CBCP

Page 3Monitor Page 5 Page 10 Page 13

Vol. 10 No. 12
ECIP
September 25,and
2006PANLIPI
Partnership Advancing the
Cause of Indigenous Peoples
Pope Benedict XVI and
the Clash of Faith and
Reason
Faith, Reason and the
University Memories and
Reflections
On Charter Change and
the Common Good
1
www.cbcponline.net/cbcpmonitor cbcpmonitor@cbcpworld.net

CBCP: Con-con is CBCP Spokesman

CBCP Monitor
worth spending for Defends Pope
IF it is for the people and the common Amid Muslim Fury
good, a Constitutional Convention
(Con-con) is a better idea that it is CATHOLIC Bishops’ Conference of
worth spending for, the bishops said. the Philippines (CBCP) Spokesman
In a Pastoral Exhortation, the Msgr. Pedro Quitorio defended Pope
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Benedict XVI against allegations that
Philippines (CBCP) reiterated its Protagonist of Truth, Promoter of Peace he had attacked Islam in a speech last
support for holding a Con-Con in- week as worldwide Muslim fury con-
stead of amending the Constitution tinued.
CBCP / P4
September 25, 2006 Vol. 10 No. 12 Php 16. 00 CBCP Spokesman / P4

Archbishop Reaffirms Church’s Respect

for Muslims
By Roy Lagarde
AS the Muslim world enters the
month of Ramadan, the CBCP Epis-
copal Commission for Interreligious
Dialogue (ECID) chair, Archbishop
Antonio Ledesma, reaffirmed the
Church’s respect for Islam hoping
that Muslim faithful continue to be
instruments of goodness.
“May your reverent recitation
of the Qur’an during the month of
Ramadan grant you Allah’s guid-
ance, mercy and compassion,” he
said.
In his message, the archbishop
hoped that the Qur’an continue to
inspire and show Muslims the
straight path “so that you may con-
tinue to be instruments of God’s
peace, justice, unity in our country
and in the world.”
“As you begin the Ramadan,
the Catholic Church commends the
Muslim community of the Philip-
pines as you submit to Allah
through prayer, almsgiving and fast-
ing,” he said.
Ledesma, also the CBCP Vice-
president, made the statement in the
wake of criticism from some Muslim
circles over the speech Pope
Benedict XVI gave last week at the
University of Regensburg in Ger-
many.
He reiterated that the entire
Catholic Church hold great respect
for Islam, the Muslims and their
Prophet Muhammad.
“The Second Vatican Council of
the Church in its document, Nostra OFW’s AS MISSIONARIES: CBCP President Archbishop Angel N. Lagdameo (right) is flanked by Bishop Precioso D. Cantillas, SDB (middle), chair-
Archibishop Reaffirms / P4 man of CBCP Commission on the Pastoral Care for Migrants and Itinerant People (ECMI) and Fr. Edwin D. Corros, CS (left), ECMI Executive
Secretary, during the 5th International Consultation Meeting on the Filipino Ministry W orldwide held in Tagaytay City, Sept. 15, 2006.

“Weak” Juvenile Justice Law Worries ECPPC Migration—A New Way of Evangelization
THE CBCP Episcopal Commission A MEETING of Filipino Catholic Along with our smiling faces, gions, which for them would be a
on Prison Pastoral Care (ECPPC) Chaplains and Pastoral Workers he said, we are offering to the re- new way of being in mission, be-
© Rolex de la Pena/epa/Corbis

and other groups working on the
issue of child protection have ex-
pressed concern about juvenile jus-
tice act, calling it as “weak” and
needs amendment.
The ECPPC, Coalition Against
Death Penalty (CADP), Philippine
Action for Youth Offenders (PAYO)
and other groups had a forum last
week and found loopholes in the Ju-
venile and Welfare Act approved
last May.
Also known as RA 9344, the rul-
ing, which seeks reform in the jus-
tice system, exempts offenders be-
overseas in Tagaytay City recently,
organized by the Catholic Bishops’
Conference of the Philippines-Epis-
copal Commission for the Pastoral
Care of Migrants and Itinerant
People (CBCP-ECMI) reiterated a
positive side of migration—that
modern day evangelization can be
low 15 years from criminal charges. achieved by migrant workers.
Those 15 to 18 may only be charged, CBCP President Archbishop
if they committed the offense, know- Angel Lagdameo said that more
ing it was a crime. than contributing to the work force
Children who come in conflict in 193 countries, Filipino migrant
with the law will undertake a “di- workers has “more important” to
Weak / P4 offer to the world.
ceiving countries or Churches, our
Christian faith lived in the context
of different cultures and religions.
“Coming from a predominantly
Catholic Christian country, these
migrant Filipino workers in search
of livelihood could be equipped
with the disposition and skills of
lay missionaries, who will not nec-
essarily preach, but live the Gos-
pel of Jesus in the context of cul-
tural and religious pluralism,” said
Lagdameo.
“They are Filipinos in dia-
logue with other cultures and reli-
yond adding to the number of
church-goers in the receiving
Churches which have fallen victims
of materialism and secularism,” he
added.
Providential coincidence
Migration reveals the need for
people to go to other countries for
various reasons, most especially
because of economic hardship.
When before the labor force
was dominated by men, it’s nota-
Migration / P4

Pope Meets Islamic Envoys, Stresses Common Cause

CASTEL GANDOLFO, portance of faith, in “a given rise to our gathering
Sep. 25, 2006 — Pope world marked by relativism are well known.” Vatican
Benedict XVI reaffirmed and too often excluding diplomats had worked
the importance of dialogue the transcendence and quickly to invite Muslim
between Christianity and universality of reason.” diplomats to Castel
Islam, at a September 25 The Pope did not re- Gandolfo, hoping to
meeting with envoys from fer directly to the contro- soothe the tensions that
Islamic countries and orga- versial speech that he had had arisen in the Islamic
nizations. delivered in Regensburg world after the Pope’s talk.
The Holy Father on September 12. But he Pope Benedict spoke
stressed the interests that did remark, near the begin- in French to the group, CEAP Marks 65 Years of Enduring
RP Honors Filipino Seamen Christians and Muslims
share in upholding the im-
ning of his talk, that “the
circumstances which have
which included the ambas-
Pope Meets / P2 Catholic Education in the Philippines
Caravan vs. Killings Launched
th
THE 11 National Seafar- implemented under the
ers Day (NSD) was cel- leadership of MARINA, By Malou Mahilum-Acebedo
ebrated on September 24 the NSD commemoration A CARAVAN for human live up to our prophetic call- At least 20 vehicles
and honored this year’s was organized by the NO DOUBT, Catholic education in the Phil-
rights kicked off from Ma- ing—to stand with the packed by religious con- ippines is yet a shining force to reckon
outstanding seamen and Apostleship of the Sea nila early morning of Sep- meek and deprived, to join gregations and their mis-
those who died on duty. with the theme: “Filipino with—or so it is.
tember 22 on its way to hands with the oppressed sion partners left Manila All roads invariably led to the historic
Hundreds of seamen Seafarers: Our Pride”. Nueva Ecija to protest the and dehumanized.” around 6 a.m., as the cara-
and their families gath- The celebration was Manila Hotel last September 13-15 for the
unabated human rights AMRSP said the cara- van trekked its way over 2,000 delegates from the strong 1,220-
ered together at the opened with a “Rite of abuses and political kill- van is also a part of the through Malolos Cathe-
Quirino Grandstand in Remembrance” and hon- member Catholic schools nationwide as the
ings in the country. country’s celebration of dral, St. Scholastica Col- Catholic Educational Association of the
Manila to join the cel- ored about 250 seafarers In a statement, the the United Nations Day of lege in San Fernando in
ebration that coincides who died during the year Philippines (CEAP) held its 65th National
Association of Major Re- Peace to embark informa- Pampanga, then Convention and anticipatingly also mark-
with the National Mari- while on duty or on ac- ligious Superiors of the tion drive about the “deep- Cabanatuan and San Jose
time Week (NMW). count of sickness and ac- ing its Diamond Jubilee fete.
Philippines (AMRSP) said ening social crisis” the in Nueva Ecija.
While the NMW is RP Honors / P4 CEAP Marks / P3
the right time has come “to country is suffering. Caravan / P4

2 World News
Building Ecclesial Communion is every
Bishop’s Duty
VATICAN CITY, September 21,
2006—This morning in the Apostolic
Palace at Castelgandolfo, in a tradi-
tional encounter for this time of year,
the Pope received a group of re-
cently-appointed bishops who are
participating in a meeting in Rome.
“Following Christ’s example,”
the Pope told them, “each of you, in
the daily nurture of your flock, must
become ‘all things to all men,’ pre-
senting the truth of faith, celebrat-
ing the sacraments of our sanctifica-
tion and bearing witness to the
Lord’s charity. Welcome with an
open heart those who knock at your
door, advise them, console them and
support them on the way of God.”
“Demonstrate this care, in the
first place, towards priests. Always
act towards them as fathers and el-
der brothers who know how to lis-
ten, accept, comfort and, when nec-
essary, also correct.”
Benedict XVI then went on to
remind the bishops that, by virtue of
their power to govern, they are called
“to judge and discipline the life of
the people of God entrusted to their
pastoral care, with laws, indications
and suggestions, in accordance with
what is laid down by the universal
discipline of the Church. This right
and duty of bishops is absolutely
Use media effectively, Vatican official
tells new bishops
VATICAN, Sep. 25, 2006—The presi-
dent of the Pontifical Council for
Social Communications has advised
newly appointed bishops that they
should take care to develop good
relations with the media.
Archbishop John Foley spoke
on September 23 to a seminar for new
bishops, organized by the Congre-
gation for Bishops. Offering his ad-
vice, he said that bishops should
strive to develop a “climate of confi-
dence” with the media, and learn
something about the workings of
newspapers, radio, television, and
press agencies in their dioceses.
Noting “certain recent scan-
dals” that had demanded public
statements from diocesan leaders, the
American archbishop said that bish-
ops should be prepared to make use
of the mass media to respond to ur-
gent inquiries and to spread their
own messages.
It is desirable to use the media
whenever possible to spread the
message of the Catholic Church,
Archbishop Foley said. “Unfortu-
nately, these opportunities are not
Card. Vidal: “Terrorism must not
strike ASEAN summit”
CEBU CITY, September 22, 2006—
The Archbishop of Cebu City, Car-
dinal Ricardo Vidal is praying that
the upcoming ASEAN meeting will
be a success and he has appealed to
“all those who may want to strike
leaders of Asian nations: stay away
from the meeting, which is taking
place here to achieve good.”
Speaking to AsiaNews, the car-
dinal said the upcoming meeting of
the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations Summit, due to be held in
Cebu from 11 to 14 December, could
be a “target for terrorists with
scruples. We must pray nothing hap-
pens.”
The 12th ASEAN gathering
brings together political and eco-
nomic leaders of Brunei, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Malay-
sia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam,
East Timor and the Philippines. Top-
ics on the agenda include poverty
vital in order that the diocesan com-
munity may be internally united and
progress in profound union of faith,
of love and of discipline with the
Bishop of Rome and with the entire
Church. ... Building ecclesial com-
munion,” he said, “must be your
daily duty.”
“Serenity in relationships, deli-
cacy in dealings with others and sim-
plicity of life are gifts that without
doubt enrich the human personality
of a bishop. ... The total giving of
self, which the care of the Lord’s
flock requires, needs the support of
an intense spiritual life nourished by
assiduous individual and community
prayer.”
The Holy Father called on the
bishops to ensure that their days be
characterized by “a constant contact
with God,” and explained how “liv-
ing in intimate union with Christ will
help you to strike that vital balance
between inner meditation and the
exertions required for the multiple
occupations of life, avoiding the
danger of excessive activism.”
“Following Christ, the Pastor
and Bishop of your souls,” he con-
cluded, “you will be encouraged to
tend tirelessly towards sanctity,
which is the fundamental aim of the
life of all Christians.” (VIS)
seized” often enough, he said. While
recognizing that at times the media
might act as adversaries, he re-
marked that bishops might never
have better opportunities to present
their messages to the public.
He cautioned the new bishops,
however, that they should be care-
ful never to say anything that they
would not want to see repeated in
the headlines. He also told the bish-
ops that if they are unsure about the
appropriate answer to a particular
question, they should not give an
answer that might later prove inac-
curate; he urged them to recognize
the tactical use of responding to a
question with a question of their
own.
Archbishop Foley said that di-
ocesan officials could do more work
to ensure media coverage of events
in the life of the Church. Ceremonies
such as confirmations, he said, of-
fered chances to explain the Church’s
rituals to the public, while the media
organs would be more likely to cover
events that involve local residents.
(CWNews)
reduction and
the war on ter-
rorism.
Cardinal
Vidal said:
“For the past
two weeks, a
special prayer
for the suc-
cess of the
ASEAN Sum-
mit has been said at the end of Mass
in Cebu churches. I urge police and
local officials to ensure adequate se-
curity measures for the delegates
and I ask my co-citizens to help so
that this summit may proceed with-
out hitches.
In the cardinal’s view, “the au-
thorities should work to make the
entire country secure so foreign del-
egates will feel confident they are
safe while attending the summit.”
(AsiaNews)
Pope Meets / from p1
sadors accredited to the Holy See
from countries with Muslim majori-
ties, and about 15 representatives
of Islamic groups active in Italy. In
an unusual break from common
practice, the Vatican furnished an
Arabic translation of the Pope’s
remarks. The Arabic television net-
work Al Jazeera provided live cov-
erage of the meeting.
The Pope said that he wanted
to express his “esteem and pro-
found respect” for Muslims, and
reminded the group that “from the
very beginning of my pontificate”
he had sought to continue the
policies of his predecessor, Pope
John Paul II, in making common
cause with Islamic leaders. He cited
his remarks to Muslim leaders in
Cologne last August, when he said
that cooperation between the two
faiths is “a vital necessity, on
which in large measure our future
depends.”
Gently introducing a main
theme of his lecture in
Regensburg, the Pontiff said that
this cooperation is necessary in
order to counteract the growing
power of secularism and relativ-
ism. Christians and Muslims, he
observed, can unite in many
causes, “especially those con-
cerning the defense and promo-
tion of the dignity of the human
Amid Criticism and Violence the First Balanced Views about
the Pope’s Speeach Appear
ROME, September 17, 2006– Former
Iranian President Mohammad
Khatami said the full text of the Pope
speech in Regensburg should be
read before making any comments
on its contents.
“I hope that the reports in this
regard are misinterpreted as such
remarks [as reported in the press] are
usually made by uninformed and fa-
natic people but my impression of
the pope was rather an educated and
patient man,” Khatami said after his
return to Tehran from a two-week
visit to the United States.
Khatami’s is the first balanced
statement to come out of the Mus-
lim world with regard to the Pope’s
remarks about statements made by
Manuel II Palaiologos, who said that
the “new things” brought by Islam
are only evil things.
Today during the Angelus,
Benedict XVI again insisted that the
Byzantine emperor’s words do not
reflect his views.
Cardinal Toppo: “Face Islamic Protests with Truth, Courage
and Prayer”
RANCHI, India, September 16,
2006—The president of the Catholic
Bishops’ Conference of India has
told AsiaN ews that the recent pro-
tests against the speech of Benedict
XVI in Regensburg are a great gift to
the Church, to be used at this his-
toric moment in time to launch seri-
ous and lasting inter-faith dialogue.
The Christian community in In-
dia must face Muslim protests
against the Pope’s address “with
Christian courage and prayer be-
cause truth needs no other defense”.
This was the thrust of a statement
given to AsiaNews by Cardinal
Telesphore Toppo, archbishop of
Ranchi and president of the Catho-
lic Bishops’ Conference of India.
We publish the text of the state-
ment in full: “These protests by our
Muslim brothers, which started yes-
terday after Friday prayers, are mis-
placed as the Pope has not com-
mented on Islam; he only quoted a
Byzantine emperor and another great
Persian scholar. I have read the text
of Benedict XVI, it is an eight-page
speech and what has sparked all this
person and of the rights arising from
that dignity.”
In pursuing their dialogue, the
Pope continued, Christian and Islamic
leaders should learn from “the lessons
of the past,” and recognize that it is
crucially important “to guard against
all forms of intolerance and to oppose
all manifestations of violence.”
The Pope concluded his remarks
by sending his greetings to the Mus-
lim world as the annual season of
Ramadan begins. The Pope’s address
received warm applause from the dip-
lomats who were present at
Pope Benedict XVI (L) addresses a meeting on Monday, 25 September 2006 at his
summer residence in Castelgandolfo. The pontiff met Muslim ambassadors and
Italian Islamic leaders on Monday in an unprecedented move to try to defuse anger
over his use of a medieval text which says their religion was spread by violence.
"Christians and Muslims must learn to work together ... in order to guard against all
forms of intolerance and to oppose all manifestations of violence," the 79-year-old
Pope said at the meeting in a frescoed hall of the papal summer palace.
As made clear in yesterday’s
press release by the Vatican Secre-
tary of State Cardinal Tarcisio
Bertone, the text of the Pope’s
proclusion (inaugural address)
shows that the Pontiff only wanted
to express his “rejection of the reli-
gious motivation for violence, from
whatever side it may come”.
So far reactions in the Muslim
world, which have ranged from out-
rage and criticism to violence, have
been based solely on media excerpts.
There are not as yet any translations
of the Pope’s speech into Arabic or
any Eastern languages.
Like Iran’s Khatami, Indonesian
President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono has also been more bal-
anced in his reaction. Speaking from
Havana (Cuba) where he is attending
a summit of non-aligned countries, he
said that “Indonesian Muslims
should have wisdom, patience, and
self-restraint to address this sensitive
issue. . . . We need them so that har-
is just one quotation extrapolated
from the context.
The crowds that have taken to
the streets of India are probably re-
acting to articles in local newspapers
about the speech of the pope, where
some of his phrases have been
quoted out of context.
This is also symbolic of the situ-
ation today: without even contextu-
ally situating the text, or dwelling on
its meaning, some people have taken
the quotation as a cue to take to the
streets in protests.
This is the time for all Christians
to be patient and pray for those who
do not understand. The situation
which comes at this point in time is
also a great gift for the church - for
us to engage in serious and lasting
dialogue with our brothers and sis-
ters of different faiths. A true culture
of tolerance is possible only in a dia-
logue of religious identities.
The Holy Father was quoting
from history and he was trying to
show us a way through faith and rea-
son in today’s terrorist ridden soci-
ety. These reactions are indicative
CBCP Monitor
Vol. 10 No. 12
September 25, 2006
Castelgandolfo. After finishing his
talk, the Pontiff made a point of
greeting each one of his guests
individually. The diplomats
present for the 30-minute audience
included envoys from Albania,
Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-
Herzegovina, Egypt, Kuwait, Indo-
nesia, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Jor-
dan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco,
Pakistan, Qatar, Senegal, Syria,
Tunisia, Turkey, and Yemen.Also
included were representatives of
the Arab League and the Islamic
Council of Italy. (CWNews)
Image: © OSSERVATORE ROMANO/epa/Corbis
mony among people is not at stake”.
Susilo, who presides over the
fate of the largest Muslim country in
the world, urged the Holy See to “be
very quick to respond this very sen-
sitive issue by issuing some correc-
tions and constructive gestures that
would decrease tension” between
Muslims and Christians.
In the meantime protests and
violence continue in some parts of
the Muslim world. Some 200 Iranian
clerics and seminary students gath-
ered on Sunday in Qom, 135
kilometres south of the capital
Tehran, to protest against what they
called anti-Islamic remarks by Pope
Benedict XVI. In protest against the
pope’s remarks, the country’s clergy
seminary centre said all seminaries
throughout the country would be
closed on Sunday.
In the West Bank two churches
suffered damages when stones and
Molotov cocktails were thrown at
them. (AsiaNews)
of what the Pope was trying to em-
phasize—only reason and enlight-
enment through faith bring about
mutual respect and peace.
I am not saddened by these pro-
tests: we have to face them with
Christian courage and prayer be-
cause truth needs no defense.
The teachings of any religions
preach justice, peace and brother-
hood. These elements bring about
unity in humankind, if applied and a
qualitative change in people’s lives.
Truth, beauty and unity reside
in the heart of man who seeks and
professes authentic religion.
Benedict XVI was making a very
clear emphasis, that violence is not
compatible with the nature of God.
Violence and killing is contrary to the
nature of the Divine. He was very
clear that God is love and love en-
sures and brings forth life. God is
life-giving. That is the fundamental
reason why such a respected and
highly-acclaimed theologian like the
pope gave such a clear message in
his first encyclical - Deus Caritas
Est. (AsiaNews)
 CBCP Monitor
Vol. 10 No. 12
September 25, 2006
PANLIPI, a non-government
organization that offers free
legal assistance to indigenous
peoples (IP) is a foremost ad-
vocate in IP development
since 1987. The organization
has a pool of committed law-
yers and professionals who
go to different indigenous
communities all over the coun-
try to assist the IP in various
capacities. This includes para-
legal training, orientations and
skills training, according to
PANLIPI Executive Director
Atty. Vicenta De Guzman.
“It depends on what the
people need,” De Guzman ex-
plains. “For example, in
Quezon we gave project man-
agement skills, because they
have been given a project by
the Embassy of Finland,
which they have to manage on
their own. In Gabaldon, we
gave them accounting semi-
nar because they did not
know how to count.”
Since it started, PANLIPI
has collaborated with CBCP
Episcopal Commission on In-
digenous Peoples (ECIP) and
News Feature 3
overriding goal of ECIP for
indigenous communities is for
them to reach self-determina-
tion. In an earlier issue of
ECIP’s newsletter Tribal Fo-
rum Utleg cited the following
pre-requisites as essential for
IP’s to reach self-determina-
tion. He emphasized, that as
human beings, IP’s should
have dignity based on justice,
peace and love. He also men-
tioned the right of indigenous
communities to take posses-
sion of their ancestral domains
and to be united with one an-
other and live in peace. The
IP’s have also the right to pro-
claim freely their faith within
the context of their own cul-
ture, and to possess the ca-
pacity to resist anything that
delineates them into becom-
ing a community that is pro-
people and pro-God.
Utleg reiterated the same
message in his opening re-
marks during the seminar-
workshop held in Baguio say-
ing that the IP’s have the right
to make decisions for them-
selves just as much as other

