Caritas Philippines
May 7, 2021
Caritas Philippines Academy, formerly the Center for Resiliency, Empowerment and Integral Development (CREED) of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Social Action, Justice and Peace, re-opened today as CBCP’s social action teaching and learning institute.
“We are very proud of our Caritas Philippines Academy. During the last six years, we are able to serve 507 scholars from 45 dioceses in the country. This means that during these periods, notable positive changes in our diocesan social action centers were observed, especially on how we implement our humanitarian, development and advocacy services and programs,” Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo mentioned during the opening of the virtual class.
In 2016, Caritas Philippines started with the Lead to Heal Transformational Leadership Program through a 14-month certificate course in partnership with the Development Academy of the Philippines and the Future by Design Pilipinas.
In 2018, a masteral degree on Social Services and Development was offered with the Asian Social Institute, and in 2020, eight short courses were offered covering topics like resource mobilization, communications, safeguarding and protection mainstreaming, ecology protection and advocacies, and social enterprise development.
“The academy was established mainly to instill professional competence within the Social Action Network, and among the partners of Caritas Philippines, as emphasized by Pope Benedict XVI in Deus Caritas Est. We also want to develop the academy as the national repository of important social action documents, best practices and studies which will make sure we have the needed baseline data to inform and improve our program implementation,” Fr. Antonio Labiao, Jr., Caritas Philippines Executive Secretary, added during the opening program.
“The Caritas Philippines Academy is our legacy, our contribution to the on-going formation and development of the social action works in the Philippines. As the mandated arm of the Catholic Church to form the social conscience of the country, we hope that our academy will be able to firstly help form the heart and improve the competence of our social action and development workers,” Bishop Bagaforo said in closing.
This year’s introductory course on Pastoral Management is availed by more than 70 social action directors, workers, and partners. The course will run for 14 days before the specialization courses that will be offered for the remaining of the school year.
