December 2006 - Impact Magazine

Transcription

Vol 40, No 12 • DECEMBER 2006
00
Php 70. 00
ISSN 0300-4155
Asian Magazine for Human Transformation
Through Education, Social Advocacy and Evangelization
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“
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“Why are our Administration Congressmen
desperately in a hurry?”
CBCP President Archbishop Angel N. Lagdameo, in his
December 6 press statement, chiding as “questionable and
suspicious” the haste made by the Administration Congressmen
in creating themselves into a Constituent Assembly for a
Constitutional change perceivably to perpetuate themselves in
power.
“Constitution-making is a very serious thing; so it
has to be approached in a very deliberate manner, very
calm manner, not in the context of intense turmoil,
which we are undergoing now.”
Former Ateneo law school dean and noted constitutionalist Fr.
Joaquin Bernas, SJ, opining that President Macapagal-Arroyo’s
move to tinker with the Constitution should not be carried out
hastily but in an atmosphere of sobriety.
“The frustrations, hostility and anger generated
by abject poverty cannot sustain peace in any society
in the world.”
Micro-credit pioneer Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, founder
of Grameen Bank, in accepting the $1.4 million Nobel Peace
Prize. The Grameen Bank has helped millions in Bangladesh
extricate themselves from penury through soft, collateral-free
loans.
“This criminal has departed without ever being
sentenced for all the acts he was responsible for during
his dictatorship.”
Chilean human rights lawyer Hugo Gutierrez, lamenting that exChilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s death last Dec. 10
has ended efforts to bring him (Pinochet) to trial.
“Iran, openly, explicitly and publicly threatens to
wipe Israel off the map. Can you say that this is the
same level, when they are aspiring to have nuclear
weapons as America, France, Israel, Russia?”
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, when asked if Israel’s
alleged atomic effort weakened the case against Iran’s nuclear
program.
“I have no doubt that as word of this gets around,
millions of African men will want to get circumcised
and that will save many lives.”
Daniel Halperin, an H.I.V. specialist at Harvard Center (USA),
on findings that circumcision helps protect against H.I.V.
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IMPACT • December 2006
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LAYOUT BY DENNIS BALDOZA DAYAO
IMPACT
Quote in the Act
IMPAC T
December 2006 / Vol 40 • No 12
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
The Unfinished Dance .......................................... 2 1
COVER STORY
Sparing the Rod: The Problem of Child Abuse...1 6
ARTICLES
PCP-II On A Renewed Church Pursuing Justice,
Development and Peace ......................................... 4
Ramifications of Cheating— Another Look at the
Nursing Exam Leakage .......................................... 8
How Catholic Is Your School? The Don Bosco
School (Salesian Sisters) Experience .................. 1 0
When will the killings end? ................................. 1 4
The Christmas Spirit ............................................. 1 5
STATEMENTS
Pastoral Statement on the Celebration of National
Family Week ........................................................... 2 2
Forging Social Solidarity for Human Rights .... 2 3
Plea and Appeal: Stop STL, Please ..................... 2 4
A Call to Vigilant, Heroic and Engaged
Citizenship ............................................................. 2 4
A Wrong Move by the Wrong People at the
Wrong Time ............................................................ 2 5
Watch and Pray ...................................................... 2 6
CharACter more than Charter Change .............. 2 6
FABC 11 th Bishops’ Meet Statement ................... 2 7
DEPARTMENTS
Quote in the Act ...................................................... 2
From the Blogs ........................................................ 2 0
From the Inbox ....................................................... 2 8
Reviews .................................................................... 2 9
Cinema Review ...................................................... 3 0
Quotes in Quiz ....................................................... 3 0
News Briefs ............................................................. 3 1
CHRISTMAS is not coming so easy this time.
The socio-political instability has been dominating, indeed tipping the balance of the horizons of late—dragging, in fact, for some years
now, but most especially as an aftermath of the
2004 national elections that has been massively
accused of equally massive cheating allegedly
by no less than the government’s poll body.
The infamous “Garci tapes” will go down
in history—certainly not in the fashion of Santa
Clause—distributing votes at will, or at cost
and at mandate, to favored administration candidates.
On the other hand, Christmas may be coming very easy after all. When it first happened,
Herod was accused of extrajudicial killings,
not of militant groups and journalists but of
hundreds of innocent infants. Corruption, gambling, and patronage and transactional politics
were the language of the day. While most
people were suffering and hungry, he was wallowing in wealth and debauchery.
The baby Jesus was born into this milieu.
If this is the context of the original Christmas, it
should not be difficult to relate with it today—
theologically, at least. Christmas is the entry
point of the paschal mystery that bears fruit into
the springtime of a new creation at the Lord’s
resurrection. How we wish this Christmas, so
close to the poverty of the manger and the pain
of the cross, will bring us a better tomorrow.
Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, OMI, presents a vision of a church and society in his
article, “PCP-II On a Renewed Church Pursuing Justice, Development and Peace”. One
realizes that the role of the church in a changing
society like today may not only be about dispensing sacraments, but by really witnessing
more seriously to the mission of integral evangelization.
More disturbing is the question of Baltz R.
Acebedo in his article, “When will the killings
end?” Or course, not when it is still organized
and, more so, when the present dispensation is
not doing—or is it?—anything about it at all.
The problem of child abuse is the issue
raised by our cover story by Sr. Pinky
Barrientos, FSP. Read on.
Volume 40 • Number 12
3
PCP-II on a Renewed Church
Pursuing Justice,
Development and Peace
© Roy Lagarde
By Archbishop Orlando B. Quevedo, O.M.I.
A. The PCP-II Vision of Church
and Society
T
he general question that PCP-II
grappled with in 1991 was: How can
the Church be a more effective and
credible evangelizer, given the present pastoral situation of the Philippines? The general answer was: by being a renewed
Church and by being faithful to its mission
of integral evangelization.
The term “integral evangelization”
meant that the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
has both eternal and temporal dimensions.
Jesus announced salvation in the Kingdom of God, a kingdom of justice and
peace, truth and love, which has now begun in Jesus here on earth but is not
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IMPACT
December 2006
2006
IMPACT •• December
fulfilled definitively except at the end of
time. It is in the “here and now” dimension
of the Kingdom of God that integral liberation from everything that is dehumanizing,
most especially sinfulness, finds its place.
Eternal salvation does not exclude human
liberation. In fact, the church teaches that
human liberation is intimately linked to the
mission of evangelization. It is here—in
the task of human liberation—that the
social action apostolate is grounded.
Surveying the national situation, PCPII discerned many “lights and shadows”
(See PCP-II Final Document, nos. 18-32,
and especially Appendix I, “The Contemporary Philippine Situation,” pp. 275-91).
PCP-II described the imbalances of the
economic and political situation and saw
these imbalances as reinforced by the
negative features of our cultural life. From
such a situation PCP-II proceeded to describe a vision of society toward which the
Church would carry out its task of social
transformation. This is the PCP-II vision of
society:
That all may have life (mabigyan
ng buhay)—we shall have to create
a free nation: where human dignity
and solidarity are respected and promoted; where moral principles prevail in socio-economic life and structure; where justice, love, and solidarity are the inner driving forces of
development.
We shall have to build a sovereign nation: where every tribe and
A
faith are respected; where diverse
tongues and traditions work together
for the good of all; where membership is a call to participation and
involvement and leadership a summon to generous service.
Ours will have to be a people in
harmony with one another through
unity in diversity; in harmony with
creation, and in harmony with God.
Ours shall be a civilization of life and
love (PCP-II Final Document, nos. 253-55).
The above vision of Philippine society expresses the following values of the
Kingdom of God: 1) freedom and sovereignty; 2) human dignity and solidarity; 3)
the primacy of morality in the social order;
4) justice and love as driving forces of
development; 5) respect for cultural values and traditions; 6) the common good as
goal; 7) participation and service as responsibility; 8) unity in diversity; 9) harmony with creation and with God.
Presumably, if the above values become operative in society,
the result would be “a civilization of life and love.”
The general response
of the Church toward this
vision and the task of social transformation is its
vision of itself.
Although PCP-II did
not provide an explicit and
concise enunciation of this
vision, we are by now generally aware of its fundamental
components,
namely: 1) a Church of authentic disciples; 2) a
Church of communion; 3) a
participatory Church; 4) a
Church engaged in integral
evangelization; 5) an inculturated Church;
6) and a Church of the Poor.
The following would be a personal
summing up of the PCP-II vision of Church
in the Philippines:
To announce effectively and credibly the Gospel of Jesus as truly salvific
and liberating, to be truly a leaven in
society transforming the Filipino person into a new creation and the Filipino nation into a closer reflection of
the Kingdom of God, we Filipino
Catholics have to be what we claim
we are: a community of the Lord’s
disciples, where everyone participates actively in the building of God’s
people, each one totally motivated
by God’s love which expresses itself
most especially in a Christian love of
R
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preference for the poor, thus making
the community of disciples a Church
of the Poor(see my talk, “The Formation of Teachers and Lay Leaders in
Service of the Faith and the Filipino,”
CEAP National Convention, July 4,
1991; also NASAGA, Naga City, October 2, 1991).
The PCP-II vision of Church is, indeed, formidable. And the most difficult to
realize, I believe, is to be a Church of the
Poor, because this vision requires a profound conversion of every facet of our
lives.
From the situation to the vision, the
Church committed itself to a journey of
renewal, a journey of integral evangelization, so that the Church could be credible
and effective in its over-all mission in the
Philippines. The Church would have to
avoid the failures of its evangelizing efforts (see PCP-II Final Document, e.g.,
nos. 30-31) as a “potent yet flawed” evangelizer.
E
S
recommendations found within the text of
the Council were very difficult to implement. In order, therefore, to make the goals
of renewal more simple, the National Consultation drew up nine major pastoral priorities for the Church in the Philippines
(see Final Message of NPCCR, “Behold I
Make All things New,” 7), namely: 1)
Integral Faith Formation; 2) Empowerment
of the Laity towards Social Transformation; 3) Active Presence and Participation
of the Poor; 4) The Family as the Focal
Point of Evangelization; 5) Building and
Strengthening of Participatory Communities that make up the Parish as a Community of Communities; 6) Integral Renewal
of the Clergy (and Religious); 7) Journeying with the Youth; 8) Ecumenism and
Interreligious Dialogue; 9) Animation and
Formation for Mission ad Gentes.
The Consultation exhorted, “We enjoin all communities of faith to engage in
contextualized pastoral reflection, dialogue, discernment, planning and action
based on these nine priorities” (Message of NPCCR,
8).
It is now 15 years since
PCP-II ended. In many dioceses all over the country the
work of renewal toward the
vision of church and society
has focused on the building
of Basic Ecclesial Communities as the pastoral priority.
The BEC as a vision of “a new
way of being Church” has
the advantage of concentrating pastoral efforts on the
family level of grassroots
communities, namely, on the
cluster of families that make
up the BEC (thus nos. 3-5 of
the pastoral priorities).
In the BEC the focal point of evangelization is, indeed, the family. Toward the
BEC all the pastoral programs of the diocese, including social action, is directed.
The BEC in turn becomes the agent of
integral evangelization.
"To recognize spirituality as the
synthesizing principle in the task
of pursuing justice, development
and peace is to recognize the role of
the Spirit of God in recreating a
new nation and a new Filipino. It
is also a confession of our own
utter human lack of power in the
face of evil."
In 2001, ten years after PCP-II, the
National Pastoral Consultation on Church
Renewal (NPCCR) stated that the PCP-II
reading of the Philippine situation was still
quite valid. The imbalances remained generally the same. The Church reviewed what
it had accomplished in its 10-year journey
of renewal and integral evangelization.
The review showed similar “lights and
shadows” that PCP-II had already seen.
The economic, political, cultural, and religious problems remained generally the
same. Nonetheless there were many significant advances in renewal especially
where the BECs were active.
One of the problems that dioceses
encountered was the sheer comprehensiveness and magnitude of renewal. The
132 decrees of PCP-II and the many other
B.
In Pursuit of Justice,
Development and Peace
From the perspective of integral renewal and of integral evangelization, we
now ask: what is the place of Social Ministry or Social Apostolate?
PCP-II itself raised the urgent and
relevant questions:
How should the Church foster
social transformation and assist the
Volume
Volume 40
40 •• Number
Number 12
12
5
5
PCP-II
On
A
Renewed
Church
Pursui
Document of PCP-II was also constructed
according to the same process, although
the documents end with pastoral decisions or decrees. Thus, the Pastoral Spiral:
Situation Analysis ! Reflection in Faith !
Pastoral Decision ! Planning ! Action !
Evaluation.
© Roy Lagarde
2. A Schema for the Social Action
Apostolate
little people in bringing about harmony and kaayusan in their lives?
How should the Church announce
the Kingdom of Justice, Peace and
Love in the context of great social,
economic, political and cultural imbalances? How can we as a community of the Lord’s disciples be a leaven
of social transformation? (no. 261).
Responding to the questions, PCP-II
prescribed four general directions for social action to take (see nos.262-373): 1) the
Formation of a Social Conscience; 2) the
Application of the Social Doctrine of the
Church; 3) the Renewal of the Political
Order; 4) The Living of a Spirituality of
Social Transformation.
How urgent and imperative these four
general directions are in our day! I am
sometimes shocked that many well educated Catholics think of the mission of the
church in purely “other worldly” terms, in
exclusively spiritual terms. We are aware
of course, of the many current misunderstandings of the role of the Church regarding issues of politics, economics, ecology
and the like. And we are often frustrated
and exasperated by the political circus
played by politicians from left, right, and
center that happens daily in “imperial”
Manila. Unfortunately media seems to treat
this political bickering with an intensity
and seriousness that it does not really
deserve. People in the countryside are
concerned more about their own economic
survival and politicians have ignored these
more primary needs. Hence, we see how
absolutely necessary it is for us to form a
6
truly Christian social conscience and to
renew the political order with the guidance
of the social doctrine of the Church. The
social doctrine of the church consists of
“principles of reflection, criteria for judgment, and directives of action.”
