“Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.” (Mt 10:8b)  This was among the instructions that Jesus gave to his apostles, when sent them out on a mission.  It is also our inspiration for the year 2021, which we declared as a “Year of Mission”, with the theme “Gifted to Give”, as we prepare to commemorate the 500th Year of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines.

POPE FRANCIS’ MESSAGE

This could not have been expressed more beautifully than by the Holy Father himself when he addressed Filipino Catholics in Rome and around the world and said, “On this important anniversary of God’s holy people in the Philippines, I also want to urge you to persevere in the work of evangelization—not proselytism, which is something else.  The Christian proclamation that you have received needs constantly to be brought to others…”  He also expressed how this could be carried out more concretely by asking us, “to care for those who are hurting and living on the fringes of life.”

Reflecting on John 3:16, the Holy Father asked us to think of mission as oneness with the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ as the one who “so loves” and “gives”; and that the giving always proceeds from the loving.  He therefore invites the Philippine Church to be “a Church that loves the world without judging, a Church that gives herself to the world.”

The Holy Father likewise warmed the hearts of our Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) when he said, “You received the joy of the Gospel… and this joy is evident in your people… in your eyes, on your faces, in your songs and in your prayers.  In the joy with which you bring your faith to other lands.”  He also humored us by referring to our OFWs as “smugglers of the faith” because, he said, “wherever they go to work, they sow the faith,” and he regards their “discreet and hardworking presence” as “a testimony of faith…through humble, hidden, courageous and persevering presence.”

For his part, our very own Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle affirmed the Holy Father’s message when he said, “We thank God for the bearers of the gift these 500 years.” Among them, he cited “the pioneering missionaries, the religious congregations, the clergy, the grandmothers and grandfathers, the mothers and fathers, the teachers, the catechists, the parishes, the schools, the hospitals, the orphanages, the farmers, the laborers, the artists, and the poor whose wealth is Jesus.”

THE BEARERS OF THE GIFT

There has never been, and will never be, a moment in Church history when the bearers of the gift entrusted to us by the Lord will not be both holy and sinful, noble and flawed, at the same time.  Such was the case, for instance, with the first Christians who came to our blessed islands in 1521 and encountered our native ancestors for the first time.  As in most situations in history, God did not seem to mind sowing the first seeds of the Gospel through flawed human beings like the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and the members of his crew in the 1521 expedition from Spain, who were all lay Christians, with the exception of one ordained priest in their company, Fr. Pedro de Valderrama, who was serving as their chaplain.

These men were mostly mercenaries.  But they almost instantly turned into missionaries the moment they “discovered” the fertile soil of good will in the natives they had encountered in Samar, Leyte, and Cebu.  They had come from distant Spain with a mandate—not to evangelize but to find an alternative route to the Moluccas.  They had arrived like hapless strangers in dire need of shelter.  They were sea-beaten, weary from the long and perilous journey through the South Pacific ocean, afraid of hostile natives, wary of pirates, hungry, thirsty and sick.  Of the five ships that departed from Spain, only three made it; one got ship-wrecked, and one deserted them.  They even had to deal with conflicts and mutinies among themselves while at sea.

THE GOLD THEY DISCOVERED

If they were in search of gold, these explorers knew they had found it, not underground or in treasure chests, but in the hearts of the nine simple fisherfolks who quickly disarmed their defensiveness with their childlike simplicity and friendliness.  They were surprised by these natives who made them feel welcome, gave them food, fish, fruits and coconuts, who allowed them to pitch their tents on the island of Homonhon and later, Limasawa, helped them care for their sick, bury their dead, and worship their God.

They who thought of our ancestors as pagans, as godless people, were surprised to find God in the generous hearts of these natives, who opened their doors and treated these weary travelers with compassion.  They also went out of their way to help them procure enough food provisions, to be able to reach the Moluccas and eventually return to Spain.  So touched must Magellan have been by the spontaneous gestures of hospitality, friendship, and generosity that he had observed while in the company of these natives, that, from mercenary, he suddenly shifted to acting like a missionary in all his awkward and limited knowledge of the Christian faith.