ECIP and PANLIPI

other Church organizations in peoples. The Commission,
organizing the indigenous Utleg clarifies; is there only to
communities and educating help and guide, but decisions
them on their rights. Their on- on how to run their lives de-

Partnership Advancing the

going seminars have facili- pend on the IP themselves.
tated interaction among indig- Important concerns that
enous groups and have were discussed during the

Cause of Indigenous Peoples

helped IP’s to become aware
not only of their personal
struggles but of others as
well. As De Guzman testifies,
the IP’s have graduated from
being mere participants to be-
coming facilitators. “They are
the ones facilitating their com-
munity seminars now,” says
de Guzman.
The recent seminar-work-
shop for IP’s which PANLIPI
organized in Baguio City last
September 15-18 hoped to
strengthen strategic action for
peace and development in IP
communities and to
conscienticize them on their
rights as well. The three-day
meeting was held in collabo-
ration with ECIP and other
non-government organiza-
tions.
ECIP chairman, Bishop
Sergio Utleg, said that the
meeting included the issues of
human rights which involved
encroachment on ancestral
lands which led to displace-
ment and devastation of en-
vironment, delineation of an-
cestral domains, and militari-
zation in certain areas. Partici-
pants were given inputs and
workshops on affidavit mak-
ing and networking that
would equip them with nec-
essary skills to help them deal
effectively with issues con-
cerning human rights.
According to De
Guzman, the current legal is-
sues they are working on in-
volves land encroachment
(taking of land forcibly from
IPs) and development aggres-
sion (companies getting in
without free and prior in-
formed consent or forcing the
IP to sign contracts onerous
By Pinky Barrientos, FSP
to them).
The enactment of the In-
digenous Peoples Rights Act
(IPRA) into law in 1997 was
seen as a solution to the prob-
lem of land grabbing and other
human rights violations per-
petrated against the indig-
enous people. IPRA, in fact,
has opened a lot of avenues
for IP to become more asser-
tive in pushing their rights to
achieve self-determination,
and to reclaim the ancestral
lands that have been handed
to them by their forefathers.
De Guzman believes that
the passing of the IPRA law
has improved the lives of IP
in general because of the con-
sciousness it has generated
both among IPs and non IPs
as well.
De Guzman noted that
IP’s became more confident in
asserting their rights after
IPRA. She cited as example re-
searchers who usually come
to the communities to conduct
studies. “Before IPRA, they
(IP) didn’t know that research
can also be controlled by
them. After IPRA, after know-
ing that within the free and
prior informed consent (FPIC),
that, it includes the researches
that are being done in their
communities, they themselves
demand from the researcher—
first secure our FPIC, tell
us what the research is all
about.”
Without FPIC from indig-
enous communities, any ac-
tivity on ancestral lands in the
name of development cannot
prosper.
Nevertheless, ten years
after IPRA, the issues hound-
ing the indigenous peoples
have remained the same.
Development aggressors
continue to create havoc in the
environment and destroy the
rhythm and harmony of the
land in the name of develop-
ment. Development aggression
consequently led to the dis-
placement of many indigenous
communities from their ances-
tral lands. Although the IPRA
law contains articles that
would protect ancestral do-
mains of indigenous commu-
nities from development ag-
gression, there is still so much
to be done in terms of fully
implementing all its provisions.

CEAP Marks / from p1

The Jubilee celebration and
national convention adopted the
theme, “Facets of Learning, Faces
of Love.” Explaining about the
theme, CEAP national executive di-
rector Mariano Piamonte said,
“Since we are celebrating our 65th
year or already a Diamond Jubilee
itself, we have adopted this theme.
Facets of Learning because the
main work of our schools is really
to educate, to form the individual
not only academically but integrally
according to all aspects of learn-
ing. You see, there are other aspects
(of learning) that the individual
needs to harness in order to sur-
vive in this very complicated world.
And, Facets of Love because edu-
cators face their students and in
each face one can really see the face
of love, or the reflection of Jesus,
as each one of us is created unto
the likeness of God.”
With some 2,200 delegates
from the various Catholic schools
nationwide who trooped to this
year’s CEAP national gathering,
Piamonte said that the event was
“so far the biggest CEAP national
convention ever” in terms of at-
tendance.
The 3-day event kicked off last
September 13 with a solemn Mass
at the Manila Cathedral presided
by Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Car-
dinal Rosales, and was followed with
the convention’s opening ceremonies
at the Manila Hotel. Dr. Onofre R.
Pagsanghan, a multi-awarded educa-
tor from Ateneo de Manila University,
delivered the keynote address.
The second day, September 14,
was started with a Mass at 7:30 AM
which was presided by CBCP Presi-
dent Archbishop Angel N. Lagdameo.
Highlighting the activities throughout
the day were the paper presentations
and sharing of experiences by desig-
nated Catholic schools on the work-
ing theme or topic, “How Catholic Is
Your School?” This was followed
shortly with concurrent sessions and
workshops by CEAP’s various edu-
cational committees or groups, namely:
(1) Higher Education group; (2) Basic
Education institutions; (3) Secondary
School academic administrators; (4)
Pre-Elementary and Elementary
School administrators; (5) Religious
Education/Catechetical Program coor-
dinators, Campus Ministers, NSTP co-
ordinators, Community and Extension
Services coordinators, StudentActivi-
ties coordinators, Guidance Counse-
lors, Student Organization moderators;
(7) Human Resource Development of-
ficers, Personnel Directors, Faculty
and Employees Association presi-
dents or representatives.
Department of Education
(DepEd) Secretary Jesli Lapus, who
talked on “New Directions in Basic
Education,” was the guest speaker
during the event’s closing ceremonies
on the third day, September 15.
The 3-day national convention
and Diamond Jubilee celebration
was capped by a solemn mass pre-
sided by the apostolic nuncio to the
Philippines, Most Rev. Fernando
Filoni.
For CEAP, according to
Piamonte, the grand event aptly called
for “both rejoicing and reckoning”,
one reason which made the affair strik-
ingly different from CEAP’s past con-
ventions. “In terms of human age, we
are supposed to be of retirement age.
But to an organization like us, 65 is
already an age of maturity. So we re-
joice at the reality that we have reached
the majority age despite our many
problems. But at the same time we have
to look back what we have done in the
last 65 years as educators. We cel-
ebrate our successes, but we also re-
pent on our mistakes and on things
that we failed to do. And at the same
time, we recommit ourselves to renew,
to become better educators so that we
can really contribute more to national
development and the formation of the
youth,” Piamonte explained.
Piamonte added that Catholic
education in the Philippines, while yet
touted as a “shining force to reckon
with” by far, however has not been
impervious to some current strains or
challenges like the problem of viabil-
ity or sustainability of Catholic schools
due to unabated enrollment decline,
student exodus from private to public
schools, socio-economic constraints,
and others. “Yes, it cannot be denied,
there are many challenges that we are
facing. For example, the survival issue.
We are facing a lot of competition vis-
à-vis the public schools which charge
practically no fees. They are heavily
subsidized by the government, so they
don’t have problems with survival. But
we in the private school, we don’t re-
ceive any direct assistance from the
government, unlike in other countries,
although we are playing a complemen-
tary role with the government in the
education of the youth. Then also, we
have the issue of continu-
ing decline of quality edu-
cation both in public and
private schools. Of course,
one reason is limited finan-
cial resources in both pub-
lic and private schools.
The second reason is the
migration of our teachers
to better paying jobs
abroad.”
CEAP is the national
association of Catholic educational
institutions in the country operat-
ing through its regional divisions
in the 15 regions nationwide and
with a current total enrollment popu-
lation of about 1 million students
throughout the Philippines. As a
national association, it represents
the interest of Catholic educational
institutions in national and inter-
national fora, fosters unity of ac-
tion with other organizations in
educational matters, and assists its
members, particularly those in mis-
sion areas, to achieve common and
specific aims. Commissioned by
the Church to advance the teach-
ing function of the Catholic
Church, CEAP promotes religious
instruction as an essential element
of Catholic education geared to-
wards character formation and citi-
zenship building.
 CBCP Monitor
4 News Vol. 10 No. 12
September 25, 2006

ECPPC to Observe World Day Against Death Penalty
The Coalition against Death Penalty
(CADP) together with the CBCP-Episco-
pal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care
(ECPPC), will hold a General Assembly on
October 10, 2006 in observance of the
World Day against Death Penalty.
The theme is “Healing and Restoring
Hope and Dignity to the Community.” The
group will have a discussion on the issue
of criminal justice reform to be sustained
and their campaign for restorative justice.
“While we welcome the abolition of
death penalty in our statutes, we still need
to work for restorative interventions in
addressing the problem of criminality,”
said by Mr. Rudy Diamante, executive
secretary of CBCP-ECPPC on his letter of
invitation for this gathering.
The group invites parishes, organi-
Migration / from p1
bly seen that more women are
forced to leave their homes and
zations, groups, and agency’s participa- assume their role of major bread-
tion in the gathering of the anti-death
winner. Their job opportunities are
penalty and restorative justice advocacy. mostly confined to domestic work,
Restorative justice is a value-based
caring for the sick and elderly, as
approach to criminal justice with a bal- well as in the entertainment indus-
anced focus on offender, victim and com-
try.
munity. The foundation of this is to de- But Lagdameo said that Fili-
termine the harm resulting from crime,
pino migrants could be a “provi-
what needs to be done to repair the harm dential coincidence” for the Catho-
and who is responsible for repairing the
lic Church whose missionary
harm. priests and religious sisters in mis-
Mr. Diamante will introduce the Re-
sion to evangelize “have started to
storative Justice on their general assem- dwindle.”
bly, while Restorative Justice and Peace:
The Pontifical Council for the
The Kalinga Experience will be discussed Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itin-
by Professor Mary Constancy Barrameda,
erant People, in its exhortation,
a retired UP Anthropology Professor and Erga Migrantes Caritas Christi,
Resident Researcher St. Louis College,
states that “migrants as builders of
Kalinga. (Maria Lourdes Ebilane) universal fraternity can assist the
Church in fulfilling her community
identity and missionary vocation”.

CBCP Spokesman / from p1
Quitorio urged the faithful of
whatever religious sentiments to
read fully the Pope’s statement that
can be accessed thru
www.vatican.va.
Reading the address in the full
context will greatly help in under-
standing objectively the message of
Pope Benedict XVI, he said.
Vatican senior officials were dis-
cussing over the weekend on ways
to respond to a worldwide surge of
protests among Muslims, who de-
clared their anger over the Pope’s
lecture.
“It may be good to note that
upon seriously reading said lecture,
Weak / from p1
version program” that involves
their families, communities, and lo-
cal barangay officials; detention be-
comes a last resort.
one realizes that it was not the inten-
tion of the Holy Father to undertake
a comprehensive study of the jihad
and of Muslim ideas on the sub-
ject—much less to offend the sensi-
bilities of the Muslim brothers and
sisters,” said Quitorio.
On the contrary, he said, the
Pope warns especially the Western
culture to avoid “the contempt for
God and the cynicism that consid-
ers mockery of the sacred to be an
exercise of freedom.”
“A just consideration of the re-
ligious dimension is, in fact, an es-
sential premise for a fruitful dialogue
with the great cultures of the world,”
he explained.
The Pope, Quitorio
added, even cited a Mus-
lim scripture passage
(surah 2,256), that says,
“There is no compulsion
in religion.”
“And propounded the
truth advanced by
Mohammed that mere force
cannot make man have
faith. It is not enough that
man only see the rational-
ity of the faith; he should
also feely accept it. Violence
or force has no place in the
interaction between God
and man,” the spokesman
pointed out.
“What is clear then is
the Holy Father’s desire to
cultivate an attitude of re-
spect and dialogue to-
wards other religions and
cultures, including, of
course, Islam,” he added.
(CBCP News)
law has to be amended so that
things that have been contradictory
can in a way be harmonized.”
RA 9344 also mandates the court
CBCP / from p1
either through a constituent as-
sembly or the administration-
backed people’s initiative, even if
it will cost the government more.
The bishops admitted holding
a Con-con is a “very expensive pro-
cess” but said it doesn’t matter as
long as it is for the common good.
“We maybe spending or los-
ing much much more than that
through government overspending
and cheating and graft and corrup-
tion, which are very difficult to as-
sess and account,” their statement
said.
But the bishops said that since
the process is costly, “it is worth
spending in an honest way.”
The statement signed by
CBCP president Archbishop Angel
Lagdameo was made after the regu-
lar meeting of the CBCP Permanent
Council held September 13.
Caravan / from p1
The group said killings of activ-
ists and journalists continue with
impunity and cried foul that ordinary
citizens are being forced to obtain
cedulas as a means of identification.
They also lamented the curfew
hours enforced in certain areas, and
detachments besides schools, inside
barangay halls and beside Churches.
“In its wake civilians have been
caught in the middle. Ordinary people’s
lives are disrupted and they now live
The prelates stressed that
Charter change (Cha-cha) is a “se-
rious matter” that requires broad
consultation, adequate informa-
tion, discussion and education.
“That is why we disagree with
the so-called ‘people’s initiative’
which appeared only as a ‘signa-
ture campaign’ without focus on the
real intention,” the bishops said.
“The CBCP subscribes to the
allegation that the ‘people’s initia-
tive’ is an initiative of the ruling
power, and not genuinely of the
people. From the moral standpoint,
it is clothed with suspicion.”
The bishops have been calling
on the government and the Cha-cha
proponents to address first the con-
fusing issues behind the Cha-cha,
and to proceed with rationality and
total transparency concerning the
exercise. (CBCP News)
in fear,” AMRSP said. “Violence and
the rule of the gun now prevail.”
The AMRSP has more than 360
congregations including the Domini-
cans, Jesuits, Benedictines,
Augustinians, Lasallian Brothers
and Franciscans.
The group played a crucial role
during the Martial Law years mak-
ing available its seminaries and con-
vents to provide refuge to victims of
human rights. (CBCP News)
© www.bayan.ph
Modern Missionaries
The CBCP head said it’s about
time to look at the global migration
of Filipinos in a “positive aspect.”
It was reported during the
meeting that the “diasporic com-
munity” of Filipino migrants are in
193 countries out of the 224 UN-
registered countries in the world.
“I could not believe, but the
phenomenon is true that Filipino
OFWs or migrants compose 10 per-
cent or 8 million out of a total 80
million,” said Lagdameo.
There are about 85,000 Filipi-
nos who migrate yearly to the
United States in addition to the
around four million who are already
there with documents.
“Two million Filipinos have al-
ready made the Middle East their
home. Would you believe that 30
percent of the entire population of
Malaysia, that is 900,000, are Filipi-
nos?” Lagdameo stressed.
Of the 140,000 Filipino migrants
in Hong Kong, he said, a majority
are Filipina domestic helpers.
In Italy, only one half of the
more than 1 million Filipinos are
listed; the same is said of the one
million in Japan, he added.
“These few examples are only
a portion of the migrant Filipinos we
find present from America to Asia,
from Africa to Oceana, from Russia
to Australia and also from Jordan
to Saipan,” he said.
If our Catholic migrants can
evangelize through their work,
words, and actions, the opportunity
for Church growth in Asia is bound-
less. The bishop called these work-
ers “modern missionaries.”
In the visit of Pope John Paul II
to the Philippines in 1995 during the
10 th World Youth Day, he told the
bishops: “In the Lord’s name I en-
courage you to respond to the spe-
cial grace of your vocation to carry
the gospel beyond the shores of
this beautiful archipelago to the