Thank God, we now have in our hands
a Compendium of the Social Doctrine of
the Church. A copy of this should be in the
hands of every Social Action director. In
fact, it should be translated into the major
languages of the Philippines for easy access to lay leaders in the Basic Ecclesial
Communities.
Let me suggest further supplementary answers to the questions PCP-II asked
by way of a process of discernment and a
general schema for the social apostolate.
1. A Process of Discernment
PCP-II followed a process of discernment that is known as the Pastoral Spiral.
This was developed in the 1980s by two
FABC Offices, Human Development and
Laity, in order to help participants in social
immersion programs to interiorize and express their experience.
The process begins with a holistic
analysis (social and cultural analysis) of
the pastoral situation. It is followed by
faith-reflection on the situation in the light
of Sacred Scriptures and the Teachings of
the Church. It then proceeds to pastoral
decisions, planning and action. The spiral
ends with evaluation, after which a new
spiral begins. It is a fuller version of the
usual “see, judge, act” process. The Final
To give some sense to the PCP-II
decrees of the social apostolate, may I
suggest a schema. At the outset, Article 20
of PCP-II provides a general pastoral orientation for all the decrees on the social
apostolate:
#1. The Church must exert all efforts to
reduce the gap between faith and practice in the area of social justice by
working for greater justice and equality in Philippine society.
#2. Action on behalf of justice is to be
pursued as a sign of Christian witnessing to Christ and His teachings.
#3. The social action apostolate is to be
constantly given solid religious
grounding through catechesis and
organic linking with worship.
The decrees then specifically target
three areas as tasks of renewal, namely,
Formation, Inculturation, and Spirituality.
Moreover, Article 22.1 notes the necessity of holistic analysis: A thorough social
analysis, structural and cultural is to be
promoted more intensely in the process of
building up discerning communities of
faith, precisely to the end that their efforts
at social transformation take into account
hard social realities and carried through
from a genuine perspective of faith.
Hence, the following suggested
Schema for Social Ministry in Pursuit of
Justice, Development and Peace. See PCPII articles 22 - 33:
a) Process / Activities
1. Holistic Analysis
• through brainstorming sessions in dioceses and parishes;
2. Formation and Inculturation
• through immersion-exposure programs, reflection-action process;
• formation of a Christian social conscience;
• biblical catechesis for social involvement and transformation;
• formation in the social teachings of the
Church;
• emphasis on value formation;
• political formation for lay people;
ng
Justice,
Development
• skills training;
• grounding the social apostolate in the
teachings of the Church and linking it
with worship - the liturgy and the
sacraments.
3. Organization
• Social Action steering committee made
up of the different sectors of
theChurch;
• Lay people to assume leadership roles;
• Coordination of all pastoral programs
based on a common vision;
• Inter-sectoral, inter-faith, international
linkages.
4. Programs and Projects
• e.g., ecology, labor, rural poor;
• women, sick and handicapped, youth,
families of OFWs;
• setting up social fund for the poor;
• research by Catholic educational institutions on basic causes of social problems.
5. Spirituality
• development of a holistic spirituality
for social transformation;
• Christian witnessing in action for justice.
and
a leaven of social transformation?”
The answer immediately follows in
no. 262: “the most basic and effective
response… can come only from the very
depths of our being as disciples of the
Lord, . .. in our following of Jesus, in our
fidelity to his Gospel of Justice and Love
and thus, in our spirituality.”
The faith-reflection of PCP-II looks at
the socio-economic and political problems in terms of sinfulness (nos. 264-70).
This realization of sinfulness as the root
cause must lead to conversion and social
transformation (nos. 272-74).
For this to happen, a definite way of
life—a spirituality—has to develop,
“which is nothing more and nothing less
than a following of Jesus-in-mission. It is
the spirituality of the community of disciples” (See a further elaboration of this
spirituality in my talk, “Spirituality of
Social Transformation,” 1990 National
Social Action General Assembly,
Dumaguete City).
PCP-II firmly believed that a spirituality
of “following Jesus-in-mission” bears the
key to authentic social transformation, to the
Peace
overcoming of sinfulness and the dismantling of structures of sin. This spirituality is
“marked by an enduring and intimate commitment to Jesus, .. by a love of preference for
the poor” (no. 278). It is “a hunger and thirst
for justice,” a heeding of God’s word “in the
voices of the voiceless and powerless,” an
urging “to care for the earth as God’s gift,”
“a witnessing to the radical demands of the
Gospel” (nos. 278-82).
To recognize spirituality as the synthesizing principle in the task of pursuing
justice, development and peace is to recognize the role of the Spirit of God in
recreating a new nation and a new Filipino.
It is also a confession of our own utter
human lack of power in the face of evil.
It is, finally, a declaration that, when
all is said and done, it is the power and the
wisdom of God manifested by the Cross
and the Empty Tomb that ultimately brings
“into our midst a fuller realization of the
Kingdom of Jesus, a kingdom of justice,
peace and love” (no. 401). I
(This piece was delivered on the occasion of the
Orientation Seminar for new Diocesan Social Action
Directors, held in Tagaytay on March 23, 2006—Ed).
b) Thrust
• toward Justice, Development and
Peace;
• toward Empowerment of the Poor /
Grassroots Communities (BECs);
• toward Building Discerning and Transformative Communities.
c) Setting / Target
• Diocese, Parish;
• Small Faith Communities, Schools, Seminaries, Formation Houses;
• Religious Organizations, etc.
d) Vision of Church and Society
C. Spirituality of Social
Transformation—The
Synthesizing Principle
What I would consider as the synthesizing principle, the summing up of the
requirements of renewal in the pursuit of
justice, development and peace, is “a spirituality of social transformation.” [This
section is mostly taken from my CBCP
article, “Announcing a Message of Liberation,” 1992]. PCP-II develops this spirituality in nos. 262-282.
In no. 261, PCP-II asks: “How can we,
as a community of the Lord’s disciples, be
© Roy Lagarde
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© dutypix.multiply.com
A
Ramifications
of Cheating—
Another Look
at the Nursing
Exams
Leakage
By Jose B. Lugay
P
rior to the release of the decision of
the Court of Appeals, the media pro
jected the scandal day in and day out
since the expose’ of the cheating—the
nursing board exam leakage. There was
flip-flopping of decisions by the Administration. President Arroyo at first expressed
her desire for a retake to redeem the integrity of the nursing licensure examinations
as well as the overall reputation of our
professional health care workers. Then
when the affected examinees who passed,
cried “unfair”, the Administration changed
its stand—they will wait for the decision of
the Court of Appeals. When the decision
was released, PRC was prevented to perform the oath-taking of all the nurses who
8
passed, by the Secretary of Labor until the
order is final and executory.
Leonor T. Rosero Chair of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) during the Senate hearing, defiantly remarked
that she did not agree with the President’s
order to transfer her office under Secretary
Arturo Brion of the Department of Labor
and Employment and a former Justice of
the Court of Appeals. Rosero criticized the
stand of her new boss to have all examinees retake the board examination. She also
attacked Filipino Overseas Chair Dante
Ang for intruding into and doing a demolition job of PRC.
A total of 17,871 of the 42,000 examinees passed the exam conducted last June
11 and 12. Only Tests III and V were
considered tainted with the leakage.
Twenty questions of Test III out of 100
were leaked to three review centers. Test
V weighted scores was reduced from 100
to 80 percent. The new passing average
was determined based on these changed
criteria. This is the decision of PRC in its
Resolution No. 31. As a result, of the
17,871 original passing examinees, 1,687
who failed passed while 1187 who originally passed, failed. The U.S.T. School of
Nursing filed a restraining order to nullify
the oath-taking of the passing examinees
as determined by PRC Resolution No. 31.
The National Bureau of Investigation, meanwhile busied itself determining
Ramification of Cheating
or about 1985, during the Marcos years,
Universities in the Visayas requested for
board examination to be conducted outside Manila since there were enough graduates to fill several classrooms of examinees. It was during this time that I was
appointed as a member of the Board of
Chemical Engineering.
Having held the position for three
consecutive years, I had a chance to investigate the causes of low passing average of the Chemical Engineer examinees.
Just like the Nursing examination, the percentage passing yearly was 33% to 40%.
From PRC data I made a statistical review
of the 10 preceding years to find a clue to
the cause of this low passing grade. In-
the inspection. This was due to the fact
that the scheduled visit was made known
to the schools in advance.
Accreditation of schools/colleges/
universities is the first step to solve the
problem of low passing grades in the board
examination of any degree course. In
today’s government structure, this should
be the function of the Commission on
Higher Education (CHED) not the Department of Labor and Employment. The second step of solving the problem is the
strict selection of students by giving them
entrance examinations as what well-known
educational institutions do. Proficiency in
English, I notice, is key to passing the
board examination. Misunderstanding the
test questions is sure to cause
failing grades. Lastly, the
Board Examiners chosen and
appointed by the President,
needless to say, must be
morally upright. In a politically dominated system,
probably this is too much to
expect!
If we religiously follow
accreditation of schools and
colleges; training teachers/
professors updated in their
fields of specialization; pursuing strict selection of enrollees; updating the curriculum to meet changing needs
of the practice of a profession; supporting scholarships of bright students and
financial support from the
government of deserving institutions, may be there is no
longer the need to screen
graduates through board
examinations.
The most obvious and necessary action is to inculcate in the young that cheating is a sin and must never be tolerated.
Hence we go back to basic catechism and
family evangelization. I wonder how many
public schools allow the catechists to give
classes to primary grade students. How
many dioceses have enough catechists to
train public school students in their locality? How many Christian parents teach their
children to be honest? What comes to mind
too is a biblical passage I heard yesterday
on the occasion of CFM’s 50 th anniversary
from our chaplain Mons. Manny Gabriel—
to follow the advise of the prophet Micah
(6:8): “You have been told, O man, what is
good and what Yahweh requires of you: to
do justice, to love mercy, and to walk
humbly with your God.” I
© kateliz.multiply.com
who were involved in the leakage of examination questions. The 2 examiners involved
in the leakage were named: Anesia Dionisio
and Virginia Madeja. Three review centers were implicated—the Gapuz Review
Center, Innress Review Center and Pentagon Specialists, Inc. who were charged
including 17 individuals. No PRC officials
were involved according to the NBI. The
Office of the President after the decision of
the Court of Appeals announced that the
Administration will abide by the decision;
that is, no retake of the examination except
for 1,687 who did not pass in the original
computation.
It is a mess—a nasty professional
mess! But this did not end yet. Japan who
recently signed an agreement with President Arroyo,
the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership allowing
employment of Filipino
nurses and caregivers expressed their concern about
the integrity of our health
professionals. This was seconded by a communiqué
from Brussels representing
the European Union, one of
the active markets for Philippine healthcare workers.
If you were the President
and the Secretary of Labor,
how do you get out of this
dilemma?
How did this problem
start? This is not the first
occurrence of leakage in
board test questions. It happened in the bar examinations; the board examination for medicine, etc. These
incidents did not create continued media exposure—months on end.
How and when did Review Centers proliferate? Is greed for money their overall
motivation for running this business? Who
and how are they going to be regulated?
My experience in the past may elucidate
some problem areas for which certain recommendations may be appropriate.
There was a time decades ago, when
board reviews were conducted by the
Colleges/Universities as part of their academic program. When the enrollment rose
exponentially, as a result of population
growth, the universities could not handle
them. Review groups came about led and
conducted by individual professors.
Board examinations were usually conducted in Metro Manila so the board reviews were held in this city. However, on
"The most obvious and necessary
action is to inculcate in the young
that cheating is a sin and must
never be tolerated. Hence we go
back to basic catechism and family
evangelization."
variably, the top schools for engineering,
U.P., U.S.T., De La Salle, M.I.T, University
of San Carlos, consistently maintained
70% to 95% successful examinees among
45 schools offering the chemical engineering course at that time. There were 12
schools which did not have a successful
examinee in all those years. Obviously, the
Professional Regulation Commission
(there was no CHED then) did not do its
function of control—that is, in regulating
the schools which did not pass the standards that they have set. One of the
parameters to be measured is the professor/student ratio; another is the completeness of the laboratory equipment. Colleges do cheat in this regard. Laboratory
equipment is rented and shown to the
inspectors and returned to the owner after
9
Introduction
T
he Institute of the Daughters of Mary
Help of Christians (Salesian sisters
of St. John Bosco) was founded by
St. John Bosco and St. Maria Domenica
Mazzarello in 1872 in Mornese, Italy. The
small seed blossomed into a fruitful tree
that has spread its missionary presence in
89 countries all over the world with more
than 15,000 FMAs living and working with
the young in an educative presence characterized by the Salesian Preventive System. Don Bosco School (Salesian Sisters),
Inc. is one of the educational institutions
owned and operated by the FMA.
St. John Bosco was an exceptional
educator. His acute intelligence, common
sense and profound spirituality led him to
create a system of education that develops the whole person—body, heart, mind
and spirit. It enhances growth and freedom while putting the child at the center of
the whole educational enterprise.
To distinguish his method from the
repressive system of education prevalent
in 19th century Italy, he called his own
method the ‘preventive’ system—because
it seeks to prevent the need for punishment by placing the child in an environment in which he/she is encouraged to be
the best one can be. It is a congenial,
friendly and holistic approach to education.
