VOLUME 20, NUMBER 5, JANUARY 25 - FEBRUARY 7, 2016

Filipinos
Eucharistic
joy converts
Belgian
Protestant

IN THIS ISSUE:

IEC speaker lauds

poors hunger for
Eucharist, A2
IEC in Cebu fully
secure, A2
Bishop Barron:
Eucharistic faith is
counter-culture, A3
Catholic convert Maria Servaas gestures during her
presentation at the 51st International Eucharistic
Congress in Cebu City. DOMINIC BARRIOS

Be Marys face,
faithful told, A3

Pope may deliver live

message to 51st IEC, A6
No campaigning in
IEC, politicians
told, A6
Cardinal Bo to Cebu
dancing inmates:
Pray for me. I love
you all!, A7

Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon in Myanmar and Papal Legate to the 51st International Eucharistic Congress, visits Cebus
renowned historical landmark, the Magellans Cross, Jan. 27, 2016. The cross, the pilgrim symbol of the IEC, recalled the birth of the Christian
faith in the archipelago and in Asia. ROY LAGARDE

Living the Eucharist

means loving the poor
- Cardinal Quevedo
By Felipe Francisco

CEBU City, Jan.

27, 2016 How
exactly does one
live the Eucharist, the mantra of Eucharistic
congresses? For
Orlando Cardinal Quevedo, its
simple: practice
what you preach,
and have genuine
love for the poor
and oppressed.

Our sharing in the

Eucharist the Body and

Blood of Christ is also a

sharing in his mission,
said the prelate. [I]
n the Eucharist we are
sent by the spirit of
Jesus on mission a
mission to the poor,
the oppressed and
marginalized to all
who are needy and
in need of love and
service.
To be Eucharistic
is to live the life of
Jesus, a life of love and
service. It is by living
Eucharistically that
we act Eucharistically
We see a host of
burning issues that need

Eucharistic action. We
cannot be indifferent
to them.
Where are the men?
In the Philippines,
noted the prelate, the
men seem to be missing
in Sunday Masses. And
even if the churches are
full every week, only
a fifth of parishioners
are able to attend.
Thousands receive Holy
Communion, even if
only a handful go to
confession.
So, even if on Sundays
we seem to be a nation
of Saints, social ills

remain. There is
massive poverty,
homelessness, street
children, human
trafficking, the drug
problem, and other
forms of criminality.
And media reports
speak of horrendous
corruption from top
to bottom, Quevedo
told 51st International
Eucharistic Congress
delegates at the
Waterfront Hotel.
Our faith is focused
on externals and
rituals, processions
and private devotions.

Young Cebuanos greet papal legate Myanmar Archbishop Charles Maung Cardinal Bo upon his arrival in Cebu,
Jan. 24, 2016. ROY LAGARDE

Heart opened to joy

She said the way Filipinos represent
Christ is very sacramental and
almost touchable.
You opened my heart to receive joy
in life itself. And more so, your joy is
related to thankfulness and to humility.
Please do not lose it.
Servaas left Belgium for France,
married an Englishman and lived in
England. It was there that they joined
an Anglican community. They then
decided to come to the Philippines as
missionaries. For seven years, she and
her husband worked with an evangelical
Filipino student organization.
She said it is in the Philippines
and in Filipinos that their lives were
profoundly changed in such a way
that it prepared - even cleared - our
hearts to begin to see the beauty of the
Eucharist and Eucharistic living.
Filipinos were and are genuinely
sacramental. They opened my heart
to receive joy and trust in life itself,
something that we have lost in my country.
More so, the joy that is almost palpably
present is related to thankfulness and to
humility. My country, sadly, appears to
thrive but actually dies due to an absence
of thankfulness.

Poverty in rural areas

All the [Burmese] generals
and Yangones get 90 percent
of the resources of the country
while 80 or 85 percent of the
[Burmese] people are poor,
Bo told the media.
Poverty in Myanmar is
largely concentrated in
rural regions of the country,
where the people rely only on
agricultural work.

Two gifts
She explained that joy, freedom, and
hunger made the question Where do
I belong as a Christian? burn more in
her heart.
Servaas shared two events that she
calls gifts changed her life.
First, when she witnessed the Litany
of Saints. Second, the lifting of the Host
at consecration.
Servaas describes that upon her
conversion, I was freed from the
western thought that faith begins with
a concept or idea. It does not.
She also expressed that the joy of
Eucharistic life is in the paradoxes of
mans deepest source of happiness:
lose to find, receive by giving, and live
by dying.
She urged Filipinos never to result to
quick fix solutions in order to pursue
ones personal happiness, calling it
artificial happiness. In your joy, you

Scarcity / A2

Converts / A2

Eucharist / A2

Fight food scarcity with sharing papal legate

CEBU City, Jan. 27, 2016
Papal legate Myanmar
Archbishop Charles Maung
Cardinal Bo reiterated the
need for sharing of the worlds
resources in a bid to fight off
poverty.
During the fourth day
press conference of the 51st
International Eucharistic
Congress (IEC), the Holy
Fathers official representative
to the IEC called for the equal
distribution of food in all
countries, particularly in his
homeland, Myanmar. The
prelate previously urged the
people to declare a third

CEBU City, Jan. 26, 2016 A recent

convert to the Catholicism lauded the
Filipinos deep faith and spirituality,
encouraging them to shun artificial
happiness and instead continue
to radiate the joy and hopefulness
Filipinos show even in the midst of
trials and suffering which she described
as Eucharistic.
Belgian national Marianne Servaas
expressed admiration for the Filipinos
thankfulness and humility, which
she said were attributed to being
sacramental, during her testimony
at the 51st International Eucharistic
Congress (IEC).

World War against poverty

during the IEC Opening Mass
at the Plaza Independencia on
Jan. 24.

A2 NEWS

January 25 - February 7, 2016 Vol. 20, No. 5

CBCP Monitor

IEC speaker lauds poors hunger for Eucharist

CEBU City, Jan. 26, 2016
A foreign missionary to
the Philippines on Tuesday
lauded the poor and their
hunger for the Eucharist,
saying often, those who have
little in life are the ones more
excited to receive Christ.
This is where I learned that
the poor feel a very special
connection with Jesus in the
Eucharist. They really love
and treasure Jesus so much.
Jesus is alive in those places in
the peripheries where no one
wants to go, said Fr. Luciano
Ariel Felloni, parish priest of
Our Lady of Lourdes Parish,
in a session he was facilitating
at the 51st International
Eucharistic Congress (IEC)
in Cebu on Jan. 26.
Addressing pilgrims from
various parts of the world, the
Argentine priest introduced
his talk by admitting he lacks
advanced degrees unlike the
other speakers who
I dont have [a] doctorate
in anything. I dont teach
anything. Im a professor of

According to him, being

with the poor enables them to
become Church with oneself,
and vice-versa.
When you are there you
make them the Church with
you. And they make you the
Church with them. Thats
beautiful. They need that
presence in the peripheries.
We [also] need that presence,
he exclaimed.
Felloni also confessed to
patronizing before Filipinos
who seem addicted to Mass
and insist on having one
celebrated even for seemingly
trivial reasons, rejecting
this practice as resulting in
Eucharistic overdose.
Fr. Luciano Ariel Felloni, parish priest of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish. DOMINIC BARRIOS

nothing. [Thats why] I dont

now what Im doing here,
he said in a combination of
English and Filipino.
Becoming Church
However, he expressed
pride he can speak from the

point-of-view of his 21-year

experience living among the
Filipino poor.
Felloni went on to share his
first encounter with residents
of Payatas, a huge dumpsite
north of Manila, thanking
them for helping him become

IEC in Cebu fully secure

According to 51st IEC organizers, more than 15,000 people are at the event in Cebu City, Jan. 25,
2016. DOMINIC BARRIOS

CEBU City, Jan. 27,2016 - Interior

and Local Government Secretary
Mel Senen Sarmiento said he is
satisfied with the security measures
provided by the Philippine National
Police (PNP) for the ongoing 51st
International Eucharistic Congress,
ably supported by the Armed
Forces of the Philippines and other
law enforcement agencies.
In an interview, Sarmiento said
the partnership and cooperation
between the private and public
sectors made the IEC a success.
During an interview at the IEC
Pavillon where he was conducting
an on-the-spot inspection, he
added they also have operatives
who conduct incognito random
inspection at various venues.
8,000 police
Asked about potential threat
groups to the international
religious activities at IEC in Cebu

City, Sarmiento said they have

considered every possible aspect
which led them to deploy some
8,000 police personnel.
Sarmiento said he was sent
by President Benigno Simeon C.
Aquino to oversee the security
blanket.
Weve also augmented our
elements with those from other
nearby provinces, Sarmiento added.
Remaining vigilant
He said the PNP cannot do the
job alone as he sought the general
publics support to remain vigilant
against possible lawless elements.
The PNP chief (Director General
Ricardo Marquez) will also check
on the security situation within a
day or two, Sarmiento added.
The 51st IEC organizers said
theyve exceeded their expectations
of 15,000 participants. (Melo M.
Acua / CBCP News)

the person he is now.

Once I told a lady [in
Payatas], Poor you. [She
said,] No, Father, its okay.
When you were not here we
were just poor. Now that you
are, here we are Church,
he said.

Spirituality of the people

I used to look down on
that, saying this is superficial
sacramentalism. And in 21
years the poor have taught
me to eat my words one by
one. I realize this is what Pope
Francis calls spirituality of
the people, he said.
Noting that the Holy

Father recognizes them

in all simpilicity, Felloni
stated the poor dont just
have devotions but a deep
spirituality.
They want the Lord to be
there for them. They want
the Lord in their happy
moments and their not-sohappy moments. They want
the Lord all the time and
everywhere, and that hunger
for the Eucharist is one of
the biggest lessons I have
learned from my people, he
explained.
Felloni, moreover, pointed
out the poor is the privileged
place of Jesus outside the
Eucharist.
Many times the poor, not
us the priests, are the ones
who make the presence of the
Church felt in those places.
Many times even we have no
courage to live among them.
But they keep the presence
of Jesus alive. So let us learn
among them, he added.
(Raymond A. Sebastin
/ CBCP News)

More than just cool: New

Evangelization at the IEC
CEBU City, Jan. 27, 2016 Walking
billboards of the Eucharist all over
Cebu, nay, the whole world.
This is the New evangelization
vision of Ablaze Communications,
the social communications arm
of Couples for Christ, not just for
the 51st International Eucharist
Congress (IEC) but especially in the
days after.
One of the most effective media
in promoting something is through
billboards and we know that we,
humans, are walking billboards. We
are basically spreading the Good News
by just wearing the IEC shirt, said
Ablaze marketing head Keith Janohan
in an interview with CBCP News.
15,000 walking billboards
According to the former lay
missionary to Singapore and
Indonesia, one of the roles of every
Christian is to communicate Christ,
a task the group even includes in its
official mission-vision statement.
One of our roles in the Church is
to communicate Christ and the very
best medium in communicating
Christ is through the shirts we are
wearing, through our fashion,
explained Janohan, who heads a
15-man team to run the Ablaze booth
where the official IEC congress shirt

Mary as well as Pope Francis, are

mainly targeted at the younger set,
the attraction of Ablaze seems to cut
across demographics.

Manila Archbishop emeritus Gaudencio Cardinal

Rosales visits the Ablaze booth at the San Carlos
Major Seminary Hall, right beside IEC Pavilion, Jan.
27, 2016. MARY LEBRIA

is being sold, at the San Carlos Major

Seminary, a stones throw away from
the IEC Pavilion.
He added: Thats what Ablaze
uses to propel the the message of the
Eucharist...Imagine 15,000 delegates
wearing the shirts. Imagine the impact
they will create when they go outside
and roam around Cebu city, when they
go home to their respective areas.
While Janohan admits the Ablaze
statement shirts, some of which
feature doodled shirts of Jesus,

Official IEC shirt

The official IEC shirt, which
comes in tangerine, was presented
to Cebu Auxiliary Bishop Dennis
Villarojo and then formally, at an
IEC press conference on Dec. 14,
2015 at the Arzobispado de Manila
in Intramuros,
According to Ablaze publications
head Dana Superable, they were
surprised to serve matronly ladies
toting their Prada bags who sweetly
asked for the official IEC shirts the
group designed specially for the event.
One of their visitors include Manila
Archbishop emeritus Gaudencio
Cardinal Rosales who wandered in
and said he liked the designs.
According to Janohan, the location
of the booth, which is not exactly
at the IEC Pavilion, did not hinder
delegates from flocking in droves.
For those interested, the official
conference shirt as well as limited
edition Ablaze statement shirt
designs are available at the San Carlos
Major Seminary Hall, right beside
the IEC Pavilion. (Nirvaana Ella
Delacruz / CBCP News)

Scarcity / A1

The papal legate also stressed

the need for assistants in
the churches of all regions in
Myanmar as well as in Christian
communities. He said the Church,
government, and communities in
the world need to have a system
where resources and the riches
are shared.
The cardinal said the Burmese
people are expecting a smooth
transition of government, from its
current junta administration to a
democratic one, led by the famous
Aung San Suu Kyi.
French nuns of the Sisters of Maria Stella Matutina enjoy a moment with Jesus at the IEC Pavilion adoration chapel in Cebu City, Jan. 25, 2016. ROY LAGARDE
Converts / A1

are more human and it is a

gift to the world, she said.
Falling in love with the
Eucharist
I fell in love with the
Eucharist, and therefore
with the Church. Its the
Eucharist that drew me,
that holds me.
She said one of her sons
noticed and asked her why
she was so happy.
I can say only one thing:
Christ and Christ alone. I
became a Roman Catholic
due to the Eucharist and it
is here that I have found
my true home. How I long
for every single person as
well as for whole nations
to taste and see how
great our God is and how

indescribably beautiful
his desire is for us to
receive hope and grow in
His glory.
She admitted however,
that being a Catholic is
weird especially whenever
she was asked about her
conversion. She simply
says, I became a Catholic,
as an adult by choice.
In a separate interview
with Eternal Word
Television Network- Asia
Pacific, Servaas further
admitted her admiration
of Filipinos, adding
despite the dilemma of
poverty and corruption,
Filipinos remain positive
and happy.
Youre dealing with
poverty. Youre dealing

with corruption, and

yet when there is a
deep sense of joy and of
thankfulness.
She admitted that
Filipinos know much
more what it is to live from
the Eucharist, adding
this Filipinos can share
this as a gift you can give
to the world.
Prayers for Europe
She appealed to the
IEC delegates to not
follow Europe on the
road to secularization
and unbelief.
Servass said that Europe
has lost the ability to
kneel and it makes us
unfree.
We have lost humility

and it makes us decrease

in humanity. Only
Christ Himself can save
us and He is needed in
the most joyful and real
way possible, free from
our interpretations and
ideologies.
She asked for prayers
that Europe will return
to God in the Eucharist,
where Christ is
unconditionally present,
so that we can be like Him
present as peacemakers
pure in heart and poor in
spirit, empty of ourselves
and so full of Him that it
spills out in deeds of pure
goodness. (Rommel
Lopez / CBCP News
with Paul de Guzman
and Krisha Socito)

Filipino faith and

hospitality
Bo said he has a lot of things to
report to Pope Francis, including

Filipinos hospitality, good cuisine,

and the peoples smiles.
This reception is the warmest
welcome I have received, stressed
the prelate.
Bo, however, said the most
important thing he will report to
the Holy Father is the faith of the
people.
Despite all the natural
disasters, the only thing that
mainly remained with the
Filipinos is faith. Faith in the
Church, faith in the Eucharist
and faith in God, he explained.
He praised the zeal of Filipinos,
particularly those working overseas,
in spreading the Catholic faith all
over the world. (John Gabriel M.
Agcaoili / CBCP News)

Eucharist/ A1

Deep down, they manifest the

Filipinos authentic awareness of
Gods presence in everything that
is blessed or holy, he added.
But the question remains: What
does the Holy Eucharist really
mean? How should we participate?
What does it tell us about how we
should live?
A being for others
Quevedo, 76, the archbishop
of Cotabato, recalled how as a
young theology student in the
1960s he learned a classic Latin
theological formula, Eucharistia
facit Ecclesiam, Ecclesia facit
Eucharistitam, which means The
Eucharist makes the Church; the

Church makes the Eucharist.

According to him, the Eucharist
makes the Church because the
Church was borne out of the Paschal
Mystery the suffering, death,
and resurrection of Christ. The
Church makes the Eucharist, he
explained, because in the Mass,
the New Sacrifice, the Church
commemorates Christs sacrifice on
the Cross for the salvation of men.
But it can also mean more, Quevedo
said, because the Church is living and
operating in our space and time.
He reminded IEC delegates
that the Eucharist is communion,
the deepest kind of union, and
communion with Jesus is with his
very being, a being for others.

CBCP Monitor

NEWS A3

January 25 - February 7, 2016 Vol. 20, No. 5

Bishop Barron: Eucharistic faith is counter-culture

Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Robert Barron. DOMINIC BARRIOS

CEBU City, Jan. 26, 2016

In a secular culture that
has become relativist, the
Eucharist is the only refuge.
One of the most-awaited
speakers at the 51st
International Eucharistic
Congress (IEC) was Los
Angeles Auxiliary Bishop
Robert Barron, a gifted
preacher of the New
Evangelization. Barron, 56,
gained famed for his Youtube
preaching as a Chicago priest.
At the catechesis for Day 2 of
the congress, Barron was in
his element.
Whats sad today is so
many in the Catholic world
have become blas about the
Eucharist. In my country,
70 percent of Catholics stay
away from the Eucharist,
he said.
Nothing, however, is
more important than the
Eucharist. Barron quoted
the most famous oneliner in the text of Vatican
II: the Eucharist is the
source and summit of
Christian life.
The Great Fathers of
Vatican II, what they wanted
was to revive the Eucharist,
to draw people toward it
more and more. To tell them

IEC speaker: Daily adoration

important for priests
CEBU City, Jan. 27, 2016 A
speaker at the 51st International
Eucharistic Congress (IEC) in
Cebu City on Tuesday encouraged
fellow priests to spend at least
an hour daily with the Blessed
Sacrament for the sake of their
ministry which, he said, needs
continuous nourishment.
When I dont pray meaningfully
then my ministry becomes
routinary. Im not telling you
because I studied about that. Im
telling you because I experienced
that. The moment I neglect my
prayer life, my ministry becomes
burdensome, shared Fr. Luciano
Ariel Felloni, chief pastor of Our
Lady of Lourdes in Camarin,
Caloocan City.
Ministry becomes torture
In his talk, Washing the Feet
of the Poor: The Eucharist and
the Priesthood, he went on to tell
congress delegates from around the
world, many of whom are priests
like himself, at the citys Waterfront
Hotel, that delivering homilies
becomes a challenge and a torture
for a minister with little or no prayer
life at all since one cannot give what
one lacks.
When you dont have what to
say, when you dont know what to
say, when you dont know what to

do with the problem of the parish,

its a sign maybe that youre not
giving the Lord that one hour at
least of adoration everyday, he
explained.
According to Felloni, a missionary
to the Philippines for 21 years now,
the most important and difficult
duty of a priest is to be faithful and
to stay thus.
Duty to stay faithful
It helps so much for us priests
to be sent there. To do the most
important duty that we have to do,
that is, to be faithful, [is] the most
difficult of them all. Its easier to
say the Mass. Its easier to work for
the poor. The most difficult is to
be faithful. Without that one hour,
fidelity is impossible, the Argentine
priest stressed.
It is in this way, he added, that
the PresenceChrists Presence
in the Eucharist, gives meaning
to the presence of a priest in his
parish.
I give Him away to my people.
If that circle is cut its a disaster.
And we priests know that it is a
disaster because we experience
times of brownout, times when
we are not connected as we should.
And we know how much it affects
us, Felloni noted. (Raymond A.
Sebastin / CBCP News)

that in 2016 that 70 percent,

more in western Europe, stay
away from the Eucharist on
a regular basis, they would
feel their work had been a
failure, he said.
We are sinners
The indifference toward
the Eucharist is borne
out of a popular culture
that does not want to
acknowledge, or be told
of, its brokenness. Yet it
is indispensable to our
Eucharistic faith that we
acknowledge that we are
sinners, that we are lost,
walking in the wrong way.
Barron cited the words of
a Christina Aguilera song: I
am beautiful in every single
way, and words cant bring
me down.
Well never get a salvation
religion off the ground if we
believe that. So many voices
in the culture insist upon it.
Dont put me down, dont tell
me Im wrong. In fact, Ive got
the infinite right to define my
own life, to define who I am,
he said.
That is repugnant to
the salvation religion. Its
repugnant to a Eucharistic
faith.

