SCJ Philippines

Pope raises Prelature of Ipil to diocese

May 3, 2010 at 7:47 pm | Posted in Church, Mindanao, Philippines | Comments Off

POPE Benedict XVI raised the Prelature of Ipil, in the province of Zamboanga Sibugay, to a full diocese and appointed Julius Tonel as its Bishop-Prelate, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines announced.

Ipil became the country’s 58th Catholic diocese on Saturday.

“Ipil, a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Zamboanga, is the 11th diocese in Mindanao. It has a population of nearly 600,000 of which 65 percent are Catholics,” the CBCP said.

With the new diocese, the Philippines now has 16 archdioceses, 58 dioceses, seven apostolic vicariates, four territorial prelatures and one military ordinariate. The new diocese has 19 parishes, 32 priests and 31 women congregations.

Meanwhile, Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines Archbishop Joseph Edward Adams called on a newly ordained Mindanao bishop to be a faithful steward to the people.

Adams urged new Malaybalay Bishop Jose Cabantan to emulate the Good Shepherd in caring for his flock.

“Keep in mind the Good Shepherd, who knows His sheep, the Good Shepherd who did not hesitate to lay down His life for the sheep,” Adams told the newly-ordained bishop, according the CBCP.

The nuncio called on Cabantan to be a faithful steward as he was chosen by the Father to care for His beloved people.

He said there is a need for the new bishop to bind himself to his brother bishops and help should the opportunity arise.

Adams, who led the ordination of Bishop Cabantan at the Saint Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral on Friday, also called on the faithful to honor Cabantan as another Christ in the people’s midst.

Assisting Adams were Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma and Malaybalay Bishop Emeritus Honesto Pacana, who is Cabantan’s immediate predecessor.

Present at the ordination rites were Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, Jaro Archbishop and former CBCP president Angel Lagdameo, Ipil Bishop Julius Tonel, Novaliches Bishop Antonio Tobias and Butuan Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos.

Pope’s message for World Day of the Sick: Serve the sick out of love

February 10, 2010 at 7:21 pm | Posted in Church | Comments Off

Accompany the sick in their suffering and heal their physical and spiritual wounds. That’s the message Benedict XVI conveyed to those who dedicate themselves to serving the sick, including nurses, doctors and all those who daily deal with suffering.

The pope’s message for World Day of the Sick, titled “The Church at the service of love for the suffering” stresses the need to serve those who are sick, out of love.

Benedict XVI made a special call to priests who work in hospitals. He encouraged them to help heal the sick, their wounds and their spirit.

For World Day of the Sick, doctors, volunteers, nurses and chaplains will gather from February 9th to 11th in Rome to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers. During the 3 day conference, there will be meetings and exhibitions that will help them understand the pain of those who are suffering. Benedict XVI will close the events with a Mass on February 11, the day of Our Lady of Lourdes in the Vatican. Relics of St. Bernadette of Lourdes will be on display during the ceremony.

A day meant to encourage health care workers so they can provide quality service to patients and respect them up until their final moments.

To read the Pope’s message for the 18th World Day of the Sick please click here

Election campaign begins

February 10, 2010 at 4:28 pm | Posted in Philippines | Comments Off

Philippine politicians launched their campaigns on February 9, 2010, in a wide-open race for the presidency, with poverty, corruption and unemployment the top issues for the impoverished Southeast Asian archipelago.

Elections in the Philippines are always colorful and typically marked by fraud and violence, but voters are hoping to turn over a new leaf after the scandal-plagued administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

More than 50 million Philippine voters will choose a president, vice president, nearly 300 lawmakers in the two-chamber Congress, and more than 17,600 local government officials in the first nationwide automated polls on May 10.

Candidates pressed hands with vendors, housewives, laborers and teenagers as they hopped from town to town just a few hours away from Manila, visiting markets, parks and churches on the first of 90 days of campaigning.

The latest opinion poll shows two opposition lawmakers neck-and-neck, but analysts say it is too early to assume a two-horse race.

Arroyo, in office since 2001, is barred from running again. Allegations that she stole the 2004 presidential elections, and that her husband profited from a multi-million-dollar telecoms contract and other deals, have marred her nine-year rule.

