COMMUNITY
A Crisis Right Now: San Francisco and Manila Face Rising Seas
(repost full text from https://www.nytimes.com/)
What do you do when the sea comes for your home, your school, your church?
You could try to hold back the water. Or you could raise your house. Or you could just leave.
An estimated 600 million people live directly on the world’s coastlines, among the most hazardous places to be in the era of climate change. According to scientific projections, the oceans stand to rise by one to four feet by the end of the century, with projections of more ferocious storms and higher tides that could upend the lives of entire communities.
Many people face the risks right now. Two sprawling metropolitan areas offer a glimpse of the future. One rich, one poor, they sit on opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean: the San Francisco Bay Area (population 7 million) and metropolitan Manila (almost 14 million).
Their history, their wealth, and the political and personal choices they make today will shape how they fare as the water inevitably comes to their doorsteps.
In both places, it turns out, how you face the rising sea depends mostly on the accident of your birth: Whether you were born rich or poor, in a wealthy country or a struggling one, whether you have insurance or not, whether your property is worth millions or is little more than a tin roof.
And, in both places, climate change has magnified years of short-sighted decisions. Manila allowed groundwater to be pumped out so fast that the land sagged and turned into a bowl just as the sea was rising. The Bay Area allowed people to build right at the water’s edge, putting homes, highways, even airports at risk of catastrophic flooding.
But people tend to hold on, often ingeniously, as the water rises around them. In some cases that’s because their properties are worth a lot, for now, at least, or because they have so little that they have nowhere else to go.
Now, Manila and the Bay Area face tough choices. They could adapt to the rising tide, which could mean moving people out of harm’s way. Or, they could try to force the water to adapt to their needs by raising their defenses. For leaders, politically tough decisions lie ahead. What do they save on the water’s edge, what do they forsake and how do they reimagine their coastal cities in an age of climate disruptions?
The Bay Area and Metropolitan Manila are both big and growing, with a lot of people and things to protect on the coast. How they deal with their circumstances today may offer lessons, for better or worse, for coastal cities elsewhere.
“Are we going to decide by not deciding, and wait for the water to reach our doorsteps?” asked Aaron Peskin, a member of the San Francisco board of supervisors.
“The biggest challenge is getting society to understand it, grapple with it, address it, plan for it, discuss the trade-offs.”
METROPOLITAN MANILA
Rising water, sinking city
Desiree Alay-ay is in the thick of trade-offs.
Ms. Alay-ay, 30, grew up in a low-lying, flood-prone neighborhood on the northern fringe of Manila. It is not what she wants for her newborn baby. She wants to move, and take her parents with her.
Climate change has exacerbated a longtime problem in Manila. Because of a proliferation of fish ponds and the rapid extraction of groundwater, the ground has been subsiding. As a result, since the early 1990s, sea levels have risen much faster than the global average.
Storms repeatedly sweep away spindly-legged bamboo and tin houses on the water. People flee for a while, only to come back because they have nowhere better to go. In low-lying neighborhoods, like Ms. Alay-ay’s, roads have been raised multiple times. Pariahan, a village just north of the city line, is now permanently underwater.
“Climate change doesn’t create its own impacts. It magnifies wrong policies,” said Renato Redentor Constantino, executive director of the Manila-based Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities. “This is the case with sea level rise. A large part of Metropolitan Manila is facing more water-related impacts because of decades of myopic, cross-eyed land use planning.”
More than 30 years ago, before Ms. Alay-ay was born, her parents, migrants from the countryside, built a small house in Malabon, the only neighborhood they could afford in Manila.
The water pooled up in the streets every rainy season. When they were kids, Desiree and her brother sneaked out and swam in the streets sometimes. Leaky sewers meant human waste sometimes floated by, which they referred to as “bazookas.” Only tricycle cabs could ply through floods; when the water rose, her parents took her to school in a rented boat.
The city fought back by raising the road. So, Desiree’s parents raised their house to stay above the road. They poured cement and sand on the floor, four times in 30 years, as though adding layers to a wedding cake.
Everyone lived like this. One neighbor raised the floor so high that the original kitchen sink is now ankle-high. Another abandoned the house altogether; its roof is barely above street level now, and water hyacinths have taken over the rooms.
Ms. Alay-ay is trying to move her family out of Malabon. “I want my baby to have a good future,” she said.
Ms. Alay-ay’s neighbor, Rorencia Trupa, 92, and family members.
A bamboo extension built onto a flooded home in Pariahan, just outside Metro Manila.
Anna Lampitoc and her children. They were moved to public housing after a typhoon destroyed their home outside a sea wall.
A home in Pariahan. Its original concrete foundation is now underwater.
It was only after Ms. Alay-ay had a baby that she set her mind to getting out of Malabon.
“I want my baby to have a good future,” Ms. Alay-ay said. “I don’t want him to experience what I’ve experienced.”
She wanted her parents to come, too, so they could watch the baby while she and her husband went to work. But they had other plans. Leave the baby with us, her mother, Zucema Rebaldo, offered. But we’re not moving. This is our home.
“This was a happy place for us,” Mrs. Rebaldo said on a Sunday afternoon when I went to visit. “Even if people say one day it will be wiped out from the map. No question, I am staying.”
Images of Christ looked down from the walls. Roosters crowed. Everyone knows her here, she said. They call her Lola Cema — Lola means grandmother, Cema is short for Zucema. They help one another out.
“I will die in this place,” she said.
Her daughter listened quietly. She had heard this before, and, this afternoon, her face washed over with pain.
“It’s hard,” she said. “As their child I want them to move out of here to a place that’s not flooded.” Months of negotiations had ended in a deadlock.
Ms. Alay-ay’s dilemma is magnified manyfold in a megacity like Manila.
Millions of the city’s poorest live in hazardous, low-lying areas that are already lashed by tropical storms. Climate change is projected to make those storms even more intense and more frequent.
But, leaving those areas can mean being even farther from where you make a living. Or losing the neighborhood health clinic you’ve been going to for years. Or being marooned in a neighborhood where there are no tricycle cabs, let alone public transportation.
Forcing people to move away from the coast is not enough, said Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga, a member of the board of directors of the Manila Observatory, a research organization. They need to be able to find work nearby, or an efficient public transportation system to get there. That doesn’t exist now; average commutes are two hours or more each way.
“You need some sort of rational, organized retreat from the coast,” she said. “There’s no option unless you want people to live in constant fear.”
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
A political lightning rod
A rising sea underscores the missteps of the past in the Bay Area, too.
The Pacific has risen 4 to 8 inches along the Northern California shore over the last century — and so, too, the San Francisco Bay, the ocean’s largest estuary in the Americas. Depending on the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, the Pacific could rise 2.4 to 3.4 feet by 2100, which is why the California Coastal Commission has encouraged city governments to start planning for the future, either by fortifying their flood defenses, restoring wetlands, or, in some instances, making people move.
That is as difficult in the Bay Area as it is in Manila. “People’s properties and investments are at risk,” Jack Ainsworth, head of the commission, said in an interview. “It becomes very political and very emotional.”
Unlike Manila, Bay Area municipalities are wealthy. And many of them are already paying handsomely to fortify high-value coastal infrastructure at risk.
Voters in San Francisco have approved a $425 million bond measure to start fortifying a sea wall along the bayfront road, the Embarcadero. Along the road sits some of the city’s most expensive real estate; below it sits a subway line, a light rail tunnel, and part of the city’s sewage infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the builders of a new real estate development in a former industrial area called Mission Creek are raising the old roads and warehouses by as much as 10 feet. And the San Francisco airport, which sits on tidal marshlands, is getting a $587 million makeover to raise its sea wall.
Farther south, a suburban community called Foster City, built on steadily subsiding landfill, has raised property taxes to increase the height of a levee that protects the area from storm surges. Nearby, county officials have rebuilt another levee to protect a golf course, along with a low-income community called East Palo Alto.
And on San Francisco’s rugged Pacific shore, on Ocean Beach, a caravan of dump trucks is shifting sand to control erosion, while a portion of the adjacent coastal road known as the Great Highway is being moved inland.
“We basically built everything just about at the high tide line,” said Laura Tam, a policy director at SPUR, a Bay Area urban planning and research group. “Nothing was built thinking of future changes in tides. We didn’t think about sea level rise.”
The Embarcadero in San Francisco. Voters have approved a $425 million bond measure to fund a sea wall.
Water pumps at the San Francisco airport. The site is getting a $587 million makeover to raise its sea wall.
Construction vehicles shifted sand in an effort to fight erosion at Ocean Beach in San Francisco.
Alan Grinberg pays for a wall of intricately layered boulders to slow the erosion of the bluff below his home in Pacifica.
The OceanAire apartment complex in Pacifica. Built in the 1970s, it initially had a wide, grassy lawn facing the ocean.
Nowhere is the danger more starkly on display as it is in Pacifica, a suburb south of the city, where coastal bluffs are so swiftly eroding that city officials have already demolished some properties before they could fall into the water.
And this is where John Raymond’s dilemma is like a mirror image of what Desiree Alay-ay faces across the ocean. Around the time her parents built their house in Malabon, Mr. Raymond, a bankruptcy lawyer, bought his house on a bluff on the edge of the sea. The sound of the waves is a daily soundtrack.
One look from his window, and he can tell if it’s a good day to surf. He loves it here. He wants to stay for as long as possible. But Mr. Raymond, 60, is also keenly aware of the risks.
The force of the waves has broken his garage doors a few times. His neighbor’s windows have been broken by the pebbles tossed up by the beach. The only thing that protects his property from a rising sea, he knows, is a publicly funded sea wall right out front, erected to safeguard a sewer line and a coastal road. In a bad storm, when the waves pound that wall, his house shakes. His fear is that one day, the wall collapses — and his house gets red-tagged for demolition.
“If my house gets condemned because the sea wall fails and the ocean comes to the front door, I have to leave, and that’s that,” he said. “I’m taking the risk my house goes to zero.”
The soft, sandy bluffs have been eroding for thousands of years. Climate change is accelerating that process, though, said Charles Lester, a former Coastal Commission official who now directs the Ocean and Coastal Policy Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The tides are higher and the waves are more frequently coming up to the foot of the bluffs.
On a gray Monday morning, Mr. Lester stood at the edge of the bluff on the north end of town, on a walking path that ribbons around an apartment complex called OceanAire. He pulled up on his phone a picture taken in the 1970s, when the complex was built: A wide grassy lawn lay in front. That’s gone. Even when he first came here 10 years ago, the bluff was 90 feet wider. The bluff has stepped back since then. Today, at its narrowest point, a few steps separate an apartment balcony from the cliff’s edge.
A sea wall had to be built — and then rebuilt, after it failed. A pile of boulders sits at the bottom of the wall to stave off damage from the waves.
“I see the challenge that the entire state and many states are facing: how to manage development along an inherently hazardous shoreline that is going to be increasingly hazardous under sea level rise and climate change,” Mr. Lester said.
All that armoring, as it’s known, has saved the apartment complex. But it has come with a public cost: The beach has narrowed. In some parts, there is no beach left.
That is the problem facing many Bay Area communities: How much do you armor the coast, what do you choose to save, and who will have to move? Managed retreat, as it’s called, has become a political lightning rod.
Money complicates matters in other ways: Property taxes are a key source of revenue. Forcing people to move away would punch holes in city budgets. And anyway, who would pay to buy out homeowners?
Pacifica, for instance, can’t. Some single-family houses on the bluff are worth upward of $1 million.
Already, there’s been unmanaged retreat in Pacifica. Some sea walls crumbled, at one point endangering a row of apartments. The 52 tenants were entitled to zero compensation. They just had to move — in one of the most expensive counties in the state. The city spent $620,000 on demolition.
Other apartments, built years ago when the bluffs were wider, are now precariously close to the edge.
In an interview in December, Sue Vaterlaus, who was the Pacifica mayor at the time, said she was unsure about their future. “It’s a hard thing,” she said. “I’m not in favor of managed retreat, but at some point some of them may have to go.”
PARIAHAN, THE PHILIPPINES
The water ‘just came and never left’
To visit the village of Pariahan, just north of the Manila city limits, is like visiting the last residents of the mythical city of Atlantis.
Pariahan, an island once connected to the mainland by a strip of land, at one point had about 100 houses. You could pick oysters from the sea and Java plums from the trees. Children went to school here. On Sundays, there was Mass at the local church, its door facing Manila Bay.
I hired a boatman to ferry me and a photographer to Pariahan from the mainland. First came a crowded little island, then a few solitary houses standing on berms, then many more abandoned houses with window frames staring out like vacant eyes. Then, finally, a cluster of houses, standing on stilts, and boats parked out front.
There were salt flats around Pariahan long ago, then fish ponds, which drew the water from under the ground. The land began to slowly sink, and by the time a powerful storm came along 10 years ago the island had become like a bowl. The water rose up and poured in. “It just came and never left,” Benedicta Espiritu, 53, a lifelong resident, recalled.
Pariahan was submerged.
Ms. Espiritu, one of the few who remain here, raised the floor of the old house three times, and then built a new house on bamboo stilts.
The school roof has blown off. So Pariahan children now must pay for a 30-minute boat ride to attend class, which means they miss more often than not. Once a month, worshipers wade into church; a priest is ferried in from a nearby village.
Ms. Espiritu doesn’t plan to leave. She’s grown accustomed to fleeing the storms and cleaning up afterward. She fears moving anywhere else will be prohibitively expensive. Never mind that Pariahan is drowning.
“We don’t want to leave,” she said. “When you have coffee, sugar and rice, life is good. The air is free. There’s a solar panel for electricity.”
“We can live here.”
But Ms. Espiritu’s family has been told that the holdouts of Pariahan will have to leave soon. There’s a proposal to build a private airport nearby, on the edge of the slowly rising Manila Bay.
Repost from New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/02/13/climate/manila-san-francisco-sea-level-rise.html
‘Urbi et Orbi’ - Pope Francis' 2019 Christmas Message
(repost full text from https://zenit.org/)
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Is 9:1)
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Merry Christmas!
From the womb of Mother Church, the incarnate Son of God is born anew this night. His name is Jesus, which means: “God saves”. The Father, eternal and infinite Love, has sent him into the world not to condemn the world but to save it (cf. Jn 3:17). The Father has given him to us with great mercy. He has given him to everyone. He has given him forever. The Son is born, like a small light flickering in the cold and darkness of the night.
That Child, born of the Virgin Mary, is the Word of God made flesh. The Word who guided Abraham’s heart and steps towards the promised land, and who continues to draw to himself all those who trust in God’s promises. The Word who led the Hebrews on the journey from slavery to freedom and who continues to call the enslaved in every age, including our own, to come forth from their prisons. He is the Word brighter than the sun, made incarnate in a tiny son of man: Jesus the light of the world.
This is why the prophet cries out: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Is 9:1). There is darkness in human hearts, yet the light of Christ is greater still. There is darkness in personal, family and social relationships, but the light of Christ is greater. There is darkness in economic, geopolitical and ecological conflicts, yet greater still is the light of Christ.
