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Church leaders in Negros region call on government to reject fossil fuel power plant proposals in the area

Climate activists dressed as dinosaurs dramatize their opposition to proposals to build coal-fired power plants in the Philippines. The activists said coal plant operators are dinosaurs who peddle dated fossil fuels like coal. (Photo by Jimmy Domingo)

UCANews Joe Torres, Manila, Philippines
November 23, 2018

Catholic bishops in the central Philippine region of Negros have attacked proposals to build coal-fired power plants in their areas.
Prelates from four dioceses in the island region urged Catholics to “safeguard the gains and successes” achieved so far in improving renewable energy sources.

In a statement released on Nov. 23, the church leaders appealed to the government and to electric companies “not to entertain anymore any proposition to build a coal-fired power plant.”

The bishops from Bacolod, Dumaguete, Kabankalan and San Carlos dioceses said there were already nine solar power plants, eight biomass plants and 10 hydropower plants across the Negros region with a combined capacity of 579.43 megawatts.

The prelates said their dioceses are increasingly demonstrating that “sustainable energy practices work for us and for our communities.”
They cited Pope Francis’ call for ecological conversion and for humanity to reduce the consumption of coal and other fossil fuels that have become major contributors to climate change.

At present, the coal-reliant Philippines has 28 operational coal-fired power plants and another 28 proposed coal projects across the country.

Manila Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle also noted in an earlier statement that the poor suffer greatly from climate change and fossil fuels are among the “main drivers of this injustice.”
In Bacolod and San Carlos dioceses, the bishops said decentralized rooftop solar energy systems show how small-scale distributed renewable energy generation is “climate-friendly, sustainable and affordable.”

“These are strongly indicative of the bright future of renewable energy all throughout the province,” read the bishops’ statement.
Negros Occidental has been called the “renewable energy capital” of the Philippines. The Department of Energy has gone further by saying that with Negros Island’s renewable energy sources, it is poised to become an entirely “green” region by 2030.

The bishops said coal-driven power “will never truly be cheap, especially when we factor in the environmental, social and health costs associated with its use.”

“Let us stand firm together in Negros — with each other and with our civic leaders — to oppose any new coal-fired power plants and to phase out those still in operation,” they said.

Despite the Sino-Vatican bishops deal, Beijing continues to turn the screw on religion 

Father Zhang Guilin (left) and Father Wang Zhong of Xiwanzi Diocese were taken away by the government on Oct. 11 to study religious policy and are still under detention. (Photo supplied)

UCANews Joseph Chan, China
November 21, 2018

The pope’s primacy in the Catholic Church was recognized by the Chinese government for the first time with the signing of the Sino-Vatican provisional agreement on bishop appointments on Sept. 22.
On the surface, the agreement paves the way for the government-sanctioned church and the underground church to reach unity. More optimistic church members hope the government will show more goodwill to the church through this agreement, letting Catholics follow their faith and expanding the “cage” of church life.

However, the actual situation of the mainland church now is exactly the opposite.
S

ince the agreement was signed, the United Front Work Department and the religious affairs bureaus have launched a new round of tough transformation missions for underground clerics, forcing them to participate in religious “education classes” organized by the government. It is an exercise in brainwashing.

According to a priest who has just been “transformed,” clerics must agree to the principles of independence, autonomy and self-governance of the church and accept the leadership of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA). Authorities also forced underground priests to concelebrate Mass and be pictured with government-designated “official bishops.”

This new round of transformation is particularly serious in Hebei province, where the number of Catholics is almost one million.
In addition to the forcible closure of two gathering places in Shadifang and Qujiazhuang parishes of Xuanhua Diocese one month ago, four priests in Zhangjiakou were also taken away and forced to attend classes by the government. Those priests are Father Zhang Guilin and Father Wang Zhong of Xiwanzi and Father Su Guipeng and Father Zhao of Xuanhua.

Since 2009, Father Zhang has been serving in Chongli, a large parish in Xiwanzi with nearly 4,000 Catholics. He has not joined the CCPA or registered with the government. He has been in a semi-overt state.
Father Zhang has developed the parish by building churches and helping Catholics in all aspects of culture and faith. He teaches the illiterate how to read, organizes foreign language classes for the educated youth, and teaches Catholics the etiquette of getting along with people with half an eye on welcoming visitors to the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.

They Show us our Poverty…to Lead us to a Holy Humiliation

November 21, 2018 14:31 Jim Fair General Audience

“The whole journey undertaken in the Decalogue would be of no use if it didn’t arrive at touching this level: man’s heart…we must let ourselves be unmasked by these Commandments on desire because they show us our poverty, in order to lead us to a holy humiliation.”
Pope Francis come to the end of the Ten Commandments during his General Audience on November 21, 2018, and explained their depth and significance beyond a list of what to do and not do. They give us our boundaries, the boundaries that make our hearts pure and prevent self-destruction. And commandments nine and ten are significant, although they seem to echo earlier prohibitions on adultery and theft.