A Pulse Asia survey last month pointed to a tight race between Senator Benigno ”Noynoy” Aquino, son of the country’s revered democracy icon, Corazon ”Cory” Aquino, and billionaire lawmaker Manuel “Manny” Villar.

Some candidates heard Mass at churches, with one transforming his rally into a prayer gathering, re-enacting the Lenten tradition of Jesus Christ washing the feet of his disciples to illustrate his desire to be a public servant.

Financial markets are hoping for a smooth transition, outweighing fears of possible technical and administrative problems from the country’s first automated polls.

Analysts are looking for more details on the candidates’ platforms, particularly economic policies, which are absent from a barrage of political ads on TV and radio since the start of the year.

Historically, popular personalities from political clans, the media, sports and show business dominate the elections in the Philippines, but some analysts are seeing some positive changes.

Filipino voters have matured after nine years of Arroyo and the previous administration of ousted president Joseph Estrada, later convicted for plunder.

Estrada, who is taking a second shot at the presidency in the May polls, won with the widest margin ever seen under a multiparty system in 1998.

Fr. Mick Sinnott back in the Philippines

January 27, 2010 at 8:31 am | Posted in Philippines | Comments Off

Three months after his abduction and eventual release in Mindanao, Irish priest Fr. Michael Sinnott returned to the Philippines on Friday, January 22, 2010, looking forward to resuming his missionary work in the country.

“It’s very nice to be back and am looking forward to going back to my work in Pagadian,” he said in an article posted on the CBCP news site (www.cbcpnews.com).

Fr. Sinnott had celebrated his 80th birthday in his home country Ireland last December 17.

The missionary is hoping to return to his post in Mindanao, “to do the little bit I can for as long as I can.”

He said he remained very optimistic that his superiors would allow him to return to Pagadian in Zamboanga del Sur soonest.

Also, Sinnott thanked all the Filipinos who had prayed for his safety.

“I was amazed when I came out of here there were a lot of people who prayed for me and I would like to thank them very, very sincerely from the bottom of my heart,” he said.

Sinnott said his visit to Ireland last December gave him the time to be with his relatives and friends.

Armed men abducted Sinnott in Pagadian City October 11, and released him to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front November 12. The MILF later turned him over to government.

He flew to Ireland with Fr. Patrick O’Donoghue last December 2.

Lay people appeal for moral, pastoral support of clergy

January 26, 2010 at 11:37 pm | Posted in Church, Philippines | Comments Off

Faithful, who compose 99.06 % of the Philippine’s Catholic Church, seek from clerics continuous guidance to be able to properly perform its mission in the Church and in the world.

“We need you, our bishops, priests and religious, to hold high the moral compass that will light our way, and to provide the prophetic pastoral accompaniment that will strengthen us in fulfilling our role and mission as sons and daughters of God,” the group stated in an online petition letter to priests.

The group also asked for an improved pastoral scheme by the Church to be able to bring “real change.”

“We look forward to new directions and a new pastoral approach within the Church that will bring real change in ourselves, our communities and our nation,” read the letter which was obviously timed for the upcoming clergy congress that will start on January 25, 2010 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.

The lay faithful enjoined the clerics to work with them in attaining peace that “honors human dignity, protects human rights, and condemns institutional violence/forms of cruelty.”

“Together let us protect the most vulnerable among us (the least, the last and the lost) by providing access to justice, livelihood, health, education and all other basic human needs, as well as promoting the livelihood of the poor instead of bailing out big business and granting corporations exemptions from wage increases,” the laity wrote.

The group also hopes to collaborate with the Church in promoting a culture of integrity and stewardship in society and in the Church by condemning abuse of power and the culture of impunity.

Meanwhile the same group of lay people called on the public to actively participate in the forthcoming national elections to make it clean and credible.

5,000 Catholic Priests on their Retreat

January 26, 2010 at 11:17 pm | Posted in Church, Philippines | Comments Off

More than 5,000 priests from across the country on Monday, January 25, 2010, opened the Second National Congress of the Clergy (NCC II) in Pasay City.

The number surpassed the attendance in the first congress held almost six years ago.

“The basic objective of the Congress, according to the program, is to provide priests with a deep and religious experience that will hopefully lead to a spiritual conversion and greater commitment. In other words, NCC II is the retreat of priests, for priests and by priests. The aim of the retreat is to achieve the interior renewal of the clergy.”