May Christ bring his light to the many children suffering from war and conflicts in the Middle East and in various countries of the world. May he bring comfort to the beloved Syrian people who still see no end to the hostilities that have rent their country over the last decade. May he stir the consciences of men and women of good will. May he inspire governments and the international community to find solutions to allow the peoples of that region to live together in peace and security, and put an end to their sufferings. May he sustain the Lebanese people and enable them to overcome the current crisis and rediscover their vocation to be a message of freedom and harmonious coexistence for all.
May the Lord Jesus bring light to the Holy Land, where he was born as the Saviour of mankind, and where so many people – struggling but not discouraged – still await a time of peace, security and prosperity. May he bring consolation to Iraq amid its present social tensions, and to Yemen, suffering from a grave humanitarian crisis.
May the tiny Babe of Bethlehem bring hope to the whole American continent, where a number of nations are experiencing a time of social and political upheaval. May he encourage the beloved Venezuelan people, long tried by their political and social tensions, and ensure that they receive the aid they need. May he bless the efforts of those who spare no effort to promote justice and reconciliation and to overcome the various crises and the many forms of poverty that offend the dignity of each person.
May the Redeemer of the world bring light to beloved Ukraine, which yearns for concrete solutions for an enduring peace.
May the newborn Lord bring light to the people of Africa, where persistent social and political situations often force individuals to migrate, depriving them of a home and family. May he bring peace to those living in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, torn by continuing conflicts. May he bring consolation to all who suffer because of violence, natural disasters or outbreaks of disease. And may he bring comfort to those who are persecuted for their religious faith, especially missionaries and members of the faithful who have been kidnapped, and to the victims of attacks by extremist groups, particularly in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Nigeria.
May the Son of God, come down to earth from heaven, protect and sustain all those who, due to these and other injustices, are forced to emigrate in the hope of a secure life. It is injustice that makes them cross deserts and seas that become cemeteries. It is injustice that forces them to ensure unspeakable forms of abuse, enslavement of every kind and torture in inhumane detention camps. It is injustice that turns them away from places where they might have hope for a dignified life, but instead find themselves before walls of indifference.
May Emmanuel bring light to all the suffering members of our human family. May he soften our often stony and self-centred hearts, and make them channels of his love. May he bring his smile, through our poor faces, to all the children of the world: to those who are abandoned and those who suffer violence. Through our frail hands, may he clothe those who have nothing to wear, give bread to the hungry and heal the sick. Through our friendship, such as it is, may he draw close to the elderly and the lonely, to migrants and the marginalized. On this joyful Christmas Day, may he bring his tenderness to all and brighten the darkness of this world.
https://zenit.org/articles/popes-urbi-et-orbi-blessing-full-text/
Cardinal Tagle is the new Prefect of Propaganda Fide
By Vatican News
Cardinal Filoni becomes Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. The Archbishop of Manila succeeds him at the head of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
The Cardinal Archbishop of Manila, Luis Antonio Tagle is the new Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. The appointment by Pope Francis was announced on Sunday 8 December. The current Prefect, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, assumes the post of Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher in place of Cardinal Edwin Frederick O'Brien, who resigned in April 2019 and turned 80.
With the appointment of Cardinal Tagle, an Asian cardinal returns to head Propaganda Fide (the original name of this important department for evangelization, which is also responsible for episcopal nominations in mission lands), after the years of Indian Cardinal Ivan Dias (2006-2011). Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle was born on 21 June 1957 in Manila to a Catholic family - his father of Tagalog ethnicity and his mother of Chinese origin - and was ordained priest in 1982. He studied in the United States where he obtained his doctorate in theology with a thesis on the evolution of the notion of episcopal collegiality since the Second Vatican Council. He spent seven years in Rome to deepen his studies and in 1997 joined the International Theological Commission.
After serving as parish priest at the Cathedral of Imus, at the age of 44 he was consecrated bishop of that diocese by Saint John Paul II in October 2001. He dedicated himself in particular to youth ministry and inaugurated the first meeting of young Asians in Imus. On 13 October 2011 Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Metropolitan Archbishop of Manila and made him a cardinal thirteen months later, in November 2012. In addition to leading the Manila Archdiocese, Cardinal Tagle is President of Caritas Internationalis and the Catholic Biblical Federation. With this choice, announced a few days after the end of his trip to Thailand and Japan, Pope Francis once again shows great attention to the Asian continent. With the designation of Cardinal Tagle, which follows a few weeks after that of Spanish Jesuit Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves as Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, two new heads of department will be installed at the beginning of 2020 in the Roman Curia.
Pope Francis has also appointed 73 year-old Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Prefect of Propaganda Fide from 2011 to the present, who becomes Prefect Emeritus of the same Dicastery, as the new Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre. Cardinal Filoni was Apostolic Nuncio to Iraq from 2001 to 2006 and lived in Baghdad during the war of 2003. For a year, he was the Pope's ambassador to the Philippines before being called to the Secretariat of State as Substitute, a post he held until 2011. His experience in the Middle East will be valuable in his new role, as the Order of the Holy Sepulchre cooperates particularly with the Middle Eastern Christian communities and supports them with many projects.
In a statement, Cardinal O'Brien expressed his great appreciation for the Pope's decision, and said he is particularly happy that Cardinal Filoni has been chosen as his successor: "His long and extensive partoral and administrative service in our Universal Church", Cardinal O'Brien said, "will be precious in guiding the Order on its future path".
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-12/cardinal-tagle-is-the-new-prefect-of-propaganda-fide.html
“Maria, Ina ng Kabataan, Sandigan ng Simbahan at Reyna ng Sanlibutan”
Our Lady of Remedies Parish Fiesta 2019
As the Year of the Youth came to a close, our parish celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Remedies with the theme – ‘Ina ng Kabataan, Sandigan ng Simbahan at Reyna ng Sanlibutan’.
Dalaw ni Maria (October 10 – November 8) came to Land Bank of the Philippines, Ospital ng Maynila, Aurora A. Quezon Elementary School, Diamond Hotel, Manila City Hall, Malate Catholic School, Sto.Nino de Paz Chapel (Greenbelt) and St. Paul University Manila before going to the barangays within the parish.
Rich in dramatic Catholic history, Nagasaki awaits the pope
By Mari Yamaguchi
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NAGASAKI, Japan (AP) — It’s fitting that Pope Francis will start his first official visit to Japan in Nagasaki, the city where Christianity first took hold in the country and where nearly 500 years later it remains steeped in blood-soaked symbolism, both religious and political.
It was here that a small group of beleaguered Catholic converts went deep underground during centuries of violent persecution. It was here that their descendants dramatically emerged from hiding in the 19th century, their faith unbroken. And it was here that a U.S. atom bomb brought death and destruction to the cathedral that community was finally able to build.
As Francis makes the first papal visit to Japan in 38 years, he will likely look to the past by honoring the doggedness of those so-called Hidden Christians, while also laying out his vision for a future free from the threat of nuclear weapons.
In many ways, Nagasaki is the perfect backdrop for his visit to a nation that was once coveted by the West as a place of Catholic expansion but where only 0.35% of the 127 million people are Catholic. One of the highlights of the visit starting Saturday will be his prayer at a memorial to 26 martyrs crucified in 1597 at the start of an anti-Christian persecution that lasted until about 1870.
“Our Christian ancestors were oppressed and monitored, and then suffered from the atomic attack. This all made me think, ‘What is it supposed to mean?’” Japanese Archbishop Mitsuaki Takami said. “Perhaps the followers in Nagasaki have been given a mission to convey peace.”
Takami, who heads Nagasaki’s Catholic community of 60,000, by far the biggest in Japan, is a Hidden Christian descendant who was exposed to radiation in his mother’s womb when the atom bomb fell on Aug. 9, 1945, near Urakami Cathedral. He had several relatives die in the bombing that killed 74,000, a number that includes two priests and 24 followers inside the cathedral.
Takami, who has traveled the world with a statue of the Virgin Mary that was damaged in the blast, and other activists expect the pope will send a powerful anti-nuclear message on behalf of everyone in Nagasaki.
Many bomb survivors and supporters hope it will push Japan’s government, which is protected by the U.S. nuclear umbrella, to sign the U.N. nuclear-ban treaty. Japan has refused to sign, saying it seeks to bridge the gap between nuclear and non-nuclear states.
Francis has gone further than other popes on the nuclear matter, saying that not only the use, but the mere possession of nuclear weapons is “to be firmly condemned.”
Francis will likely repeat his appeal for a total ban on nuclear weapons when he visits Nagasaki and Hiroshima, where 140,000 were killed by another U.S. atomic bomb. He will meet with survivors of those bombs, as well as those affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster that followed a March 2011 tsunami and earthquake in northern Japan.
“Your country knows well the suffering caused by war,” Francis said in a video message to the Japanese on the eve of his trip. “Along with you, I pray that the destructive power of nuclear weapons never is let loose again on human history. The use of nuclear weapons is immoral.”
Takami, 73, grew up hearing stories from his relatives of the suffering that many in Nagasaki endured after the bombing and is reminded of his determination for peace every time he visits Urakami Cathedral.
“Any weapon is ghastly, but nuclear weapons are hundreds of times more so,” Takami said, adding they should be abolished. “World leaders should be ashamed of talking from a safe and distant place about nuclear weapons, calling them a deterrent even though they can kill hundreds of thousands, even millions of people.”
Many in Nagasaki are happy that the pope is coming first to their city, which is often eclipsed by the events in Hiroshima.
“I hope he will use his trip to Nagasaki to send a powerful message of the need to ban nuclear weapons,” said Chizuko Maruo, the daughter of an atomic bombing survivor who will attend the pope’s Sunday Mass at a city baseball stadium.
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Francis will also greet some descendants of the Hidden Christians, who developed their own unique prayer known as the “Orasho,” or oratio, while hiding in Nagasaki’s northern islands, where some local Shinto and Buddhist residents supported them.
Francis, who is known to Japanese Catholics as Papa-sama, will also hold a Mass in Hiroshima and in Tokyo and meet with Japan’s emperor and prime minister.
Francis’ messages about life are universal and still can reach people’s hearts, especially given the state of global politics, said Kagefumi Ueno, a former Japanese ambassador to the Vatican.
“At a time when global leaders are increasingly becoming populist, the pope’s words can be a virtue of the international community and a moral authority,” he said.
As a youth Francis is said to have been fascinated by the history of the Christian experience in Nagasaki and wanted to be a missionary there.
The area around Nagasaki became the center of a rapid Catholic expansion after the 1549 arrival to Japan of St. Francis Xavier, the first Jesuit missionary. More than a quarter-million Japanese are said to have converted until the Tokugawa shogunate, fearing that Christianity was the beginning of Western domination, outlawed it 1612.
Christians were forced to renounce their beliefs on pain of death and to trample on Catholic icons. When discovered, Christians were tortured. Many were thrown into boiling hot springs or burned to death.
A small, determined Catholic minority went into hiding and practiced their faith in secret for more than 250 years. The Hidden Christians finally broke their silence in 1865 by approaching a foreign priest. But with the ban on Christianity still in place, the 3,300 Catholics were banished from Nagasaki and were not allowed to return until the ban was lifted in 1873. They built their long-dreamed-of cathedral in 1914.
Mitsuho Nakata, an artisan who makes Catholic statues near Urakami, is the great-grandson of a samurai who cut ties with his feudal lord to pursue his Catholic faith. A group of samurai ambushed and killed most of his great-grandfather’s family.
After studying at a Catholic theological school, Nakata returned to work in the family-run workshop his father started.
“My family is here only because our ancestors kept their faith despite constant fear of getting killed or tortured,” Nakata said at his workshop, surrounded by dozens of statues of the Virgin Mary and saints. “I’m so impressed by their devotion and their strong faith and that they abandoned everything they had for it.”
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Repost full text from https://apnews.com/8d0e2f30a03245b5899cb3ba20566714
MANILA: Isa sa Anim na Lugar na Pinakanakararanas ng Epekto ng Climate Change
Apektado ang buong mundo ng Climate Change, subalit ang mga mahihirap na bansa ang pinakanakararanas ng malubhang epekto nito. Mahalaga na masukat ang kahandaan na ang mga gobyerno at lipunan.
Ang kabuhayan ng karamihan sa mga developing countries ay nakasalalay sa likas na yaman. Malaki ang epekto nito sa agrikultura.
Ayon sa mga experts, ang 6 na lugar na ito ay lubhang apektado ng Climate Change:
Lagos, Nigeria – nasa 13M ang populasyon ng siyudad na ito, at tinatayang lalaki ng 23M sa 15 taon. Dadami ang tagtuyot, tataas ang level ng dagat at hahalo sa inuming tubig. Maari itong makasama sa mga palaisdaan at taniman.
Haiti – Ito ay nasa ‘Atlantic Hurrican Basin’. Ang mga bagyo ay lalong lumakas dahil sa Climate Change. Ang bansang ito ay nakaranas ng lindol noong 2010. Agrikultura rin ang pangunahing kabuhayan dito.
Yemen – May civil war dito simula noong 2015 at sunod sunod na tagtuyot, na nagdulot ng kakulangan sa inuming tubig. Palalalain ng Climate Change ang sitwasyong ito. Bilang isang coastal country, apektado rin ang Yemen ng pagtaas ng dagat.
Manila, Philippines – Tayo ay regular na nakararanas ng bagyo at pagbaha. Sa laki ng populasyon, mahirap ang evacuation, relief at rehabilitation pagkatapos ng sakuna. May mga hakbang na proyekto ang Pilipinas para harapin at solusyunan ang epekto ng Climate Change.
Kiribati – Maaaring mawala sa mapa ang bansang ito dahil sa pagtaas ng tubig dagat. Katulad ng Pilipinas, may mga programa sila laban sa Climate Change. Nagtatanim sila ng mangroves at bumubuo ng sea walls.
United Arab Emirates – Kapareho ng Yemen ang lokasyon ng bansang ito. Nagsisimula na silang mag pundar sa inuming tubig, green energy at mga tanim na mabubuhay sa mainit na klima. Kahit mayaman ang bansang ito, malaki ang di pagkakapantay sa estado ng kabuhayan.
Ang artikulang ito ay base sa Time.com article na sinulat ni Tara Law.
In 'season of creation,' Cardinal Tagle reminds all to take care of Earth
(repost full text from https://www.rappler.com/)
'Let us renew our pledge to respect one another and the web of life,' Cardinal Tagle adds.
MANILA, Philippines – Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle reminded everyone on Sunday, September 1, to take care of Earth as he led the celebration of the Catholic Church's "season of creation."
At the Walk for Creation event in Quezon City, Tagle noted that the Earth "withered, paled and, is now dying because of our doing – wrong doing."
"We have forgotten how to take care of our trees, animals, waters and land. We have become greedy, and disrespected our common home," Tagle continued.