It creates a climate that ‘draws forth’
(educere) the best in the child, that encourages the child’s complete and fullest selfexpression, that assists young people in
acquiring habits that will lead them to opt
in favor of what is good, healthy, joyful
and life-enhancing. It promotes a harmonious and fruitful integration of reality
aimed at integrating faith and everyday
experience. We evangelize through education and we educate through evangelization.
The Preventive system of Don Bosco
and Mary Mazzarello is the hallmark of our
specific spirituality and method of education as Salesian Educators. It guides and
permeates our relationship with others and
characterizes our lifestyle. It creates an
environment in which the young person
grows in making choices and imbibes values spontaneously because of the models
he/she sees in the educators and companions. Don Bosco spoke of forming “good
Christians and honest citizens”.
We identify several elements of the
Salesian Education by which our school
lives the Gospel according to the style and
spirituality of St. John Bosco and St. Mary
10
How Catholic is Your School?
The Don Bosco School
(Salesian Sisters)
Experience
By Sr. Maria Socorro Cristina L. Fernando, FMA, Ph.D.
Mazzarello. Our being a Catholic School
lies not merely in structures and activities
but in the culture of our being a Catholic
Salesian School. The activities, structures, curriculum, governance, etc. are
concrete expressions by which we live our
faith…as Salesian educators and
Bosconians. Our distinct Salesian educational culture challenges us each day to be
signs and bearers of God’s love to the
young “that they may have life…life to the
full.”
Pedagogy of the Environment
The Pedagogy of the Environment is
so important in Salesian Education. It is an
environment characterized by trust in the
young, joy, trust, dialogue, by preference
for the poor, educative passion, openness
to the realities of the area, and a clear plan
of Christian life. It speaks in various languages: poetry, theatre, music, sports, play,
quality work and study. It is an environment where experience becomes a school
of life and where one proceeds with one
another in accompaniment.
The Salesian organizational culture
called the Salesian Spirituality is shared by
the members of the Educating Community.
The Salesian “organizational climate”
known also as “Salesian Family spirit”
characterizes the specific educational atmosphere steeped with dialogue, spontaneous, warm and trusting, confidencefilled relationships. Don Bosco exhorts us
© javemervin.multiply.com
A
to always “find the seed of goodness in
every event and every person” and that
“Education is a matter of the heart.”
The FMA Educating Communities
draw from the Preventive System the criteria that qualify each environment and experience as Salesian. Every Salesian educational environment is called on to be
characterized by the quality of its proposals, by the flexibility with which it faces the
emerging formative challenges and by its
ability to read the educational needs of the
younger generations. We commit ourselves to:
• The integration of formal and nonformal education. In practice, this
means strengthening collaboration
between the schools, professional
training, and works for children and
young at risk, women promotion centers and oratory youth centers where
our teachers, parents, young students
volunteer themselves on weekends to
work in these area of service.
• Attentive to the family as the principal
place in which education takes place.
Relations with the family are a big
challenge for the Educating Community. In the Salesian tradition, dialogue with parents becomes open to
the sharing and offering of formative
support in their irreplaceable role.
• Intelligent and discrete work in favor of
inculturation of our educative proposal.
• Attentive to ecumenical and interfaith
dialogue and the ability to network as
in our interfaith summer camps, modules, cultural immersion with students
of our other schools, inter-school planning, leadership programs, extra-curricular cluster club days.
• Attentive listening to the new forms of
youth poverty (dysfunctional families, abuse, migration, globalization,
new forms of illiteracy, etc.)
Presence
of
Accompanying the
towards Holiness
R
T
I
C
L
E
loving what they love, of accompanying
them in their search for meaning. It is an
accompaniment that helps them to discover the presence of God in their life,
which leads them to harmony with the
Holy Spirit and moves them to a response
of joyful availability to god’s call. It calls
for the solid formation of educators in line
with the Preventive System as spirituality
and a method: preparation together in
mutual enrichment between religious, lay
people, and the young people themselves.
It promotes a harmonious and fruitful integration of reality aimed at integrating faith
and everyday experience.
The Educating Community
In Don Bosco School Manila, as in all
our other schools, the lay mission partners: (i.e. the teachers and staff), the parents, members of the Salesian Family, and
the young form the Educating Community.
It is their primary role to form the young to
become builders of the Christian community, women and men of Christian conscience, commitment and social responsibility.
The educating community shares a
common mission through different and
complementary roles. Through their different roles they share at different levels in
S
the educational plan. Their presence ensures the convergence of educational interventions.
The educating community is educated
as it educates. We offer the members of the
Educating Community the possibility of
gradual preparation enabling them to share
with us the responsibility of organizing
and carrying out our educative work using
the Preventive System. The progressive
acquisition of a planning mentality and
continuous updating has allowed the educating communities to express the richness of the preventive system in different
contexts.
• It is formed by working together as a
family that puts itself together at the
service of the poor and of the school.
• It is attentive to find the signs of the
presence of God in everyday life.
• It believes in the positive energies of
the younger generations and of adults
and is capable of moving out of its own
security to welcome the precariousness experienced by young people, to
enter into dialogue and rethink human
and religious experience with them.
• It fulfills its mission by valuing
everyone’s contribution and, in an
attitude of co-responsibility and participation, favors the creation of the
“family spirit”.
Adults
Young
The great challenge that the present
youth and cultural situation poses for
educators regards a renewed understanding of the presence of the adult as an
educator and as capable of working in
synergy. It is an adult who seeks to radiate
and witness the values of the gospel in
daily life.
According to Salesian tradition, the
heart of education is passion for young
people, the art of showing them trust, of
11
How Catholic is Your School? The Don Bosco School
Coordination: Circular Animation
(Governance)
Coordination for communion (unity
of interventions) involves people working
and networking in a circular method that
favors sharing of resources and creativity
in search for unity; coordination goes
beyond organization and brings out more
clearly the main lines or areas of convergence.
Coordination is a way of thinking and
working together that involve people according to a circular process, so as to
encourage sharing of resources and the
expression of creativity in communion. It
is entrusted to all the sectors of the educational setting and requires that we act in a
complementary and convergent way.
Coordinating in a harmonious way guarantees the synergy of all the resources
around a common international, provincial and local educational project or plan,
over and above the different methods and
structures of animation. It involves a planning mentality and a strong sense of coresponsibility.
The educative mission is entrusted to
the whole educating community and requires convergence of multiple interventions that, in turn, requires the participation of a number of voices and different
levels of interaction: ecclesial, social, and
political. Putting the young at the center,
the educating community is committed to
weaving a network of solidarity between
all who believe in education and, in particular, with the groups of the Salesian
Family (Past pupils, Salesian Cooperators,
Salesians, Colunteers, etc.).
Salesian Youth Movement
The Salesian Youth Movement is a
place in which young people, Salesians,
FMA and other members of the Salesian
Family share experiences and put the
Salesian charism into action, in different
contexts and ways.
School activities (co-curricular, extracurricular, spiritual) are considered in the
integral formation of the young. The pupils and students are given the venues and
experiences which allow them to live concretely the values and learnings they have
taken in the curricular subjects in the classroom. All Salesian Youth Groups form part
of the Salesian Youth Movement.
The Salesian style of education recognizes the aim to educate young people
to become builders of a Christian community as women and men of Christian con-
12
science, commitment and competency, and
includes the development of all their dimensions and interests. Therefore, besides academic, technical and other regular subjects, the playground and the youth
activity clubs help the young person grow
by means of positive suggestions and
experiences capable of awakening and involving all his/her interior resources. The
group experience provides them with a
possibility of exercising responsibility and
initiative in a family atmosphere. These
youth experiences are characterized by
freedom to participate, organize things for
themselves, spontaneity, the active presence of the educator-animator, and a common ideal.
The activities of the different youth
groups are animated by a common and
values lived by both the Animator (Group
Moderator) and the Young: the Salesian
Youth Spirituality which is characterized
by the different elements:
• MEETING God in daily life: finding the
mysterious presence of the Lord of life
in persons, in everyday events and
duties. A daily spirituality that proposes ordinary life as the meeting place
with God.
• LIVING our daily duties with an atti-
tude of celebration: blending the joy
of knowing that we are in the hands of
God and the duty of freeing ourselves
and others from every form of sadness. It is an ‘Easter’ spirituality of joy
in action that develops a positive attitude of hope in both the natural and
supernatural resources of the person,
and presents Christian life as a path to
happiness.
• BEING Church for the spreading of the
Kingdom: A spirituality of responsible
service that encourages in young
people and in adults a renewed apostolic commitment which becomes a
vocational call to the Christian transformation of their world. It is experiencing community life in an atmosphere of fraternity, sharing family
spirit, the sense of belonging to the
Church and of openness to service.
• CELEBRATING the joy of salvation in
the Eucharist and in Reconciliation. It
is a spirituality of friendship and personal relationship with the Lord Jesus,
known and visited through prayer, the
Eucharist, the Word and the Sacraments. Salesian Education is a pedagogy of joy. The fount of joy is the
intense and frequent encounters with
l (Salesian Sisters) Experience
Guidelines for the Educational
Mission (GEM) of the FMA
The Guidelines for the Educational
Mission of the Daughters of Mary Help of
Christians (FMA) are a fruit of research
done together, reflected upon and evaluated by the World Educating Community.
They are our response to the requests that
came from the General Chapter and the lay
mission partners the world over. They are
dedicated to a the Educating communities
the world over and are our response to the
continual challenge to quality Salesian
education. These Guidelines are entrusted
to each person in the Educating Community as a sign of giving hope to the future
generations. They are to be translated in
the local context and in the daily living. In
these guidelines, the treasure of the Salesian
Preventive system of Education remains
firm. The newness involves how to transmit and translate the Preventive System
into our times.
Salesian Servant Leaders: Fruits
of the Salesian Education
Sanctity runs in the family. God has
shown great love towards the Salesian
Family of Don Bosco by enriching it with
holiness. These fruits of the Salesian
Preventive system are concrete proofs of
the effectiveness of Don Bosco’s Educational System in preparing servant leaders for the state and church and citizens
ready to go to heaven at any time in their
lives.
Priests, lay people, consecrated religious, young people and adults in the
Family, members dedicated to education
and evangelization, building God’s Kingdom in daily life and apostles called to the
heroism of martyrdom, all find a richness
of inspiration among our Saints. The
communion which we intend to achieve
as a Family has in a holiness, sought after
with constancy, the richest aspect of our
fellowship. (Charter of Communion in the
Salesian Family, Article 38).
New
Some Fruits of the Preventive
System of Don Bosco
Saint Dominic Savio(1842-1857) is a
well-known young saint, formed by Don
Bosco himself, the masterpiece of his
pedagogy and apostolic work. He himself became an apostle among his companions, and thus helped his teacher and
friend. His First Communion resolutions
are famous and inspired many other boys
and girls.
Blessed Laura Vicuna(1891-1904).
Born in Chile, a pupil of the FMA in Junin
de los Andes, Argentina. She died offering her life for her mother’s conversion at
a tender age of 12. On 3 September 1988
at the “Hill of the Beatitudes for Youth”
(Colle Don Bosco, Italy), in the presence
of thousands of young people who were
taking part in “Confronto ‘88", Pope John
Paul II beatified her, and presented her as
a model of Gospel authenticity.
Roderick Flores (1969-1984). He was
a scout in the Don Bosco Technical College unit in Mandaluyong. He drowned
trying to save two companions who had
sudden cramp while swimming. His body
was found one week later. “This heroic
gesture of jumping in to save his companions was only the culmination of a long
series of numberless acts of altruism performed daily.” This is what a Salesian
who knew him testified.
Aurima Joy Magtoto. A past pupil of
the FMA School at Mary Help of Christians School, mabalacat, Pampanga who
died at the age of 13 on June 6, 2003. She
took Laura Vicuna as her model as she
bore the pains of bone cancer at the
tender age of 12. She was constantly
cheerful and did her best all the days that
she can manage herself in spite of her
illness. Like Laura, she offered her suffering for her family and she lived heroically
Laura’s motto: “Suffer silently, smile always.” The Salesian priest who heard her
confession remarked that she was “extraordinary soul graced by God.” The
sisters, teachers, and schoolmates pray
to her for the many intentions they have
and our young people take her as a model
of holiness, within their reach and nurtured among them: a young person who
walked and triumphed the road to holiness. I
(Sr. Maria Socorro Cristina L. Fernando, FMA is
currently the Principal of Don Bosco School—
Salesian Sisters, Inc., Sta. Mesa, Manila. The
foregoing article is her paper presentation during the
65t h national convention of the Catholic Educational
Association of the Philippines held last September
13-15 at the Manila Hotel – Ed.)
ovc.blogspot.com
Jesus.
• FOLLOWING the road taken by Mary:
a Marian spirituality where one entrusts oneself simply and trustingly to
the maternal help of Mary, finding in
her a strong, free woman, the Mother
and Teacher of a responsible “yes” to
God and neighbor. At the school of
Mary, Mother and Educator, they learn
passion and care for the young, especially those who are poor and at risk.
se!
a
e
Rel
For Orders Contact:
National Matrimonial Tribunal
Office
Tel. No. (632) 5274160
CBCPWorld Office
Telefax (632) 4041612
© Denz Dayao / IMPACT
Other books by
Abp. Oscar V. Cr uz, JCD, DD
1. Marriage Tribunal Ministry
2. Guide Documents on Parish, Vicariate and
Diocesan Administrative/Pastoral Concerns
3. Canon 290 CIC in the Service of Truth,
Justice and Charity
4. Annotations on Rotal Jurisprudence on Canon
1097, 1098, 1102
1103
1095
1101
8. Evidence in Marriage Nullity Cases
9. Impediments to Canonical Marriage
10. Markers
11. Penal Process for Dismissal from the Clerical
State
12. Provincial Council, Diocesan Synod,
Pastoral Assembly
13. CBCP Guidelines on Sexual Abuse and
Misconduct: A Critique
14. Board of Conciliation and Arbitration
15. Viewpoints at the Onset of the New
Millennium
16. Media in our Midst
17. Administration of the Temporal Goods of the
Church
18. Curia Management
19. Clergy Compensation
20. Call of the Laity
13
A
R
T
I
C
L
E
Karapatan has recorded a total of 725 civilians murdered since 2001, 307 of which were
activists.