CEBU City, Jan. 26, 2016

Speaking with a poster of Our Lady
of Guadalupe covering his podium,
the chaplain of the National Shrine
of St. Juan Diego in Mexico called
on thousands of 51st International
Eucharistic Congress (IEC)
delegates on Jan. 26 to be the face
of our dear Lady of Guadalupe in
the world.
Monsignor Diego Monroy Ponce,
Episcopal and General Vicar of
Guadalupe and rector of the Basilica
de Guadalupe, was one of the IEC
concurrent sessions on Jan. 26,
2016.
We want to be the sweet face
of the little virgin. How do we do
this?, said Msgr. Diego Monroy
Ponce, one of the speakers of the
IECs Jan. 26 concurrent sessions.
According to the Episcopal and
General Vicar of Guadalupe, task
of being the sweet and gentle face of
our dear Lady of Guadalupe means
to let all people know about Jesus
Christ.
Revolutionary tenderness
It is because of the Virgin Mary,
the priest explained, that the faithful
believe again in the revolutionary
aspect of tenderness.
Ponce, who heads the Pastoral
Liturgy at the Basilica of Our Lady
of Guadalupe, also assured all
present about their intimate ties
with the Blessed Virgin.
To my brothers and sisters

Ambassador Tamara Grdzelidze of Georgia. DOMINIC BARRIOS

Differences and similarities

The Georgian ambassador
to the Holy See and the
Sovereign Military Order of
Malta pointed out that the
role of women has been more
openly recognized in the
Catholic Church than in the
Orthodox Church in which

Vibrant church
Like many other foreign
speakers at the 51st IEC,
Barron paid tribute to the
growing influence of Filipino
Catholicism, which has kept
the faith alive in the postChristian West.
I dont know of any
church right now in the
world thats more vibrant
than the Filipino Church,
he said. [In Chicago and
Los Angeles], its the Filipino
community which is keeping
the Church alive so to come
here and be with you is a
great thrill for me.
I do think, in Gods often
strange providence, Hell
take a particular church, a
particular people, and use
them as a means to invigorate
and to evangelize the rest
of the Catholic world. I do
believe, in Gods always
beguiling providence,
you are playing that role
now, Barron said. (Felipe
Francisco / CBCP News)

An image of the Blessed Virgin holding the Child Jesus, at the IEC Pavilion, Jan. 27, 2016.DOMINIC BARRIOS

who are pilgrims here, you also

are Guadalupans. In you flows the
blood of this precious Lady, he said
during his talk on Evangelization
and Popular Religiosity at the IEC
Pavilion.
20 million visitors
[Our Lady of Guadalupe is]
our Mother, Mother of all men, of
all those who are here together as
one, as has already been for many
centuries. We were born in her lap
and we bear the blood of this sweet
Lady, stressed Ponce.
According to him, the fact that
the site of the apparition of Our
Lady of Guadalulpe to Juan Diego
in 1531 on Tepeyac hill draws some

on either side when our

Churches sadly broke apart,
but the core of the Trinitarian
and the Christological
theology of both Churches
is similar, Tamara said.
The early Church shows a
different picture on the role
of women in Church life and
the ambassador stressed that
the women of today deserve
to be believed in and are as
capable as before.

Church, as the Catholic

women are at present, she
expressed.

are, if we are worshipping

the wrong way, we need to
be brought back and that
process is painful. We need
to go through into a painful
realignment, he explained.

Be Marys face, faithful told

More women empowerment in Orthodox church sought

CEBU City, Jan. 25, 2016
Discussions on the role
of women in the Roman
Catholic Church are more
open as compared to their
Orthodox counterpart, says
an Orthodox diplomat,
who seeks more women
empowerment in the the
second largest Christian
Church in the world.
Ambassador Tamara
Grdzelidze of Georgia made
this observation during her
talk on the role of Women
in the Church in one of
the concurrent sessions
of the 51st International
Eucharistic Congress here
in this city.
Catholic women
theologians participate
in Church life more
formally than women in
the Orthodox Church,
[they] represent the
Church at various levels,
are members of theological
commissions, take part in
dialogues and [some] also
attended the recent Synod
of the Catholic Church
on the Family. From
my point of view, I wish
Orthodox women, could be
as seriously taken by their

Right attitude
He said to stretch out like
someone dying of hunger is
the right attitude toward the
Eucharist.
Barron recalled the
first time he gave Holy
Communion at St. Peters
Square about 10 years ago, on
Easter Sunday. He thought it
would be an orderly affair. But
the people surged, begging
for the Body of Christ.
Its the Bread of Life,
its what keeps us alive
spiritually, he pointed out.
We should all stretch out
our hands as though we were
starving for the Bread of
Life.
Barron reminded IEC
delegates of the three
aspects of the Eucharist:
the Eucharist as a meal; the
Eucharist as a sacrifice; and
Christs Real Presence in the
Eucharist.
Too often the sacrificial
nature of the Eucharist is
ignored. Sacrifice straightens
out man from his sinfulness,
he said.
The logic of sacrifice is
pretty straightforward, we
take some aspect of creation
and we return it to God If
we are off-kilter, which we

she professes her faith.

Though faced with
theological differences
brought about by the 1054
schism, Grdzelidze says
both Orthodox and Roman
Catholics basically believe in
the Trinity and in the marks
of the Church: One, Holy,
Catholic, and Apostolic.
No one denies the
importance of the later, post
1054 doctrinal development

Womens role in the

Church
Grdzelidze, who possesses
a Ph. D. in Theology, says
in Christ both male and
female become children
of God and both are given
the redemptive potency
through the Eucharistic
communion.
She added that women
cannot be reduced to the role
of an honorable company.
Nothing is revolutionary
than in making women in
the Orthodox Church an
indissoluble part of the
human response to Gods
call for unity and spiritual
advancement. (Chrixy
Paguirigan / CBCP
News)

20 million people yearly, excluding

tourists, while only 6 million people
visit the Vatican annually is already
a testament to the power of popular
religion, specifically of the Marian
devotion.
It is the most visited [place]
in the Christian world, as I have
pointed out, said Ponce.
For 24 years, Ive been coming to
the sanctuary of Guadalupe as the
one responsible for the preaching
there and I am witness of the many
religious expressions that aim to
be simple and straight forward,
not overly intellectual not
with great discursive methods.
(Nirvaana Ella Delacruz /
CBCP News)

A4 OPINION

January 25 - February 7, 2016 Vol. 20, No. 5

CBCP Monitor

EDITORIAL

A BURNING topic in this weeks Congress is the tricky issue of

how to make the Eucharist more appealing, especially in the
age of social media. Its tricky because its not easy to introduce
changes to centuries, if not millennia of tradition. But it has to
be done. St. Paul, the apostle par excellence, preached a difficult
message in a difficult setting. He went to the Areopagus, the
middle of the city, reached out to the unbelieving Greeks and
introduced them to Christ. This was how the Church began.
In one of the daily IEC press conferences, a journalist asked
how come people are going to Mass in the shopping malls.
If one goes back to the example of St. Pauls encounter with
the Gentiles, the mallthe modern marketplace in the middle
of the bustling cityis a natural place for preaching Christ.
Its a new way of looking at ecclesiology, or being Church,
and a new way of evangelization, said IEC communications
department chairman Bishop Mylo Hubert Vergara in the same
press conference. People may be in the marketplace and this is
where we have to reach out. They may find the mall, because its
air-conditioned, very comfortable. But there you have a chapel
in the midst of the marketplace reminding us of God, he said.
In this sense, the Eucharist becomes a refuge from lifes
difficulties, from the distractions brought by gadgets and
electronic media, and from the emptiness and false promises
offered by a society that is increasingly materialistic.
Thats what Patlyn Antonette Paares, a young church
volunteer in one of the parishes in Cebu, told us when we
asked why the youth are joining the activities for the 51st
IEC, an event sometimes described as the World Youth
Day for old people. Meeting Christ in the Eucharist is
also whats prompting Ninnelynn Taburnal of Barangay
Guadalupe, a bakery worker and a mother of four, to go to
Mass every Sunday. At the Opening Mass of the IEC at Plaza
Independencia, Ninnelynn even brought her mother Elena
for what she told us was a once-in-a-lifetime event.
At the IEC, Church leaders and experts talked about
innovative proposals like inculturation or cultural
adaptation. This is commendable, especially if developed
organically, and does not distract from the true meaning of
the Mass. Amid restlessness and hardships, people like Patlyn
and Ninnelyn simply want to meet Christ.

The Eucharist in the Churchs

dialogue with the youth
THE Churchs mission today includes directing young people
toward the Eucharist for sustenance in the face of their many
uncertainties and questions. For it is in the Eucharistic gathering
that the Church can best engage the youth in a dialogue in which
she proclaims to them the Gospel of Christ from which they get
the unique and satisfying response to their most deep-seated
aspirations. From their Eucharistic encounter with Christ in
word and sacrament are offered enlightenment and guidance
in their quest for meaning and purpose in life. In the Eucharist,
Jesus looks upon the youth with that special love that he showed
upon the young man in the Gospel and invites them to follow
him (cf. Mk 10:21) in his loving relationship with the Father and
in his saving mission to humanity and to the world.
By engaging them in active participation in the Eucharist
in attentive listening, in generous and appropriate bodily
expressions, in the observance of silence at the appropriate
moments, or in undertaking specific ministries in the
celebrationthe youth can best be formed both for their
future and present roles in the Church and in the society.
In the Eucharistic dialogue, the Church has so much to talk
about with the youth and the youth, with their energies and
enthusiasm, have so much to share with the Church.
Around the table both of Gods Word and of Christ Body, the
Church offers instruction and nourishment by which young people
can be prepared to be the good soil where the seed of Gods
Word can spring up, take root, grow, and bear abundant fruit. The
Eucharist is the perfect school for the young where they can learn
the values of presence that builds relationships and communities,
of a sense of gratitude and responsibility for Gods creation, and of
service and sacrifice that gives life, healing, and wholeness to others.
Considering the young peoples attraction to various means
of social communication and their adeptness in their use of
the same, the Church will do well to present the Eucharist to
them as the highest embodiment and ideal of communication
where friendships are established and nurtured, where hopes,
dreams, joys, and anxieties are shared, and where noble
causes and advocacies are worked out together.
In the school of the Eucharist, young people will learn that
communication is more than the exchange of ideas and of
emotion but, at its most profound level, the giving of self in
love. The Church should never get tired of telling the young
that Christ instituted the Eucharist as the most perfect and
intimate form of communication between God and man which
leads to the deepest possible unity among men and women.
The Eucharist is where the deepest and transforming
communication takes placein response to the prayer of
invocation, the Father through his Son sends the Holy Spirit so
that the bread and the wine, as also the assembly, will become
the Body of Christ.
- Excerpts from the theological and pastoral
reflection in preparation for the 51st International
Eucharistic Congress.

Monitor
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Seeking solace in the Eucharist

Living Mission

Fr. James H. Kroeger, MM

Eucharistic Faith:
Christs True Presence

Eucharistic Congress Reflection

CATHOLICS believe that Jesus Christ
is truly present in the Eucharist in his
body and blood, humanity and divinity,
under the form of bread and wine.
This real presence flows from Christs
total self-gift on the cross; his presence
effects communion with His Church
through His body and blood.
Personal Experience. Some years
ago while I served in Saint James Parish
in Cateel, Davao Oriental (located in
Mindanao, southern Philippines), I
had a powerful experience from an
unexpected source that reminded
me of Christs Eucharistic presence.
It involves Catalino, a man of about
thirty years who only had the mind of a
child. He liked to be around the parish
rectory (convento); no one objected to
his presence. He was friendly, liked to
talk to everyone, and never caused any
disturbance.
Catalino would often ask me for some
bread, cookies, or crackers, especially if
he saw me come home from the nearby
bakery. He normally was present at

Mass and would always reverently

go to communion. One day, after I
was in the parish for some months (to
satisfy my doubts), I decided to ask:
Catalino, when you are in Church
and go to get something to eat, what is
that? Is it a special cookie or cracker?
Immediately, he responded to my
question: Oh no, Father. Thats Jesus!
There and then, all my doubts were
resolved; I had no more reservations
about giving communion to Catalino!
In fact, I was humbled at his genuine
expression of faith!
Archbishop Oscar Romero.
Recently, on May 23, 2015, Oscar
Romero, the martyred Archbishop of
San Salvador in Central America, was
beatified, setting him on the path to
sainthood. Earlier on February 3, 2015
Pope Francis had officially declared
Romero a martyr of the Catholic faith.
Romero had been murdered on May
24, 1980 as he celebrated Mass in the
chapel of the Carmelite Sisters cancer
hospital where he lived. As he raised

Gifts for priests

Conclusion

YOU cant stop people

from giving gifts to priests
but you cant stop priests
either from giving them
away. Sometimes, though,
the situation gets stickyas
when the priest himself does
not have the heart to hurt
the eager giver. I was once
placed in that situation, and
I admit I had to pray hard
for a solution. (Let me use
fictitious names to protect
the innocent).
Guests were beginning to
notice something odd in Fr.
Restys office. There were
angels everywhere. Ceramic
angels, resin angels, wooden
angels, papier mache angels,
clay angelsmostly cute
ones holding musical
instruments, flowers,
candles, etc. They were

Candidly Speaking
WE have to learn how to live with
mysteries in life. They are unavoidable.
Even in the natural sphere, there are
things that we can already regard as
mysteries. Much more so when we
consider the spiritual and supernatural
spheres of our life.
A mystery is, first of all, a truth, a real
thing, and not a fiction, a figment of our
imagination. But its a truth that is so rich
that the human mind finds it hard if not
impossible to fully understand. Just the
same, it has elements that would make it
recognizable and believable by us.
Its like the sun whose light is so bright
that we cannot look directly at it without
destroying our eyes. But we never doubt
about its existence. In fact, we are most
thankful for the many benefits it gives us.
The Eucharist is one such mystery.

Living Mission / A6

And Thats The Truth

Teresa R. Tunay, OCDS

sitting on the shelves behind

him, in front of him, on his
desk, in the toilet; a huge
cross-stitched angel was
even mounted on the wall,
upstaging a reproduction
painting of the Immaculate
Conception on the opposite
wall.
A couple of sisters
unintentionally called my
attention to it when they
said, Uy, ang gaganda ng
angels sa office ni Father, ang
dami-dami! Humingi kami,
ayaw kaming bigyan! (Hey,
there are so many nice angels
in Fathers office! We asked
for some but he wouldnt
give us any!)
Because Im Ate-NanayNinang to Fr. Resty, I had
no second thoughts about
nosing around (subtly) in his

Fr. Roy Cimagala

the chalice after the consecration, he

was shot and killed by a hired assassin.
In the superb film Romero released in
1989, one sees a particularly powerful
scene which manifests Romeros
Eucharistic faith. The government
soldiers had taken over the parish
church in a rural village, because this
community was very active in seeking
social justice. The church had been
turned into a military barracks. Romero
goes to retrieve the Blessed Sacrament;
he is taunted and intimidated by the
vicious soldiers. When he tells them he
has come to get the Blessed Sacrament,
the tabernacle is machine-gunned.
Romero retreats to his car, but then
returns to lovingly pick up the scattered
hosts, despite more intimidation and
physical abuse. Romero then drives
off, only to return a second time. He
puts on his vestments and leads the
people into the church to say Mass,
facing down the soldiers. Romeros
Eucharistic faith shines out clearly in

office the next day to validate

the sisters report. I feigned
surprise (Wow, such pretty
angels!) and in a spirit of
lambing said, Wont you
give your Ate one? Or is
this a collection?
Fr. Resty knows me well
enough to know Im not
interested in angel figurines
and that by the tone of my
question he was being boxed
with velvet gloves into a
corner. I also now him
well enough to say hes not
the collecting type; in fact,
he easily gives unneeded
gifts away. After a pregnant
silence, while I scrutinized
the angels, he sheepishly
said, Theyre from Belle
Oooh, I see Belle is a
rather frequent visitor from
another parish, a fan of Fr.

Resty. I continued to inspect/

appreciate the figurines: So,
Fr. which one may I have?
Hmmm, this one is just
plaster of Paris, but its wellmade This one, too pa-cute
naman I kinda like that one
holding a candle, at least its
not that ordinary. Fr. Resty
was busy at the computer;
or maybe he was pretending
to be, in order to evade my
chatter. Then I went for the
kill, so to speak: What will
you do with all these angels?
Are you getting attached?
It was a silent bomb that
was also met with silence.
Finally, Fr. Resty said, Can
I help it if she wants to give
and give? But of course, I
can give them away. Would
you like to help?
And Thats the Truth / A5

The mystery of
the Eucharist

There we are told that Christ is present,

not in a merely symbolic way but in a
real way. We believe this because of the
gift of faith that God Himself gives us
in abundance.
If we are at least receptive to this gift
of faith, we can readily acknowledge the
truth of the mystery of the Holy Eucharist.
But our appreciation of this mystery grows
to the extent that we exercise our faith that
in turn also relies on the exercise of trust
in Gods Word which is the gift of hope,
and the fervor of our charity, another Godgiven gift and the most important.
The mystery of the Eucharist should
elicit in us sentiments of awe and
amazement, not indifference and overfamiliarity. Our sins and unworthiness
should be no problem, since the law of
magnetism applies hereunlike poles

attract each other.