He added, "There would be nothing to celebrate if we will not change our relationship with one another and with the ecosystem surrounding us."
Tagle then appealed to everyone, "Let us renew our pledge to respect one another and the web of life."
He argued that it is not yet too late to begin. "The earth is the source of the air we breathe, the food we eat, and things that make our lives comfortable. Thus, it is vital that we change the way we live. And it is not yet too late. We have this opportunity every day to celebrate the Season of Creation by being respectful, loving, compassionate and selfless."
Pope Francis in 2015 designated September 1 as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and invited dioceses worldwide to celebrate the "season of creation." On Sunday, people from various schools, parishes, religious communities, and civil society organizations took part in the third Walk for Creation event at Liwasang Aurora in Quezon City Circle.
In a statement, Father John Leydon, Global Catholic Climate Movement-Pilipinas chairperson, said that the Church "is coming to a deeper awareness of who we are supposed to be in this situation."
"We are being called to worship God as our Creator. The Season of Creation is a special time we set aside for worship, and to open ourselves to listen to His voice, heard in the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor," Leydon said.
Father Edwin Gariguez of NASSA-Caritas Philippines added that we "cannot just be bystanders anymore" and that all sectors should treat the climate emergency seriously and with urgency.
"If we want to be called sons and daughters of God, then by all means we have to start caring for one another, and for our common home." – Michael Bueza/Rappler.com
Press Release
Today, dozens of Filipino men and women, ordained and lay, are serving as Columban Missionaries around the world following the footsteps of the first Columban Missionaries who
arrived in Our Lady of Remedies Parish, Malate on May 30, 1929.
From three priests in 1929 the numbers of Columbans in the Philippines grew to 257, serving 150 parishes in thirteen dioceses. At one point, Columban missionaries comprised 5% of all the clergy in the Philippines.
The Columbans shared the fate of the people they worked with. During World War II the Malate Martyrs and Fr. Vernon Douglas paid the highest price.
Fruits of the 90 years of Columban mission in the Philippines are not only the promotion of vocation to mission but also taking concrete steps to respond to the challenges of the time. The Columbans addressed issues of poverty and the need to provide education by building parochial schools in parishes where they were working. They saw the need to strengthen the faith of the young and develop leadership skills from among the hundreds of thousands of students in Manila’s non-sectarian colleges. Thus, they founded the Student Catholic Action.
During the martial law years, the Columbans stayed with the people they served. Two Columban priests, together with a diocesan priest and six lay workers, were falsely accused and put into prison because of their work with the poor.
Responding to the call of Pope Paul VI for reconciliation between Muslims and Christians, the Columbans embraced the Dialogue of Life way of living initiated by the late Bp. Bienvenido
Tudtud. While living this call to dialogue two Columbans suffered violent deaths in Lanao del Sur.
Over the years, the Columban missionaries have realized that the system that creates and perpetuates poverty is also destroying planet Earth. Together with the people, they have protested and organized pickets against logging, and later on against mining. A priority of the Columbans is to care for our fragile planet as urged by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines’ 1988 pastoral letter, “What is Happening to Our Beautiful Land”, and by Pope Francis’ “Laudato Si’ On the Care of Our Common Home”.
Columbans invite young Filipinos to be lay missionaries and to be Columban Missionary priests. Today, these young men and women are fruit of the work done by Columbans in the Philippines over 90 years.
This year, we celebrate our commitment to the poor and the exploited earth. We honor those who have gone before us as we continue to commit ourselves to God’s mission in collaboration with our mission partners and benefactors. This commitment is expressed in our work with the vulnerable and the marginalized, indigenous people, interfaith dialogue and the care for God’s creation in our ministries and parishes.
A Pearl in the Orient
90 Years of Columban Mission in the Philippines
Recently it has been discovered that the correct date for the arrival of Michael Cuddigan to Malate was May 28, 1929. Pat Kelly arrived on May 29, as he stated in his letter written on July 17, to Fr John Blowick, Co-founder of the Society of St Columban.
May 28, 1929, is an historic day for Columbans in the Philippines. Fr. Michael Cuddigan arrived from Sydney and the following day met the ship bringing Fr. Patrick Kelly from Europe. Our Lady of Remedies Church, Malate, Manila, welcomed these two Irishmen, pioneers in a long line of Columbans who, over the next 90 years, made the Philippines their home.
By means of the Cross and the Sword, Spain had ruled the Philippines for almost 400 years. In 1898, America annexed the Philippines and within a decade suppressed the subsequent revolt by the Filipinos who challenged US occupation. Church and State separated; the Vatican, not the King of Spain now appointed Bishops; a procession of U.S. Protestant Churches arrived; most Spanish missionaries departed; the few Filipino clergy had been given little opportunity for leadership; many parishes now had no priests, and droves of Catholics embraced a breakaway nationalist Church. For the faithful who remained, the outlook seemed bleak.
Philippine Church leaders appealed to Catholic congregations worldwide to send missionaries and many responded generously. Soon, they recruited and trained Filipinos for school and parish ministry. The Columbans had been founded for mission to China and were reluctant to accept a mission in a Catholic country like the Philippines. It was only after protracted negotiations between Rome and the Archbishop of Manila, that the Society leadership accepted Malate.
The 1930’s would be an uphill battle, but revival was in the air for many communities of harassed and suffering Catholics. The succeeding decades witnessed the arrival of many newly ordained Columbans plus others recently expelled from China. This allowed for a massive expansion so that by the mid-70s around 250 Columbans (including two bishops) were ministering in 13 dioceses – 5% of all the clergy in the Philippines.
In early 1942, Japan invaded the Philippines and gradually overcame the Filipino and American resistance to its global expansion. However, US troops returned in strength in October, 1944, and a few months later reached Manila and faced an entrenched Japanese military. The month-long battle in February, 1945, resulted in the rampant destruction of the old city and the slaughter of 100,000 people, including the five (5) Columban priests at Malate. The American officer responsible for the slaughter admitted that it “… was really indefensible”. However, the end of the conflict gave Filipinos control of their city.
Columbans had established Student Catholic Action (SCA) in 1936, to strengthen the faith and develop the talents and leadership of the hundreds of thousands of students in Manila’s non-sectarian Colleges. Lay leaders were introduced to Catholic social teaching; prophetic voices for change grew louder. Over the decades these were considered a threat by the ruling elite; political dynasties and well-armed military promoted the lie that socialism was communism; many were imprisoned or liquidated under the Marcos Martial Law Government. By the mid-80’s, many countries decided to intervene and withdrew their support for the dictator. When a few high-ranking military leaders abandoned Marcos, Cardinal Sin called the nation to join them, a bloodbath was avoided, and the possibility of democracy was restored.
Meanwhile, encouraged by Vatican ll and subsequent Documents, the global church accelerated people’s participation in worship and in social and political life. Liberation Theology was a positive influence and small church communities multiplied. The Philippines welcomed and adopted these developments. The 2nd Plenary Council of the Philippines in 1991, where laity outnumbered clergy by 2 to 1, became a prophetic call for the whole Filipino Church “to become, and be, a genuine Church of the poor.”
Despite a collective commitment to peace building and Christian-Muslim dialogue, nine Columban priests, in following their Master, suffered violent deaths in the Philippines.
Around ten million Filipino migrants scattered throughout the world have a huge missionary impact. A second group, also in millions, brings their skills, values, and beliefs to the world. These Overseas Foreign Workers (OFWs) include seafarers, engineers and technicians, nurses, caregivers and domestic helpers. A third grouping is the priests, nuns and lay missionaries sent out by their Church. Pope Francis’ call that we not be just disciples, but “missionary disciples,” has indeed been fulfilled by many Filipinos.
A hallmark of Columban parish ministry was their catechetical programs in practically every National Elementary School. We have frequently heard local priests telling how our catechists and their Columban pastors sowed the seeds of their vocation. Columbans, under severe financial limitations, opened High Schools where none existed.
The world was undergoing radical change, and so also was the Church. Columbans, in partnership with the Irish Missionary Union (IMU), developed the Faith and Mission programme for returned missionaries to enable them to keep pace with these changes. In general, secular clergy in the Philippines were rarely given either the time, or the encouragement for renewal.
Columbans have gradually become aware that our present way of living will inevitably put an end to life as we know it on planet Earth. Prophetic voices have opened our eyes to the impending catastrophe brought on by our blindness and greed. Pope Francis is awakening the conscience of millions with his superb presentation of this in LAUDATO SI.
Encouraged by Rome, Columbans made a leap of faith in 1982. From the countries in which we worked, we invited lay people to join us as partners in mission, and we also invited young men into a training programme for Columban missionary priesthood. Both programs have been blessed by the Lord and have become sources of new life and hope for us and for the global church.
Today there are dozens of Filipino young men and women, ordained and lay, serving as Columban missionaries around the world, including Ireland, which nurtured and supported the dreams of those who came and uplifted the spirits of the Filipino Church some ninety years ago.
“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God” -Romans 8:19
Dear Brothers and Sisters
Each year, through Mother Church, God “gives us this joyful season when we prepare to celebrate the paschal mystery with mind and heart renewed… as we recall the great events that gave us new life in Christ” (Preface of Lent I). We can thus journey from Easter to Easter towards the fulfilment of the salvation we have already received as a result of Christ’s paschal mystery – “for in hope we were saved” (Rom 8:24). This mystery of salvation, already at work in us during our earthly lives, is a dynamic process that also embraces history and all of creation. As Saint Paul says, “the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God” (Rom 8:19). In this perspective, I would like to offer a few reflections to accompany our journey of conversion this coming Lent.
1. The redemption of creation
The celebration of the Paschal Triduum of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection, the culmination of the liturgical year, calls us yearly to undertake a journey of preparation, in the knowledge that our being conformed to Christ (cf. Rom 8:29) is a priceless gift of God’s mercy.
When we live as children of God, redeemed, led by the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 8:14) and capable of acknowledging and obeying God’s law, beginning with the law written on our hearts and in nature, we also benefit creation by cooperating in its redemption. That is why Saint Paul says that creation eagerly longs for the revelation of the children of God; in other words, that all those who enjoy the grace of Jesus’ paschal mystery may experience its fulfilment in the redemption of the human body itself. When the love of Christ transfigures the lives of the saints in spirit, body and soul, they give praise to God. Through prayer, contemplation and art, they also include other creatures in that praise, as we see admirably expressed in the “Canticle of the Creatures” by Saint Francis of Assisi (cf. Laudato Si’, 87). Yet in this world, the harmony generated by redemption is constantly threatened by the negative power of sin and death.
2. The destructive power of sin
Indeed, when we fail to live as children of God, we often behave in a destructive way towards our neighbours and other creatures – and ourselves as well – since we begin to think more or less consciously that we can use them as we will. Intemperance then takes the upper hand: we start to live a life that exceeds those limits imposed by our human condition and nature itself. We yield to those untrammelled desires that the Book of Wisdom sees as typical of the ungodly, those who act without thought for God or hope for the future (cf. 2:1-11). Unless we tend constantly towards Easter, towards the horizon of the Resurrection, the mentality expressed in the slogans “I want it all and I want it now!” and “Too much is never enough”, gains the upper hand.
The root of all evil, as we know, is sin, which from its first appearance has disrupted our communion with God, with others and with creation itself, to which we are linked in a particular way by our body. This rupture of communion with God likewise undermines our harmonious relationship with the environment in which we are called to live, so that the garden has become a wilderness (cf. Gen 3:17-18). Sin leads man to consider himself the god of creation, to see himself as its absolute master and to use it, not for the purpose willed by the Creator but for his own interests, to the detriment of other creatures.
Once God’s law, the law of love, is forsaken, then the law of the strong over the weak takes over. The sin that lurks in the human heart (cf. Mk 7:20-23) takes the shape of greed and unbridled pursuit of comfort, lack of concern for the good of others and even of oneself. It leads to the exploitation of creation, both persons and the environment, due to that insatiable covetousness which sees every desire as a right and sooner or later destroys all those in its grip.
3. The healing power of repentance and forgiveness
Creation urgently needs the revelation of the children of God, who have been made “a new creation”. For “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17). Indeed, by virtue of their being revealed, creation itself can celebrate a Pasch, opening itself to a new heaven and a new earth (cf. Rev 21:1). The path to Easter demands that we renew our faces and hearts as Christians through repentance, conversion and forgiveness, so as to live fully the abundant grace of the paschal mystery.
This “eager longing”, this expectation of all creation, will be fulfilled in the revelation of the children of God, that is, when Christians and all people enter decisively into the “travail” that conversion entails. All creation is called, with us, to go forth “from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom 8:21). Lent is a sacramental sign of this conversion. It invites Christians to embody the paschal mystery more deeply and concretely in their personal, family and social lives, above all by fasting, prayer and almsgiving.
Fasting, that is, learning to change our attitude towards others and all of creation, turning away from the temptation to “devour” everything to satisfy our voracity and being ready to suffer for love, which can fill the emptiness of our hearts. Prayer, which teaches us to abandon idolatry and the self-sufficiency of our ego, and to acknowledge our need of the Lord and his mercy. Almsgiving, whereby we escape from the insanity of hoarding everything for ourselves in the illusory belief that we can secure a future that does not belong to us. And thus to rediscover the joy of God’s plan for creation and for each of us, which is to love him, our brothers and sisters, and the entire world, and to find in this love our true happiness.
Dear brothers and sisters, the “lenten” period of forty days spent by the Son of God in the desert of creation had the goal of making it once more that garden of communion with God that it was before original sin (cf. Mk 1:12-13; Is 51:3). May our Lent this year be a journey along that same path, bringing the hope of Christ also to creation, so that it may be “set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom 8:21). Let us not allow this season of grace to pass in vain! Let us ask God to help us set out on a path of true conversion. Let us leave behind our selfishness and self-absorption, and turn to Jesus’ Pasch. Let us stand beside our brothers and sisters in need, sharing our spiritual and material goods with them. In this way, by concretely welcoming Christ’s victory over sin and death into our lives, we will also radiate its transforming power to all of creation.
From the Vatican, 4 October 2018
Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi
Francis
Text of Pope Francis' Christmas Message
(repost full text from https://edition.cnn.com/)
Here's the official English translation of the text of Pope Francis' Christmas message released by the Vatican. (The speech was delivered in Italian, and it was obtained by CNN's Nicola Ruotolo in Rome.)
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Happy Christmas!
To you, the faithful of Rome, to you, the pilgrims, and to all who are linked to us from every part of the world, I renew the joyous proclamation of Bethlehem: "Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace among those whom he favors" (Luke 2:14). Like the shepherds who first went with haste to the stable, let us halt in wonder before the sign that God has given us: "A baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger" (Luke 2:12). In silence, let us fall to our knees and worship.
What does that Child, born for us of the Virgin Mary, have to tell us? What is the universal message of Christmas? It is that God is a good Father and we are all brothers and sisters.