“The attacks are not an unconnected
series of criminal murders but constitute a
politically-motivated pattern of killings. The
organization remains gravely concerned
that members of the security forces may
have been directly involved in the killings
or else have tolerated, acquiesced, or been
complicit in them,” AI said.
© bayan.ph
The Melo Commission
When will the killings end?
By Baltz R. Acebedo
H
uman rights lawyer Gil Gojol was on
his way back to Sorsogon City last
December 12 after attending a court
hearing in Gubat town when, as he left the
court on board a marron van, three assailants
on an unmarked motorcycle tailed him. Upon
reaching Barangay San Ignacio, near an
Army detachment, the gunmen blocked the
van and shot the driver. Gojol tried to flee but
was shot in the buttocks and fell on his face
near a house. His attackers finished him off
with a shot in the head.
The murder of Gojol, which by stark
irony occurred just two days after the Dec.
10 International Human Rights Day celebration, is the latest in a long series of
seemingly interminable killings of activists
since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
took office in 2001.
Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes condemned the killing of Gojol and urged the
government to put a stop to the series of
killings as more lives are to be wasted in the
murder rampage. “I condemn these senseless killings. It shows no respect for human
rights,” Bastes said.
The Integrated Bar of the
Philippines(IBP)—Sorsogon chapter also
strongly condemned the murder of Gojol
which the chapter described as a threat to
their group. The IBP stressed that it should
not be taken against the lawyers who extend services to known left-wing organizations or individuals as they could not refuse
those who need their legal service, similar to
doctors who are bound by their sworn duty
to extend medical help to whoever is in need
of such assistance.
Militants have long since blamed the
14
series of killings on military “death squads,”
noting that the numerous political killings
have remained unsolved, which gives the
public the perception that the government
is not concerned about these killings at all.
Spiral of Violence
The murder of Gojol, according to Phil.
Daily Inquirer records, brought to 262 the
number of militants or activists killed. Some
human rights groups have put the number
of political killings at more than 700.
The global human rights group Amnesty International (AI) reported that at
least 51 murders were committed in the first
six months of 2006 compared to 66 in the
whole of 2005.
“Most of those killed are members of
the legal leftist political parties which, despite their legal status, have been accused
by senior government officials of being
front organizations for illegal communist
armed groups,” AI said.
In a 51-page report issued some few
months ago, AI said the increasing number
of political killings has resulted in threats of
retaliatory assassinations by insurgents,
raising the prospect of a spiral of violence
and abuses in the country. It also stressed
that the government’s “all-out war” on
communists paves the way for the further
increase in killings.
From 2001 to June 2006, records from
the government’s Task Force Usig show
that 114 leftists have been killed; suspects
in only three cases have been arrested and
no convictions have been reported so far.
The Philippine human rights group
In an attempt to stem the spate of
killings, President Arroyo issued last August 21 Administrative Order No. 157 creating an independent commission to probe
the killings. Led by former Supreme Court
Associate Justice Jose Melo, the other
appointees are National Bureau of Investigation Director Nestor Mantaring and Chief
State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuno from the
government, and Butuan Bishop Juan de
dios Pueblos and UP Regent Nelia Torres
Gonzales from the private sector.
Congressional, militant and Church
leaders however have questioned the members’ track record on human rights and the
commission’s independence, saying that
the NBI and the DOJ are subordinates of the
President, the commission will be a mere
mouthpiece of the administration.
The National Union of Journalists in
the Philippines (NUJP) likewise assailed
that the commission’s mandate to investigate also remains unclear, noting that it
duplicates functions of the Commission on
Human Rights as well as the government’s
Task Force Usig, which erstwhile has been
ordered to solve 10 killings in 10 weeks.
Malacanang has asked its critics to
give the commission a chance.
To date, the commission held a hearing
last December 11 in Davao City on political
and agrarian related killings in Mindanao
but its witnesses failed to give enough
evidence that would help the commission
identify the masterminds, panel officials
said.
“The court will not arraign (the case)
because there is no person identified,” retired Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo said.
Genuine Political Will
To counter the threat of further killings,
AI has urged the Arroyo government to
identify those responsible for the attacks
and bring them to justice. It added that
stemming the tide of killings requires a genuWhen will / p. 19
F e a t u r e
A r t i c l e
I
n spite of varying times and climes,
favorable or unfavorable, the Christ
mas spirit thrives not only in the hearts
of children and the simple, but also in
those of mature men and women, wearied,
hardened and even jaded by ugly worldly
affairs.
It’s a spirit of joy, bred by faith, which
cannot be simply kept inside. It has to
show itself externally, generating a beautiful gust of popular piety that boosts the
faith, whether sagging or vibrant, of people
both young and old.
“A child is born for us, a son given to
us; dominion is laid on his shoulder, and
he shall be called Wonderful-Counsellor.”
(Isaiah 9,6)
Though repeated countless times
through the ages, every time they are spoken, in faith, on Christmas Day, these words
of Scripture leave an electrifying effect,
mysteriously evoking an undeniable truth
and an unspeakable joy that only our heart,
made by God and for God, can relish.
Whatever they say, there is in man an
inherent goodness that readily recognizes
the spirit of Christmas. It’s a goodness
that frolics with the good news of Christ’s
birth, it sings and dances no matter what
adverse circumstances there may be.
Of course, our theology deepens this
truth of faith by telling us that with Christ’s
birth, God becomes man to save us, and
eternity re-acquires our errant time and
world and sets them in their proper course.
A very beautiful truth we are celebrating in
Christmas!
This irreducible and inalienable goodness in us simply shows that in spite of our
weaknesses and failures, in spite of some
weakening of faith or whatever, we somehow understand we are meant for the eternal, for the infinite.
We are not simply earth-bound or
time-bound. Our true dignity seeks a much
higher level of existence. We may not be
very aware of this, but we actually yearn
for this goal.
Our natural goodness makes us discern where our true home is and what our
true happiness really is. It makes us realize
that we are meant to live on beyond this life
and time, and beyond this world.
This innate goodness, I like to think,
is the original language that unites us with
our Creator, before other layers of languages come between God and us. If taken
good care of, it’s a language that can lead
us to loftier realities about ourselves.
We are not mere creatures who try our
best to make the most of what we have in
this world. We are something much more,
The Christmas Spirit
By Fr. Roy Cimagala
a lot more. We are God’s children, meant to
participate in his very own supernatural
life.
Christmas brings this phenomenon
about. There is something in it, regardless
of the contamination of commercialism,
paganism, etc., that causes this sublime
realization to surface.
Yet, despite this mysterious law, it is
incumbent on us to exert all we can to
purify the way we celebrate Christmas. In
this duty, we cannot be passive.
There can be many things to take care
of, but I’d like to reiterate what a Church
document wants us to pay special attention to during Christmas. This is to keep
the celebration from falling into becoming
too emotional and shallow. These points
can be:
• all manifestations of popular piety
should be linked and harmonized with
the liturgy, which is the official prayer
of the Church, the prayer of Christ
himself with all of us. Popular piety
should climax in the liturgy;
• the “spirituality of gift,” proper of
Christmas, should be highlighted,
based on the truth that “a child is born
for us, a son is given to us” (Is 9,5), and
God “so loved the world that he gave
his only Son” (Jn 3,16);
• to convey the message of solidarity,
also proper of Christ, since with
Christ’s birth God lives solidarity with
sinful man and the poor;
• Christ’s birth should also stress the
sacredness of human life, now threatened gravely in many places;
• also to emphasize the spirit of simplicity and poverty, humility and trust in
God so conspicuous in Christ’s birth
and so direly needed by us today. I
15
C
O
By Pinky B. Barrientos, FSP
I
n signing Proclamation No. 1137 and
declaring October 2006 to October 2007
as Child Abuse Prevention Year, the
Philippine government committed itself in
promoting the welfare of children and upholding their rights. At the launching of
National Year for the Prevention of Child
Abuse last November 6, President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo remarked that the
threats on the safety of the Filipino child
remains endemic, thus, it is imperative that
society be reminded of the “important value
of protecting the child and preventing
abuse.”
In the Philippines, children are the
most precious asset every family can take
proud of. Data from the National Statistics
Office show that there are 36.3 million
Filipinos who are 19 years old and below,
which comprise more than a third of the
country’s entire population. Nonetheless,
among the various sectors of Philippine
society, children are the most vulnerable
and susceptible to all forms of abuse. Studies show that more than a million and a half
children are estimated to live in the streets,
while three and a half million children from
5 to 17; work under conditions that are
considered hazardous to their health and
safety. (www.childprotection.org.ph)
The data clearly depict the hardships
many Filipino children have to endure. It is
unfortunate that the family which is primarily the foundation where children can
draw love, support and nurturance is itself
besieged with many problems. Breakdown
in family ties and poor economic conditions oftentimes become the prevailing
factors that expose children to all forms of
abuse.
Statistics
DSWD statistics confirm an increase
in the number of child abuse cases served
by the agency from 1998 to 2002. However,
the frequency of child abuse and neglect
which have sprung up from 2,716 to 10,045
cases in four years are generally regarded
as underestimates since they only reflect
cases of abuse that were reported and
validated. The sudden increase is also
viewed as a result of heightened awareness and reporting in the community. The
general perception is that the number of
cases of abused children reported to agencies is merely the tip of the iceberg, so to
speak.
In a recent article written by Tina
Arceo-Dumlao and published by the In-
16
December 2006
2006
V
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Y
Sparing
the Rod
The Problem
Problem of
of Child
Child Abuse
Abuse
The
17
Sparing
quirer, she told of the story of 15-year old
Anna Saavedra (not her real name) who
recounted to the newspaper the physical
and emotional abuses she suffered from
the hands of her mother. Just like other
children who did not know any better,
Anna thought her mother’s abusive behavior was just one of the ways how parents should discipline their children.
In a research on the emotional and
physical punishment inflicted on children
in Southeast Asia by Save the Children
Sweden in 2005, the study disclosed that
violence towards children in the home is
rampant, and that corporal punishment is
applied by parents in the name of discipline and child rearing. The children interviewed explained that punishments can
vary from physical assault to verbal abuse.
Those interviewed in the Philippines revealed that punishment inflicted physically includes direct assaults like hitting,
spanking, whipping, hair pulling and ear
twisting while verbal abuse include nagging and shouting. Other kind of punishments were also employed in the form of
indirect assaults (hang on a post or a tree),
use of substances (putting chilli on the
mouth), confinement, threats, verbal attacks, denigration, and non-violent punishment.
The 2003 Annual Report of the UPPGH Protection Unit also cited that among
the various form of maltreatment inflicted
on a child physical abuse is the most
prevalent, followed by psychological
abuse and neglect, with sexual molestation and rape as the least common form of
abuse.
Not regarded as individuals
In a society that is highly patriarchal,
it goes on to say that it is not only women
who have little say on their rights but
children as well. It is particularly true in the
developing countries, where culturally,
children are not regarded as individuals
who possess human rights as much as
anybody else, but more of a property of
their parents or elders. In effect, they become invisible and excluded from receiving and enjoying essential services society provides. The situation of children in
many parts of the world, especially in terms
of their rights to survival, health, education, protection and participation in society has been for sometime now the concern of the international community.
UNICEF reports that “millions of children
are denied their right to a formal identity,
facing early marriage, or forced into armed
18
the
Rod:
The
Proble
combat or dangerous work. As a result,
they often have no access to the services
they need to survive and develop to their
full potential and face exclusion from full
participation in society as adults,
too.”(www.unicef.org)
In 1989, the UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child (CRC) was adopted
into law and took effect the following year
after it was ratified by member nations
(including the Philippines.) The accord
affirms and describes the fundamental human rights of all children (all human beings
below the age of 18). The CRC is considered the most thorough and well-established international paradigm for children’s
rights. It provides the framework for the
programs of UNICEF, the UN children’s
agency.
Diverse factors
Diverse factors contribute to exacerbate the plight of children. In a 2005 World
Report on Violence against Children by
the UN’s Secretary-General, among the
many factors cited which have affected
children negatively were the changing family patterns and make-up as well as economic pressures on low-income families.
The same unstable family conditions have
also opened the possibilities of abuse
being experienced by children at home.
The World Report also took note of the
fact that the forms of violence children
experience vary according to age and stage
of development. “Infants and young children are more likely to be victimized by
primary caregivers and other family members because of their dependence on adult
caregivers… while older children are more
likely to be victimized outside their home
and family.” (www.violencestudy.org)
Research studies on various types of
child abuse noted that one out of three
Filipino children experience abuse. Save
the Children, reports in its website that
“millions of children in the Philippines
work on farms, in factories, in the mining,
quarrying and logging industries, and as
domestics or street vendors. The Philippine authorities estimate that the country
has over one million street children, some
60,000 of whom are prostituted.”
Poor Economic conditions
Poverty is essentially a major factor in
the breakdown of families and other support structures that are important in nurturing an environment conducive in the
development of children. Because of the
poor economic conditions, many children
from indigent families are forced to work in
order to bring food onto the table, consequently exposing them to unnecessary
danger and exploitation. However, the danger does not only lie outside the home. In
some instances, abuse, physical or otherwise can easily happen right at home where
the children ought to experience love and
nurturance from family members. In its
2005 situational analysis on Filipino Children, the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) points out that “data gathered from health survey indicates 88.6% of
adolescents have at one time been abused
at home, either sexually or physically.”