But ECPPC Executive Secre-
tary Rodolfo Diamante said the law
has a lot of gaps that still needs to
be filled
He said it is vague how the au-
thorities will institutionalize the re-
storative justice and how it is go-
ing to work. “It is not clear.”
“The diversion aspect that has
been pointed out is weak and lim-
ited. The aim for this is to work out-
side the court proceedings and it is
not clear how it will work,” he said.
He also lamented the moving
from one institution to the other in
the determination of a particular
case saying that there are lots of
conflicting procedures.
“That’s why it cannot be cor-
rected by the implementing rules
and regulations because the law it-
self is defective. So there are gaps
that have to be filled up,” he said.
“It needs legislation and it has
to go back to Congress again. The
to automatically suspend the sen-
tence on a youth offender who has
been found guilty. Once the offender
reaches 18, the court will determine
whether to discharge or order execu-
tion of suspension of the sentence
until the same reaches the age of 21.
Diamante said they are already
coordinating closely with the Juve-
nile Justice and Welfare Council,
chaired by the Department of the
Social Welfare and Development
(DSWD), to make sure the law will
be implemented to its fullest.
He said a discussion on the is-
sue with other groups is ongoing
and part of the plan is to look for a
congressman in the next congress,
if ever, who will initiate to amend
the said law.
They will pursue the PAYO bill
that has a restorative justice para-
digm which according to Diamante
was set aside by the House in its
deliberation. (Miami Ebilane)
Archbishop Reaffirms / from p1
Aetate, has acknowledged her deep
respect for Islam and the Muslims
for they worship God, who is one,
living and subsistent, merciful and
almighty, the Creator of heaven and
earth, who also spoke to humanity
through the prophets,” he said.
“In this regard we hold with
great respect your prophet
Muhammad who received the
Qur’an on the ‘Night of Power.’”
According to Ledesma, the
Qur’an says: “The month of
Ramadan is that in which the Qur’an
was sent down, as a guide to hu-
mankind and a self-evident proof of
that guidance and criterion to dis-
tinguish between right and wrong
judgment. So whoever of you is
present in the month should spend
it in fasting.”
In other words, he said, it’s the
Qur’an that has provided the Mus-
lim ummah its religious depth and
its moral principles on how to be-
lieve and act as Muslims.
other peoples of this vast conti-
nent… Asia needs your help if it is
to hear the Good News of Christ cru-
cified and risen.”
Social Concern
The Philippine government has
made labor migration significant part
of its economic policy and has tar-
geted one million overseas jobs
yearly.
But the Filipino Chaplains and
Pastoral Workers ministering to the
different migrant Filipino communi-
ties around the world called on the
government to also address the real
causes that lead to migration.
This phenomenon, according to
Lagdameo, is not without problems
both for the migrants and the fami-
lies they temporarily left behind.
“They become part of our social con-
cern.” (Roy Lagarde)
 CBCP Monitor
Vol. 10 No. 12
September 25, 2006
I HAVE not made any public comment
on the Pope’s lecture on Faith and Rea-
son at the University of Regensburg,
except to my own Clergy and Reli-
gious. I have read the Pope’s lecture
twice—very closely. I have analyzed
its tone, its premise, its main issue, the
way it is developed, its conclusions. It
is closely reasoned. It was given to
scholars in an academic setting.
As a former academic, frankly I
am completely shocked and bewil-
dered by the vehement reaction to
the Pope’s lecture from various quar-
ters of the Muslim world. TV has
shown effigies of Benedict XVI be-
ing burned as an enemy of Islam.
Churches in several countries have
been attacked. The murder of a reli-
gious Sister in Somalia has been
speculated on as a possible retalia-
tion. I even surmised that the vio-
lent reactions could unfortunately
confirm the wrong belief of many
non-Islam people that Islam may, in-
deed, be a religion of violence. If this
were so, it would be a great pity.
But most certainly Pope
Benedict XVI is definitely not anti-
Muslim. This I declare unequivocally
7 Questions for
Abp. Carmelo D.F.
Morelos
You’ve been archbishop of
Zamboanga since 1994. What’s
the archdiocesan pastoral vision
of Zamboanga?
The vision is the formation
of the community of disciples of
Jesus Christ, which necessarily
includes working for justice and
the integrity of God’s creation.
It was reported recently that one
of your priests is running as a
political candidate for Mayor for
the city of Zamboanga in the next
local elections. How are your
priests in the archdiocese and
your program of priestly forma-
tion?
Oh, well, regarding Fr. Chris’
alleged candidacy for Zamboanga
City’s mayoralty election, that’s
what people there have been say-
ing. But, as a matter of fact, Fr.
Chris himself has not said that he
will run. What’s actually happen-
ing is that the local opposition
party, who seemingly does not
have any credible candidate for
the next elections, has since been
trying to entice him to run. With
regards to our program of priestly
formation, we do have a College
Seminary. Right now, we have
about 32 students. We are rather
strict now in our screening of semi-
narians. There were about some
35 or so who applied last time, but
we accepted only 7. We have to
consider in our evaluation, among
others, the family background
and the intellectual qualification
of prospective seminarians.
How do you address such issue
or problem of wayward priests?
Well, first and foremost, you
have to talk to them. It’s much
better to dialogue with them
about some problems and find out
what could be the causes of such
problems. I think charity is better
than simply threatening them with
Feature
Pope Benedict XVI and the
Clash of Faith and Reason
By Orlando B. Quevedo, OMI, DD
from personal knowledge. I have the great religious traditions had a
talked with him several times when lot to do with the deeply rooted cul-
he was yet a Cardinal. I have referred tural traditions of various peoples.
issues of inter-religious dialogue to That is why I was not surprised
him. He was the closest and most when he placed the Pontifical Com-
trusted theological adviser of Pope mission on Inter-Religious Dialogue
John Paul II. I personally know that under the Vatican office on Culture—
he shared the vision of the late Pope a move that was misinterpreted by
John Paul II with regard to inter-reli- some critics as a downgrading of the
gious dialogue. process of dialogue. I am sure that
I know that he has the greatest he thought of the move as enriching
respect for peoples of different reli- the process and emphasizing the role
gions, particularly of Islam. Together of culture in inter-religious dialogue.
with the Pontifical Commission on One can see his emphasis on cul-
Inter-Religious Dialogue, he collabo- tural religious values on his insis-
rated with the late Pope on the many tence that Europe recognize this in
significant papal documents and its Constitution. One can likewise see
events that had significantly pro- this point clearly in his lecture at the
moted respectful dialogue with Is- University of Regensburg.
lam. He thought that dialogue with Further, he continues to regard
Undisputedly as a highly respected fig-
ure in the Philippine Church’s hierarchy,
Zamboanga Archbishop Carmelo D. F.
Morelos is the most senior in terms of ordi-
nation to the espiscopate among the current
95 active members—archbishops, bishops,
and vicars apostolic—of the Catholic Bish-
ops Conference of the Philippines. Ordained
to the episcopate in 1967, Archbishop
Morelos erstwhile served as CBCP President
in 1991-1995, and currently chairs the CBCP’s
Committee on International Eucharistic Con-
gresses. At the last CBCP Plenary Assembly
in Paco, Manila, Archbishop Morelos talked
to CBCP Monitor about Zamboanga’s
archdiocesan pastoral vision and social con-
cern programs, the problem of abortion, the
issue of wayward priests, and his perception
about the secular media.
suspension or other outright admin- That is really worrisome. But
istrative sanctions. still, we can trace it to the massive
problem of poverty enveloping our
How do you view the CBCP’s decla- populace. Poor people are afraid to
ration of social concerns year and bring a child into this world, wor-
how is it being implemented in your ried about not being able to pro-
archdiocese? vide the necessities for the upbring-
Of course, it’s indeed timely and ing of the child. But, the faithful
commendable. We know for a fact should be relentlessly educated
that Pope Benedict XVI, in his first that abortion is indeed not only a
encyclical Deus Caritas Est, already criminal act but also grievous sin.
exhorted how love should be ex-
pressed especially to our less fortu- What’s your view about the secu-
nate and impoverished populace. For lar media – particularly the way
Zamboanga Archdiocese, we have they report about the workings
in place a good number of social con- or dynamics in the Church?
cern programs like, among others, an I think, there are problems
active advocacy about mining, pro- about that. Very often, they (secu-
grams for abused women and for lar media) focus on what is sensa-
street children, and livelihood pro- tional and also there is little regard
grams, like micro-financing assis- for truth. At one time, for instance,
tance extended to the poor. We also one national daily published a
have our continued implementation, headline report saying that “the
promotion, and development of our priests of Zamboanga are gun-tot-
Basic Ecclesial Communities or ing”. But, on the contrary, the truth
BECs. was that one of our priests was
simply seen with his pocket-size
What about, say, ‘morally’ engaging pager inconspicuously tucked,
in politics—is this part of your so- but yet bulging, to his hip. That
cial concern agenda or programs? was simply it. I then sent disclaimer
Oh, inevitably, yes. In fact, in letters to all the papers. But, sur-
the past and until now, we have al- prisingly, the national daily which
ways been very active in support- published said misleading news
ing the PPCRV (Parish Pastoral Coun- did not, in fairness at least, even
cil for Responsible Voting) with our publish my disclaimer. So, you see,
Voter’s Education Program, which we it’s not quite fair. The secular me-
do before and during the elections. dia sometimes see or report things
We were able to recruit many volun- out of context. But, this does not
teers for that. I think, the last time we mean that currently we don’t have
evaluated our work we found out a good relationship with the local
that we were indeed doing well ex- media in our place. Truth to tell,
cept that we thought that such pro- indeed we have now a kind of fair
gram should be a continuing work, or good relationship with the lo-
instead of just waiting whenever cal media. In fact, we have one of
there is a local or national election in our priests assigned as the
the country. archdiocesan spokesman who is
currently dealing with them. On
According to official statistics and our part, we have one local radio
media reports, abortion cases in the station, Radyo Verdadero, owned
country have reportedly increased by the archdiocese, where we ef-
to some staggering levels. What’s fectively carry out our pastoral
your take on this? and evangelization efforts.
the continuing war in Iraq
with great disapproval. In
his own academic style he
severely and negatively
judged the anti-Islam car-
toons in Denmark. In doc-
trine and in practice, he cer-
tainly holds great respect
for Islam and its believers.
With his great predecessor,
Pope John Paul II, he holds
in common the conviction
that violence is not to be
justified in the name of religion,
Christian or otherwise. The tragic
blunders of religious belief in this
regard have littered history with
thousands of corpses.
The one fault the Pope could
have had at the University of
Regensburg is his “political” simplic-
ity. Some might call it “naiveté.” Cer-
tainly I see him as a simple person
without any worldly political sophis-
tication, a scholar “without guile”.
Perhaps he believed that everyone
would understand his use of a medi-
eval text in its proper context—as a
simple starting point for a wide-rang-
ing scholarly discussion on the need
for the West to restore faith and reli-
gious values into its secular mental-
Muslims in Pakistan:
“We respect pope; his speech was used”
When interviewed, Muslim clerics and
scholars accused the media and “forces
against peace” of using the pope’s words
to sow seeds of hatred among Christians
and Muslims. There were calls to dia-
logue and great appreciation for the ex-
planation of Benedict XVI and his meet-
ing with Muslim ambassadors.
Lahore, Pakistan (AsiaNews)—The
pope’s words in Regensburg were
“misunderstood by the media and
forces that are against peace,” who
“interpreted them in a mistaken man-
ner on the basis of their personal de-
sires”. But Benedict XVI is a personal-
ity “respected by all Islam”, as revealed
in his “meeting with Muslim ambassa-
dors, which was a step towards dia-
logue that should be continued and
taken ahead without any more useless
controversies.”
This was the outcome of a survey
conducted by Fr Francis Nadeeem in
Pakistan. The Capuchin priest is coor-
dinator of the National Council for In-
terfaith Dialogue of Pakistan, who in-
terviewed Muslim scholars and clergy-
men about the controversy surround-
ing the pope’s speech in Regensburg
and the protests that followed.
Maulana Malik Javaid Akbar Saqi,
President of Tehreek-e-Wahdat-e-
Islami [a group of Muslim activists of
Kashmir], said: “Pope Benedict XVI
clearly stated that in the ‘accused’ part
of his address, he quoted the views of
a historian and not his own. We might
have accepted his explanation. Islam
and Christianity teach us about of
peace and tolerance. Both the religions
are in a very close relation with each
other and due to this binding relation
we can work for the betterment of the
world. I understand some forces are try-
ing to create a conflict between these
two religions and these people are in-
terpreting what happened in quite a
contrary way. It doesn’t suit us to ex-
press our retaliation in such a destruc-
tive manner. In his meeting with the am-
bassadors of the Muslim countries,
Benedict XVI presented the teachings
of Christianity in its true spirit and im-
parted the lesson of peace love and
peace among the people of the world.”
5
ity. Such restoration has to be done,
he says, if the West were to success-
fully enter into dialogue with the
great cultural religious traditions of
peoples. Here I suppose he would
include such traditions as Islam,
Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, etc.
We now know, of course, from
his message of September 16, that
was covered live by Al-Jazeera that
he does not endorse the medieval
text. In fact, we are told that the Ger-
man word that he used in his lecture
to describe the statement of the Byz-
antine Emperor really means “crude.”
I pray that things will settle
down quickly with the apology so
humbly expressed by this simple yet
learned religious leader.
MuhammadNawazNooraniAL-Qadri,
a Muslim cleric, “this matter has been
propagated to the extreme. The media
have tried to develop chaos in the world,
especially between Islam and Christian-
ity. The Pope has taken a glorious step
by conducting a meeting with the am-
bassadors of Muslim countries. This is
his greatness. We respect the Pope and
will continue to do so.”
Abul Faheem, Pir Muhammad
Ibrahim , President of the Ulema-o-
Mashaikh [Pakistan Muslim League]
emphasized that the quotation by the
Pope “was taken from a 13th century
text, and pronounced during his
speech on faith. A few people tried to
hide the fact that there is all there was
to it: a quotation that is not in line with
his personal vision.”
Sahibzada Allama Muhammad Yar
Zahoori, vice-chairman of the World
Islamic Council: “Whatever hap-
pened, Pope Benedict XVI clarified and
immediately conducted a dialogue
with Muslim ambassadors. This is
highly remarkable. He has played a sig-
nificant role and the meeting of the
Muslim ambassadors shows their sat-
isfaction, confidence and trust towards
the role of the Pope.”
Allama Mushtaq Hussain Jafri,
chairman of the World Peace and
Unity Council, said “it is the need of
the hour that religions of the world
sit together and work for the promo-
tion of peace and religious harmony.
We should respect each other. We
respect Jesus Christ and based on
this, we should develop positive
openings among us.”
Allama ZubairAhmed Zaheer, President
of Markazi Jamaat Ahl-e-Hadis, Paki-
Muslim / P8

6 Opinion
Editorial
Pity the Nurses
The Philippines has been nominated by the Chicago-
based National Commission for State Boards of
Nursing in the US (NCSBN) as a testing center for
the National Council Licensure Examination
(NCLEX) like it is presently being done in Japan,
Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia.
The NCLEX is an entry level examination for nurses
who wish to practice in the United States.
But that nomination, which was seen as an advantage
by aspiring Filipino nurses, was deferred indefinitely
of late due to the leakage controversy that soiled
the nursing board exams this year.
Perhaps, in reaction to this—and more likely so—
Malacañang has directed an invalidation of the
year’s nursing board exams and a retake even for
the majority of those who were not involved in the
leakage scam. Expectedly, this will assure the
international community, or at least those which are
importing nurses, of quality control in Filipino labor
exports. Rightly or wrongly, this logic of this
Administration is quite consistent with the packaging
of “supermaids” from “superregions”. And this,
amid the flurry of protests by the nurses themselves
who clamor about fairness and their parents who
suffer the financial brunt.
But coming to senses, the international community
who admired Filipino nurses for some decades now
has not cast doubts on the quality of Filipino
Nurses—they are considered the best in the world!
What the world doubts is the capability of the
Philippines to give honest exams and administer
elections. Without even mentioning, of course, the
capability or the lack of it to execute an honest
governance.
In Praise of the Pope
Time Magazine of September 25 has essayed that
“The Pontiff Has a Point”. And rightly so because
how can anybody lecture on the relationship between
faith, reason and violence better than Pope Benedict
XVI did at the University of Regensburg?
Some reactions have been unreasonable and grossly
violent. But why give in to unreason and cower in
fear of outbursts of violence? This 21 st century is
time long enough to get civil at the least and to realize
that religion should not be any motive to justify
violence at the most.
The book of Isaiah details about the Suffering
Servant of Yahweh who assumes the violence of
the world without uttering a shrill of protest. Pope
Benedict XVI is along that path—and so was his
Master.
ISSN 1908-2940
CBCP Monitor
P r o ta g o n i s t of T ruth, Promoter of
Pedro C. Quitorio Pinky Barrientos, FSP
Editor-in-Chief Production Manager
Baltazar R. Acebedo
Marcelo T. Dalanon
Managing Editor
Circulation Manager
Dennis B. Dayao Ma. Lourdes G. Ebilane
On-Line Editor Marketing Supervisor
Roy Q. Lagarde Leah Cariaso
News Editor Comptroller
The CBCP Monitor is published fortnightly by the CBCP
Communications Development Foundation, Inc., with
editorial and business offices at 470 Gen. Luna St.,
Intramuros, Manila. P.O. Box 3601, 1076 MCPO. Edito-
rial: (063) 404-2182. Business: (063)404-1612.
Email: cbcpmonitor@cbcpworld.net Website:
www.cbcpworld.net/cbcpmonitor
Abp. Angel N. Lagdameo, DD
In and Out of Season
STRENGTHENING and innovating our
Philippine institutions are a matter of re-
newing and transforming our Filipino
communities and society. All institu-
tions, governments as well as churches
suffer from problems, crises and decline
of some sorts. The scientist, Albert
Einstein said: “The significant problems
we face today cannot be solved at the
same level of thinking we were at when
we created them.” We will not solve our
problems by insisting on doing the
things we have been doing before, just
because “that is the way we have been
doing the things here.” We cannot
change systems of government without
first undergoing change in ourselves.
As it has been well said: “If you are part
of the problem, you are part of the solu-
tion.”
We do not wait for the future to come
upon us. Rather we create the future and
bring it to our present. We should not be
Unless the Eye Can
See . . . ?
FRANCE celebrates this year the more
than sixty years of Le Petit Prince, that
lovable story written by Antoine de Saint-
Exupéry, translated by now into many
languages.
Naturally, the Italian version, Il Pic-
colo Principe, was an irresistible find
during one casual foray in an Italian shop
at Roma Termini two months ago. There,
Peace I tried to look for that particular passage
in the book where the Little Prince was
regaling the pilot with his “mouth of
babes” wisdom telling him, what is es-
sential is invisible to the eye. Scanning
with much effort but entirely lost in the
Italian version, I decided to buy the little
white paperback anyway, thus complet-
ing the “must get” list scribbled earlier in
Manila. I slipped it into my trolley and
forgot about it. Until mid-September in a
Congressional hearing, of all places, back
in the Philippines.
Congressman Rene Velarde was in-
troducing a measure that proposes to ban
Layout by Blue Flame
all artificial contraceptive preparations
and devices because they harm the newly
conceived human life starting its journey
of seven days or so towards the mother’s
womb. Short of the medical jargon, these
substances like the 28-day pill, Depo
Strengthening and Innovating
Philippine Institutions
satisfied with “cosmetic changes” or su-
perficial changes, even if they appear
good and make us popular. They are tem-
porary. We need to do some “paradigm
shift” or “value shift.” If we want dra-
matic or revolutionary transformation in
the institution or organization, we need
to start with our persons, we need to
change our perspective, our mindset, our
frame of reference, and operate with a
new set of values.
In the CBCP’s January 29 Pastoral
Statement, the Bishops said: the root of
our debilitating situation (in the political,
economic, social order) is the erosion of
moral values. Its external manifestations
are deceit and dishonesty, corruption,
manipulation and a deadening preoccu-
pation with narrow interests.” But the
Bishops “also recognize that our situa-
tion is not one of utter darkness. We are
encouraged and inspired to see so many
good and decent Filipinos, of different
Jo M. Imbong
Text and Context
Provera, and the IUD act, among others,
by disrupting the delicate hormonal en-
vironment of the womb, rendering it hos-
tile and inhospitable to the implanting
embryo.
The intention in that House Bill—a
symbolic nestling of that new and vul-
nerable human life—should be easy to
grasp, even by your niece in High School
who knows that there are now 46 chro-
mosomes at Day One of that newly con-
ceived human.
Not so, however, for those who
refuse to ascribe human existence to
“something” (that is how some of them
call the newly conceived human) which
the “eye” of Science cannot see. Not
so, to someone who refuses to attribute
reality to anything which is not palpable
to the senses. A mother will understand
what we are talking about, even if until
about a week more, she will only notice a
“delay”. Her doctor will not also know,
and so advises her to be patient in her
wait during the coming days. But
whether the rest of the world believes or
not the fact of a nature that is human
exists in this 46-chromosome “some-
thing” which the eye cannot see, that is
entirely immaterial to its existence. Its
CBCP Monitor
Vol. 10 No. 12
September 25, 2006
faith traditions, working selflessly and
sincerely to build up our nation. We see
public servants struggling for integrity
and the authentic reform of the corrupted
institutions they are part of…These
people united by a vision of heroic citi-
zenship, are reasons for hope, even in
the midst of the political crisis we find
ourselves in” (CBCP Renewing our Pub-
lic Life through Moral Values, n. 7,8)
The Church in the Philippine has
declared 2006 as a Year of Social Con-
cern as our response to Pope Benedict
XVI’s first Encyclical “Deus Caritas Est.”
We pay special attention this year to the
teaching, appropriation, and implemen-
tation of the social doctrine of the
Church as contained in the Compendium
of the Social Doctrine of the Church.
In our CBCP Pastoral Exhortation on
Building a Civilization of Love, we in-
vite ourselves and the Filipino people to
In and Out / P8
Context
nature is human, whether the world be-
lieves that or not.
Take the human soul which the eye
cannot see. It is there, whether we be-
lieve in that reality or not. Nor can the
eye see love, as love per se. It has no
form, no weight. It is invisible. But it is
there. Surely, people truly in love are
not pretending to see the Emperor’s new
clothes?
Consider one’s dreams. Even before
these could be sensed by a machine dur-
ing the REM stage of deep slumber, we
already know that dreams do exist.
Or take the thing called malice. A
student of Law will tell you that malice in
some form is an essential requisite of all
crimes defined in the Penal Code, except
in those crimes where the element re-
quired is negligence. Hence the legal
maxim, actus non facit reum nisi mens sit
rea, “the act itself does not make a man
guilty unless his intentions were so.”
How will we know that malice exists in
the criminal mind? No machine can sense
it, but we know it is there.
And so are many other facets of our
physical humanity. For truth is not lim-
ited to only what the eye can see. To
Text and context / P12
 CBCP Monitor
Vol. 10 No. 12
September 25, 2006
Oscar V. Cruz, DD
V ie ws and P
iews oints
Points
THE relationship between faith and rea-
son—this was the focus of the lecture of
Pope Benedict XVI on 12 September 2006
at the University of Regensburg. The
Holy Father has always loved the aca-
deme, considering that he is himself an
eminent scholar. His kindness and hu-
mility are only matched by his knowledge
and wisdom. Learning and prudence—
these can be said as the human attributes
that best describe the person of Pope
Benedict XVI.
The substance of his lecture is a three-
fold truth: First, faith and reason are com-
patible. Second, faith illumines reason func-
tions. Third, reason affirms faith acts. In other
words, just as God has the disposition to
make himself known to man, man on the other
hand has the capacity to know God.
Of Risks and Being
in Media
NUMBERS have it. The country is sec-
ond to Iraq if we’re to talk of casualties
inflicted on media practitioners. The au-
thorities have time and again said not all
those killed were in the pursuit of truth
when they got waylaid.
Press freedom advocates stood their
ground: anybody who earns a living by
being broadcaster or journalist is con-
sidered media practitioner. “Communi-
cators” are all those who actively employ
the media, according to a pastoral in-
struction on the means of social commu-
nications.
The country’s First Gentleman Atty.
Jose Miguel T. Arroyo launched his le-
gal campaign against 42 journalists and
media executives due to slights from ac-
cusations of graft and corrupt practices
to some absurd remarks. It isn’t easy to
become a media practitioner these days
considering the risks.
It is only fitting and proper to dis-
cuss what has the Catholic Church got
to say about the Media. In its Communio
Et Progressio on the Means of Social
Communication written by Order of the
Second Vatican Council, the Church un-
derscored the constant improvement in
the media “puts them at the disposal of
more and more people who in their daily
lives make increasing use of them.”
The media, according to the Catho-
Bp. Leonardo Y. Medroso, JCD, DD
Tidbits
IT is heartening to note that even at
the thick of so many engagements and
commitments, international as well as
regional, the Holy Father has still the
time to focus and give quality atten-
tion to the importance of the lowly par-
ish in the faith life of the believers. In
his September 22, 2006 discourse to the
group of some 100 lay men and women
gathered together by the Pontifical
Commission of the Laity, he called for a
serious revisit and renewed apprecia-
tion of the central role that the parish
plays in spiritual life of the people.
The parish is the “family of Chris-
tian families”, a locus where the believ-
ers individually as well as with their
families assemble to hear the words of
the pastors, to pray and celebrate the
Holy Eucharist together, and to share
their goods with those in need. It
should be seen as a faithful copy of
the first Christian community in Jerusa-
lem. The Pope hopes and prays that
the community of the early Christians
in Jerusalem described graphically by
the Acts of the Apostles will be rein-
carnated in parishes, which include not
just the bustling urban ones but also
those lowly parishes found in the coun-
tryside and in the far distant towns and
Opinion
Faith and Reason
The Holy Father cited the Surah
2,256 that reads: “There is no compul-
sion in religion.” In plain words, the Pope
himself subscribes to the truth brought
forward by Mohammed that mere force
cannot make man have faith. Man should
not only see the rationality of the faith
but also freely accept it. Otherwise, man
would not have genuine faith. Violence
or force has no place in the interaction
between God and Man. In the same way,
force or violence cannot make man really
believe in God.
As to the alleged attack, insult or
offense made by the Pope against the
Muslim religion, this is not only a gross
falsity but also a bad joke. If anything at
all, the allegation is instead a shameless
attack, insult or offense to the Pope.
Melo M. Acuna
Issues and Concerns
lic Church tend to multiply contacts
within society and deepen social con-
sciousness and hopefully, man could
play his part in the “unfolding of history
as if led by the hand of God.” The same
document added “Communication is
more than the expression of ideas and
the indication of emotion.”
Media practitioners are expected to
have a duty in conscience to observe
competence in the art of social communi-
cation to become truly effective in their
work. Eventually, the total output of the
media ought to be judged by the contri-
bution it makes to the common good.
Print, radio and television and other
forms ought to contribute their time to
eliminate illiteracy and provide basic and
further education. A decline in the qual-
ity of education ought to be addressed
through the media. It is glaring enough
that a great number of advertisers simply
queue on top rating and not necessarily
on acceptable programs as they reach
more listeners and viewers.
It is expected that print, radio,
internet, electronic communication,
stage, television and tarpaulin serve as
public forum where everyone could ex-
change ideas. The public expression and
clash of various opinions influence and
enrich society’s development.
You may have noticed almost all AM
The Dignity of the
Lowly Parish
villages.
Some years ago to say that the par-
ish must play a central role in the be-
lievers’ spirituality was unthinkable.
People would rather talk of centers of
spirituality where they congregate,
pray, confess their sins, ask for con-
sultation and seek spiritual guidance.
In their mind is the monastery of some
ascetic monks, or of some pious con-
templative nuns, or some shrines that
answer petitions, even the desperate
and hopeless ones, a house of some
religious congregations known for pi-
ety, or, even, a university chapel run
by religious priests or sisters of deep
spiritual mooring. But a parish to be
the center of spirituality?
There was a time when parish
priests were bitterly complaining re-
garding the strange behavior of some
faith communities and renewal move-
ments. With seeming disdain they
snubbed the programs and activities of
the parish. They held their own prayer
meetings and assemblies, had their own
out-reach programs and apostolate, in-
vited priests as speakers and motiva-
tors, lay leaders as spiritual guides, criti-
cized the too institutional and there-
fore lifeless activities of the parish.
Benedict XVI would be the last person
on earth that could speak ill of the Mus-
lim religion.
Sometime in 1391, there was the Byz-
antine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus who
in his dialogue with a Persian scholar said:
“Show me just what Mohammed brought
that was new, and there you will find
things only evil and inhuman, such as
his command to spread by the sword, the
faith he preached.” It was definitely not
Benedict XVI who said this. The truth is
that the Pope countered this errant pro-
nouncement by the said Emperor by cit-
ing precisely that according to
Mohammad himself “There is no com-
pulsion in religion.” (Surah 2,256).
Where is the attack, insult or of-
fense?
radio programs have provided listeners
the necessary venue for opinions on al-
most all subjects one can think of. This
is a healthy sign. However, we should
be aware that it could cut both ways as
groups, parties and communities of op-
posing views may exploit the privilege to
further their goals. We were not born
yesterday when telephone brigades were
unheard of. Today, some powerful
groups utilize “drama” talents to partici-
pate in radio and television opinion sur-
veys.
The Catholic Church has said “not
every opinion that is given publicity
should be taken as a true expression of
that public opinion which is held by a
significant number of people.” Public
opinion changes often. Prudence is re-
quired “to maintain a certain detachment
toward the opinions currently in public
vogue.”
Communicators ought to give news
as soon as it develops. It’s got to be
quick, complete and comprehensive.
Competition obliges practitioners to
make their reports fresh and interesting
and that “speed is often won at the price
of accuracy.”
One thing is certain: the right to in-
formation is not limitless as it has to be
reconciled with other rights. The Church
Issues and Concerns / P12
The reason that they gave to this
behavior is the nature of their commu-
nities, they are, so they said,
transparochial . What it tries to say is
that the charismatic communities are
beyond the jurisdictional grasp of the
parish priest. After all, they owe their
spirituality and life not to the parish
and its programs, but to the charismatic
leader that draws them to conversion
and renewal.
At surface the ground for the snob-
bery is valid. But when one delves
deeper into the reality of their spiritual
life they will be surprised to realize that
the parish has much to do with their
conversion, that the baptismal font is
the source of their rebirth. It is bap-
tism that makes one a child of God, a
member of the Church, a subject of
ecclesiastical rights and obligations.
Conversion is actually a return to this
original grace of baptism; renewal is the
return to this original conversion. “No
one can enter into God’s kingdom with-
out being begotten of water and Spirit”
(Jn 3: 5).
The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XI,
in his August 31, 2006 discourse to the
parish priests of the Diocese of Albano
Tidbits / P12
7
Jose B. Lugay
Laik
Laikoo Lampstand
Procurement Reform—
An Attempt to Prevent
Graft and Corruption
RECENT headlines bannered the World Bank’s report
on good governance—a world-wide survey of coun-
tries using criteria which include a) the ease of doing
business, b) clear policy guidelines and uniform imple-
mentation, c) transparency and accountability in pro-
curement of goods, services and infrastructure projects.
In effect the report focused on Graft and Corruption
as a major factor in the slow development of the coun-
try, a major factor contributing to the abject poverty of
9 million Filipinos who thrive below the poverty line.
International institutions like the World Bank give
good copy for headlines and attract the attention of
politicians who make their stand for or against the pub-
lished article. However, what were cited—the state of
our society and the prevalence of graft and corruption
had been expressed time and again not only by the
World Bank but also more incisively by the Second
Plenary Council of the Philippines. Let me quote a few
Articles of PCP II (1991):
263 – 264. a Confrontation of Sinfulness as
Root Problem. At the beginning of thisjourney
is an encounter with Jesus who calls us to con-
front and confess our sinfulness and the sinful-
ness of the social systems we have built.
266. In the poverty and underdevelopment of
our nation, in its conflicts and divisions, we
see the hand of human sinfulness, particularly
the grasping paws of greed for profit or power.
It is sinfulness that is at the root of our socio-
economic and political problems, and we need
to name the problems by their true name of sin.
274 The necessity of social transformation is
not a new demand. What is new is its faith-
motivation, as a demand of Christian disciple-
ship.
277. Our way of life—our spirituality—for so-
cial transformation is nothing more and noth-
ing less than a following of Jesus-in-mission. It
is the spirituality of the community of disciples.
283. It is evident that Christian discipleship
or a spirituality for social transformation de-
mands a properly formed social conscience, the
lack of which in many Filipinos is a major trag-
edy. Cultural values frequently get in the way
of moral judgment resulting in the commission
of injustices or the perpetuation of immoral
social practices that militate against the com-
mon good.
To repeat, PCP II declares that sinfulness is the
root problem. Rather than attacking the findings of the
World Bank, the administration spokespersons would
do well to analyze and examine the improvement areas
mentioned. One area that has been studied and where
plans are now being implemented is the area of pro-
curement reform. A new law, Republic Act 9184 was
passed in 2003. It is now in its implementation stage.
As expected there are kinks that must be ironed out. In
its very detailed procedures for following the correct
bidding process, we notice that it is still not foolproof
for prevention of corruption. Any adventurous and in-
novative person or groups of persons can cheat and
beat the system.
Notice the following detailed procedures which
modify the old bidding process, purportedly more diffi-
cult for would-be cheaters. The bid price is now pub-
lished, that is, it is known beforehand by all the bid-
ders. Publication of the invitation to bid must be done
14 calendar days before the pre-bid conference and this
should be scheduled 12 calendar days before the sub-
mission of bids. Within 15 calendar days from the sub-
mission, the evaluation of bids must be completed and
the most responsive bid is identified. Those who in the
past give more time to favored bidders to complete their
doctored bids ( to include the amount that goes to the
insider in command ), are now constrained by the strict
and regulated timetable of bidding activities.
The most responsive bid, that is, a bid offered by a
qualified bidder that conforms to the technical specifi-
cations, delivery schedules, and terms of reference,
matching the published bid or a lower offer, is given the
award. After the lowest and most responsive bidder is
identified, an additional process of post evaluation is
done within 7 days. Whatever was declared by the
winning bidder in terms of documents—ITR, business
permits, etc. will now be verified. In the past, this step
was not done, so that favored bidders may win even if
later they are proven to have no office at all, or they
have not filed their income taxes.
Laiko Lampstand / P12