This truth is the basis of the Christian vision of humanity. Without the fraternity that Jesus Christ has bestowed on us, our efforts for a more just world fall short, and even our best plans and projects risk being soulless and empty.
For this reason, my wish for a happy Christmas is a wish for fraternity. Fraternity among individuals of every nation and culture. Fraternity among people with different ideas, yet capable of respecting and listening to one another. Fraternity among persons of different religions. Jesus came to reveal the face of God to all those who seek him.
The face of God has been revealed in a human face. It did not appear in an angel, but in one man, born in a specific time and place. By his incarnation, the Son of God tells us that salvation comes through love, acceptance, respect for this poor humanity of ours, which we all share in a great variety of races, languages, and cultures. Yet all of us are brothers and sisters in humanity!
Our differences, then, are not a detriment or a danger; they are a source of richness. As when an artist is about to make a mosaic, it is better to have tiles of many colors available, rather than just a few! The experience of families teaches us this: As brothers and sisters, we are all different from each other. We do not always agree, but there is an unbreakable bond uniting us, and the love of our parents helps us to love one another.
The same is true for the larger human family, but here, God is our "parent," the foundation and strength of our fraternity. May this Christmas help us to rediscover the bonds of fraternity linking us together as individuals and joining all peoples. May it enable Israelis and Palestinians to resume dialogue and undertake a journey of peace that can put an end to a conflict that for over 70 years has rent the land chosen by the Lord to show his face of love.
May the child Jesus allow the beloved and beleaguered country of Syria once again to find fraternity after these long years of war. May the international community work decisively for a political solution that can put aside divisions and partisan interests, so that the Syrian people, especially all those who were forced to leave their own lands and seek refuge elsewhere, can return to live in peace in their own country.
My thoughts turn to Yemen, in the hope that the truce brokered by the international community may finally bring relief to all those children and people exhausted by war and famine. I think too of Africa, where millions of persons are refugees or displaced and in need of humanitarian assistance and food security.
May the Holy Child, the King of Peace, silence the clash of arms and allow a new dawn of fraternity to rise over the entire continent, blessing the efforts of all those who work to promote paths of reconciliation in political and social life. May Christmas consolidate the bonds of fraternity uniting the Korean Peninsula and help the path of rapprochement recently undertaken to continue and to reach agreed solutions capable of ensuring the development and well-being of all.
May this blessed season allow Venezuela once more to recover social harmony and enable all the members of society to work fraternally for the country's development and to aid the most vulnerable sectors of the population. May the newborn Lord bring relief to the beloved land of Ukraine, yearning to regain a lasting peace that is slow to come. Only with a peace respectful of the rights of every nation can the country recover from the sufferings it has endured and restore dignified living conditions for its citizens.
I am close to the Christian communities of the region, and I pray that they may develop relationships of fraternity and friendship. Before the child Jesus, may the inhabitants of beloved Nicaragua see themselves once more as brothers and sisters, so that divisions and discord will not prevail, but all may work to promote reconciliation and to build together the future of the country.
I want to mention, too, all those peoples that experience ideological, cultural and economic forms of colonization and see their freedom and identity compromised, as well as those suffering from hunger and the lack of educational and health care services.
A particular thought goes to our brothers and sisters who celebrate the birth of the Lord in difficult, if not hostile situations, especially where the Christian community is a minority, often vulnerable or not taken into account. May the Lord grant that they, and all minorities, may live in peace and see their rights recognized, especially the right to religious freedom.
May the little child whom we contemplate today in the manger, in the cold of the night, watch over all the children of the world, and every frail, vulnerable and discarded person. May all of us receive peace and consolation from the birth of the Savior and, in the knowledge that we are loved by the one heavenly Father, realize anew that we are brothers and sisters and come to live as such!
Walang KaPARIs, Isang Pasasalamat!
With a fitting tribute to the dear Columban fathers, volunteers of Our Lady of Remedies Parish celebrated Volunteers Night 2018 amidst songs, dances and games at the MCS Gymnasium on Thursday, November 29, 2018.
The highlight of the night is the Tribute, this year being the 100th Year of the Missionary Society of St. Columban and the Year of the Clergy and Consecrated Persons. A short skit was prepared by some well-meaning volunteers and acted out by the Parish Youth members who mimicked the priests’ most familiar mannerisms and characteristics. Thereafter, the Worship Coordinator, Cori Nebreja, gave a message for the priests and led her ministry members in the presentation of their gifts. The coordinators and members of the different Ministries, Areas, and Organizations (MAOs) and the Parish Finance Council also took to the stage to give their presents and some photo op. Simple as these preparations may be, the air is filled with an overflowing feeling of gratitude, love and affection for the Priest Team of the Parish who have selflessly served the Malate community for so many years.
The theme this year is LUAU Party and the volunteers and priests came dressed in their colorful floral outfits with matching leis. The happy irony, however, is that only the ever-cooperative priests prepared a Hawaiian dance, with matching costumes around their waists. Dancing to the powerful and meaningful music of E Nā Kini of the Kalaupapa people of Hawaii, the priests executed their fantastic number to the delight of everyone. The priests’ presentation has always been a much-awaited number in the volunteers’ night and never fails to bring the house down. Who can forget their sensational GangNam Presentation (2016) and Nae Nae Dance (2017)? Only this time, the crowd missed the rhythmic dance moves of Fr. John and Fr. Kevin. Of course, the MAOs cannot be far behind as they exhibited their own awesome presentations, the products of numerous hours and nights of practice.
More than anything else, the Volunteers Night caps a year of camaraderie in service and a way of giving thanks for the mutual cooperation and support between the priests and volunteers. The annual celebration has now become a tradition since George Gueco’s PPC team, with credits to Siony Salgado, started it about five years ago.
Special thanks go to Special Events coordinator Jeannie Villanueva, Tess Macato, Volunteers Night Pointperson Tess Macato, and programs’ Emma de Paula, and their respective teams . To everybody who came, participated and supported in any way the 2018 Volunteers’ Night, thank you very much! And of course, to all beloved priests led by Fr. Leo Distor, who have always given 200% support to the parish volunteers, maraming maraming Salamat po sa inyong lahat, sa maraming taon ng inyong paglilingkod at buhay na binigay para sa Malate Parish Community!
Parish Educational Assistance Program (PEAP) Assists 144 Students
By: Czarina Pascual
PEAP or Parish Educational Assistance Program began as a partnership of Malate Church and Erda Foundation Inc. to assist the children in the community meet their school needs.
In 2007, the parish assumed sole responsibility of the program. With the support of Irish donors and friends of the parish, PEAP continued to help deserving students from the community.
This school year 2018-2019 a total of 144 beneficiaries take part in the program. School supplies were distributed last June 9, 2018 to beneficiaries from Grades 1-10. All elementary beneficiaries received uniforms and a pair of shoe. High school students were given uniforms while Grades 8 and 10 students received an additional pair of shoe.
Beneficiaries also receive monthly transportation allowance. On top of their monthly allowance, grades 11 and 12 received additional P1500 in lieu of school supplies.
PEAP beneficiaries undergo monthly formation. The Grade School attend catechism classes while Grades 7-9 undergo Let’s Talk (Usap Tayo/Unicef) formation and Grades 10-12 have Ecology related formation. College students participate in the monthly Public Affairs Forum on current and social issues.
Through the years, many PEAP graduates have become self-sufficient and are now able to support their families. This is the goal of the program, that the graduates become fruitful and productive members of the community.
Visit of the Sacred Relics of St. Pio of Pietrelcina
30 August 2018
Saint Padre Pio
(https://www.thesaintsproject.org/saints/st-padre-pio/)
Padre Pio was born on May 25, 1887 in Italy. He was baptized and given the name Francesco. It is said that by 5 years old he already decided to dedicate his life to God and would take on penances like sleeping on a stone instead of a pillow. He was able to speak with Jesus, Mary and his guardian angel and assumed everyone did.
As a child Francesco was sick very often, he suffered grave gastroenteritis which had his bedridden, then typhoid fever.
As a young person he would experience visions and ecstasies. After completing 3 years of public school Francesco applied to be a Capuchin friar. On January 6 1903, at the age of 15 he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin friars at Marcone. He took his friar habit on January 22 and took a vow of poverty, chastity and obedience.
Later he fell ill yet again, complaining of insomnia, exhaustion, fainting spells, and migraines. He vomited often and could only digest milk and cheese. During this suffering and inexplicable phenomena began to occur, fellow friars claimed that during prayer Pio was seen in ecstasy and levitating above the ground.
On September 20, 1918, while hearing confessions, he had his first occurrence of the stigmata: bodily marks, pain and bleeding in the locations that corresponded to Jesus’ wounds. This continued for 50 years, until the end of his life. The blood of the wound was said to smell like perfume or flowers called the ‘odor of sanctity’.
His wounds were studied and tested by several doctors where they could find no abnormalities causing his stigmata. He was humiliated by the affliction and early on begged the Lord to remove it.
Along with his childhood illnesses he also suffered from asthmatic bronchitis, a large kidney stone, frequent abdominal pain, chronic gastritis which developed into an ulcer, inflammation of the ear, nose, throat and eye which eventually formed rhinitis. He was treated for a malignant tumor, and was cleared after two treatments.
Padre Pio died in 1968 at age 81. After his passing his stigmata vanished without leaving a mark.
Padre Pio was said to have had the gift of reading hearts and bilocation. He was also said to have been in physical altercations with the devil. Saying “my whole body is bruised from the beatings, several times, they even tore off my shirt so that they could strike my exposed flesh.”
On June 16 2002 Pope John Paul II declared Padre Pio a Saint. 300,000 people attended his canonization.
He is the patron of stress relief, adolescents and civil defense volunteers.
“Pray, Hope and Don’t Worry."
2 Big Events in One Day
After six months of preparation, the big day came. Malate Church through its Vision 20/20 campaign held 2 big fund-rasing events last April 15, 2018.
Run2Restore
The Run2Restore fun run began at 4am at the Baywalk fronting Raha Sulayman Park. A total of about 1000 runners participated in the 5K, 3K and Pet run categories. The winners received medals, certificates and giveaways from our generous sponsors. Runners lines and filled their yellow loot bags with goodies from the sponsors’ booths.
Special thanks to all our sponsors and partners: Design Coordinates Inc., The Aristocrat Restaurant, Pocari Sweat, Gardenia, Summit, EC-Vit, Sysu International Inc., King Sue, Taisho Pharmaceuticals, Milo, Nescafe and Nesfruta. Our Pet K partners: Philippines Canine Club Inc., Pedigree, Yufiya, Odra, Dogpull, Bayopet, Strike, Vitality, Ruff Raff and Ezydog.
Raffle2Restore
The parish conceived Raffle2Restore to be inclusive. The two raffle categories of P500 and P100 made it available for all to buy a ticket and have a chance to win. From a car to a sack of rice, the raffle caters to different needs of different people.
At the Grand Draw on April 15, 2018 we saw the diversity of winners.
Pope's homily for New Year's Day Mass, 2018
(repost full text from http://www.vaticannews.va)
Pope Francis delivered a homily at Mass on New Year's Day, the Solemnity of the Mother of God. On 1 January, the Church also observes the World Day of Peace
Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis
Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
1 January 2018
The year opens in the name of the Mother. Mother of God is the most important title of Our Lady. But we might ask why we say Mother of God, and not Mother of Jesus. In the past some wanted to be content simply with the latter, but the Church has declared that Mary is the Mother of God. We should be grateful, because these words contain a magnificent truth about God and about ourselves. From the moment that our Lord became incarnate in Mary, and for all time, he took on our humanity. There is no longer God without man; the flesh Jesus took from his Mother is our own, now and for all eternity. To call Mary the Mother of God reminds us of this: God is close to humanity, even as a child is close to the mother who bears him in her womb.
The word mother (mater) is related to the word matter. In his Mother, the God of heaven, the infinite God, made himself small, he became matter, not only to be with us but also to be like us. This is the miracle, the great novelty! Man is no longer alone; no more an orphan, but forever a child. The year opens with this novelty. And we proclaim it by saying: Mother of God! Ours is the joy of knowing that our solitude has ended. It is the beauty of knowing that we are beloved children, of knowing that this childhood of ours can never be taken away from us. It is to see a reflection of ourselves in the frail and infant God resting in his mother’s arms, and to realize that humanity is precious and sacred to the Lord. Henceforth, to serve human life is to serve God. All life, from life in the mother’s womb to that of the elderly, the suffering and the sick, and to that of the troublesome and even repellent, is to be welcomed, loved and helped.
Let us now be guided by today’s Gospel. Only one thing is said about the Mother of God: “Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). She kept them. She simply kept; Mary does not speak. The Gospel does not report a single word of hers in the entire account of Christmas. Here too, the Mother is one with her Son: Jesus is an “infant”, a child “unable to speak”. The Word of God, who “long ago spoke in many and various ways” (Heb 1:1), now, in the “fullness of time” (Gal 4:4), is silent. The God before whom all fall silent is himself a speechless child. His Majesty is without words; his mystery of love is revealed in lowliness. This silence and lowliness is the language of his kingship. His Mother joins her Son and keeps these things in silence.
That silence tells us that, if we would “keep” ourselves, we need silence. We need to remain silent as we gaze upon the crib. Pondering the crib, we discover anew that we are loved; we savour the real meaning of life. As we look on in silence, we let Jesus speak to our heart. His lowliness lays low our pride; his poverty challenges our outward display; his tender love touches our hardened hearts. To set aside a moment of silence each day to be with God is to “keep” our soul; it is to “keep” our freedom from being corroded by the banality of consumerism, the blare of commercials, the stream of empty words and the overpowering waves of empty chatter and loud shouting.
The Gospel goes on to say that Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. What were these things? They were joys and sorrows. On the one hand, the birth of Jesus, the love of Joseph, the visit of the shepherds, that radiant night. But on the other, an uncertain future, homelessness “because there was no place for them in the inn” (Lk 2:7), the desolation of rejection, the disappointment of having to give birth to Jesus in a stable. Hopes and worries, light and darkness: all these things dwelt in the heart of Mary. What did she do? She pondered them, that is to say she dwelt on them, with God, in her heart. She held nothing back; she locked nothing within out of self-pity or resentment. Instead, she gave everything over to God. That is how she “kept” those things. We “keep” things when we hand them over: by not letting our lives become prey to fear, distress or superstition, by not closing our hearts or trying to forget, but by turning everything into a dialogue with God. God, who keeps us in his heart, then comes to dwell in our lives.
These, then, are the secrets of the Mother of God: silently treasuring all things and bringing them to God. And this took place, the Gospel concludes, in her heart. The heart makes us look to the core of the person, his or her affections and life. At the beginning of the year, we too, as Christians on our pilgrim way, feel the need to set out anew from the centre, to leave behind the burdens of the past and to start over from the things that really matter. Today, we have before us the point of departure: the Mother of God. For Mary is exactly what God wants us to be, what he wants his Church to be: a Mother who is tender and lowly, poor in material goods and rich in love, free of sin and united to Jesus, keeping God in our hearts and our neighbour in our lives. To set out anew, let us look to our Mother. In her heart beats the heart of the Church. Today’s feast tells us that if we want to go forward, we need to turn back: to begin anew from the crib, from the Mother who holds God in her arms.