The same analysis also shows that nearly
half of the cases reported to the Department of Social Welfare (DSWD) concerning child abuse are sexual abuse and exploitation.
UN Universal Declaration of
Rights of Children
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms the right of
children to receive special care and assistance from their own families which could
afford the natural environment and necessary protection they need. “…The child,
for the full and harmonious development
of his or her personality, should grow up
in a family environment, in an atmosphere
of happiness, love and understanding…
[And] should be fully prepared to live an
individual life in society, and brought up
in the spirit of the ideals proclaimed in the
Charter of the United Nations, and in particular in the spirit of peace, dignity, tolerance, freedom, equality and solidarity.”
em
of
Child
Abuse
and does not constitute physical or psychological injury.” This explanation is
rather ambiguous considering what is
deemed reasonable and moderate depend
on an “assessment influenced by one’s
values, beliefs and own experiences.”
For instance, in the Philippine culture,
light corporal punishment like spanking or
hitting the backside of an erring child with
a belt is seen and normally accepted as a
form of discipline. This is especially true
among uneducated and low-income families. The existence of RA 7610, however,
has emboldened advocacy groups to take
the cudgels upon themselves to protect
children from the trauma of abuse, physically or otherwise.
Situation Analysis of Filipino
Children
The UN Charter also takes into account the difficult situations children in
other parts of the world experience because of traditional practices and cultural
values that families hold on to at the expense of their children’s welfare.
Special Protection of Children
against Abuse
Republic Act No. 7610, also known as
Special Protection of Children against
Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination
Act defines child abuse as referring to
maltreatment of a child, whether such actions are done habitually or not. Maltreatment can include the following: “psychological and physical abuse, neglect, cruelty, sexual abuse and emotional maltreatment; any act by deed or words which
debases, degrades or demeans the intrinsic worth and dignity of a child as a human
being; unreasonable deprivation of his
basic needs for survival, such as food and
shelter; or failure to immediately give medical treatment to an injured child resulting
in serious impairment of his growth and
development or in his permanent incapacity or death.” (Sec. 3, RA # 7610). In summary, the above explanation simply points
to four types of child abuse, specifically:
psychological/emotional abuse, physical
abuse/cruelty, sexual abuse and neglect.
“The implementing Rules and Regulations
to RA 7610 define some terms within the
context of the Philippine law. On the aspect of physical abuse the Rules and Regulations states that “discipline administered
by a parent or legal guardian to a child does
not constitute cruelty provided it is reasonable in manner and moderate in degree
A recent analysis on the situation of
Filipino children prepared by the Council
for the Welfare of Children shows that the
children especially in need of the protection of the law are those who engaged in
hazardous and exploitative labor; those
living in the streets; victims of sexual
abuse and commercial exploitation; victims of family violence and neglect; either
separated or have lost their parents; children affected by HIV/AIDS; those in conflict with the law; in situation of armed
conflict; with various disability; girl children; those belonging in ethnic/cultural
communities that may suffer from neglect
and discrimination; and Muslim children.
How to address the problem
Obviously, ratifying a law for the protection of children does not necessarily
bring an end to the gnawing problem of
child abuse, which is considered a silent
epidemic in today’s society. Poverty and
breakdown of families maybe pinpointed as
the basis of the problem, but other factors,
like cultural beliefs and lack of education
also contribute to aggravate the situation.
To address the problem of violence against
children necessitates promoting an environment that is conducive to change and to
implement measures that will enable parents, teachers and caregivers, as well as law
enforcers, to apply positive ways of disciplining children. It has been said time and
again that love begets love. And studies
have proven that abuse received in childhood eventually results to abusive behavior in adulthood. The time to break the cycle
is now. Today’s children are tomorrow’s
adults, the country’s future. I
When will / from p. 14
ine political will to ensure prosecutions in all
cases.
“The failure to prosecute and convict
those suspected of human rights violations
is having corrosive impact on public confidence in the rule of law,” AI said.
AI recently drafted a 14-point program
for the prevention of extrajudicial executions. It is urging the government to implement the said program in full.
Key recommendations in the program
include:
Reassert respect for human rights: the
government must condemn all political killings; prohibit orders from superior officers
authorizing or tacitly encouraging other
persons to carry out unlawful killings; and
prohibit and disband “death squads”, private armies, vigilantes, criminal gangs, and
paramilitary forces.
Guarantee the administration of justice:
The government must ensure all complaints
are investigated promptly by an independent and impartial body; ensure that those
responsible for political killings are brought
to justice; and fully implement the Witness
Protection, Security and Benefit Act.
The peace process—ensure compliance
with human rights agreement: All sides of the
armed conflict should recommit to and ensure compliance with the 1995 Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights
and International Humanitarian Law.
Action by other human rights institutions: The government’s investigative agencies and the human rights commission should
conduct prompt and effective investigations
of all reported political killings; and the government must be urged to access the expertise of United Nations special mechanisms
by inviting the special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, the special representative
on human rights defenders, among others.
But still, granted, AI’s program recommendations are implemented, will the killings
come to an end?
With the present administration’s halfhearted, if non-committal, stance on the issue, critics are even more skeptical, saying
that political killings will not end unless the
administration shifts its current perspective.
Informed critics and analysts argue that while
the Arroyo government is unstable, and its
legitimacy is yet in question, some people –
in or out of the government – can always use
the situation to further their cause, either to
preserve their tenure of power or simply to
protect substantial interests. Such being the
case, killings will always be resorted to as the
easiest way to silence or shun strident stakeholders. I
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The Poor
© Historical Picture Archive/CORBIS
I
Greed
G
reed is synonymous to
insatiability. For the
greedy, nothing is
enough. They feel the continuous craving for more. When
they have more, they want to
have much more. The end is
always the same; they eventually lose whatever they have—
with sickness, despair, death.
The question of greed has
a special relevance in our now
obtaining national socio-political present. This is specifically
the case of some of our greedy
politicos. The immense power
they exercise, the huge wealth
they have, the big influence they
wield—all these combined are
not enough. Strange but true,
they still feel deprived and depressed. Hence they feel the
need to become even more powerful, wealthy and influential.
The insatiable greed for
power, wealth and influence is
the underlying cause of the
unicameral constitutional assembly for a Charter Change.
Never mind ethical norms and
moral principles. Never mind
the contrary feeling and voice
of many sectors of society.
Never mind the present and
still binding constitutional provision on Charter Change.
What counts for these
greedy politicos is to stay long
20
in power no matter how, to continue accumulating wealth with
whatever means, to hold on to
position of influence with utter
disregard for integrity, truth and
justice.
They do not know—or
refuse to acknowledge—that
their greed is in fact their own
punishment. It is like having
thirst while immersed in drinking water. It is big hunger in the
midst of abundant food. And
the eventual result is the same
always: their greed becomes
their own undoing. These are
people who should be pitied—
not hated. They should be
objects of regrets—not rage.
Now, it is interesting to
watch and see where and what
the greed of these politicos will
bring them. For one thing, they
are not immortal. They are
wherefore not really as powerful, wealth and influential as
they think and feel they are.
Lastly, it is their own greed that
will consume them, eat them all
up.
Even the greatest of great
men and women in human history all end up sick, dead and
buried six feet below the
ground. To say the least, not
one of our greedy politicos
would qualify even as great.
www.ovc.blogspot.com
t is sad but true. To be
poor in this country is a
big living and continuing curse. During elections,
all local and national candidates shout their avowed
commitment to help the
poor. When they are in office and in power, they still
say they are pro-poor. Even
the national leadership
loudly and repeatedly claims
its pro-poor plan, programs
and projects. It goes all over
the world, attends assemblies, hosts meetings—
yes—to eventually help the
poor.
With the possible 2007
Elections, exactly the same
pro-poor speeches will be
delivered ad nauseam. Campaign materials, slogans and
advertisements will infallibly proclaim the basically
pro-poor promises of the
candidates, and it has been
this way for decades on. The
poor have always been in
the primary concern of all
the election candidates, in
the priority agenda of all
governments officials—
from to the local, to the regional up to the national
levels.
Yet, all present realities
plus updated statistical data
show and prove one and
the same truth. The fact is
there are more poor in the
land. In effect, the poor have
become even poorer, they
do not have enough to eat,
and simply die when sick for
lack of medical care. There
must be something fundamentally wrong in this country, something grossly
wrong with the governance
of the present administration.
More. It is not enough
that the poor in this country
remain poor and become
poorer. They are in fact made
the constant target of multiple exploitation.
One: They are the day
to day victims of onerous
indirect taxes from birth to
death, though they may not
know it, government taxes
follow them throughout their
lives. The water they drink (if
clean), the food they eat (if
any), the daily needs they
have (which are many) are all
taxed. Their beneficiary is the
government while they remain its continuous multimillion victims.
Two: They are exploited as export labor. They
are the abundant source of
dollar remittances. There are
women forced into the flesh
trade. There are children
given to forced labor. They
are the common targets of
illegal drug consumption
from marijuana to rugby.
Result: they all suffer while
their exploiters all rejoice.
Three: They are special
victims of small town lottery, bookies, jueteng and
many other illegal forms of
gambling they all eventually lose while the gambling
operators and their payola
beneficiaries all go to the
banks laughing.
If the poor in the country would unite, march and
take over whatever they
want, no guns would be
enough, no bullets could
suffice to stop them. So
helpless in actualities yet
so strong potentials—this
is the poor people in this
country.
www.ovc.blogspot.com
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The Unfinished Dance
he dance floor was cleaned. The dancers
were ready. The dance band was prepared
and the dance was suddenly cancelled—
for another day. So it was claimed. The reasons
given were both confused and confusing.
The Con-Ass proponents retreated. Yet, they
issued a challenge to their oppositors to do the
Cha-Cha via Con-Con. They even gave an ultimatum lest they continue with their own Cha-Cha
by themselves through their favorite Con-Ass.
More strange was the claim that the national
leadership had nothing to do either with the
solitary Con-Ass or with its sudden withdrawal.
This is taxing not only to reason but even to mere
imagination. The main storyline was that the proverbial Con-ass train simply started and made to
rush on without the hand of the national leadership. And it suddenly stopped and stood still for
the moment also independently of its control. So
convenient to say and so gross to believe.
There is the strong presumption akin to moral
certitude that the challenged Senate would simply dismiss the challenging House. The reason is
quite plain and simple: the House has no right to
challenge the Senate, and the Senate has no
obligation to even mind the challenge of the
House.
In this impasse, it is not true that the ball is
with the Senate. The ball remains with the House.
And it is both interesting and intriguing to eventually know what the pro-administration congress would do next—under the baton of the
national leadership. This is getting more interesting and curious!
For a start, the House Con-Ass is not acceptable to the general public. Then there is the
norm that the House cannot Cha-Cha alone as
even but a simple dance is done by a pair.
Wherefore, the question: what could and would
the House do next, if any? But the House might
still spring up a surprise in its go for broke design
of amending the Constitution—unless the national leadership itself permanently stops the now
known and so-called “Cha-Cha Express”.
Will the now unfinished dance ever be finished? If so, how and when?
21
S
Beloved People of God:
I
f the Church joins the nation in the
celebration of National Family Week,
we call on all families to a deeper
reflection on the identity and mission
of the Filipino family as the basic cell of
the Church and Society and the point of
reference for the social, political, economic and religion-based ideal relationships of the Filipino people and the
Philippines as a nation.
The family does not owe its foundation to any organization, but directly
to the will of God. It is a natural institution, antecedent to any political or juridical organization. The authentic development of the human person reveals
in each of us the image of a child of God.
No living being on earth except man
was created “in the image and likeness
of God” (Gen 1:26).
Human fatherhood and motherhood, though biologically similar to
that of other living beings in nature,
contain in an essential and unique way
a “likeness” to God which is the basis
of the family as a community of persons
united in love. ( Letter to Families, John
Paul II, February 22, 1994, n. 6). The
marriage covenant established between
a man and a woman is a symbol of God’s
love for His people and Christ for His
Church (Eph 5:25-26). Because the
transmission of divine life presumes the
transmission of human life, marriage not
only brings about the birth of human
children, but also, through the power of
Baptism, the birth of adopted children of
God, who live the life received from
Christ through his Spirit. (Letter to
Families, n.18)
The family is the true origin of human
and Christian development, and the renewal of society. To the family is entrusted the task of unleashing the forces
of good, the source of which is found in
Christ alone. Every family needs to make
these forces their own so that Philippine
culture may be “evangelized in depth,
true values acknowledged, the rights of
men and women defended, and justice
promoted in the very structures of society”. (Apostolic Exhortation, Familiaris
Consortio, The Role of the Christian
Family in the Modern World, November
22, 1981, n. 8). To use a phrase spoken on
the occasion of the Millennium of Christianity in Poland, the family must be
“strong with the strength of God”. (Car-
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Pastoral Statement on the
Celebration of National Family
Week
“Family be stong with the strength of God”
- John Paul II, Letter to Families
dinal STEFAN WYSZYNSKI, Rodzina
Bogiem silna, Homily delivered at Jasna
Gora, August 26, 1961).
It is in the family where living stones are
formed for that spiritual house spoken of by
the Apostle Peter (1 Pet 2:5). The bodies of
the husband and wife are the dwelling-place
of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19).
The family is placed at the centre of the
great struggle between good and evil, between life and death, between love and all
that is opposed to love. Christian parents
must build a moral universe rooted in the will
of God, where the child grows in the human
and Christian values that give life its full
meaning. And so the Second Vatican Council teaches that “Christian married couples
and parents, following their own way, should
support one another in grace all through life
with faithful love, and should train their
children, lovingly received from God, in
Christian doctrine and evangelical virtues.
(SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL
COUNCIL, Dogmatic Constitution on the
Church, Lumen Gentium, n.41).
The family however, as an institution is
the object of numerous forces that seek to
destroy it or in some way to deform it (FC,
n.3) and is experiencing a radical and widespread crisis (Novo Millennio Ineunte, January 6, 2001, no. 47).
To protect the family “every governing
authority, whether national, regional or local, owes it to itself to have a family policy
which enables families freely to assume their
responsibilities in contemporary society”
(Ethical and Pastoral Dimensions of Population Control,May 13, 1994, n. 82). Family
policy would include programs for livelihood assistance, providing access to housing and education and other programs to
assist the family.
Family policy should protect and preserve a nation’s sovereignty in the struggle
against “contraceptive imperialism” which
the delegation of the Holy See denounced in
1974 during the International Conference on
Population held in Bucharest. This “contraceptive imperialism,” violates religious and
cultural traditions of family life and harms
families and nations. (Ethical and Pastoral
Dimensions of Population Control, May
13, 1994, n. 82).
Furthermore in their implementation,
population control programs utilize government money, laws, incentives and force to
pressure people to have fewer children using population growth as a reason to coerce
changes in people’s intimate beliefs and
childbearing practices.
Based on moral principles the Church
strongly opposes the “Reproductive Rights/
Sexual Rights” Agenda (inclusive of abortion) in Congress and its integration in school
textbooks.
St. Augustine says that “laws which
threaten the family and the sacred gift of life
create the most serious distortions in the
social fabric that weakened societies.” (De
Civ. Dei 4.:4)
The Filipino family is blessed in that so
far it has preserved its religious practices
that allow the light of faith to continue to
shine on family life. But the faith of young
people is endangered by the massive spread
of sexual rights / reproductive rights propaganda in the legislature, by local government
and in particular, in school textbooks.
The Church is firmly opposed to an
often widespread form of imparting sex information dissociated from moral principles.
(FC, 37). The Pontifical Council on the
Family, under the guidance of the late Pope
John Paul II, has provided a practical guide
for parents and educators entitled “The Truth
and Meaning of Human Sexuality” which
summarizes and defines the obligations of
Catholics and Catholic parents.
Families should be the first to take steps
to see that the laws and institutions of the
State not only do not offend but support and
positively defend the rights and duties of the
family (FC, 44). There are four bills that pose
serious threats to our families due to their
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emphasis on population control disguised
as “reproductive health”. These bills are:
House Bill 3773, where the government would
make the two-child family the ideal size and
thereby discriminate against larger families;
House Bill 5285, where the aspects of socalled “reproductive health,” or birth control, are added to the civil and political rights
of women; House Bill 634, where same-sex
unions could be allowed; and House Bill
5012, where companies would be required to
provide free annual seminars on “reproductive health” to indoctrinate our people.
We need to act with vigilance against
these Bills and support those proposals
pending in Congress that are pro-family and
pro-life which promote the authentic good of
the family. Among them are: House Bill 5028
of Congressman Hermilando Mandanas,
which will grant our public and private health
workers their conscience rights, so that they
can protest against any birth control program imposed on them; House Bill 4643 of
Congressman Rene Velarde, which will make
illegal the use of abortifacient drugs and
devices; House Bill 1245 of Congressman
Rozzano Rufino Biazon, limiting marriage to
natural-born men and women; House Bill 216
of Congressman Rozzano Rufino Biazon,
offering free marriage counseling for engaged couples; and House Bill 5327 of Congressman Eduardo Zialcita, offering pregnancy care centers supported by the government.
The family is fundamental to what Pope
Paul VI called the “civilization of love” (
Letter to Families, n.13). In discovering the
family as the “sanctuary of life” (John Paul
II, Evangelium Vitae, On the Value and
Inviolability of Human Life, March 25, 1995,
n. 92) men and women can be freed from the
“culture of death.”
Together with efforts aimed at establishing family policies, the inherent value of
each child as a human being must be proclaimed. In the face of population trends,
everyone is invited to put to good use the
talents given by the Creator to realize personal development and to contribute in an
original way to the development of the community. In the final analysis, God created
man to make him a partner in his Divine Plan
of Life and Love.
Fraternally in the Lord, our Life and Truth,
Most Rev. Paciano B. Aniceto, D.D.
Chairman, CBCP Episcopal Commission
on Family and Life
September 25, 2006
Forging Social Solidarity
for Human Rights
A
s we celebrate the 1948 Universal Declaration of HUMAN
RIGHTS, we recall what our country has been through and on account of
which the Church in the Philippines has
issued its statements and exhortations,
such as against arbitrary arrests and
detentions, liquidations and salvaging,
secret marshals and para-military forces,
persecution and killings of church personnel, ministers and journalists, extrajudicial killings of protesters and defenders of their rights, all committed
and perpetrated in the name, in those
days, of national security and development.
Today, with all advocates and victims of Human Rights, in this Year of
Social Concerns, we are raising again
our concern regarding practically the
same issues: various killings without
benefit of court-trials. Has the situation
in fact improved or become worse? And
why are advocates, defenders and beneficiaries of agrarian reform being harassed and killed? And how many prisoners are languishing in jail without the
benefit of defense or beyond the length
of time that will be imposed if their cases
were heard on time.
The advocates of Human Rights
and Peace have to forge a strong network of “social solidarity” as the moral
bastion of the “power of the powerless,” who are “the least of our brethren.”
On this occasion of Human Rights
Day, we are invited to look at the big
picture. In the Encyclical “Centissimus
Annus” Servant of God, Pope John Paul
II has drawn up a list of them for our
individual and collective examination
of conscience: “the right to life, an
integral part of which is the right of the
child to develop in the mother’s womb
from the moment of conception; the
right to live in a united family and in a
moral environment conducive to the
growth of the child’s personality; the
right to develop one’s intelligence and
freedom in seeking and knowing the
truth; the right to share in the work
which makes wise use of the earth’s
material resources, and to derive from
that work the means to support oneself
and one’s dependents; and the right
freely to establish a family, to have and
to rear children through the responsible exercise of one’s sexuality. In a
certain sense, the source and synthesis
of these rights is religious freedom,
understood as the right to live in the
truth of one’s faith and in conformity
with one’s transcendent dignity as a
person.” (Centessimus Annus, 47: AAS
83 (1991)
Recalling the statement of Pope
John Paul II before UNESCO in 1980,
Pope Benedict XVI called for “a mobilization in defense of Human Rights”
(June 2, 2005, WNews.com).
Peace can only be attained in the
atmosphere of a local and global advocacy of Human Rights, where the promotion and defense of which have become more complex and difficult. That
is why there is need for an ever stronger
solidarity among human rights advocates, peace advocates and all people
of good will. It is in this atmosphere
which includes the dismantling of selfinterest that we can have genuine economic development, we have been longing for so long a time. It is in the atmosphere of political stability that
economy and business prosper and
develop.
May God who shows us the vision
of a social order founded on truth,
justice and love (Gaudium et Spes, no.
26), guide our steps in the way of peace.
+ ANGEL N. LAGDAMEO, DD
Archbishop of Jaro &
President, CBCP
December 9, 2006
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his is an urgent and ardent plea addressed to
our government officials
from the local to the national
level. It is also a straight and
strong appeal to private individuals and corporate entities
involved in the same serious
moral issue with socio-political undertones.
Stop the Small Town Lottery or STL, please!
For those who do not know
and those who refuse to admit it,
STL is the legal cover-up for the
illegal numbers game of jueteng.
The endorsement of STL simply
means the promotion of jueteng.
We were well appraised that all
intelligent computations mathematically show STL will not
survive financially without
jueteng behind it.
In fact, we are told both
STL and jueteng have the same
operators and collectors, the
same poor victims and the same
influential wealthy beneficiaries. With STL and jueteng, our
poor people become poorer
while the gambling payola recipients become twice enriched.
STL and jueteng together is legal and illegal gambling combined. They are a dangerous
and insidious pairing.
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Plea and Appeal:
Stop STL, Please
Just as not to defend truth is to suppress it, so also not
to oppose what is immoral or illegal is to approve it. To
neglect to fight evil when one can do it is no less a sin than
to encourage it. (Pope Felix III).
We ask: Is it not enough
that there are already millions
of poor people in the country?
Is it not enough that there are
men, women and children in
the country who no longer eat
what they need, when they
have to? Is there not enough
poverty in the country that the
poor should have even less
because of STL and jueteng?
It would be hard to find
elected officials in the country
who did not promise during
elections that they would serve
the poor, work for human development and attend to the
common welfare. This is why it
would be unconscionable for
them to adopt STL and automatically allow jueteng that
exploit their already poor constituencies. We pray: Would
that our elected officers do not
allow themselves to be instru-
ments of poverty aggravation
instead of poverty alleviation.
Even if STL is legal, does
this make it necessarily moral?
And when something legal as
STL is paired with something
illegal as jueteng, is this not in
fact something illegal? And
would our local and national
officials dare promote any illegal operation in the country?
With the adoption of STL, it
would be next to impossible to
stop Jueteng.
And so we make this appeal: Stop STL please! It is
another cause of corruption,
another means of exploitation
of the poor. The country has
enough of these anti-social
factors. Whatever economic
development our government
shall have proudly achieved
will be diminished or negated
by the corruption and exploita-
A Call to Vigilant, Heroic and
Engaged Citizenship
heeded the clamor from church
groups and civil society organizations, we should continue to
monitor the turn of events and
ensure that the voice of the
people be articulated and represented in the halls of power.
We call upon our executive leaders and members of
the Congress to address the
following pressing issues that
affect the lives of our people
especially the poor and those
at the margins of society:
Reform the electoral system beginning with the
COMELEC, both at the leadership and operational levels, so
that our electoral exercise may
truly be honest, free, clean, and
transparent;
Ensure through an enabling law that there be proportional representation of the
A Statement of the Church-Academe-NGO
Formation of Cagayan de Oro City
I
n the wake of the recent turn
around of the members of
the House of Representatives and the Executive leadership on the manner of changing the Constitution, we, representatives of the Church-Academe-NGO formation based in
Cagayan de Oro City, would
like to call upon our people to
remain vigilant, engaged and
committed to uphold our democratic tradition and values. As
we have consistently asserted
in the past following political
24
machinations to change our
charter in the guise of instituting reforms, we reiterate our
stance that we are for responsible, measured, transparent,
and people-oriented constitutional reform. Change the Constitution, if we must. But let us
do it honorably and under the
watchful gaze and participation of the citizenry.
Although it appears that
the administration from both the
House of Representatives and
the Executive leadership has
tion that accompany STL and
jueteng.
“If corruption causes serious harm from a material point
of view and places a costly
burden on economic growth,
still more harmful are its effects
on immaterial goods, closely
connected to the qualitative
and human dimension of life in
society. Political corruption, as
the Compendium of the Social
Doctrine of the Church
teaches, ‘compromises the correct functioning of the State,
having a negative influence
on the relationship between
those who govern and the governed. It causes a growing distrust with respect to public
institutions, bringing about a
progressive disaffection in the
citizens with regard to politics and its representatives
with a resulting weakening of
institutions.’ (No. 411).” (The
Fight Against Corruption, Pontifical Council for Justice and
Peace, Vatican City, No. 4)
For the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines,
+ ANGEL N. LAGDAMEO
CBCP President
November 30, 2006
members of the Constitutional
Convention so that there be a
broad representation of the
various sectors of our society;
Act on social reform that
will enable the poor and politically excluded to participate in
their scheme of development;
Strengthen our democratic
institutions such as the judiciary and the electoral system;
Support peace initiatives
that are founded on true development for Mindanao.
We call upon our citizenry
to an interfaith prayer vigil on
17 December 2006, Sunday,
from 7.30 pm at the Kiosk,
Divisoria. We need to gather
ourselves together, reason together, discern together, prayer
together and act together for
our country and our future
generations.
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A Wrong Move by the Wrong
People at the Wrong Time
A Pastoral Letter
© bayan.ph
T
he events in the House
of Representatives last
week that unfolded over
TV and other modes of mass
media have triggered such a
widespread outcry that the proponents for a Constituent Assembly have backtracked from
their original position. But the
challenge is not yet over.
It is well to ask ourselves
why there was such a swelling
of righteous indignation in the
first place. This was expressed
by various sectors—ranging
from Civil Society groups that
characterized the House proceedings as “garapal” (i.e.,
brazen, callous, desperate) to
the CBCP statement that
bluntly described the actuations of the House majority as
“fraudulently illegitimate and
scandalously immoral.”
First, it was the wrong
move. The Lower House cannot blithely bypass the Senate
in a duly constituted bicameral
Congress. It cannot simply
change house rules to rush the
revision of the basic law of the
land. And it should not dispense with the principle of
checks and balances in our
democracy; otherwise, as has
already happened too often in
the past, one party may issue
all the checks while the people
are left with a zero balance.
Secondly, it was the
wrong people. Congressmen
are elected by districts to represent primarily the interests of
their constituents; they cannot be expected to transform
themselves overnight to have
a broader outlook for the entire
nation and to be divested of
their localized, much less personalized, interests. The suggestion of postponing the May
elections and extending their
terms is a blatant manifestation
of self-serving interests on the
part of the representatives.
Even players in a basketball
game cannot be their own referee to declare overtime.
We should also be reminded that the present Administration that backed the
Con Ass still has to give a full
T
accounting for the “Hello,
Garci” tapes, the Bolante fertilizer fund scam, the Mayuga
report, extra-judicial killings,
etc. Going beyond political partisanship, these are moral issues that continue to prick the
Christian conscience. Charter
change cannot be made a diversionary tactic to leave unanswered these prior questions
on the credibility of the present
leadership.