We should never forget what Christ
himself said: They that are whole have
no need of the physician, but they that
are sick: I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. (Mk 2, 17)
Thus, we have to most careful when
we think we are already good or saintly
enough. If we are truly pursuing sanctity,
we should feel all the more humble and
in need of God the more progress we
achieve in our sanctification.
In the Eucharist, we have Christ both
hidden and revealed in his fullness, a
most paradoxical phenomenon that is
typical of God and of all mysteries. Its
up to us which aspect of the mystery we
prefer to give more attention tohis
hiddenness or his revelatory aspect.
Candidly Speaking / A5

CBCP Monitor

By the Roadside
Fr. Eutiquio Euly Belizar, Jr. SThD

I DONT know of any other personal way

of explaining the Filipino experience of
the Eucharist in the IEC than that calling
it the embrace of Gods love. Gods love
is so much like the rain on the second
day. It has poured. Despite our national
obsession with our weaknesses (need
we mention the culture of corruption,
criminality with impunity, lack of
discipline?), would we ever doubt the
sincerity of the papal legates words
characterizing us as a great nation,
the light of the faith in Asia, bringing
the Catholic presence in many parts
of the world (he even specified them
to be wherever there is land, air, sea
etc.), especially loved by the Holy
Father? Years ago when I was trying
to learn Italian, I would sometimes
fumble and stumble. Then I would hear
Italians encouraging me, Coraggio!
(Have courage)! It occurred to me that
Cardinal Bo, many thanks to him, was
giving us a tremendous Coraggio. But
this is not to say it was simply that. It
is more.
Or how about a Bishop Barron
proclaiming us to be chosen by
God to reinvigorate the Catholic
world by our faith which he compares
to that of his ancestors Ireland seventy
years ago? We applaud these words,
thinking they are a compliment which
they are. But we forget that they also
spell responsibility. It is a responsibility
we cant take lightly. Yet it is one we

The Eucharist as the

embrace of Gods love

must take.
What comes to mind is the Gospel of
Luke 15:20 telling us how the wayward
son finally coming to his senses and
returning to his father. Instead of
meeting offense with a just chastisement
of sorts (maybe a harsh word or two, a
slap in the face or a closed door), the
father runs to the wayward son, ignores
the sons prepared Im sorry speech,
falls on his neck in a fatherly embrace
and even kisses him. Would a Filipino
father or any father do the same or
generally the opposite? Thank God, God
is God and not man. For that is how I
see the great embrace of Gods love for
the Filipino at the IEC despite the many
ways we have stormed our way out of the
Fathers house. God still embraces us
through the Catholic world coming into
our shores and expressing how we are
still looked up to for our vibrant faith,
for our resilience during calamities, for
bringing the Catholic presence wherever
we go in the world, no matter how strong
or feeble, pure or stained.
For the Eucharist is the embrace
of Gods love for us. It is the Fathers
love that is revealed in the Son. This
revelation is behind the love of the
Sons self-gift. As the Father has loved
me, so I have loved you (John 15:9).
In the Eucharist the Father embraces
us, our sinfulness notwithstanding,
but he embraces us in and through the
Son. In the most profound insight of St.

A Transforming
Eucharist
ON the second day of the
IEC, the persona of St. Paul
looms large. His conversion
is commemorated and
celebrated and how the saint
preserved and promoted
the memory of Christs love
from possible demise is
highlighted.
Pauls devotion to the
Eucharist began with his
meeting with the Resurrected
Christ (cf. 1Cor 15:8). Christ
transformed him from
within and he, recognizing
the surpassing value of
knowing Christ (Phil 3:8),
considered everything that he
once boasted of--his sense of
ethnic supremacy, his hardearned zeal for the faith of
his forebears, his fanaticism
to defend the same even to
deathas rubbish. Everything
he earned through diligence,
hard-work, and industry
cannot compare to the splendor

OPINION A5

January 25 - February 7, 2016 Vol. 20, No. 5

of Christs love manifest in

His taking of the cross for
humanitys justification.
Christs passion, death, and
resurrection has occasioned
the greatest equality before
the eyes of God, There is no
longer Jew or Greek, there is
no longer slave or free, there
is no longer male and female;
for all of you are one in Christ
Jesus (Gal 3:28).
The leveling of the playing
field, so to say, for all humanity
is very much evident in the
Eucharist. Before the Lamb
of God, who takes away the
sins of the world, all prostrate
reverently irrespective of ones
status in society and socioeconomic prestige. Before our
Lord, all are servants, in front
of the Father all are children,
and before God all are equally
loved.
This equality that is an
immediate consequence of

Biblically Speaking
Leander V. Barrot, OAR

Christs sacrifice leading to

everybodys justification
remains to be the constant
challenge of Eucharist. The
increasing gap separating
the rich and the poor is a
constant reminder of how
we have become simple
devotees of the Eucharist but
not committed to the moral
consequences of our faith.
The disregard for the dignity
of women, the stealing from
children of their innocence by
subjecting them to labor, the
indifference to the plight of
the elderly are all affronts to
our very own faith and remain
to be constant challenges to
our faith in the Eucharist.
The constant celebration
and reception of the risen
Lord in the Eucharist
strengthen our pledge to
leave behind what St. Paul
calls the desires of the flesh
(Gal 5:16). The Eucharist

P.O.G.I. (Presence Of God Inside)

Fr. Alan Gozo Bondoc, SVD
I MET and came to know a very devoted
lady who shared with me her thoughts on
the Holy Eucharist. She said that every
time she attends the Holy Eucharist she
always witness a miracle.
For her, the miracle always unfolds
before her eyes during Consecration,
every time the priest makes the sign of
the cross to consecrate the bread and
wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus
Christ.
I do agree with her realization. Jesus
becomes real as the bread and wine
become His Body and Blood. They are
not symbols or signs of His presence
but they are, in fact, His true presence.
As a priest, I celebrate the Holy Mass
with my heart because I firmly believe
Jesus uses me to make His presence
seen, held, felt, and received. I take
it to heart that every time I celebrate
the Holy Eucharist, it is as if it will be
my first, my last, and only Eucharistic
celebration. I pray every prayer of the
Eucharist by heart as if Jesus is the One

John Paul II the Son, Jesus Christ, he

declares, is mercy itself. The message
and the medium is the same.
The Fathers love is especially revealed
by the Son because as Word he became
flesh (John 1:14). The Eucharist is
therefore the peak of the loving Gods
self-revelation in Jesus Christ. Hence,
the words: He who eats my flesh and
drinks my blood remains in me and I in
him (Jn 6:57). The Son offers his flesh
and blood. In his flesh and blood that we
receive, Christ is in us. In a larger and
truer sense, in his flesh and blood, we
(who receive him) are in Christ.
But the Father is in the Son. In the
Son, therefore, the Father comes to
us, embraces us, abides in us. Christ in
us is also the Father in us. Nay, in the
Eucharist we are all in the Father and the
Son by the power of the Spirit.
That is to say, the Eucharist is God
embracing humanity in the Son. And
because we are never worthy of that
embrace, we always need to confess the
Confiteor by our lips during the liturgy
and by our reformed lives outside of it.
I once saw a group of people offering
free hugs to passersby. It hit me how
it symbolizes the Eucharist. It is the
embrace of Gods love that we need
to also give to others by our doing the
mission of the Church.
Happily, unlike ordinary food that
always runs the risk of us having an
overload (so the problem with obesity,

spurs us on to be passionate
to care for the poor, to value
every person, to respect the
dignity of others name and
honor, to promote equality
irrespective of color, religion
or nationality, to breakdown
walls of defiance, and to
promote the dignity of
children and elderly. The
same Eucharist sustains us
in our quest for humaneness.
Perhaps the moral question
one can ask is how has our
reception of the Eucharist
transformed us from within.
St. Paul has identified the
beginning and summit of his
conversion as the surpassing
value of knowing Christ.
This has transformed him
from being a persecutor
of believers to become a
defender of the faith and a
missionary of Jesus Christ
to the gentiles. The value of
Christ for Paul is everything.

Miracle of the
Holy Eucharist

praying, I feel Him dearly and nearer

whenever I raise the Body and Blood
of Jesus.
Indeed, it is in the Consecration that
the greatest miracle unfolds, nowhere
else but in the celebration of the Holy
Eucharist.
It is right there at that very moment
that the bread becomes the Body of
Jesus and the wine becomes the Blood
of Jesus.
A miracle is revealed before us because
the very Person of Jesus is alive in the
Holy Eucharist.
A miracle is given to us whenever
the priest gives to us the Holy Body
of Jesus during communion. During
communion, Jesus unites Himself with
us, He is giving Himself to us. As we take
the Holy Body of Jesus, He feels joy as
we accept Him and He shares His joy
with us. It is in the Holy Eucharist and
through the Holy Eucharist, that Jesus
becomes part of us.
The Holy Eucharist literally makes

Along the Way

Fr. Amado L. Picardal, CSsR,
SThD

The Eucharist: Source and

Celebration of Hope
OVER forty years ago, when our country was ruled by
a dictator, I attended a Mass celebrated inside a political
detention camp in Cebu. I was still a seminarian and a
political prisoner and we were on hunger strike a week before
Christmas. Ten years later, I was already a missionary priest,
celebrating the Eucharist in a chapel in a remote barrio in
Hinatuan, Surigao with the members of a Basic Ecclesial
Community (BEC). They had stopped gathering for their
weekly Bible-service out of fear. Their parish priest had
earlier been arrested and imprisoned by the military. Three
years later, I celebrated the funeral Mass of my elderly
mother who was robbed and killed by a gang composed of
off-duty military men. Two years, later, after the dictator
was ousted, I was concelebrating the Eucharist in San
Fernando, Bukidnon, during the height of the barricade put
up by the members of the BECs and peoples organizations
against logging to defend their forest. The judge had ruled
that what the people were doing was illegal and a Philippine
Constabulary unit would be sent to disperse them. During
these moments of suffering and grief, when we felt helpless
and hopeless, the Eucharist became the source and
celebration of hope.
How can the Eucharist be the source and celebration of
hope? The answer to this question lies in the consideration of
the eschatological dimension of the Eucharist: the Eucharist
is the celebration of the Kingdom.
At the core of Jesus ministry is the proclamation and the
inauguration of the kingdom of God. The table-fellowship
is the sign and symbol of the kingdom. What is signified
is the communion between God and humanity and among
humans - unity, reconciliation, peace, abundance, sharing.
The kingdom is already present but yet to be fully realized in
the future. The full realization of the kingdom in the parousia-the object of our hope. On the night before he died, Jesus
had a meal with his disciples which is now popularly known
as the Last Supper. That supper was grounded on hope--that
it would not really be the last time that Jesus would break
bread with his disciples, hope--that what would happen would
not lead to defeat but to victory--a passing over from death
to life, from slavery to freedom. Jesus offering of bread and
wine - his body and blood - is grounded on hope that it will
inaugurate the kingdom. The Last Supper was not really Jesus
last table fellowship with his disciples. It continued after his
Resurrection - in the post-Resurrection appearances. For
instance, at the end of his journey with the disciples walking
on the road to Emmaus, Jesus broke bread with them. Christs
table-fellowship with his followers continues today whenever
they gather as a community to celebrate the Eucharist.
The Eucharist is not simply the re-enactment or memorial
of Christs death on the cross, it is the celebration of Christs
paschal mystery--the mystery of his suffering, death, and
resurrection. It is a victory celebration--a remembering of
the new exodus. It is the celebration of liberation. When
the community of believers come together to celebrate the
Eucharist they celebrate the presence of the glorified Christ
who is victorious over the power of death, of sin, and evil.
The Eucharist becomes a source and celebration of hope
for those who struggle, those who suffer - the victims of
injustice, of violence, of the culture of death. The Eucharist
is an assurance that the future that is to come will be brighter
than the present - that in the end, good will prevail, that
Gods kingdom of justice, peace, freedom, and abundance
will be fully realized. In the darkest moments of our life when we suffer and grieve, when feel helpless and hopeless,
we celebrate the Eucharist. It is, indeed, the source and
celebration of our hope of the future glory of the resurrection,
of the salvation, of the fullness of the kingdom.
And Thats the Truth / A4

Jesus live in us. He makes Himself using

our very own eyes. He allows Himself to
be held in our own hands.
The Holy Eucharist is a celebration
of the Incarnation wherein the Word
became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus
as the Word of God becomes alive in the
hearts of all.
The Holy Eucharist is also the
celebration of the Resurrection wherein
Jesus rose victoriously from the dead to
bring us life to its fullest. We are given
life anew in the Eucharist.
The Holy Eucharist is the celebration
of the continuous love of Jesus for us.
He is blessed, broken, and shared so that
we could be sanctified, made whole, and
experience His love in us.
The Holy Eucharist is not just an
encounter of Jesus but a transformation
of becoming Him. Every time we receive
Jesus in the Communion, we become
Him (Alter Christus).
We should value and be grateful
always for the gift of the Holy Eucharist

Now the ball was in my

court. I let out a quick Give
them away? Sure! To whom?
He was just as quick: Its up
to you. Just get as many as
you want.
I didnt want any of them
but I smelled he needed help
from his Ate. I thought
he was being courteous to
the giver Belle but it was
also unusual for him to be
so courteous to anyone. He
didnt need to say more;
I understood. So, that
afternoon I went home with
a boxful of angels.
I had those angels in
my storage for about two
weeks, clueless as to whod
want to adopt them. Shall
I give them to the sisters
or friends who likes such
stuff? To an orphanage?
Raffle them off at the next
Christmas party? I prayed
for guidance, for Fr. Resty,
and for Belle especially. Fr.
Resty is a strong guy, but

Belle might get hurt seeing

all her angels gone. Then
one day, I wasnt particularly
thinking of the angels at all,
the idea hit me. I would wrap
each figurine individually
in a brown paper bag, and
leave them one by one in a
churchwith a note inside
(also written after much
praying) that would assure
the finders that God hears
their prayers. A few at a time
I left them randomly on the
pews of Sta. Cruz church.
Of course, I never found
out who got the messagebearing angels. When I
left them there, I wasnt
just abandoning them on
the pews; I was entrusting
them all to the Holy Spirit
the lost angels and their
finders-keepers. I really
hoped that that crazy act,
by the endless mercy of God,
somehow helped people feel
loved and blessed by God.
And thats the truth.

Candidly Speaking / A4

Or we can try to consider both

aspects more or less at the same
time in some dynamics where these
two aspects are mutually interacting
and perpetually developing.
His hiddenness will arouse more
faith and trust in God and will help
us to purify our intentions and
attitude toward Christ. Remember
that Christ, though aware of his
mission for the whole world, was

not all too eager to be known by all

in just any manner, especially when
he would be viewed as some kind of
earthly king, hero or celebrity.
He escaped from that possibility
with all his might. He did not like to
be known merely as a miracle-worker.
He wanted to be known as God our
savior, and that could only be achieved
through his passion, death, and
resurrection, made into sacrament of

the Holy Eucharist. Before this took

place, he knew how to be discreet in
his utterances and behavior even as he
presented himself as the Son of God,
the Son of Man.
The revelatory aspect of the
Eucharist should fill us with joy,
praises, and thanksgiving. We
cannot have anything better than
the Eucharist in this life. In the
Eucharist, we have all that we need.

The Eucharist is the sum and

summary of our faith. As the Catechism
tells us, Our way of thinking is
attuned to the Eucharist, and the
Eucharist in turn confirms our way of
thinking. (1327) We ought to have a
Eucharistic mind and heart.
Yes, the Eucharist is the greatest
treasure we can have since with it
we have no one less than Christ
himself, God Himself who became

man to save us, and who wants to

be with us in our earthly pilgrimage.
Our marvel should know no end
as we consider God who appears
to us like a simple bread, God who
is willing to take on all our human
weaknesses and sins just to save us.
This is the divine madness of love
that should take our breath away. We
should be moved most deeply by this
realization.

A6 FEATURES

January 25 - February 7, 2016 Vol. 20, No. 5

CBCP Monitor

Pope may deliver live message to 51 IEC

st

Jan. 24, 2016--Pope Francis

is expected to give a message
to the participants of the 51st
International Eucharistic Congress
(IEC), which is set to open this
afternoon in Cebu City.
It was not sure, however, whether
the papal message will be recorded
or streamed live over the Internet,
IEC organizers told reporters.
Let us allow the pope to surprise
us. Hes known to be like that, said
Pasig Bishop Mylo Hubert Vergara,
chairman of the communications
department of the 51st IEC, in a
press conference at the IEC Pavilion
at the compound of Cebus Pope St.
John XXIII Major Seminary.
Happening a year after Pope
Francis tumultuous apostolic
journey to Manila and Leyte, the
51st IEC, the quadrennial Catholic
gathering aimed at promoting the
centrality of the Holy Eucharist
in Christian life, is a spillover of
grace from the 2015 papal visit,
Bishop Vergara said.
Some 12,000 pilgrims are
expected to flock to various IEC
events, while 300,000 people are
expected to attend todays opening
Mass at the Plaza Independencia
at 4 p.m. Around 800 media
personnel have been accredited
to cover the international event,

Bishop Vergara said. There will

also be 5,000 first communicants.
The 51st IEC is a Catholic gathering
but people from other faiths will not
be excluded. Bishop Vergara said IEC
speakers would tackle the Churchs
dialogue with other religions.
This is only the second time for the
Philippines to host an International
Eucharistic Congress, after the
31st IEC held in Manila in 1937,
which makes the Cebu event an
experience of a lifetime.
Bishop Vergara said the IEC
was an occasion for Catholics to
reaffirm the Second Vatican Councils
proclamation of the Eucharist as the
source and summit of Christian life.
He said people could expect
HOPE from the IEC: H for a happy
congress, O for an overwhelming
experience of Gods love, P for a
personal encounter with the Lord,
and E for a eucharistic renewal.
Msgr. Joseph Tan, media relations
head of the IEC Secretariat, said
Cebus hosting of the 51st IEC is
part of the nine-year preparation
for the fifth centenary of the
Christianization of the Philippines,
which began in Cebu.
Cebu is the cradle of Christianity
in the Philippines, the Cebu cleric
noted. (Felipe Francisco/CBCP
News)

Pope Francis. ROY LAGARDE

No campaigning in IEC, politicians told

Rome-based seminarians
volunteer to translate for IEC

Br. Manuel Cervantes. NIRVA DELACRUZ

Bishop Mylo Hubert Vergara of Pasig, chairman of the Department of Communications of the International Eucharistic Congress, leads the press conference
at the IEC Pavilion. SKY ORTIGAS

CEBU City, Jan 24,

2016--Politicians are
welcome to attend the 51st
International Eucharistic
Congress here, but only
as pilgrims.
The week-long IEC,
which is expected to draw
12,000 participants, is
open to all but is not an
occasion for electioneering,
said Msgr. Joseph Tan,
executive secretary of the
IEC Communications
Department.
Although the IEC
is open to everybody,

including politicians, we
want to make sure that we
will not change the IEC
to become some kind of
a political event for one
party or the other, or one
candidate or the other,
the priest said in a press
briefing this morning at
the IEC Pavilion.
Of course we expect
some of the people running
for office to be present, but
they will be treated like any
other person, as pilgrims,
explained Tan.
We are open to their

presence but rest assured

that this will not become
a platform for their
electioneering, he added.
The IEC, a major religious
event that promotes the
centrality of the Eucharist in
Christian life, features daily
celebrations of the Holy
Mass as well as catechetical
talks. The theme of the 51st
IEC is Christ in You, Our
Hope of Glory, taken from
Colossians 1:27.
Two celebrations of the
Eucharist will serve as
the high points of the 51st

IEC the opening Mass at

the Plaza Independencia
signalling the start of the
quadrennial congress
today, Jan. 24, and the
Statio Orbis (The World
Stops) or Misa ng
Mundo at the South Road
Properties on Jan. 31.
Both Masses will be led
by Yangon Archbishop
Charles Maung Cardinal
Bo, the papal legate or
Pope Francis personal
representative to the 51st
IEC. (Felipe Francisco/
CBCP News)

IEC pilgrims be feted with religious,

cultural festivals
CEBU CITY Jan. 24, 2016--Pilgrims
from around the world are
experiencing the Cebuano brand
of hospitality during the entire
duration of the International
Eucharistic Congress in the form
of religious and cultural festivals.
For the week-long celebration of
the IEC, numerous events are being
continually held simultaneously in
different venues around the city,
giving pilgrims and simple tourists
alike a taste of Cebuano cultural and
religious heritage.
The IEC 2016 Heritage Night
NIGHT was held beginning on Jan.
25, 7:00 p.m. Delegates can also
have a walking tour starting at the
old district of Cebu called Parian up
to the Minor Basilica of the Santo
Nio. Participating museums along
the route will open their doors to
delegates for these. Live cultural
entertainment such as traditional
folk dances, songs, and plays will
be held as well.
Faces of Supplication
For music enthusiasts, chorale
groups will be performing at the
IEC 2016 Choral Festival at the
Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral
from 7:00 till 9:00 p.m. Singing
in the festival are the Coro de San

The Teen Saint Pedro Musical is just one of several cultural and religious festivals being offered during
the 51st International Eucharistic Congress (IEC). DOMINIC BARRIOS

Jacinto, which will also be singing

during the (Opening Mass); the
Cebu Normal University Chorale;
the Basilica del Sto. Nio; and
Metropolitan Cathedral Grand
Choir.
Meanwhile, a local mall, will
host the staging of a religiouscultural presentation titled, Mga
Dagway sa Pangaliyupo (Faces of
Supplication).
Various Cebuano stage artists will
demonstrate via songs, dances, and
drama the different forms of prayers
brought about by experiences of
conflicts, trials and tribulations.
Ayala Center Cebu will host a series
of evening presentations for the IEC
2016.

