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2 IMPACT • November 2006

 I MPACT November 2006 / Vol 40 • No 11
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
Judicial Stature ...................................................... 25
COVER STORY
Women, the Popes, and Development: Why have
women suddenly become a special target of
development? ......................................................... 16
ARTICLES
How Catholic is Your School? Sharing Mission:
The Lasallian Experience ..................................... 4
Islam Walking a Tightrope Between Violence
and Reform ............................................................... 7
The Regensburg Effect: The Open Letter from 38
Muslims to the Pope .............................................. 9
Preferential Option for the Poor .......................... 11
Transparency in the Church ............................... 13
Hunger Amid An Abundant World ................... 21
STATEMENTS
Women–Justice and Peace and Integrity of
Creation Mindanao Network ............................. 26
Pastoral Statement of the Bishop of Antipolo .. 26
In Solidarity For the Good of the Poor ............... 27
CBCP Welcomes SUPREME COURT Decision .27
DEPARTMENTS
Quote in the Act ...................................................... 2
From the Blogs ........................................................24
From the Inbox ....................................................... 28
Reviews ....................................................................29
Cinema Review ...................................................... 30
Quotes in Quiz ....................................................... 30
News Briefs ............................................................. 31
OF LATE, we were able to catch up with the tail-ender
of a debate over ANC TV on the propriety, or other-
wise, of the constitutional assembly—or something
to that effect—as a mode of changing the Philippine
Charter. This came shortly after the Supreme Court
debunked People’s Initiative declaring what every-
body already knew that it was after all somebody
else’s initiative and not the peoples’, and thereby
reducing the choices to Constituent Assembly and
Constitutional Convention.
Watching the TV, we almost fell from our chair
when the big-bellied congressman from the South
setting on the pro side triumphantly arrogated that
the Constituent Assembly is the best option be-
cause, aside from being the cheapest, it is already the
choice of 120 or so representatives who are more
equipped with ready intelligence more than whoever
will be elected to the Constitutional Convention—if
ever. What a way of saying. Of course, even the goats
around Congress know that the reigning majority in
the House is a whole bunch of somethings.
Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, President of the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, in a
statement issued last month says it more honestly:
“We have reasons likewise to doubt the process
whereby some from the House of Representatives
plan to convert itself into a Constituent Assembly.
Please pardon the term, but Charter Change by Con-
gress converted into a Constituent Assembly will
have all the appearance of “self-service” and “lutong
makao.” We will pray against that.”
Besides, how proceed with objectively amending
the Charter when a 120- majority is already pegged to
an irreversible position and financially rewarding
perspective to boot?
We used to say, give it to the marines! But who is
fooling who? Even the marines see clearly the distinc-
tion between a politician prolonging and saving his own
neck, and the simple truth that changing the charter is
not a necessity in solving the ills of this country. At
least, not as necessary as blowing to smithereens cor-
rupt officials and thieves in government.
Isn’t changing the constitution a scapegoat? Of
course, it is. And, by the gods, there is no mistaking
about it.
“But why have women suddenly become a target
of development?,” Ma. Fenny Cantero-Tatad asks in
our cover story, Women and Development. Such was
the case a decade ago when women of childbearing
age were injected with tetanus toxoid vaccines in
order to save women from tetanus infection. The
truth, however, was the tetanus vaccine was not only
for tetanus—it was to permanently disable women
from bearing children. Methinks, with fear of being
reprimanded by the Church, that it is to such as
these—people who deceive millions of people at the
glare of day—that death penalty shouldn’t be very
hard to accept. Read on.
Volume 40 • Number 11 3

How Catholic Is Your School?
Sharing Mission: The Lasallian Experience
By Bro. Michael M. Valenzuela, FSC
L
et me begin by giving you a picture
of the context from which I am speak-
ing today. If you were to ask, what
are the Lasallian schools? They are a net-
work of: 18 district schools, 5 of which are
universities; 89,654 students; 8,121 fac-
ulty, staff, administrators including 42
Brothers. In addition to these District-
owned schools, there are 26 schools cur-
rently belonging to the network of Lasallian
supervised schools under the Lasallian
Supervised Schools Office and profess-
ing adherence to the Lasallian vision of
education.
What constitutes Catholicity? Let me
begin by leveling off on what we believe
constitutes the basic convictional frame-
work of Catholicity. For us, Catholicity is
44 IMPACT
IMPACT •• November
November 2006
2006
primarily a way of approaching reality, a
way of “seeing” and “judging” and “act-
ing”. Its chief characteristics are: (1) an
openness to all truth and value rooted in
the conviction that all that is true, good,
and beautiful finds its source and fulfill-
ment in God the Creator; (2) the conviction
that God has a plan of salvation that in-
volves drawing all into the communion of
love that is the Blessed Trinity and that all
men and women of goodwill are called to
contribute to the realization of this plan;
(3) the conviction that historical realities
manifest and mediate the loving presence
and action of God; (4) the conviction that
Christ’s pattern of self-giving love-unto-
death, exemplified in the paschal mystery,
reveals the true nature of God and consti-
© http://jyrawong.multiply.com
tutes the realization of our human nature;
(5) the conviction that we all form one
body, each of us equal in dignity, each
responsible for one another before God
and called to work together in solidarity
and friendship to realize the dream of God’s
kingdom according to our gifts and abili-
ties; (6) the conviction that the virtues of
mercy and justice in particular must mark
the lives of anyone who claims to be a
follower of Christ, and; (7) the conviction
that the Catholic Church is the universal
sign and sacrament of communion and
salvation for the world.
These seven convictions constitute a
Catholic worldview. In our schools, dis-
cussions of identity have tended to re-
volve around “Lasallianness” rather than
 A R
“Catholicity” which is generally consid-
ered a given. These are not concepts at
odds with one another. In the Philippine
context, talk of a school’s Lasallianness
and Lasallian identity specify a particular
way of embodying Catholic commitments
in education. Thus, in speaking of
Lasallianness, I am speaking of the way in
which our Catholic identity is expressed
according to the tradition and charism of
the Brothers and their partners in mission.
Reading the Signs of the Times
In the late 90’s, a number of converg-
ing factors became clear signs to the Broth-
ers of the need to reexamine our educa-
tional mission in the country with a view to
redefining our vision and priorities. Chief
among these were: the growing awareness
of new forms of poverty threatening the
young; the deteriorating state of educa-
tion (particularly public education) na-
tionwide; the Second Plenary Council of
the Philippines’ call to become a “Church
of the Poor” and its challenge to make
schools centers of evangelization; the in-
creasing number of Lasallian institutions
and the corresponding unavailability of
Brothers for the new schools; the phe-
nomenal growth of the Lasallian family
both locally and worldwide; the promo-
tion and development of “shared mission”
both as a concept and a lived reality; and
the increasing clamor among lay partners
for a sharing in the spirituality of St. John
Baptist De La Salle, the Patron of school
teachers.
The Lasallian District Synod and
Lasallian Family Convocation
In acknowledgement of these reali-
ties, Bro. Armin Luistro, then provincial of
the De La Salle Brothers, together with his
District council, proposed in August 1997
the redefinition of the “Philippine District”
(a term which had until then referred solely
to the De La Salle Brothers of the Philip-
pines) so as to include all those who col-
laborate with the Brothers in making the
educational ministry flourish. Behind this
shift was the recognition of the vital role
our lay partners have long played in the
actual conduct of the Lasallian mission
and a commitment to expand this role for
the sake of the mission. Later that year, the
District leadership moved for the convo-
cation of a grassroots discernment pro-
cess modeled to some extent on the PCP II
consultations in order to set a new agenda
for Lasallian mission in the country. The
T I C L
assembly, the Lasallian Family district
synod, was held in La Salle Green Hills
from May 26-30, 1999. a similar gathering,
the First Lasallian Family Convocation,
was held four years later. In both cases,
the actual national assemblies were pre-
ceded by large multisectoral consultations
at the institutional and regional levels.
These consultations were meant to sur-
face issues that the sectors at the
grassroots felt were of significant concern
for the vitality of the Lasallian presence
and mission in the country over the next
10-15 years.
The synod marked a radical shift in the
way the district of the Philippines had until
then operated in mission: a movement
away from a ministerial model wherein the
Brothers were the sole proprietors of the
educational mission with lay collabora-
tors sharing in the Brothers’ mission (a
model akin to the pre-Vatican II notion of
the laity participating in the mission of the
clergy) to the model of one common mis-
sion in which both Brothers and partners
share equally but in different ways. This
paradigm shift has led to a deeper owner-
ship among lay partners of their role in the
mission, a deeper sense of solidarity among
partners cutting across institutions, and a
deeper appreciation of the possibilities for
a new expressions of ministry to address
the situation of youth and the poor in the
country. Over the past seven years, we
have found that people participate with
enthusiasm and zeal in the projects they
help to create. Between both Brothers and
lay partners, there is a growing apprecia-
tion of the opportunities we have for dis-
cussion and exchange as occasions where
the voice of the Spirit makes itself heard. In
many ways, the Synod was what its orga-
nizers hoped it would be, a new Pentecost
for the Lasallian Family ultimately result-
ing in renewed apostolic energy and cre-
ativity.
The result of the synod was a 10-point
mission agenda called the lasallian Minis-
terial Action Plan (or Lasallian MAP).
Germane to our discussion today are three
important directions that were a result of
the Synod: (1) increasing the deliberative
role of lay partners in the conduct of the
Lsallian mission in the country and creat-
ing structures to facilitate this; (2) the
articulated need of lay partners to come to
a deeper understanding of the Lasallian
heritage and charism in education and
spirituality in order to assure the continu-
ity and vitality of that mission in the future,
and; (3) a call for greater creativity in
finding new ways to address the needs of
E S
youth-at-risk and the poor, ways which
would make the best use of our institu-
tions and their respective strengths.
The Lasallian Family convocation of
May 2003 was held for the purpose of
proposing specific programs and courses
of action to enflesh the general directions
set out in 1999. Eighty-two percent of the
delegates were lay partners and 18 percent
Brothers. Organized by the new provin-
cial, Bro. Edmundo Fernandez, the Convo-
cation put teeth on the Synod directives
by calling for the creation of an ad hoc
body composed of Brothers and lay part-
ners to reflect on and articulate a vision of
what Lasallian education ought to be in
the new millennium. The result: three or-
ganically related documents collectively
known as the Lasallian Guiding Principles.
Lasallian Guiding Principles
The committee, after perusing docu-
ments on education from both the Church
and the worldwide Lasallian Institute, even-
tually came to the conclusion that what
distinguished Lasallian schools was a “par-
ticular spirituality” imbedded in the story
of St. John Baptist de La Salle, a priest who
abandoned his wealth and a promising
ecclesiastical career to associate himself
with a group of poor school teachers dedi-
cated to the education and Christian for-
mation of at-risk youth. By focusing on
spirituality as the integrating core of the
educational mission, the committee mem-
bers hoped to insure that the renewal of
schools would not be something cosmetic
or superficial but a work rooted in each
educator’s sense of personal vocation.
For St. De La Salle, the work of the
educator was a privileged means for the
sanctification of both teachers and pupils
and schools were to be “signs of God’s
Kingdom and instruments for the salva-
tion of youth.” Attempts were made to
capture the essence of this spirituality in
the key document entitled “The Founda-
tional Principles of Lasallian Formation”.
Here, the Lasallian spirit is described as
having three dimensions: a spirit of faith,
a spirit of zeal for the salvation of youth
and the poor, and a spirit of fraternal com-
munion and solidarity in mission. The
story of De La Salle and his first teachers
provided a framework for understanding
how these three elements come together
to constitute a pattern of life lived in atten-
tiveness to God and in responsiveness to
the exigencies of history. School renewal
would depend on creating educational
communities that embodied the founding
Volume
Volume 40
40 •• Number
Number 11
11 5
5
 Sharing Mission: The Lasallian Experience
dynamism of associating together in order
to respond with faith and zeal to the human
and spiritual needs of the young and the
poor.
The second document, “Principles of
Lasallian Education in the Philippines”
translates the key elements of this spiritu-
ality into a set of guiding principles for
schools and other educational projects.
The documents begins by articulating five
key convictions: (1) That Lasallian educa-
tion is a ministry at the service of God, the
Church, and civil society and directed to-
wards integral development and salvation
of young people; (2) That Lasallian educa-
tion must be imbued by a spirit of faith that
judges realities in the light of the Gospel,
inspires people to dedicate themselves to
God’s saving work in the world, and leads
them to trust in Divine Providence to ac-
complish god’s work; (3) That Lasallian
educational ministry is marked by zeal, the
whole-hearted gift of oneself to the ser-
vice of God and one’s fellowmen in gratu-
ity and generosity, creativity and forti-
tude, compassion and commitment; (4)
That Lasallian education is exercised as a
communion in mission with all sectors
associating together in educating towards
a world more humane, just and fraternal;
(5) That the goal of education is to form
graduates who are both disciples and citi-
zens, prophets and professionals who are
committed to the service of others, espe-
cially the underprivileged, and who bring
the light of the gospel bear on every hu-
man endeavor.
These principles are further specified
into conviction regarding schools, learn-
ers, educators, and educational processes.
These documents were then offered to
individual institutions to reflect on, refine,
appropriate and reexpress in their mission
statements.
The principles
were deliber-
ately intended
to be flexible
and not re-
strictive, thus
allowing insti-
tutions to
adapt them ac-
cording to
their own spe-
cific context
and institu-
tional charac-
Born at Reims into a devout ter. Creative
and influential family, John
Baptist de La Salle received fidelity rather
the tonsure at age eleven and than legislated
was named Canon of the
Reims Cathedral at sixteen. uniformity was
6 IMPACT • November 2006
to be the guiding spirit behind any efforts
to renew the schools. The principles were
then introduced to the stakeholders of
various institutions including boards of
trustees through seminars, workshops,
and echo sessions conducted by district
formation teams in collaboration with ad-
ministrators in each school.
School administrators were then
tasked with coming up with a rubric that
translated the guiding principles into mea-
surable indicators for the use of schools.
These were then disseminated at
mutisectoral gatherings in each school for
the purpose of evaluating the respective
institutions in order to discern areas for
growth and development. We are cur-
rently at this stage of self-reflection and
evaluation.
Initial Results
Let me noted some of the fruits of the
past seven years:
• There is an ongoing effort to review
school mission statements and educa-
tional philosophies in the light of
Lasallian guiding principles.
• There is a widespread commitment to
increase the accessibility of Lasallian
educational services to sectors for
whom such services would normally
be unattainable. This is being done in
a variety of ways. There is a standing
commitment among all our schools to
try and raise the ratio of scholarships
to 20% of the student population by
2011. Another way of doing this has
been to offer our expertise in the man-
agement and supervision of schools
to school owners who want to run
good schools accessible to a wider
mass base. A third way has been to
enter into partnerships with public
schools. Still another way has been to
offer scholarships to public school
teachers and administrators in the hope
that they can be change agents in the
public school sector.
• There is a growing recognition of the
need to put mission concerns at the
forefront of institutional renewal. Rec-
ognizing that institutions can take on
a life of their own and deviate from
their intended goals, efforts are being
made to bring a more pastoral perspec-
tive into decision-making at the level
of school executive councils. For ex-
ample, the College of St. Benilde re-
cently created the position of Vice
President for Lasallian Mission, Min-
istry and Planning for the purpose of
assuring that the school faithfully
embodies the mission as expressed in
the guiding principles. In other
schools, directors of formation offices
sit on executive councils to give their
input on how to strengthen the
Lasallian character of the institution.
• There are ongoing efforts to create
more integrated pastoral programs. A
number of schools have created of-
fices that bring together the depart-
ments of religious education, social
action, and campus ministry in order to
offer students and faculty a more inte-
grated program of religious formation.
Community service is also integrated
into the curricular program of many of
our schools.
• Lasallian animation and formation
teams and programs have been cre-
ated to service our school personnel.
Regional Lasallian animation and for-
mation teams work with the adminis-
trators, faculty and staff of our schools
to deepen awareness, appreciation and
application of Lasallian tradition in
spirituality and pedagogy. Annual
formation programs are also held in
different part6s of the country for the
training of administrators and faculty.
• There are growing networks of coop-
eration and mutual support among
members of pastoral offices and social
action centers where burnout is often
a problem.
• There is a growing network of young
people in our different schools who
commit themselves to participating in
the Lasallian mission through socio-
civic involvement and advocacy in
addressing the needs of a at-risk youth.
This experience has convinced us that
we should look at young people not
just as beneficiaries of mission but as
potential and actual partners. For this
reason, the Lasallian Youth commis-
sion was created in 2001 and placed
this year under the supervision of the
Lasallian Partners Council.
• Since the 1980’s, we have been push-
ing our schools to become social im-
pact centers at the service of the wider
community. This has resulted in cre-
ative projects such as the adult night
high schools, community organizing,
classes for street children, partner-
ships with public schools, two
Mangyan schools, a school for the
hearing impaired, community based
education programs for adults and out-
of-school youth, involvement in
How Catholic / p. 22
 A R
Islam
Walking
a
Tightrope
Between
Violence
and
Reform
By Samir Khalil Samir, SJ
T
he Islamic world is troubling to the
Western observer: it appears as a
force, an extraordinary power,
which is on the move that no one can
stop. This sensation—which frightens
many Westerners—corresponds to what
many Muslims call Sahwah, the
Reawakening. Actually though, this
power is suffering from a profound crisis
which is perceived by all Muslims: the
inability to adapt to the modern world, to
assimilate modernity.
In fact, Islam is going through a very
profound crisis. It is a fact which is not
only evident to outside observers. There
is by now no Muslim thinker, Arab or
Islamic newspaper that is not discussing
T I C L
this fact: Islam is facing a crisis.
There is a distinction to be made. For
radical Islamists – who are pursuing the
project for a political Islam—the “blame”
for the crisis falls on the West and its
aggressiveness. For some, this crisis
dates back to the Crusades; for others, to
recent colonization; for others, to the
creation of the State of Israel; for others
still, it goes only as far back as American
aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq. In all
cases, what is ailing Islam comes from
outside itself, from the Other.
There is however another group, ever
more numerous, which affirms that Islam’s
ailment is within itself. This position is
usually found among liberal personali-
E S
© Jason Horowitz/zefa/Corbis
ties, intellectuals. They too stop short of
saying that the problem is right in the
Koran: for them, the problem is in the
interpretation made of the Koran, of Islam
as a religious, political, social and cultural
system. Judging by comments that ap-
pear in the press in Islamic countries, we
can say that positions of radical Islamism
amount to a good 20%; liberal tendencies
account for some 10 to 20%. All agree
however that the time has come for reform
in Islam.
Islam’s slumber
A recurring topic in such debates is
that of “Islam’s slumber”. Radicals at-
Volume 40 • Number 11 7
 Islam Walking a Tightrope Between Violence and Reform
tribute this “slumber” to four centuries of
Ottoman domination, which would have
curbed the religion’s development. Lib-
erals instead affirm that this “slumber”
began already in the 12th century and
perhaps even earlier. In any case, all
agree that this slumber created a “closure
of the opening to interpretation,” the ex-
pression which literally translated from
Arabic is “closure of the door of ijtihâd.”
In this context of reform, ijtihâd is a key
word. This word shares the same root
with jihâd, holy war. It expresses an
effort which in jihâd is oriented toward
violence, to armed battle on the path of
God. Ijtihâd is the moral and intellectual
effort to reform; it is “interpretation”.
Something that is continuously re-
peated in the Islamic world is that “the
door has been closed to ijtihâd”; little
room has been left to interpretation, which
has resulted in fossilization, stiffening. It
is a discussion that has been present in
the Arab world since the mid 1800s. For
Yemeni Corner of the Kaaba: The Kaaba, holiest shrine in Islam, as seen from
the Yemeni (southwest) corner. The black cloth surrounding it is called the
kiswah.
8 IMPACT • November 2006
decades, there has been talk of “the clos- simple principle: Islam is the solution to
ing of the door” to define the urgency of all problems of society (al-Islâm huwa al-
reform in Islam. For many liberals of the hall); there is no need to resort to any-
time, including the great religious leaders thing outside Islam. It is enough to go
such as Khair ad-Dîn Al-Tûnisi (1810- back to the roots of Islam, namely to the
1899), from Tunisia, Jamâl ad-Dîn al- Koran and the Tradition of the Prophet,
Afghâni (1838-1897) from Persia, Abd al- taken literally.
Rahmân al-Kawâkibi (1854-1902) from In the effort to deal with the crisis,
Syria, and, above all, Sheikh al-Azhar such a position does not strive to inno-
Muhammad `Abdoh (1849-1905) from vate, but to return to a “primitive” Islam,
Egypt, reform was to be made absorbing taking original Islam as a model. When
elements of Western culture and achiev- “original” Islam is spoken of, what is
ing a harmonious unity between the Is- meant is the conquering Islam. In fact,
lamic world and the Western world. such a vision relies above all on the sec-
The First World War and the fall of ond phase of Mohammad’s life, the
the Ottoman Empire then brought to the Medina phase (622-632), when Islam or-
secularization of Turkey and the aboli- ganized itself politically; and then on the
tion of the Caliphate (1923-4), as well as era of the first caliphs, known as “the well
the control of various Arab nations by guided”, who conquered the Middle East
the West, England and France. All this and the Mediterranean (632-660). That
marks the great religious-political fall of period is seen as that of real Islam, ca-
Islam which suddenly found itself di- pable of conquering the world. The re-
vided into nations, with no caliph, no turn to these origins, the reasoning goes,
leaders, no guides. is what will allow Muslims to enlarge their
worldwide conquests.
Radicalism of Since then, this tendency has be-
the Muslim come ever more radical, giving life to all
Brotherhood those movements we call “Islamist” or
“fundamentalist.”
This situation of As can be seen, such an approach
crisis gave rise to the provides a direct solution to the crisis,
Muslim Brother- skirting the need for an in-depth analysis
hood which was of the reasons for the crisis. If one asks:
seen as the authen- Why has Islam stayed behind (in science,
tic solution, in op- in technology, in culture, in art, in the
position to that of spread of ideas at the global level, in
reformists who domination...)? The answer is obvious:
wanted to imitate the because it was attacked, thwarted,
West. Its founder, imprisoned...The Other is to blame for the
Hassan al-Banna crisis.
(1906-1949), used a
very simple argu- Liberals and the interpretation
ment: our great re- crisis
formers wanted to
reform Islam taking The liberal position, instead, at-
Europe as a model, tributes the main responsibility for crisis
and it was Europe it- to the erroneous way in which Muslims
self which dis- have interpreted the Koran: that of hav-
mantled the Islamic ing made it into a political handbook, of
world and deceived having projected onto the Koran the so-
us. He was sup- ciological and cultural conceptions typi-
ported in his reason- cal of a certain period, the domination of
ing by the Imam male over female, the desire for violence,
M u h a m m a d ignorance etc. In the current period, lib-
© Kazuyoshi Nomachi/Corbis
‘Abduh’s dearest erals are speaking out against the igno-
disciple, Sheikh rance of the people, the authoritarianism
Rashid Rida, a natu- (the non-democracy) of their govern-
ralized Egyptian ments, and above all the poor training
originally hailing given to imams, which has, at this point,
from Tripoli-Syria generated a popular Islam which is by the
ignorant and for the ignorant. (Beirut,
(now Lebanon), who
had pronounced a AsiaNews) I
 A R T I C L E S