Finally, it was the wrong
time. Just when the issue of the
People’s Initiative had been resolved by the Supreme Court,
the hurried move for a Constituent Assembly raised anew fears
of manipulation and railroading
(as indeed descriptive of the
Cha Cha train). Why the haste
in revising the fundamental law
of the land? Why not allow the
holding first of May elections
that are constitutionally mandated—and can indeed provide
the genuine people’s initiative
in retaining or replacing the
present leadership?
What then are some lessons we have learned?
First, that we want the rule
of law and not of men. Our lawmakers should not be seen as
law-breakers, or people who
bend due process to suit their
own interests.
Secondly, that democracy
is not only a matter of numbers,
but of moral principles. For the
thoughtful observer, a well-reasoned objection is more convincing than a hundred “ayes”
on the floor.
And thirdly, we can indeed
heed the dictum that politicians
look to the next elections,
whereas statesmen look to the
next generation.
It is in this light that as
citizens we must maintain our
vigilance. On December 17th,
there is a call for inter-faith
prayer rallies in Manila and
other cities, including Cagayan
de Oro. This will show our
solidarity and social concern
over what is happening to our
country.
This would also provide
an appropriate occasion for us
to start forming engaged (and
enraged) citizens’ groups in our
parishes to prepare for the next
elections or referendum. These
groups should first enunciate
the moral principles they want
to be embodied in the leaders
that they choose. Moreover,
it is perhaps time to look for a
new crop of leaders with ideals
and Gospel values that can give
hope for a brighter future for
our country.
Together with other faith
communities and people of
good will we can all join hands
and hearts to build the City of
Man even as we acknowledge
the over-arching moral principles of the City of God.
(SGD) +ANTONIO
J.
LEDESMA, S.J.,D.D.
Archbishop of Cagayan de Oro
12 December 2006
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WATCH AND PRAY
Magmalasakit Para sa Bayan
“As Church, we need to respond not only individually but
more collectively to our country’s social problems since they
are deeply rooted in the social system.” (PCP-II, #240)
“But beyond its being a social and political resource, the
Church is first and foremost a light that illumines a spiritual
force that needs to critique the social, political and cultural
fields in order to affirm, denounce, purify or reinforce in the
light of the World of God.” (PCP-II, #248)
P
remised on the above
PCP-II Statements, in cel
ebration of the Year of
Social Concern within the Advent Season, we issue this Pastoral Exhortation: “Watch and
Pray: Magmalasakit Para sa
Bayan.” Asked and challenged
by concerned people on how
to respond to a perceived development of a “constitutional
crisis, there is need to respond
more collectively to the present
crisis produced by the prospect of Charter Change by
Administration Congressmen
desperately bent on creating
themselves into a Constituent
Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines
CharACter more than
Charter Change
T
he Catholic Educational Association of
the
Philippines
(CEAP) is against the present
moves to change the Philippine constitution.
We would have been
open to a Constitutional Convention. But with the recent
acts in the House of Representatives—making itself a
Constituent Assembly without regard for the Senate or
the nation as a whole—even
if the decision is now to have
a Constitutional Convention
26
instead, we feel that the better
move is to postpone the changing of the Constitution. It is not
that we think the Constitution is
perfect. It is not. It needs
changes. But the way things
are going, we believe that suspicions of vested interests of
our legislators would be minimized or avoided if, for now, we
just bracket off these moves on
Charter change.
CHARACTER, more than
Charter, change is needed.
Change our charter, and
what would we really achieve if
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Assembly.
We need to be vigilant.
The temptation to manipulate
and to hold on to power endangers the common good and the
safety of the greatest number.
We need to watch and pray, to
offer sacrifice for the country.
In this spirit, we are proposing a NATIONAL WATCH
AND PRAY GATHERING, in
all major cities or dioceses in
order to express our opposition to the hasty and manipulative way CON-ASS is being
pursued or undertaken for Charter Change. Not only do we
need to WATCH (critique, denounce, purify) but above all
we need to PRAY for the enlightenment of our leaders in
government.
It would be good if we can
do this simultaneously in the
AFTERNOONOFDECEMBER
15, 2006, FRIDAY, close to sunset, the EVE of the SIMBANG
GABI. It will be about the same
time the activity will be held in
the Archdiocese of Manila in
Luneta. As suggested, there
should be no streamers or flags
of any group allowed except
streamers with the following
message:
NO TO CONSTITUENT
ASSEMBLY
YES TO CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
NO POSTPONMENT OF
MAY 2007 ELECTIONS
The message shall be communicated in prayer and songs.
No rowdy speeches. As PCPII #240 has it, we are doing this
as Church responding collectively to our country’s social
problems, in particular the crisis-laden prospect of a hasty
Charter Change.
The gravity of Charter
Change and its perceived consequences for our country, the
shift in the form of government
demand rational discernment,
discussion and debate, not in
turbulence but in serenity,
peace and unity.
In this Advent Season,
may we the Filipino people be
ready—at any time—to welcome into our hearts, our
homes, our government institutions as well as Christian
communities, JESUS CHRIST,
THE RETURNING KING.
we do not also change our character? A constitution may be
the fundamental law of the land,
but if we do not also follow the
fundamental promptings of our
conscience, what will we really
have changed?
To be sure, character development is a lifetime task and
challenge. And if that is all we
do, it may be argued, then we
may never get to change our
Constitution at all. We agree.
But if there is also no desired
change in what we believe and
how we behave, then Charter
Change no matter how beautiful it may seem to be, will not
really lead to the betterment of
our nation.
We decry the act of the
House of Representatives in
making itself the Constituent
Assembly. We can grant that
our legislators may have good
intentions. But the impression
given by their act is simply arrogance of power and lack of
delicadeza. We commend them
if, having realized not just the
political consequences of their
decision but also its moral implications, they now call for a constitutional convention. But we
suggest that they and, indeed,
we—all lay aside even the
thought of changing our Charter now.
Charter Change now is being presented—wrongly—as
the equivalent of institutional
reform. It is not. And those who
are against charter Change now
are being portrayed as against
For the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines,
+ANGEL N. LAGDAMEO
Archbishop of Jaro
President, CBCP
December 8, 2006
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Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conference
Office of Social Communication
11th Bishops’ Meet - Taytay, Rizal, Philippines
November 20-25, 2006
STATEMENT
T
th
he 11 annual FABC-OSC
Bishops’ Meet on “Man
aging Communication for
Bishops’ Conferences” was held
in Taytay, Rizal (Manila/Philippines) from November 20 to 25,
2006. The representatives from
Bishops’ Conferences of 12 different Asian countries based their
considerations on important
Church documents. Already the
Vatican II Document Inter
Mirifica (1963, nos. 19-20; 21)
and the following Pastoral Instructions Communio et
Progressio (1971, nos. 170, 171176) and Aetatis Novae (1992,
nos. 19-23) demanded that national Communication offices for
Bishops’ Conferences be organized and maintained. These National Communication offices
should provide beside others
both personal care for communicators as well as communication
training and planning to secure a
well organized program for their
countries. They should have a
spokesperson and provide an ongoing two way information flow
within and outside their respective Conferences.
The bishops and participants further reflected and studied in more detail the roles, functions and needs of these Communication Offices. A wake up
call was made to be aware of the
onslaught, influence and demands of new emerging communication cultures in Asia. The
participants felt a pressing need
to enable the Churches in Asia
to meet these challenges.
The participants committed
themselves to fully implement
the demands of the Church documents and to effectively avail
themselves of the opportunities
created by new media and the
rapid communication revolution,
utilizing relevant Strategic Management Principles for Communications and Corporate Communication Systems.
The bishops also reflected
on and studied the inputs from
media and management experts
who emphasized the need for
“strategic conversation and for
reform. We are not. We are FOR
reform—but the right ones at
the right time. We are for reforms that really help the poor;
changes that strengthen democracy; moves that improve
politics as it is practiced today.
If those rushing Charter Change
are really sincere about reforms,
then let them first reform the
electoral system and restore its
trustworthiness—starting with
a thorough revamp of the Commission
on
elections
(COMELEC).Makethe2007elections truly credible. Then, when
the necessary safeguards
against self-interest shall have
been set, and after a massive
education campaign, maybe we
can resurrect the plan to change
the Constitution. Until then, let
the present Charter stay.
In the schools, colleges, and
universities that we run we will
continue teaching our students,
aside from the curricula they
come to us to follow and learn,
love for our country, respect for
our laws, and willingness to give
our best for God and others,
beyond interests of self.
We accept that the call for
CHARACTER change must
start with us and must always
continue. As we do this, to the
nation we pledge our cooperation in everything that is for the
good of our people, and we vow
vigilance in preventing what
may lead to the nation’s ills.
We watch and pray, as
Jesus in the Agony in the Garden told his disciples, so we do
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benchmarking outcome” rather
than just output. The old paradigm of one-way, top-down communications has no relevance
anymore today in a world which
is increasingly interactive, horizontal and flat rather than hierarchical. Communications today is
also research driven and scientific, rather than intuitive. Hence,
social communications instead
of being message-driven, should
seek to understand the needs,
expectations and priorities of different “stakeholders” such as the
bishops, priests, religious, laypersons and those of other faiths
and civil authorities. This calls for
effective networking at various
Church levels, using the Internet
and tools like email, webchat,
webinars,
SMS/texting,
Podcasting and other means of
social communication.
The 11th annual meeting of
Asian Communication Bishops
(Bishops’ Meet 06) made the following recommendations:
1. All bishops’ conferences and
dioceses should prepare a
pastoral plan for communicationwithapropertimeframe
and a clear vision and mission statement relevant to
their region.
2. All bishops’ conferences and
dioceses must set up a communication office and appoint
not fall into temptation. We
urge our members to pray
that we, our legislators, and
our nation as a whole may
have the humility to ask to be
guided by the Holy Spirit and
the strength of will to follow
His lead. May we not yield to
the temptation to make another Constitution for our
country but forget to remake
the constitution of our hearts.
What we more urgently
need to do now is to watch,
pray, and work to change—
not our Charter but our
CHARACTER.
For and on behalf of the Association,
Fr. Roderick Salazar, Jr., SVD
President
S
a full time media professional
as director/ spokesperson.
3. Bishops should ensure that
the personnel appointed for
communication offices and
activities should be professional, academically trained
and with commitment to assurethecontinuityofthework.
4. Media workshops should be
organized to sensitize and
equip bishops, Church leaders, seminarians and religious
on media relations, crisis communication (including ambush interviews), and other
media related issues and approaches.
5. Proper Networking with mediapractitionersthroughseminars, workshops, gettogethers should be provided
on a regular basis and not just
in the time of need or crisis.
6. Programs for pastoral support of professionals in mainstream media should be provided.
7. Traditional media such as
folk arts, performing arts,
dance, music and drama
should not be neglected and
seen and developed as alternative means of social communication.
8. Communication education
for parents, pastoral workers, religious and laity, especially children and youth
should be promoted.
9. World Communication Day
should be seen as an opportunity to build up awareness
of media developments to
sensitize people on the importance of social communications and to use media in
general.
10. An effective network of
Christian communicators of
Asia should be promoted to
share valuable information
and facilitate the recounting
of Jesus stories.
11. Bishops, Church leaders
and communicators at national and international conferences need to communicate their inspiring experiences, insights and stories
with their people and dioceses at home and beyond.
27
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© Royalty-Free/CORBIS
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© Royalty-Free/CORBIS
The
unemployed
A
The paradox of our times
T
HE paradox of our time in
history is that we have
taller buildings but
shorter tempers, wider highways, but narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less,
we buy more, but enjoy less.
We have bigger houses and
smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have
more degrees but less sense,
more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more
problems, more medicine, but
less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke
too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive
too fast, get too angry, stay up
too late, get up too tired, read
too little, watch TV too much,
and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our
possessions, but reduced our
values. We talk too much, love
too seldom, and hate too often.
We’ve learned how to
make a living, but not a life.
We’ve added years to life not
life to years. We’ve been all the
way to the moon and back, but
have trouble crossing the street
28
28
to meet a new neighbor. We
conquered outer space but not
inner space. We’ve done larger
things, but not better things.
We’ve cleaned up the air,
but polluted the soul. We’ve
conquered the atom, but not
our prejudice. We write more,
but learn less. We plan more,
but accomplish less. We’ve
learned to rush, but not to wait.
We build more computers to
hold more information, to produce more copies than ever,
but we communicate less and
less.
These are the times of fast
foods and slow digestion, big
men and small character, steep
profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of
two incomes but more divorce,
fancier houses, but broken
homes. These are days of quick
trips, disposable diapers,
throwaway morality, one night
stands, overweight bodies, and
pills that do everything from
cheer, to quiet, to kill.
Oh what times, oh what
manners!
[email protected]
December 2006
2006
IMPACT
n
unemployed
graduate woke up
one morning and
checked his pocket. All he
had left was $10. He decided
to use it to buy food and
then wait for death as he
was too proud to go begging. He was frustrated as
he could find no job, and
nobody was ready to help
him.
He bought food and as
he sat down to eat, an old
man and two little children
came along and asked him
to help them with food as
they had not eaten for almost a week. He looked at
them. They were so lean that
he could see their bones
coming out. Their eyes had
gone into the socket.
With the last bit of compassion he had, he gave
them the food. The old man
and children prayed that
God would bless and prosper him and then gave him a
very old coin.
The young graduate
said to them “you need the
prayer more than I do”.
With no money, no job,
no food, the young graduate went under the bridge to
rest and wait for death. As
he was about to sleep, he
saw an old newspaper on
the ground. He picked it up,
and suddenly he saw an advertisement for people with
old coins to come to a certain address.