Free admission
All interested IEC delegates
should always wear their IEC IDs
to avail of the free admission to all
the cultural events.
Many cultural events like concerts,
theater plays and religious-cultural
presentation have also been held as
pre-congress activities. Other cultural
events have been also announced by
the IEC Central Committee through
their website www.iec2016.ph
Papal Legate, Cardinal Charles Maung
Cardinal Bo of Myanmar presided over
the Opening Mass of the IEC at the
Plaza Independencia in the afternoon of
Jan. 24. Later in the evening, delegates
enjoyed cultural events. (Chrixy
Paguirigan / CBCPNews)

CEBU City, Jan. 24, 2016--Were

like bridges, we facilitate
interaction.
This is what Br. Luis Lorenzo,
a Filipino seminarian of the
Legionaries of Christ based in Rome,
said to describe the role of volunteer
interpreters for the 51st International
Eucharistic Congress (IEC).
Lorenzo, along with five other
seminarians from different
nationalities, had been translating
the English talks of the pre-IEC
symposium talks to the delegates
into Portuguese, Spanish, French,
and Italian.
While their role as talk translators
ended with the symposium, the
interpreters will continue to assist
groups of non-English speaking
delegates by answering their questions
about general information on the IEC
schedules, venues, and the like.
It was a very profound experience,
especially of the theological insights
that the speakers were giving.

I was very struck as well by the

interest from so many people here,
especially from the Philippines. I
was also able to see also even people
from Mexico, from my country,
said Br. Manuel Cervantes, a 31year old Mexican seminarian who
will continue to serve as a Spanish
interpreter.
According to Cervantes, the IEC
delegates interest in the Eucharist
inspired in him a desire to celebrate
the Mass with fervor.
It was a kind of spiritual
experience. Because in order to
translate well, I have to go deeper,
understand, meditate well, on
the talks that we translate said
Br. Stefano Panizzolo, an Italian
seminarian who shared he had to
study the pre-IEC symposium talks
beforehand to be able to be a good
translator.
The IEC is ongoing until Jan.
31. (Nirvaana Ella Delacruz /
CBCP News)

Living Mission / A4

these powerful scenes.

Catholic Faith in the Real
Presence. The two narratives
just presented clearly manifest
the consistent faith of the Church:
we believe that in the celebration
of the Eucharist, bread and wine
become the true Body and Blood
of Jesus Christ through the
power of the Holy Spirit and the
instrumentality of an ordained
priest. The whole Christ is truly
present, body, blood, soul, and
divinity, under the appearances of
bread and wine. This is what the
Church affirms when she speaks
of the Real Presence of Christ in
the Eucharist.
This consistent faith of the Church
reflects Jesus words in the Gospels:
This is my body, which will be
given for you (Lk 22:19). I am the
living bread that has come down
from heaven; anyone who eats this
bread will live forever. The bread
that I will give is my flesh for the
life of the world (Jn 6:51). The
words Jesus spoke were very clear
to the Jews, because they quarreled
among themselves, saying, How
can this man give us his flesh to
eat? (Jn 6:52).
One may ask: Are the consecrated
bread and wine merely symbols
of Jesus presence? In everyday

language we use the word symbol

to describe something that points
beyond itself to something else. For
Catholics, the transformed bread
and wine are the true Body and
Blood of Christ, not mere symbols.
The true presence of Christ remains,
even after the celebration of the
Eucharist is completed; Christs
presence is not somehow lost after
the Mass. Thus, the Church carefully
guards the sacred species of the
Eucharist in its tabernacles. She also
promotes personal visits to Christin-the-Blessed-Sacrament as well as
Benediction, Eucharistic processions,
and Viaticum for the sick and infirm.
All these devotions are based on the
fact that Christ is truly present in
the Blessed Sacrament. Such is the
consistent faith of the Church.
A Childs Faith. The true story
is told of a five-year-old boy who
consistently attended Sunday Mass
with his family. At such a tender
age he already understood the
core teaching of the Church. One
Sunday, when the congregation
began approaching and receiving
the Eucharist at communion time,
the boy loudly said to his parents:
Hurry, Mom and Dad, lets go get
some Jesus! Indeed, out of the
mouth of babes, profound wisdom
is spoken!

CBCP Monitor

FEATURES A7

January 25 - February 7, 2016 Vol. 20, No. 5

Cardinal Bo to Cebu dancing inmates:

Pray for me. I love you all!
CEBU City, Jan. 26, 2016 Papal legate Charles Maung
Cardinal Bo, SDB, DD asked
the famous Cebu dancing
inmates to remember him in
prayer, saying the prayers of
the prisoners are powerful
since God is near to them and
always wishes to see them
soon at the table of fellowship,
the Mass.
The popes personal
representative to the 51st
International Eucharistic
Congress currently being held
in this city was entertained
by the inmates their world
famous dance routines.
We pray for each and one
another. We will be waiting
for you for the table fellowship
like the Eucharist, he said.
I love you all
Bo then said in Cebuano I
love you all. Ill pray for you
all, which elicited smiles
and applause from among
the inmates.
The prelate said that he
will also include those who
are in the prison ministry,
calling them those who
have brotherly or sisterly
care over you.
Your prayers are very
powerful because God is very
near to you. So pray for all of
us. Pray for a more peaceful

More than 300 inmates perform in honor of Myanmar Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, papal legate to the IEC, during his visit to the Cebu Provincial
Jail on Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016. ROY LAGARDE
Philippines, he added.
That day, inmates
presented a Michael
Jackson dance routine,
which had previously gone
viral after it was uploaded
to YouTube. After which,
they danced the IEC official
hymn Christ in us, our
hope of glory.
The cardinal, visibly
touched by the prisoners

dance number, addressed

them, saying, they are always
in his thoughts and prayers.
Dancing in the rain
Life is not about waiting
for the storms to pass but it is
about learning to dance in the
rain, said Bo noting that the
inmates danced heartily while
a light drizzle fell.
Yes, you have danced in the

rain. Your dance is a beautiful

love directed straight to the
heart of all of us. Thank
you for your love. Daghang
salamat.
The Archbishop of Yangon,
Myanmar told the inmates to
never, never, never, give up
Quoting Martin Luther
King, Jr. who was himself
jailed many times, the papal
legate said that only light can

drive out darkness, hatred

by love.
Darkness can never
drive darkness. Only light
can drive out darkness.
Hatred can never drive
hatred. Only love can drive
out hatred.
After his address, the
cardinal mingled with the
inmates, smiling, and blessing
them.

Closer to God
One of the inmates who
danced, Lito Granada from
Camotes island, said he was
touched by the visit of the
papal legate, impressed by
how a busy VIP like him could
consider visiting them.
We thank him for visiting
us. We hope he always prays
for us, he said.
Granada, who has been
incarcerated for 14 years
serving a life sentence, said
prison life changed him by
making him closer to the
Lord, describing himself as
not believing in the Lord
before [he] was jailed.
He said life in prison
changed him and made him
realize that there is a Lord
who loves everyone.
I know that problems
are big and heavy, but
recognizing that the Lord
is with us, the load becomes
lighter, he said.
The 44-year old family man
said he first of all offered
his dance to the Lord and
secondly to our visitors,
especially the cardinal.
We are part of the
Eucharistic Congress. And
for that we are happy, he
said. (Rommel Lopez
with reports from Roy
Lagarde / CBCP News)

Cardinal Rosales: Eucharist not just Delegate praying for

a task, but a mission
Irelands youth at IEC
CEBU City, Jan. 24, 2016--One
of 30 Irish nationals attending
the 51st Eucharistic Congress
(IEC) in Cebu has promised
to pray for young people back
home whom he laments are
slowly losing the faith.
Yes, Ireland is still very much
Catholic, but unfortunately quite
a few of the young people are not
practicing, Thomas Michael
Burns of Dublin told CBCP News
in an interview.
While baptism in the
predominantly Catholic country
remains high, with most of
their children receiving First
Communion at age eight, he
bewailed that many begin to lose
interest in the Church as soon as
they reach early adulthood.

Prelates prepare for procession before Mass at the 51st International Eucharistic Congress (IEC), Jan. 26, 2016. MARIA TAN

CEBU City, Jan. 26, 2016 Do we

keep the Eucharist to ourselves?
This was the question, and
challenge, posed by Gaudencio
Cardinal Rosales to pilgrims at
the 51st International Eucharistic
Congress (IEC).
Delivering the homily for the Mass
on the third day of the congress,
Rosales, Archbishop emeritus of
Manila, reminded IEC participants
that the Eucharist is not just a task,
but a mission.
The power of faith
Yes, the Eucharist is the memorial
of Christs saving sacrifice, just
like the Passover meal that
commemorated the escape of

the Jews from slavery under the

pharaohs of Egypt. But Christs
mandate to Do this in memory of
me goes beyond repeating Christs
last meal on earth, he said.
Do this in memory of me means
that as often as one eats the Body
of Christ, he or she announces to
others the power of the faith of our
Lord Jesus, explained the prelate.
Do the Eucharist, live the
Eucharist, release the Eucharist
from sheer celebration! And allow
the Body and Blood of Jesus in you
to roam the streets and byways, in
jeepneys, tricycles and buses, stores
and cafs, offices and schools, in
every dining table, in homes where
families engage in dialogue, he said.

World-changing
It could change the world.
Sinfulness, however, should
not hinder the faithful from
approaching the Eucharist. It
is our sinfulness that brought us
the Jesus that we know today. It
is because we are sinful that we
came to know Jesus, Rosales
said.
Above all the passion and
the death of Jesus redeemed
humankind from sin. If the
triumph of Jesus over death, the
harshest face of evil, were not
true, then all our confidence, all
our faith in Christ is completely
empty, he added. (Felipe
Francisco / CBCP News)

Irelands future
Unfortunately, when they
come to teenage years or the early
twenties they are inclined to fall
away. We hope and we pray that
they will come back, he said.
Burns stressed, however,
that although they are not as
passionate and involved in the life
of the Church as their ancestors
had been, this new generation of
Irish Catholics still believe in God.
They do have faith. They do
believe in God. They pray in
times of trouble. But as far as
going to Church on Sundays
and worshiping the Lord in Holy
Mass, they neglected that. So we
pray for them, he explained.
Ireland, a bastion of
Catholicism in Europe, recently
saw the legalization of same-sex
marriage.
Pilgrimage of faith
Burns, an IEC veteran, went on

to express excitement over the

week-long congress, especially
since it is his first time in the
Philippines.
We expect it is a pilgrimage
of faith. And we hope to learn, to
listen and we hope we would
be able to contribute a little as
well, to meet the international
delegates, people from all over
the world, and to make sure
theyll come back to their own
country with new ideas, new
thoughts, and new enthusiasm
as well, he said, speaking for
his co-delegates.
Pilgrims from across the
planet
According to Burns, when he
and fellow pilgrims attended the
last IEC which Ireland hosted
in 2012, they vowed to also take
part in the next one even if it
means traveling halfway around
the world.
The Congress was held in
Dublin four years ago, so we said
we have to come to the next one.
But the last time we didnt know
where we would be traveling. So
weve come a long way. Were
delighted to be here and were
excited about this congress, he
shared.
Burns, moreover, praised the
friendliness of their Filipino
hosts and the warm climate.
Yes, lovely [the Philippines].
People are very friendly. And
were delighted to be here.
Its warm. But were happy
with that because its cold and
wet in Ireland at this time so
were happy to be in this warm,
hot, dry country, he added.
(Raymond A. Sebastin /
CBCP News)

Non-Catholic admires IEC pilgrims faith

CEBU City, Jan. 24, 2016 If
only because of the Rosary
hanging on his rear-view
window, one would assume
taxi driver Richard Hijapon
is a Catholic.
He is not.
While he has been member
of the Seventh-Day Adventist
(SDA) Church since birth
and an active one at thathe
has enormous respect for
Catholics who are sincere

about their faith, especially

the delegates of the 51st
International Eucharistic
Congress (IEC).
Catholic friends
No. Im not the kind
who passes judgement
on people who happen
to believe differently
from me, he stressed in
Filipino, as he drove past
the Minor Basilica of the

Santo Nio, the birthplace of

Catholic Christianity in the
Philippines.
In fact, the 26-year old
soon-to-be-married counts
among his many good friends
no less than a priest, Fr. Ben
Alforque of the Missionaries
of the Sacred Heart (MSC).
Im happy that Im able to
meet Catholics who are kind
and who practice what they
preach, he added.

The church Hijapon

had lately been picking up
passengers from is near
Plaza Independencia, where
pilgrims from all over the
world flocked Sunday to take
part in the opening Mass
of the week-long religious
gathering.
More similar than
different
According to him, he

would rather focus on what

is common between the two
Christian groups like the
Holy Trinity than on what
separates them
If Catholics believe that
God is three Persons, we also
do, he shared.
Hijapon went on to express
admiration for Catholics
and those of other religions
who take time off their busy
routine to worship God.

It is important that we find

time to spend with the Lord.
We always think of how to earn
money, or waste our energy on
trivial matters, but many of us
unfortunately forget about the
most important, which is the
state of our souls, he said.
We should always look
after our spiritual health so
that we will attain salvation,
he added. (Raymond A.
Sebastin / CBCP News)

A8

January 25 - February 7, 2016 Vol. 20, No. 5

CBCP Monitor

Priest cheers groups 20th pain-healing mission

MANILA, Jan. 26, 2016 A priest
lauded a groups 20th pain-healing
outreach that recently benefited
over a hundred less fortunate
villagers in a mountainous section
of Quezon Province.
Fr. Dari Dioquino, former
Kanlungan ni Maria priest-incharge, likened Helping One
Person Everydays (HOPE) painhealing team to the four men who,
despite great difficulty, brought a
paralyzed man to Jesus.
They were undaunted by
the difficulties, he said. They
carried the man to the roof,
opened a hole in the tiles.
Through it they lowered him
down before Jesus.
Painful conditions treated
HOPE conducted magnesium
therapy sessions for at least
125 indigent people during the
three-day outreach at barangay
Kinabuhayan in Dolores town,
said HOPE executive director

Victoria Baterina-Solis.
According to her, recipients
of the free magnesium therapy
were patients with various painful
conditions, like headaches,
arthritis, muscle cramps, back
pain, and also skin itchiness.
HOPE also gave away 150
bottles of 100 ml. magnesium
oil, Baterina-Solis said. They
were also able to train seven
magnesium therapy volunteers.
HOPE rolled out its painhealing outreach in 2015. The
effectiveness of magnesium
therapy in addressing painful
conditions related to magnesium
deficiency inspired the team to
venture across the country to
reach more people.
Magnesium healing sessions
Hundreds who complained
of migraine, frozen shoulders,
stiff fingers, and other painful
conditions as well as insomnia
experienced relief and treatment

during HOPEs outreaches in

Rizal, Bohol, Sorsogon, Camarines
Norte, Sagada, Tagum and other
parts of the Philippines.
HOPEs 20th pain-healing
mission was sponsored by
Magiteque Pain Therapy Centre,
the first magnesium clinic
worldwide.
Mary Jean Netario Cruz, owner
of Magiteque Pain Therapy
Centre, expressed gratitude
for magnesium therapists Lyn
Iglesias Domingo and Shirley
Umali Griba, Rudy Encela, and
everyone who supported the 20th
mission in Mt. Banahaw.
Dioquino, who is assistant priest
at the Immaculate Concepcion
parish in Marikina, noted that
human concern for others,
combined with faith in God, can
work miracle.
He accompanied HOPE in
a number of its pain-healing
missions in 2015. ( O l i v e r
Samson / CBCP News)

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma blesses one of the statues of Jesus inside the Eukaristia Garden, located
inside the Archbishops Residence in Cebu City, Jan. 25, 2016. With its iconic features, including a 14-meter
monolithic structure called the The Cross Tower, the Eukaristia Garden is the citys newest landmark and
a memorable feature of the 51st International Eucharistic Congress. ROY LAGARDE

CBCP Monitor

PASTORAL CONCERNS B1

January 25 - February 7, 2016 Vol. 20 No. 5

Migrants and refugees challenge us.

The response of the Gospel of Mercy

Aid to the Church in Need

Refugees in the Diocese of Maiduguri, Nigeria, Sept. 9, 2014.

Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2016

Those who
migrate are
forced to change
some of their
most distinctive
characteristics
and, whether
they like or not,
even those who
welcome them are
also forced
to change.
marked by great movements of migration, identity is not a secondary
issue. Those who migrate are forced
to change some of their most distinctive characteristics and, whether they
like or not, even those who welcome
them are also forced to change. How
can we experience these changes not
as obstacles to genuine development,
rather as opportunities for genuine
human, social and spiritual growth, a
growth which respects and promotes
those values which make us ever more
humane and help us to live a balanced
relationship with God, others and
creation?
The presence of migrants and refugees seriously challenges the various
societies which accept them. Those
societies are faced with new situations
which could create serious hardship
unless they are suitably motivated,
managed and regulated. How can we
ensure that integration will become
mutual enrichment, open up positive
perspectives to communities, and
prevent the danger of discrimination, racism, extreme nationalism or
xenophobia?
Biblical revelation urges us to welcome the stranger; it tells us that in
so doing, we open our doors to God,
and that in the faces of others we
see the face of Christ himself. Many
institutions, associations, movements
and groups, diocesan, national and
international organizations are experiencing the wonder and joy of
the feast of encounter, sharing and

solidarity. They have heard the voice

of Jesus Christ: Behold, I stand at
the door and knock (Rev 3:20). Yet
there continue to be debates about
the conditions and limits to be set
for the reception of migrants, not
only on the level of national policies,
but also in some parish communities
whose traditional tranquility seems
to be threatened.
Faced with these issues, how can
the Church fail to be inspired by the
example and words of Jesus Christ?
The answer of the Gospel is mercy.
In the first place, mercy is a gift of
God the Father who is revealed in the
Son. Gods mercy gives rise to joyful
gratitude for the hope which opens
up before us in the mystery of our
redemption by Christs blood. Mercy
nourishes and strengthens solidarity
towards others as a necessary response
to Gods gracious love, which has
been poured into our hearts through
the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5). Each of
us is responsible for his or her neighbor: we are our brothers and sisters
keepers, wherever they live. Concern
for fostering good relationships with
others and the ability to overcome
prejudice and fear are essential ingredients for promoting the culture of
encounter, in which we are not only
prepared to give, but also to receive
from others. Hospitality, in fact,
grows from both giving and receiving.
From this perspective, it is important to view migrants not only on
the basis of their status as regular
or irregular, but above all as people
whose dignity is to be protected and
who are capable of contributing to
progress and the general welfare.
This is especially the case when they
responsibly assume their obligations

various cultures in one territory. All

these complement the defence and
promotion of the human person, the
culture of encounter, and the unity of
peoples, where the Gospel of mercy
inspires and encourages ways of renewing and transforming the whole
of humanity.
The Church stands at the side of
all who work to defend each persons
right to live with dignity, first and
foremost by exercising the right not

Erbil, Iraq - April 4, 2015. Yazidi refugees outside of an abandoned building, helped by Christians in Erbil, Iraq.

to emigrate and to contribute to the

development of ones country of
origin. This process should include,
from the outset, the need to assist the
countries which migrants and refugees leave. This will demonstrate that
solidarity, cooperation, international
interdependence and the equitable
distribution of the earths goods are

Vatican City - September, 7, 2013: Pope Francis led a prayer vigil for peace in Syria in St. Peters Square
on September 7, 2013.

towards those who receive them,

gratefully respecting the material and
spiritual heritage of the host country,
obeying its laws and helping with its
needs. Migrations cannot be reduced
merely to their political and legislative aspects, their economic implications and the concrete coexistence of

the flight of refugees and departures

as a result of poverty, violence and
persecution.
Public opinion also needs to be
correctly formed, not least to prevent
unwarranted fears and speculations
detrimental to migrants.
No one can claim to be indifferent
in the face of new forms of slavery
imposed by criminal organizations
which buy and sell men, women
and children as forced laborers in

CNA

life is lost.
Migrants are our brothers and sisters in search of a better life, far away
from poverty, hunger, exploitation
and the unjust distribution of the
planets resources which are meant
to be equitably shared by all. Dont
we all want a better, more decent
and prosperous life to share with our
loved ones?
At this moment in human history,

CNA

DEAR Brothers and Sisters,

In the Bull of indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy I noted
that at times we are called to gaze
even more attentively on mercy so
that we may become a more effective sign of the Fathers action in our
lives (Misericordiae Vultus, 3). Gods
love is meant to reach out to each
and every person. Those who welcome the Fathers embrace, for their
part, become so many other open
arms and embraces, enabling every
person to feel loved like a child and
at home as part of the one human
family. Gods fatherly care extends to
everyone, like the care of a shepherd
for his flock, but it is particularly
concerned for the needs of the sheep
who are wounded, weary or ill. Jesus
told us that the Father stoops to help
those overcome by physical or moral
poverty; the more serious their condition, the more powerfully is his divine
mercy revealed.
In our time, migration is growing
worldwide. Refugees and people fleeing from their homes challenge individuals and communities, and their
traditional ways of life; at times they
upset the cultural and social horizons
which they encounter. Increasingly,
the victims of violence and poverty,
leaving their homelands, are exploited
by human traffickers during their
journey towards the dream of a better
future. If they survive the abuses and
hardships of the journey, they then
have to face latent suspicions and fear.
In the end, they frequently encounter
a lack of clear and practical policies
regulating the acceptance of migrants
and providing for short or long term
programmes of integration respectful
of the rights and duties of all. Today,
more than in the past, the Gospel of
mercy troubles our consciences, prevents us from taking the suffering of
others for granted, and points out way
of responding which, grounded in the
theological virtues of faith, hope and
charity, find practical expression in
works of spiritual and corporal mercy.
In the light of these facts, I have
chosen as the theme of the 2016
World Day of Migrants and Refugees:
Migrants and Refugees Challenge Us.
The Response of the Gospel of Mercy.
Migration movements are now a
structural reality, and our primary
issue must be to deal with the present
emergency phase by providing programmes which address the causes of
migration and the changes it entails,
including its effect on the makeup
of societies and peoples. The tragic
stories of millions of men and women
daily confront the international community as a result of the outbreak of
unacceptable humanitarian crises in
different parts of the world. Indifference and silence lead to complicity
whenever we stand by as people are
dying of suffocation, starvation, violence and shipwreck. Whether large
or small in scale, these are always
tragedies, even when a single human

essential for more decisive efforts,

especially in areas where migration
movements begin, to eliminate those
imbalances which lead people, individually or collectively, to abandon
their own natural and cultural environment. In any case, it is necessary to
avert, if possible at the earliest stages,

construction, agriculture, fishing or

in other markets. How many minors
are still forced to fight in militias as
child soldiers! How many people are
victims of organ trafficking, forced
begging and sexual exploitation!
Todays refugees are fleeing from
these aberrant crimes, and they appeal to the Church and the human
community to ensure that, in the
outstretched hand of those who receive them, they can see the face of
the Lord, the Father of mercies and
God of all consolation (2 Cor 1:3).
Dear brothers and sisters, migrants
and refugees! At the heart of the
Gospel of mercy the encounter and
acceptance by others are intertwined
with the encounter and acceptance
of God himself. Welcoming others
means welcoming God in person!
Do not let yourselves be robbed
of the hope and joy of life born of
your experience of Gods mercy, as
manifested in the people you meet
on your journey! I entrust you to the
Virgin Mary, Mother of migrants and
refugees, and to Saint Joseph, who experienced the bitterness of emigration
to Egypt. To their intercession I also
commend those who invest so much
energy, time and resources to the
pastoral and social care of migrants.
To all I cordially impart my Apostolic
Blessing.
From the Vatican,
September 12, 2015
Memorial of the Holy Name of Mary
FRANCIS

B2 PASTORAL CONCERNS

January 25 - February 7, 2016 Vol. 20 No. 5

CBCP Monitor

Holy Doors in the

Year of Mercy
(Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy and dean
of theology at the Regina Apostolorum university, answers the
following query:)

CNA

A: Our readers inquiry arrived on January 9 and, as it turned

out, the diocesan bishop did open the Holy Door on January
13 at a noon ceremony with the assistance of many priests
and faithful. I am sure this fact had been published previously,
but our reader was apparently unawares.
However, as the question gives the opportunity to explain
the situation of the Holy Door in this jubilee, I will address
it now.
In the April 2015 papal bull establishing the Jubilee of
Mercy, Misericordiae Vultus, Pope Francis announced the
possibility of other Holy Doors besides the traditional ones
in Rome:
On the Third Sunday of Advent, [December 2015] the
Holy Door of the Cathedral of Romethat is, the Basilica of
Saint John Lateranwill be opened. In the following weeks,
the Holy Doors of the other Papal Basilicas will be opened.
On the same Sunday, I will announce that in every local
church, at the cathedralthe mother church of the faithful
in any particular areaor, alternatively, at the co-cathedral
or another church of special significance, a Door of Mercy
will be opened for the duration of the Holy Year. At the discretion of the local ordinary, a similar door may be opened
at any shrine frequented by large groups of pilgrims, since
visits to these holy sites are so often grace-filled moments, as
people discover a path to conversion. Every Particular Church,
therefore, will be directly involved in living out this Holy Year
as an extraordinary moment of grace and spiritual renewal.
Thus the Jubilee will be celebrated both in Rome and in the
Particular Churches as a visible sign of the Churchs universal
communion.
Later, on September 1, 2015, in a letter to Archbishop
Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for the
Promotion of the New Evangelization, which is in charge
of organizing the Jubilee, the Pope expanded on the idea
of opening Holy Doors in every diocese so as to offer the
opportunity of receiving the indulgence to as many souls as
possible. The Holy Father wrote:

Rome, Italy - January 1, 2016. Pope Francis opens the Holy Doors of Mercy at
St. Mary Major Basilica after New Years Day Mass for the Solemnity of Mary,
the Mother of God on January 1, 2016.

With the approach of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy

I would like to focus on several points which I believe require
attention to enable the celebration of the Holy Year to be
for all believers a true moment of encounter with the mercy
of God. It is indeed my wish that the Jubilee be a living
experience of the closeness of the Father, whose tenderness
is almost tangible, so that the faith of every believer may be
strengthened and thus testimony to it be ever more effective.
My thought first of all goes to all the faithful who, whether
in individual Dioceses or as pilgrims to Rome, will experience
the grace of the Jubilee. I wish that the Jubilee Indulgence
may reach each one as a genuine experience of Gods mercy,
which comes to meet each person in the Face of the Father
who welcomes and forgives, forgetting completely the sin
committed. To experience and obtain the Indulgence, the
faithful are called to make a brief pilgrimage to the Holy Door,
open in every Cathedral or in the churches designated by the
Diocesan Bishop, and in the four Papal Basilicas in Rome,
as a sign of the deep desire for true conversion. Likewise, I
dispose that the Indulgence may be obtained in the Shrines
in which the Door of Mercy is open and in the churches
which traditionally are identified as Jubilee Churches. It is
important that this moment be linked, first and foremost, to
the Sacrament of Reconciliation and to the celebration of the
Holy Eucharist with a reflection on mercy. It will be necessary
to accompany these celebrations with the profession of faith
and with prayer for me and for the intentions that I bear in
my heart for the good of the Church and of the entire world.
Additionally, I am thinking of those for whom, for various reasons, it will be impossible to enter the Holy Door,
particularly the sick and people who are elderly and alone,
often confined to the home. For them it will be of great help
to live their sickness and suffering as an experience of closeness to the Lord who in the mystery of his Passion, death and
Resurrection indicates the royal road which gives meaning
to pain and loneliness. Living with faith and joyful hope
this moment of trial, receiving communion or attending
Holy Mass and community prayer, even through the various means of communication, will be for them the means
of obtaining the Jubilee Indulgence. My thoughts also turn
to those incarcerated, whose freedom is limited. The Jubilee
Year has always constituted an opportunity for great amnesty,
which is intended to include the many people who, despite
deserving punishment, have become conscious of the injustice
they worked and sincerely wish to re-enter society and make
their honest contribution to it. May they all be touched in a
tangible way by the mercy of the Father who wants to be close
to those who have the greatest need of his forgiveness. They
may obtain the Indulgence in the chapels of the prisons. May
the gesture of directing their thought and prayer to the Father

Holy Doors, B4

CNA

Q: Is there a period of time required when to open or launch

the Holy Door in the local church or in a diocese? In our
diocese the bishop has mentioned about the extraordinary
Year of Mercy but has not schedule when to open or launch
for the people. M., Lanao del Norte province, Philippines

The Slowness of Marriage

Nullity Processes
Mitis Iudex in the Philippine
Setting (Part I)
By Fr. Jaime B. Achacoso, J.C.D.
FRESH from presenting the new norms
on the process for the declaration of marriage nullity to the CBCP Plenary Meeting
in Cebu last week, I am moved to take a
second look at the two important novelties
introduced by this landmark document: (1)
doing away with the automatic elevation of a
favorable sentence for nullity to an appellate
court, and (2) the introduction of a briefer
process in which the diocesan bishop himself
exercises his judicial power to adjudicate a
case under certain conditions. Reserving the
briefer process for a future consideration, I
would like to dwell now on the first innovation, putting it in the Philippine context.
The Fundamental Pretension of Mitis
Iudex (MI)
Before going any further, let us remember
the fundamental problem which moved the
Pope to make the present reform:
a) Motive for the Reform: The zeal to
reform has been fueled by the enormous number
of faithful who, while wishing to act according
to their consciences, are too often separated from
the legal structures of the Church due to physical
or moral distance; charity and mercy therefore
require that same Church, as a mother, to make
herself closer to her children who consider themselves separated. [MI, Par.5]
b) Sense of the Reform: This direction was
also indicated by the votes of the majority of our
brothers in the episcopate, gathered in the recent
extraordinary synod, who implored more flexible
and accessible judicial processes. In full harmony
with this desire I have decided to introduce, by
this motu proprio, provisions that favor not the
nullity of marriage but rather the speed of the
processes, along with the appropriate simplicity, so that the heart of the faithful who await
clarification of their status is not long oppressed
by the darkness of doubt due to the lengthy wait
for a conclusion. [MI, Par.6]
In other words, the fundamental pretension was to streamline the processmaking
it faster and more accessible to the parties
involved. If that is the pretension, the solution should focus on those aspects or stages
of the process which are slowest and present
most difficulty for the parties to give their
due participation in. This is a fundamental
requirement in problem-solving. To illustrate
this, we can consider the problem of the horrendously slow traffic along EDSA. To look
for a solution, first of all we need to look for
the bottlenecks along that long route and
facilitate traffic in those sections. It would
be bordering on the hilarious to try and solve
the slow traffic to the south by improving the
exits to the SLEX, or the northbound traffic
by widening the exits to the NLEX.
The National Appellate Matrimonial
Tribunal is not the Bottleneck
If one asks anybody who has gone through
the painful process of getting a declaration
of nullity of his/marriage, hardly anyone
will complain that the National Appellate
Matrimonial Tribunal (NAMT) at the CBCP
Headquarters in Manila took long. In fact,
that is the fastest stage of the whole process
and rightly so, for several reasons:
1st, because the 2nd instance process normally consists in simply ascertaining that the
1st instance process was done properly and
considering any observations interposed by
the Defender of the Bond regarding the 1st
instance sentence. With all the actae of the

1st instance process on hand, the appellate

tribunal in fact does a remarkably quick
worka few months in most cases, and in
cases of urgency even in less than a month.
2nd, because the NAMT is a well-oiled
machinery. Through the years, under the
tutelage of Abp. Oscar Cruzundeniably
the longest-serving judge in any tribunal in
the Philippinesa team of well-qualified
judges have been doing their work, the whole
process facilitated by a dedicated secretariat.
3rd, because the Chief Judge of NAMT is
fully dedicated to the task.
Unfortunately, this is not the situation
in many of the diocesan and inter-diocesan
tribunals.
The Slowness of the Diocesan and Interdiocesan Tribunals
The slowness of the declaration of nullity
of marriage occurs in the 1st instance: at the
diocesan or inter-diocesan tribunals. There
are various reasons for this, among which
are the following:
1) Lack of trained personnel. Canon Law requires that a declaration of marriage nullity be
tried by a collegiate tribunal of three judges:
all clerics with at least a licentiate in canon
law, or at least a cleric with licentiate in canon
law aided by two non-clerics knowledgeable
in matrimonial law. A sole judge may also be
appointed (a cleric with at least a licentiate in
canon law) aided by two laypersons, of sound
judgment and upright moral background.
Many dioceses do not even have their own
tribunals for lack of canon lawyers (clerics or
otherwise). Those with tribunals, or the interdiocesan tribunals, are simply swamped with
too many cases for their meager personnel to
handle. Thus, the time for the resolution of a
case in the first instance can range from a fast
of 2 years to a slow of more than 5 years. Just
before addressing the aforementioned CBCP
Plenary Assembly in Cebu, I was reading an
e-mail of a hapless lady whose case had been
sleeping in a diocesan tribunal for 3 years,
despite periodic follow-up. A few years ago,
I helped a lawyer frienda big shot in his
profession, but helpless before the Metropolitan Tribunal of Manilaspeed up his case,
which had been languishing for 5 years. It was
not the Metropolitan Tribunals fault either:
at that time, it was still working through the
backlog of cases that had built up before the
break-up of the monster-archdiocese that
Metro Manila was. Now, thankfully, they
have accomplished the super-human job and
reduced processing time to almost a year (as
the CIC stipulates).
2) Difficult accessibility of the tribunals. Ideally, the tribunals should be accessible to the
faithful because the staff can accommodate
them (since they know enough matrimonial
law to properly orient them) ormuch betterbecause the judges themselves, or at
least the Judicial Vicar, are accessible in the
tribunal office. Unfortunately this is not the
case. Most tribunals are staffed by secretaries
with very little canon law background, and
the judicial vicars are involved in many other
pastoral concerns (e.g., taking care of a parish, which is really a full-time job in itself )
to be available in the tribunal office. Thus, in
many caseslike the hapless lady mentioned
earlierthe petitioners are simply given the
impression of having been left in limbo. No
wonder there are so many couples in irregular
situations: they simply could not wait for
the declaration of the nullity of a previous
marriage and have just opted to live together
without a canonical marriage.

3) Lack of canon lawyers to act as advocates.

Imagine civil courts without lawyers: the
people just go there and the judges have to
instruct the cases and resolve them. That is
the situation of ecclesiastical tribunals. For
lack of trained personnel, the figure of the
advocate is virtually non-existent. The poor
ecclesiastical judge has to do everything: cite
the parties and witnesses, depose them, make
the case and adjudicate it. He is like a good
chef: he buys the ingredients, he cooks them
and plates the dishes (at least a great chef
might even have an assistant chef or at least
helpers to do the food preparation).
In the few cases I have been involved in as
Advocate, I notice that if I make the pleadings
well (i.e., I lay out the case for the tribunal,
so that they only have to resolve it and dictate sentence) the tribunals get the job done
very quickly. For ecclesiastical tribunals, to
actually receive pleadings from the party concernedas made by a canon lawyermight
be the closest thing to heaven!
T h e D a n g e r o f No t H a v i n g a n
Automatic Appeal
With all the foregoing discussion, it thus
becomes clearat least for the Philippine
settingthat removing the automatic appeal
may be a case of the proverbial barking up
the wrong tree, because this will not hasten
the process where it is really slow: at the diocesan or inter-diocesan tribunal level. What
is worse, by making the 1st instance affirmative sentence of nullity executory, given the
lack of personnel at that level, we might be
opening the floodgates to a lot of defective
sentences of nullity. In the past, the automatic
appeal assured that justice was servedboth
as a pressure on the 1st instance tribunals to
do their work well for fear of having their
sentences reversed by the NAMT, and as a
back-up mechanism for those instances of
a miscarriage of justice due to the lack of
trained personnel: at least the NAMT could
detect the failure and apply the opportune
remedy (by sending the case back to the 1st instance tribunal with the proper orientations).
Now with the automatic appeal removed, the
integrity of the process for the declaration of
nullity would rest entirely on the diocesan
and inter-diocesan tribunals.
With all the above, there is only one real
solution to the problem of the slowness and
difficulty of the process for the declaration of
marriage nullity: to train more people to man
the diocesan and inter-diocesan tribunals of
1st instance. Specifically:
More priests have to get a licentiate in
Canon Law, to form the collegiate tribunals,
or at least to head them in the case of tribunals
with laypersons as judges.
More laypeople need to get a specific formation in the matrimonial law and procedural
law of the Church in order to form part of
ecclesiastical tribunals. I am thinking of the
many retired civil lawyers or even those who
studied law but did not pass the BAR exams
and are therefore not able to practice their
profession. Rather than just be para-legals,
perhaps they can be encouraged to work in
ecclesiastical tribunals, with proper remuneration of course. With their juridic preparation,
a short course on canon matrimonial law (e.g.,
3 months) plus a period of apprenticeship as
instructors or auditors for the instruction of
matrimonial cases should suffice.
All these can be facilitated by the existing
faculties of canon law (both in Manila and
abroad) and the Canon Law Society of the
Philippines.