O
ne month after his lecture at the
University of Regensburg,
Benedict XVI received an “open
letter” signed by 38 Muslim personalities
from various countries and of different
outlooks, which discusses point by point
the views on Islam expressed by the pope
in that lecture.
The letter came to pope Joseph
Ratzinger through the Vatican nunciature
in Amman, to which it was delivered by
one of the signatories, prince Ghazi bin
Muhammad bin Talal, special advisor to
the king of Jordan, Abdullah II.
The complete text of the letter, in En-
glish, has been available since Sunday, Oc-

© Jason Horowitz/zefa/Corbis
tober 15, on the website of “Islamica
Magazine,” a periodical published in the
Unites States that holds the copyright to
this document.
The letter is followed by the names
and roles of the 38 main signatories, who
may be joined by others.
The authors of the letter welcome and
appreciate without reservation the clarifi-
cations made by Benedict XVI after the
The Regensburg Effect:
wave of protests that issued from the

The Open Letter from

Muslim world a few days after the lecture
in Regensburg, and in particular the
speech that the pope addressed to ambas-

38 Muslims to the Pope

sadors from Muslim countries on Septem-
ber 25, and also the reference made by car-
dinal secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone,
in a note issued on September 16, to the
conciliar document “Nostra Aetate.”
And not only that. They condemn
with very strong words the assassination
that took place in Somalia, in Muslim
Mogadishu, of sister Leonella Sgorbati,
thereby linking this to the protests that
were at their peak at the time:
“We must state that the murder on
September 17th of an innocent Catholic
nun in Somalia – and any other similar acts
of wanton individual violence – ‘in reac-
tion to’ the lecture at the University of
Regensburg, is completely un-Islamic, and
we totally condemn such acts.”
The authors of the letter appreciate
Benedict XVI’s desire for dialogue and take
very seriously his theses. “Applaud”
pope’s “efforts to oppose the dominance
of positivism and materialism in human
life,” while contest him on other points,
adding their reasons for their opposition.
In this sense, the letter signed by the
38—together with the preceding essay by
Aref Ali Nayed, previewed by www.chiesa
on October 4—goes towards what the pope
meant to accomplish with his audacious
lecture in Regensburg: to encourage,
within the Muslim world as well, public
Instead of saying they are offended and demanding apologies,
they express their respect for him and dialogue with him on
faith and reason. They disagree on many points. But they also
criticize those Muslims who want to impose, with violence,
“utopian dreams in which the end justifies the means”
by Sandro Magister
reflection that would separate faith from Muslims, whenever they conquered a ter-
violence and link it to reason instead. Be- ritory, “not to force another’s heart to be-
cause, in the pope’s view, it is precisely lieve.”
the “reasonableness” of the faith that is A second point on which the letter
the natural terrain of encounter between dwells concerns the transcendence of
Christianity and the various other religions God. That Muslim doctrine holds that God
and cultures. is “absolutely transcendent,” as the pope
A first point on which the letter from asserts, is in the judgment of the 38 signa-
the 38 Muslims “reasons” with Benedict tories “a simplification which can be mis-
XVI concerns sura 2:256 of the Qur’an: leading.” The eleventh-century Muslim
“There is no compulsion in religion.” The author to whom the pope refers - Ibn Hazm
authors of the letter assert that Mohammed - is in their view “a worthy but very mar-
formulated this commandment, not when ginal figure, who belonged to the Zahiri
he found himself “powerless and under school of jurisprudence which is followed
threat” – which the pope maintains as by no one in the Islamic world today.” It is
“probable” in his lecture – but when he not true – they write – that “the will of God
was in a position of strength, in Medina. is not bound to any of our categories,”
And that he intended by this to appeal to that the God of Islam is a “capricious” God,