8 CBCP Commissions
IN 1974, at the second assembly of
the Mindanao-Sulu Pastoral Confer-
ence (MSPC), the Church was chal-
lenged to respond to the plight of
the indigenous peoples of the Phil-
ippines.
At that time there was wide-
spread unrest in Mindanao. The
Muslim rebellion was at its height
and the entry or invasion of foreign
and local big businesses exacerbated
the problem, affecting both Muslims
and non-Muslims alike.
MSPC delegates who were di-
rectly involved in work among indig-
enous peoples pointed out that land
loss and the struggle for survival
were problems not only of the Mus-
lim population, but also of other in-
digenous communities in Mindanao
as well as other areas of the country.
Realizing this, the Church
heeded the call for a more united and
organized response to the indig-
enous peoples’ concerns. In 1975 the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the
Philippines (CBCP) elevated the Sub-
Commission on Non-Christians to a
full-fledged Episcopal Commission
on Cultural Communities (ECCC)
with special responsibilities for an
apostolate among non-Christian
communities.
In November 1976, a national
consultation of Church workers in-
volved with indigenous peoples was
held. It was decided that a desk on
cultural communities be created un-
der the National Secretariat for So-
cial Action, Justice and Peace office.
Its main task was “to initiate coordi-
nation in the apostolate and to at-
tend to the needs of the cultural com-
munities.”
In September 1977, a group of
ten led by then Bishop Bienvenido
Tudtud, called for another consulta-
tion so that a secretariat could be
formed. This was held in November
of the same year.
A resolution to establish a na-
tional secretariat and to change the
name of the ECCC to the Episcopal
Commission on Tribal Filipinos
His
His Execellency
Execellency
Most Rev. Sergio L. Utleg, DD
Bishop of Ilagan
In and Out / from p6
a threefold program of action. First,
we must commit ourselves in con-
tinuing to build character. “To build
the future,” we said, “we need to
deepen our sense of honesty and
integrity, service and responsibility,
stewardship and solidarity… Trans-
forming persons from self-
centeredness to the life of virtue and
social responsibility remains our pri-
mary task and contribution to nation
building.” Second, we must build
capacity. Poverty is all over the land.
Poverty is right under our very
noses. “Poverty is not only about
not having but also of not being
able. Poverty is also a question of
capability. We have to empower
those who are needy to construct a
better future…We therefore com-
mend our institutions that are at the
service of the most vulnerable of our
society. We commend programs
such as Pondo Ng Pinoy, Gawad
Kalinga, and Tabang Mindanaw for
empowering people to participate in
their own development and in con-
tinuing work of creation. Third, we
Episcopal Commission on
Indigenous Peoples (ECIP)
(ECTF) was passed. A “philosophy
of work” was also adopted as guide
for those working among the tribal
peoples.
Since 1979, the Tribal Filipinos
Apostolate (TFA) coordinators,
workers, and Commission Bishops
and the National Secretariat come
together in a yearly national conven-
tion. Each convention is a venue
where past experiences are expressed
and plans and activities for the in-
coming year are finalized.
Members of the
Episcopal Commission on
Indigenous Peoples
Chairman: Bp. Sergio L. Utleg
Members:
Bp. Jose F. Advincula
Bp. Dinualdo D. Gutierrez
Bp. Zacharias C. Jimenez
Bp. Florentino G. Lavarias
Bp. Antonio P. Palang, SVD
Bp. Carlito J. Cenzon, CICM
Executive Secretary:
Sr. Rosanne Mallillin, SPC
must build community. We must not
simply focus our interest on the
good of the small groups, such as,
my family, my town-mates, my prov-
ince-mates, my party-mates, etc. Let
us widen the horizon of our interest.
“The spirituality of citizenship fos-
ters a sense of patriotism and of be-
ing responsible for our country.” We
must be active and constructive par-
ticipants in social and political life.
To build community in a country
battered by various kinds of conflict
is to promote solidarity, dialogue
among different and even opposing
sectors, towards peace.
Only a principle-centered life, in-
spired by the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
can bring about societal transforma-
tion, strengthen and renew our Phil-
ippine institutions. Essentially, ac-
cording to Benedict XVI in “Deus
Caritas Est,” it is conversion to God
and our fellowmen in the “Commu-
nity of Love.” Living according to
these ten principles will characterize
our relationships with one another.
What will change the course of our
In 1990, under the chairmanship
of Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez, the
first national consultation of indig-
enous peoples from all diocesan
tribal Filipino apostolates was held
in Camiguin Island. Since then, na-
tional consultations have been held
every other year.
In 1994, the participants of the
National Convention of ECTF-TFA
forwarded a proposal to the CBCP
for a change of the commission’s
official name: from Episcopal Com-
mission on Tribal Filipinos to Epis-
copal Commission on Indigenous
Peoples. This was approved in Janu-
ary 1995.
The Commission on Indigenous
Peoples works for and with indig-
enous peoples in their efforts to se-
cure justice for themselves, protect
their ancestral domains, and preserve
their cultural heritage. It fosters
among the Christian majority a
greater awareness and appreciation
of the indigenous peoples and thus
helps lessen deep-seated prejudices
about them.
ECIP-IPA Beliefs Statements
Indigenous People’s Apostolate
(IPA) is a work of faith;
country, worsened by massive pov-
erty, political turmoil, moral corrup-
tion, scandalous inequality, is not
wealth, power, prestige, politics, but
conversion therefrom and a renewal
of our public life through moral val-
ues.
In conclusion, let us take some
guidance from prophetic theolo-
gians. Karl Rahner, one of the pro-
phetic theologians in his time, more
than 40 years ago, envisioning the
Church of the future, facing the cri-
sis of the Church in Europe, insisted
that the members of the Church
would have to be “mystics.” What
did he mean? In a world of wide-
spread secularism, consumer mate-
rialism, globalization and religious in-
differentism, only those could sur-
vive in their faith who had a deep
personal experience of God and who
in their lives could make this experi-
ence accessible to a totally secular-
ized world.
Another prophetic theologian,
Segundo Galilea, 20 years ago, made
a similar observation regarding the
IPA’s basic strategy is solidar-
ity: Working for and with the IPs;
journeying with the IPs
The Good News of Integral Lib-
eration and Development is a gift and
an invitation which the IPs can re-
spond to freely in their own way, in
their own time and in their own milieu;
IPA respects, recognizes and
enriches the indigenous faith expres-
sions of the IPs including those who
have already embraced the Christian
Faith;
The Ancestral Domain is basic
to IP life and culture;
IPA’s primary concern is self-
determination for all IPs;
The Diocese is independent;
ECIP serves as a CBCP support com-
mission, a coordinating body for IPA
in the Dioceses.
General Directions for ECIP-
IPA (2006-2011)
By 2011, the ECIP-IPA would
have:
1. Created a profile of IP communi-
ties in each Diocese; of all religious
congregations working with IPs
independent of the Dioceses
2. Encouraged IPADs under SACs,
other IP programs of Congrega-
future of the Church in Latin
America. “The ‘contemplative’
woman or man today is the one who
has an experience of God, who is
capable of meeting God in history, in
politics, in his brothers and sisters,
and most fully in prayer. In the fu-
ture you will no longer be a Chris-
tian without being a contemplative
and you cannot be a contemplative
without having an experience of
Christ and his kingdom in history.
In this sense, Christian contempla-
tion will guarantee the survival of
faith in a secularized or politicized
world of the future” (Galilea, Follow-
ing Jesus, 1981).
What do they want to say? In
the task of strengthening and inno-
vating Philippine institutions, we
must open ourselves to God who
lives in our passion. Opening our-
selves to God, we do not turn our
back on the suffering Filipinos. The
closer we are to God, the closer we
are to the voiceless multitude of
wounded in our country. If we are
not their voice, who are?
CBCP Monitor
Vol. 10 No. 12
September 25, 2006
tions to closely coordinate with
ECIP national and regional secre-
tariats and eventually become di-
ocesan IPAs (independent of
SAC)
3. Assisted identified 17 dioceses
(with IPs but without IP Programs)
to establish IPA programs, in ad-
dition to the 38 already established
IPAs
4. Assisted 50% of diocese (IPs) to
source out additional funds for
established programs
5. The ECIP office has competent
personnel to manage each of the 7
programs. Established program:
has coordinator, personnel (full
time), “running” program (actual
activities related to any of the 7
programs of ECIP)
6. An “empowered” National Con-
vention attended by a majority of
the Commission Bishops and IPAs
7. Designed and implemented a For-
mation Program for IPA workers,
bishops, coordinators and those
working with ECIP and the secre-
tariats (Basic, Advanced and
Trainors Levels)
8. Established formal linkages with
those having programs with the
IPs e.g. AMRSP, Congregations
(e.g. orientation, conferences,
guests to the convention, etc.)
9. Established mechanisms for plan-
ning, organizing (personnel and
funding), implementation, moni-
toring and evaluation of each of
the 7 programs
ECIP-IPA Programs 2007-2011
• Advocacy (Networking & Link-
ages)
• Capability Building (Training semi-
nars and conferences/conven-
tions)
• Ancestral Domain (Recognition,
Protection, Promotion, Sustain-
able Development)
• Resource Mobilization/Fund Sourc-
ing
• IP Education
• Contextualized Spiritual Formation
• Documentation, Research and Pub-
lication
Program: Advocacy
• IP rights approach (rights based)
• Development aggression (issue
based)
• Networking and linkages
• Policies adverse to the self-deter-
mination of IPs
General Issues and concerns:
• Mining
• Logging
• Plantation
• Dams/power plants
• Militarization
• Globalization
Muslim / from p5
stan, said: “The Pope holds a highly re-
sponsible and important title and he is
following in the footsteps of Pope John
Paul II, revealing his greatness. In this
way, he could calm ‘offended’ Muslim
people. In fact, peace could prevail in
the world when Muslims and Christians
join hands and work together.”
Ajmal Niazi, a renowned columnist,
closed the survey: “The Pope occupies
a significant place in the Christian world
and we also consider him a spiritual
leader and respect him. We always re-
ceive messages of reconciliation and af-
fection from Him. His words in
Regensburg were understood in a nega-
tive way and this is not a good thing.
People interpreted his speech accord-
ing to their personal desires, but since
the Pope made it clear how things stand,
there is no reason to protest. I suggest
that Muslim religious leaders prepare a
way towards dialogue and not create any
sort of enmity. The Pope’s meeting with
the ambassadors is a sign of friendship
with the Muslim world. Therefore we
should all work for dialogue.”
 CBCP Monitor
Vol. 10 No. 12
September 25, 2006
THE Apostolic Vicariate of San Jose
(AVSJ) was created on January 27,
1983 by his Holiness, the late Pope
John Paul II. It covers the predomi-
nantly rural province of Occidental
Mindoro where 438,582 inhabitants
presently reside. With a total land
area is 5,799 sq. kms., 75 percent of
its 70,772 families largely depend on
farming and fishing as their source
of livelihood and subsistence. A
good 80.65 percent of its population
are baptized Catholics.
The first vicar apostolic of San
Jose was Bishop Vicente C. Manuel,
SVD, DD. Installed on July 1, 1983
by the late papal nuncio to the Phil-
ippines, Archbishop Bruno
Torpigliani, Bishop Manuel assumed
the episcopal administration of the
12 parishes that comprised the newly
created apostolic vicariate where,
with the exception of one diocesan
priest, the members of the clergy
were all SVD (religious congregation
of the Society of the Divine Word)
missionaries.
A year after his installation,
Bishop Manuel established the St.
Joseph College Seminary to spur up
the Apostolic Vicariate’s priestly for-
mation program.
Under his able leadership, the
newly-created Apostolic Vicariate
formulated in no time its vision ar-
ticulation, which expressively stated
thus: “One truly Christian Community
of Occidental Mindoro, united in
worship, service and witness of
Christ.” This vision was reaffirmed
according to the pastoral orientations
set forth by the Second Plenary
Council of the Philippines and the
National Council for Church Renewal.
Following its Vision, the apos-
tolic vicariate thus pursued—as its
Mission—
to commit itself to “[1] The for-
mation of Basic Ecclesial Communi-
ties, [2] rooted in the Word of God,
[3] with formed lay leaders [4] and
trained lay ministers [5] and bring-
ing about integral human develop-
ment.”
Anchored on this Vision-Mis-
sion are the various pastoral pro-
grams and activities of the apostolic
vicariate which include, among oth-
ers, namely: formation of lay leaders
and catechists; Catholic education
program; family life and indigenous
Diocese 9
people apostolate; and the coopera-
tive program for farmers and Apostolic Vicariate of San Jose-Mindoro:
fisherfolk.
In 1991, to enhance its mandate
of evangelization and effective de-
livery of its pastoral tasks, the apos-
tolic vicariate opened its own radio
“One in Worship, Service,
station, DZVT, a 5-kilowatt AM sta-
tion with a broadcast reach not only
throughout the province of Occiden-
tal Mindoro but even to Palawan,
and Witness of Christ”
By: Most Rev. Antonio P. Palang, SVD, DD
Semirara, Antique and other nearby
provinces.
All these pastoral strides and
accomplishments rightfully resonated
with the episcopal motto, “In Verbou
Tuo” (At Your Word) of the apostolic
vicariate’s first vicar apostolic, Bishop
Vicente Manuel, and unfailingly pur-
sued by its present vicar apostolic,
Bishop Antonio Palang, with his epis-
copal motto, “Duc In Altum” (Launch
Into the Deep!).
In 2000, Bishop Antonio Palang,
SVD, DD succeeded Bishop Manuel,
who was then appointed as District
Bishop in the Archdiocese of Cebu.
First appointed as apostolic admin-
istrator in 2000, Bishop Palang was
installed as the second vicar apos-
tolic of San Jose on May 31, 2002.
At present, the apostolic vicari-
ate has 16 parishes and one quasi-
parish. By far, the apostolic
vicariate’s St. Joseph College Semi-
nary has produced 15 diocesan
IMPORTANT FACTS
priests who are now serving the par-
ishes and other pastoral offices.
Complementing the pastoral minis- Name:Apostolic Vicariate of San Jose High School
tries and services of the clergy are Population: 438,582 Diocesan: 5
some 425 lay ministers, 370 volun- No. of Catholics: 353,760 Religious: 1
teer catechists, a core group of Fam- Bishop: 1 Elementary
Priests: 29 Diocesan: 5
ily Life Apostolate (FLA) workers, Diocesan: 14 Religious: 1
and other lay leaders and volunteers. Religious: 15 Educational, Charitable & Other Insti-
Likewise, a secondary school Religious Brothers: 2 tutions
curriculum, designed after the cul- Religious Sisters: 32 Divine Word College of San Jose
Diocesan Division (SVD)
ture of the indigenous peoples of Vicariate Forane: 4 San Rafael High School (Diocesan)
Mindoro Occidental, was opened for Parishes: 16 Stella Maris School (Diocesan)
children from some six Mangyan Quasi-Parish: 1 West Mindoro Academy (Diocesan)
tribes in Sitio Danglog, Barangay Chapels/Missions/BECs: 300 Colegio de San Sebastian (Diocesan)
Monteclaro, San Jose. Institutions Holy Family Academy (Diocesan)
Homes:/dormitories: 6 Pamana Ka (Indigenous/Inculturated
Admittedly, on hindsight, 23 Retreat/Parish Halls: 15 School)
years or so of San Jose apostolic Clinics: 2 Mangyan Educational Center
vicariate’s existence may seem as yet Formation Centers: 3 Mangyan Multi-purpose Center
not far and long enough. But, Mission Hospital: 1 St. Martin Outreach Mission Hospital
Catechists (OP)
gleaned from its pastoral strides and Full-time: 72 AVSJ Livelihood Movement
accomplishments, the apostolic vi- Volunteer: 370 San Isidro Labrador Formation Cen-
cariate has indeed come a long way Educational Centers ter (SILFC)
in unfailingly living up to its pasto- Most Rev. Antonio P. Palang, College San Lorenzo Ruiz Formation Center
Diocesan: 1 Vicarial Indigenous People’s Coordi-
ral mandate of being “one in wor- SVD, DD Apostolic Vicariate of Religious: 1 nating Office (VIPACO)
ship, service, and witness of Christ”. San Jose-Mindoro