CBCP Monitor

FEATURES B3

January 25 - February 7, 2016 Vol. 20 No. 5

these very negative attitudes were also

transmitted to non-Muslim Filipinos.

THE Roman Catholic Church in the

Philippines is a major actor in this
Southeast Asian island nation as well
as within the wider Asian and Universal Church. The pastoral visit of Pope
Francis in 2015 can serve as an opportunity to review the history and current
situation of the largest local Church in
Asia. Statistics in 2015 show that the
Philippine population has exceeded 100
million. The five major religious bodies
and their percentage of the local population are: Roman Catholicism (82.9%),
Protestantism (5.2%), Islam (4.6%),
Iglesia Filipina Independiente (2.6%),
and Iglesia ni Cristo (2.3%). The Philippines is the worlds third largest local
Church (after Brazil and Mexico). Of
Asias 120+ million Catholics over 60%
are Filipinos. These brief, yet significant, facts invite deeper exploration of
the multi-faceted Philippine Church.

SYSTEMATIC CHRISTIANIZATION. An organized program of

evangelization of the Philippines was
begun in 1565 by the Augustinians
who accompanied Legazpis expedition.
They were followed by Franciscans
(1578), Jesuits (1581), Dominicans
(1587), and Augustinian Recollects
(1606) from both Spain and Mexico.
Manila became a bishopric in 1579 and
an archbishopric in 1595.
The Spanish system of the Patronato
Real, or royal patronage of the Church
in the Indies, facilitated the implementation of an evangelization program.
Under this arrangement, the Spanish
crown gave financial support and protection to the Church in the Philippines
while exercising a large measure of
control over its activities. Missionaries
traveled to the Philippines in the kings
ships. While engaged in mission work,

cessions, novenas) for the traditional

rites and festivals; many pious associations of prayer and charity were formed
and promoted.
EDUCATION AND SOCIAL
SERVICES. These tasks were almost
exclusively the concern of the Church
during the entire period of Spanish
rule. Before the end of the sixteenth
century, Manila had three hospitals,
one for Spaniards, another for natives,
and a third for the Chinese. The first
two were conducted by Franciscans,
the third by the Dominicans. Later
(1611) the Hospitallers of Saint John
of God came to make hospital work
their special field of activity. In 1595
the Jesuits opened a grammar school for
Spanish boys that later developed into
the University of San Ignacio and had
attached to it the residential college of
San Jos, founded in 1601 and today
the San Jos Seminary.
The year 1611 saw the beginnings

Trizia Marie Castrillo

By James H. Kroeger, M.M.

a deepening resentment of the Church

as landlord. This background must be
borne in mind for a balanced understanding of the anticlerical reaction
that developed in the latter nineteenth
century among a people deeply and
sincerely Catholic.
NATIVE CLERGY. Catholicism
had taken permanent root in the Philippines as the religion of the people by
the eighteenth century, if not earlier.
However, it had one serious weakness:
the retarded development of the native clergy. The unsatisfactory results
of early experiments in Latin America
had made the Spanish missionaries
in the Philippines extremely cautious
in admitting native candidates to the
priesthood. Apparently, only in the
late seventeenth century were native
Filipinos ordained. A proposal of Gianbattista Sidotti, a member of Cardinal
Charles de Tournons entourage, to erect
a regional seminary in Manila for the
whole of East Asia was sharply rejected
by the crown (1712).
Bishops became increasingly eager for
a diocesan clergy completely under their
jurisdiction when conflicts over parish
appointments continuedconflicts
between the bishops and the religious
orders on the one hand, and the bishops and the government on the other.
Since very few secular priests came to
the Philippines from Spain, this meant
ordaining large numbers of native men.
Archbishop Sancho de Santa Justa y
Rufina of Manila (1767-1787) threatened to take away their parishes from
the religious who refused to submit to
episcopal visitation; he also ordained
natives even when they lacked the
necessary aptitude and training. The
results proved disastrous, confirming
the prevailing opinion that natives, even
if admitted to the priesthood, were incapable of assuming its full responsibilities. Some improvement in formation
and an increase in vocations occurred
after the arrival of the Vincentians
(1862), who took charge of diocesan
seminaries. Even so, the departure of a
large proportion of Spanish clergy after
the transfer of sovereignty from Spain to
the United States (1898) left over 700

decree of 1862 transferring the Mindanao missions from the Augustinian

Recollects to the newly returned Jesuits
(they had been expelled in 1768) and
giving the former an equivalent number of parishes in Manila and Cavite,
which were consequently taken away
from the native clergy. The result was
mounting disaffection among the native
priests thus deprived or threatened with
removal. Naturally, the Filipino priests
assailed the government policy; among
their active leaders and spokesmen were
Fathers Gmez, Burgos, and Zamora,
who were executed by the government
for alleged complicity in a mutiny of
native garrison troops in Cavite (1872).
The deaths of these Filipino priests
gave a powerful impetus to the emergence of Filipino nationalism by sensitizing Filipinos to injustices by the
Spanish colonial government. The
movement began as an initiative for
colonial reforms led by Dr. Jos Rizal
(1862-1896); after Rizals arrest and
execution for treason, it developed into
a separatist movement. The ensuing
revolution (1896-1898), which was
markedly anti-friar, though usually not
anticlerical or anti-Catholic, was cut
short by the intervention of the United
States, which demanded cession of the
Philippines at the conclusion of the
Spanish-American War.
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND
STATE. The change of sovereignty
ended the Patronato system. The United
States policy of Church-State separation was extended to the Philippines,
but interpreted in a manner much less
favorable to the Church. Thus, a system
of nonsectarian public education was
established that failed to take into account that the overwhelming majority
of Filipinos were Catholics. In addition, there was the strong influence of
hundreds of American public-school
teachers, most of whom were Protestants. They were popularly known as
the Thomasites; a group of 540 arrived
in 1901 aboard the U.S.S. Thomas and
many others followed. The professed
neutralism in religious matters of the
state university, founded in 1911, was
copied by other privately founded nonsectarian universities, resulting in the

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE PHILIPPINES:

A Brief Historical Overview (First of a Series)

ARRIVAL OF SPANIARDS. In
March 1521 Ferdinand Magellan arrived in search of spices and converts
for Charles I (Emperor Charles V); it
was his son Prince Philip, later King
Philip II, whose name was bestowed
on the islands by Villalobos in 1542.
Lapulapu, a native chieftain of Cebu,
resisted Magellans claim of Spanish sovereignty, and he was mortally wounded
by Lapulapus spear thrust. In 1565
Miguel Lopez de Legazpi established
the first permanent Spanish settlement
in Cebu. In 1571 Legazpi moved his
headquarters to Manila, making it the
capital of the colony. By the end of the
century, most of the lowlands were under Spanish rule, except for some southern islands which remained Muslim.
Islam had been introduced in the late
fourteenth or early fifteenth century. It
gradually exercised a strong influence
and helped develop a type of sophisticated political organization, semifeudal
and predatory, in Mindanao and Sulu
and initially in Manila. When the Spaniards encountered Muslims in the Philippines their hostile attitudes based on
Muslim-Christian encounters in Europe
(the struggle for independence from
Moorish rule in the Iberian Peninsula)
colored their outlook and relations;

they were entitled to a stipend drawn

from either the colonial government
directly or from the right to tribute in
certain territories (encomiendas) into
which the country was initially divided.
The encomienda system was gradually abandoned during the seventeenth
century after widespread criticism of
extortion and other abuses.
On the other hand, the appointment
of missionaries to a parish or mission
station was subject to the approval of
the governor as vice-patron. In fact, it
was Philip II himself who determined
that each missionary group should
have its own section of the country
for evangelization purposes. Under
this system the Church in turn exerted
great influence on government policy.
The early missionaries often sought to
protect the natives from the abuses of
the conquistadors and encomenderos;
they had a vigorous leader in Fray Domingo de Salazar, OP, the first bishop
of the Philippines. The synod that he
summoned in 1582 clarified many difficult problems regarding the conquest,
settlement, and administration of the
country in accordance with Christian
ideals and principles of justice.
The Philippine Church of the sixteenth century certainly took sides, and
it was not with the rich and powerful
nor with their fellow Spaniards, but
with those who were oppressed and
victims of injustice. Church historian
Schumacher notes: Skeptics have often
questioned the reality of the rapid conversion of sixteenth-century Filipinos.
If one wishes the answer, it is to be
found right here, that the Church as a
whole took the side of the poor and the
oppressed, whether the oppressors were
Spaniards or Filipino principales.
MISSION METHODS. The Spanish missionaries in the Philippines
employed a variety of approaches to
evangelization. The scattered clan villages were gathered together into larger
communities (pueblos, cabeceras); often
this implied radical lifestyle changes and
hence could only be accomplished with
difficulty and very gradually. Instruction was given in native languages, as
few Filipinos outside the Intramuros area
of Manila were ever able to read, write,
or speak Spanish with any proficiency.
In most missions primary schools
supplied the new Christian communities with catechists and local officials.
Religion was made to permeate society
by substituting splendid liturgical and
paraliturgical observances (fiestas, pro-

Natalie Quimlat

BACKGROUND. The Philippine

archipelago is composed of 7,107
islands and islets, of which the largest
are Luzon in the north and Mindanao
in the south. In central Philippines
there are several medium-sized islands known as the Visayan Islands.
Stretching from the southwestern tip
of Mindanao toward Borneo is a chain
of small islands collectively known as
the Sulu Archipelago. The population
of southwestern Mindanao and Sulu is
predominantly Muslim.
There is evidence of human settlements in the islands as early as 20,000
BC. The small black people, called
Negritos by the Spaniards, were the first
to arrive. Later they were driven into the
mountainous interior when immigrants
belonging to the brown-skinned Malay
race reached the islands. Today one
finds various hill tribes such as the Aetas
and Ifugao of Luzon and the Mansakas,
Mandayas, and Bukidnon of Mindanao;
many of these peoples still practice their
traditional religions. Malay Filipinos
occupy the lowlands, constitute the
majority of the population, and have
become Christian. They form several
distinct groups; the Visayan, Tagalog,
Ilokano, and Bikolano are among the
most numerous.

of the Dominican University of Santo

Toms, which continues today as a
vibrant educational center. In 1640
the Dominicans also took charge of the
College of San Juan de Letrn, started
about a decade earlier by a zealous layman for the education of orphans. Various religious communities of women
established themselves in Manila in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries;
frequently, they undertook the education of girls. Among these sisterhoods,
that begun by Ignacia del Esprito
Santo, a Chinese mestiza, in 1684 and
today known as the Religious of the
Virgin Mary (RVM), deserves special
mention as the first locally founded
religious institute, specifically for indigenous women.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT. The
considerable funds required for the
support of these schools, hospitals,
and charitable works came from pious
donations and legacies, called obras pas;
they were often invested in the galleon
trade or in large agricultural estates,
the so-called friar lands. These operations often tainted the Church as being
involved with commercialism. At the
same time, the friar lands were leased to
tenant cultivators for development and
administration, an arrangement that
led to frequent conflicts of interest and

parishes vacant.
RELIGIOUS CLERGY. The privileges of the Patronato Real conferred
by the Holy See on the Spanish crown
were a mixed blessing; they promoted
constructive collaboration between the
Church and the colonial government,
but it also led to friction. The focus of
difficulty was the religious parish priest
and the extent to which he was subject
to episcopal visitation and control. The
conflict gave rise to series of crises that
began as early as the administration of
Bishop Salazar (1581-1594). In 1744
the Holy See ruled that religious parish
priests were subject to the jurisdiction of
the ordinary in all matters pertaining to
their parish duties (in officio officiando)
and to their religious superiors in their
personal conduct.
With the advent of the revolutionary
era in Europe and the loss of Spains
American colonies, the terms of the
problem in the Philippines changed. It
became widely believed in official circles
that the presence of the religious in the
parishes was a political necessity, not so
much because they were religious as because they were Spaniards and could be
relied upon to keep the population loyal. This seems to have been one factor
behind the thinking related to the royal

undermining of religious belief among

the educated class.
SCHISM. One consequence of the
revolutionary upheaval was the formation by Gregorio Aglipay, a Filipino
secular priest, of a schismatic church
along nationalist lines, the Philippine
Independent Church or Iglesia Filipina
Independiente (1902). Initially it drew a
considerable following; however, it soon
broke up into factions, some of which
rapidly deserted Catholicism in doctrine
as well as in discipline. The Supreme
Court (1906-1907) also restored to the
Catholic Church much of the property
that had been taken over by the Aglipayans. The largest Trinitarian faction was
received into full communion by the
Protestant Episcopal Church (United
States), established in the Philippines
since the beginning of the century.
PROTESTANT MISSIONS. Protestant denominations sent mission
personnel to the Philippines almost
as soon as the transfer of sovereignty
was effected. In 1901 Presbyterian,
Baptist, Methodist, and United Brethren groups, along with societies such
as the Christian Missionary Alliance,
the YMCA, and the American Bible
Society, formed an Evangelical Union
History, B4

B4 PASTORAL CONCERNS

January 25 - February 7, 2016 Vol. 20 No. 5

CBCP Monitor

Eucharistic Miracles and Gods Unrelenting Mercy

IT may be an embarrassing thing
to admit for some of us--especially those of us who consider
ourselves believers--that from
time to time, we ask ourselves,
Is Jesus really present in the
Holy Eucharist? Perhaps the
thought--not even
a serious doubt-would pass for
just a fleeting moment; yet it does
come, and not just
once.
This was perhaps the very same
challenge that a
German priest on
his way to Rome
had, as he was celebrating Mass in
the church of St.
Christina in Bolsena, Italy. He was
pious, we are told,
but his faith was
not irreproachable. Joan Carroll
Cruz, author of
a classic book on
Eucharistic miracles, tells us that
in what would
seem a result of
his lack of faith,
the priest had
barely spoken the
words of Consecration when
blood started to
seep from the
consecrated Host
and trickle over
his hand onto the
altar and the corporal.
We are told that Pope Urban
IV, who was in nearby Orvieto at
the time, after having confirmed
the veracity of the miracle,
had the Host and the corporal
brought to the Cathedral with
the pomp and dignity that

the relics deserved. The bloodstained corporal is still in that

Cathedral now, for all to see,
enshrined in a breathtakingly
beautiful chapel whose walls are
painted from top to bottom with
scenes from the striking events of
those extraordinary days.
It was with genuine awe that
my friends and I beheld it when
we had the
good fortune
of going there
in pilgrimage last year.
To get that
close to what
can only be
described as
Gods condescension
to the hardheartedness
of man makes
one truly
thankful that,
despite our
sinfulness,
God continues to have
mercy on us
and reaches
out to us. But
it was also an
occasion to
realize more
profoundly,
especially after the initial
thrill and excitement of
the encounter
had left, that
my faith in
the Holy Eucharist cannot
be based on a
sanguinary spectacle, no matter
how remarkable.
That statement may sound
a wee bit ungrateful for that
wonderful experience--indeed,
for all Eucharistic miracles in
history. But that realization is in
keeping with a Eucharistic hymn

composed to honor that very

miracle in Bolsena-Orvieto: St.
Thomas Aquinass masterpiece,
Adoro Te, devote (I Adore You,
devoutly). In the second stanza,
the saint affirms: Sight, touch,
taste are all deceived in their
judgment of you, but hearing
suffices firmly to believe. I believe all that the Son of God has

Christ, another albeit implicit

way of expressing the motive
of our faith in the Eucharist is
this: because the Church has
told us so. There is no contradiction; after all, the Church is the
Body of Christ, and Christ is the
Churchs Head.
To say all that is not to trivialize Eucharistic miracles, but

step to genuine faith in the Real

Presence.
And to believers, Eucharistic
miracles often serve as a wake-up
call from the slumber or stupor
in which we find ourselves, accustomed as we are to seeing
the Host on the altars day in,
day out. Because of the natural
weakness of our senses we may

giving Our Lord in the Eucharist

the honor and love He deserves
is nowhere in proportion to the
gifts He has endowed us to serve
that purpose.
The good news is that not
even our lack of faith stops God
from wanting to give it to us. If
anything, it only makes Him
more generous: the miracle of

spoken; there is nothing truer

than this Word of Truth.
In other words, the real motive of our faith in the Eucharist
is simply that Christ Himself
said it: This is my Body This
is my Blood. Since it was the
Catholic Church that handed
down to us these very words of

rather to put them in the proper

perspective: they can and do inspire faith. In fact, these miracles
are of as much value to those
who dont believe as to those who
do already believe. For those who
dont believe, an encounter with
a Eucharistic miracle--arresting
as it always is--may be a first

not realize it that externally we

act like non-believers. We forget
to greet or visit Our Lord in the
Blessed Sacrament, we fiddle
with our gadgets at Mass, and
we do our genuflections so carelessly if we even do them at all.
Or even if we dont act as badly,
perhaps the effort we exert to

Bolsena-Orvieto is a testament
to that. This is not to encourage presumption. Rather, it is
to affirm that regardless of the
level of our faith, now is a good
time to ask for an increase in
this faith as a fitting response
to Gods unrelenting goodness
and mercy.

of the world may impart the

Papal Blessing with a plenary
indulgence on two additional
occasions, namely: at the conclusion of the Opening Celebration of the Holy Year in the
local Churches on December 13
and, the second, at the end of
the Closing Celebration of the
Jubilee in the local Churches on
November 13, 2016.

grace to bring its desired fruits,

the faithful should stop in prayer
to fulfill the final actions asked
for: the profession of faith, and
prayer for the Holy Father and
his intentions. The latter should
be at least an Our Father the
prayer in which Jesus himself
taught us to turn as children to
the Father but it could possibly be more. In particular, taking into consideration the spirit
of this Holy Year, it is suggested
that pilgrims recite the lovely
prayer of Pope Francis for the
Jubilee, and that they conclude
the time of prayer with an invocation to the merciful Lord Jesus
(for example, Merciful Jesus, I
trust in You).
The aforementioned prayer of
Pope Francis is as follows:
Lord Jesus Christ, you have
taught us to be merciful like the
heavenly Father, and have told us
that whoever sees you sees Him.
Show us your face and we will
be saved.
Your loving gaze freed Zacchaeus and Matthew from being
enslaved by money; the adulteress
and Magdalene from seeking happiness only in created things; made
Peter weep after his betrayal, and
assured Paradise to the repentant
thief.
Let us hear, as if addressed to
each one of us, the words that you
spoke to the Samaritan woman:
If you knew the gift of God!
You are the visible face of the
invisible Father, of the God who
manifests his power above all by
forgiveness and mercy:
let the Church be your visible
face in the world, its Lord risen
and glorified.
You willed that your ministers
would also be clothed in weakness
in order that they may feel compassion for those in ignorance and
error: let everyone who approaches
them feel sought after, loved, and
forgiven by God.
Send your Spirit and consecrate
every one of us with its anointing,
so that the Jubilee of Mercy may
be a year of grace from the Lord,
and your Church, with renewed
enthusiasm, may bring good news
to the poor, proclaim liberty to
captives and the oppressed, and
restore sight to the blind.
We ask this through the intercession of Mary, Mother of Mercy,
you who live and reign with the
Father and the Holy Spirit for
ever and ever.
Amen.

to coordinate their activities. A

denomination of local origin
with an evangelical orientation,
the Iglesia ni Cristo, was founded
in 1914.

working in partnership with the

societies just mentioned.
By the mid-1920s, the situation was taking a turn for the
better; some significant factors
in the survival and resurgence
of the Church were: the revitalization of Catholic education,
growth of Filipino diocesan and
religious vocations, a more educated laity, Church involvement
in social questions and the labor
movement, and the involvement
of Catholics in national life. The
celebration of the XXXIII International Eucharistic Congress
in Manila (1937) focused the
attention of the Christian world
on the Philippines and deeply
inspired thousands of Filipino
Catholics.

continued to be largely engaged

in relief services and the rehabilitation of Church institutions; it
also became the vehicle through
which the interests and values of
the Church were protected and
furthered.