Volume 40 • Number 11 9
 The Regensburg Effect: The Open Letter from 38 Muslims to the Pope
and far less so that he could delight in
bloodshed. God has many names in Islam,
and his “clemency and mercy” have the
greatest prominence: they are present in
the sacred formula that the Muslims recite
every day.
The third point is the use of reason.
The authors of the letter write that Islamic
thought has always wanted to avoid two
extremes: the first is that of raising up ana-
lytic reason as the arbiter of truth, and the
other is that of denying the capacity of
the human intellect to address the ultimate
questions. There is—they write—a har-
mony between the questions of human
reason and the truths of Qur’anic revela-
tion, “without sacrificing one for the other.”
The fourth point is holy war. The 38
signatories of the letter recall that the word
“jihad” properly means “struggle in the
way of God,” which is not necessarily war.
Even Christ used violence when he chased
the merchants from the temple. They sum
up in this way Islam’s three “authoritative
and traditional” rules on war:
• civilians are not approved targets;
• religious creed alone cannot make a
person the object of an attack;
• Muslims can and must live peacefully
beside their neighbors, although the
legitimacy of self-defense and the
maintenance of sovereignty remain
valid principles.
So if some Muslims—they write—
have ignored such well-established teach-
ing on the limits of war, preferring to this
“utopian dreams where the end justifies
the means, they have done so of their own
accord and without the sanction of God,
His Prophet, or the learned tradition.”
The fourth point taken into consider-
ation is forced conversion. As a political
reality—write the authors of the letter—
Islam certainly did spread in part by mili-
tary conquest, “but the greater part of its
expansion came as a result of preaching
10 IMPACT • November 2006
and missionary activity.” The command-
ment of the Qur’an, “no compulsion in re-
ligion,” must always hold true: the fact that
some Muslims disobey this is “the excep-
tion that confirms the rule.” “We emphati-
cally agree that forcing others to believe—
if such a thing be truly possible at all—is
not pleasing to God.”
The fourth point: the “new”—and
moreover “evil and inhuman”—things that
Mohammed is imagined to have brought,
according to Byzantine emperor Manuel
II Paleologus as cited by Benedict XVI in
the lecture in Regensburg. The 38 authors
of the letter object that, according to Is-
lamic doctrine, even before Mohammed
“all the true prophets preached the same
truth to different peoples at different times:
the laws may be different, but the truth is
unchanging.”
The sixth point discussed: the “ex-
perts.” The authors of the letter refuse to
acknowledge as reliable experts on Islam
the scholars cited by Benedict XVI in the
Regensburg lecture: Theodore Khoury and
Roger Arnaldez. In order for a true reli-
gious and intercultural dialogue to be es-
tablished—as the pope appealed in Co-
logne in August of 2005—they issue a call
to “listen to the actual voices of those we
are dialoguing with, and not merely those
of our own persuasion.”
The seventh and last point: relations
between Christianity and Islam. The au-
thors of the letter point out that the tre-
mendous following of the two religions—
more than 55 percent of the world
population—makes it such that the rela-
tionship between them is a decisive factor
for peace. In Benedict XVI, they recognize
an exceptionally influential role “in the di-
rection of mutual understanding.” They
cite with appreciation the words dedicated
to Islam in the declaration “Nostra Aetate”
of Vatican Council II. They cite with ap-
preciation the words dedicated to Islam in
the address delivered by
John Paul II in Morocco
in 1999, in the stadium of
Casablanca filled with
young Muslims. And
they express their hope
“to continue to build
peaceful and friendly re-
lationships based upon
mutual respect, justice,
and what is common in
© Nabil Mounzer/epa/Corbis
essence in our shared
Abrahamic tradition,
particularly ‘the two
greatest command-
ments’ in Mark 12:29-31:
‘The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind, and
with all your strength. The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater
than these’.”
And here follows the alphabetic list of
the 38 signatories, with their respective
roles. It should be noted that they belong
to many nations and to different currents
of Islam—the Iranian ayatollah Muhammad
Ali Taskhiri, for example, is a Shiite:
1. Abd Allah bin Mahfuz bin Bayyah,
King Abd Al-Aziz University, Saudi
Arabia; former vice-president and min-
ister, Mauritania
2. Muhammad Said Ramadan Al-Buti,
dean of Department of Religion, Uni-
versity of Damascus, Syria
3. Mustafa Cagrici, grand mufti of
Istanbul, Turkey
4. Mustafa Ceric, grand mufti and head
of ulema of Bosnia and Herzegovina
5. Ravil Gainutdin, grand mufti of Russia
6. Nedzad Grabus, grand mufti of
Slovenia
7. Ali Mashhour bin Muhammad bin
Salim bin Hafeez, imam of the Tarim
Mosque and head of Fatwa Council,
Tarim, Yemen
8. Umar bin Muhammad bin Salim bin
Hafeez, dean of Dar Al-Mustafa, Tarim,
Yemen
9. Farouq Hamadah, Mohammad V Uni-
versity, Morocco
10. Hamza Yusuf Hanson, founder and
director of Zaytuna Institute, Califor-
nia, USA
11. Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun, grad
mufti of Syria
12. Izz Al-Din Ibrahim, advisor for cul-
tural affairs, prime ministry, United
Arab Emirates
13. Omar Jah, secretary of the Muslim
Scholars Council, Gambia
14. Ali Zain Al-Abideen Al-Jifri, founder
and director of Taba Institute, United
Arab Emirates
15. Ali Jumuah, grand mufti of Egypt
16. Abla Mohammed Kahlawi, dean of
Islamic and Arabic Studies, Al-Azhar
University, Egypt
17. Mohammad Hashim Kamali, dean of
the International Institute of Islamic
Thought and Civilization, Malaysia
18. Nuh Ha Mim Keller, Aal Al-Bayt
Institute for Islamic Thought, Jordan;
Shaykh in the Shadhili Order, USA
19. Ahmad Al-Khalili, grand mufti of
Oman
The Regensburg / p. 22
 A R
Preferential Option
for the Poor
By Archbishop Angel N. Lagdameo, DD
A
key principle, I would even say, the
key principle of Social Doctrine of
the Church on the obligations of
Christians in our society today is the prin-
ciple of preferential option for the poor.
The century of social doctrine of the
Church, from Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum
Novarum (1891) to Pope John II’s
Centessimus Annus (1991), revea;s the
consistent commitment and commandment
of the Church that the poor must be given
preferential option. “This is an option to
which the whole tradition of the Church
bears witness” (SRS 42). This option for
the poor may be seen as a mark of the true
Church.
God’s Option for the Poor. The pri-
mary source of this option for the poor is
God himself. When the Israelites were
being oppressed and exploited in Egupt,
God tooktheir side, acted in their favor,
T I C L E S
identified himself with them, and through
Moses led them in an Exodus out of their
slavery and poverty. But when the Twelve
Tribes of Israel fought among themselves,
to the disadvantage of the poor among
them, God again was on the side of the
poor. He sent prophets like Amos and
Micah, Isaiah and Jeremiah to announce
God’s explosive message: If they don’t
repent from their infidelity, injustice and
mistreatment of the poor, he would bring
cataclysmic catastrophe of national pro-
portion. (Isn’t that also a warning for us?)
Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel had com-
pared Israel to Sodom and Gomorrah (Is. 1/
10-15; Ez 16/49-50) which were destroyed
by fire and brimstones because they stub-
bornly refused to share with the poor
along with many other hideous crimes.
The result was the Assyrian Exile of Israel
and the Babylonian Exile of Juda. Even if
they were God’s people, God chastised
them because of their infidelity to him and
their oppression of the poor. (Isn’t that
also a lesson for us?)
Jesus Christ in the Gospel is the rev-
elation of the God. He is the human face of
the Father. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because he has anointed me to bring
good news to the poor. He has sent me to
proclaim release to the captives and recov-
ery of sight to the blind, to let the op-
pressed go free, to proclaim the year of the
Lord’s favor” (Lk 4/18-19). Jesus Christ
began startlingly new social order. He
proposed to his disciples a vision not only
of the Kingdom, but also a vision of eco-
nomic relationship and economic equality
through the sharing of a “common purse”
(cf. Jo. 12/6; 13/29) whereby to help the
poor. In the new socio-economic and
spiritual relationship the disciples were to
be both liable for each other and available
to each other especially in difficult times.
In a parable, the Rich Man (Dives) was
condemned to Gehenna (Hell) because he
had no concern for the beggar Lazarus (Lk
16/19-31). Jesus died for all without excep-
tion; but in his passion and death we can
reflect his solidarity and identification with
the victims of society.
The Gospel on economic sharing was
picked up by St. Paul in his letters. The
“intra-Church” and “inter-Churches” col-
lection which Paul conducted was to help
the poor in the communities of Christians
as a sign also of “one faith, one God, one
Lord.” When the needs of the poor are
looked after, there would be a fair balance
between one’s abundance and another’s
need. Extremes of wealth and poverty,
Paul tells the Corinthians, develop class
division and are incompatible with the
profession of Eucharistic Koinonia and
membership in the Body of Christ. In the
new social order, “nobody will be so poor
as to have nothing to give, or so rich as to
have nothing to receive” (PCP-II 98; cf. 1
Cor. 12/4-36; Eph. 4/7, 11-16). This lifestyle
or movement is founded on the belief that
God alone is the absolute owner of the
universe and all it contains; that he rejects
the extremes of wealth and poverty; that
we are all stewards of this earth.
Option for the Poor in the Social Doc-
trine of the Church. The reconstruction of
society is based on the recognition of
mutual relationship and mutual depen-
dence of people, of rich and poor, of em-
ployer and employee, “in closest neigh-
borliness and friendship” (RN 33). “Each
needs the other completely: neither capi-
tal can do without labor nor labor without
Volume 40 • Number 11 11
 Preferential
capital” (RN 28). The proper ordering of
economic affairs cannot be left “to free
competition alone” nor “to economic su-
premacy alone” but must be guided by the
principles of social justice and charity
(Quadragesimo Anno 1931). 94-95). The
longed-for social reconstruction must be
preceded by a profound level (QA 140;
146-147). It is absurd to reconstruct a solid
and fruitful temporal order prescinding
from the supremacy of God (Mater et
Magistra 1961, 217) and ignoring the cen-
trality of man, who is the foundation, cause
and end of all social institution (MM 219).
All attempts at reconstructing the
social order must be in the interest of
peace. Peace is achieved only when it is
founded on truth, build according to jus-
tice, vivified and integrated by charity and
put into practice in the atmosphere of
freedom (Pacem in Terris 1963, 167). The
promotion of peace understandably is in-
timately linked with integral human devel-
opment, the preferential option for the
poor and the dynamics of justice and love.
This led Pope Paul VI to condemn global
poverty and inequality, and to state that
“development is the new name for peace”
(Populorum Progressio 1967, 76-77).
The 1971 Synod of Bishops in pub-
lishing Justice In the World, decided to
look upon the world and read Holy Scrip-
ture from the perspective of the poor. It
proclaimed the role of the Church thus:
“The Church has the vocation to be present
in the heart of the world by proclaiming the
Good News to the poor, freedom to the
oppressed and joy to the afflicted… Thus,
action on behalf of justice and participa-
tion in the transformation of the world
appear to us as a constitutive dimension of
the preaching of the Gospel, or, in other
12 IMPACT • November 2006
Option for
words, of the Church’s mission for the
redemption of the human race and its lib-
eration form every oppressive condition”
(JIW Introd.). If poor refers precisely to
victims of injustice, therefore, option for
the poor is in reality, not mystically nor
metaphorically, an option for the victims
of injustice.
Preferential option for the poor has
found expression in many statements of
Pope John Paul II. In Laborem Exercens
1981, John Paul II states that justice de-
mands that the organization of labor must
treat workers not as objects of production,
not as an assembly of muscles and hands,
but as subjects of production, as respon-
sible agents making their creative contri-
bution to the productive enterprise (LE
6,7,12). Insisting on the priority of labor
over capital, Pope John Paul II adopted
this position: that the ownership of land
and productive goods, whether private or
collective, has only conditional legitimacy,
that is: “They cannot be possessed against
labor, they cannot even be possessed for
possession’s sake, because the only le-
gitimate title to their possession—whether
in the form of private ownership or in the
form of public or collective ownership—is
that it should serve labor” (LE 14). In
Sollicitudo Rei Socialis 1987, John Paul II
puts option for the poor on a world-wide
perspective: “This love of preference for
the poor cannot but embrace the immense
multitudes of the hungry, the needy, the
homeless, those without medical care and,
above all, those without hope of a better
future. To ignore these realities would
mean becoming like the ‘rich man’ who
pretended not to know the beggar Lazarus
lying at his gate” (Lk 16/19-31; SRS 42).
In Centesimus Annus 1991, John Paul
the Poor
II reaffirms the principles of Catholic So-
cial Doctrine over one hundred years after
Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum. There the
Pope states that Catholic Social Doctrine
is marked with “preferential option for the
poor, which is never exclusive or discrimi-
natory towards other groups” (CA 57).
Neither Marxist-Communism nor Radical
Capitalism, with their respective ideology
of the market system and culture of con-
sumerism, are capable or reforming soci-
ety and liberating the poor (CA 40-42).
What then does the Church present
to define her preferential option for the
poor? “The Church has no models to
present; models that are real and truly
effective can only rise within the frame-
work of different historical situations,
through the efforts of all those who re-
sponsibly confront concrete problems in
all their social, economic, political and
cultural aspects, as these interact with one
another” (CA 43; GS 36). For such a task
the Church in fact has been offering her
social teaching at different times of our
history. Each Social Encyclical is a re-
sponse, an orientation, to the emerging
“signs of the times.”
Church of the Poor. That is what
different Episcopal Conferences have
done looking at their respective worlds as
they read ad apply the social doctrine of
the Church. Latin American bishops gath-
ered at Medellin in 1968 and at Puebla in
1979, the Canadian Bishops in 1983, the
North American Bishops in 1986, and our
own Philippine Bishops in 1991 Second
Plenary Council of the Philippines, have all
looked at their worlds, the sacred scripture
and the social doctrine of the Church and
articulated their respective “preferential
option for the Poor.”
The PCP-II describes at length how
in the Philippines today, the Chruch can
be a “Church of the Poor.” This means a
Church that (a) embraces and practices
the spirit of evangelical poverty com-
bined with profound trust in the Lord; (b)
shows a love of preference for the poor,
the oppressed and marginalized; (c) does
not discriminate against the poor, but
vindicates their rights; (d) give preferen-
tial attention and time to the poor; (e) has
pastors and leaders who will learn to be
with, work with, and learn from the poor;
(f) not only evangelizes the poor, but also
recognizes that the poor will themselves
become evangelizers; (g) and finally, a
church that orients and tilts the center of
gravity of the entire community in favor
of the needy (cf. PCP-II 125-136; CFC
1418). I
 A R T I C L E S

W
hen administration of the tempo-
ral goods of the Church is put to
discussion, the issue of trans-
parency is not far behind. For here money
and other valued assets come into play.
And with it enters the delicate task of how
wisely they are being administered or ought
to be administered. Messy questions on
transparency are often, if not always, put
forward.
To be more specific may I present
some of the pointed questions on the
matter at bar and try to respond to them in
the light of the Church law and doctrine.

Question 1.1: In the name of transparency,

Transparency in
is the Chancery obliged or not to give a full
disclosure through financial statements
or reports to the clergy on all its diocesan
funds?