He decided to go there
with the old coin the old
man gave him. On getting to
the place, he gave the proprietor the coin. The proprietor screamed, brought out
a big book and showed the
young graduate a photograph. This same old coin
was worth 3 million dollars.
The young graduate was
overjoyed as the proprietor
gave him a bank draft for 3
million dollars within an
hour. He collected the Bank
Draft and went in search of
the old man and little children.
By the time he got to
where he left them eating,
they had gone. He asked
the owner of the canteen if
he knew them. He said no
but they left a note for you.
He quickly opened the note
thinking it would lead him to
find them.
This is what the note
said: “You gave us your all
and we have rewarded you
back with the coin.” Signed:
God the Father, The Son and
The Holy Spirit.
[email protected]
R
The author’s earlier painting,
“Hapag ng Pag-asa” (a 2005 Oil
on Canvas, 48" x 96"), which
reaped phenomenal success
among secular and ecclesiastical
circles, inspiringly spawned the
making of this book. From a painting on canvas to a 200 pages of
script, the artist-turned-writer—
without assuming the authority of
a theologian, without waving a license of authenticity from the art
world—yet powerfully unravels
the even more flinching real-life
stories of his art subjects, the
extremely impoverished 12 children sitting at Jesus’ last supper,
and each revealing a story of
more hunger than a plate of rice
could satisfy. Onse, for instance,
sits at the Hapag with his plate
cleaned to the last crumb, but he
listens still to feed his other hunger as a cart-pushing scavenger
whose father is a drug addict and
the mama is a club strip dancer.
Itok, the eleven-year old breadwinner , another cart pushing
scavenger, whispers that he has
gone number of times to jail after
having been caught in a number
of thieveries. Much misery is hidden behind the faces of the
Hapag children whose lives are
further shrouded in the destitution of cemetery shack-dwellers
and pushcart lodgers. They Have
Jesus is unmistakably as captivating as powerfully challenging
to the reader. “Is the Hapag still
waiting for food, or are the poor
young diners announcing a different hunger that makes young
E
V
THEY HAVE
JESUS
The Stories of the
Children of Hapag
Joey A. Velasco
and old, rich and poor, the educated and the ignorant famished
for nourishment that only love
could satisfy?”, ponders Manila
archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal
Rosales in its foreword.
I
E
W
S
Sex matters. Yet even deeper
than the urge for sex is the desire for love. More than sexual,
we are relational: meant for true
and intimate relationship with
each other and with God. Rather
than a casual indoor sport, sex
is sacred. And John Paul II’s radical perspective on how we view
life, love, and sexuality can
transform our relationships into
profound experiences of communion. In The Theology of the
Body Made Simple, Father Anthony Percy provides us a map
that marks out guideposts in John
Paul II’s Theology of the Body. It
Discover John Paul
II’s radical teaching
on sex, love, and the
meaning of life.
Fr. Anthony Percy
explains how our bodies are
symbolic, free, meant for love,
and redeemed by Christ. It presents unambiguous reasons for
the Church’s teaching on premarital sex, contraception, homosexuality, pornography, and
more. And importantly, it gives us
reason to hope that the love we
crave so deeply is, in fact, promised us by God—from the beginning. No denying, the book is
superbly enriching.
CURIA
MANAGEMENT
Abp. Oscar V. Cruz, JCD
Still Preaching After
All These Years…
40 More
Seasonal
Homilies
Fr. William J. Bausch
For over twenty years now,
Father Bill Bausch, a retired priest
of the Diocese of Trenton, New
Jersey (USA), has been guiding
and inspiring preachers and
teachers as they proclaim the
Scriptures. “The Lord spoke to
Samuel. Samuel listened. Then
Samuel spoke to the people. The
double rhythm of these words
resonates with every preacher
who beseeches the Lord to speak
and then listens carefully and
prayerfully before rising up to
share that divine Word—as
Samuel did—with others. Is not
THE
THEOLOGY OF
THE BODY
MADE SIMPLE
this the dynamic of a homily?”
prefaces Fr. Bausch in this book,
his latest take on homiletics. A
modern-day “Samuel” he is, his
forty new homilies demonstrate
that he has lost none of his wit
and wisdom; nor has he lost his
ability to break open the Word in
surprising and inspiring ways.
And true to his storytelling style,
he weaves story and Scripture
together seamlessly. No question,
Still Preaching After All These
Years…40 More Seasonal Homilies is a ‘soulful’ homiletics companion for priests and preachers.
The indefatigable, prolific
writer and the country’s consummate canon lawyer archbishop
Oscar V. Cruz yet provides us
again another enriching selection
from the Canon Law, this time on
Curia Management. “In common
language, the Diocesan Curia is
in substance the central office
of a diocese. It is the convergence place for pastoral, administrative and judicial ministries—
a place wherein and wherefrom
persons assigned and entities
established perform their duties
and comply with their obligations
according to their respective attributions and prerogatives. While
it is true that common administrative sense still rests as a good
practical basis for the delivery
of services and certainty of due
attention given to the different
and manifold concerns in the Diocese, it might be also good to
know what Church Law actually says, considering that ecclesiastical norms are but the embodiment of the experience
learned by the Church across the
ages in conjunction with the mandate she has, the nature of the
agenda she must attend to, the
structures she wherefore established precisely to accomplish
her intention and finality,” Abp.
Cruz proffers the gist and rationale of his work. Curia Management is best for Church workers and those who wish to understand the inner structure of a
diocese.
Volume
Volume 40
40 •• Number
Number 12
12
29
29
CATHOLIC INITIATIVE
FOR
ENLIGHTENED MOVIE APPRECIATION
CINEMA
REVIEW
Title: HAPPY FEET
Running Time: 95 mins
Lead Cast: Robin Williams, Hugh
Jackman, Elijah Wood, Nicole
Kidman, Brittany Murphy, Hugo
Weaving
Director: George Miller
Screenwriters: Warren Coleman, John
Collee, George Miller, Judy Morris
Music: John Powell
Genre: Comedy/Fantasy
Distributor: Warner Bros
Technical Assessment:
Moral Assessment: zzz
CINEMA Rating: For viewers of all ages
M
umble (voiced by Elijah Wood) is
a no-penguin penguin chick gifted
with irrepressible tap dancing feet
but cursed with a croaky voice not even
his mother can love. His father Memphis
(Hugh Jackman) is upset beyond belief
while his mother Norma Jean (Nicole
Kidman) tries to accept Mumble as he is.
They are worried that Mumble can't have
his own "heart song"--that which in penguin land is sung to find one's soul mate.
He is therefore an outcast, being the only
one in whole of Antarctica who can't sing.
He goes off to places where he can be alone
and dance to his heart's content, and soon
comes upon a bunch of Latino penguins
who call themselves Adelie Amigos, led
by Ramon (Robin Williams). The much
smaller Adelie Amigos take a liking for the
outcast Emperor penguin Mumble and
learn to tap dance from him. Feeling
accepted for the first time in his life,
Mumble joins the Amigos in a series of
adventures that lead to his awareness of
environmental abuses.
Happy Feet has its good and bad
moments. It's beautifully animated--the
ice-loving creatures look real down to the
last feather, so that watching Happy Feet
makes it hard for one to imagine if they
can't really and actually dance or sing. The
elephant seals, too, come across as just
too real. Happy Feet is delightful to
watch although in the back of the viewer's
mind the credit goes to the animators, the
computer wizards, those whose names
roll on among the hundred other unknowns
in the credits. Happy Feet is a production
meant to capture the musical ear of the
movie-going public, with tunes like Somebody to Love, Kiss, Do It Again, I'll Make
Love to You and You Don't Have to be
Rich being performed by the actors themselves. Brittany Murphy as Gloria,
Mumble's lady love, is a discovery, a
veritable "Antarctica Idol", although it's
not easy to understand why Kidman as
Mumble's mother must sound like a phone
sex operator--it just isn't cool for a penguin mommy.
The lesson in the story has been told
hundreds of ways before: it's not your
fault that you're different, find your own
giftedness, accept yourself for what you
are, make a go of it and redeem yourself.
There's a conscientisizing message here
about global warming and how humans
have been abusing the environment but it
is not as well-pronounced as the message
of tolerance and acceptance resonating
throughout the whole movie. Perhaps
because the penguin performers catch one's
attention more than anything else. Or
perhaps all that singing and dancing with
but ice in the background mesmerizes the
viewer to sleep, thus missing the other
vital message. Generally, Happy Feet is
wholesome enough for everyone, but cover
the eyes of the small children when the
elephant seals stalk Mumble--that could
be pretty scary for tots.
ANSWER TO LAST ISSUE: This entire most beautiful creation of good things is going to pass away after its measure has been exhausted; for both morning
and evening were made in them. -- ST. AUGUSTINE (Qoutes in Quiz book and booklets available at National Book Store and Booksale outlets.)
30
N
BETHLEHEM
E
W
S
B
CHINA
Christ’s native land in China opposes antagosocio-economic crisis
nism in human rights
As Christmas draws
near, the town where Jesus
Christ was born faces serious economic and social
difficulties, said the mayor
Dr. Victor Batarseh.
In his customary Christmas message, Batarseh
said the “wall of separation built by Israel has created many problems preventing contact with
Jerusalem and other areas,
isolating workers and practically confiscating 280
hectares of arable land,
turning the town into a
prison.” The number of
Christians migrating to
other countries is rising
because of hard living conditions. “We pray the Star
may once again shine on
Bethlehem”, he said.
China stands for dialogue and is opposed to antagonism in human rights
area, said Zhou Jue, president of China Society for
Human Rights Studies. At
the Symposium on Respecting and Promoting Human
Rights and Constructing a
Harmonious World, Zhou
said adherence to dialogue
on an equal footing and
opposition to power politics and antagonism are becoming a unanimous call
from people of all countries
and all individuals who
stand for justice.
China has adhered to an
independent foreign policy
of peace, and has always
stood for resolving all intelligent disputes through
peaceful dialogue.
NEPAL
S. KOREA
HRW to gov’t, rebels: CBCK holds 1 st SympoIt is now time for Jus- sium on Churches’ cultice
tural heritage preservation
Government
armed
forces
and
insurgent
Maoist forces should demonstrate their commitment
to respect human rights, as
articulated in their recent
peace agreement, by providing accountability for
the violations that took
place during the decadelong civil war, Human
Rights Watch said.
HRW welcomed the November 21 agreement that, if
implemented, could end a
war that has killed an estimated 13,000 people since it
began in 1996, but cautioned
that an end to impunity must
be at the top of the political
agenda. Nepal government
and the Maoist signed a
comprehensive peace agreement to end more than 10
years of fighting, rewrite the
country’s constitution and
establish an interim government.
The Catholic Church in
South Korea must seek alternative ways of preserving and managing its cultural heritage, which can
also be a channel of evangelization. This emerged
from a 1st Symposium on
the Preservation and Management of Cultural Heritage
of the Church organized by
the Committee for Culture
of the Catholic Bishops’
Conference
of
Korea
(CBCK).
The symposium was a
significant moment for
Catholics from all walks of
life to discuss ways to preserve and enhance shrines
and church buildings. Various critical comments were
made: little interest in the
cultural heritage of the
Church in Korea, administration and management in-
R
I
E
F
fluenced by personal opinions of certain members of
the clergy and specialists.
INDIA
S
respective families deeply
appreciative of the service
offered by the Catholic missionaries.
VIETNAM
Catholic bishops defend V I E T N A M
Rediscovering the spirit
Muslim communities
of St, Francis Javier
Alarmed by a report revealing miserable state of
Muslim minorities here, the
Catholic bishops urged the
government to work on their
socio-economic difficulties
so the country may truly be
a democracy of pluralism,
tolerance and respect for
human rights.
In a statement, the prelates have welcomed Justice
Sachar Committee Report recently tabled in parliament
to study the social, economic
and educational status of the
Muslim minority community
of India. The report states
that the Muslim community
is relatively poor, more illiterate, has lower access to
education, lower representation in public and private
sector jobs and lower availability of bank credit for selfemployment.
TAJIKISTAN
In Ho Chi Minh City, Indian Cardinal Telesphore
Toppo, presided a celebration for the 5th centenary of
the birth of the Patron Saint
of the Missions. To give
new impulse to evangelization in Asia “Catholics must
rediscover the spirit of Saint
Francis Xavier,” Toppo,
Archbishop of Ranchi, said
in a special Mass celebrated
in the Catholic Cathedral in
Ho Chi Minh City to mark
the closing of the 5th centenary of the birth of Saint
Francis Xavier Patron Saint
of the Missions.
The Jesuit saint was 35
years old when he landed in
India with the mission “to carry
the light of the Gospel to
Asia”. “Saint Francis Xavier
spent three years in India
preaching Jesus Christ and
then departed for even more
distant lands in the Far East.”
Missionaries of Charity SRI LANKA
open new professional Rights group hit gov’t
training center for girls forces over abductions
The Missionaries of
Charity has opened a new
professional training center
for girls to promote economic and social development. The program offers
girls free courses such as
sewing, clothes making and
embroidery.
The community, two Indian sisters, one African
from Kenya and one European from Poland, care for
the sick, the terminally ill,
the marginalized and the orphans. Tajikistan is mainly
Muslim country. But, the
sisters have made the Muslim girls very welcome in a
spirit of dialogue, cooperation and friendship with the
A human rights group
has accused Sri Lankan security forces of supporting
and participating in the abductions and forced recruitment of children as fighters.
The Sri Lankan security
forces must immediately
stop assisting abductions
of boys and young men by
the Karuna group and help
those abducted return
safely to their families, HRW
said. It said Sri Lankan military and police are complicit
and, at times, directly cooperating with the Karuna
group, an armed faction that
split from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
in 2004.
31

December 2006 - Impact Magazine

Transcription

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