To get that
close to what
can only be
described
as Gods
condescension
to the hardheartedness of
man makes one
truly thankful
that, despite
our sinfulness,
God continues
to have mercy
on us and
reaches out
to us.

Dominic Barrios

By Robert Z. Cortes

Holy Doors, B2

each time they cross the threshold of their cell signify for them
their passage through the Holy
Door, because the mercy of God
is able to transform hearts, and
is also able to transform bars
into an experience of freedom.
I have asked the Church in
this Jubilee Year to rediscover
the richness encompassed by
the spiritual and corporal works
of mercy. The experience of
mercy, indeed, becomes visible
in the witness of concrete signs
as Jesus himself taught us. Each
time that one of the faithful
personally performs one or
more of these actions, he or she
shall surely obtain the Jubilee
Indulgence. Hence the commitment to live by mercy so as
to obtain the grace of complete
and exhaustive forgiveness by
the power of the love of the
Father who excludes no one.
The Jubilee Indulgence is thus
full, the fruit of the very event
which is to be celebrated and
experienced with faith, hope
and charity.
Furthermore, the Jubilee
Indulgence can also be obtained
for the deceased. We are bound
to them by the witness of faith
and charity that they have left
us. Thus, as we remember them
in the Eucharistic celebration,
thus we can, in the great mystery
of the Communion of Saints,
pray for them, that the merciful Face of the Father free them
of every remnant of fault and
strongly embrace them in the
unending beatitude.
The Pope also granted widespread faculties to priests to
remove the excommunication
related to abortion, and granted
faculties to the priests associated
with the Society of St. Pius X so
that their absolutions would be
valid and the faithful who confess with them can obtain the
jubilee indulgence. He added
another concession:
The Roman Ritual states
that Diocesan Bishops, and
others equated to them in law,
have the faculty to impart,
according to the prescribed
formula, the Papal Blessing
with a plenary indulgence three
times a year on solemn feasts
of their own choice, using the
rite specifically prepared for
that occasion.
Pope Francis, on the occasion of the Jubilee of Mercy,
has granted that all the bishops

History, B3

Regarding the concession of

indulgences the current norms
state:
A plenary indulgence can be
gained only once a day. In order
to obtain it, the faithful must, in
addition to being in the state of
grace: have the interior disposition of complete detachment
from sin, even venial sin; have
sacramentally confessed their
sins; receive the Holy Eucharist
(it is certainly better to receive
it while participating in Holy
Mass, but for the indulgence
only Holy Communion is required); pray for the intentions
of the Supreme Pontiff.
It is appropriate, but not
necessary, that the sacramental
Confession and especially Holy
Communion and the prayer for
the Popes intentions take place
on the same day that the indulgenced work is performed; but
it is sufficient that these sacred
rites and prayers be carried out
within several days (about 20)
before or after the indulgenced
act. Prayer for the Popes intentions is left to the choice of the
faithful, but an Our Father and
a Hail Mary are suggested. One
sacramental Confession suffices
for several plenary indulgences,
but a separate Holy Communion and a separate prayer for
the Holy Fathers intentions
are required for each plenary
indulgence.
As well as these, the web
page of the Pontifical Council
for the Promotion of the New
Evangelization has some specific
indications for this jubilee:
Once they have crossed
through the Holy Door or
Door of Mercy, or have fulfilled
one of the other conditions
under which Pope Francis has
granted the Jubilee Indulgence
(for example, for the sick, for
the imprisoned, or for anyone
who carries out in person a work
of mercy), in addition to the
usual conditions which require
a heart well-disposed for the

CHURCH RESPONSE.
The normal life of the Catholic
Church suffered disastrously
during the years following 1898;
in several respects it would be
decades before a condition approximating normalcy would
again be reached. From 1898
to 1900 there were almost no
resident bishops; diocesan priests
remained in very short supply
and some had defected to the
Aglipayans; seminaries were
closed in 1898 and did not reopen until 1904. From 1898 to
1903 the total number of friars
decreased over 75% from 1,013
to 246. In a word, the Church
was in chaos.
The true beginnings of the
reorganization of the Church
began with the persistent efforts
of Monsignor Guidi through his
negotiations with the American
government and the Filipino
clergy. Leo XIII, in his apostolic
letter Quae mari sinico (1902) reorganized the hierarchy, created
four new dioceses, and strongly
recommended to the Philippine
hierarchy the formation of a
native clergy. The first official
Provincial Council of Manila
was convened in 1907 with the
goals of reviving the faith of the
Filipinos, restoring the local
Church, and inspiring in the
clergy a spirit of apostolic zeal.
Meanwhile, the severe shortage of priests and religious was
met in part by new, non-Spanish
missionary congregations of
women and men from Europe,
Australia, and America. For
example, male missionary societies that responded to the
pressing needs in the 1905-1941
period are: Irish Redemptorists
(1905), Mill Hill Missionaries
(1906), Scheut-CICM (1907),
Sacred Heart Missionaries and
Divine Word Society (1908), LaSalle Brothers (1911), Oblates of
Saint Joseph (1915), Maryknoll
Missioners (1926), Columban
Missioners (1929), Society of
Saint Paul (1935), Quebec-PME
Society (1937), and OblatesOMI (1939). Many dedicated
female religious came as missionaries to the Philippines, often

SECOND WORLD WAR.

Japanese forces invaded in December 1941. Allied forces under General MacArthur returned
in 1944, but severe fighting
continued until the Japanese surrender in August 1945. Manuel
Roxas became president of the
second independent Republic
of the Philippines on July 4,
1946. The war inflicted heavy
damage; 257 priests and religious
lost their lives, and losses in
ecclesiastical property and equipment were estimated at 250 million pesos (U.S.$ 125 million).
Priests, brothers, sisters, and
dedicated Catholic women and
men exhibited great faith and
heroism during the war; many
suffered imprisonment.
O R G A N I Z AT I O N O F
PHILIPPINE BISHOPS.
The origins of what is known
today as the Catholic Bishops
Conference of the Philippines
(CBCP) can be traced back to
February 1945 when Apostolic
Delegate William Piani, even
as the war was still raging, appointed John Hurley, SJ to take
charge of relief work and created
the Catholic Welfare Organization (CWO). As the very name
indicates, the primary purpose
of the CWO was to assist in
alleviating the immediate suffering and destruction brought on
by the war. On July 17, 1945
all the bishops met in Manila
for their first meeting after the
Japanese Occupation; they requested that the CWO become
the official organization of the
Hierarchy of the Philippines.
In subsequent years, the CWO

The 1945-1965 period in

the life of the local Church in
the Philippines is characterized
by: quite rapid recovery from
the ravages of war, greatly expanded school system at upper
levels, involvement of Catholics
(laity, sisters, clergy) in social
action, and growing Filipinization of Church structures and
administration. The First Plenary
Council of the Philippines (1953)
focused on the preservation,
enrichment, and propagation of
Catholic life and offered Church
resources to renew the social
order. The Church became
involved in Catholic Action
programs with farmers (FFF)
and workers (FFW). Guidance
from the hierarchy continued;
from 1945-1965 the CWO issued 39 joint pastoral letters and
statements on a variety of subjects
relevant to Church and civil
society. The Philippine bishops
sponsored a Marian Congress in
Manila (1954) and inaugurated
the Pontificio Collegio-Seminario
Filippino in Rome (1961). The
period saw renewal programs
introduced; the Christian Family Movement (CFM) came to
the Philippines in the 1950s;
the Cursillos de Cristianidad
introduced in 1963 (and the
evangelization seminars for various Church sectorial groups they
inspired) ignited a renewed fervor
of lay involvement in the Church.
1965: A PIVOTAL YEAR. In
mid-year, the nation observed a
six-day renewal-celebration of
the quadricentennial of evangelization in the Philippines (15651965). The bishops established
the Mission Society of the Philippines, signifying Filipinos
commitment to spread the gift of
faith they had received to other
lands. Two more events would
prove to shape significantly the
experience and mission of this
local Church. The first was the
election of Ferdinand Marcos
as president of the Philippines;
the second was the conclusion
of the Second Vatican Council
on December 8, 1965. (To be
continued)

CBCP Monitor

STATEMENTS B5

January 25 - February 7, 2016 Vol. 20 No. 5

I desire mercy, and not sacrifice (Mt 9:13)

The works of mercy on the road of the Jubilee
Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for Lent 2016

2. Gods covenant with humanity: a

history of mercy
The mystery of divine mercy is revealed in the history of the covenant
between God and his people Israel.
God shows himself ever rich in mercy,
ever ready to treat his people with deep
tenderness and compassion, especially
at those tragic moments when infidelity ruptures the bond of the covenant,
which then needs to be ratified more
firmly in justice and truth. Here is a
true love story, in which God plays the
role of the betrayed father and husband,
while Israel plays the unfaithful child
and bride. These domestic images--as in
the case of Hosea (cf. Hos 1-2)--show to
what extent God wishes to bind himself
to his people.
This love story culminates in the incarnation of Gods Son. In Christ, the
Father pours forth his boundless mercy
even to making him mercy incarnate
(Misericordiae Vultus, 8). As a man, Jesus of Nazareth is a true son of Israel; he
embodies that perfect hearing required
of every Jew by the Shema, which today

too is the heart of Gods covenant with

Israel: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our
God is one Lord; and you shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart, and
with all your soul, and with all your
might (Dt 6:4-5). As the Son of God,
he is the Bridegroom who does everything to win over the love of his bride, to
whom he is bound by an unconditional
love which becomes visible in the eternal
wedding feast.
This is the very heart of the apostolic
kerygma, in which divine mercy holds
a central and fundamental place. It is
the beauty of the saving love of God

3. The works of mercy

Gods mercy transforms human
hearts; it enables us, through the experience of a faithful love, to become
merciful in turn. In an ever new miracle,
divine mercy shines forth in our lives,
inspiring each of us to love our neighbor and to devote ourselves to what the
Churchs tradition calls the spiritual and
corporal works of mercy. These works
remind us that faith finds expression
in concrete everyday actions meant to
help our neighbors in body and spirit:
by feeding, visiting, comforting and instructing them. On such things will we

can, like Moses, take off our sandals (cf.

Ex 3:5), especially when the poor are
our brothers or sisters in Christ who are
suffering for their faith.
In the light of this love, which is
strong as death (cf. Song 8:6), the real
poor are revealed as those who refuse to
see themselves as such. They consider
themselves rich, but they are actually
the poorest of the poor. This is because
they are slaves to sin, which leads them
to use wealth and power not for the
service of God and others, but to stifle
within their hearts the profound sense
that they too are only poor beggars. The

made manifest in Jesus Christ who

died and rose from the dead (Evangelii
Gaudium, 36), that first proclamation
which we must hear again and again
in different ways, the one which we
must announce one way or another
throughout the process of catechesis, at
every level and moment (ibid., 164).
Mercy expresses Gods way of reaching
out to the sinner, offering him a new
chance to look at himself, convert, and
believe (Misericordiae Vultus, 21), thus
restoring his relationship with him. In
Jesus crucified, God shows his desire to
draw near to sinners, however far they
may have strayed from him. In this way
he hopes to soften the hardened heart
of his Bride.

be judged. For this reason, I expressed

my hope that the Christian people
may reflect on the corporal and spiritual
works of mercy; this will be a way to reawaken our conscience, too often grown
dull in the face of poverty, and to enter
more deeply into the heart of the Gospel
where the poor have a special experience
of Gods mercy (ibid., 15). For in the
poor, the flesh of Christ becomes visible
in the flesh of the tortured, the crushed,
the scourged, the malnourished, and the
exiled to be acknowledged, touched,
and cared for by us (ibid.). It is the
unprecedented and scandalous mystery
of the extension in time of the suffering
of the Innocent Lamb, the burning bush
of gratuitous love. Before this love, we

greater their power and wealth, the more

this blindness and deception can grow. It
can even reach the point of being blind
to Lazarus begging at their doorstep (cf.
Lk 16:20-21). Lazarus, the poor man, is
a figure of Christ, who through the poor
pleads for our conversion. As such, he
represents the possibility of conversion
which God offers us and which we may
well fail to see. Such blindness is often
accompanied by the proud illusion of
our own omnipotence, which reflects in
a sinister way the diabolical you will be
like God (Gen 3:5) which is the root
of all sin. This illusion can likewise take
social and political forms, as shown by
the totalitarian systems of the twentieth
century, and, in our own day, by the

CNA

1. MARY, the image of a Church

which evangelizes because she is evangelized
In the Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, I asked that
the season of Lent in this Jubilee Year
be lived more intensely as a privileged
moment to celebrate and experience
Gods mercy (Misericordiae Vultus,
17). By calling for an attentive listening
to the word of God and encouraging
the initiative 24 Hours for the Lord,
I sought to stress the primacy of prayerful listening to Gods word, especially
his prophetic word. The mercy of God
is a proclamation made to the world, a
proclamation which each Christian is
called to experience at first hand. For
this reason, during the season of Lent
I will send out Missionaries of Mercy
as a concrete sign to everyone of Gods
closeness and forgiveness.
After receiving the Good News told
to her by the Archangel Gabriel, Mary,
in her Magnificat, prophetically sings
of the mercy whereby God chose her.
The Virgin of Nazareth, betrothed to
Joseph, thus becomes the perfect icon
of the Church which evangelizes, for she
was, and continues to be, evangelized by
the Holy Spirit, who made her virginal
womb fruitful. In the prophetic tradition, mercy is strictly related even on
the etymological level to the maternal
womb (rahamim) and to a generous,
faithful and compassionate goodness
(hesed) shown within marriage and
family relationships.

ideologies of monopolizing thought and

technoscience, which would make God
irrelevant and reduce man to raw material to be exploited. This illusion can also
be seen in the sinful structures linked to
a model of false development based on
the idolatry of money, which leads to
lack of concern for the fate of the poor
on the part of wealthier individuals and
societies; they close their doors, refusing
even to see the poor.
For all of us, then, the season of Lent
in this Jubilee Year is a favorable time
to overcome our existential alienation
by listening to Gods word and by
practicing the works of mercy. In the
corporal works of mercy we touch the
flesh of Christ in our brothers and sisters
who need to be fed, clothed, sheltered,
visited; in the spiritual works of mercy
counsel, instruction, forgiveness,
admonishment and prayer we touch
more directly our own sinfulness. The
corporal and spiritual works of mercy
must never be separated. By touching
the flesh of the crucified Jesus in the suffering, sinners can receive the gift of realizing that they too are poor and in need.
By taking this path, the proud, the
powerful and the wealthy spoken of
in the Magnificat can also be embraced
and undeservedly loved by the crucified
Lord who died and rose for them. This
love alone is the answer to that yearning
for infinite happiness and love that we
think we can satisfy with the idols of
knowledge, power and riches. Yet the
danger always remains that by a constant
refusal to open the doors of their hearts
to Christ who knocks on them in the
poor, the proud, rich and powerful will
end up condemning themselves and
plunging into the eternal abyss of solitude which is Hell. The pointed words
of Abraham apply to them and to all of
us: They have Moses and the prophets;
let them hear them (Lk 16:29). Such
attentive listening will best prepare us to
celebrate the final victory over sin and
death of the Bridegroom, now risen,
who desires to purify his Betrothed in
expectation of his coming.
Let us not waste this season of Lent, so
favourable a time for conversion! We ask
this through the maternal intercession of
the Virgin Mary, who, encountering the
greatness of Gods mercy freely bestowed
upon her, was the first to acknowledge
her lowliness (cf. Lk 1:48) and to call
herself the Lords humble servant (cf.
Lk 1:38).
From the Vatican, 4 October 2015
Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi
FRANCIS

Entrusting oneself to the merciful Jesus like Mary:

Do whatever he tells you (Jn 2:5)

Message of his Holiness Pope Francis for the 24th World Day of the Sick 2016
DEAR Brothers and Sisters,
The twenty-fourth World Day
of the Sick offers me an opportunity to draw particularly close
to you, dear friends who are ill,
and to those who care for you.
This year, since the Day of the
Sick will be solemnly celebrated
in the Holy Land, I wish to
propose a meditation on the
Gospel account of the wedding feast of Cana (Jn 2: 1-11),
where Jesus performed his first
miracle through the intervention of his Mother. The theme
chosen - Entrusting Oneself to
the Merciful Jesus like Mary:
Do whatever he tells you (Jn
2:5) is quite fitting in light of
the Extraordinary Jubilee of
Mercy. The main Eucharistic
celebration of the Day will take
place on 11 February 2016, the
liturgical memorial of Our Lady
of Lourdes, in Nazareth itself,
where the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among
us (Jn 1:14). In Nazareth,
Jesus began his salvific mission,
applying to himself the words
of the Prophet Isaiah, as we are
told by the Evangelist Luke:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of
sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim
a year acceptable to the Lord
(Lk4:18-19).
Illness, above all grave illness,

always places human existence

in crisis and brings with it
questions that dig deep. Our
first response may at times be
one of rebellion: Why has this
happened to me? We can feel
desperate, thinking that all is
lost, that things no longer have
meaning
In these situations, faith in
God is on the one hand tested,
yet at the same time can reveal
all of its positive resources. Not
because faith makes illness,
pain, or the questions which
they raise, disappear, but because it offers a key by which we
can discover the deepest meaning of what we are experiencing;
a key that helps us to see how
illness can be the way to draw
nearer to Jesus who walks at
our side, weighed down by the
Cross. And this key is given to
us by Mary, our Mother, who
has known this way at first
hand.
At the wedding feast of Cana,
Mary is the thoughtful woman
who sees a serious problem for
the spouses: the wine, the symbol of the joy of the feast, has
run out. Mary recognizes the
difficulty, in some way makes
it her own, and acts swiftly and
discreetly. She does not simply
look on, much less spend time
in finding fault, but rather, she
turns to Jesus and presents him
with the concrete problem:
They have no wine (Jn 2:3).
And when Jesus tells her that it

is not yet the time for him to

reveal himself (cf. v. 4), she says
to the servants: Do whatever
he tells you (v. 5). Jesus then
performs the miracle, turning
water into wine, a wine that immediately appears to be the best
of the whole celebration. What
teaching can we draw from this
mystery of the wedding feast
of Cana for the World Day of
the Sick?
The wedding feast of Cana is
an image of the Church: at the

is in that event for all of us! We

have a Mother with benevolent
and watchful eyes, like her Son;
a heart that is maternal and full
of mercy, like him; hands that
want to help, like the hands of
Jesus who broke bread for those
who were hungry, touched the
sick and healed them. All this
fills us with trust and opens our
hearts to the grace and mercy
of Christ. Marys intercession
makes us experience the consolation for which the apostle

At the wedding feast of Cana,

Mary is the thoughtful woman
who sees a serious problem
for the spouses: the wine, the
symbol of the joy of the feast,
has run out.
centre there is Jesus who in his
mercy performs a sign; around
him are the disciples, the first
fruits of the new community;
and beside Jesus and the disciples is Mary, the provident
and prayerful Mother. Mary
partakes of the joy of ordinary
people and helps it to increase;
she intercedes with her Son on
behalf of the spouses and all
the invited guests. Nor does
Jesus refuse the request of his
Mother. How much hope there

Paul blesses God: Blessed be

the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
compassion and God of all encouragement, who encourages
us in our affliction, so that we
may be able to encourage those
who are in any affliction with
the encouragement with which
we ourselves are encouraged
by God. For as Christs sufferings overflow to us, so through
Christ does our encouragement
also overflow (2 Cor 1:3-5).