Answer: No. To give a full disclosure
of all its diocesan funds through financial
statements or reports to the clergy is not
advisable. The act is simply against the
nature of the relationship between the
bishop and the clergy. The clergy is the
cooperator of the bishop and not the busi-
ness partner. It is for this reason that the
universal law has not given to the
presbyterium the specific task in relation
to the administration of the ecclesiastical
goods belonging to the diocese (juridical
person).
But transparency in the administra-
tion of the Church funds is still the stan-
dard. As PCP II, Art. 96 tersely put it:
“Diocese should be managed justly in
accordance with the law of the Church and
in the spirit of co-responsibility and open-
ness, proper accountability at all levels
and financial transparency being the
norm.” However, this transparency has to
be attained by following the laws of the
Church which provide external control and
complex internal mechanisms that can
guarantee the right and proper administra-
tion of the temporal goods of the Church.
Question 1.2: Why all the Church caveats
with its imposed Sub Secreto or Strict
Confidentiality pertinent to funds et al?
Answer: The Church caveats with its
imposed Sub Secreto or Strict Confidenti-
ality are not arbitrary creations of the
Church. They are there as the direct off-
shoots of its nature. The Church is hierar-
chical in its constitution and not demo-
cratic (cf. Canons 204, §2; 336; 375; 753). In
a democracy, the official represents the
the Church
By Bishop Leonardo Y. Medroso, JCD, DD
people and is accountable to the people.
In the hierarchical Church, clergy repre-
sents the persons to whom Christ en-
trusted the government of the Church in a
hierarchical order—such as, the Pope and
the Bishops. Hence, pastors and priests
are accountable first to their bishops as
the bishops themselves are accountable
to the Holy See or the Pope. The necessary
consequence to this principle is this: just
as no pastor should allow his parishioners
or a ‘self-appointed group” thereof to dic-
tate that he submits to their supervision
and audit, except to the Ordinary of the
Place or the bishop, similarly neither the
bishop should submit to the priests’ su-
pervision and audit. His responsibility is
to the Supreme Pontiff in all matters, in-
cluding financial, of how he administers
them in his diocese (cf. Can. 399).
Question 2: What is or has been really the
traditional diocesan practice with regard
to this matter? Why?
Answer: In the administration of the
ecclesiastical goods, that is, goods be-
longing to public juridical persons in the
Church, the system provided for by the
law of the Churchis a complex one in which
there are the following elements and prin-
© Denz Dayao / IMPACT
ciples: 1) Communion. In the Church com-
munion is also applied to temporal goods:
those who have more have to give to those
who have less. And this principle of shar-
ing goods can be applied to dioceses and
also to parishes and among individual
clerics (cf. cans. 1263; 1266; 1271, etc.). 2)
Purpose. The purpose or the finality of the
ecclesiastical goods has to be respected.
Among these finalities are divine worship,
works of apostolate and charity, and the
decent support of the clergy (cf. can. 222,
§1). In fact, these ends are the reason for
having material goods. 3) Donor. The will
of the donor has always to be considered
and respected (cf. can. 1267, § 3; 1300).
In the system set up by law regarding
the administration of temporal goods, there
exist two kinds of control to ensure their
proper and right administration, namely, 1.
The ecclesiastical Superior of juridical
person (external control), and, 2. The inter-
vention of different bodies or persons
provided for in the code (inner control or
mechanism).
1) External Control. The external con-
trol foresees that vigilance over the admin-
istration of diocesan goods is performed
by the Holy See. This has to be complied
with by the bishop in his Quinquennial
Report and in his subsequent Ad Limina

Volume 40 • Number 11 13
 Transparency in the Church

Visit wherein the bishop gives account of tion of the goods. If the laity considers or fidence. The question, however, of how
the administration of the diocese. is certain that the administration of the far financial statements can be made pub-
2) Internal Control or mechanism. As goods of the parish, or of a diocesan lic, which items are to be included in the
far as the temporal affairs of the diocese are association, is unlawfully or improperly statements, to whom should they be dis-
concerned, the Bishop is the administra- done they should inform the Bishop. closed, is duly answered by the provision
tor, supervisor, and guardian of all eccle- of Canon 1287, § 2: “Administrators are to
siastical properties (can. 1276). The direct Question 4: Can the following principle render an account to the faithful concern-
administration of these goods is done by hold or apply: “Strict fund accountability ing the goods offered by the faithful to the
the Bishop himself (the main administra- Church, according to the norms to be de-
is due only to its source or sources of
tor) and by the financial administrator (the termined by particular law.” This particu-
oeconomus) who is directly involved in funds”? For instance, special sourced lar law which should guide the manner of
this task under the authority of the Bishop funds or grants for special projects, or the disclosing financial statements is that
(can.494). In order to exercise this func- chancery’s report to the pastor or parish determined by the diocesan Bishop and
tion effectively, the diocesan Bishop is on the yearly parish financial support to the statutes itself of the diocese. It would
required to seek the intervention of two (2) the diocese according to its assessment. be good if the Conference of Bishops
organs or bodies, namely, the finance com- could also pass some uniform guidelines
mittee of the diocese (its establishment is Answer: Yes. An element that can and concrete rules to assist dioceses how
compulsory for all dioceses), and the col- affect the manner in which accounting of to disseminate financial statements. That
lege of consultors. These bodies are called the administration of some goods is to be would somehow forestall controversy and
to give their counsel in certain affairs or given is the nature of the goods themselves misunderstanding caused by differing fi-
must give their consent for certain acts, or or the source of these goods. Here the will nancial statements in a given territory.
the Bishop has to hear them before doing of the donor comes into play. The law of the
certain acts (cf. cans. 494; 1277; 1292; Church demands respect for this will. When Question 5: Some pastors question the
1295; 1524). The finance committee has a there is an explicit will concomitant to the chancery’s demand of them to keep a parish
more technical competence (cf. can.493) acceptance of the goods given, then an
financial book or record and render also
while the college of consultors’ function is accounting of the fulfillment of that will has
more pastoral in nature. This is shown in to be given to the donor. If money is raised a parish financial report, while they, in
the composition of these councils. In the for the construction of a seminary or a turn, are not accorded such prerogative
first, there are lay people experts in the shrine, then the donors have the right to vis-à-vis the diocesan chancery. Will you
administration of the temporal goods who know what has been done with the money. kindly give them a simplified explanation?
prepare a budget of income and expendi- In the cases of Mass stipends the donor has
ture and approve the account for income the right to know whether the mass has Answer: The reason why the chancery
and expenditure. The latter body is more been offered for that intention (cf. can. 958; demands from the pastors to keep a parish
in the pastoral dimen- financial book and ren-
sion of the decisions. der to it a regular finan-
“Diocese should be managed justly in accordance cial report, while they
The Code of Canon Law
does not include with the law of the Church and in the spirit of co- in turn are not ac-
among these organs responsibility and openness, proper accountability at corded such preroga-
the clergy (the all levels and financial transparency being the norm." tive vis-à-vis the dioc-
presbyterium as a body esan chancery, is the
or the presbyteral council) or the lay faith- also, cans. 945; 948; 949; 955, § 4). This Church law which sets up its own standard
ful of the diocese. Therefore, there is no means that in some cases the diocese has to system and procedure for the right admin-
legal obligation of giving any detailed give the accounting of the use of the dona- istration of the temporal goods. The law is
account on the administration of the goods tions and in some other cases it has to be the not biased for the chancery or for the Bishop.
of the diocese to the clergy or to the laity. pastor who will give the accounting. If the It is just that these laws were enacted ac-
donor is the parish/parishes and the amount cording to the nature of the Church itself.
Question 3: Whatever the principle or is given for a certain diocesan project (e.g., The Church is not a democratic institution.
It is hierarchical (cf. Canons 204, §2; 336;
practice, is the pastor also bound by it vis- the building of a clergy house), the one 375; 753). In a democratic institution, the
responsible of the project should give an
à-vis his parishioners?
accounting to the donor parish/parishes power of the official basically emanates
Answer: No. The laity of the parish regarding the use of the money given. For from the people and is therefore account-
is not controlling the administration of the the administration of other goods of a dio- able to the people. In the hierarchical Church,
temporal goods. It is the diocesan Bishop cese (house rents, investments, stocks, the power of the officials (the clergy) ema-
who is called to control this administration etc.) it seems that the only one who can nate from Christ who entrusted the govern-
(cf. can. 1276). Therefore it is legitimate control this administration is the Holy See. ment of the Church to them in a hierarchical
that the Chancery demands from the par- For the alienation of these goods the provi- order. In consonance with this order pas-
ish priest to render a financial report to the sions of the law have to be respected (cf. tors are accountable to their bishops as the
bishops themselves are accountable to the
Ordinary. But the one who administers can. 1292).
these goods is the parish priest, with the It is on this matter of donated goods Holy See or the Pope. Hence, just as no
that transparency is particularly called for. pastor should allow his parishioners or a
help of the finance committee of the parish.
In this system the laity cannot pretend to Here, financial statements and disclosure ‘self-appointed group” thereof to dictate
demand an accounting of the administra- are necessary to engender trust and con- Transparency / p. 22

14 IMPACT • November 2006

 F e a t u r e
(a picture of poor children is suited or this ar-
ticle)
UN’s Millennium Development Goals
Eradicating Pover ty or Population?
By Bob R. Acebedo
S
eriously or not, there’s yet one bog-
gling puzzler for the millennium: Will
the Philippines stand to be one of the
purportedly “saved” nations, among other
less developed ones, through the United
Nation’s flaunted Millennium Develop-
ment Goals (MDGs) that toutedly aspire to
treat some of the most pressing aspects of
extreme poverty by 2015?
Impressively fashioned out, as it
were, from the 1995 World Summit on
Social Development in Copenhagen, the
MDGs are touted as the latest and most
ambitious “Big Push” effort by the United
Nations and developed nations to bring
the least developed nations out of the
“poverty trap”—all by 2015.
But now, with barely nine years more
to the target parousia or promise of a
millennial deliverance, it seems more plau-
sible than not that the country—undeni-
ably yet stuck in the doldrums and is
apparently even flouncing to the seams—
is obviously far from attaining the MDGs’
grand promise. The most recent results
of a survey conducted by Social Weather
Stations, a nongovernment polling
group, posed as telling enough to prove
that the country is yet stymied by debili-
A r t i c l e
© Ryalty Free/Corbis
tating poverty: the incidence of hunger
in the country posted a record high with
2.9 million families, or 16.9 percent (up
from 13.9 percent of last June) of some
17.4 million households, finding them-
selves with nothing to eat at one time or
another in the third quarter of 2006. The
SWS survey, conducted from Septem-
ber 24 to October 2, showed that while
the incidence of hunger declined in
Metro Manila (from 15 percent in June to
12.8 percent in September), the rest of
the country registered a general increase:
the rest of Luzon (from 10 percent to 14.7
percent), the Visayas (from 17.7 percent
to 19.7 percent) and Mindanao (from
17.3 percent to 21.3 percent).
That the Philippines has one of the
highest incidence of poverty in south-
east Asia is readily affirmed by the Glo-
bal Call to Action Against Poverty-Phil-
ippines (GCAP-Philippines). “Twenty-
six million Filipinos can be considered
poor, each subsisting on a meager bud-
get of around P36 per day. Regional data
for Southeast Asia showed that the Phil-
ippines has one of the highest incidences
of poverty, with 15.5 percent of its popu-
lation living below $1 a day. The figure
is even lower than Laos’ and
Cambodia’s,” GCAP said.
Of course, with its not unusual spin
of the “economy-poised-for-takeoff” ar-
gument, the current Arroyo administra-
tion has always since invariably denied
such a gloomy picture of the country
flaunting, for one, about the current rela-
tive stability of the peso (which recently
hit its highest level in more than four
years at 49.73 to the US dollar due to
heavy remittances from overseas Fili-
pino workers) and with President Ar-
royo herself who lately has forecast eco-
nomic growth of between 5.5 and 6.5
percent in 2007, up from a government
estimate of 5.6 percent or more this year
and 5 percent in 2005.
Even so, the country’s economy is
poised for take off or not, highly in-
formed critics are yet skeptical about the
MDGs’ touted promise of delivering the
least developed nations from the “pov-
erty trap”, unveiling rather the MDGS’
technocratic agenda of curtailing or re-
ducing the populations of the world’s
poor countries.
At a conference on “The Implica-
tions of the Millennium Development
Goals from the Point of View of Catholic
Social Teachings” held last October 10
at the Universwity of Asia and the Pa-
cific, principal speaker Dr. Brian
Scarnecchia, president of International
Human Rights & Solidarity Institute,
pointedly asked, partly quoting from the
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of
the Church: “Are the MDGs a sign of the
Kingdom of Christ actively seeking a
new social order in which adequate so-
lutions to material poverty are offered
and in which the forces thwarting the
attempts of the weakest to free them-
selves from conditions of misery and
slavery are more effectively controlled…
or are they a sign of messiahnistic be-
liefs that sustain the illusion that it is
possible to eliminate the problem of pov-
erty completely from the world?”
Debunking the MDGs
More so, Scarnecchia and other
Catholic social thinkers assailed that
“while the MDGs promise to do some-
thing about poverty and hunger, child
and maternal mortality, education and
disease, and environmental degradation,
they (MDGs) contain ideological ele-
ments—gender not rooted in biological
identity, valuing education for girls and
UN's Millennium / p. 22
Volume 40 • Number 11 15
 C O V E R S T O R Y

S
ince the last quarter of the last cen- its many dimensions—income poverty, political and cultural freedoms and sense
tury, there has been no letup in the hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter of participation in community activities.
global effort to mainstream women in and exclusion—while promoting equality The objective of development is to create
every aspect of development. Why have for women, maternal health, education and an enabling environment for people to
women suddenly become such a special environmental sustainability (2005 Re- enjoy long, healthy and creative lives.
target of development? This is what we port of Jeffrey Sachs to UN Secretary (Mahbub ul Haq, 1980s UNDP Adviser,
shall try to find out. General Kofi Annan). undp.org website)”
Studies in various countries have Three of these eight goals focus on “Philosophers, economists and po-
shown that women play central roles in women and girls. These are: Goal 3, which litical leaders have long emphasized hu-
development and contribute significantly is to promote gender equality and the man wellbeing as the purpose, the end, of
to the nation’s wealth. They contribute to empowerment of women; Goal 4, which is development. As Aristotle said in ancient
food security, to the large informal sector, to reduce child mortality; and Goal 5, which Greece, ‘Wealth is evidently not the good
to service and farm labor, and to export is to improve maternal health. we are seeking, for it is merely useful for the
labor. Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the UN sake of something else.’ “In seeking that
In 2005, women accounted for about Millennium Project, believes that if Goal 5 something else, human development
50.7 % of the estimated 10 million Filipino is achieved by 2015, for example, the world shares a common vision with human rights.
workers overseas. A full 50% of the US10- will see two million mothers saved from The goal is human freedom. And in pursu-
billion annual remittance by Filipino work- mortality during childbirth. Hundreds of ing capabilities and realizing rights, this
ers to the Philippines is attributed to them. millions more of women and girls will have freedom is vital. People must be free to
(2004 SOF, National Statistics Office). access to education and to economic and exercise their choices and to participate in
Presumably, this figure does not capture political opportunity if Goal 3 is likewise decision-making that affects their lives.
their total earnings; one must assume they achieved by 2015. Human development and human rights are
retain a portion of their earn- mutually reinforcing, helping to
ings for various needs. From secure the well-being and dig-
this alone, one can imagine
what impact the expansion of
“Development, which is merely nity of all people, building self-
respect and the respect of oth-
women’s productive capaci- economic, is incapable of setting ers.
ties can have on social man free, on the contrary, it will Human development is
progress.
This explains the need for
end by enslaving him further. about much more than the rise
or fall of national incomes. It is
quality investment in women’s Development that does not include about creating an environment
education and training. For the cultural, transcendent and in which people can develop
education and training not
only equip women with the
religious dimensions of man and their full potential and lead pro-
ductive, creative lives in ac-
necessary skills for the work- society, to the extent that it does cord with their needs and inter-
place. They also enhance their not recognize the existence of such ests. People are the real wealth
self-esteem and enable them
to take their place in society,
dimensions and does not of nations. Human development
is allowing people to lead the
whatever that may be, with endeavor to direct its goals and kind of life they choose and
greater self-confidence. In a priorities toward the same, is providing them with the tools
complex society, made increas-
ingly so by modernization,
even less conducive to authentic and opportunities to make those
choices. It involves the widen-
educated women are better liberation." ing of social, political and eco-
able to cope with the chal- nomic opportunities to expand
lenges of family life and the choices for people to do and be
workplace. They acquire a what they value in life.” (UNDP
wider and freer access to the information What is Development Human Development Report, 2006
they need as mother, working woman, or undp.org website).
citizen. They thus become more compe- But what is “development”? The lit- Within these definitions, it is pos-
tent agents of development erature is rich, so let us listen to the au- sible to discover lifestyles that are decid-
thorities. edly based on a wide range of choices, but
Millennium Development Goals The United Nations Development which definitely lie outside the history of
Program (UNDP) defines “development as authentic human culture.
In 2000, the United Nations estab- enlarging people’s choices. In principle, Development, according to econo-
lished a framework for measuring eco- these choices can be infinite and can mist Michael P. Todaro, must represent
nomic and social growth for development change over time. People often value the whole gamut of change within an entire
aid purposes in developing countries. achievements that do not show up at all, or social system, which moves away from a
Known as the Millennium Development not immediately, in income or growth fig- condition of life, widely perceived as un-
Goals (MDGs), the document lists eight ures: greater access to knowledge, better satisfactory, toward a situation or condi-
major goals. These have been described nutrition and health services, more secure tion of life regarded as materially and spiri-
as the world’s time-bound and quantified livelihoods, security against crime and tually better (Todaro and Smith,Economic
targets for addressing extreme poverty in physical violence, satisfying leisure hours, Development, 2003).