THE FIRST MASS AND THE FIRST BAPTISMS

Pigafetta, the chronicler, could not contain his own emotions as he narrated how awed he was about the kindness of these gentle souls to them.  He described in great detail how they had gone out of their way to build them a platform made of bamboos in Limasawa on which they could celebrate their first Mass on that Easter Sunday, March 31, 1521, and another one in Cebu when they celebrated the first Baptisms on the third Sunday of Easter, April 14, 1521. Magellan did not pressure them to do all of this at gunpoint.  They did it in the plain spirit of panunuluyan, pagpapakatao, and pakikipagkapwa-tao, which are the genuine vessels of evangelization. 

At the first Mass in Limasawa, Pigafetta describes how the families of Rajah Kolambu and his brother Rajah Siagu even volunteered to join them, how they too knelt at the consecration with them, how they offered them gifts of two slaughtered pigs and assisted them in planting the cross.  The icon of the cross which means the whole world to us now, this symbol of God’s eternal love and the price the Son of God is willing to pay for love of humankind, this cross of our redemption, became the first Christian icon ever to be brought to the consciousness of our ancestors. 

If Pigafetta had lived in our own times, he would probably be saying these natives put them to shame—they, who claimed to be Christians. They, who thought they were bringing us the Christian faith, must have felt like they had “discovered”  it instead in the beautiful hearts of our ancestors, and the baptizing became practically a mere naming of what they had “discovered”—namely, God’s grace already at work in them.

So why should we be surprised about the swiftness in the process that led to the first baptisms in Cebu?  The woman named Humamay, the wife of Rajah Humabon, whom they named Juana, was just acting out the childlike faith of these people when she chose the Santo Niño as gift.  These natives had accepted them as friends, without malice, like little children who instinctively respond with trust, even to strangers, and express affection to them, no matter what other hidden motives they might have. And, as always, these hidden agenda eventually rear their ugly heads, since they are always Satan’s favorite strategies for “nipping in the bud” the seedlings that have sprouted from the seeds sown by God.

WEEDS AND WHEAT IN THE FIELD

As in the parable of the field planted with the good seeds of wheat (Mt 13:24-30), soon, Satan gets busy at sowing the seeds of ill will, hidden agenda, and wrong motives that have always served as a huge challenge in the work of evangelization.  But the mystery of it all is that the Great Sower allows both the weeds and the wheat to grow together, and does the sifting only at harvest time. 

In those 46 days (March 16 – May 1, 1521) that God got busy sowing the seeds of the Gospel on the soil of friendship and good will between Magellan’s company and the natives and their Chieftains, the devil also got busy sowing the seeds of hidden motives and political agenda that would lead to a whole string of treacherous acts on either side.

25 March 2021

We, the Council of the Laity of the Archdiocese of Manila, composed of lay leaders from the 86 parishes and communities in the cities of Manila, Makati, Pasay, San Juan and Mandaluyong, recognize that the CoVid-19 pandemic has entered into a more dangerous phase with new highly transmissible variants and a rising number of CoVid-19 cases. We support the Government’s efforts to both stem and reverse the rising tide of infections as well as the valiant efforts of our health workers, our heroic frontlinersin our common battle against CoVid-19, to care for those who have fallen victim to the virus.

Our support can best be seen in our strict adherence to the health protocols set by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) in our celebration of the Holy Mass and other liturgical activities since the start of the pandemic. We appreciate that our Administrator Bishop Broderick S. Pabillo has consistently consulted with our parish priests and local communities regarding measures to be taken under the principle of subsidiarity to ensure cooperation. In light of this, we strongly dispute that our religious gatherings have been “superspreaders” of the CoVid-19 virus as seen in the recent celebration of the Feasts of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo and of the Sto. Niño in Pandacan and Tondo which did not result in any “spike” in the number of CoVid-19 cases,

While we understand the urgency of decision making in times of crisis, we respectfully request our government officials to consult and listen to stakeholders who would be affected by decisions prior to implementation. We take as an example the Catholic church’s observance of Holy Week, especially the Holy Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday. This is the most important celebration in Christianity, made even more significant this year by the national commemoration of 500 Years of Christianity in our land.