The Holy Father on this occasion conveyed his prayerful wishes to thousands of Filipino and some foreign clergy that gathered at the World Trade Center in Pasay City on the start of the retreat.

In a message read on his behalf at the opening rites, Pope Benedict XVI reminded Filipino priests “to embrace more fervently the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience.”

In a message sent to Manila Archbishop Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales by the Secretary of State Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, the Holy Father has assured every participant of his spiritual closeness.

The pope called on the clergy “to embrace ever more fervently the three evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience (as mentioned in the Letter Proclaiming a Year for Priests last June 16, 2009).

He said that on the first centenary of the death of St. John Vianney, Pope John XXIII set the evangelical counsels before priests as “the surest road to the desired goal of Christian perfection.”

The pontiff reiterated that “Poverty enabled the Cure of Ars to give everything over for the good of his church, the poor, and the children he loved so dearly.”

Chastity enabled St. John Vianney to ‘touch’ the Eucharist daily and contemplate it blissfully, the pope added. He also explained that Obedience enabled him to dedicate himself fully to the demands of his daily ministry and prevented him from fleeing his post when faced with difficulties.

Cardinal Bertone said the Holy Father is confident the participants will “shine more brightly as an authentic ‘sacramental representation of Christ, head and Shepherd.”

The Secretary of State also added the priests “renewed in their dignity and refreshed by the font of the Holy Spirit “ will dedicate themselves more vigorously to their mission of preaching the Word of God and offering the Holy Eucharist, uniting themselves ever more clergy closely to the life of the Holy Trinity.”

In closing, the Holy Father conveyed his apostolic blessing to the organizers and the participants of the Second National Congress of the Clergy.

Papal Message for World Communications Day

January 26, 2010 at 8:08 pm | Posted in Church | Comments Off

On January 24, 2010, the Holy Father Benedict XVI delivered his message for the 44th World Communications Day, which will be celebrated on May 16. The theme of this year’s World Communications Day is “The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word.”

In his message, the Pope encourages priests around the world to take their pastoral ministry online through Web sites, blogs and videos which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis. Using new communication technologies, priests can introduce people to the life of the Church and help our contemporaries to discover the face of Christ. The development of the new technologies and the larger digital world, according to Benedict XVI, represents a great resource for humanity as a whole and for every individual, and it can act as a stimulus to encounter and dialogue.

More about this message from Vatican Radio

Full text of the message of the Pope

A prayer after the earthquake in Haiti

January 18, 2010 at 8:12 am | Posted in Prayers | Comments Off

A woman injured after the building she was in collapsed. The Haiti earthquake has affected 3 million people in the Caribbean nation. The disaster struck on January 12, 2010.

A PRAYER AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE IN HAITI

Lord, at times such as this,
when we realize that the ground beneath our feet
is not as solid as we had imagined,
we plead for your mercy.

As the things we have built crumble about us,
we know too well how small we truly are
on this ever-changing, ever-moving,
fragile planet we call home.
Yet you have promised never to forget us.

Do not forget us now.

Today, so many people are afraid.
They wait in fear of the next tremor.
They hear the cries of the injured amid the rubble.
They roam the streets in shock at what they see.
And they fill the dusty air with wails of grief
and the names of missing dead.

Comfort them, Lord, in this disaster.
Be their rock when the earth refuses to stand still,
and shelter them under your wings when homes no longer exist.

Embrace in your arms those who died so suddenly this day.
Console the hearts of those who mourn,
and ease the pain of bodies on the brink of death.

Pierce, too, our hearts with compassion,
we who watch from afar,
as the poorest on this side of the earth
find only misery upon misery.
Move us to act swiftly this day,
to give generously every day,
to work for justice always,
and to pray unceasingly for those without hope.

And once the shaking has ceased,
the images of destruction have stopped filling the news,
and our thoughts return to life’s daily rumblings,
let us not forget that we are all your children
and they, our brothers and sisters.
We are all the work of your hands.

For though the mountains leave their place
and the hills be tossed to the ground,
your love shall never leave us,
and your promise of peace will never be shaken.

Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
Blessed be the name of the Lord,
now and forever. Amen.