16 IMPACT • Novemnber
November 2006
2006
Women and Development

Why have women suddenly

become a target of development?
By Ma.
By Ma. Fenny
Fenny Cantero-Tatad
Cantero-Tatad

Volume 40 • Number 11 17
 Why have
Indeed, there are many other views of
development. The Social Teachings of the
Church offer far richer insights than those
we normally encounter in academic or offi-
cial UNDP literature.
Pope John Paul II Speaks on
Development
What John Paul II says in his Encycli-
cal Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (June 2,
1985) is worth an equal quote:
“Development, which is merely eco-
nomic, is incapable of setting man free, on
the contrary, it will end by enslaving him
further. Development that does not include
the cultural, transcendent and religious di-
mensions of man and society, to the extent
that it does not recognize the existence of
such dimensions and does not endeavor to
direct its goals and priorities toward the
same, is even less conducive to authentic
liberation. Human beings are totally free
only when they are completely themselves,
in the fullness of their rights and duties. The
same can be said about society as a whole.
“On the internal level of every nation,
respect for all rights takes on great impor-
tance, especially: the right to life at every
stage of its existence; the rights of the
family, as the basic social community, or
“cell of society”; justice in employment
relationships; the rights inherent in the life
of the political community as such; the
rights based on the transcendent vocation
of the human being, beginning with the
right of freedom to profess and practice
one’s own religious belief.”
Pope Benedict XVI and
Development
In his Lenten message, March, 2006,
(…”Jesus, at the Sight of the Crowds, was
Moved with Pity…”), Pope Benedict XVI
reinforces what his predecessor has writ-
ten.
“There cannot be development with-
out responding to the material and spiritual
needs of people,” he says. “In fact, it is quite
impossible to separate the response to
people’s material and social needs from the
fulfillment of the profound desires of their
hearts….For this reason, the primary con-
tribution that the Church offers to the de-
velopment of mankind and peoples does
not consist merely of material means or
technical solutions,” says this theologian-
Pope.
“If we are to promote development in
its fullness, our own ‘gaze’ upon mankind
has to be measured against that of Christ.
18 IMPACT • November 2006
women
This involves the proclamation of the truth
of Christ—a proclamation that educates
consciences and teaches the authentic dig-
nity of the person and of work; that pro-
motes a culture that truly responds to all the
questions of humanity. Even in this era of
global interdependence, it is clear that no
economic, social or political project can
replace that gift of self to another through
which charity is expressed. These are the
criteria, by which Christians should assess
the political programs of their leaders,”
Benedict XVI points out.
MDG Goal No. 5—Improve
Maternal Health
Given the above criteria, we can now
analyze one of the MDG goals specifically
targeted for women—Goal 5: To improve
maternal health.
Globally, Goal 5 has only one aim: “to
reduce by three-quarters the maternal mor-
tality ratio between 1990 and 2015.” (UN
Millennium Development Goals, 2000)
In the Philippines, however, one more
target was added: to increase access to
reproductive health services (in this case,
contraceptive use or contraceptive preva-
lence or family planning services) to 60% by
2005, 80% by 2010, and 100% in 2015. (2005
Philippine Progress Report on MDGs).
The overall objective of government
for now is to bring down the fertility rate of
women from the current 3.5% to 2.3% and
to a population growth rate of between
1.8% -1.9%. In 2005, the contraceptive
prevalence rate went down from 49.5 % to
48.9%, among women of reproductive age.
These are women, 15 to 49 years of age,
numbering at least 19,339,294 as of the last
census. Curiously, the population growth
rate went down too from 2.3% to a figure
between 1.99 (according to the Philippine
government) and 1.8% (according to the US
Central Intelligence Agency 2006 esti-
mate)—despite the drop in the contracep-
tive prevalence rate. There is no clear indi-
cation, however, if the outmigration of ap-
proximately 1,000,000 (one million) Filipi-
nos yearly factored in the projected popu-
lation figures by government which was
85.3 million in 2005.
Contraception is generally imple-
mented through the use of contraceptive
pills. The extent of use of such pills pro-
vides a reliable measure of contraceptive
prevalence. Many factors enter into a
woman’s decision to go on pills. Not least
of these are the possible side-effects.
The safety of the pills has been de-
bated for a long time, with no definitive
suddenly beco
pronouncement from universally accepted
health authorities. But on July 29, 2005, the
World Health Organization, speaking
through its International Agency for Re-
search on Cancer (IARC), confirmed that all
estrogen-progesterone oral contraceptives
are highly carcinogenic.
Based on the WHO study, at least
9,456,000 million Filipino women today are
at risk of having cervical cancer, breast
cancer and liver cancer, if they are regular
users of contraceptive pills. Cancer is the
third major cause of death among Filipino
women, and the number of deaths attrib-
uted to it increases yearly, according to the
National Statistics Office (NSO).
UN studies too have indicated that
contraceptive use among adolescents and
young adults induces infertility which will
take years to reverse—if at all (2002 UN
EcoSoc World Population Monitoring).
The National Government, therefore, must
exert every effort to promote women’s health
and do right to MDG Goal 5 by removing
contraceptive pills from public health dis-
pensaries.
National Government’s Women’s
Health Targets
To achieve the National Government’s
MDG target for contraceptive use, which in
the Philippines is largely a part of the
government’s reproductive health services,
the following strategies have been pro-
posed (Source:2005 Philippine Progress
Report on MDGs):
1. To address the lack of a strong and
consistent population policy, as well as
ome a target
to comply with the country’s commit-
ment to international conferences such
as the International Conference on
Population and Development (ICPD),
the national government through the
legislature should pass a law that clearly
states the policy with respect to fertility
and population growth reduction and
possible objectives for the Family Plan-
ning Program.
2. Stakeholders should lobby for the
formulation and legislation of specific
policies on Adolescent Reproductive
Health such as the teaching of adoles-
cent reproductive health education in
all secondary schools in both public
and private schools; and establishment
of teen health quarters for counseling
and information services in all LGUs.
The Population Education Program
needs to be broadened and strength-
ened by molding values among the
youth through the incorporation of the
elements of adolescent health educa-
tion, the life-planning approach and the
peer counseling strategy.
3. There is a need to establish a strong
partnership among all stakeholders—
National Government Agencies, NGOs,
LGUs, private and commercial sectors—
in the formulation, implementation,
monitoring and evaluation of Repro-
ductive Health/Family Planning strate-
gies. Strategic alliances with stakehold-
ers should be initiated and enhanced to
overcome the continuing problem of
policy ambivalence.
4. The National Government and LGUs
need to show unequivocal support and
of development?
political will to push for stronger popu-
lation and Reproductive Health pro-
grams. These programs must be among
the priority agenda of government at
national and local levels.
5. It is strategic to link with community
and religious leaders to make Repro-
ductive Health and Family Planning
widely acceptable and made part of the
basic health packages for the commu-
nities.
All of the above form part of Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo’s reproductive health
services and population control program,
which is described as a development goal.
The National Government, through the
National Economic and Development Au-
thority, with the support of foreign govern-
ments and foreign funding agencies, sets
the targets. The other agencies of govern-
ment move according to signals from the
Executive Department.
This explains the proliferation of repro-
ductive health and population manage-
ment bills in Congress. The easy and un-
eventful passage of a good number of
Gender and Development (GAD) Codes
with unconstitutional reproductive health
provisions in local government units such
as Davao City, Cebu City, Iloilo City, Bacolod
City, Angeles City, Quezon City, General
Santos City, San Juan Municipality, Cebu
province, Cotabato province, Zamboanga
del Sur, Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occi-
dental, Negros Oriental, Quezon and Au-
rora provinces, among others—without any
consultations with Filipino families and fam-
ily associations in these areas, as expressly
mandated by the Constitution, attests to
the national government’s resolve to im-
pose population control at all levels, using
underhanded tactics.
The language used in these GAD codes
includes such gender feminist ideological
jargon as “women’s control over their bod-
ies” or “women’s right over their bodies” or
“reproductive health rights” which in famil-
iar “U.N.-speak” includes the alleged “right
to terminate an unwanted pregnancy” or to
contract abortion, which is prohibited by
the Constitution and punishable under our
laws.
Of course, the local users of this lan-
guage continue to protest that the terms
they use do not include abortion. But these
words, which were crafted in U.N. interna-
tional conferences, have acquired univer-
sally accepted meanings, and the phrase
“reproductive health services”, for one,
clearly includes abortion. Provisions No.
7.6 and 13.14 of the International Confer-
ence on Population and Development docu-
ment clearly confirm this. (Provision 7.6
says “reproductive health care
include…family planning counseling, in-
formation, education, communication and
services;… prevention and appropriate
treatment of infertility; abortion… includ-
ing prevention of abortion and the manage-
ment of the consequences of abortion…”
Provision 13.14 says “In the basic repro-
ductive health services including…. abor-
tion, information, education and communi-
cation about reproductive health… etc.”)
What has happened here is that gen-
der language which Congress has been
unable to enact because of insurmountable
constitutional objections, has been casu-
ally fast-tracked by local governments, upon
the initiative of foreign population control-
lers, without regard to the Constitution, and
without any consultations with the affected
families. The foreign devil has simply en-
tered through the backdoor.
Opposition to abortion derives mainly
from natural law, which derives in turn from
the truth about man. This has been raised to
the level of faith by the Christian commu-
nity that recognizes human life as a gift from
God. Such a community must be governed
by just laws, but no law is just that attacks
reason, the natural law, and belief in God.
Legislators in national and local legis-
latures are elected to make just laws. The
law remains, in the classic definition of St.
Thomas, “an ordinance of reason promul-
gated by those in authority for the common
good.” No legislator is obliged to believe
that he or she can or should legislate any-
thing and everything he or she wants to
legislate, and that it becomes law as soon as
it is legislated. If it offends the moral law, it
would be an unjust legislation, and it would
not be law but violence.
The same principle applies to programs
of the national government. No govern-
ment has the right to impose programs that
violate and seek to destroy the ethical prin-
ciples and religious and cultural beliefs of
the very people from whom the authority of
that government emanates.
There are things that are always right,
as there are things that are always wrong.
The defense of human life from its begin-
ning to its natural end is always right, and
the deliberate destruction of an innocent
life at any stage is always wrong. That
powerful governments are doing what is
patently wrong and evil does not make it
right for us to do the same; our duty is to
reject it, not imitate it. I
(Ma. Fenny Cantero-Tatad, who holds an MA in Public
Administration and Governance, was the former
Executive Secretary of the Office on Women of the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.)
Volume 40 • Number 11 19
 A R
© Denz Dayao/IMPACT
H
unger,” it’s been said, “knows no
friend but its feeder.” As World
Food Day (WFD) is observed ev-
ery month of October, one’s attention is
yet inescapably drawn to the burgeoning
number of people engulfed in a global
epidemic of poverty, hunger and despair.
Every year, the United Nations Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the
world’s first organization founded in 1945
devoted to the abolition of hunger, selects
a theme to illustrate the paradoxical dispar-
ity between the abundance of the world’s
food resources and the perennial reality
20 IMPACT • November 2006
T I C L E S
that hundreds of millions of the world’s
inhabitants do not have access to enough
quality food for them to live healthy, active
and decent lives.
The buzzword this year is “Investing
in agriculture for food security” purport-
edly targeted for the “whole world to ben-
efit”, that is to say that spending or invest-
ing only for agriculture—together with
the support for education and health—
will turn the situation around.
Apparently, the agriculture sector may
have become a minor player in many in-
dustrialized economies, but it must play a
Hunger
Amid An
Abundant
World
By Roy Q. Lagarde
starring role on the world stage if we are to
bring down the scourge of hunger, the
FAO argues.
In this year’s WFD celebration, the
FAO is facing a world where around 840
million people out of total global popula-
tion of 6 billion still go hungry everyday
and at least 791 million of the world’s
hungry live in less—and least—countries.
FAO said that 75 percent of the world’s
hungry people live in rural areas—where,
ironically enough, the food baskets are
located.
The integral relationship between
poverty and hunger may not come as a big
surprise, but still statistics are shocking
that every 3.6 seconds someone dies of
hunger. Some 3.2 million people have no
food reserves and suffer from a severe
shortage of potable water. They are mostly
under-nourished people suffering from
nutritional deficiencies.
Hunger not only kills people, but it
also takes away the ability to work and
learn. FAO said, hunger ‘undermines the
peace and prosperity of nations and traps
individuals in a vicious cycle of poor nu-
trition, ill health and diminished capacity
for learning and work that is passed on
from one generation to the next.’
In the Philippines , the sad face of
starvation is revealed by the survey re-
sults of the Social Weather Station (SWS),
a non-government polling group, for the
first quarter of 2006. The survey showed
that moderate hunger, defined as those
experiencing it “once or few times” in the
last three months, was at 12.7 percent in
March 2006, or about 2.1 million families.

