popularly elected leader who is fair and benevolent, even if not so intelligent or competent, an administrator who knows how to listen, at times bumbling, but always well-meaning.  BBM seems not to have the face of a liar, but it’s certainly not easy to believe he is not aware that he’s not telling the truth.  A gift or an acquired skill, whatever!  He’s using it to full political advantage. If there’s such a thing as a presidential tiktok, then that’s what we’re getting on July 25.

What Can Be Done, What Can We Do?

First, let us pray and hold on to the belief that lies have a limited shelf-life.  Afterwards, let us pray some more, and join hands with Orthodox priest Vitalii Holoskevych who declared that “evil cannot win” while weeping at the funeral of Liza Dmytrieva, a 4-year-old killed by a Russian missile strike.  There is a need for believers to realize that the issues and the problems we are facing together with other democracies are not merely political or economic, but social, religious, moral, even theological.  The forces of evil operate globally, not only locally in the Philippines. The theologian Jean Daniélou pointed out already years ago that prayer must be approached as a political problem.  It is by praying the way Jesus prayed to the Source of all being, that we are led to discover how prayer can be wielded to disarm the powers and principalities of the world.

The clamor for transparency, accountability, good governance and respect for human rights must ring louder via fora, public statements and demonstrations.  All the while there is also the urgent need to organize awareness-raising activities for the public to wake up to the reality that so many convicted plunderers have infiltrated the ranks of both elected government officials and bureaucrats, not including those suspected of graft and corruption.  Christian churches and citizens of other religious traditions must join forces to demand that our leaders be held accountable to the provisions of the Philippine Constitutions.  We must continue to protest the wanton use of disinformation and the criminal red-tagging of poor and innocent citizens. 

There is much that can be done. Yes, there is only so much that we can do.  But to say that there is nothing we can do is a lie.  Only liars say that, only godless people claim that evil shall prevail.

W.T. DULAY, MDJ
Convenor
Religious Discernment Group