Devotion to Mary is not spiritual etiquette; it is a requirement of the Christian life. Looking to the Mother, we are asked to leave behind all sorts of useless baggage and to rediscover what really matters. The gift of the Mother, the gift of every mother and every woman, is most precious for the Church, for she too is mother and woman. While a man often abstracts, affirms and imposes ideas, a woman, a mother, knows how to “keep”, to put things together in her heart, to give life. If our faith is not to be reduced merely to an idea or a doctrine, all of us need a mother’s heart, one which knows how to keep the tender love of God and to feel the heartbeat of all around us. May the Mother, God’s finest human creation, guard and keep this year, and bring the peace of her Son to our hearts and to our world.
Our Lady Of Remedies’ Fiesta Celebration
CZARINA ANASTACIA PASCUAL
19 November 2017
The fiesta celebration started on October 9 - November 10 when the image of Our Lady of Remedies visited private institutions, schools and barangays for the Dalaw ni Maria. Novena Masses were presided by Columbans (who are celebrating their centennial anniversary) and two other guest priests.
Several choral groups and guest performers serenaded the Blessed Mother during the Harana Kay Maria on November 17.
On November 18, Bishop Teodoro Bacani presided the Sacrament of
Confirmation for the Grade 6 students of Aurora Quezon Elementary School.
Fiesta Day - November 19
The Fiesta High Mass was concelebrated by Bishop Broderick Pabillo, the Columban fathers and some priests from the Vicariate. In the afternoon, there was a Sayawan sa Patio were young dancers performed honoring Our Lady. This was followed by the Procession around the parish. Students of Malate Catholic School, several bands, parishioners and devotees joined the procession.
The theme of this year's celebration 'Maria, Ina ng Nagkakaisang Parokya sa Pagsasabuhay ng Dakilang Pag-ibig ng Diyos' highlights and culminates the Year of the Parish.
Fiesta procession
Celebrating the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi
CZARINA ANASTACIA PASCUAL
1 October 2017
For the past decade and a half, Malate Church has been celebrating Creation Month with month-long festivities every September. There is a special liturgy for all Sunday masses dedicated to Creation and Ecology. Talks and lectures are held to further increase awareness among volunteers and parishioners in caring for Mother Earth. This culminates on the Feast of St.Francis every first Sunday of October. Now, September is referred to as the Season of Creation following Pope Francis’ declaration and starts on September 1 as the World Day of Prayer for Creation.
This year’s Season of Creation culminated on October 1, the Feast of St. Francis. Special blessings of animals and plants were held after the 9am and 12 noon masses. Dogs and cats were given free anti-rabies vaccinations, freebies and treats. Organic and natural products were sold at the mini-tiangge.
The Care for the Earth Ministry organizes these activities from September to the first Sunday of October. The Ministry leads the Parish in creating and spreading awareness and action on the care for our common home. As Pope Francis said in his Laudato Si encyclical, ‘ the cry of creation is the cry of the poor’. We are called to be responsible stewards for Mother Earth, Brother Sun and Sister Moon.
Cardinal Tagle’s Homily (Transcript)
Luneta Park, 1 September 2017
Maraming salamat po sa pakikiisa sa araw na ito. This is happening not only in this spot, in the world, we are united with the whole Catholic Church at least for the day of prayer for the caring of creation and we also unite ourselves with our Muslim brothers and sisters on this holy day for them and in a special way we unite ourselves with our brothers and sisters in Marawi. We pray that caring in the sense of responsibility for each other and for the beautiful creation that we have all inherited may prevail.
For the Archdiocese of Manila, today we also open the Season of Creation until the Sunday closest to the feast of St. Francis of Asisi. Parang hindi kayo masaya? (laughter… Nakikinig lang kami…) ahh nakikinig lang. There are many things that we can and should reflect on, but we will not end itong walk, and we hopefully that the walk will be also a time to continue reflecting.
But the readings provide for us in the Eucharistic Celebration also, they provide for us some sort of a framework for reflecting on the significance of this day and of this season. Let me start with the first reading on the first letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians, where he reminds us that our calling, our vocation as followers of Christ is sanctification, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit , we cannot be Holy by our own efforts. God is holy, holy, holy Lord God of all. Only God is holy, but we are called to be God like, that’s holiness. We are called to be like Jesus, the holy one of God. Our calling is holiness, pagiging makadiyos. I think part of our mission today and in the coming years is to include more consciously the caring for creation as part of holiness. Kasi, we participate in holy events, but immediately after the holy event or even during the holy event, we do not see caring for creation. Minsan sisimba, kakain ng kendi habang nagsisimba, tapos yung balat ng kendi itatapon doon sa baba, para
bagang yung caring for creation is an extra-curricular activity and not yet integrated into my discipleship, my being holy as a calling. I think it is part of the celebration of this day and of the season to impress upon all of us specially the young ones that holiness includes as an integral part of discipleship and holiness, being Godlike after all God is the source of all, God is the creator, so God is the first to care for creation and if we want to be Godlike, holy, then we should be like God, in caring for all beings. Yun ho ang unang panawagan. Alam ko marami dito cathechist,
marami po tayong mga BEC, bible sharing group, coordinators and mga teachers, nandito, parents, pwede ho ba na atin pong ipunla yun? Bahagi ng kabanalan, bahagi ng buhay na pagsunod kay Hesus ang pangangalaga at tamang pangangasiwa ng san nilikha.
The next point my dear brothers and sisters, that I want to dwell on is the very word used by Pope Francis in the encyclical, caring for our common home. Laudato Si is not a document just on climate change, some people say, “Oh! That encyclical on climate change,” hindi e, it is about caring for creation as part of our spirituality. And it is appropriate for our time, especially in our country. What
has happened to caring? Kumusta na ba ang tinatawag nating kultura, culture of caring. Minsan malimit mo pang marinig, “I don’t care!” o kaya, people are careless. Ano ang mangyayari sa kultura, sa tao na hindi na marunong ng tinatawag nating caring? And it is I think urgent for us to preserve, to nurture, a culture of caring, for without caring, we destroy creation and destroy human lives. That’s why for this opening day, this day of prayer, the Holy Father ask us to listen to two cries, the cry of the earth the cry of creation, and the cry of the poor, because the poor are the first victims of the misuse of creation. But the type of listening must generate a whole culture of caring. What does it mean to care; marami po yan pero let me focus on two. To care is to be concerned for
someone or for something. Yun bang meron akong pananaw na kailangan ko, o kahit na parang natural na aking iniisip ang kapakanan ng iba. Tunay na pagmamalasakit, na ang kakontraryo ay yun bang, “wala akong pakialam basta gusto kong gamitin, edi kung ano ang gusto kong gamit yun nalang.” E kung minsan hindi lang naman ang kalikasan ang ginagamit ng walang pakundangan at walang concern, pati tao, gagamitin na at kakasangkapanin na para sa mga huwad na Diyos. Concern, pagmamalasakit. Naalala ko po nung ako’y elementary at highschool, wag n’yo nang tanungin kung kailan yon, naiimagine nyo na, yung iba dito hindi pa siguro pinapanganak. Wala pa noong subject na stewardship, caring for creation, di ko nga narinig noon itong salitang stewardship, pero ngayon ko nakikita, hindi iyun itinuro as a subject pero
itinuro bilang kultura at nagpapasalamat ako sa mga CICM fathers na nagturo sa amin. Wala akong naitago na kahit na anong libro nung elementary at highschooll, bakit? Hindi naman kasi kami pinabili ng libro. Ang libro ay pag-aari nung eskwelahan at pinagagamit sa amin, pinahihiram sa isang kondisyon, alagaan mo yan. Alagaan mo yung libro kase hindi lang yan papel, nandyan ang dunong ng maraming henerasyon na ipinamamana sa iyo, at alagaan mo yang libro para magamit yan ng mga susunod na henerasyon ng estudyante. And for 10 years, every day we took care of 10, 12 books and you are thinking of the next school year, the next batch of students who must benefit from those books. Kaya hanggang ngayon kahit yung mga leaflets, na ibinibigay
sakin pag fiesta, hindi ko maitapon, may isang pari, pumasok sa kwarto ko ang sabi, “Bishop, ano ba yang mga kinokole-kolekta mo na yan, yung table mo wala nang masulatan puro ano na,” sabi ko “Ewan ko ba, hindi maatim ng puso ko na magpunit at mag-ganyan, parang bata pa rin akong grade 1 na kapag ginawa ko yun e halos pinupunit ko ang mga libro na hindi na ngayon mapapakinabangan ng iba. Ngayon, taun-taon bumibili ng libro, “libro ko to!” “Susulatan ko ito!” wala nang [pakialam sa ibang gagamit]. Tama na. Itong sinasabi ko, we may be talking, talking, talking about stewardship as a topic, but the culture, how do we instill that and Pope Francis, talks about consumerism, how can we teach caring, concern, not only for
an object like a book, but also for the next generation if the spending habits, the buying and the selling of goods, all these system is not supportive of a culture and attitude of stewardship? Noon pati yung mga damit di ba mga [pinapamana sa susunod na gagamit]. Naala-ala ko kaya noon yung unang mga sapatos, “maluwag po ito, maluwag,” “O, lagyan natin ng cardboard, para yan na ang sapatos mo hanggang grade 3,” hindi yung sa isang taon e nakakalima ka [o] anim, kasi in one month, obsolete na yung modelo ng sapatos mo. The culture of obsolescence that makes us greedy, that exerts so much pressure, you have to conform to latest fashion, how do you combat that? “May cardboard naman, pasikipin yung sapatos,” pati yung uniform noon malalaki ang
allowance di ba, para pagtumaba-taba ka pwede naman tahin yan. Di na tatastasin o ano, o kung ikaw naman ay lumiit, edi lalaki pa ulit yung allowance. Nagbibigay po ako ng ilang halimbawa para, it is through this mindset and the corresponding daily action of caring, being concerned simultaneously for what the earth produces for us, how the earth cares for us, how creation cares for us, do we care? And how about for the next generation? Ako my great learning and cultural acquisition of stewardship happened through the books. I wish Catholic Schools to teach stewardship by reviewing our connections with
publication houses, o tama na… [Kidding aside] [Laughter] but concern for creation, a culture of concern, pagmamalasakit for creation and for human beings according to the first reading would require a lot of discipline. Sabi ni St. Paul, learn how to control your body, learn how to control your appetites, he is talking here about lustful
relationships, but lust is not only in relationships, very often on a daily basis and more very often daily, lust is experienced in the way abuse the goods of creation and abuse human beings. So concern requires dsiscipline. So yun po, unang kultura ng caring ay ibalik ang concern. Yun hong ano[concern], simulan natin, yung mga nakaupo, baka meron kayong hindi napapansin d’yan na nahihimatay na nakatayo o merong medyo mas mahina sa inyo, concern. Pag sumakay sa jeep, sa bus, alam ko yung iba binubuksan agad yung libro, pocket book, para kung may umakyat man, “hindi ko na kita, nagbabasa kasi ako, nagtetext kasi ako,”
ayan, nawala na ang concern. Tumingin, baka may nangangailangan.
The second and last thing po sa aking pagbabahagi ay responsibility. Part of caring is to assume responsibility for the others. Magkasama po yung malasakit at pananagutan, and alam naman natin yung opposite. Irresponsible behavior is a manifestation of pride. I can do what I want, I am not responding to anyone, I am not accountable to anyone, kaya I lose the sense of caring, if I don’t have any person to whom I will be accountable then I take everything into my hands but that is not the
attitude of a steward. A steward knows that he or she will be answerable. A steward knows that he or she is not the creator, not the source, not the owner, kaya aalagaan ko ang ipinagkatiwala sa akin dahil mananagot ako sa tunay na may ari. So being a steward is to be humble, to be truthful, who am I, at sana poi tong kulturang ito ng pananagutan para sa ibinigay sa ating ng Diyos at para sa isa’t-isa ay huwag mawala. Let the walk for creation, be also our way of promoting and protecting a very beautiful human and Filipino culture, a culture of caring which is very much threatened by so many idols.
False gods, false creators of false worlds. Every false god is a false creator, and its creation is a false world, a phantasmal. Every false god and a false creator creates a false world which is a big lie, but it is packaged beautifully, you don’t even realize it is a lie, and so it attracts many inhabitants that care for that false world that are responsible in nurturing that world. That is not the culture that we want. We want culture of true caring,
of true responsibility for the creation of the true God and not the false world created by false gods. In the world created by God, ther is harmony, there is interdependence, there is mutual support, there is mutual caring. Ngayon palang yung hangin, it cares for us, the earth cares for us, kaya hindi tayo lumulutang, there is a mutual caring, but in the false world, created by false gods, there is no room for mutual caring. If I can eliminate you because you’re a nuisance to me, then I am making my world better. If I could use you for my purposes then I have reconstructed my world according to my plan. But in the end, what spreads is a culture not of caring but of destruction, and in the end we destroy the earth, we destroy humanity.
A culture is supposed to build up through caring and responsibility. May warning yung gospel, the bridegroom will come at the time we do not expect, we do not know. Typhoons, earthquakes, disasters, in increasing intensities and degrees come, but we should be wise, we should be wise by being caring, by being responsible, for in the end we will be destroyed by the very destructive culture that we have propagate. O tama nap o, baka sabihin n’yo, “ikaw nga you don’t care, tagal na naming naka tayo.” So let us enjoy this day, let us give thanks to God for this beautiful creation and I don’t know may kanta yata para sa preparation of the gifts pero bago sila kumanta kasi hindi na natin malimit naririnig this is one of the most, for me, most beautiful prayer in the mass, when the priest takes hold of the bread, we say, “Blessed are you Lord God of all creation for through your goodness we have this bread to offer you, fruits of the earth and work of human hands,” you remember the goodness of the earth, you remember the laborers, you remember the hands that cooperate with the earth, hands that are forgotten, hands that work but don’t receive their fair share. But thanks to God who works through the earth and human labor, we have this bread, and by the power of the spirit, this bread will become the bread of life, will become the presence of Jesus. That’s how God cares for us, feeding us, with bread that becomes the bread of life, and if we care for each other our community becomes the body of Christ also, the community that praises God through caring and responsibility.
Photos by Frankie Adame - Malate Catholic Church
Thousands Join Walk for Creation
Luneta Park, 1 September 2017
Not even the strong rain could stop them, the thousands of kindred spirits who joined the first ever Walk for Creation held at the Burnham Green of Luneta Park to usher in the Season of Creation following the declaration of Pope Francis of September 1 as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.