It further indicated that 4.2 percent or
almost 700,000 families had experienced
hunger, without anything to eat, at least
once in the first three months. Hunger
trend, meanwhile, remains high in conflict-
ridden Mindanao in southern Philippines
at 21.0 percent in March 2006, from 21.7
percent in December 2005.
A study by Jose Ramon Albert and
Paula Monina Collado of the government’s
Statistical Research and Training Center
also underscored that seven out of every
10 poor Filipinos reside in the rural areas.
Statistics from the socio-economic think
tank IBON Foundation place the number
of poor Filipinos at 88 percent of the around
81 million population.
In nutrition, substantial shortfalls re-
main. Thirty out of every 100 Filipino in-
fants suffer from Vitamin A and iron defi-
ciencies. “Bicol has almost twice as many
underweight pre-schoolers as the National
Capital Region,” says the UN’s country
assessment.
Many pregnant women and
breastfeeding mothers suffer from anemia
and iodine deficiency. Simple lack of io-
dine in the body may cause physical and
mental abnormalities, some serious and
some mild. Iodine deficient women fre-
quently suffer abortions and stillbirths.
World hunger is extensive in spite of
sufficient global food resources. But for
most of the world’s poor to be hungry
where, in reality, food is abundantly pro-
duced is itself a telling contradiction that
is likely unthinkable.
Recognizing that 70 percent of the
world’s poor and hungry live in rural areas,
the FAO insist that governmental and pri-
vate sector investment is needed in such
areas.
ase!
Rele
New
Many studies, FAO noted, have
shown how agricultural growth have
curbed poverty and hunger, even more
than urban or industrial growth. For in-
stance, some countries who were able to
reduce hunger during the 1990s were the
ones whose agriculture and food-process-
ing sectors flourished. Moreover, those
countries that have invested and continue
to invest more in agriculture now experi-
ence the lowest of undernourishment.
Yet in a world where there is enough
food for everyone and despite the
“progress” achieved in agriculture and
ovc.blogspot.com
rural development, millions suffer from
extreme starvation. Why? Quantitative
increase in food production is not just the
solution, says Peter Rosset.
In his book, “World Hunger: Twelve
Myths”, Rosset maintains that the suppo-
sition that world hunger can be solved by
dealing much with agricultural and food
production is an unsubstantiated myth. It
has lead to policies by international or-
For Orders Contact:
gans that have supported farming policies
that in practice have boosted production National Matrimonial Tribunal
of expensive export foods on the expense Office
of production of basic goods for the popu-
lation. Tel. No. (632) 5274160
The way people think about hunger is CBCPWorld Office
the greatest obstacle to ending it, said Telefax (632) 4041612
Rosset. “The true source of world hunger
is not scarcity but policy; not inevitability Other books by
but politics”…”The real culprits are econo- Abp. Oscar V. Cr uz, JCD, DD
mies that fail to offer everyone opportuni-
ties, and societies that place economic 1. Marriage Tribunal Ministry
efficiency over compassion.” 2. Guide Documents on Parish, Vicariate and
Diocesan Administrative/Pastoral Concerns
Described as the latest “big push” in 3. Canon 290 CIC in the Service of Truth,
eradicating poverty, the UN’s Millennium Justice and Charity
Development Goals (MDGs) aspire to halve 4. Annotations on Rotal Jurisprudence on Canon
the number of the world’s hungry people 1097, 1098, 1102
by 2015. Now, that remains to be seen. I 5. Annotations on Rotal Jurisprudence on Canon
1103
6. Annotations on Rotal Jurisprudence on Canon
1095
7. Annotations on Rotal Jurisprudence on Canon
1101
8. Evidence in Marriage Nullity Cases
9. Impediments to Canonical Marriage
10. Markers
11. Penal Process for Dismissal from the Clerical
State
12. Provincial Council, Diocesan Synod,
Pastoral Assembly
13. CBCP Guidelines on Sexual Abuse and
Misconduct: A Critique
14. Board of Conciliation and Arbitration
15. Viewpoints at the Onset of the New
Millennium
16. Media in our Midst
17. Administration of the Temporal Goods of the
Church
18. Curia Management
19. Clergy Compensation
20. Call of the Laity
Volume 40 • Number 11 21
 A R T I
How Catholic / from p. 6
microfinance, etc. The latest initiatives
have been a facility for the rehabilita-
tion of juvenile offenders under the
University of St. La Salle-Bacolod and
the opening of St. Jaime Hilario, a free
school for fisherfolk in Bagac, Bataan.
• Creating a culture of service and
volunteerism. In nearly all of our
schools, community service is inte-
grated into the curricular program. At
the tertiary level, student organiza-
tions are required to have a socio-civic
service component. Inspired by the
Jesuit Volunteer model, we have also
created a volunteer program which
sends out missionary communities of
young La Sallians to teach in places
where no schools are present. Four
such volunteer communities have since
come into existence with graduates
volunteering a minimum of one year
service.
Much has been done and much has
still to be done. For example, in the area of
curricular development, there is a need to
move beyond values-integration in sub-
ject areas and to initiate more cross-disci-
plinary dialogues between religious edu-
cators and practitioners of other academic
disciplines in order to articulate in a more
systematic way the links between faith
and culture while respecting the relative
autonomy of each discipline. Such dia-
logues are necessary steps towards creat-
ing a curriculum that brings the light of
faith to bear on everything that is taught
and learned. The challenges ahead are
many but we in the Lasallian Family face
them with confidence because we believe
the work is God’s and that working to-
gether in association and solidarity, we
can make a difference in the lives of many
more Filipinos. I
(Bro. Michael M. Valenzuela, FSC is currently a
faculty member of the Theology and Religious
Education Department of De La Salle University,
Manila. He earned his Doctorate degree in Theology
(SThD) with specialization on Religious Education
from the Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo De
Manila University, Quezon City. The foregoing
article is his paper presentation during the 65t h
national convention of the Catholic Educational
Association of the Philippines held last September
13-15 at the Manila hotel — Ed.)
Transparency / from p. 14
that he submits to them the parish financial
report, similarly neither the bishop should
submit to the priests the diocesan financial
report. It is, however, the responsibility of
the pastors to submit the parish financial
report to the Bishop (Can. 1287, § 1) as the
Bishop in turn has the responsibility to
submit to the Supreme Pontiff all matters,
22 IMPACT • November 2006
C L E S
The Regensburg / from p. 10
20. Ahmad Kubaisi, founder of the Ulema
Organization, Iraq
21. Muhammad bin Muhammad Al-
Mansouri,marja’ofZeidiMuslims,Yemen
22. Abu Bakr Ahmad Al-Milibari, secre-
tary-general of the Ahl Al-Sunna As-
sociation, India
23. Abd Al-Kabir Al-Alawi Al-
Mudghari, director-general of the Bayt
Mal Al-Qods Al-Sharif Agency,
former minister of religious affairs,
Morocco
24. Ahmad Hasyim Muzadi, chairman of
the Nahdat Al-Ulema, Indonesia
25. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, professor of
Islamic studies, George Washington
University, Washington DC, USA
26. Sevki Omerbasic, grand mufti of
Croatia
27. Mohammad Abd Al-Ghaffar Al-
Sharif, secretary-general of the minis-
try of religious affairs, Kuwait
28. Muhammad Alwani Al-Sharif, head of
the European Academy of Islamic Cul-
ture and Sciences, Brussels, Belgium
29. Iqbal Sullam, vice general-secretary,
Nahdat Al-Ulema, Indonesia
30. Tariq Sweidan, director-general of
the Risalah Satellite Channel, Saudi
Arabia
31. Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal,
prince, chairman of the Aal Al-Bayt
Institute for Islamic Thought, Jordan
32. Muhammad Ali Taskhiri, ayatollah,
secretary-general of the World As-
sembly for Proximity of Islamic Schools
of Thoughts, Iran
33. Naim Trnava, grand mufti of Kosovo
34. Abd Al-Aziz Uthman Al-Tweijri, di-
rector-general of the Islamic Educa-
tional, Scientific and Cultural Organi-
zation, Morocco
35. Muhammad Taqi Uthmani, vice presi-
dent, Dar Al-Ulum, Karachi, Pakistan
36. Muhammad Al-Sadiq Muhammad
Yusuf, grand mufti of Uzbekistan
37. Abd Al-Hakim Murad Winter, Univer-
sity of Cambridge, Divinity School, direc-
tor of the Muslim Academic Trust, UK
38. Muamer Zukorli, mufti of Sanjak,
Bosnia I
including financial, of how he administers
them in his diocese (cf. Can. 399).
Mismanagement can occur; unlawful
administration of the diocesan goods can
happen. If this actually happens, then the
clergy or any other faithful could address
the complaint to the Papal Nuncio or di-
rectly inform the Holy See. I
UN’s Millennium De
UN's Millennium / from p. 15
young women as a means of reducing
the number of children they are likely to
bear, and the push for the inclusion of
sexual and reproductive rights—which
surely set off warning bells.”
Particularly, Scarnecchia, drawing
from the Catholic Church’s social teach-
ings and other related sources, criticized
the MDGs by presenting the various
“shadows” or questionable implications
of each of the 8 Millennium Develop-
ment Goals.
“Goal 1: Eradicate extreme pov-
erty and hunger.” Chiding that such
goal appears to be “utopian” (or likely
impossible to be perfectly attained),
Scarnecchia lambasted MDG 1 by quot-
ing Ana Isabel Eiras of Heritage Founda-
tion who wrote: “MDGs focus largely on
alleviating the symptoms of poverty, not
the causes of poverty (e.g., closed mar-
kets and no rule of law)…At the same
time, by targeting aid at the symptoms of
poverty, the MDG approach sends the
message to poor countries that they do
not need to change their restrictive eco-
nomic policies that prevent people from
growing wealth. As a result, the money
(in the form of aid) only obscures the real
problems, perpetuating and even in-
creasing poverty. In this way, the MDGs
become only an excuse to support the
redistribution of wealth.”
Similarly, even the Holy See,
Scarnecchia added, is critical of the “tech-
nical” or “quantitative” development
model supporting the MDGs. “Uncer-
tainly is felt in many quarters about the
viability of current development mod-
els. The technical solutions underpin-
ning these models, instead of stimulat-
ing growth, have sometimes resulted in
increased poverty and inequality. In
spite of this, many proposed solutions
still tend to be highly technocratic,”
Scarnecchia quoted Archbishop
Celestino Migliore, permanent observer
of the Holy See to the UN.
“Goal 2: Achieve universal primary
education.” In criticizing this goal,
Scarnecchia revealed that more than just
the target of “ensuring that all boys and
girls complete a full course of primary
schooling”, MDG 2’s unspoken ratio-
nale of promoting Reproductive Health
services in order to “keep them in school”
wittingly implies the other agenda of
educating girls in reducing the number
of children they are likely to bear.
“Goal 3: Promote gender equality
and empower women.” Scarnechia as-
evelopment Goals: Eradicating Poverty or Population?
sailed that UN’s definitions of “gender”,
understood as a “changeable social con-
struct not rooted on biological identity”,
and “gender equality” which implies
“deconstructing male and female dis-
tinctions at law and in society for gender
mainstreaming” are but a glaring contra-
diction to the Church’s teachings, as
particularly enunciated by the Catechism
of the Catholic Church, which exhorts
that “Everyone, man and woman, should
acknowledge and accept his sexual iden-
tity. Physical, moral and spiritual differ-
ence and complementarities are oriented
towards the goods of marriage and the
flourishing of family life.”
“Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality.”
Reducing infant and child mortality rates
could have long since been achieved in
the past, said Scarnecchia. Quoting
Vatican’s permanent observer to the UN
Archbishop Celestino Migliore,
Scarnecchia pointed out, “It is unac-
ceptable that, in spite of broad advances
in children’s health in developing re-
gions since 1990, nearly 11 million chil-
dren die each year before reaching their
fifth birthday, mostly from preventable
or treatable causes. Infant and child
mortality rates could be lowered dra-
matically with means that are already
known and readily available in the mar-
ket, but tragically beyond the reach of
most of the children in need.”
“Goal 5: Improve maternal health
(by reducing the maternal mortality ra-
tio).” Scarnecchia criticized MDG 5 by
stressing that “maternal mortality is not
due to an unwanted child, but to poor
medical treatment and health before, dur-
ing and after delivery”.
Importantly also, Scarnecchia de-
cried the specific steps recommended by
UN agencies to achieve this goal which,
among others, blatantly prescribe abor-
tion! “Maternal health care includes post
abortion care and, when permitted by
law, safe abortion services,” Scarnecchia
cited a line from the UN document, “Pre-
paring national Strategies to Achieve
the Millennium Development Goals: A
Handbook” .
“Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, ma-
laria and other diseases.” Scarnecchia
chided UN’s wanton prescription (“non-
discriminatory access,” in UN-speak)
of condoms and other artificial birth
control products in combating HIV/
AIDS, which run contrary to the Catho-
lic Church’s teachings or position on
such issues of family planning and sexu-
ality.
“Goal 7: Ensure environmental
sustainability (through the principles
of ‘sustainable development’).”
Scarnecchia cannot be more skeptical of
the buzz-phrase “sustainable develop-
ment”, denouncing such as UN-speak
for population control policies. The 1994
International conference on Population
and Development (ICPD) in Cairo,
Scarnecchia said, made clear the linkage
between development and population
control when it stated that “explicitly
integrating population into economic
and development strategies will both
speed up the pace of sustainable devel-
opment and contribute to the achieve-
ment of population objectives”.
“Goal 8: Develop a global partner-
ship for development.” Finally,
Scarnecchia doubts if UN’s “big push”
effort in rallying developed nations to
its development agenda will indeed ben-
eficially cascade or provide a non-negli-
gible share of total aid to the world’s
impoverished nations. Citing the Swiss
Institute for Business Cycle’s working
paper entitled “Sectoral Aid Priorities:
Are Donors Really Doing Their Best to
Achieve the Millennium Development
Goals?”, Scarnecchia revealed that only
two donor countries—Denmark and Ger-
many—provided money for basic ne-
cessities in least developed countries.
In sum, Scarnecchia pointed out, un-
derlying beneath the 8 MDGs is but one
sinister goal: a right (or access) to sexual
and reproductive health aimed at curtail-
ing or reducing the world’s population,
particularly in the less—or least—devel-
oped countries. “Reducing total fertility
around the world has been the UN’s most
significant and perhaps lasting achieve-
ment. To the extent that the MDGs ad-
vance the unspoken goal of further re-
ducing the number of poor children born
into our world, they pull down with one
hand what they attempt to build up with
the other,” bemoaned Scarnecchia.
Authentic Human Development
Far different from the model or con-
cept of human development espoused by
the UN’s MDGs, Scarnecchia rather urged
adherence to the Catholic Church’s crite-
rion or definition of authentic human de-
velopment which, according to the Com-
pendium of the Social Doctrine of the
Church, no less “embody the permanent
principles—of the dignity of the human
person, the common good, subsidiarity,
solidarity, and the universal destination
of goods—as well as the four fundamen-
tal human values of truth, freedom, jus-
tice and love”.
For the Church hence, Scarnecchia
added, “authentic human development”
is integral development which embraces
the basic elements of “political, economic,
ethical, and spiritual” development. I
Volume 40 • Number 11 23
 F R
T
ime and again, the coun-
try and the international
community continue to
take good note of the danger-
ous, continuous and shameful
situation in this otherwise dear
and endearing land. The hun-
dreds of wanton political kill-
ings go on. The sudden disap-
pearances of people go un-
abated.
It is not enough that mil-
lions of human persons are
marketed abroad for the gov-
ernment to rake in their dollar
remittances. It is neither enough
that the exploitation of women
and children has become a rank-
ing plague in the country. Hu-
man lives by the hundreds are
terminated. Persons likewise by
the hundreds are suddenly no-
where to be found.
In other words, since the
tenure of the present adminis-
tration, the killings and disap-
pearance by and large remain
but dead bodies to count and
missing persons to identify. As
of this month, there has already
A Moral
Question
24 IMPACT • November 2006
O M T H
Command Responsibility
been no less than 763 who
underwent summary execu-
tions plus 186 who are consid-
ered desaparecidos. And the
counting goes on.
The disturbing question
is that practically all the rela-
tives and acquaintances of the
victims say one and the same
I
s it morally right for church
men to receive money for
the poor from a duly per-
ceived corrupt national gov-
ernment? This is the moral
question that demands a clear-
cut answer in these times and
in this country.
It is true that whatever
money the government has, all
comes from the people prima-
rily by way of direct and indi-
rect taxes. It would be not only
strange but also incredible to
even think that the present
administration would give
away even but a peso drawn
from its own private pocket.
It is also true that the poor
in the country are not simply
growing in number but gradu-
ally also becoming more im-
poverished. It is rather easy to
believe that the poor people in
the land are being used and
abused by the national leader-
ship basically in order to firm
up its tenure of power and in-
E B L O
thing. Rightly or wrongly, they
accuse certain misled members
of AFP as the culprits. True or
false, they claim that some per-
petrators somehow have AFP
connections.
Meantime, some cannot
but wonder and ask: who has
the command responsibility?
fluence. In fact, the present ad-
ministration markets people to
get revenues from their foreign
work deployment in many coun-
tries in all known continents.
It is finally true that the
government has certain loudly
proclaimed programs, plans and
projects to help the poor—
such as livelihood funds, cheap
rice and medicines. It is how-
ever rather hard to believe that
the present administration sin-
cerely considers uplifting the
poor from their misery as an
honest to goodness over-all
priority of its governance.
Question: Is it morally ac-
ceptable for churchmen to ac-
cept money from this corrupt
national government to help
the poor? Answer: No! Rea-
sons: First, such would be syn-
onymous with collaboration
with deodorizing government
of its known pervasive cor-
ruption. Second, the church-
men would be allowing them-
G S
Knowing the pattern of the kill-
ings and disappearances and
aware of their common denomi-
nator, they cannot but think
and inquire: who is in com-
mand? These questions are well
in order, considering that there
is such a title and office as
“Commander-In-Chief”.
Is the command still in
command or is it in effect under
command? Does the chief re-
tain the loyalty of the com-
mand or is it instead the one
loyal to the command? These
are relevant and disturbing
questions in the country in
these times. Practically all na-
tional top guns who have made
an exit are shown the entry into
otherwise civilian national
public offices.
The protection and pro-
motion of human lives are the
fundamental priority and con-
cern of the national leadership.
When this thinks and does
otherwise, then it loses its rea-
son for being.
www.ovc.blogspot.com
selves to become tools for
the self-aggrandizement of
the government. Third and
worse of all, the churchmen
would be beholden to the
government internationally
known for its corruption. It
is exceptionally hard to be-
lieve that when the govern-
ment channels money
through churchmen, this is
without the ulterior motive
of specifically winning
them over—not really help-
ing the poor. This is the
case of churchmen and poor
people being simply used
alive by the present admin-
istration.
The well known moral
principle still holds true in
this issue: The end does not
justify the means. Money
given by a corrupt origin is
anything but honest or
clean money. This is not
purism but truth.
www.ovc.blogspot.com
 E D I T
Judicial Stature
I
t is not a secret that the present administration
has a low judicial standing. This is well shown
by the number of times the Supreme Court
decidedly quashed its many attempts to arrogate
power beyond its competence. It is somehow
funny that no less than the opposition advised it
to get better legal representation.
But with the recent Supreme Court decision
once again demolishing its quest for political
advantage under the pretense of a “People’s
Initiative” to change the fundamental law of the
land, the already low judicial stature of the Ad-
ministration in fact even became lower. To date,
in addition to the Philippine Senate, the Supreme
Court serves as a good and effective check of the
administrative branch in the latter’s insistence of
pretending to be above the law.
It is not clear if the so-called “People’s Initia-
tive” could be anything but a people’s move, in
both form and substance. It was in reality the
Administration’s initiative. Those pushing it through
all ways and means were all pro-administration. It
is hard even but to imagine that funds used for its
loud and repeated trimedia promotions were fi-
O R I A L
nanced by the taxpayers - unwittingly so.
One can simply wonder how low this present
Administration is willing to go precisely in its
baseless high aspiration at power and influence.
The problem with this lack of self-respect is that
the people themselves look at the Administration
with more scorn and less esteem. This makes
harder and harder for the Administration to ef-
fectively govern.
The truth of the matter is that the junking of
the government’s initiative to change the Consti-
tution is strangely a big favor to the present
Administration. Were it upheld by the Supreme
Court, this Administration would be in big trouble.
From students to teachers, from the common
citizens to professionals, the poor to the wealthy—
all these would surely go to the streets, stage
rallies and join marches.
Who knows where such popular dissent to
the “People’s Initiative” and resentment towards
the Administration would lead. It could go any-
where but towards social order and peace. It
might become anything except making the present
administration more acceptable.
Volume 40 • Number 11 25
 S T
Religious of the Good Shepherd
Women–Justice and
Peace and Integrity of
Creation Mindanao
Network
“Our commitment to reconcili-
ation demands that we promote
justice and peace in a world dis-
turbed by sin and conflict. In our
ministry, we collaborate to help
bring about change in whatever
condemns others to live a
marginalized life.” (Art 6, Consti-
tutions and Statutes of the Sisters
of the Good Shepherd)
L
iving the charism and spirit of the
Good Shepherd Congregation in
a life of silence and contempla-
tion, the Contemplatives of the Good
Shepherd have been living a life of
peaceful existence since 1993 in Butuan
City. The peace was shattered and vio-
lated in the evening of November 1,
2006. A little before 9’oclock in the
evening, without permission and with-
out proper information, armed police-
men forced entry into their premises
and right into their cloistered convent.
Around seven men, three of whom were
in uniform went into the convent and
conducted a search intruding even into
their cloister while several others re-
mained outside but within the premises.
Experiencing this kind of situation for
the first time, fearful and trembling, the
sisters did not know what to do. It was
a shock for them, to see policemen who
are supposed to be the law enforcers
right in their convent, disturbing their
privacy, conducting an illegal search
for something or for someone they
have no knowledge of. Accordingly,
from the convent of the Contemplatives
of the Good Shepherd, the same group
of policemen attempted entry at the
convent of the Missionary Sisters of
Mary. They also conducted a search
at the San Lorenzo Ruiz Pastoral Cen-
ter, also located within the vicinity of
Baan, Butuan City.
The Religious of the Good Shep-
herd, Women-Justice and Peace and In-
tegrity of Creation (RGS, W-JPIC)
Mindanao Network denounces and con-
demns the intrusion and illegal search
done by the Philippine National Police
26 IMPACT • November 2006
A T E M E N
Roman Catholic Bishop of Antipolo
Bishop’s Residence, Taktak Road, Antipolo City
Pastoral Statement
A
Hotel-Casino is being estab-
lished at the former
“Soundstage” building be-
side the Sta. Lucia Mall and near
Robinson’s East Mall at the corner
of Felix Avenue and Marcos High-
way in Cainta, Rizal.
We are protesting against this
casino, which will surely bring great
harm to our people here in the prov-
ince of Rizal. Gambling in itself is not
immoral. It becomes morally unac-
ceptable when it deprives someone
of what is necessary to provide for
his needs and those of his depen-
dents. It is also immoral when it
becomes an addiction. Gambling also
promotes laziness. It encourages
dependence on luck rather than on
hard work in order to improve one’s
situation in life. These factors that
make gambling immoral are present
in casinos.
Businesses have collapsed be-
cause of casino gambling. Jobs have
been lost. Families have been bro-
ken. Graft and corruption have been
committed in offices due to losses in
gambling. And in some cases, deaths
and suicides have resulted.
It is bad enough that Fiesta Ca-
sino was set up in Eastridge,
Binangonan, Rizal last year. This ca-
of Butuan City under the command of
Colonel Wilfredo Reyes. We call for an
investigation and for the perpetrators to
be brought to justice. We are greatly dis-
turbed by the abuse of authority shown
by our law enforcers. We strongly con-
demn the intimidation and harassment
done to our contemplative sisters, to
other religious, church people and mem-
bers of peoples’ organizations who are
advocating for human rights. Unlike Job
who cried “Even when I cry out, ‘Vio-
lence!’ I am not answered. I call aloud,
but there is no justice.” (Job 19:7), we
demand that justice be done. We call on
our law enforcers to uphold and respect
T
sino beside Sta. Lucia Mall and
Robinson’s East will definitely be of
greater harm to our people because of
its location. While Fiesta Casino in
Eastridge is far from populated areas,
this planned casino is beside Sta. Lucia
Mall and Robinson’s East Mall, con-
stantly teeming with people who love
to shop and relax with their children in
these family-oriented malls. Besides,
this casino is in front of a computer
college and a medical school.
We are appealing to our local
government officials, to Pagcor, and
especially to our President, Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo, under whose di-
rect authority is Pagcor, to stop the
establishment of this casino.
We are exhorting our people to
pray and act together in order to
fight this culture of gambling which
some people are promoting so that
they can rake in big amounts of
money, unmindful of the great harm
it does to our people.
May our Lord Jesus, through
the intercession of Mary, Our Lady of
Peace and Good Voyage, the Virgin of
Antipolo, bless and protect us.
+GABRIEL V. REYES, DD
Bishop of Antipolo
November 7, 2006
the rights of individuals and not to be
abusers of the law. We demand our gov-
ernment officials to be accountable and
responsible for the rampant abuses and
violations being committed by people in
authority.
Uphold the law and respect human
rights! Stop intimidation and harass-
ment of Church people and members of
the People’s organizations!
Reference: SR. Maria Alicia S. Andres, RGS
Chairperson, RGS, W-JPIC Mindanao
Network
November 2, 2006
Contact # 09216561782
 S T
In Solidarity For the
Good of the Poor
T
he Catholic Bishops’ Conference of
the Philippines (CBCP) wishes to
greet our brother Muslims as they
end their month-long Ramadan which has
been a season of prayer and fasting in
support of their great tradition of peaceful
coexistence, compassion and solidarity.
Muslims and Christians are one in the
belief that the problems of our times, such
as injustice, poverty, tensions and con-
flicts, can be resolved, if all men of good-
will will come together to work for the
solution of hunger, homelessness, illit-
eracy, unemployment and sickness which
continue to scourge millions of our broth-
ers and sisters in the Philippines.
The regular dialogue between our
bishops and the Ulama, between Chris-
tians and Muslims, is in furtherance of the
vision of inter-cultural and inter-religious
understanding. We are encouraged by the
knowledge that these dialogues have also
gone to support the promotion of social
justice, moral welfare and mutual benefit.
On the occasion of the end of Ramadan
and the celebration of the holiday of Id al-
Fitr, we pray that the Almighty will bless
our common efforts for the good espe-
cially of the poor in our country.
(SGD) +ANGEL N. LAGDAMEO
Archbishop of Jaro
President, CBCP
October 23, 2006
© Pablo San Juan/CORBIS
A T E M E N
CBCP Welcomes SUPREME
COURT Decision
T
he CBCP welcomes with joy and
appreciation the decision of the
Supreme Court. With a very inter-
esting vote of 8-7, the Supreme Court
has spoken: No to People’s Initiative as
has been conducted by Sigaw ng Bayan
and ULAP. As declared earlier by
Malacañang and the leadership of Con-
gress, that decision eagerly awaited
must be respected. Let it be so. Con-
gratulations to the Supreme Court for
standing free and independent despite
external and expensive pressures.
From the beginning, since January
this year, the CBCP in several Pastoral
Statements had expressed doubts on
the People’s Initiative on account of the
haste in the process and alleged decep-
tion or manipulation in securing 6.3 mil-
lion signatures. From the moral stand-
point, we should not on that account
put the fate of more than 80 million
people on such signatures. And so we
prayed.
We have reasons likewise to doubt
the process whereby some from the
House of Representatives plan to con-
vert itself into a Constituent Assembly.
Please pardon the term, but Charter
Change by Congress converted into a
Constituent Assembly will have all the
appearance of “self-service” and
“lutong makao.” We will pray against
that.
If Charter Change is really neces-
sary, if a shift from the presidential to
parliamentary form of government is
really necessary, the CBCP had been
recommending Constitutional Conven-
tion whose membership shall be elected
T
democratically. We hope to get in it the
respectable and acknowledged legal
luminaries of the country together with
people of integrity in civilian society. If
we cannot stop the train of Charter
Change, we suggest that we change the
tract of this train to Constitutional Con-
vention. We will pray for it.
What are the reasons given why
we need to change the presidential sys-
tem of government? Inefficiency of the
system to bring progress and moder-
nity, graft and corruption, economic
poverty, social injustices, hunger,
homelessness, illiteracy, unemploy-
ment of millions of our people. We must
remember that the above reasons can-
not be committed by the system of
government nor by the present Consti-
tution as such. It is people who cause
them. If they will stop committing them,
these problems will be solved, even
before we change the constitution and
shift to parliamentary system.
Neither the Constitution of the
Land nor any form of government will
work miracle for the good of the people,
but the people who run all the institu-
tions of government through honest
work. Any system of government, Presi-
dential or Parliamentary or Monarchy,
will be good if the leaders in it are
servant-leaders, men of credible integ-
rity and transparent accountability.
(SGD) +Angel N. Lagdameo
Archbishop of Jaro
President, CBCP
October 26, 2006
Volume 40 • Number 11 27
 F R
Lessons on Life
T
here was a man who
had four sons. He
wanted his sons to
learn not to judge things
too quickly. So he sent
them each on a quest, in
turn, to go and look at a
pear tree that was a great
distance away.
The first son went in
the winter, the second in
the spring, the third in sum-
mer, and the youngest son
in the fall.
When they had all
gone and come back, he
called them together to de-
scribe what they had seen.
The first son said that
the tree was ugly, bent, and
twisted.
The second son said
no it was covered with
green buds and full of prom-
ise.
The third son dis-
agreed; he said it was laden
with blossoms that smelled
so sweet and looked so
beautiful, it was the most
graceful thing he had ever
seen.
The last son disagreed
28
28 IMPACT •• November
IMPACT November 2006
2006
O M
with all of them; he said it
was ripe and drooping with
fruit, full of life and fulfill-
ment.
The man then ex-
plained to his sons that they
were all right, because they
had each seen but only one
season in the tree’s life.
He told them that you
cannot judge a tree, or a
person, by only one sea-
son, and that the essence
of who they are and the
pleasure, joy, and love that
come from that life can only
be measured at the end,
when all the seasons are
up.
If you give up when
it’s winter, you will miss
the promise of your spring,
the beauty of your summer,
fulfillment of your fall.
Moral lessons: Don’t
let the pain of one season
destroy the joy of all the
rest. Don’t judge life by one
difficult season. Persevere
through the difficult
patches and better times are
sure to come some time later.
rowena.dalanon@cbcpworld.net
T H E I N B
The Obstacles On Our Path
I
n ancient times, a King had a
boulder placed on a road
way. Then he hid himself
and watched to see if anyone
would remove the huge rock.
Some of the king’s wealthiest
merchants and courtiers came
by and simply walked around it.
Many loudly blamed the King
for not keeping the roads clear,
but none did anything about
getting the stone out of the way.
Then a peasant came along
carrying a load of vegetables.
Upon approaching the boulder,
the peasant laid down his bur-
© Royalty-Free/CORBIS
den and tried to move the stone
Giving When it Counts
M
any years ago, when I
worked as a volunteer
at a hospital, I got to
know a little girl named Liz who
was suffering from a rare & se-
rious disease. Her only chance
of recovery appeared to be a
blood transfusion from her 5-
year old brother, who had mi-
raculously survived the same
disease and had developed the
antibodies needed to combat the
illness. The doctor explained
the situation to her little brother,
and asked the little boy if he
would be willing to give his
blood to his sister.
I saw him hesitate for only
O X
to the side of the road. After
much pushing and straining, he
finally succeeded. When the
peasant picked up his load of
vegetables, he noticed a purse
lying in the road where the boul-
der had been. The purse con-
tained many gold coins and a
note from the King indicating
that the gold was for the person
who removed the boulder from
the roadway.
The peasant learned what
many of us never understand! Ev-
ery obstacle presents an opportu-
nity to improve our condition.
rowena.dalanon@cbcpworld.net
© Royalty-Free/CORBIS
a moment before taking a
deep breath and saying, “Yes
I’ll do it if it will save her.” As
the transfusion progressed, he
lay in bed next to his sister and
smiled, as we all did, seeing the
color returning to her cheek.
Then his face grew pale and his
smile faded. He looked up at the
doctor and asked with a trem-
bling voice, “Will I start to die
right away”.
Being young, the little boy
had misunderstood the doctor;
he thought he was going to
have to give his sister all of his
blood in order to save her.
rowena.dalanon@cbcpworld.net