“These are not only the last words of the text but much more: they are the fulfillment of the journey through the Decalogue, touching the heart of all that has been given to us in it.,” Francis explained. “In fact, in hindsight, they don’t add a new content: the indications ‘do not covet the wife [. . . ] or anything that belongs to your neighbor’ is at least latent in the Commandments on adultery and on theft; what, then, is the function of these words?

“Let us keep very present that all the Commandments have the task to indicate the boundary of life, the limit beyond which man destroys himself and his neighbor, spoiling his relationship with God. If you go beyond, you destroy yourself; you also destroy the relationship with God and the relationship with others. The Commandments point this out.”

The Holy Father pointed out that all sin springs from “evil desires…all sins are born from a wicked desire — all. The heart begins to move there, and one enters that wave and ends up in a transgression.”

The danger in the resulting transgression isn’t just that it may be a “legal” violation. It harms oneself and others. The commandments are designed to free the heart.

“This is the challenge: to free the heart from all these wicked and awful things,” Francis said. “God’s precepts can be reduced to being only the beautiful facade of a life, which in any case remains an existence of slaves and not of children. Often, behind the Pharisaic mask of asphyxiating correctness, something awful and unresolved hides.

“Instead, we must let ourselves be unmasked by these Commandments on desire because they show us our poverty, in order to lead us to a holy humiliation. Each one of us can ask him/herself: but what ugly desires come often to me? Envy, greed, gossip? — all these things that come to me from within. Each one can ask him/herself and it will do him/her good.

“Man is in need of this blessed humiliation, that humiliation by which he discovers that he cannot free himself on his own; that humiliation by which he cries to God to be saved. Saint Paul explains it in an insuperable way, precisely in referring to the Commandment not to covet (Cf. Romans 7:7-24).”

The Pope emphasized that the purpose of the Law is not to force man into “literal obedience” but to lead many to truth. For this, we need an open heart.

“The task of the Law is to lead man to his truth, namely, to his poverty, which becomes a genuine opening and personal opening to God’s mercy, which transforms us and renews us,” Francis concluded. “God is the only one able to renew our heart, on the condition that we open our heart to Him: it’s the only condition. He does everything, but we must open our heart to Him.”

The Holy Father’s Full Commentary
November 21, 2018 14:31 General Audience

Church marks second observance of World Day of the Poor

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila addresses residents of urban poor communities and members of the clergy during the observance of the World Day of the Poor on Nov. 17. (Photo by Mark Saludes)

Mark Saludes, Manila, Philippines
November 19, 2018

Church leaders in Manila Archdiocese marked World Day of the Poor on Nov. 17 by sharing a meal with residents from the city’s urban poor communities.

At least 300 people attended the “lunch and sharing with the poor” event at the University of Santo Tomas following a Mass officiated by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila.

In his homily, the Manila prelate called on Catholics not only to listen to the “cries of the poor” but also “to shoulder their struggle in our everyday lives.”

The cardinal said “acts of mercy and compassion” to those in need are the reasons why the church observes the Day of the Poor.

Pope Francis declared the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time of the church calendar — Nov. 18 this year — as World Day of the Poor for Catholics to “reflect on how poverty is at the very heart of the Gospel.

Cardinal Tagle in his message said “there will be no celebration if we do not care for [the poor].”

The prelate called on Filipinos to “admit to our own state of destitution,” and “to dare listen to the poor and associate ourselves with them.”

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show that an estimated 22 million Filipinos or about one-fifth of the population live below the national poverty line.

Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo called on the clergy and the religious to “live the life of the poor and become one of them.”
The bishop said efforts to help the poor “can only be strengthened if the church would continue its encounter with them.”

At the Vatican, Pope Francis railed against social inequality during this year’s observance, saying that “the din of the rich few” was drowning out the voice of the needy.

At a Mass attended by about 6,000 poor people at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the pope noted that, “injustice is the perverse root of poverty.”

Special year will be the seventh in a series of nine annual celebrations to mark 500 years of Christianity in country

Filipino delegates pose for a picture during the World Youth Day in Poland in 2016. (Photo by Roy Lagarde)

UCANews.com Reporter, Manila, Philippines
November 16, 2018

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has announced that it will dedicate 2019 as the “Year of the Youth”.

The year-long celebration, which will start on the first Sunday of Advent on Dec. 2, will carry the theme “Filipino Youth in Mission: Beloved, Gifted, Empowered.”

It’s observance, which the bishops described as part of the “nine-year journey for New Evangelization,” will end on Nov. 24, 2019, the Feast of Christ the King.

In 2013, the bishops’ conference launched a “nine-year journey” to 2021, the fifth centenary of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines, with a different theme each year.