We support our Archdiocesan Apostolic Administrator, His Excellency, Bishop Broderick Pabillo’s discernment on his pastoral instruction “We Worship The Lord”, especially the reminder to follow the principle of subsidiarity to let parish priest, in consultation with lay leaders, to decide on matters of religious activities to celebrate this special occasion, with an ensured strict compliance to existing health protocols at all times.

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 NCCP  March 24, 2021

Quezon City: The National Council of Churches in the Philippines, the country’s biggest aggrupation of mainline Protestant and Non-Roman Catholic churches, echoed the sentiment of the Archdiocese of Manila Bishop Broderick Pabillo and Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David on the IATF’s order to ban public gatherings during the imposition of GCQ including religious services.

“I fully share the sentiments of my brother bishops from the Roman Catholic Church. It is grossly unfair that without due consultation with the churches, religious gatherings during this holy season for Christians are prohibited,” Bishop Reuel Norman O. Marigza, NCCP General Secretary said.

“In these anxious times, more than the strict, unjust, and inconsistent imposition of orders, the spiritual succor that the churches bring are much needed by the people. Churches and the religious services they provide, help people by providing spiritual support system, morale-boosting, help in reducing psychological stress and promote good mental health,” the Bishop added.

To recall, IATF ordered the prohibition of public gatherings during the imposition of GCQ in Metro Manila and provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal, now called as NCR Plus from March 22 until April 4 through the IATF Resolution No. 104 approved by President Rodrigo Duterte.

On the Palace statement early today that the government can order churches to close if necessary through the enforcement of the police powers, Bishop Marigza stated: “For more than a year, the churches have been strictly observing the health protocols imposed by the Department of Health and the IATF in the conduct of the religious services, the least that they could have done was to consult us.”#

Pope Francis has asked the worldwide Church to use the next year to more deeply reflect on and implement his 2016 apostolic exhortation on marriage and the family

La Croix International | By Céline Hoyeau | France

The Catholic Church has now begun “The ‘Amoris Laetitia’ Year of the Family”, an initiative Pope Francis officially launched on March 19th, the Feast of St. Joseph, Universal Patron of the Church.

The special year, which will conclude on June 26, 2022 at the World Meeting of Families in Rome, is aimed at deepening and putting better into practice Amoris laetitia, the post-synodal exhortation on the family that the pope issued five years ago.

What is the status of this text?

Amoris laetitia is now the Church’s “roadmap” on family issues, says Oranne de Mautort, former director of the family office of the French Bishops’ Conference.

This lengthy papal document is the fruit of an unprecedented process of consultation and deliberation.

The pope sent a questionnaire to all the world’s episcopal conferences in 2013 in the run-up to two, back-to-back assemblies of the Synod of Bishops in 2014 that looked at issues relating to today’s family.

Bishops and experts from around the globe used the two assemblies to discern the issues brought forward by the baptized faithful, theologians and pastors.

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After 24 years of owning a sugarcane plantation only on paper, some 100 farmers of Capiz province will finally be able to own and benefit from the landholding in flesh and blood.

On Tuesday, March 23, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) at long last cleared the legal hurdles for the peasants to take control of the 188-hectare portion of the Nemesio Tan Estate in barangays Dulangan and San Esteban in Pilar town and Brgy. Culilang in the municipality of President Roxas as ordered by the Office of the President (OP) in a 2020 ruling, upholding an earlier order issued by former DAR chief Rafael Mariano. 

“We are thankful that President Rodrigo Duterte and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) finally made this happen. We thought this day won’t come. The wait took a lifetime, spanning four government administrations,” said farmer-leader Teresita Billonid of the Montecarlo Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Organization (Montecarba), a member of national peasant federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM).

“Our fight for land took life and limb. Many of us, who grew old and weak tilling the hacienda, died hungry and landless. We suffered from landlord resistance to agrarian reform that resulted in violence. Our houses were razed, one of us was gunned down, and another got paralyzed because of the bullet that hit her head,” she said.

“Now, we can look forward to a brighter future that would have been impossible if we didn’t unite and endure the hardships as we asserted our right to the land,” added Billonid.

OP decision thumbs down landlord’s plea, court’s ruling

On June 29, 2020, through an 18-page decision signed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, Malacañang dismissed the petition of Nemesio Tan’s heirs represented by Ferdinand Bacanto to retain ownership of the sugar plantation, cancel the certificates of land ownership award (CLOA) issued to the farmers, and stop the DAR from implementing agrarian reform in the property.