HEALING AND RESTORING HOPE
TO THE COMMUNITY
A Source Book on Restorative Justice
R. Diamante, J. Velasco, eds. Coalition Against Death Penalty
(CADP)
THE abolition of death penalty in
the Philippines in no way pro-
vided any reason for the Coali-
tion Against Death Penalty
(CADP) to slip back to slumber in
even more championing the
cause of prisoners and convicts
in the country. More so, with the
abolition having ushered opti-
mism for a new perspective in
understanding and responding to
crime and conflict, the CADP
even more struck at the oppor-
tunity of initiating the Restorative
Justice movement to the current
criminal justice system. Healing
and Restoring Hope to the Com-
munity: A Source Book on Re-
storative Justice is CADP’s—and
ECPPC’s (CBCP’s Episcopal Com-
mission on Prison Pastoral Care)
as well—undaunting proposition
towards a healing system of jus-
tice. “A genuine response to
crime is not only measured by
the severity of its punishment but
by its commitment to healing of
all the parties involved: victims,
offenders and their respective
families. Such is the vision of
Restorative Justice. It demands
both accountability and healing
for all affected by crime,” fore-
A CHILD IS BORN
God-Tales for Young and Old (Vol. 30)
Nil Guillemette
IF a story speaks words of hope,
then the heart is refreshed and
strengthened and made braver to
face life’s demands. With this
simple but profound vision,
Guillemette offers us his thirtieth
collection of God-Tales—simple
and captivating stories, all and
sundry, about hope, courage, hu-
man interdependence, generos-
ity, trust in God, self-forgetful-
ness, gratitude, forgiveness,
nonviolence, search for God, and
so on. The focus of attention,
Guillemette asserts, is always
God, whether he is explicitly men-
tioned or not—”because God is
the source of our greatness. He
is therefore the source of our joy.
To choose God is to choose joy.”
No denying, the book is spiritual-
ity exhilarating.
R E V I
words Fr. Silvino Borres, SJ,
CADP president. The selections
in the source book come in two
parts—the first revisits the ba-
sic concepts and principles of
Restorative Justice and the sec-
ond are testimonies by prison
ministry practitioners and field
workers from various areas of
interest. The source book is un-
mistakably enlightening.
E W S
HELPING YOUR TEEN HEAR
GOD’S VOICE WITHIN
Maggie Pike
IMAGINE raising your teenagers
in direct partnership with God.
Imagine embarking on an adven-
ture of creating healthy lives from
healthy choices. Imagine your
teenager using, of all things, spiri-
tual discernment to make life de-
cisions that nourish body, mind,
and all he or she does. Maggie
Pike—a mother of five children, a
teacher, spiritual director, retreat
director, and author living in
Littleton, Colorado—has done the
imagining and shows that it is re-
ally is possible to make such a
lofty principle as discernment un-
derstandable, practical, and use-
ful to a ten-year-old, a fifteen-
year-old, a young person on the
brink of adulthood. She offers a
method of spiritual discernment
for dealing with issues such as
peer pressure, friends, sexual-
ity, change, and family well-be- fully leads families into the full-
ing. Dismantling the “watchdog
ness of life. Helping Your Teen
God” image and showing how Hear God’s Voice Within intro-
families are but “perfectly imper-
duces a method of parenting cen-
fect”, Pike reveals a God who joy-
tered in God…it’s Pike’s best shot.
MEDIA IN OUR
MIDST
Abp. Oscar V. Cruz, JCD, DD
WHILE there’s no denying indeed
about Abp. Cruz being the Philip-
pine hierarchy’s Canon Law stal-
wart, the prolific writer in him
does not confine his writings to
purely ecclesiastico-juridical se-
lections. Media In Our Midst un-
ravels Abp. Cruz’ candid and
gradual journey from being a “pas-
sive” reader, listener or viewer
to being a “reactive”, and finally a
“proactive” participant of mass
media. His progressive pilgrimage
in his personal “development” to- would certainly be a better choice
wards media brought him to three no matter how inaccurate or un-
superbly wise realizations: one, reliable at times are the news or
that in general, the local media still stories that media outlets print,
try to be objective, without how- show or broadcast. Abp. Cruz’
ever doing away with giving dif- over-arching thought about Me-
ferent angles to one and the same dia In Our Midst, he avers, is
news or story; two, that a good rather simple: “Media stands on a
number of misreporting or mis- tripod, viz., the information, its
writings in media is caused mostly transmission and its reception.
not by the ill-will or malice of the When these three factors are
reporters and correspondents, well-gathered, duly forwarded
but rather due to the non-clarity and accordingly understood re-
or non-transparency of the news spectively, then media is at its
sources, if not on account of the best. But if the information is in-
poor preparation of the former, correct, the transmission is inac-
especially those who are still new curate and the reception is de-
in the profession; three, that fective, then media becomes
among the alternatives in terms faulty, if not damaging.” No doubt
of media absence, media control about it, Media In Our Midst of-
and undependable media, the last fers more than meets the eye.
Volume
Volume 40
40 •• Number
Number 11
11 29
29
CATHOLIC INITIATIVE FOR ENLIGHTENED MOVIE APPRECIATION
in cinematographic excellence so over-
powering that the audience, enthralled by
CINEMA eye candy, might just be willing to forget
about the story or the rest of the film if
only to have an eyeful more of the same.
REVIEW And that's the problem. Its makers seem
to have focused on making The Banquet
such a feast for the eyes particularly the
Title: THE BANQUET eyes of jurors at international film festi-
Running Time: 99 mins vals that they forgot about the heart of
Lead Cast: Ziyi Zhang, Daniel Wu, Xun the moviegoer. For a film that's seen as
Zhou, You Ge, Jingwu Ma, a Chinese "Hamlet," that's criminal. The
Xiaoming Huang acting never seems to take off, the lines
Director: Xiaogang Feng are delivered with not enough soul, there
Producer: John Chong is ice in the emotions where fire should
Screenwriters: Gangjian Oiu, Heyu be. Had The Banquet given more atten-
Sheng tion to projecting the inner workings of
Music: Tan Dun the human soul, it would have rated a "4"
Editor: Miaomiao Liu from CINEMA, but as it is, artful though
Genre: Action/Romance it is, it can't be judged as more than
Cinematography: Li Zhang "average."
Location: China The Banquet is a story of nearly epic
proportions throwing the limelight on
Technical Assessment:  deceit, betrayal, lust for both flesh and
Moral Assessment: zzz power evils that have resided in the
CINEMA Rating: For viewers 14 and depths of the human heart since time
above began. It gives us a glimpse of what
wickedness man is capable of and sends