Faith, Reason / from p10

and the God of
Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob.
In my inau-
gural lec-
ture at
Bonn in
1959, I
tried to ad-
dress the issue, and I do not intend
to repeat here what I said on that oc-
casion, but I would like to describe at
least briefly what was new about this
second stage of dehellenization.
Harnack’s central idea was to return
simply to the man Jesus and to his
simple message, underneath the ac-
cretions of theology and indeed of
hellenization: this simple message was
seen as the culmination of the reli-
gious development of humanity. Jesus
was said to have put an end to wor-
ship in favor of morality. In the end
he was presented as the father of a
humanitarian moral message. Funda-
mentally, Harnack’s goal was to bring
Christianity back into harmony with
modern reason, liberating it, that is to
say, from seemingly philosophical and
theological elements, such as faith in
Christ’s divinity and the triune God.
In this sense, historical-critical exege-
sis of the New Testament, as he saw
it, restored to theology its place within
the university: theology, for Harnack,
is something essentially historical and
therefore strictly scientific. What it is
able to say critically about Jesus is,
so to speak, an expression of practi-
cal reason and consequently it can
take its rightful place within the uni-
versity. Behind this thinking lies the
modern self-limitation of reason, clas-
sically expressed in Kant’s “Cri-
tiques”, but in the meantime further
radicalized by the impact of the natu-
ral sciences. This modern concept of
reason is based, to put it briefly, on a
synthesis between Platonism
(Cartesianism) and empiricism, a syn-
thesis confirmed by the success of
technology. On the one hand it pre-
supposes the mathematical structure
of matter, its intrinsic rationality, which
makes it possible to understand how
matter works and use it efficiently:
this basic premise is, so to speak, the
Platonic element in the modern un-
derstanding of nature. On the other
hand, there is nature’s capacity to be
exploited for our purposes, and here
only the possibility of verification or
falsification through experimentation
can yield ultimate certainty. The
weight between the two poles can,
depending on the circumstances,
shift from one side to the other. As
strongly positivistic a thinker as J.
Monod has declared himself a con-
vinced Platonist/Cartesian.
This gives rise to two principles
which are crucial for the issue we have
raised. First, only the kind of certainty
resulting from the interplay of math-
ematical and empirical elements can
be considered scientific. Anything
that would claim to be science must
be measured against this criterion.
Hence the human sciences, such as
history, psychology, sociology and
philosophy, attempt to conform them-
selves to this canon of scientificity. A
second point, which is important for
our reflections, is that by its very na-
ture this method excludes the ques-
tion of God, making it appear an un-
scientific or pre-scientific question.
Consequently, we are faced with a
reduction of the radius of science and
reason, one which needs to be ques-
tioned.
I will return to this problem later.
In the meantime, it must be observed
that from this standpoint any attempt
to maintain theology’s claim to be
“scientific” would end up reducing
Christianity to a mere fragment of its
former self. But we must say more: if
science as a whole is this and this
alone, then it is man himself who ends
up being reduced, for the specifically
human questions about our origin
and destiny, the questions raised by
religion and ethics, then have no place
within the purview of collective rea-
son as defined by “science”, so un-
derstood, and must thus be relegated
to the realm of the subjective. The
subject then decides, on the basis of
his experiences, what he considers
tenable in matters of religion, and the
subjective “conscience” becomes the
sole arbiter of what is ethical. In this
way, though, ethics and religion lose
their power to create a community and
become a completely personal mat-
ter. This is a dangerous state of af-
fairs for humanity, as we see from the
disturbing pathologies of religion and
reason which necessarily erupt when
reason is so reduced that questions
of religion and ethics no longer con-
cern it. Attempts to construct an ethic
from the rules of evolution or from
psychology and sociology, end up
being simply inadequate.
Before I draw the conclusions to
which all this has been leading, I must
briefly refer to the third stage of
dehellenization, which is now in
progress. In the light of our experi-
ence with cultural pluralism, it is of-
ten said nowadays that the synthe-
sis with Hellenism achieved in the
early Church was a preliminary
inculturation which ought not to be
binding on other cultures. The latter
are said to have the right to return to
the simple message of the New Tes-
tament prior to that inculturation, in
order to inculturate it anew in their
own particular milieux. This thesis is
not only false; it is coarse and lack-
ing in precision. The New Testament
was written in Greek and bears the
imprint of the Greek spirit, which had
already come to maturity as the Old
Testament developed. True, there are
elements in the evolution of the early
Church which do not have to be inte-
grated into all cultures. Nonetheless,
the fundamental decisions made
about the relationship between faith
and the use of human reason are part
of the faith itself; they are develop-
ments consonant with the nature of
faith itself.
And so I come to my conclusion.
This attempt, painted with broad
strokes, at a critique of modern rea-
son from within has nothing to do
with putting the clock back to the time
before the Enlightenment and reject-
ing the insights of the modern age.
The positive aspects of modernity are
to be acknowledged unreservedly: we
are all grateful for the marvelous pos-
sibilities that it has opened up for
mankind and for the progress in hu-
manity that has been granted to us.
The scientific ethos, moreover, is—
as you yourself mentioned, Magnifi-
cent Rector—the will to be obedient
to the truth, and, as such, it embodies
an attitude which belongs to the es-
sential decisions of the Christian spirit.
The intention here is not one of re-
trenchment or negative criticism, but
of broadening our concept of reason
and its application. While we rejoice
in the new possibilities open to hu-
manity, we also see the dangers aris-
ing from these possibilities and we
must ask ourselves how we can over-
come them. We will succeed in doing
so only if reason and faith come to-
gether in a new way, if we overcome
the self-imposed limitation of reason
to the empirically verifiable, and if we
once more disclose its vast horizons.
In this sense theology rightly belongs
in the university and within the wide-
ranging dialogue of sciences, not
merely as a historical discipline and
one of the human sciences, but pre-
cisely as theology, as inquiry into the
rationality of faith.
Only thus do we become ca-
pable of that genuine dialogue of cul-
tures and religions so urgently
needed today. In the Western world
it is widely held that only positivis-
tic reason and the forms of philoso-
phy based on it are universally valid.
Faith, Reason / P16

10
Your Eminences, Your
Magnificences, Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentle-
men,
IT is a moving experience for me to
be back again in the university and
to be able once again to give a lec-
ture at this podium. I think back to
those years when, after a pleasant
period at the Freisinger Hochschule,
I began teaching at the University
of Bonn. That was in 1959, in the
days of the old university made up
of ordinary professors. The various
chairs had neither assistants nor sec-
retaries, but in recompense there was
much direct contact with students
and in particular among the profes-
sors themselves. We would meet be-
fore and after lessons in the rooms
of the teaching staff. There was a
lively exchange with historians, phi-
losophers, philologists and, natu-
rally, between the two theological
faculties. Once a semester there was
a dies academicus, when professors
from every faculty appeared before
the students of the entire university,
making possible a genuine experi-
ence of universitas—something that
you too, Magnificent Rector, just
mentioned - the experience, in other
words, of the fact that despite our
specializations which at times make
it difficult to communicate with each
other, we made up a whole, working
in everything on the basis of a single
rationality with its various aspects
and sharing responsibility for the
right use of reason—this reality be-
came a lived experience. The univer-
sity was also very proud of its two
theological faculties. It was clear
that, by inquiring about the reason-
ableness of faith, they too carried out
a work which is necessarily part of
the “whole” of the universitas
scientiarum, even if not everyone
could share the faith which theolo-
gians seek to correlate with reason
as a whole. This profound sense of
coherence within the universe of
reason was not troubled, even when
it was once reported that a colleague
had said there was something odd
about our university: it had two fac-
ulties devoted to something that did
not exist: God. That even in the face
of such radical scepticism it is still
necessary and reasonable to raise
the question of God through the use
of reason, and to do so in the con-
text of the tradition of the Christian
faith: this, within the university as a
whole, was accepted without ques-
tion.
I was reminded of all this re-
cently, when I read the edition by
Professor Theodore Khoury
(Münster) of part of the dialogue
carried on—perhaps in 1391 in the
winter barracks near Ankara—by the
erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel
II Paleologus and an educated Per-
sian on the subject of Christianity
and Islam, and the truth of both. It
was presumably the emperor himself
who set down this dialogue, during
the siege of Constantinople between
1394 and 1402; and this would ex-
plain why his arguments are given
in greater detail than those of his Per-
sian interlocutor. The dialogue
ranges widely over the structures of
faith contained in the Bible and in
the Qur’an, and deals especially with
the image of God and of man, while
necessarily returning repeatedly to
the relationship between - as they
were called - three “Laws” or “rules
of life”: the Old Testament, the New
Testament and the Qur’an. It is not
my intention to discuss this ques-
tion in the present lecture; here I
would like to discuss only one
point—itself rather marginal to the
dialogue as a whole—which, in the
context of the issue of “faith and rea-
son”, I found interesting and which
can serve as the starting-point for
my reflections on this issue.
In the seventh conversation
(äéÜëåîéò - controversy) edited by
Professor Khoury, the emperor
touches on the theme of the holy war.
Meeting with the Representatives of Science
Aula Magna of the University of Regensburg
Tuesday, 12 September 2006
A LECTURE OF THE HOLY FATHER
Faith, Reason and the University
Memories and Reflections
The emperor
must have
known that
surah 2, 256
reads: “There is
no compulsion
in religion”. Ac-
cording to the
experts, this is
one of the suras
of the early pe-
riod, when
Mohammed
was still power-
less and under
threat. But natu-
rally the em-
peror also knew
the instruc-
tions, devel-
oped later and
recorded in the
Qur’an, con-
cerning holy
war. Without
descending to
details, such as
the difference
in treatment ac-
corded to those
who have the
“Book” and the
“infidels”, he
addresses his
interlocutor
with a startling
brusqueness
on the central
question about
the relationship
between reli-
gion and vio-
lence in general, saying: “Show me
just what Mohammed brought that
was new, and there you will find
things only evil and inhuman, such
as his command to spread by the
sword the faith he preached”. The
emperor, after having expressed him-
self so forcefully, goes on to explain
in detail the reasons why spreading
the faith through violence is some-
thing unreasonable. Violence is in-
compatible with the nature of God and
the nature of the soul. “God”, he says,
“is not pleased by blood—and not
acting reasonably (óõí ëüãù) is con-
trary to God’s nature. Faith is born of
the soul, not the body. Whoever
would lead someone to faith needs
the ability to speak well and to rea-
son properly, without violence and
threats... To convince a reasonable
soul, one does not need a strong arm,
or weapons of any kind, or any other
means of threatening a person with
death...”.
The decisive statement in this
argument against violent conversion
is this: not to act in accordance with
reason is contrary to God’s nature.
The editor, Theodore Khoury, ob-
serves: For the emperor, as a Byzan-
tine shaped by Greek philosophy,
this statement is self-evident. But for
Muslim teaching, God is absolutely
transcendent. His will is not bound
up with any of our categories, even
that of rationality. Here Khoury
quotes a work of the noted French
Islamist R. Arnaldez, who points out
that Ibn Hazn went so far as to state
that God is not bound even by his
own word, and that nothing would
oblige him to reveal the truth to us.
Were it God’s will, we would even
have to practise idolatry.
At this point, as far as under-
standing of God and thus the con-
Feature
crete practice of religion is concerned,
we are faced with an unavoidable di-
lemma. Is the conviction that acting
unreasonably contradicts God’s na-
ture merely a Greek idea, or is it al-
ways and intrinsically true? I believe
that here we can see the profound
harmony between what is Greek in the
best sense of the word and the bibli-
cal understanding of faith in God.
Modifying the first verse of the Book
of Genesis, the first verse of the whole
Bible, John began the prologue of his
Gospel with the words: “In the begin-
ning was the ëüãïò”. This is the very
word used by the emperor: God acts,
óõí ëüãù, with logos. Logos means
both reason and word - a reason which
is creative and capable of self-com-
munication, precisely as reason. John
thus spoke the final word on the bib-
lical concept of God, and in this word
all the often toilsome and tortuous
threads of biblical faith find their cul-
mination and synthesis. In the begin-
ning was the logos, and the logos is
God, says the Evangelist. The en-
counter between the Biblical message
and Greek thought did not happen
by chance. The vision of Saint Paul,
who saw the roads to Asia barred and
in a dream saw a Macedonian man
plead with him: “Come over to
Macedonia and help us!” (cf. Acts
16:6-10)—this vision can be inter-
preted as a “distillation” of the intrin-
sic necessity of a rapprochement be-
tween Biblical faith and Greek inquiry.
In point of fact, this rapproche-
ment had been going on for some time.
The mysterious name of God, re-
vealed from the burning bush, a name
which separates this God from all
other divinities with their many names
and simply declares “I am”, already
presents a challenge to the notion of
myth, to which Socrates’ attempt to
vanquish and
transcend myth
stands in close
analogy. Within
the Old Testa-
ment, the pro-
cess which
started at the
burning bush
came to new ma-
turity at the time
of the Exile, when
the God of Israel,
an Israel now de-
prived of its land
and worship,
was proclaimed
as the God of
heaven and earth
and described in
a simple formula
which echoes
the words ut-
tered at the burn-
ing bush: “I am”.
This new under-
standing of God
is accompanied
by a kind of en-
lightenment,
which finds stark
expression in the
mockery of gods
who are merely
the work of hu-
man hands (cf.
Ps 115). Thus,
despite the bitter
conflict with
those Hellenistic
rulers who
sought to ac-
commodate it forcibly to the customs
and idolatrous cult of the Greeks, bib-
lical faith, in the Hellenistic period, en-
countered the best of Greek thought
at a deep level, resulting in a mutual
enrichment evident especially in the
later wisdom literature. Today we
know that the Greek translation of the
Old Testament produced at Alexan-
dria—the Septuagint—is more than
a simple (and in that sense really less
than satisfactory) translation of the
Hebrew text: it is an independent tex-
tual witness and a distinct and impor-
tant step in the history of revelation,
one which brought about this en-
counter in a way that was decisive
for the birth and spread of Christian-
ity. A profound encounter of faith and
reason is taking place here, an en-
counter between genuine enlighten-
ment and religion. From the very heart
of Christian faith and, at the same time,
the heart of Greek thought now joined
to faith, Manuel II was able to say:
Not to act “with logos” is contrary to
God’s nature.
In all honesty, one must observe
that in the late Middle Ages we find
trends in theology which would sun-
der this synthesis between the Greek
spirit and the Christian spirit. In con-
trast with the so-called intellectual-
ism of Augustine and Thomas, there
arose with Duns Scotus a voluntarism
which, in its later developments, led
to the claim that we can only know
God’s voluntas ordinata. Beyond this
is the realm of God’s freedom, in vir-
tue of which he could have done the
opposite of everything he has actu-
ally done. This gives rise to positions
which clearly approach those of Ibn
Hazn and might even lead to the im-
age of a capricious God, who is not
even bound to truth and goodness.
God’s transcendence and otherness
CBCP Monitor
Vol. 10 No. 12
September 25, 2006
are so exalted that our reason, our
sense of the true and good, are no
longer an authentic mirror of God,
whose deepest possibilities remain
eternally unattainable and hidden
behind his actual decisions. As op-
posed to this, the faith of the Church
has always insisted that between God
and us, between his eternal Creator
Spirit and our created reason there
exists a real analogy, in which—as the
Fourth Lateran Council in 1215
stated—unlikeness remains infinitely
greater than likeness, yet not to the
point of abolishing analogy and its
language. God does not become more
divine when we push him away from
us in a sheer, impenetrable
voluntarism; rather, the truly divine
God is the God who has revealed him-
self as logos and, as logos, has acted
and continues to act lovingly on our
behalf. Certainly, love, as Saint Paul
says, “transcends” knowledge and is
thereby capable of perceiving more
than thought alone (cf. Eph 3:19);
nonetheless it continues to be love
of the God who is Logos. Conse-
quently, Christian worship is, again
to quote Paul - “ ëáôñåßáhëïãéêç”
worship in harmony with the eternal
Word and with our reason (cf. Rom
12:1).
This inner rapprochement be-
tween Biblical faith and Greek philo-
sophical inquiry was an event of de-
cisive importance not only from the
standpoint of the history of religions,
but also from that of world history—
it is an event which concerns us even
today. Given this convergence, it is
not surprising that Christianity, de-
spite its origins and some significant
developments in the East, finally took
on its historically decisive character
in Europe. We can also express this
the other way around: this conver-
gence, with the subsequent addition
of the Roman heritage, created Eu-
rope and remains the foundation of
what can rightly be called Europe.
The thesis that the critically pu-
rified Greek heritage forms an integral
part of Christian faith has been coun-
tered by the call for a dehellenization
of Christianity—a call which has more
and more dominated theological dis-
cussions since the beginning of the
modern age. Viewed more closely,
three stages can be observed in the
programme of dehellenization: al-
though interconnected, they are
clearly distinct from one another in
their motivations and objectives.
Dehellenization first emerges in
connection with the postulates of the
Reformation in the sixteenth century.
Looking at the tradition of scholastic
theology, the Reformers thought they
were confronted with a faith system
totally conditioned by philosophy,
that is to say an articulation of the
faith based on an alien system of
thought. As a result, faith no longer
appeared as a living historical Word
but as one element of an overarching
philosophical system. The principle
of sola scriptura, on the other hand,
sought faith in its pure, primordial
form, as originally found in the bibli-
cal Word. Metaphysics appeared as
a premise derived from another
source, from which faith had to be
liberated in order to become once
more fully itself. When Kant stated
that he needed to set thinking aside
in order to make room for faith, he
carried this programme forward with
a radicalism that the Reformers could
never have foreseen. He thus an-
chored faith exclusively in practical
reason, denying it access to reality
as a whole.
The liberal theology of the nine-
teenth and twentieth centuries ush-
ered in a second stage in the process
of dehellenization, with Adolf von
Harnack as its outstanding represen-
tative. When I was a student, and in
the early years of my teaching, this
programme was highly influential in
Catholic theology too. It took as its
point of departure Pascal’s distinction
between the God of the philosophers
Faith, Reason / P9
 CBCP Monitor
Vol. 10 No. 12
September 25, 2006
HAVING invoked the guidance of the
Holy Spirit in making all things new,
guided by the Teachings of the
Church and of the PCP II, the Dio-
cese of Novaliches had been con-
tinuously seeing, discerning, work-
ing toward its mission of strength-
ening and empowering the faithful
toward the fullness of life and of
building ecclesial communities.
Diocese of Novaliches is a new
diocese established on December 7,
2002 by His Holiness Pope Paul II. It
has a total population of 1.9 M from
which almost 70% is urban poor. It
comprises 25 barangay of North
Caloocan and 25 Baranggay of North
Quezon City. It has 56 parishes. His
Excellency, Most Rev. Antonio
Tobias, DD is the present bishop.
As a new diocese it underwent
its pain of birth being separated from
the well known archdiocese of Ma-
nila. To start her mission as a jour-
neying Church, and recognizing its
big poor populace, the Urban Poor
Summit was launched on March 22,
2004. Its objective was to allow the
urban poor speak of their concrete
needs which are: land and housing,
livelihood, restorative justice, fam-
ily & fife concern especially as re-
sult of the growing overseas works
which leave their family behind.
A year thereafter, March 11-12,
2005, marks another milestone for us
for the First Pastoral Assembly was
held to give direction to what we want
to be as “People of God.” Thus, the
drafting of the Vision and Mission
statement took place and it states:
We, the local Church of
Novaliches, are a Christ-centered
community of disciples, responding
to the needs of the people, journey-
ing with the Blessed Virgin Mary to-
wards the newness and fullness of
life.
Trusting in the grace of God and
in the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
we commit ourselves to:
• Promote renewed and integral
evangelization.
• Empower the laity and form ser-
vant-leaders; and,
• Commune the poor, with the op-
pressed and the marginalized,
and work for their upliftment
through the building and devel-
oping Basic Ecclesial Communi-
ties towards total human devel-
opment and social transforma-
tion.
Building of the People of God is
not that simple. It needs primarily the
guidance of Holy Spirit and of the
Gospel Values and Church
Magisterium.
“The Church Social Doc-
trine provides the fundamen-
tal criteria for pastoral ac-
tion in the area of social ac-
tivity; proclaiming the Gos-
pel; placing the Gospel mes-
sage in the context of social
realities; planning actions
aimed at the renewal of these
realities and conforming
them to the demands of
Christian morality.” (CSDC
#526)
To contextualize and make cre-
ative response to the need of the lo-
cal church, which is predominantly
poor and most of them are product
of migratory phenomenon searching
for the “greener pasture” and of the
Parish Consultation: “Pulsuhan ang kasalukuyang sitwasyon ng ating lipunan: Paano
natin matutugunan?”; the Diocesan thrust of building the Church of the Poor.
Social Concern
Diocese of Novaliches:
“Making All Things New
(Omnia Nova Facio)
Towards a Fullness of Life”
By Sr. Elizabeth Pedernal, MSCS
Pastoral Care of Migrants joins the national celebration to give emphasis on the needs of the present migration phenomenon
mass movement due to inadequate
presence of work in the countryside,
the pastoral concern, ministries and
commissions had been working
collaboratively for their welfare.
To further give answer to the
need of the Local Church as indicated
in the urban poor summit and in our
vision and mission, the pastoral re-
direction and setting of category
needs to be in place—which is also
based on the priestly, prophetic and
kingly role of the Church. The
spread-flat ministries were catego-
rized based on their services/
apostolate orientation which are: The
Liturgical Commission, the Forma-
tion/ Evangelization Commission
and the Social Action Commission.
All of these commissions are an-
chored on vision, mission thrust: the
building of basic ecclesial communi-
ties (BEC) which is a form of being a
new church.
• Liturgical commission mainly works
for the spiritual formation, liturgi-
cal and worship.
• The Evangelization commission is
more of the formation, education
and evangelization. The executive
members of the commission are:
Catechetical Ministry, Biblical
Apostolate, Vocation Animation,
Youth Ministry, Campus Ministry,
Charismatic Movement and Edu-
cation committee of all the minis-
tries. At present, there are move-
ments of promoting the inter-
disciplinarity of all ministries to ar-
rive in one direction and consoli-
dated formation of all the pastoral
agents, workers and volunteers. In
this way, effective education of
Catholic Faith will result. They look
after the continuous formation of
the catholic faith so that it would
be effective instrument toward so-
cial transformation. On Sept. 29-30,
2006 is the first general assembly
of the commission to arrive com-
mon direction on the formation,
education and evangelization, set
goal/ role as a commission in line
with the VMG of the Diocese and
Evangelization in the New Millen-
nium, to see how the different for-
mation programs can complement
one another and form a Diocesan
Formation Team that will come from
the ministries and vicari-
ates. They will undergo formation
and start acting as resource per-
sons of the diocese.
• The Caritas Novaliches which is the
Social Service Arm of the Diocese
performs its mission of integral
evangelization through social de-
velopment and service. It subsid-
iary ministries such as
1. Social Services and Devel-
opment Ministry (SSDM) focuses on
Health, Nutrition and Feeding
(Hapag-Asa), Educational Assis-
tance Program, Livelihood, Capabil-
ity Building and others.
• Hapag-asa Integrated feeding Pro-
gram
• Health Clinics
•EAP (Education Assistance Pro-
gram)
There are active religious con-
gregations which are directly work-
ing in the social services and directly
serving the poor:
The Servants of Charity or bet-
ter known as Guanellian serves the
people with disability and having an
integrated program for them. The
nutrition and feeding are given, clin-
ics and therapy are held, integrated
with livelihood eco-gardening as-
sisted by heifer foundation and
Assisi foundation.
Another initiative joint project
of the diocese and of the Franciscan
Missionaries of Mary ( FMM) is the
Tahian ng Nova or better known as
Sagip Buhay. It is a sewing livelihood
program, an integrated program
which caters families of urban poor.
The clinic of the Missionaries
of Charity caters the urban poor fami-
lies. They have also their Botica
which produces herbal medicines be-
ing processed by the people them-
selves.
2. The Public Affairs Ministry is
commissioned to be the advocate
and the conscience of the people
especially in political education with
Parish Pastoral Council for Respon-
sible Voting (PPCRV). Its main task
is to promote social awareness of the
faithful especially reading the signs
of the times. At present, the minis-
try is zeroing on the preparation of
the volunteers or people who are
committed and with capacity and
availability to be trainers for the
His Excellency Bishop Antonio Tobias, DD with Fr. Tony Labiao, VIcar General – Pastoral
at the opening of the Laity Formation Series “Celebrating the Gospel of Life”: Promoting
the Dignity of Life and Human Person”
11
PPCRV Voters Academy (PVA). The
political situation in our country to-
day demands that PPCRV be pre-
pared well for the May 2007 elections
including any eventualities that will
necessitate the Filipino voters to
make stand for authentic democracy
and common good (cf. Compendium
of the Social Doctrine of the Church
# 407).
3. The Pastoral Care of Women
and Children is commission that
looks after the welfare of the women
and children. Their program and ser-
vices are: formation of the commu-
nity volunteers, networking with
other agencies, training for trainors
given to selected child rights advo-
cates.
4. The Pastoral Care of Migrants
promotes the rights and welfares of
the overseas foreign workers and
their families left behind. Programs
and services are promotion of mi-
grants’ rights, formation of pastoral
agents and parish volunteers, coun-
seling and structure building in the
vicariate and parishes. Lobbying for
the repeal of the RA 8042 # 29.
5. The Restorative Justice which
is familiarly known as Prison Minis-
try works in collaboration with the
RJ-CM. This ministry to the prison-
ers is made possible because of the
many dedicated volunteers who look
after the welfare of the prisoners.
6. The Eco-Nova or the Ecol-
ogy and Organic Gardening of
Novaliches responds to the need of
promoting the care of mother earth
and promote organic gardening in
the city. A pilot nursery garden is
located at Bagong Silangan. It also
supports the cause of making La
Mesa Dam Watershed a protected
area.
7. The Ministry to the Persons
with Disability responds to the needs
of the impaired persons. This devel-
ops their capability building to bet-
ter enhance their esteem and perform
just like normal individuals.
8. The Natural Family Planning
enables young couples and youth
to be empowered by knowing their
potential in planning their families in
a natural way. This program pro-
motes awareness of individuals on
their capacity to design their own life
according to the plan of God.
9. The Pastoral Care for the Sick
is a special ministry that caters to
the sick who are at the hospitals and
private homes.
Conclusion
In view of the Social Concern
Year and on the belief that the work
for social justice is an integral part
of the preaching of the Gospel, this
year is ardently dedicated to the in-
ventory of parish programs in the
context of the Social Teachings of
the Church. Thus to further
strengthen the social services of the
diocese, every vicariate is called to
set up a social action center that will
facilitate the social services espe-
cially to the poor.
The journey is long towards
making all things new—especially on
the area of social justice. But this we
will do for the greater glory of God.