People were gathered at Burnham Green as early as 3am while the wind and rain were pounding on the canopy of the stage where the altar is to be set. They waited under several tents that were set up in the place, each one of them silently praying for the weather to clear. At exactly 4:30am, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the bishops and priests stood up to begin the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, which was to be the commencement of the event. As if on cue, the rain slowly came to a drizzle, and then stopped altogether, allowing the Holy Mass to proceed smoothly and solemnly until the final blessing was given by the good Cardinal.
At the break of dawn, the Angelus Prayer for Creation which was created for the event by Archbishop Socrates Villegas was prayed by the crowd and the torch was lighted. The different groups then arranged themselves and got ready for the reflective walk on the five Moments of Creation which was prepared for the occasion by Rev. Fr. John Leydon of Malate Catholic Church. The huge circle of people, intently listening to the enlightening passages of the Moments of Creation, and contemplating while walking on the wet, muddied Green, was a sight to behold as the golden sun was coming up the clear sky.
After the Walk, Fr. John Leydon led everybody to say the Laudato Si Pledge to pray for and with creation, live more simply, and advocate to care for our common home. Staunch environment advocates led by Bishop Broderick Pabillo urged everyone to care for creation, while Bishop Pete Montallana invited everyone to support the Save Sierra Madre Movement. Sister Regina also gave a message from the Association of Major Religious Superiors (AMRSP). Environmental initiatives of the Couples for Christ, NASSA, and other groups were also presented.
The Walk for Creation was an uplifting and inspiring event as members of about 30 organizations, students from several schools, priests and religious, volunteers from different parishes, people young and old and from different walks of life communed with creation and with the four elements, water from the strong rain, the cold air, the mud and soil of the earth, and the warmth coming from the fire of the sun that has risen that beautiful morning. For everyone, there was enough good feeling and inspiring thoughts to bring home to family and friends as Cardinal Tagle exhorted everyone in his homily to promote a very beautiful human and Filipino culture – a culture of caring and mindfulness for one another and for God’s creation.
The Walk for Creation was spearheaded by the Global Catholic Climate Movement-Pilipinas (GCCM-Pilipinas) and strongly supported by various faith-based organizations and schools, as well as ecological and social movements. It is aimed to promote and raise awareness about September 1 as “a significant occasion for prayer, reflection, conversion and the adoption of appropriate lifestyles”. It is also a celebration to praise and thank God for His wonderful creation as well as highlight efforts and initiatives that respond to the challenges of ecological crisis. It is hoped that this celebration will bring about unity, inspire one another and amplify the people’s commitment to take bold action together to hear both the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor, as Pope Francis has strongly urged in his powerful encyclical, Laudato Si.
Photos by Frankie Adame - Malate Catholic Church
Title - Pope Francis & Patriarch Bartholomew Joint Statement on World Day of Prayer for
Creation
http://seasonofcreation.org/2017/09/01/3184/
Join the Walk for Creation on September 1
All people of goodwill are invited to join the Walk for Creation on September 1, 2017 to celebrate the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, to be held at Burnham Green in Luneta Park starting at 4am until 8am.
In his encyclical entitled “Laudato Si’, On Care for our Common Home, Pope Francis made this appeal:
“I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet.
We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are
undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all. (LS#14)
In response to the message and call of Pope Francis, the Global Catholic Climate Movement-Pilipinas, together with various faith-communities and ecological and social movements, spearheads this activity that also marks the opening of the Season of Creation. In 2015, Pope Francis declared September 1 as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.
The Walk for Creation aims to praise God as Creator, celebrate the goodness and beauty of creation and the spirit at work in all our initiatives in caring for our common home; inspire one another to hear both the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor; and promote September 1 as World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation as the start of the Season of Creation.
Assembly time will be at 4am, with a walk around Burnham Green to start at 4:15am, followed by the celebration of the Holy Eucharist at 5am, and a short program at 7am culminating with a call to make the Laudato Si Pledge.
Catholics urged to support climate movement inspired by Pope’s letter
By Leslie Ann G. Aquino
18 June 2017
Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle said those who signed the Laudato Si’ Pledge should take their oath seriously.
The Laudato Si’ Pledge, which was launched here in the Philippines, Saturday, is a worldwide campaign by the Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM) and its member organizations to raise awareness about the message of Pope Francis’ encyclical letter on ecology and climate change, “Laudato Si.”
Laudato Si is an invitation to everyone to care for our common home.
In the encyclical letter released on June 18, 2015, the pontiff made a forceful call to action to both the Church and all people of good will, to urgently change course in order to avoid ecological disaster.
Father’s Day – Retired Catholic priests and bishops from different parts of the country celebrate Father’s Day at the Diocesan Shrine and Parish of St. Therese of the Child Jesus in Antipolo, Rizal in an event by the Kadiwa sa Pagkapari Foundation, yesterday. Priests also commemorate Father’s Day, being the spiritual fathers of the Catholic faithful. (Alvin Kasiban|Manila Bulletin)
He said, “It is my hope that this Encyclical Letter…can help us to acknowledge the appeal, immensity and urgency of the challenge we face.”
Cardinal Tagle reminded those who signed the pledge that they should also live out what they promised to do.
“It is not enough to sign and affix your signature. Please take the pledge seriously and live it. Pray for and with creation, live more simply and advocate to protect our common home,” Tagle said in a video message during Saturday’s launching of the Pledge for Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si’ at the La Consolacion College in Manila.
To pray for, and with creation, live more simply, and advocate to protect our common home are the three things that signatories are being encouraged to do when they signed the pledge cards that were distributed in the venue.
In his homily, Father John Leydon, convenor of the GCCM, echoed Tagle’s appeal.
“We will launch our pledge but let it come from the heart. If it doesn’t come from the heart, then it is false,” he said.
Leydon said while many in the country are devout Catholics, many are not aware that they are destroying God’s creation through their lifestyle. “By our lifestyle we are destroying God’s creation,” he said.
That’s why, Leydon said, Laudato Si’ is a call to “conversion.”
“We are all in need of conversion…that leads to change to lifestyle change,” said the priest.
In their website, the GCCM cited ways on how the encyclical can be put into action such as shifting away from fossil fuels and embracing renewable sources of energy, recycling, putting up solar panels, conserving energy, among others.
The goal of the two-year campaign is to encourage 12 million Catholics and 22,000 parishes all over the world to sign and live the Laudato Si Pledge.
“There are 105 million (people) in the Philippines and how many of those could we reach with the teaching of Laudato Si? How many could we get to make a pledge to undertake all that is required by Laudato Si? The number of Catholics in the planet is 1.2 billion, that’s 12 hundred million…If we can influence even one percent to sign the pledge worldwide, that’s 12 million,” he said.
The campaign is led by the NASSA/Caritas Philippines, the social action arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), and the Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM)–Pilipinas.
http://news.mb.com.ph/2017/06/18/catholics-urged-to-support-climate-movement-inspired-by-popes-letter/
Manila Joins People’s Climate March
Beat the heat, Cool the Planet!
On April 29 churchgoers and parishioners of Our Lady of Remedies Parish/Malate Catholic Church joined the supporters and members of different environmental groups in a People’s Climate March, dubbed “Beat the Heat, Cool the Planet”. Starting with a Holy Mass in Malate Church, the event culminated with a cultural presentation in Malate Church grounds.
The Global Catholic Climate Movement Pilipinas (GCCM-Pilipinas), led by its National Coordinator John Din, spearheaded the People’s Climate March, together with the multi-sectoral Ecological Justice and Interfaith Movement (Eco-JIM), to raise awareness and highlight issues on climate change, human rights and the current and possible impacts of the policies of the Trump Administration. Given the United States’ global role, any negative shift in its climate policy could have deleterious effects around the world.
The People’s Climate March in Manila was in solidarity with the 'Peoples Climate Movement', where over 200,000 people gathered in the streets of Washington D.C. and thousands more from across the US to show a united front for jobs, justice and climate action. April 29th is the 100th Day of the Trump administration and the US President has already issued an executive order nullifying climate change policies issued by the previous administration, and has directed to start legal proceedings in withdrawing and rewriting the Clean Power Plan of the US.
Fr. John Leydon, convenor of the GCCM-Pilipinas, said Trump’s regressive climate policies could severely affect the people of the earth, and his view could be reversed if people could make him understand the global effects of his climate policies. (see http://www.ucanews.com/news/filipinos-rally-against-shift-in-us-climate-policies/79088)
Present were members from faith based groups/institutions, climate justice organizations, human rights advocates and affected communities, such as Eco-Waste Coalition, Alyansa Tigil Mina, Asian People’s Movement on Debt and Development, 350 Pilipinas, WWF Pilipinas, Philippine Movement for Climate Justice, Sanlakas, and Zone One Tondo, among others. Several artists also rendered songs that spoke about the plight of our endangered earth. One of the highlights of the program was a video message from Gina Lopez, the embattled secretary of the Department of Natural Resources who is a staunch supporter and activist for the environment.
Malate Joins Walk for Life
Harriet Ducepec
21 February 2017
At least 70 volunteers, parishioners and some priests of Malate assembled as early as 3:30AM in Malate Church on February 18 to join the Walk for Life at the Quirino Grandstand Parade Grounds. Organized by the Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas under the CBCP Episcopal Commission of the Lay Apostolate, the event became a most welcome and longed for opportunity for the lay faithful to express their stand and commitment to the promotion of human life.
The Malate delegation, carrying flaglets bearing messages about the sacredness of life of each individual, the need to respect human rights, as well as the preservation of the environment, joined thousands of like-minded and like-hearted people who uphold life and denounce the culture of death which is evident in the spate of extrajudicial killings, incidences of abortion, and the proposed revival of the death penalty.
The highlight of the Walk for Life was the communal recitation of the Holy Rosary while the thousands of participants from various lay organizations and dioceses with their “pro-life” banners walked around the Quirino Grandstand. Members of the clergy and some religious groups also joined the walk.
The participants received a much needed boost and encouragement to stand up for life from our Church leaders as Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Archbishop Socrates Villegas, Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, Bishop Broderick Pabillo, and Bishop Valentin Dimoc took turns to speak to their flock at the assembly.
New Backdrop for Our Lady
The image of Our Lady of Remedies has a new backdrop in shades of blue, thereby creating the impression of our Lady adorned simply by her crown of twelve stars floating against a clear night sky and warmly welcoming the pilgrims and devotees from the doorsteps of Malate Church and guiding them all the way to the beautiful altar. The backdrop is a work of art created by multi-awarded artist Ambie Abaño, who meticulously painted till the wee hours to finish the backdrop in time for the Kasalang Bayan, one of the activities leading to the celebration of the feast of Our Lady of Remedies on November 20. Well-known for printmaking and mixed media art, Ms. Abaño is an architect turned visual artist and a professor at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts. Ms. Abaño has been awarded study grants in Europe and has held several successful art exhibits in the metropolis. Generous of her time and talent, she has also volunteered to conduct art workshops for church volunteers, the first of which was successfully held in June 2016 during the Laudato Si Week.
Parish Community Celebrates Fiesta!
In a generous outpouring of love and devotion, the Malate Community joyfully celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of Remedies with varied activities to honor its Patroness. The theme for this year is “Maria at Pamilyang Pilipino, Mga Misyonero ng Eukaristiya sa Taon ng Awa” since 2016 is the Year of the Family and the Eucharist in the CBCP calendar and coincides with the Jubilee Year of Mercy as declared by Pope Francis.
The traditional Dalaw ni Maria kicked off the fiesta preparations. The image of Our Lady was brought to various institutions and barangays starting October 10 and ended before the start of the nine-day novena masses on November 11 until November 18. All the visits (Dalaw), which reached even the Greenbelt Chapel, were well-received by the institutions as well as barangays covered by Malate Church. Many parish volunteers and community members accompanied Our Lady during these visits.
The Novena Masses, under different sub-themes, were celebrated by guest priests from the parishes under the Vicariate of Nuestra Señora de Guia, and joined by Fr. Leo Distor and Fr. Dan O’Malley of Malate Church. Barangay Chairpersons of the eleven barangays of the Malate Parish Community and their constituents attended the nine days of novena masses and generously presented their gifts for the poor during their assigned days.
On the feast day itself, the Fiesta High Mass was celebrated by Msgr. Clem Ignacio of – with a Parangal Kay Maria led by the Malate Church Choir. A communal praying of the Holy Rosary and Sayawan sa Patio preceded a well-attended procession. The beautiful enthronement of Our Lady, led by the Denofra Family, culminated the Fiesta Season. These liturgical activities were well-prepared by the Worship Coordinator Cori Nebreja and the pointpersons Jeannie Villanueva (Dalaw), Ferdie Macato (procession), Gayline Manalang (Novena Masses), Cita Aure (Fiesta High Mass), Genny Baltazar (Vestments), Emma de Paula (Communal Rosary prayer), Gary Borlas (Parangal) and Nono Arevalo (Enthronement).
The liturgical fiesta activities also included the Confirmation of more than 300 children of the Aurora Quezon Elementary School led by their catechist Grace --. The confirmation rite was officiated by Msgr. – assisted by Fr. Leo Distor. Baptism rites were also held for many babies during the fiesta day. Ampie Marzan of the Ministry of Greeters and Collectors led her members in ensuring a smooth and orderly proceedings for the hundreds of people who were in church during the ceremonies.
Special events such as the Kasalang Bayan and Harana kay Maria marked the fiesta celebration this year. On November 11, seventeen couples from the parish community were wed in a solemn marriage rite. (See related article) During the Harana Kay Maria held on November 18, the Church was filled with beautiful music rendered by the Malate Catholic School Grade School and High School Glee Clubs under the baton of ---, the St. Paul – led by Sister Anunciata, the UP Manila Chorale under their -- --, and the Malate Church Choir under Chris Añago. A special number was rendered by --- . Parishioners enjoyed the Marian Concert. PPC officers of the St. Vincent de Paul Parish and Nuestra Señora de Guia, namely Babes Dagandara and Cora delos Reyes were seen among the guests. Special Committee chair was Nono Arevalo, together with his pointpersons Emma de Paula and Norma Lloren (Kasalang Bayan), Gary Borlas (Harana) and Manuel Soriao (Sayawan sa Patio) worked hard for these events, together with their groups Legion of Mary, Choir, and Parish Youth members.
The volunteers of Malate Church joined hands with our parish staff and priests led by Fr. Leo Distor to make the fiesta celebration a success. Behind the scenes, Royce Chua, chairperson of Logistics and Finance Committee, worked with Gloria Ojo to meet the food requirements in all the events, while the documentation, social media, and photography needs for all the fiesta activities were provided by Gigi Arevalo, Jenny Crespo, Ramil Espina, Frankie Adame, Andrew Mayang, Sherwin Layoso, led by Czarina Pascual and Mel Bacani, head of Team Website and Malate Production Team, respectively.
All of these happy events were made possible by the strong support of the Barangay officers and the Parish community as well as the officers and members of the different Ministries, Areas and Organizations (MAOs). The Parish Pastoral Council extends its heartfelt gratitude to everyone who made this year’s Fiesta a joyful occasion!