In the same order, the OP found no merit to uphold the ruling of the Regional Trial Court-Branch18 Special Agrarian Court (RTC-SAC) in Roxas City that declared that the DAR had erred in implementing the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program in the Nemesio Tan Estate because it carried out the CARP in reverse by generating CLOAs for Montercarba farmers, instead of first notifying Tan that his property had already been placed under the program and compensating him in exchange for his land.

The OP upheld the May 15, 2017 order of then DAR Secretary Mariano that asserted that while the CLOAs were issued ahead of the certificate of deposit of just compensation for Tan, in violation of the procedures under Section 16 of R.A. 6657, the procedural infirmities did not invalidate the coverage of the landholding under the CARP.

In the same decision, Mariano rectified the procedural flaw by having the Register of Deeds (ROD) cancel the CLOAs and simultaneously transfer the ownership of Tan’s landholding to the government by issuing land titles named to the Republic of the Philippines.

Immediately thereafter, Mariano also ordered the Provincial Agrarian Reform Office of Capiz to generate new CLOAs in the name of the Montecarba farmers and register the same with the ROD.

Farmers already landowners since 1997 but were unaware of it 

For a decade and a half  ̶  between 1997, when the CLOAs were generated during the Ramos administration, and 2011, when the RTC-SAC’s ruling favoring Tan became final and executory during the Aquino administration  ̶  Montecarba farmers were clueless of what was happening.

“We didn’t know that as early as 1997, through the CLOAs, we were already made the agrarian reform beneficiaries of Tan’s plantation. We also didn’t know that Tan filed a case to stop us from taking control of the land,” said Billonid.

“Both the government and the haciendero blocked CARP implementation in the land we had been tilling for decades. The DAR didn’t immediately distribute the CLOAs and install us in our land, while Tan and his heirs did all they could to retain control of the landholding,” she added.

The farmers only learned that they were already the owners of the landholding after they survived the wrath of Super Typhoon Yolanda that hit Visayas on November 8, 2013 and were visited by a non-government organization to help them recover from the disaster.

Farmers suffered from harassment, violence amid fight for land

In 2015, Montecarba farmers decided to fight for their right to the land via protest-rallies, dialogs, and legal actions and suffered from harassment and violence.

“When those from the camp of our former landowner learned about our campaign, they started to drive us away from the land and bulldoze our houses, until the violence culminated in the death of a fellow CARP beneficiary,” said Billonid.

On February 11, 2017, Montecarba farmer Orlando T. Eslana, 49, was shot dead by perpetrators allegedly linked to Tan’s camp. Eslana was killed five days after he joined 68 of his fellow CARP beneficiaries in occupying a portion of the Nemesio Tan landholding in Pilar town.

At least five men opened fire on the peasants, who had set up fences in the area. Four farmers were also wounded in the incident, namely Ana Bocala, Nida Amo, Adel Vergara, and Melinda Eslana Arroyo, the sister of Orlando, who remains paralyzed, with a bullet still stuck in her head.

Land struggle continues, farmers urge Duterte to decide vs conversion case

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Shay Cullen
21 March 2021

The International Day of Forest is today, 21 March. Forests are of vital importance to the well-being of all creatures, the natural world and especially humankind. They absorb most of the damaging CO2 that causes climate change. Their protection and restoration should be of highest national priority of each nation to hold back global warming from rising above 1.5 degrees celsius and avert the catastrophe that is to come.

Forests are vital for retaining and releasing water the whole year-round, preventing draught and providing clean water and protection from landslides and soil erosion in the typhoon season. In the Philippines and other nations that have suffered deforestation, there is severe low crop yield that causes food insecurity due to massive rains and typhoons because of soil erosion. In some provinces, 50 percent of the rich topsoil has been washed away and more to come. There are no more forests to hold the water back. The Philippines, once self-sufficient in rice, now imports most of its rice.