12
Pastoral Statement on the Celebration of
National Family Week
“Family be strong with the strength of God!”
- John Paul II, Letter to Families
Beloved People of God:
AS the Church joins the nation in the
celebration of National Family Week,
we call on all families to a deeper reflec-
tion on the identity and mission of the
Filipino family as the basic cell of the
Church and Society and the point of
reference for the social, political, eco-
nomic and religion-based ideal relation-
ships of the Filipino people and the
Philippines as a nation.
The family does not owe its foun-
dation to any organization, but directly
to the will of God. It is a natural institu-
tion, antecedent to any political or ju-
ridical organization. The authentic de-
velopment of the human person reveals
in each of us the image of a child of
God. No living being on earth except
man was created “in the image and like-
ness of God” (Gen 1:26).
Human fatherhood and mother-
hood, though biologically similar to
that of other living beings in nature,
contain in an essential and unique way
a “likeness” to God which is the basis
of the family as a community of per-
sons united in love. (Letter to Fami-
lies, John Paul II, February 22, 1994, n.
Text and Context / from p6
borrow from Socrates, “the nature
is invisible but not less real.” Plato
adds to that—”The nature of the
thing is as real as the thing itself.”
Forty six chromosomes at concep-
tion are as real as it can get. Even if
Science cannot see it yet.
In that Committee in Congress, a
new mantra was emerging among some
quarters and it goes like this—any de-
liberate human act which could pre-
vent the early human embryo from
reaching the womb or clinging to it
will violate no law, moral or otherwise,
for until “it” is anchored to the womb,
“it” has no rights. Meanwhile, until
“it” has been anchored, the woman
cannot be said to be pregnant.” Oth-
ers who are similarly minded are wont
to add—”It” must be born first; only
upon birth can “it” acquire rights.
Do I hear a collective gasp? Or are
you also thinking—how can “it” be
born and claim its rights if it was de-
prived of any chance at all to grow in
the womb?
Try uttering that strange mantra
to a world that declared in the Conven-
tion on the Rights of the Child that “the
child, by reason of his physical and
Issues and Concerns / from p7
has taken notice of the right to pri-
vacy, which protects the private lives
of families and individuals. Discre-
tion, discrimination and careful judg-
ment ought to be applied in the prepa-
ration of the news whenever public
good is at stake.
Being in media, they say, is a
thankless job as one’s got to pound
Message
6). The marriage covenant established
between a man and a woman is a sym-
bol of God’s love for His people and
Christ for His Church (Eph 5:25-26).
Because the transmission of divine life
presumes the transmission of human
life, marriage not only brings about the
birth of human children, but also,
through the power of Baptism, the birth
of adopted children of God, who live
the life received from Christ through his
Spirit. (Letter to Families, n.18)
The family is the true origin of hu-
man and Christian development, and
the renewal of society. To the family is
entrusted the task of unleashing the
forces of good, the source of which is
found in Christ alone. Every family
needs to make these forces their own
so that Philippine culture may be “evan-
gelized in depth, true values acknowl-
edged, the rights of men and women
defended, and justice promoted in the
very structures of society”. (Apostolic
Exhortation, Familiaris Consortio, The
Role of the Christian Family in the Mod-
ern World, November 22, 1981, n. 8).
To use a phrase spoken on the occa-
sion of the Millennium of Christianity
in Poland, the family must be “strong
mental immaturity needs special safe-
guards and care, including appropri-
ate legal protection before as well as
after birth”.
Or tell it with impunity to the faces
of the noble men and women who wrote
into the 1987 Constitution the breath-
taking mandate that the State “shall
equally protect the life of the mother
and the unborn child from concep-
tion?”
Or try telling it to your niece in High
School who has not gotten over that
soul-searing awe and reverence that
comes with her discovery of the magi-
cal beginnings of human life.
Let puny man intone that mantra
to God, with a straight face.
Better still, why don’t we ponder
on this question—Can the State decree
the time as to when you start existing?
For if you do not fall within its defini-
tion, you are just in limbo, a floating
“something”, an alien, an intruder in the
woman’s body, hence, may not claim
any protection. If someone out there
thinks that the State can do that, kindly
give God a copy of that new law.
(Readers’ views are welcome at
jo_lifewatch@yahoo.com)
the beat even on Christmas day.
Broadcasters instead of staying safe
in bed during typhoons and coups
either stay on board or on the beat.
Do pray for our media practitioners
that they keep their body and soul
intact despite the downward trend
in the peso’s purchasing power. Do
pray for their safety, too.
with the strength of
God”. (Cardinal
STEFANWYSZYNSKI,
Rodzina Bogiem silna,
Homily delivered at
Jasna Gora, August 26,
1961).
It is in the family
where living stones are
formed for that spiritual
house spoken of by the
Apostle Peter (1 Pet 2:5).
The bodies of the hus-
band and wife are the
dwelling-place of the
Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19).
The family is placed
at the centre of the great
struggle between good
and evil, between life
and death, between love
and all that is opposed
to love. Christian par-
ents must build a moral
universe rooted in the
will of God, where the
child grows in the human
and Christian values
that give life its full mean-
ing. And so the Second
Vatican Council teaches
that “Christian married couples and par-
ents, following their own way, should
support one another in grace all through
life with faithful love, and should train
their children, lovingly received from
God, in Christian doctrine and evangeli-
cal virtues. (Second Vatican Ecumeni-
cal Council, Dogmatic Constitution on
the Church, Lumen Gentium, n.41).
The family however, as an institu-
tion is the object of numerous forces
that seek to destroy it or in some way to
deform it (FC, n.3) and is experiencing a
radical and widespread crisis (Novo
Millennio Ineunte, January 6, 2001, no.
47).
To protect the family “every gov-
erning authority, whether national, re-
gional or local, owes it to itself to have
a family policy which enables families
freely to assume their responsibilities
in contemporary society” (Ethical and
Pastoral Dimensions of Population
Control, May 13, 1994, n. 82). Family
policy would include programs for live-
lihood assistance, providing access to
housing and education and other pro-
grams to assist the family.
Family policy should protect and
preserve a nation’s sovereignty in the
Tidbits / from p7
gathered together in Castel
Gandolfo spoke articulately on the
importance of the parish in the life
of the Catholics. He said: “Baptism
is a newness of life in the sense that,
as well as the gift of biological life,
we need the gift of a meaning for
life that is stronger than death and
that will endure even when, one
day, the parents are no longer alive.
The gift of biological life is justified
only if we can add the promise of a
stable meaning, of a future which,
also in future crises—which we can-
not know—will give value to life so
that it is worth living, worth being
creatures.”
The baptismal font gives life
and meaning; the parish possesses
Laiko Lampstand / from p7
To make it more transparent, the
bidding is done in the presence of
two observers one representing an
NGO and another representing a
professional group related to the
project under bidding. The imple-
menting rules and regulations are
full of procedural details to prevent
occasions of graft. In fact the pro-
cedures are in such detail that one
notices that the over-riding as-
sumption is to “catch the thief.”
What is sad is that all these detailed
precaution is not a sure-fire protec-
tion for abuses like collusion, over-
pricing, and interference by politi-
cians.
A very crucial process, the de-
termination of the approved budget
for the contract (ABC) or the amount
struggle against “contraceptive impe-
rialism” which the delegation of the
Holy See denounced in 1974 during the
International Conference on Population
held in Bucharest. This “contraceptive
imperialism,” violates religious and cul-
tural traditions of family life and harms
families and nations. (Ethical and Pas-
toral Dimensions of Population Con-
trol, May 13, 1994, n. 82).
Furthermore in their implementa-
tion, population control programs uti-
lize government money, laws, incentives
and force to pressure people to have
fewer children using population growth
as a reason to coerce changes in
people’s intimate beliefs and childbear-
ing practices.
Based on moral principles the
Church strongly opposes the “Repro-
ductive Rights/Sexual Rights”Agenda
(inclusive of abortion) in Congress and
its integration in school textbooks.
St. Augustine says that “laws
which threaten the family and the sa-
cred gift of life create the most serious
distortions in the social fabric that weak-
ened societies.” (De Civ. Dei 4.:4)
The Filipino family is blessed in
that so far it has preserved its religious
practices that allow the light of faith to
continue to shine on family life. But the
faith of young people is endangered
by the massive spread of sexual rights
/ reproductive rights propaganda in the
legislature, by local government and in
particular, in school textbooks.
The Church is firmly opposed to
an often widespread form of imparting
sex information dissociated from moral
principles. (FC, 37). The Pontifical
Council on the Family, under the guid-
ance of the late Pope John Paul II, has
provided a practical guide for parents
and educators entitled “The Truth and
Meaning of Human Sexuality” which
summarizes and defines the obligations
of Catholics and Catholic parents.
Families should be the first to take
steps to see that the laws and institu-
tions of the State not only do not of-
fend but support and positively defend
the rights and duties of the family (FC,
44). There are four bills that pose seri-
ous threats to our families due to their
emphasis on population control dis-
guised as “reproductive health”. These
bills are: House Bill 3773, where the gov-
ernment would make the two-child fam-
ily the ideal size and thereby discrimi-
nate against larger families; House Bill
this font by right; the parish priest
administers this sacrament. That is
the central role which the parish
plays in the life of the faithful.
Moreover, the parish has the
table of the Eucharist. To have this
table is a right, not a concession.
Here, Christ’s permanent presence
is celebrated in the daily celebra-
tion of holy Mass. It is around this
table of the Eucharist that the par-
ish priest is given that unique role
of bringing together the families, the
young and the old, men and women,
the rich and the poor, all of them to
pray and celebrate together the
Holy Eucharist. “Nourished by the
Eucharistic bread, the parish grows
in Catholic communion, walks in full
that is published which is calculated
by the Technical Working Group is
done without the presence of any
observer. Hence even with the pres-
ence of dedicated and socially con-
cerned individuals as observers in
the bidding process, the corruption
has been built in the unobserved
processes. Ergo, the observers be-
come deodorizers of a graft-ridden
process. The only way to change
this is to have an amendment of the
law. With the present political im-
passe—the fight between the Sen-
ate, versus the House of Represen-
tatives and the Administration, R.A.
9184 will remain as law with all its
imperfection.
Sinfulness is the root of all
these. No detailed procedures for
CBCP Monitor
Vol. 10 No. 12
September 25, 2006
5285, where the aspects of so-called
“reproductive health,” or birth control,
are added to the civil and political rights
of women; House Bill 634, where same-
sex unions could be allowed; and
House Bill 5012, where companies
would be required to provide free an-
nual seminars on “reproductive health”
to indoctrinate our people.
We need to act with vigilance
against these Bills and support those
proposals pending in Congress that are
pro-family and pro-life which promote
the authentic good of the family. Among
them are: House Bill 5028 of Congress-
man Hermilando Mandanas, which will
grant our public and private health
workers their conscience rights, so that
they can protest against any birth con-
trol program imposed on them; House
Bill 4643 of Congressman Rene Velarde,
which will make illegal the use of abor-
tifacient drugs and devices; House Bill
1245 of Congressman Rozzano Rufino
Biazon, limiting marriage to natural-born
men and women; House Bill 216 of Con-
gressman Rozzano Rufino Biazon, of-
fering free marriage counseling for en-
gaged couples; and House Bill 5327 of
Congressman Eduardo Zialcita, offer-
ing pregnancy care centers supported
by the government.
The family is fundamental to what
Pope Paul VI called the “civilization of
love” (Letter to Families, n.13). In dis-
covering the family as the “sanctuary
of life” (John Paul II, Evangelium Vi-
tae, On the Value and Inviolability of
Human Life, March 25, 1995, n. 92) men
and women can be freed from the “cul-
ture of death.”
Together with efforts aimed at es-
tablishing family policies, the inherent
value of each child as a human being
must be proclaimed. In the face of popu-
lation trends, everyone is invited to put
to good use the talents given by the
Creator to realize personal development
and to contribute in an original way to
the development of the community. In
the final analysis, God created man to
make him a partner in his Divine Plan of
Life and Love.
Fraternally in the Lord, our Life and
Truth,
Most Rev. Paciano B. Aniceto, D.D.
Chairman, CBCP Episcopal Commis-
sion on Family and Life
September 25, 2006
fidelity to the magisterium and is al-
ways ready to receive and discern
the different charisms that the Lord
inspires in the People of God,” thus
affirmed the Holy Father. And he
continued: “From constant union
with Christ, the parish draws vigor
to commit itself ceaselessly in the
service of brothers, particularly the
poor, for whom it is in fact the first
point of reference” (Benedict XI,
Discourse to Sacred Congregation
of the Council of the Laity, Septem-
ber 24, 2006, Castel Gandolfo).
Such is the dignity of the lowly
parish. It has an irreplaceable role
in the spiritual life of Catholics in
the place where it is established. To
bypass it is a mistake.
control can eradicate graft and cor-
ruption in such an activity as pro-
curement since this is the main
source of money for the election
campaign of politicians. The World
Bank asserts that 30% of funds al-
lotted for infrastructure projects go
to the pockets of politicians.
While new and improved gov-
ernment systems must be introduced
to enhance transparency and pin-
point accountability, the spirituality
dimension, that is, following Christ’s
call to mission and Christian disciple-
ship is the answer. LAIKO’s train-
ing of lay leaders—the formation
towards becoming a Community of
Disciples still has primary relevance
in any effort of the Church towards
social transformation.
 CBCP Monitor
Vol. 10 No. 12
September 25, 2006
Statement of the
5th International
Consultation
Meeting on the
Filipino Ministry
Worldwide
WE, the Filipino Chaplains and Pas-
toral Workers ministering the differ-
ent migrant Filipino communities
from various parts of the world, to-
gether with the Chairman and Execu-
tive Secretary and the staff of the
Episcopal Commission for the Pas-
toral Care of Migrants and Itinerant
Peoples (ECMI) of the Catholic Bish-
ops’ Conference of the Philippines
(CBCP) and some diocesan ministers
for migrants from the Philippines for
four days, have gathered, shared, and
exchanged ideas on the pastoral ex-
periences, issues and concerns of the
Filipino migrants.
The meeting included a dia-
logue with some officials of the gov-
ernment whose agencies are directly
involved with Filipino migration to
raise issues and concerns of Filipino
overseas. Among them were from the
Department of Labor and Employ-
ment Agency (DOLE); Philippine
Overseas Employment Administra-
tion (POEA); Overseas Workers
Welfare Administration (OWWA);
Office of the Undersecretary of Mi-
grant Workers Affairs (OUMWA) of
the Department of Foreign Affairs
(DFA); Philhealth, National Commis-
sion on Culture and Arts (NCCA) and
Commission on Filipinos Overseas
(CFO) of the Office of the President.
FROM the moral standpoint, we,
your Bishops, continue to express
our concern over the kind of de-
mocracy that we are practicing,
whether this leads us to attain the
common good. The Compendium
of the Social Doctrine of the
Church states:
“The Church values the
democratic system inas-
much as it ensures the par-
ticipation of the citizens in
making political choices,
guarantees to the gov-
erned the possibility both
of electing and holding
accountable those who
govern them, and of re-
placing them through
peaceful means when ap-
propriate.” (Centessimus
Annus, #46)
Charter Change, changing
our Constitution, is such a seri-
ous matter for the entire country,
because it will determine the fu-
ture of our people. Thus we must
make the widest consultation on
it for adequate information, dis-
cussion and education. That is
why we disagree with the so-
called “people’s initiative” which
appeared only as a “signature
campaign” without focus on the
real intention. The CBCP sub-
scribes to the allegation that the
“people’s initiative” is an initia-
tive of the ruling power, and not
genuinely of the people. From the
moral standpoint, it is clothed
Statements
Two private organizations pre-
sented services and programs of
their own initiatives in the consulta-
tion meeting.
The assembly was also an oc-
casion of prayer and discernment
and a real chance to assess the Fili-
pino migration and its challenges to
evangelization, following the theme
of the consultation meeting, “Ap-
praising the Filipino Diaspora and
its Challenges to Evangelization.”
It has brought the participants to the
following realization:
1. That the Church has shown great
concern in the growing migration
phenomenon worldwide and is-
sued Erga Migrantes Caritas
Christi;
2. That the Philippine Church and
society is growing more aware of
the Filipino migration including its
social costs as a very significant
part of the people’s lives;
3. While the Church does not encour-
age or promote migration, it con-
tinues to encourage Filipino mi-
grants to be evangelizers and
make efforts to establish ministry
to the migrants at the diocesan
level;
4. That we appreciate the generous
efforts of receiving churches to
provide pastoral care to Filipino
with suspicion. And so we ask: is it
really for the people and the com-
mon good? We leave to our well-
informed lawyers the legal argu-
ments.
Holding a Constitutional Con-
vention will be very expensive, as it
will cost several billion pesos. But
it is worth spending that much for
something that is good for the great-
est number. A Constitutional Con-
vention will be a better political exer-
cise than convening congressmen as
a Constituent Assembly which is
something that can easily become
self-serving. The government has
spent enormously to cheating and
graft and corruption.
We maybe spending or losing
much more than that through gov-
ernment overspending and cheating
and graft and corruption, which are
very difficult to assess and account.
If it is worth several billion pesos, it
is worth spending in an honest way.
A Constitutional Convention will be
a better political exercise than the
present powers-that-be, our Con-
gress, making themselves a Constitu-
ent Assembly that can easily become
self-serving.
It is said that the presidential
form of government is a source of
corruption among other things. We
should ask a different question: Is it
the presidential form that is the
source of corruption, or the people
in authority who corrupt and abuse
the system? Any form of govern-
ment will have its positive and nega-
overseas;
5. That we recognize the heroic ef-
forts of the limited number of pas-
toral workers abroad;
6. That Filipino migrants encounter
different realities and challenges
which requires specific and appro-
priate pastoral care in various
parts of the world;
7. That the Philippine government
has made labor migration a signifi-
cant part of its economic policy
and has targeted one million over-
seas jobs annually;
With these realizations, we hum-
bly put forward the following recom-
mendations:
To the Church in the Philip-
pines—
1. To intensify awareness on migra-
tion phenomenon in the church
and on the recent Vatican instruc-
tion Erga Migrantes Caritas
Christi;
2. To establish effective ministry for
migrants and their families at the
diocesan level;
3. To collaborate with government
agencies to ensure that values and
faith formation are included in pre-
paring departing migrants in pro-
viding pre-employment orientation
seminar (PEOS) and pre-departure
orientation seminar (PDOS);
tive characteristics; but the people
who run the government are very
crucial; they can either corrupt it or
make it serve the common good. Any
system or form of government in the
hands of honest, just and incorrupt-
ible people will be a source of good
for the governed. Will the parliamen-
tary- unicameral form of government
not be corrupted by the people who
will create it?
It is in this light that we have
made our position clear on Charter
Change from the moral standpoint,
and we reiterate it:
“Changing the Constitution,
involving major shifts in the
form of government, requires
widespread participation, to-
tal transparency and relative
serenity that allows for ratio-
nal discussion and debate.
This is best done through a
Constitutional Convention.”
(CBCP, January 2006)
Heeding the exhortation of Pope
Benedict XVI in Deus Caritas Est that
the Church “is called to contribute to
the purification of reason” (# 29), we
would like to ask these and similar
questions to guide the discussion,
discernment and debate on the char-
ter change. Are you convinced that
the Charter Change as presently pre-
sented by our governing politicians
is really for the common good? Are
you convinced that the “people’s ini-
tiative” is genuinely the people’s ac-
tivity, and has its real source in the
people? Do you want our legislators
4. To offer opportunities for deepen-
ing spirituality and skills develop-
ment for chaplains and pastoral
workers in migrant ministry;
5. To maintain critical collaboration
with government agencies to ad-
vocate for the welfare, rights and
dignity of migrants.
To the receiving Churches—
1. To continue providing appropri-
ate pastoral programs for Filipinos
in their respective territories;
2. To advocate for the protection,
welfare and rights of migrants in
their countries.
To the chaplains and pastoral
workers—
1. To focus on nurturing the Catho-
lic faith of the second and subse-
quent generation immigrants;
2. To strengthen coordination and
collaboration with each other and
ECMI through regular information
exchange and communication
tools;
3. To show interest in participating
in yearly national meetings, bi-an-
nual regional meetings and inter-
national meetings every three
years;
4. To foster appreciation of Filipino
culture and heritage through
socio-cultural activities and other
related initiatives;
ON CHARTER CHANGE AND
THE COMMON GOOD
(A Pastoral Exhortation)
to convert themselves into a Constitu-
ent Assembly where they alone will
rewrite our Constitution, and have it
only approved by us in a plebiscite?
Is it enough to say YES to Charter
Change?
We are in a democracy. Should
not then the citizenry be made to
participate by electing their del-
egates to a Constitutional Conven-
tion?
These are the questions we
13
5. To encourage the migrants’ phil-
anthropic spirit.
To the Philippine government—
1. To enforce vigorously existing
government policies on recruit-
ment and deployment of OFWs;
2. To be more vigilant in anti-traffick-
ing measures and campaign
against illegal recruitment;
3. To promote and support multi-
agency response to the care of mi-
grants and their families including
research and studies on migration
issues and concerns;
4. To address the real causes that
lead Filipino migration such as
poverty and unemployment
Inspired by the virtue of St.
Lorenzo Ruiz of Manila, the patron
of Filipino migrants and guided by
our baptismal call to service, we con-
tinue to commit ourselves to the Fili-
pino migrants and immigrants and
their families in the pursuit of living
the values of the Gospel. We pray
for continued guidance of the Holy
Spirit, and we implore that the
Blessed Mother pray for us as we
accompany the Filipinos who work
and live in foreign lands.
(The 5 th International Consultation Meet-
ing on the Filipino Ministry Worldwide was
held on September 11-15, 2006 in Tagaytay
City, Philippines)
© www.bayan.ph
would like our people in our dio-
ceses and parishes to participate
in answering regarding so serious
a matter as Charter Change.
For the Catholic Bishops’ Confer-
ence of the Philippines,
+ANGEL N. LAGDAMEO, D.D.
Archbishop of Jaro
President, CBCP
September 14, 2006