Missionary Society of St. Columban Centennial
100 Years of Fidelity to Mission
By Fr. Sean Coyle
One hundred years ago on 10 October, the Bishops of Ireland gave their blessing to a new venture known as the Maynooth Mission to China. On 29 June 1918, this venture became the Society of St. Columban, in the Diocese of Galway, Ireland. The Missionary Society of St Columban, as it is now known, is already preparing to celebrate its Centennial in 2018.
So it was on 29 June 1918 when the Society was ‘baptized’. It had been ‘conceived’ in China between 1912 and 1916 when Fr. Edward Galvin, ordained in 1909, and three or four other Irish diocesan priests working there saw the need for a mission of the Irish Church to China. It was ‘born’ on 10 October 1916 when the Irish bishops, approached by Fr. Galvin and Fr. John Blowick, ordained in 1913 and already a young professor at St Patrick’s, Maynooth, the national seminary for Ireland, gave their assent to the ‘Maynooth Mission to China’.
Brave beginnings
In Easter Week 1916, an uprising against British rule in Ireland took place, mainly in Dublin. The country was still part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and Irish regiments of the British Army were fighting in the Great War (1914-18), mainly in Belgium and France. Nearly 30,000 of them died during that conflict. There was widespread extreme poverty in Ireland, particularly in the cities. 1916 did not seem a good time to start such a foolhardy venture as sending Irish priests to preach the Gospel in China, a country very few Irish people knew anything about.
But the Irish bishops said ‘Yes’ to the Maynooth Mission to China. And the people supported it, as they have continued to do down the years. Fr. Blowick once said that the pennies of the poor were more important than the pounds of the rich. But he welcomed both.
The vision of a mission of the Irish Church to China broadened to a more international one. After the Society of St. Columban was set up – all the founding members were Irish diocesan priests and seminarians – priests were sent to the USA and Australia to establish roots there, especially among the large Irish diaspora. Irish-American Archbishop Jeremiah Harty of Omaha, Nebraska, USA, invited the Society to set up shop there. He had been Archbishop of Manila (1903 – 1916), the first non-Spaniard to hold that position.
The first group of Columban priests went to China in 1920.
Growth of the Society
In response to an urgent appeal by Archbishop Harty’s successor in Manila, Irishman Michael O’Doherty, the Columbans took over Malate Parish in 1929. By the 1970s, around 260 Columbans were working in Luzon, Negros and Mindanao. All the parishes they staffed and opened, except Malate, are now served by diocesan priests and the number of Columban priests in the Philippines is around 30.
Over the years, the Columbans have taken on missions in Korea, Burma (now Myanmar), Japan, Chile, Peru, Fiji, Pakistan and Taiwan. They have had missions also in Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Guatemala and Jamaica.
Most of the younger Columban priests are from countries the older men had gone to from the West. Fr Leo Distor, the first Filipino Columban parish priest of Malate, is a symbol of the changing face of the Society. After serving in Korea, he spent many years in Chicago and in Quezon City in the formation of future Columban priests from Asia, the Pacific, and South America.
This year, there are Columban seminarians from China, Fiji, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Tonga in the formation house in Cubao, Quezon City and on the two-year First Mission Assignment (FMA) overseas. The Filipinos include Louie Ybañez of Holy Rosary Parish, Agusan, Cagayan de Oro City, a former Columban parish, recently returned from his FMA in Pakistan, and Erl Dylan Tabaco from the same parish as Louie, and Emmanuel Trocino from Pulupandan, Negros Occidental, back from FMA in Peru.
The young Fr. Edward Galvin (1882-1956), later Bishop of Nancheng, China, and the young Fr. John Blowick (1888-1972), not to mention the Irish bishops in 1916, could not have foreseen how the Maynooth Mission to China would evolve from being a purely Irish venture into the international Society it is today with Priest Associates from dioceses in Ireland, Korea, Myanmar and the Solomon Islands, and Lay Missionaries from Chile, Fiji, Ireland, Korea, Philippines and Tonga currently involved in its mission.
Thank God for the birth of the Maynooth Mission to China on 10 October 1916!
The birthplace of Maynooth Mission to China. Retrieved from
http://seminary.maynoothcollege.ie/
Our Lady of Remedies Parish Sponsors Community Wedding
Seventeen couples were united in Holy Matrimony held on November 11, 2016 in Malate Catholic Church. The solemn wedding ceremony was concelebrated by Fr. Leo Distor and Fr. Kevin McHugh. Sponsored by the Church to encourage and strengthen family life in its community, the special wedding is one of the special events prepared by the Parish Pastoral Council leading to the feast of our Lady of Remedies on November 20, 2016. The parish Legion of Mary (3 praesidia), led by Emma de Paula and Norma Lloren, diligently scouted and encouraged couples to be blessed by the Sacrament of Marriage.
The wedding reception was beautifully prepared at the Function Hall located at the third floor of the Remedios Jubilee Mission Center, with asumptuous meal prepared by Vickoy's Catering. During the lively program hosted by Emma de Paula, the couples shared a glass of wine and a piece of delectable cake generously provided by the Aristocrat Bakeshop. The Parish also gifted the couples with individual wedding cakes specially ordered from Aristocrat Bakeshop.
The Special Events chairperson for this Fiesta activity is Nono Arevalo, coordinator of the Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion (EMHC).
Volunteers Enjoyed Church Cleaning
In preparation for the upcoming Fiesta, some seventy volunteers from our Ministries, Areas, and Organizations and parish community, church sacristans, and Escuela Taller crew joined hands in the cleaning of the Malate Church last November 7. Starting promptly at 8 o’clock in the morning, the group, led by Fr. Leo Distor and Vic Dela Cruz of Temporalities Ministry, started work armed with their brooms, rugs, cleaning detergents, mops, and specially their energy and enthusiasm for this activity. It was a heartwarming view of the people taking on the cleaning of the entire church, with some of them singing and dancing while mopping the floors or wiping each and every pew in earnest. Fr. Leo took some rugs and helped in the cleaning, while documenting the event. Our Sacristans scrubbed and polished the church tiles while some Escuella Taller crew helped in cleaning the dome and ceiling of the church. The Adoration Chapel was also spruced up and the wide church patio was swept clean. Interrupted only by a simple but enjoyable lunch, the cleaning of the church ended at around 3pm with everyone having a nice, fulfilling feeling of having accomplished a task and an enhancedsense of belonging to the church, their second home.
A First for the Parish: The InterFaith Forum on “Laudato Si and the Interfaith Climate Change Movement”
By Fr. Kurt Pala, MSSC
The Our Lady of Remedies Parish hosted an interfaith forum on “Laudato Si and the Interfaith Climate Change” last June 11, 2016 from 2:00 to 5:00 pm at the 3rd Floor of the Remedios Jubilee Mission Center (RJMC) as a kick-off activity of the parish’s Laudato Si Week celebration and to support the Sacred Earth Sacred Trust celebrations on June 12.
This is the first inter-faith gathering in the Parish and the event was made even more significant by the presence and active participation of the heads of the various religions.
The opening prayer was led by Malate Church Choir singing “St. Francis Prayer Hymn.” Fr. Leo Distor, the Our Lady of Remedies parish priest welcomed everyone to the forum. A clip on the Sacred Earth -Sacred Trust global campaign was shown to the group. Fr. John Leydon, a co-convenor of the Global Catholic Climate Movement presented an input on Laudato Si and the Interfaith Climate Change Movement. He then introduced the example set by one small country - Bhutan through a video clip of Bhutan’s prime minister presenting the efforts of the country to combat climate change. A special intermission number was given by some representatives of the parish youth ministry, after which the representatives of various faiths and religions were given the opportunity to respond and present their faith beliefs regarding environmental conservation and the climate change.
The Interfaith Climate Change Statement was presented to the group and in solidarity with the global movement, the faith leaders adopted and signed the same before the forum ended. A part of the statement includes the following:
“Caring for the Earth is our shared responsibility. Each one of us has a “moral responsibility to act,”as so powerfully stated by the Pope’s Encyclical and in the climate change statements by Buddhist,Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and other faith leaders. The planet has already passed safe levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Unless these levels are rapidly reduced, we risk creating irreversible impacts putting hundreds of millions of lives, of all species, at severe risk. The challenges ahead require honesty and courage and we all must take action to reduce emissions.”
The highlight of the forum was the presentation of the statement of the different faith leaders concerning the care of the earth and climate change. The leaders expressed their concern and desire to work together to address the plight of the Earth. They also shared their basic understanding and faith traditions concerning the care for the Earth. Some of them spoke about their experiences in terms of projects and programs already undertaken to address these issues. Excerpts of their statements are available in this report.
Some also recommended that follow-up activities should be done like a national gathering of leaders for a forum on climate change and possible hands-on and practical projects. Fr. Kurt Pala thanked all the guests who responded to the invitation and expressed his hope that the forum is only a beginning of a fruitful relationship to work together as a family to address climate change and protect the Earth, our common home. A song of a prayer of Pope Francis was shown to close the program.
After the forum, the participants continued to share their stories and experiences over some refreshments of Indian sweets, Chinese dumplings, and Tausug rice cakes.
The faith and religious leaders present at the forum included: Msgr. Hernando Coronel, rector of the Minor Basilica of St. John the Baptist (Black Nazarene); Fr. Leo Distor, parish priest of the Our Lady of Remedies; Imam Ebrar Moxsir, president of the Imam Council of the Philippines (Islam); Dr. Potre Dirampatan-Diampuan, Senior Representative of the United Religions Initiative (Islam); Dr. Shakuntala Vaswani, co-founder of the Peacemakers’ Circle (Hinduism); Ven. Master Miao Jing, abbess of Fo Guang Shan Mabuhay Temple (Buddhism); Mr. Alfredo Li, CEO of Tzu Chi Foundation – Philippines (Buddhism); Mr. Bonhao Rivas, Manobo tribe leader; and Holly Celeste, National Assembly of Baha’is in the Philippines.
The gathering was attended by about 60 Malate Parish volunteers and around 60 guests from different civic and religious organizations which included the following: Quiapo Church, Sta. Cruz Parish,350.org, Khayrah Umma, Imman Council of the Philippines, Zentech Global, Habitat Humanity, Religious Discernment Group, Tzu Chi Foundation, Inc., Church People Workers Solidarity, Katribu, Columban Lay Missionaries, Great Work Movement, St. Scholastica JPIC, Fo Guang Shan Mabuhay Temple, Peacemakers’ Circle Foundation, Inc., Silsilah Dialogue Movement, United Religions Initiative and the Al-Mufarrudin Masjid - Malate.
The faith traditions represented in the forum were Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Baha’ faith and Islam.
| The Quiapo Experience on Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation ild Resilient communities - two were identified: Baseco and Parola. According to studies, these groups are the most vulnerable and the poorest, those lacking in capacity, they are the groups that will be hit the most. That is why it is our initiative with groups in the parish like the Hijos who are members of the balangay (devotees of the Black Nazarene) to help out the members during crisis, calamity or disaster like a 7.2 earthquake particularly the poor and vulnerable. Msgr. Hernando Coronel (Christian) |
To the Hindus the whole of creation is divine. They are sacred as said also in Christianity. All living things like people, animals and plants including non-living things like rivers and mountains they are all part of our beautiful Mother Earth. They are all to be treated with respect. Each one of us must share and care for the mountains and all. We have seen the Catholic Church has taken the lead and the world is following. We have to raise our consciousness to see that this is our Earth. We breathe the same air. We have the same sunlight. And if we will misuse it or for our selfish purposes. Then ultimately it will come back to us and we will suffer. We can put it in a statement that we support the initiative of the Pope and of course we will in our community try and raise awareness. Our generation we have done so much harm and we must have a cleaner environment for our next generation to grow and also to initiate the young generation into the practical ways of saving the environment. Dr. Shakuntala Vaswani (Hindu) |
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We need to realize that the environment is related to man. Man, nature and mind are actually one. We will have to practice oneness and coexistence with ourselves (body and mind), man and man and together co-exist with nature. Because man, mind and nature are actually one. Venerable Master Hsing Yun ( our founder) is willing to be the one bird that will save the forest from fire. In the scripture it is said that a bird was trying to put out a fire by going to the river and bring back a mouthful of water to put out the fire. Then the heavenly King asked the bird, “Why it is doing it.? The effort is very minimal or little and could kill yourself flying to and fro from the river to the forest”. The bird replied that “I am doing my part. This is my role because the forest is my home. I am doing my part to be a family.” Ven. Master Miao Jing (Buddhist) |
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You will be surprised that there is an abundance of verses in the Holy Quran that talk about our responsibility as vice stewards of earth on how we should deal, how we should protect and how we should relate with mother nature. And one whole chapter called Al-Rahman which tells us about the magnificence and glory of Allah indeed in all his creation not only man but the whole of the cosmos. I would like to steer the thinking of everybody that the faiths are the real and best alternative for everyone to be conscious now of our responsibilities because any violation of the various teachings of our faiths is considered a sin. So I would like to challenge everyone that we create, we come together as one big force that we can stage a national summit of interfaith gathering on climate change something like that. And all of our faiths can give in their own resources from their own faith traditions, from our own religions and then bring this back to our people, to our own faith communities. And make everyone aware of our own responsibility as creation of God. Dr. Potre Dirampatan – Diampuan (Muslim) |
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Our foundation is called Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation. Tzu Chi are two Chinese words: Tzu means mercy,compassion, love, kindness. Chi means relief, help, to give. In the name of our organization and the teachings of our founder Dharma Master Cheng Yen, when we help people it must come from the heart. Another thing is PET bottles. When we drink mineral water, what do we do? We throw it away and it goes to the canal, the river and then it goes to the sea. The PET bottle remains a PET bottle in 100 years. In the Pacific Ocean there is a big island with plastics already. Our founder said if you can make nylon into clothes why not PET bottles into clothes and usable products. I would like to show you what we brought with us. These blankets and shirts are made from PET bottles. There are commercial companies who make products from PET bottles but they are virgin PET bottles but Tzu Chi is from recycled bottles. We recycle them and make them into shirts and blankets. And during typhoon Yolanda, we gave out 75,000 blankets in Leyte. Mr. Alfredo Li (Buddhist) |
We, the Indigenous Peoples are very pleased of having the opportunity to be a part of this gathering as a response to the call of our Pope for the protection of our environment. Kami na mga katutubo, hindi naman ini-iba, hindi naming inihiwalay ang pagtatanggol sa aming lupaing ninuno at sa pangangalaga sa kalikasan even before dumating ang mga mananakop sa bansa. Dahil ang mga katutubo ay kinikilala namin na naka-ugat ang aming buhay sa kalikasan. Kung wala ang kalikasan at ang mga lupaing ninuno maglalaho din ang aming identidad bilang mga katutubo. Wala na ang mga pangalang katutubo. Hindi na ako matatawag na katutubo kapag wala na ang lupa at kalikasan. Kinikilala naman na ang Haring Magbabaya ay naka-ugat sa Kalikasan. Kaya kapag nawala ang kalikasan, mawala ang kagubatan,
mapollute ang mga ilog ay maglalaho din si Magbabaya. Kaya hindi namin hinihiwlaay ang aming struggle for defense of our ancestral domain sa pangangalaga sa kalikasan. Mr. Bonhao Rivas (Indigenous People, Manobo) |
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We, the Imam Council of the Philippines will supports this Forum on Thinking, Planning and Doing together to promote greater awareness and action in environmental protection and preservation among the many religions in our beloved country through discussion and dialogue. The ICPI have been thinking about how we can care more for our mother earth. We talked about how our fellow Muslim Filipinos inspires to care for creation. I would like to share with you what we discuss during our regular meeting: everything we do has an impact on others, and also the earth( an example is smoking, which harms us, others and the air we breathe); Islam teaches us to preserve water and also Islamic teaching is about not doing harm, so we must care for the environment, for example we can use cloth bags for marketing or shopping rather than plastic ones. Imam Ebrar Moxsir (Muslim) |
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The Impact of Laudato Si on Our Lady of Remedies Parish
The issuance of Laudato Si one year ago, on June 18, 2015, was a major cause of celebration in Our Lady of Remedies Parish, also known as Malate Catholic Church. It was a cause of celebration because we found the Encyclical as a validation of all the efforts of the Parish for the last twenty years aimed at raising ecological awareness of the parish community and churchgoers as well.
