An Ecumenical Gathering on Our Commitment to Peace: Honoring Our Ecumenical Heroes and Partners

02 September 2022

Dear Fellow Peace Advocates,

Greetings of peace!

As we commemorate September as peace month and this year as the 50th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law, the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) and the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) will be holding a liturgical gathering entitled “Our Commitment to Peace: Honoring our Ecumenical Heroes and Martyrs” on 21 September 2022, 1:00pm to 3:30pm at the Church of the Risen Lord, UP Campus, Diliman, Quezon City. After the activity, everyone is highly encouraged to join in solidarity with the multisectoral activity along the University Avenue at 4:00pm-7:00pm.

This activity aims to serve as a platform to celebrate the International Day of Peace by highlighting the People’s Right to Peace and to shun a return to Martial Law or similar schemes through various activities; and, call for the resumption of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations.

With this, we cordially invite you to join us in this important work as part of our advocacy and ministry to celebrate and advocate for peace based on justice for the Filipino people. For inquiries and concerns, please reach out to the secretariat at 0927 630 3392 or email at peaceplatform2007@gmail.com. Attached with this invitation letter is the concept paper for your perusal. Thank you very much.

Always in pursuit of a just and lasting peace,

Statements of Support from Religious Discernment Group

Statements of Support
Religious Discernment Group Gathering
03 September 2022

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly;
defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

Proverbs 31:8-9

May we speak for those who speak for us

As we are called to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves (Proverbs 31: 8-9), we are also called to speak for the human rights defenders who stand up for the rights of the voiceless and who seek truth and justice.

The Religious Discernment Group (RDG) is one in prayer and solidarity with the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP), Karapatan, and Gabriela in demanding the dismissal of the charges of perjury filed against these organizations and their officers by former National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr., at the Quezon City Municipal Trial Court Branch 139 in July 2, 2019.

The perjury charges were filed against the officers of the three organizations when they sought protection from the Supreme Court through the writs of amparo and habeas data. Filed a few weeks after the Court of Appeals denied the petitions for amparo and habeas data, the complaint against Karapatan and Gabriela was initially dismissed by Senior Assistant Prosecutor Nilo Penaflor on November 8, 2019. However, on February 24, 2020, City Prosecutor Vimar Barcellano reversed the resolution.

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Commentary: 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

THE GOD WHO SEEKS

Ex 32:7-11.13-14; Ps 51:3-4.12-13.17.19; 1 Tim 1:12-17; Lk 15:1-32

“Or what woman having ten coins . . .” (Lk 15:8

Some years ago in São Paulo, Brazil, a minister who worked with street children related how she was introducing them to Bible stories and helping them to reflect on them.  One day she told them the story of the Prodigal Son. She stopped at the point where the younger son decided to return home and she asked if he would be able to go back home. One young-ster finally spoke up. “It depends,” he said. “On what?” she asked. “On whether there is a mother in the house. If so, then she will work on the father and get him to finally accept the son back.” This boy had rightly intuited the cultural dy-namics of Jesus’ day, which perhaps matched those of his own family.

A father in a patriarchal culture whose son had so disgraced him, would have rent his garments and declared that son no longer one of his own. We find a very different sort of father in the gospel: more like a mother who watches and waits and runs to meet the wayward son when he finally appears on the horizon. Such an image ruptures any patriarchal images of God and keeps us from literalizing the metaphor “Father.”

Today’s gospel presses further in offering a fuller set of images of the Divine. God can also be likened to a shepherd (who could be either male of female) who diligently searches for a lost sheep. Jesus’ first hearers would have understood the great lengths to which that shepherd went, searching hith-er and yon for the lost one, and the great amount of energy it would take to hoist the heavy animal onto his shoulders and lug it back to the sheepfold. It is startling that instead of complaining he is filled with joy! A footnote to the story: some people worry about the ninety-nine left in the desert while the shepherd is off searching for the lost one. Jesus’ original audience would have known that a flock that size would have had more than one shepherd and the ninety-nine are not left untended. All are precious and are in the divine care.

Most often overlooked by homilists and biblical interpreters is the little parable in the middle of the trilogy. It mirrors the very same dynamics as the other two, this time proposing the image of a woman who searches intently for a lost coin. Just as a sheep and a son are so valuable that they must be sought out when lost and celebrated when found, so a drach-ma, that will feed the family for a day.  It is not a trivial bit of pocket change, nor is there any carelessness on the part of the woman. The point is that just as the shepherd goes to ex-traordinary lengths to find the lost sheep, so the woman uses precious lamp oil and searches unceasingly under stubborn cobblestones in the floor, until she finds where the errant coin has lodged. Shepherd, woman, and father are all equally good images for God, who expends great effort to procure the re-turn of the lost and who hosts an exuberant celebration in their honor.