14
Pope Benedict’s Tough
Love Approach—the
Final Solution
By Fr. Romuald P. Zantua, D.S.
ALMOST thirty years ago in
Manhattan, New York, I par-
ticipated in a “crisis interven-
tion” session for a young
member of my parish who was
a confirmed drug addict.
We were five “interve-
nors,” organized by Dr. Ruth
Maxwell, the author of the
book, Crisis Intervention (ac-
tually a book more for alco-
holics than drug addicts).
We were chosen because of
the significant role each of us
played in the addict’s life. It
was a well “scripted” session.
Each one was briefed and re-
hearsed the day before the “I-
Day” on what to say. Our team
included the drug addict’s par-
ents, his boss, his girl friend,
and myself.
Invited to that hotel–
room session, without him
knowing the purpose of the
meeting was the addict him-
self. It was meant to be a sur-
prise “ultimatum” for him, with
a ready, pre-paid, one-way air-
line ticket to Minneapolis. It
was a take-it-or- leave-it
proposition. We were told to
confront the addict only with
hard facts, with dates, time,
etc., facts which were difficult
to refute because they were
true. It was part of “truth
therapy”. The parents were to
bluntly say: “You have stolen
this and that and sold them
for drugs. We want you out
of the house if you don’t
change.” The boss was told
to say, “I’m fed up with you.
You either shape up or ship
out. Get a treatment now or you
are fired.” His girlfriend was
also prepared to say, “Get help
now or goodbye.” And I,
should he finally refuse help
and attempt to rush out of the
room, would stand between
Bo Sanchez
Hold Hands
Boy and girl.
Sweet young things.
Around their late
teens.
Both walking in front
of me, lost in their world of
cute cupids, beating
hearts, and chocolate
cream cakes with caramel
toppings.
They walk as if walk-
ing on air, hand in hand.
Hip to hip.
Shoulder to shoulder.
Eye to eye.
Nose to nose.
Bad breath to bad
breath.
him and the door and, while
blocking his exit, pronounce
the final verdict: “If you pass
through this door, you go to
hell!” Our facilitator, Dr. Max-
well herself gave me those
lines. They were not exactly
incontestable facts, but our
“tough love approach”
worked. He was brought to the
airport direct to a drug-rehab
for six months. Apparently he
got well because the next year
he married the same girl.
The most recent ap-
proach of Pope Benedict to a
global problem of terrorism
which until now governments
have failed to even make a dent
against, was imbedded in an
esoteric talk to scientists and
professors in his native Ba-
varia. He used as a spring
board an obscure passage
from a 14th Century Byzantine
emperor in a dialogue with a
Persian scholar. In his conclu-
sion, he made a gentle but
forceful non-political religious
statement that “violence is in-
compatible with the nature of
God and the soul.” For that
very reason spreading the
faith through the sword is un-
reasonable. Jihad is irrational.
It cannot be from God. If holy
war is irrational and not from
God it must therefore be inhu-
man and evil in itself. These
last unquoted lines are my
own logical paraphrasing of
his simple but incontestable
words, true and applicable to
any religion or faith affiliation,
whether it’s a small band of
suicidal Jones-like Christians,
a Japanese version of it, or
an extremist group of Islamic
suicide bombers.
Consistent with the Holy
Father’s most recent commen-
tary, is another statement of
But do they mind?
Of course not. They’re in
luv.
I watch this scene with
amusement one night, while
going home from one prayer
meeting.
At my side was another
couple walking home.
Friends of mine.
Not so young.
With three kids. (The el-
dest is twenty-three years
old.)
Grandparents in the mak-
ing, really.
In fact, the guy’s balding.
Reflections
New Evangelization
By Fr. Roy Cimagala
THE expression, “new evan-
gelization,” has been around
for quite some time now. Pope
John Paul II in his 26-year
pontificate had been talking a
lot about it, and, mind you, he
was not the first one to do so.
It’s not new anymore. It’s
rather old and, in my view,
even tired. But the concept will
always remain new and rel-
evant. There’s no doubt about
that.
Jesus Christ, who is at the
center of it all, can never be-
come obsolete. He is the one
who will make everything new.
He can even make the dead
rise to life again. So, relax,
there’s no reason to despair,
no matter how bad the picture
may look.
The problem is us. We are
not doing what we ought to
do about it. There is so much
laziness, ignorance,
lukewarmness, doctrinal con-
fusion. There is mad pursuit for
earthly pleasures, a veritable
systematic effort to “protect”
oneself from God. It’s today’s
version of people building their
own Tower of Babel.
And if there is some
flicker of interest, it is
promptly spoiled by petty
quarrels, envies and a strong
crab mentality, if not by sheer
incompetence and naked
pride and vanity. It’s really a
shame.
The truth is evangeliza-
tion will always be an activity
of the Church, a duty of every
Christian faithful, that is, the
clergy, the laity and the reli-
gious. But how many realize
this, and how seriously do we
take it?
As St. Paul once said:
“Woe to me if I don’t preach
the gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16). Pope
his made on the first day of
the year, the World Day of
Prayer for Peace. He said that
terrorism is nihilistic and an
act of desperation. His words
then and now were not mere
rhetoric, nor a cheap shot
against Islam. They were
words carefully crafted by a
theologian who also happens
to be now the universal
teacher of the Church. The
Pope boldly aimed at a seri-
ous dialogue with Islam, based
on facts, based on truths
about God and Man and the
world. He applied “tough
love,” hurtful and insensitive
There’s nothing on top except
a few overstaying weeds. Air-
planes can land in and out
without a problem. He can
sing, “Shine Jesus shine” with
superb visual effects. He com-
pensates by his bushy eye-
brows, combing them up-
wards as far as possible.
The woman on the other
hand is gifted, endowed, and
abundant. Through her, the
vastness of the Kingdom is
displayed. She has cellulite
deposits with interest com-
pounded daily. Indeed, she
receives all that life has to of-
fer her. But to her embarrass-
ment, people always ask her,
“When are you giving birth?”
But this fiftyish couple
does something that blows my
mind.
They walk hand in hand
Paul VI paraphrased this by
saying: “Evangelization is the
grace and vocation proper to
the Church, her deepest iden-
tity. She exists in order to
evangelize.”
When Pope
John Paul talked
about the new
evangeliza-
tion,
wanted us,
he
b o t h
clergy and
laity, to
find a new
f e r v o r,
n e w
methods,
and new
expres-
sions in
proclaiming
and giving
witness to
Christ, given
the rapid flow of
developments nowa-
days. But what have we done
about this indication?
The first thing to remem-
ber is that this new evangeli-
zation can only be done as a
result of a vibrant spiritual life
of intimate, personal relation-
ship with Jesus. This is indis-
pensable. There’s no other
way.
How can we talk about
God and his things if we don’t
talk to him and earnestly as-
similate his teachings?
Modern man especially
has developed the knack to
distinguish what is authentic
from what is not, given the
amount of sales talk he is ex-
posed to these days. So we
need to be authentic evange-
lizers, who first live by what we
preach before evangelizing.
All effort at evangeliza-
perhaps to feelings, but defi-
nitely effective and salutary.
After last year’s irrational
burning of embassies and
flags and violent deaths fol-
lowing the publication of an
artist’s drawings, nobody
since then ever dared to criti-
cize the excesses of a small
group that held the world hos-
tage. Until, of course, the read-
ing of those supposedly tact-
less and unwise words. They
were words motivated by
love—tough love indeed.
More power to people like
him, tough lovers with reason
and hope.
as well.
And their
handholding is so different
from the way the young
lovebirds in front of me
hold hands.
This time, I know it
isn’t just a cutey-sweety
symbol. It’s proven. Full.
Real. Unquestionable.
Pregnant! (With meaning!)
Backed up by twenty-five
years of cooking meals,
washing dishes, doing the
laundry, and raising bratty
kids.
Stop reading. And
hold the hand of your
spouse. Your mom. Your
dad. Your friend. And prove
it for the next twenty-five
years.
And beyond.
CBCP Monitor
Vol. 10 No. 12
September 25, 2006
us can see and hear Christ who
asks us to evangelize.
All the creativity needed
in this task in the present con-
text can and should flow only
from such fount. Otherwise,
all efforts will just go to waste.
tion has to start with prayers, They cannot be expected to
with serious study. It has to last nor to bear much fruit, etc.
be nourished by a life of sac- The challenge here is
raments and continuing how to make people feel the
ascetical struggle, developing presence of God and realize
virtues and assimilating the command of Christ. The
values in their laity especially should more
proper hierar- keenly feel their duty to par-
chy. ticipate more actively in this
This task of evangelization.
is the
o n l y
In this regard, the lay
people who are immersed in
way to
acquire
the world are especially ex-
pected to bring the message
some
traces
and spirit of Christ to all the
corners of the world. That’s
why they have to be truly
o f
cred- adept in this task. That’s their
ibility challenge today.
and to They are especially cru-
c o n - cial in evangelizing marriage
vince and the family, the educational
others world, culture and entertain-
that we are ment, business and politics in
not simply all levels, from the local to the
transmitting national and the international.
our own ideas, Aside from praying,
but the teachings studying and really trying to
and even the very life of be holy, they need to know
Christ. very well the social doctrine
Just as Christ said that of the Church, which is that
anyone who sees him sees his aspect of the Christian faith
Father who sent him, we that impacts with man’s life
should so live and act that and responsibilities in the
anyone who sees and hears world.
FROM THE INBOX
Criticizing the Pope
Pope Benedict’s depiction of Islam as a religion that
espouses violence in pursuit of its goals is based on
historical facts that persist as a socio-political reality more
so today. The use of violence as a means to spread Islam
and apply koranic principles is best exemplified by the
Islamic concept of “jihad”. While this concept has a
broader meaning, the application of jihad in history has
been associated mainly with military or physical struggle
against the “infidels”. When such concepts are routinely
applied as standard courses of action i.e. military and
physical struggle including terrorists acts, then the con-
cept of jihad alone satisfies the basis of empirical anal-
ogy as stated truthfully by the Holy Father in his schol-
arly discourse in Germany.
The New York Times usual bent for liberal thinking
may appear popular or even fashionable in criticizing the
Pope’s scholarly critique of Islam. However, such liberal-
ism denies justice and appreciation of historical and
present socio-political realities in the world we live in. It
is a mockery of the very concept liberalism and free speech
that fuels the unbridled purpose of western media. Is-
lamic concepts and its applications must be addressed
and revealed as realistically and factual as it is practical.
Liberalism should not be confused and tolerated by aid-
ing counter cultures or faith, that challenges the very
fundamentals of liberty, justice and our very way of life
and most specially our own set of beliefs.
The preaching of Christianity in Saudi Arabia and
most parts of the Islamic world are deemed illegal and
severely punished. Women’s rights and their prospects
for personal advancement are severely curtailed. Con-
version of “infidels” purports the use of violence as an
accepted means. To kill or die for Islam is the highest
state of heroism and handsomely rewarded with a prom-
ised companionship of 72 virgins - are all founded on
Koranic teachings. Hijacking airplanes with hundreds of
non-combatants on board and smashing these on civil-
ian targets are cheered and its proponents revered as
heroes in the Islamic world. Should these facts be hid-
den behind the guise of liberalism or should this kind of
radicalism be abhorred? It is lamentable that the Holy
Father’s scholarly lecture drew undeserved criticisms
especially from the Islamic world. The magnitude and
brazenness of which reveals that we as Catholics must
stand ready to grow our faith to defend it.
The day of reckoning may be forthcoming and let us
hope and pray for our deliverance as a free nation under
God.
Manny S.D. Lopez
Los Angeles, California
CBCP Monitor
Vol. 10 No. 12
September 25, 2006
Title: PENGUIN, PENGUIN PANO KA
GINAWA?
Running Time: 85
Lead Cast: Sharon Cuneta (Narrator)
Translations: Chris Martinez, Eugene
Evasco
Producers: Yves Danradeau, Christo-
pher Liousd, Emmanuel Priou
Screenwriter: Michel Fessler, Luc
Jacques
Music: Emilie Simon
Editor: Sabine Emiliani
Genre: Documentary
Cinematography: Laurent Chalet,
Jerome Maison
Distributor: Unico Entertainment
Location: Antartica
Technical Assessment:
Moral Assessment:
CINEMA Rating: For viewers of all ages
SA gitna ng nagyeyelong
kontinente ng Antartica, susundan
ng dokumentaryo ang paglalakbay
ng mga Emperor penguin sa
kanilang breeding cycle sa loob ng
walong buwan. Sa pagpasok ng
Marso, ang simula ng panahon ng
tag-lamig, maglalakbay ang iba't
ibang tribu ng penguin ng ilang
lingo papunta sa kanilang breed-
ing ground. Makikita kung
paanong ang mga ibong ito ay
nagliligawan at nanatiling tapat sa
kanilang mapipiling asawa sa loob
ng siklo at kung paanong
maghahati at magpapalitan sa pag-
aaruga ng mga supling mula sa
pagka itlog hanggang maging
inakay. At sa gitna ng pagganap
sa kanilang tungkulin bilang mga
magulang, sasabakin ng ina at ama
ang matitinding pagsubok ng
panahon, pagkagutom ng ilang
buwan at mga maninilang na
hayop. Pagsapit na ng Disyembre,
panahon ng tag-araw, iiwanan na
ng mga magulang ang kanilang
malalaking inakay upang
maghanda na sa susunod nilang
breeding cycle. Ang mga inakay
naman ay mabubuhay sa dagat ng
limang taon at pagkatapos ay
susunod na rin sa yapak ng
kanilang mga magulang sa
taunang paglalakbay upang
makabuo ng munting pamilya.
Maganda ang pelikula dahil
bukod sa napakayaman nito sa
impormasyon ay nailahad nito ang
katotohanan ng mga kurot sa
damdamin. Kagiliw-giliw ang
pagsasalarawan sa buhay ng mga
penguin at mahusay ang
pagkakapili at pagtatahi ng mga
eksena. Kabibiliban din ang
kakayahan ng mga tao sa likod ng
produksyon na kunan nang
malapitan at matagalan ang mga
ibon nang hindi nakabubulabog
sa kanilang mga likas na gawain.
Maganda ang pagkakalapat ng
musika na nakadagdag sa
emosyon ng eksena. Tila nga
isang drama ukol sa mga tao ang
pinapanuod dahil sa mahusay na
naratibo nito. Maganda na rin ang
pagsasalin ng teksto at ang
maging ang pagsasadula ni Sharon
CBCPMonitor
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
The CBCP Monitor is published
fortnightly by the CBCP Media Of-
fice, with editorial and business of-
fices at 470 Gen. Luna St.,
Intramuros, Manila. PO Box 3601,
1076 MCPO
• Domestic
1 Year Php400.00
2 Years Php 750.00
• Foreign: Asia
1 Year US$ 55.00
• All Other US$ 80.00
CINEMA Reviews
Cuneta bilang isang narrator.
Kahit isang ibon na walang
kakayanan lumipad, mabibigyan
pugay mo naman ang mga pen-
guin sa kanilang kakayanang
magsakripisyo ng labis alang-
alang sa kanilang mga anak (na
kung minsa'y hindi nagagawa ng
mga tao). Isa marahil ang malinaw
na aral ng palabas. Ang pagtataya
ng mga penguin sa kanilang
bokasyong maging magulang.
Huwag na ang sakrispiyong ng
ilang linggong paglalakbay
patungo sa breeding ground
upang makapagtalik sa mapipiling
asawa dahil ito marahil ay isa sa
pinakapangunahing kalikasan ng
mga hayop. Ang nakabibilib na
pagtuunan ng pansin ay ang
kanilang dedikasyon bilang mga
magulang. Yaong saluhin ng ama
ang paglililim sa itlog habang
naghahanap ng pagkain ang
nanay para sa kanyang sarili at
magiging inakay, yaong tumagal
ang ama ng ilang buwan na
nakatayo sa gitna ng
napakatinding lamig at apat na
buwang gutom mapangalagaan
lamang ang kanilang mga itlog,
yaong suungin ng ina ang
pagbalik sa kanilang mag-ama sa
gitna ng ginaw at kadiliman, yaong
magpapalitan ang mag-asawa sa
pag-aaruga at paghahanap ng
pagkain sa inakay. At ang lalong
nakakaantig ay ang kanilang
katapatan sa pamilya? ang
magulang na matyagang
naghihintay at ang kaparehang
nagsusumikap na maghanap ng
ikabubuhay para sa mga anak.
Ang mga katangiang ito ay isang
panggising sa ating mga tao na
kung minsan ay nakalilimot sa
kahulugan at kagandahan ng
pagiging magulang at
pagkakaroon ng pamilya. Ang
pelikula ay kapupulutan ng
magagandang aral at karapat-
dapat panuorin. Bagama't ang
magandang kaugalian tungkol sa
penguin ay ipinakita lamang ng
mga aquatic birds na tinaguriang
penguin, sila ang nagbibigay
halimbawa na dapat isabuhay ng
mga tao.
Name ___________________________________________
(Family Name) (Given Name)
Mailing Address __________________________________
_________________________________________________
Phone No.: _______ Fax No.: ______ E-mail: __________
Mode of Payment
Check/PMO enclosed Cash Payment
(Payable to: CBCP Communications Development Foundation Inc.)
PLEASE SEND TO:
CBCP Monitor, P.O. Box 3601, Manila, Philippines
470 Gen. Luna St., Intramuros, Manila, Philippines | Tel (632) 404-2182 • Telefax (632) 404-1612
Or e-mail this at cbcpmonitor@cbcpworld.com
Title: ETERNITY
Running Time: 105 mins
Lead Cast : Dingdong Dantes, Iza
Calzado, Mark Herras, Jennylyn
Mercado, Hilda Koronel, Jacklyn
Jose, Bibeth Orteza, Bobby
Andrews, Jaime Fabregas, Pinky
Amador, Paw Diaz, Cheska Inigo
Director : Mark A. Reyes
Producer: Roselle Monteverde
Screenwriter: Gina Marissa Tagasa
Music: Nonong Buencamino
Editor: Alex Castañada
Genre: Drama/Romance
Cinematography: Jay Linao
Distributor: Regal Entertainment
Location: Vigan, Ilocos Sur,
Intramuros Manila
Technical Assessment:
Moral Assessment:
CINEMA Rating: For viewers 14 and above
DALAWANG kwento ng pag-ibig na
isang siglo ang pagitan ang
pinagsalit-salit na hinabi sa Eternity.
Pang-unang hibla ang kuwento ng
mga sawing-palad na
magkasintahang Crisanto (Dingdong
Nantes) at Milagros (Iza Calzado) na
naganap noong sakop pa ng mga
Kastila ang Pilipinas. Pangalawang
hibla naman ang kuwento nina Cholo
(Mark Herras) at Maegan (Jennylyn
Mercado) sa makabagong panahon.
Ipinagbawal ng ina (Hilda Koronel)
ni Milagros na makipagkita ito kay
Crisanto sapagkat ang ama ni Crisanto
ang nakapatay sa rebeldeng ama ni
Milagros. Nabunton ang galit niya
kina Crisanto at sa ina nito (Jaclyn
Jose) na inakusahang isang erehe at
mangkukulam. Inakusahan naman
siya ng ina ni Crisanto na kerida ng
prayle na si Padre Miguel (Jaime
Fabregas). Nang pinagtangkaan ng
Kastilang si Kapitan de Joya (Bobby
Andrews) na gahasain ang
nakukursunadahan niyang si
Milagros ay ipinagtanggol ito ni
Crisanto ngunit binaril siya ng
Kapitan. Nang makitang bangkay ang
kaniyang anak ay isinumpa ng ina nito
si Milagros na sa palagay niya ay ang
dahilan ng maagang pagkamatay ni
Crisanto. Isinumpa niyang muli't
muling mabubuhay si Milagros at di
matatahimik ang kaluluwa nito
hangga't di napagbabayaran ng
kanyang sariling buhay ang kaniyang
kasalanan. Sa makabagong Panahon
naman sina Cholo at Maegan na sa
unang pagtatagpo pa lamang ay
naakit na sa isa't isa na para bang
matagal na silang nagkakilala. Nauulit
Title: SCOOP
Running Time: 45 mins
Lead Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Hugh
Jackman, Woody Allen, Ian McShane
Director: Woody Allen
Producers: L. Aronsor, G. Wailey
Screenwriter: Allen Woody
Editor: Alisa Leselter
Genre : Romantic/Suspense
Cinematography: Remi Adefarasin
Distributor: Focus Features
Location: London, England
Technical Assessment:
Moral Assessment: ½ Sid about Peter. Still, one thing that keeps
CINEMA Rating: For viewers 14 and
above
(Middle Name)
______________________
Signature
sa buhay nila ang mga nangyari kay
Crisanto at Milagros: tutol din sa pag-
iibigan ng dalawa ang kanilang mga
pamilya. Nabatid nila na dahil sa
maling paratang ay napakulong ng
ama ni Cholo ang ama ni Maegan na
ikinamatay nito sa sama ng loob.
Nilapitan si Cholo at Maegan ng isang
medyum o espiritista, si Praxides
(Bibeth Orteza), at ito ang nagbunyag
na naglalagalag pa ang kaluluwa ni
Milagros. Si Maegan lamang ang pag-
asang makatatapos ng misyon,
makatutupad ng pangako, at
makakabali ng sumpa. Ano kaya ang
mangyayari kay Maegan at kay
Cholo? Masasalungat kaya nila ang
sumpa? Paano matatahimik ang
kaluluwa ni Milagros?
Sa mga eksenang kinuha sa
Vigan kung saan pinananatili pa rin
ang kulturang Espanyol na makikikita
sa mga arkitektura ng gusali, bahay,
kalsada, lengguahe, mga kalesa, at
kasuotan ay nagging makatotohanan
ang paglalarawan ng panahong ng
Kastila. Maging ang mga tagpong
ginanap sa Intramuros ay nakatulong
din sa kapani-paniwalang
paglalarawan ng panahon ng
pananakop ng mga Kastila sa ating
bayan. Naaangkop sana ang
mensahe ng himig na In Another Life-
time na inawit ni Gary Valenciano kaya
nga lang ay parang nakakagulat na
Kastila at Filipino ang ginagamit sa
mga kuwento ay bakit naman biglang
kinantahan ng Ingles? Nakatulong
sana sa paglilipat-lipat ng panahon
ng dalawang kuwento kung may
nababagay na tugtugin dito. Mahina
ang pag-balangkas ng mga kuwento
COLLEGE journalism major Sondra
Pransky (Scarlett Johansson) decides to
come up with a scoop for her school pa-
per while she is on holiday in London.
Her first attempt to interview a popular
movie star fails. Then the next day while
taking part as a volunteer in the magic
show of Sid Waterman (Woody Allen),
something happens. While shut up in a
box, for a disappearing--appearing act, the
ghost of the well-known late Joe Strombel
(Ian McShane) appears beside her. He
offers her a sensational scoop: who the
serial killer presently stalking London is,
Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman), son of Lord
Lyman, rich, debonair and a perfect gentle-
man. Having also seen and heard the
ghostly Strombel, Sid agrees to help
Sondra get to meet Peter Lyman by pre-
tending to be father and daughter. As
they begin to know him better through
their social interaction and sleuthing Sid
is sure that Peter is the Tarot Card killer,
but Sondra is definite that the man she is
15
at parang pilit itinutugma ang mga
pangyayari. Madudula at
malulungkot ang mga yugtong
nauukol kina Crisanto at Milagros
samantalang mababaw at nakatatawa
naman ang nakararaming eksena nina
Cholo at Maegan na napakamura pa
para magtangkang magtanan.
Punong-puno ng pagkamuhi,
paghihiganti, at kalupitan ang
kuwento nina Crisanto at Milagros.
Walang nakitang pagpapatawad o
pagkakasundo sa mga nagkakagalit
na humantong nga sa isang
trahedya. Hindi rin maganda ang
paglalarawan ng prayle na si Padre
Miguel na ipinahiwatig na may
kerida at sa halip na tumulong sa
pagkakasundo ng mga nag-aalitan
ay gumagatong pa rito. Mapanganib
ang pagkonsulta sa mga medyum o
espiritista sapagkat malamang na
saniban ng masamang espiritu. Ang
kuwento ay nakabase sa mga temang
paranormal at kababalaghang kagaya
ng reincarnation (muling pagsilang
ng isang kaluluwa sa katawan ng
ibang nilalang) o transmigration of
souls (paglipat-lipat ng kaluluwa sa
ibang katawan), bagay na maaaring
maka-ligaw ng isipan at kuru-kuro ng
mga manonood. Kung panonoorin
ang pelikulang ito, dapat tandaan na
ang mga paniniwalang ito ay hindi
naaayon sa mga doktrinang
Kristiyano. Ayon sa ating
pananampalataya ay muling
mabubuhay ang mga namamatay sa
huling paghuhukom at sa panahong
ito ay hahatulan ang bawat isa ayon
sa kaniyang gawa. May pagka-
romantika ang tema na ang dakilang
pag-ibig ay may kapangyarihang
mapanumbalik ang nakaraan,
maituwid ang pagkakamali, at
maaring ipagpatuloy ang
pagmamahalan sa kabilang-buhay.
Pinaaalalahanan tayo sa
Kristiyanismo na kailangang
maglingkod sa Diyos at sa ating
kapwa sapagkat sa bandang huli ay
magiging batayan ito ng ating
hantungan--kaparusahan o
kaluwalhatiang walang hanggan. Si
Kristo mismo ang nangaral sa atin:
"Ako ang muling pagkabuhay at ang
buhay. Ang sumasampalataya sa
akin, kahit mamatay, ay mabubuhay,
at sino mang nabubuhay at
sumasampalataya sa akin ay di
mamamatay magpakailan man" (Jn.
11:26).
falling in love with could never be the
killer.
Scoop has a storyline that interest-
ingly combines such characters as a
young school senior, a ghost that wants
a case solved, an old magician who de-
cides to help the student and a serial killer
who does not look nor act as one. The
unreeling of the story however, leaves
somethings to be desired. The main ob-
servation is that the movie is dialog-driven,
with long arguments between Sondra and
the viewers' attention is whether he is or
isn't the serial killer. Hugh Jackman and
Scarlett Johansson were convincing as
the perfect gentleman and as the lively
and na?ve chatterbox respectively. The
funny parts and lines did not produce the
expected laughs, especially for the local
audience. The dialogue comes too fast
and too long. This is not one of Director
Woody Allen's better movies.
Scoop is about solving a murder
case. The one given to solve it is a young
lady student, who has no experience solv-
ing crimes. It does not make sense that
she should be put into such a dangerous
situation. If there is something funny (co-
medic) about this, it did not come through.
And then she falls in love with him, which
increases her being in danger. Investiga-
tive Journalism is necessary at times to
bring out the truth and bring about jus-
tice. To get at the truth the following take
place: sexual activity, telling lies and other
forms of deceit. Now, the question is
asked: Should a journalist allow herself
(himself) to go that far to find the truth?
What are the legal and moral boundaries
to be observed?