The story of the Parish’s active involvement in this advocacy for the environment began in the mid-1990s when Malate Catholic Church initiated the celebration of the Feast of St. Francis on the Sunday nearest to October 4. The parish celebrated the day by blessing plants and animals during the Holy Mass, and having pets vaccinated or consulted with veterinarians. This is to serve as a gentle reminder for people to care for all of God’s creation and that man is connected with all creatures. This has become a tradition as it is carried annually to this day. Parishioners and churchgoers have enthusiastically participated in the blessing of their beloved pets – dogs, cats, rabbits, cubs, tarantulas, pythons, among others.
A year after the first St. Francis Day celebration, the program was expanded to include the theme of caring for creation in our traditional liturgical celebrations and practices. So we have started Creation Time, which begins on the first day of September and ends with the celebration of the Feast of St. Francis. During this Creation Month, creation themes are interwoven in parts of the Holy Mass. The Four Elements, Fire Air Water and Earth, are celebrated as the traditional sources of creation. Homilies and prayers of the faithful follow the theme. The celebration of the Season of Creation has also become an annual tradition.
We are thankful that last year, Pope Francis declared September 1 as a Day of Prayer for the Care for Creation.
Encouraged by the strong response from the community and mindful of the message in CBCP’s Pastoral Letter, “What is Happening to our Beautiful Land?”, the Malate Parish felt a deep need to further raise awareness about the environment and thus developed a Care for the Earth Ministry. For more than 10 years now, under the able leadership of priests and church volunteers, the Care for the Earth Ministry has been the prime mover in the dissemination of information on the protection of the environment and the spirituality of all of creation. The Ministry takes the lead during the Creation Month in September and all other celebrations where care for the earth should be emphasized. This includes the Earth Hour celebration in March, the Lenten Fast or Detoxification Program during the Holy Week where care for the human body is particularly emphasized, the Iwas- Paputoxic Campaign during Christmas and New Year festivities, which reminds everyone to avoid the use of harmful firecrackers. All of these parish-wide activities are supported by the Parish Pastoral Council.
Malate Parish has also introduced a module on the Story of Creation as part of its formation program and developed a theme called Moments of Creation telling the story of the birth of the atom, the birth of life, the birth of the human, the birth of human civilization, and the promise of the Ecozoic Era, that is when the human would undergo ecological conversion and participate In a new era, a new earth.
For its traditional devotions, Malate Parish has developed the Cosmic Rosary, a living rosary with reflections on the Joyful Mysteries from the point of view of the creation story. For this first Laudato Si Week celebration, Fr. John Leydon, our Spiritual Adviser on Education and Care for the Earth, also made a beautiful reflection on creation vis-a-vis the Glorious Mysteries.
Indeed, the Parish has transformed traditional practices to include programs, themes or modules designed to enhance awareness of God’s creation.
Moreover, for the practical application of our education about the environment and ecology, parish volunteers and parishioners have been invited to the Center for Ecozoic Living and Learning, or CELL as we fondly refer to it. Fr. Leydon was involved in setting up CELL in Silang, Cavite in 1998. CELL is an eco-spirituality center that propagates the New Story of Creations as ‘a framework for understanding our current crisis and forging a way forward for the future’. Life with the basic amenities, respect for animals and insects, plants and birds, peace and quiet, communing with nature, all of these one can experience in CELL which helps to appreciate creation.
As abovementioned, Laudato Si was a major cause of celebration in Malate Parish. This is evident by the way the Parish has responded to the celebration of the Encyclical’s first anniversary. During this Laudato Si Week, our parishioners, volunteers, and community led by the barangays have enthusiastically participated in a clean-up campaign in all the three Areas covered by the parish; business, academe, barangays, and church volunteers actively participated in a roundtable discussion on how to respond to the call for action of Laudato Si; and the invitation of the Parish for an interfaith dialogue on climate change and Laudato Si was well received and attended by representatives of other religions.
What is the impact of Laudato Si on Malate Parish?
We can honestly say that Laudato Si has affirmed the Parish’s position on the need for a deeper ecological awareness, a need for a change in lifestyle, a need for ecological conversion. Whereas before, the priests of our parish, led by Fr. John, with their passionate homilies to fight against the destruction of the earth and to fight against climate change, seemed like a voice in the wilderness, now no less than the Pope, thru this brave encyclical, has exhorted all peoples of the world towards ecological conversion.
Laudato Si calls for an environmental spirituality, and this has affirmed the formation programs and practices of the parish. Through all these events and activities, practiced and observed for the last two decades or so, a change in people’s sense of awareness of creation and the environment can be felt. Parishioners have actively participated and people speak from the heart about caring for the environment and how they can contribute to it.
In this regard, the impact of Laudato Si on Malate Parish is made even more significant by being cognizant of the indispensable role that our priests, members of the Missionary Society of St. Columban (MSSC), have played in this rising consciousness and growing respect and care for creation of the parish community. The Society’s advocacy to promote justice, peace, and the integrity of creation is manifested in the way it has worked in areas which suffer poverty, political unrest, and severe climate change problems. Malate Parish is doubly blessed by having a team of Columban fathers who have blazed the trail and laid the foundation for environmental education and awareness at a time when it was yet not in vogue. Definitely, the Care for the Earth program of the Parish has harnessed the strengths of our Columban priests while the SSC’s strong support for this advocacy has sustained the program through the years when care for creation and fighting against climate change was not yet a global agenda.
Affirmed by Laudato Si, the Parish is now even more committed towards a program that will deepen awareness of care for creation, and promote measures to mitigate climate change by actively espousing the use of renewable energy. In fact, it has opened the Laudato Si Week celebration on June 12 with the blessing of the solar panels installed on the rooftop of the newly restored Malate Church.
With the issuance of this Encyclical, there is no doubt that its message will continue to reawaken in our parish community a deep sense of awareness of what is true about being human and love for God’s creation. And we are certain that with Laudato Si, the reawakening and heightened awareness of our humanity will be, in the words of Laudato Si, “like a mist seeping gently beneath a closed door.” (LS # 112)
To quote Fr. Leydon, “Malate Parish used to be in the peripheries; now, we can say we are mainstream."
Thanks to Laudato Si! Thanks to Pope Francis!
*Acknowledgment: Excerpts and quotes from Fr. John Leydon at www.catholicclimatemovement.global
Where did the World go Wrong with Regard to Climate Change
One particular objective of the Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM) is: “to advance the Catholic relationship between faith and reason, especially as it relates to adaptive decision making in areas of climate change policy”.
The topic of Faith and Reason, deals with many issues; relationship of Faith to Science, Philosophy, History and Anthropology etc. There is one particular question that I would like to deal with in this blog: what is the root cause of the ecological crisis, what went wrong, or where did we go wrong? Finding an answer to this is of vital importance, because it can point us in the right direction as to a solution.
Everybody has an implicit, if not explicit answer to that question. A common answer among Christians is: we are basically a flawed species – a variation on the doctrine of Original Sin. If we accept this as the explanation then the solution is to pray, or do nothing since nothing can be done, or be converted in some way.
Recently, I revisited my philosophy studies, (something I never thought I would do!), and came across a very interesting proposal as to where Western Civilization went wrong. It brings us back to the pre-modern 13th and 14th centuries the debate between Realism and Nominalism. (Don’t run away, yet!). This involves St. Thomas Aquinas (Realism) and William of Ockham (Nominalism).
St. Thomas Aquinas – picture sourced from: thomasaquinas.edu
Aquinas (d.1274), using the Philosophy of Aristotle, brought about a great synthesis between faith and reason. It is one of the flowering achievements of Medieval Culture. The compatibility of faith and reason was symbolized in the drawings on many pulpits of the time – the book and the branch symbolizing Revelation and Nature as two ways that God was speaking to us. Richard Tarnas, summed up this achievement:
Aquinas (d.1274), using the Philosophy of Aristotle, brought about a great synthesis between faith and reason. It is one of the flowering achievements of Medieval Culture. The compatibility of faith and reason was symbolized in the drawings on many pulpits of the time – the book and the branch symbolizing Revelation and Nature as two ways that God was speaking to us. Richard Tarnas, summed up this achievement:
Aquinas … affirmed the Creator’s providential intelligence and the resulting order and beauty within the created world. …the more the world was explored and understood, the greater the knowledge of and reverence for God would result…. Nothing that was true and valuable, even if achieved by man’s natural intellect, could ultimately be foreign to God’s revelation, for both reason and faith derived from the same source.[1]
However, this wonderful synthesis did not last long. It was challenged and displaced by Nominalism that attacked the connection between reason and faith. Ockham (d. 1349) felt that Aquinas’, synthesis between nature and grace threatened God’s Transcendence and Omnipotence. How could God still be all powerful if He was confined by the laws of nature? Knowledge of God, according to Ockham, could only be attained through Revelation – faith and grace, not through natural reason.[2]
Nominalism soon became the dominant way of thinking about Nature and with the Protestant Reformation, Nominalism received a boost: as the thought of nature being a source of revelation was anathema to Luther who stressed Scripture alone, scripura sola. Then, we had the dispute with Galileo and other thinkers. The condemnation of Galileo, created a rift between faith and reason. The Church and the thinkers of the day, parted company, with the Church confining itself to ‘revealed truths’ and the thinkers, free to explore Nature, without any religious or moral restraint.
With Francis Bacon’s scientific method of inquiry based on experimentation and inductive reasoning – as the only way of knowing and then Rene Descartes famous “I think therefore I am” – both consolidated the Nominalist denial of any inherent value or meaning in Creation. The triumph of reason then became complete with the European Enlightenment. The so-called ‘enlightened’ age saw the emergence of the Nation State, based on reason, free from the shackles of Church and Monarchy.
Thus, Nominalism unwittingly laid the foundation to a Church that no longer focussed on Nature as a source of Revelation about God; and for a long time this meant they had nothing to say about the destruction brought about since the Industrial Revolution.
If this is our problem, then it points to a solution where we need to recover a world-view where Nature is intrinsically valued, as revelatory of the Divine. As St. Columban said “if you want to know God, know creation”. The good news is that, in our times, such a world-view is possible because of the putting together of a story of creation, based on the scientific evidence.
The Church today has no problem, in principle, with the evolutionary story of creation, but work needs to be done in developing and propagating such a world view. Thomas Aquinas will undoubtedly be happy, as it will mean a re-affirmation of his Realism over the Nominalism of William of Ockham!
[1] Richard Tarnas: The Passion of the Western Mind, Understanding the Ideas that have shaped our World View, Pimlico, Random House, London, 1991.
[2] See Tarnas pp 206=207.
This blog posting is written by Fr John Leydon, a GCCM founding member, a Columban Missionary in the Philippines and the Director of Center for Ecozoic Living and Learning (CELL) which he co-founded in 1998.
– See more at: https://catholicclimatemovement.global/where-did-the-world-go-wrong-with-regard-to-climate-change/#sthash.Thkm6kzJ.dpuf
Laudato Si in Earth Day: North Pole and Paris Agreement Ceremony
April 22, 2016 – Happy Earth Day! So many things happened today.
Here’s a brief summary:
To start with, the Laudato Si North Pole expedition finally reached the North Pole! After 9 challenging days of marching through the Arctic ice, they brought a Laudato Si encyclical to the North Pole to raise awareness about the climate crisis and the moral imperative to take climate action.
After witnessing the dramatic impact of climate change in the Arctic, the North Pole expedition sent a message today to world leaders gathered in the U.N., asking them to take bold action to protect our common home:
Pope Francis sent a letter to the expedition (see original in Spanish) saying: “Thank you for bringing the Laudato Si cry to the polar ice for future generations … I am convinced that the problem is serious and that initiatives like yours are helping raise awareness about environmental degradation, depletion of the natural resources, pollution and also the severe wealth inequality.”
At exactly the same time, the Paris Agreement signature ceremony took place and over 170 nations signed the treaty. We know that this Paris Agreement is very far from what we need and we are aware that words on paper mean nothing, but this was a crucial and historic first step that is required to effectively fight climate change.
Today’s ceremony sent a strong signal confirming that the fossil fuel era is coming to an end. We celebrate that and increase the pressure to make sure that action accelerates dramatically. There is no time to waste.
The GCCM Global Coordinator, Tomás Insua, attended the ceremony and brought the banner with the same message as the North Pole expedition:
This builds on top of the groundbreaking Interfaith Climate Change Statement that we delivered last Monday to the President of the U.N. General Assembly, which was signed by prominent Catholic bishops and cardinals together with other renowned faith leaders.
The transition away of fossil fuels is unstoppable. It’s up to us to decide on how fast it happens.
Most governments are moving too slowly, and some are still not moving at all, so we need to increase the pressure for them to take the climate crisis seriously. There is a big gap between what they are doing and what scientists are asking them to do.
We, Catholics, have a big contribution to make by promoting the moral call to action of Pope Francis in Laudato Si. Your donation to the Global Catholic Climate Movement can make a big difference to mobilize the Catholic community to take action worldwide and bring Laudato Si to life.
– See more at: http://catholicclimatemovement.global/earth-day-2016/#sthash.UpMgbiva.dpuf
Author: Czarina Pascual
The Parish Pastoral Council
The primary body in charge of planning and implementing the various programs in the Parish. With the Parish priest as its head, together with the PPC officers, heads of the Ministries, the Areas, and the Organizations (MAOs), the Council links the entire volunteer corps to the Parish by coordinating its different activities, cascading information and encouraging active involvement in all parish-related endeavors.
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