The deforestation is mainly caused by mining companies and loggers allowed by officials. In 1900, there was 70 percent forest cover in the Philippines. By 1999, there was about 3 percent to 5 percent remaining. Forty years of savage uncontrolled logging caused this irreplaceable loss of primary rainforest. Denuded, bare and exposed hills and mountains is the tragic result and it still goes on. Ninety-eight percent of Philippine plywood that is exported  to Japan is worth US$86 million. However, some wood exported is from sustainable plantations.

There has been what I call “foresticide” with the global deforestation rate at an estimated 10 million hectares per year. That is 429 million hectares since 1990. The cutting of millions of hectares of Brazilian Amazon rain forest and the killing of forest guards and indigenous people is growing. More than 230 million hectares of prime forest will have been destroyed by 2050, researchers say.

There is a “secret war” over the environment in the Philippines and the Brazil and elsewhere as some government officials support logging and mining companies. Dozens of forest guards and environmental protectors are being systematically shot dead by mining security guards in the Philippines and cattle ranchers in Brazil. The military allegedly declare indigenous communities as terrorists or supporters of communists and justify displacing them. The mining companies then exploit the ancestral lands without protest or opposition. Italian environmentalist priest Father “Pops’ Tentorio was shot dead in 2011. No one has been convicted for the crime. Other priests were killed in previous years.

In the Amazon, the forests are cut to provide pasture for cattle and fields for palm oil and soya growing. The indigenous people are being wiped out by disease and violence by the cattle ranchers and soya planters. The proliferation of cattle in the world is now at 989 million which is down from more than one billion in 2014 is an environmental disaster as they produce huge amounts of methane, a global warming gas causing climate change that damages forests. In Europe, there is a battle to preserve the forests of Poland. The government is allowing the logging of the world heritage site of the famous primeval Bialowieza Forest that has stood for millions of years. In 2018, the European Court of Justice declared the deforestation as illegal. But Poland is planning to continue soon despite the protests and legal challenges. Destroying the habitat of wildlife will destroy their chances for survival.

Germany has a big threat to its fabled forests by acid rain caused by polluting factories, coal plants and vehicles emissions. By 1980s, 2.5 million hectares were damaged and hundreds of thousands of trees died. The acid rain killed the leaves and the roots. The forests are being protected with changes in law and change to renewable energy sources.

Trees are essential for humans and animals and birds. The trees emit healthy fumes and aromas that is why it is healthy to live near trees. They are interconnected by a root system and promote the growth of essential fungi and other plants. A world without trees and the wild creatures is a diminished form of life. There is good news also as mega planting projects are getting popular according to this report by geography realm, https://www.geographyrealm.com/mega-tree-planting-efforts-around-the-world/

In India in Uddar Pradesh 800,000 volunteers planted 50 million trees in a single day. The record was broken the following year by the state of Madhya Pradesh, which had 1.5 million volunteers planting 66 million tree saplings in just 12 hours. The efforts continue each year. This year, respecting all the social distancing measures, two million volunteers gathered at farmlands, government buildings, and riverbanks in Uttar Pradesh to plant 250 million saplings distributed by the officials. Also, this year, trees are being tagged to keep records of their survival. The overall goal is to increase the forest cover to 235 million acres by 2030 – a number India pledged to in Paris in 2016.

Ethiopian government’s Green Legacy Initiative placed innumerable volunteers – around 23 million of them – at 1,000 planting sites across the country. Together they allegedly managed to plant more than 350 million saplings in just 12 hours.

Faced with desertification and increasing wildfire threats, Turkey has initiated its own mega-planting project. Last year, the government declared that November 11th would become the National Forestation Day. In the first year, volunteers planted 11 million trees in more than 2,000 locations across Turkey. Northern Anatolian City of Çorum broke the world record for the most trees planted at a single site in one hour– 303,150 saplings.” However, not that many survived and the survival rate is disputed and an estimated 40 percent perhaps have survived.

Yet it is hope for the future that the forests can be replanted and, in the Philippines, we need more planting projects working directly with the people. The DENR projects have endured failures and allegedly some corrupt deals with contract growing.

The best practice we found is to give the saplings to the indigenous peoples to plant on their ancestral deforested lands. In our efforts at the Preda Foundation working with the Aeta indigenous people, they plant an average of 3,000 saplings every year for the past 15 years. A small but significant contribution, we can save the forests and restore them by trusting and working with the people.