16
Markings
ELECTED. Rev. Mother Mary Im-
maculate Piedad, HFJ, 53, as Su-
perior General of the Religious
Sisters of the Holy Face of Jesus;
September 15,
2006; by the
Congregation’s
2nd Ordinary
General Chap-
ter held at
H F J Robert Petersen and Jeffrey
Generalate, R.
Hidalgo St., Quiapo, Manila; mak-
ing her the 3rd Superior General of
HFJ. A native of Pila, Laguna,
Piedad joined the HFJ in 1989,
barely three years since the
congregation’s inception in 1986.
Sometime in 1990s, she became the
Directress of Novices at the HFJ’s
Novitiate House, Holy Face Cen-
ter and Convent, Quiapo, Manila.
Prior to her recent election as Su-
perior General, Piedad served as
House Supervisor at the national
headquarters of the Catholic Bish-
ops’ Conference of the Philippines
(CBCP) since 2001. The HFJ con-
gregation, officially known as Holy
Face of Jesus Sisters of Perpetual
Adoration, was founded on Octo-
ber 1, 1986 by the late Mo. Mary
Therese L. Vicente, HFJ, a former
Carmelite nun, based on such
charism of “contemplation of the
Holy Face of Jesus and of His pres-
ence in the Holy Eucharist”. At
present, the congregation has mis-
sion houses in Mexico, Pampanga
and Alaminos, Pangasinan. The
HFJ sisters also work in San
Roque de Manila Parish, Sta. Cruz,
Manila and at the Catholic Bish-
ops Conference of the Philippines,
Intramuros, Manila.
CELEBRAT-
ING. Congrega-
tion of the
Alexian Broth-
ers (CFA); 25th
anniversary in
the Philippines;
October 2, 2006.
The establishment of CFA’s Phil-
ippine mission started in 1981
Pope Pleased with Human Life and
Family Apostolate in RP
POPE Benedict XVI expressed his ap-
preciation for the work being done by
the Christian faithful for human life and
the family in the Philippines during a
special audience given to participants
in an international congress on stem
cell research in Castel Gandolfo out-
side of Rome last September 16.
The Pope conveyed his senti-
ments directly to members of the Phil-
ippine delegation following his address
inside the summer palace to more than
300 scientists, bioethics and human
life and family workers from around the
world who had been meeting at the
Augustinianum Institute in Rome from
Sept. 14 to 16, under the auspices of
the Pontifical Academy for Life and the
International Federation of Catholic
Medical Associations.
Bulacan Bishop Jose Oliveros, in
charge of the Office on Bioethics for
the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the
Philippines (CBCP), led the small Phil-
ippine delegation, which included
former Senator Francisco Tatad, Asia-
Pacific director for the U.S.-based World
Youth Alliance, and International Right
to Life Federation, his wife Maria Fenny
Tatad, who works for the CBCP Office
on Women, and Dr. Edna Monzon from
the University of Sto. Tomas.
“Thank you for what you are do-
ing in the Philippines,” the Pope said,
in response to a short statement from
People, Facts & Places
when the congregation’s American
Provincial Council appointed Brother
Eugene Gizzi to found a community
of Alexian Brothers in Davao City in
southern Philippines to carry out the
congregation’s missionary charism
of providing integral health care ser-
vices or ministry to Filipinos. Brother
Gizzi was then succeeded respec-
tively by Brothers Maurice Wilson,
Callander, who all worked with the
different local health establishments
and institutions in varying roles and
missionary responsibilities. In 1990,
the Alexian Brothers initiated their
medical-dental outreach program.
Also, CFA’s “Our Health Care on
Wheels” (a mobile health unit) trav-
eled through the different parishes
and BECs of the Archdiocese of
Davao providing professional health
care services and affordable medi-
cines. In 2001, the Alexian Brothers
opened its Health and Wellness Cen-
ter, a tertiary diagnostic center, in
Davao City. The historical origins of
the congregation dates back over
700 years ago when its founding
Brothers cared for the sick and even
buried the dead during the time of
the Black Plague of 1347 in Aachen,
Germany. At present, the Alexian
Brothers are present in Belgium, Ire-
land, England, United States, Ger-
many and the Philippines.
CELEBRATED.
Catholic Educa-
tionalAssociation of
the Philippines
(CEAP); 65th foun-
dation anniversary
and national convention; September
13-15, 2006; at the Manila Hotel, Rizal
Park, Manila. CEAP is the national
association of Catholic educational
institutions—schools, colleges, and
universities—in the Philippines
which has a current total member-
ship of 1,228 schools with an aggre-
gated enrollment population of
about 1 million students. Represent-
ing the interest of Catholic educa-
tional institutions and as commis-
Tatad on the human life and family
apostolate in the Catholic country.
In his address to the delegates, the
Pope encouraged scientific research
with adult stem cells, because it respects
human life and opens fascinating pos-
sibilities for the treatment of human ill-
ness that now seem incurable.
The Pope, however, pointed out
that while the Church is fully support-
ive of science, “it is against those
forms of research that involve the
planned suppression of human beings
who are already alive, though they
may not yet have been born,” as in the
case of research with embryos that
leads to their elimination.
“Progress can only be authentic
if it serves the person and the person
himself grows, when not only his tech-
nical power but also his moral capac-
ity grows,” the Holy Father said.
“Research into somatic stem cells
merits approval and encouragement
when it brings together scientific knowl-
edge, the most advanced technology
in the field of biology, and the ethic that
postulates respect for human beings at
every stage of their existence.”
The congress heard eminent ex-
perts from Europe, the United States
and Australia who discussed the clini-
cal applications of stem cell research as
well as the anthropological and ethical
problems related thereto. (CBCP News)
sioned by the Church to advance
the teaching function of the
Catholic Church, CEAP promotes
religious instruction as an essen-
tial element of Catholic education
geared towards character forma-
tion and citizenship building.
CEAP’s origin maybe traced back
to 1941 when then Archbishop
Michael J. O’Doherty of Manila
initiated a meeting of the differ-
ent school heads—the University
of Santo Tomas, seminaries, col-
leges, high schools, elementary
schools, and training schools for
nurses—for the purpose of orga-
nizing themselves into a Catholic
educational association.
DIED. Rev. Fr.
Ross C.
Olaybal, 70, a
pioneer mem-
ber of the
Canon Law
Society of the
Philippines
(CLSP) and
author of some 7 books or
Catholic publications; Septem-
ber 17, 2006; of cardio-pulmo-
nary arrest and liver cancer com-
plications; at Cardinal Santos
Medical Center, San Juan, Metro
Manila. Apart from Philosophy
and Theology degrees which he
earned during his seminary for-
mation, Olaybal was likewise a
holder of other academic de-
grees, namely—Civil Law (LLB),
Licentiate in Canon Law (JCL),
and a Master’s degree in Educa-
tion (MA), major in School Lead-
ership. A prolific author of 7
books, his last book is entitled
The Savoury Halo-Halo, a beau-
tiful tapestry of Olaybal’s enrich-
ing reflections on different con-
temporary topics and issues.
Prior to his death, he was parish
priest of Sta. Lucia Parish,
Manggahan, Pasig City and was
concurrently writing a column for
the Inter Nos, the newsletter pub-
lication of the CBCP Pension Plan.
Bishop Jose Oliveros of
Malolos, Chairman of the
CBCP Office on Bioethics,
looks on as Pope Benedict
XVI conveys his personal
message to Fenny Tatad on
the occasion of the Interna-
tional Congress on Stem Cell
Research, held in Castel
Gandolfo on September 16,
2006.
Meeting of Pauline Juniors in
Asia to be held in RP
PASAY City—The Figli Sancti
Pauli or FSP (Daughters of St. Paul)
Congregation will be holding the 1st
Continental Encounter of Pauline
Juniors in Asia at the Pauline Com-
munication Center on October 15 to
30, 2006. Several delegates and
formators will be coming from Rome,
Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore,
India, Pakistan and Philippines. With
the theme: “The Human and Charis-
matic Formation of the Pauline Jun-
iors of Asia”, the event is organized
by the FSP General Councilors on
Formation and the International Sec-
retariat on Formation.
Caritas Manila asks support for
Hating Kapatid campaign
MANILA—Caritas Manila (CM)
urged schools to take part in their
“Hating Kapatid” campaign aiming
to help uplift the lives of hapless
children by providing them with op-
portunities for education. The said
program is the CM’s value formation
and resource mobilization campaign
in schools. “It’s objective is to en-
courage the youth to support Caritas
Scholarship Program and actively
involve themselves in the mission of
building lives again.”
Faith, Reason / from p9
Yet the world’s profoundly religious
cultures see this exclusion of the di-
vine from the universality of reason
as an attack on their most profound
convictions. A reason which is deaf
to the divine and which relegates re-
ligion into the realm of subcultures
is incapable of entering into the dia-
logue of cultures. At the same time,
as I have attempted to show, modern
scientific reason with its intrinsically
Platonic element bears within itself a
question which points beyond itself
and beyond the possibilities of its
methodology. Modern scientific rea-
son quite simply has to accept the
rational structure of matter and the
correspondence between our spirit
and the prevailing rational structures
of nature as a given, on which its
methodology has to be based. Yet
the question why this has to be so is
a real question, and one which has
to be remanded by the natural sci-
ences to other modes and planes of
thought - to philosophy and theol-
ogy. For philosophy and, albeit in a
different way, for theology, listening
to the great experiences and insights
of the religious traditions of human-
ity, and those of the Christian faith
in particular, is a source of knowl-
edge, and to ignore it would be an
CBCP Monitor
Vol. 10 No. 12
September 25, 2006
ECPPC leads prison awareness
week celebration
MANILA—The CBCP Episcopal
Commission on Prison Pastoral Care
(ECPPC) will spearhead the obser-
vance of the 19th Awareness Week
on October 23-29, 2006. This year’s
theme “Healing and Restoring Hope
and Dignity to the Community” fo-
cuses on the commission’s commit-
ment to advance the idea of restor-
ative justice. ECPPC Executive Sec-
retary Rodolfo Diamante said the
celebration “reminds us of the Lord’s
loving mercy, compassion and love
to the least of our brethren.”
NASSA slates conference on
ecology
TAGAYTAY City—Diocesan Social
Action Center representatives na-
tionwide are set to meet for the Na-
tional Secretariat for Social Action-
Justice and Peace (NASSA) Confer-
ence on Ecology to be held at the
BEC Center in Brgy. Asisan, this City
on November 22 to 24 2006. A source
said the topics that will be discussed
are centered on the current status of
the Philippine environment particu-
larly on mining. NASSA is the social
action arm of the Catholic Bishops’
Conference of the Philippines
(CBCP).
unacceptable restriction of our lis-
tening and responding. Here I am re-
minded of something Socrates said
to Phaedo. In their earlier conversa-
tions, many false philosophical opin-
ions had been raised, and so Socrates
says: “It would be easily understand-
able if someone became so annoyed
at all these false notions that for the
rest of his life he despised and
mocked all talk about being—but in
this way he would be deprived of
the truth of existence and would suf-
fer a great loss”. The West has long
been endangered by this aversion
to the questions which underlie its
rationality, and can only suffer great
harm thereby. The courage to engage
the whole breadth of reason, and not
the denial of its grandeur—this is the
programme with which a theology
grounded in Biblical faith enters into
the debates of our time. “Not to act
reasonably, not to act with logos, is
contrary to the nature of God”, said
Manuel II, according to his Chris-
tian understanding of God, in re-
sponse to his Persian interlocutor. It
is to this great logos, to this breadth
of reason, that we invite our part-
ners in the dialogue of cultures. To
rediscover it constantly is the great
task of the university.