I t is the 10th century in Ancient China.
The emperor dies under mysterious
circumstances, and the suspected cul-
prit, his brother Li (Ge You) inherits both
the throne and the object of his lust?his
hot, young sister-in-law, Empress Wan
(Zhang Ziyi), who was once in love with
the Crown Prince Wu Luan (Daniel Wu).
Threatened by Wu Luan who is certain his
uncle killed his father the original Em-
peror, now emperor Li banishes Wu Luan
and sends royal assassins to finish him off
lest he attempt to reclaim the throne. The
Empress, still holding a torch for the ban-
ished prince Wu Luan, sends elite warriors
to protect him, leading to his escape. Wu
Luan eventually finds his way back to the
palace, which upsets Emperor Li who,
failing to kill him in a duel, attempts to
exile the prince again. High on his victory
as new emperor, Li is unaware that some
of his subjects see him as a usurper, and
some?including his devious wife Empress
Wan?want him dead.
The Banquet is an elaborate visual
masterpiece with lavish sets and cos-
tumes, masterful choreography and tech-
nical perfection. Every frame is a study
us reflecting on the all-pervasiveness of
evil. Killing your brother didn't Cain do
that to Abel? News nowadays still speak
of the same crimes found in the Bible.
Fiction and non fiction are filled with
stories of obsessions and destructive
desires regardless of their geographical or
chronological origins. And what culture,
in whatever era, is exempt from the hun-
ger for power, or free from sins of lust
and jealousy? There seems to be no God-
fearing character at all in The Banquet.
Its saving grace is its conclusion: see
what happens to a life without God.

ANSWER TO LAST ISSUE: THE INTELLECTUAL KNOWLEDGE OF ETERNAL THINGS PERTAINS TO WISDOM; THE RATIONAL KNOWLEDGE OF
TEMPORAL THINGS, TO SCIENCE. -- ST. AUGUSTINE (Qoutes in Quiz book and booklets available at National Book Store and Booksale outlets.

30 IMPACT • November 2006

 N E
CHINA
China Urged to Unveil
Number of Executions
Human Rights Watch
said China should unveil
the number of people ex-
ecuted annually if death
penalty reforms are to be
effective. Adopted by the
Chinese government on
October 31, 2006 and will
take effect next year, the
change is expected to
reduce the number of
people executed annu-
ally. “Hiding the numbers
might save the govern-
ment embarrassment, but
this is not acceptable.
Without releasing basic
public information such as
the overall number of ex-
ecutions, the type of crime
that led to the sentence
and basic data about the
executed, meaningful pe-
nal reform still has not
been achieved.”
CHINA
Lawmakers to Ban Chil-
dren in Internet Café
Saying that it played a
“negative role in youth’s
development, lawmakers
here are considering ban-
ning children under the
age of 18 from Internet
cafes because the cen-
ters have become hotbeds
for online gaming and
crime.
Other legislators, how-
ever, believe the law
would be impossible to
enforce, and barring
youngsters from using the
Internet could stifle bud-
ding information technol-
ogy talent. China has for
years waged an online
battle to censor the
Internet of pornographic
W S B R
and violent content, while
also stifling political and
religious material it be-
lieves could spark social
unrest.
INDIA
Preserve Real Tribal
Values, Says Arch-
bishop
Addressing a group of
scholars in the North-East
Hill University of Shillong
recently, Guwalhati
Archbishop Thomas
Menamparampil urged
that the ancient tribal val-
ues of solidarity, honesty,
discipline, hard work and
religiosity be preserved.
“Under the impact of
emerging trends in the
larger society, solidarity
can yield to individualism,
honesty to corruption and
religiosity to totally secu-
larized worldview. It
would spell disaster for
the tribal society,” he said.
What is needed today, he
insisted, is for the rest of
the society to learn from
sturdy values of tribal
communities.
JAPAN
Ecumenical church
body protests N. Korea
nuke test
Alarmed and denounc-
ing the nuke test in North
Korea last October 9, the
National Christian Coun-
cil (NCC) here has reit-
erated its cry of “No to
the use, possession or
building of nuclear weap-
ons. In a statement, the
group “calls anew for a
commitment to the non-
nuclearization of East
Asia”, including countries
I E F S
like China and the United T H A I L A N D
States, and, beyond that,
for a commitment to “re- Coup Leader Bucks
alize the total abolition of Thaksin’s Return
nuclear weapons as soon
as humanly possible. General Sonthi
Boonyaratglin, leader of
the coup last September,
SRI LANKA has warned again ousted
prime minister Thaksin
Gov’t, Tamil Rebels Shinawatra not to try to
Resume Talks return home, one day af-
ter admitting that graft
Hopes rise in Sri Lanka probes against him had
as the government and made little headway.
the Tamil separatists start Sonthi has repeatedly
a new talk between them. justified the military’s Sep-
The two groups will dis- tember 19 takeover by
cuss violation of human claiming that rampant cor-
rights, a crime of which ruption during Thaksin’s
both sides are accused in five years in office had
their war operations. The undermined democracy.
talks are a new opportu- Thaksin’s wife, Pojaman,
nity to re-start dialogue met former prime minis-
but still many fear noth- ter Prem Tinsulanonda, a
ing will be achieved and top adviser to Thailand’s
‘all out’ war will start revered king, reportedly
once again.
to seek consent for his
return.
TAIWAN
Pope appoints new Aux- V I E T N A M
iliary Bishop of Taipei Detention Without Trial
Abolished
Pope Benedict XVI
has appointed Auxiliary The government of
Bishop of the Archdio- Vietnam abolished the
cese of Taipei (Taiwan) practice of detention
Rev. Thomas Chung An- without trial which Hanoi
zu, of the clergy of has used to hold many
Tainan, assigning to him dissidents, and democ-
the titular See of racy and rights activists.
Munaziana. Washington had made
Born on August 7, the removal of the de-
1952, An-zu studied phi- cade-old decree a top
losophy and theology at priority in its human rights
the Major Seminary of dialogue with Vietnam
Tainan. He was ordained that resumed in February
a priest for the diocese of 2006. Vietnam however
Tainan on 26 December has yet to make a formal
1981. He also got his li- announcement on the re-
centiate in moral theol- moval of the measure,
ogy at the Alphonsianum, which allows local offi-
in Rome in 1992. Since cials and police to detain
2003, the appointed any person up to two
bishop is the Chaplain of years without trial in the
Fu Jen Catholic Univer- name of protecting na-
sity in Taipei. tional security.
Volume 40 • Number 11 31