The trilogy of parables in today’s gospel invites us to seek and retrieve the lost and overlooked female images of God. This enables a fuller experience of the divine, aids us in see-ing women as images of God, and keep us from idolatry, against which the first reading warns. Jesus himself invites us to stretch our imaginations, as he takes on the persona of Woman Wisdom in the opening verses of the gospel, where he is criticized for the company he keeps at table. Like Wom-an Wisdom (Prov 9:1-6), he has welcomed a scraggly array of all types to dine with him!  We can stay outside and grum-ble, or we can enter into the party and allow ourselves to be surprised by the host.

Barbara Reid, OP
Vice President and Academic Dean, CTU
© Catholic Theological Union, Chicago

Invitation to SingKwenta, 50th Anniversary of Martial Law Declaration

September 6, 2022

Re.: Invitation to the Sept. 21 ML@50 event

Dear Friends and Networks,

Greetings of peace!

This coming September 21, to mark the 50th anniversary of the declaration of martial law by the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Sr., we will be holding a cultural event titled: “SingKwenta, Mga Kanta at KwentoTungkolsa Martial Law” at the University Avenue, UP Diliman Campus, from 4-7 p.m.

With the theme #NeverForget, #NeverAgain, the rally will feature various speakers, performers and artists who will narrate not only the horrors of martial law but also our people’s valiant efforts to defend our rights and freedoms and eventually bring down the Marcos dictatorship. It will end with a call for vigilance and rejecting all forms of disinformation and historical distortions that glorify the martial law period or pave the way for its return.

Prior to the cultural event, there will be a short march to the UP campus featuring floats that depict the various events and issues concerning martial law. Details of this will be announced subsequently.

In this light, we would like to invite you and members of your organization/institution to join us on September 21 for this very relevant and meaningful activity. Aside from your participation, any kind of moral, material or financial support will also be highly appreciated.

For inquiries and confirmations, you may contact the ML@50 Secretariat via email at ml50neveragain@gmail.com or through Ms. Gel via mobile phone no. 09475891578.

Thank you very much.

Pope to families: ‘Never forget prayer, which keeps our faith alive’

Pope Francis with the family of Pedro Maria Guimaraes de Mello (Vatican Media)
Pope Francis with the family of Pedro Maria Guimaraes de Mello  (Vatican Media)

Pope Francis tells members of the numerous de Mello family of Portuguese entrepreneurs never to forget prayer, and recalls the power of keeping our gaze fixed on the Crucifix.

By Deborah Castellano Lubov August 26, 2022

“Let us not forget prayer, because prayer helps us to keep faith alive; the balm of faith is preserved by often turning our thoughts to the Lord: it can help us so much to look at the image of the crucifix, to stop our gaze there.. It is a beautiful way to pray.”

Pope Francis gave this reminder when meeting with the Family of Pedro Maria Guirmaraes de Mello in the Vatican on Friday.

The Mello family is a Christian family of entrepreneurs and as such has over 100 years of history, dedicated to social responsibility, with very strong bonds with the Portuguese Catholic University. The family of 12 siblings employs over a thousand people, as they work to develop their businesses and their collaborators for a better world.

In his remarks, the Pope thanked them for their witness of their love for the Church and for their “pilgrimage to the tomb of St Peter.”

“It is faith in Jesus that brought you here and brought you together. It is good to see a family united, and a family strengthened by the gift of faith.”

Harmony in families

He expressed his joy to see the family and thinking of families like theirs.

“Seeing your family and thinking of families like yours,” the Pope reflected, “I am reminded of Psalm 133: ‘How good and how pleasant it is, when brothers dwell together as one! Like fine oil on the head, running down…'”

The oil, he noted, is a beautiful image of union, and of the happiness of being in communion.

“But the oil,” he added, “is also an image of the faith that strengthens our bonds and, through the Holy Spirit, makes harmony in families possible – this is important – harmony also in the Church, in the world.”

Pope meets Family of Pedro Maria Guimaraes de Mello
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World leader for Catholic women to CWL: ‘Keep listening to the cry of the poor, planet’

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

By CBCP News

August 23, 2022
Manila, Philippines

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ecumenical leaders: Be wary of the Marcos dynasty

World Mission August 24, 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Retired Bishop Solito Toquero

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

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