The first five years were dedicated to “integral faith formation” (2013), the laity (2014), the poor (2015), the Eucharist and the Family (2016), and the parish as a communion of communities (2017).

The year 2018 was dedicated to the clergy and consecrated persons, while the remaining two years of the preparation will be dedicated to ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue in 2020 and missio ad gentes, or bringing the Gospel to all people, in 2021.

Activities next year are aimed at “youth in formation, youth in communities, church and society, youth in mission, and youth ministry and youth ministers.”

“The Year of the Youth is a journey of encounter with Jesus, accompanied by Mary,” read a statement from the bishops’ Commission on Youth.

“In this journey, we tell the story of the Filipino youth with our Risen Lord … [and] as we are blessed and gifted during this journey, we are empowered to witness to and share our faith,” it added.

The “Year of the Youth” observance comes after the Synod of Bishops on young people last month.

The final document of the meeting stressed the concrete aspects of the lives of the youth, the role of schools and parishes and the need for the laity to be trained to accompany young people.

The SIKAD or Sining Kadamay, an artists’ organization for urban poor rights and welfare, will be conducting a fundraising performance “Sa Digma ng Halimaw,” a documentary theater production about the war on drugs, as told by loved ones of the victims of Extra-Judicial Killings (EJK) under the said war and others affected by it. It is a series of monologues that use interview transcripts, news articles, incident reports, photos and video footage and other relevant documents to bring the featured stories in public performance.

This will be on November 22-23, 2018, 7pm onwards at Pardec A, CHR, Diliman. Quezon City.

PRODUCTION BRIEF

“Sa Digma ng Halimaw” is a series of monologues that use interview transcripts, news articles, incident reports, photos and video footage and other relevant documents to bring the featured stories in public performance.

The production is a mobile theatre project that will travel to different communities, schools and churches, and will be performed in open and public places. The performance will take various versions of staging: one, as stand-alone monologues; or two, as two monologues in one performance; and three, number of monologues woven into a full-length play.
All performances will have an actor-audience dialogue at the end to generate discourse and understanding on various issues attending the drug war.

(Guest Editorial written by Bishop Broderick Pabillo) ; CBCP News

WHEREVER there is massive poverty there is injustice. People are made poor! Their rights are stepped upon and they are even oppressed! This reality has again come to the fore with the massacre of the farmers in Hacienda Nene, Purok Fire Tree, Barangay Bulanon in Sagay City of Negros Occidental last October 20. Nine farmers, three of whom were women and two minors, were gunned down in their makeshift camp after they had taken their dinner around 9:30 pm by unknown assailants. After this brutal killing gasoline was poured over their bodies and they were set on fire.

Massacre of farmers is not new. We still remember the Escalante massacre in 1985, the Hacienda Luisita Massacre in 2002, and the KidapawanMassacre in 2016. Under Duterte’s watch in the last two years, 45 farmers have already been killed in Negros.

The reason for all these killings? Land! The farmers are denied their right to the land. Our Constitution of 1987 clearly stipulates that land reform is to be implemented to bring about social justice in the countryside. This mandate has been haphazardly executed because of the vested interests of our politicians who mostly come from the landed elite. Instead, the farmers who fight for their right to the land are tagged as “rebels” by the authorities. Hence many of them are mercilessly abused and even killed. The Sagay Massacre is the most recent incident.

Many farmers’ groups resort to “Bungkalan” because the implementation of the constitutional mandate of Land Reform is very lame and slow. Not a few blame the farmers for forcible entry, but how many would blame the government and the landowners for non-implementation of the Basic Law of the land? But even if the bungkalan is “illegal,” would this be enough reason to kill them mercilessly?

Some officials in the government is “softening” this brutality by tagging the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) to which the farmers belong as leftist. Do they mean that “leftists” are fair game, that they can just be killed?

The government seems not to be able to put their acts together. While some officials claim that the NFSW is leftist, other officials in the same administration, without any evidence at all, already tag the NPA as the perpetrators. This is already a sign that the killers will not be brought in. Can they bring in the NPA?

Now some, to ride on the anger of the public, assert that the “full wrath of the law” be fall on the killers? Are they really serious, or is this just plain bravado? Will the perpetrators, and more so, the brains, be ever brought to justice? Has the government the political will and the capability to bring justice for the farmers? Basing on the records of the Escalante massacre, the Hacienda Luisita massacre, the Kidapawan massacre, and the so many killings of farmer leaders, I strong doubt. None of the masterminds of these dastardly deeds have been brought to justice. The strong suspicion is that those involved are among the land owners, the military and/or the politicians.

But justice to the farmers is not just to get the killers of the Sagay massacre. It is to address the root of these killing. Give land to the farmers! Implement the constitutional mandate of land reform! Nothing short of this will bring peace in our troubled countryside.

Has this administration the political will to do this? Will it be a better government than the previous ones, or will it be of the same kind—elitist, corrupt and against the people?