Mary is the comforted Mother who comforts her children.

At Cana the distinctive features of Jesus and his mission
are clearly seen: he comes to the
help of those in difficulty and
need. Indeed, in the course of
his messianic ministry he would
heal many people of illnesses,
infirmities and evil spirits, give
sight to the blind, make the
lame walk, restore health and
dignity to lepers, raise the dead,
and proclaim the good news to
the poor (cf. Lk7:21-22). Marys
request at the wedding feast,
suggested by the Holy Spirit
to her maternal heart, clearly
shows not only Jesus messianic
power but also his mercy.
In Marys concern we see reflected the tenderness of God.
This same tenderness is present
in the lives of all those persons who attend the sick and
understand their needs, even
the most imperceptible ones,
because they look upon them
with eyes full of love. How
many times has a mother at the
bedside of her sick child, or a
child caring for an elderly parent, or a grandchild concerned
for a grandparent, placed his
or her prayer in the hands of
Our Lady! For our loved ones
who suffer because of illness we
ask first for their health. Jesus
himself showed the presence of
the Kingdom of God specifically through his healings: Go
and tell John what you hear

and see: the blind regain their

sight, the lame walk, lepers are
cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead
are raised, and the poor have the
good news proclaimed to them
(Mt 11:4-5). But love animated
by faith makes us ask for them
something greater than physical
health: we ask for peace, a serenity in life that comes from the
heart and is Gods gift, the fruit
of the Holy Spirit, a gift which
the Father never denies to those
who ask him for it with trust.
In the scene of Cana, in addition to Jesus and his Mother,
there are the servants, whom
she tells: Do whatever he tells
you (Jn2:5). Naturally, the
miracle takes place as the work
of Christ; however, he wants
to employ human assistance
in performing this miracle.
He could have made the wine
appear directly in the jars. But
he wants to rely upon human
cooperation, and so he asks the
servants to fill them with water.
How wonderful and pleasing to
God it is to be servants of others! This more than anything
else makes us like Jesus, who
did not come to be served but
to serve (Mk 10:45). These
unnamed people in the Gospel
teach us a great deal. Not only
do they obey, but they obey
generously: they fill the jars
to the brim (cf. Jn 2:7). They
trust the Mother and carry out
immediately and well what
Mary, B7

B6 REFLECTIONS

January 25 - February 7, 2016 Vol. 20 No. 5

CBCP Monitor

Strong and faithful to the end

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C), Lk 4:21-30
January 31, 2016
By Fr. Sal Putzu, SDB
PROPHETS are a strange breed
of people. Often a torment to
themselves and others, they are
the critical conscience of Gods
people and of all mankind. Endowed with a unique knowledge
of Gods will and plan, they evaluate events and actions against the
background of such knowledge,
and then speak out. They shout
even when others prefer to keep
silent. True prophets are not after
popularity but after faithfulness to
their mission.
It is their strong faith in God
and in the worth of their mission
that keeps them going, in spite
of everything. Even when others
give up, they persevere. Even when
many seem not to understand
their message or question the
opportuneness of raising thorny
issues or taking a certain stance,
the authentic prophets continue
their mission undeterred.
Their loyalty makes them people of courage and hope. They
continue to hope and dare even
though the situations and misbehavior they denounce appear to
be humanly hopeless. Genuine
prophets are always able to see
beyond present crises and dark
clouds. They perceive and outline the prospect of better days,
provided the evildoers repent and
return to the Lord. They believe
in Gods justice and proclaim it,
but they also exhort all to trust in
His mercy.
Although they may have to say
unpleasant things about certain
individuals or groups or nations,
the prophets do so not out of hatred or bitterness but only out of

genuine concern for the salvation

of those who have gone astray.
They proclaim that God does not
want the death of sinners but their

When the
harrowing
things that had
been written in
the books
of the prophets
about the
Messiah came
to pass, Jesus
did not balk.
He stood at
his post, even
when his whole
body shivered
and drops of
perspiration
turned
to blood.
conversion and salvation. (See Ez
18:23 and 33:11) A prophet shares
in Gods concern for them and
gives his/her best to make Gods

Lent:
an opportunity to set
our priorities right
Ash Wednesday (C)
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
Beginning of the Lenten
Season; February 10, 2016

saving strategy succeed.

It is this concern for the salvation of sinners that brought the
very Son of God to come to earth
on mission. Even before his earthly
birth, Gods Son knew that he
would be misunderstood, maligned, slandered, accused falsely,
and eventually put to death by
crucifixion. But in spite of all those
deterrents, he went on implementing the Fathers plan with a
brave heart. He endured the rejection mounted by his own people
at Nazareth without retaliating.
He simply passed through their
midst, leaving them unharmed to
reflect on the gravity of the crime
they had committed.
And when the harrowing things
that had been written in the books
of the prophets about the Messiah
came to pass, Jesus did not balk.
He stood at his post, even when
his whole body shivered and drops
of perspiration turned to blood. In
the midst of that torment, Jesus
was also deserted by his disciples
and betrayed by the one he trusted
most. But he did not back off. He
did not rebel. Rather, he sought
his refuge in prayer not to try to
twist Gods arm, but to receive
from Him the strength he needed
to remain faithful to the end. In
his anguish, he did ask his Father
that--if possible--he might be
spared the coming tortures, as any
of us who is not a masochist would
have done. But his conclusion was:
Your will, not mine, be done!
And so it happened.
Jesus paid the hefty price of
his obedience unto death with
unflinching heart. He thereby left
us a wonderful example of how we
should accomplish our mission
with generous faithfulness.

Called to be Gods partners

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C), Lk 5:1-11; February 7, 2016
IT must have been quite a shocking experience for seasoned fishermen like Simon
(Peter) and his associates to haul in that

that wandering preacher from Nazareth had

invited Simon to lower the nets at such an
unlikely hour.
There was something unusual in that
young preacher--some extraordinary, or even
divine power. Simon was the first to sense it.

extraordinary catch of fish. They had been

toiling the whole night but in vain. Then,
when the sun was already high, at a time when
no fisherman would have hoped to get even
small fry, that big catch had come which left
everybody astonished! And this just because

And at the same time, he experienced what all

honest souls feel in the presence of the supernatural: a deep awareness of ones sinfulness
and unworthiness. Hence the plea: Leave me,
Lord. I am a sinful man! (Lk 5:8).
Almost eight centuries earlier, Isaiah had

By Fr. Sal Putzu, SDB

By Fr. Sal Putzu, SDB

THERE is in each of us a potential actor who can
transform our lives into a show of vanity and hypocrisy. Though in different degrees, we all experience the
desire for praise and approval from as many people as
possible...
If this yearning is not checked on time, soon it may
turn into an insatiable craving, which will reduce us to a
situation of moral slavery. For a time, we may still like to
believe that we are free and can do all that we like. The
sad reality, though, is that we have become compulsive
exhibitionists who act to please the eyes and arouse applauses, but suffer painful frustration if people do not
seem to notice our good deeds, our generosity, our
achievements... All this shows that we no longer enjoy
that internal freedom which is the fruit of authenticity,
sincerity, consistency...
Good deeds, acts of religious piety, and ritual
penance are not free from the risk of hypocrisy and ostentation. Actually, they constitute an even more subtle
danger, for these actions are good in themselves. As such,
they are supposed to be done in order to please God and
not in order to elicit the applause of the people. God
does not want that we make a show of our good deeds,
Lent, B7

Bo Sanchez

SOULFOOD
How to climb your mountains
IM not the athletic type.
One excuse: Im an only son. It so
happened that my five sisters werefor
some reasonall women.
My Dad? He wasnt also athletic. Oh
yes, when I was a kid, he used to ask me
to jog with him. But his entire jogging
route was inside his garage. He jogged
around his parked car.
But one day, I did something absolutely nuts. I went to the mountains of
Sagada and went rock climbing.
For those who havent tried it, let
me give you a very technical definition

of rock climbing: Its when you climb

a rock. I know my definition is a bit
difficult to understand. (I sometimes
amaze myself with my brilliance.)
Seriously, my definition of rock
climbing is being insane enough to
suspend yourself 100 feet above the air
with your fingernails hanging onto tiny
cracks and indentions on the rock that
ants cant even crawl onAnd you wonder why you even paid to do this lunacy.
But when I was up there, I felt no
fear. None whatsoever. I wish I could
be religious and say, Because of Jesus.

experienced the same feeling during the

theophany he witnessed in the Temple (Is
6:5). Utter terror grips an honest person at
the prospect of what an all-holy Being can
do to a sinful creature.
But Jesus doesnt enjoy terrifying people. He
immediately reassured the poor Simon who
was trembling at his feet. And he did more
than that. The miracle he had just performed
was only a beginning. It was a symbol of
something far greater that would keep happening until the end of time. That miraculous
catch of fish was a prophecy: Simon and his
partners and their successors would share
in Christs mission of catching men (see
Lk 5:10), i.e. rescuing them from the deadly
power of the forces of evil symbolized by
the sea.
That miracle, then, was not just Jesus way
of expressing his gratitude to Simon for allowing him to preach from his boat. (See Lk 5:13.)
It was part of a well thought-out plan: the
plan to bring Gods salvation to mankind
through the cooperation of frail and sinful
creatures like Simon Peter and his associates;
people like the Pope and the Bishops; people
like you and me.
The miraculous catch, i.e., the salvation
of men, goes on throughout the world, century after century, in spite of the inadequacy
of the fishermen. It goes on because it is the
work of Gods power; the work of Gods love
and trust. In spite of His omnipotence and
holiness, He does not disdain to avail Himself
of our cooperation, no matter how feeble and
inadequate it may occasionally be.
We are all in the saving boat of the Church.
We all share in the salvation wrought by
Christ. But we also share in the mission of
helping Jesus to save others, for, thanks to
him, we, too, have become life-savers, under
the guidance of Simon Peter, the master of the
fleet of Gods rescue team.

Bishop Pat Alo

But actually, I felt no fear because I had

this thick rope tied around my torso. I
knew that whatever happened, that rope
would keep me safe.
Dont Stay Where You Are
Friend, God wants you to go higher.
He wants you to keep on growing, to
be wiser, to be more loving, to be better,
and to be even more blessed.
Let me ask you: Whats your mountain? What do you need to conquer in
your life? What dream does God want
Soulfood, B7

ENCOUNTERS
No fear of God
GOD surely wants us to fearlessly trust in Him and face the challenges of a fast
secularizing world, challenges meant to strengthen our faith as lived by taught
by the Son of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, and all the heroic saints
who followed in the divine footsteps.
I recall the psychologist I had read about many years ago, Dr. Alexander Cannon, M.C., Ph.D., D.P.M., who wrote in his book Powers That Be that the
lion takes its fierceness from your fear: walk up to him and he will run from you;
run away from him and he will run after you. I compare this to lifes trials that
give us strength if we turn away from fear and face them bravely, as the same
book suggests: face a situation fearlessly and there is no situation to be faced.
Even prayer beckons the person who turns to God on his knees to surrender
Encounters, B7

CBCP Monitor

SOCIAL CONCERNS B7

January 25 - February 7, 2016 Vol. 20 No. 5

Schedules for Alay Kapwa National

Launching 2016 at the 3 Regions
directed to the Social Action Directors of the 3 hosting dioceses (Lipa,
Maasin, and Malaybalay), while other
general queries about the Alay Kapwa
program, AK remittances, details of the
NASSA 50 celebration and NASAGA
can be directed to Sweet Cruz-Racho,
Program Coordinator for Alay Kapwa
National Program of CBCP-NASSA
(alaykapwa@yahoo.com).
25 January 2016
Advocacy, Research and
Communication Unit
CBCP-National Secretariat for Social
Action-Justice and Peace
CBCP-NASSA/ Caritas Philippines
470 General Luna St., Intramuros,
Manila
Tel: +63 (2) 5274147
Fax: +63 (2) 527 4144
web site: nassa.org.ph

Linda Noche

program during the Lenten season

among their vicariates and parishes.
Donation collected/remitted to
NASSA (after dioceses have set aside
20% of the collection for their diocesan
disaster response, and 48% for its social action programs) will be pooled in
NASSAs solidarity fund for disaster
response in dioceses in need, and for
social action advocacy work at the national level to prevent disasters or their
impact on the communities.
The Social Action Network is also
asked to mark the dates of 19-23 Sept.
for the 38th National Social Action
General Assembly (NASAGA) to be
hosted by the Archdiocese of Palo in
Leyte, where the culmination of NASSAs 50th Anniversary will also be held.
This date has been agreed by the representatives of the 15 Sub-region at the
SAN ExeCom meeting last December.
Details of the Alay Kapwa Launching activities at the 3 regions, may be

in the 3 regions as follows:

LUZON
24-26 Feb. 2016 (Wed Fri), hosted
by the Archdiocese of Lipa, Batangas
VISAYAS
17-19 Feb. 2016 (Wed Fri), hosted
by Diocese of Maasin, Southern Leyte
MINDANAO
23-24 Feb. 2016 (Tues - Wed) hosted
by Diocese of Malaybalay, Bukidnon
The program at the AK Launching
will include the Regional Meeting of
the Diocesan Social Action Centers
(DSACs); Basic Orientation Seminar

on Social Action Work (BOSSAW);

Alay Kapwa program orientation; a
Eucharistic celebration, and other special activities prepared by the hosting
arch/dioceses.
The Alay Kapwa Lenten Campaign
will include AK boxes for collection of
Lenten sacrifices, facilitator modules for
reflection on Catholic social teachings
during Lent, and promotion through
posters and calendars per diocese.
These materials will also be distributed
among Catholic schools in Metro Manila. While NASSA as the National
Secretariat will provide materials at the
national level, each arch/diocese are
independent in how they will promote
and enhance the evangelization-action

Joann Fernandez

AFTER Alay Kapwas 40th year celebration last year, and its culmination with
Year of the Poor in October, CBCPNASSA is ready again to launch its
Alay Kapwa (AK) National Lenten
Campaign this year, as Ash Wednesday
approaches on Feb. 10.
This year, 2016, is a significant year
for NASSA as it marks its golden anniversary with the theme: The Gains
and Pains in the Past our Strength and
Commitment in Journeying with Gods
Poor. As AK 2016 adopts this theme,
after launching NASSA 50s ninemonth celebration with the bishops in
January, it will celebrate with the Social
Action Network (SAN) of the 86 arch/
dioceses at the AK national launching
Mary, B5

they are asked to do, without

complaining, without second
thoughts.
On this World Day of the
Sick let us ask Jesus in his
mercy, through the intercession
of Mary, his Mother and ours,
to grant to all of us this same
readiness to be serve those in
need, and, in particular, our
infirm brothers and sisters. At
times this service can be tiring and burdensome, yet we
are certain that the Lord will
surely turn our human efforts
into something divine. We too
can be hands, arms and hearts
which help God to perform
his miracles, so often hidden.
We too, whether healthy or
sick, can offer up our toil and
sufferings like the water which
filled the jars at the wedding

Encounters, B6

feast of Cana and was turned

into the finest wine. By quietly
helping those who suffer, as in
illness itself, we take our daily
cross upon our shoulders and
follow the Master (cf. Lk 9:23).
Even though the experience of
suffering will always remain a
mystery, Jesus helps us to reveal
its meaning.
If we can learn to obey the
words of Mary, who says: Do
whatever he tells you, Jesus
will always change the water
of our lives into precious wine.
Thus this World Day of the
Sick, solemnly celebrated in
the Holy Land, will help fulfil
the hope which I expressed
in the Bull of Indiction of
the Extraordinary Jubilee of
Mercy: I trust that this Jubilee
year celebrating the mercy of

God will foster an encounter

with [Judaism and Islam] and
with other noble religious
traditions; may it open us to
even more fervent dialogue
so that we might know and
understand one another better; may it eliminate every
form of closed-mindedness and
disrespect, and drive out every
form of violence and discrimination (Misericordiae Vultus,
23). Every hospital and nursing
home can be a visible sign and
setting in which to promote
the culture of encounter and
peace, where the experience
of illness and suffering, along
with professional and fraternal
assistance, helps to overcome
every limitation and division.
For this we are set an example
by the two Religious Sisters

who were canonized last May:

Saint Marie-Alphonsine Danil
Ghattas and Saint Mary of
Jesus Crucified Baouardy, both
daughters of the Holy Land.
The first was a witness to meekness and unity, who bore clear
witness to the importance of being responsible for one another
other, living in service to one
another. The second, a humble
and illiterate woman, was docile
to the Holy Spirit and became
an instrument of encounter
with the Muslim world.
To all those who assist the
sick and the suffering I express
my confident hope that they
will draw inspiration from
Mary, the Mother of Mercy.
May the sweetness of her
countenance watch over us in
this Holy Year, so that all of us

may rediscover the joy of Gods

tenderness (ibid., 24), allow
it to dwell in our hearts and
express it in our actions! Let us
entrust to the Virgin Mary our
trials and tribulations, together
with our joys and consolations.
Let us beg her to turn her eyes
of mercy towards us, especially
in times of pain, and make us
worthy of beholding, today and
always, the merciful face of her
Son Jesus!
With this prayer for all of you,
I send my Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 15 September
2015
Memorial of Our Lady of
Sorrows
FRANCIS

totally to the divine will and entrust

the events to His loving providence.
Power that seemingly was lost is
restored by the overwhelming faith
strategy, so to say. Like a staircase
we climb, one step after the other,
theres a solution to every problem
prodded by our faith in God. Because faith is a sign of bravery, while
despair is like falling into the hands
of Satan. All things are possible to
one who believes (Mk. 9:22).
May this new year solidify our
maturity, based on trust in God
which makes a person fearlessly
face problems in life, while growing
in the selfless love of Jesus. Maturity vis--vis our faith and love will
earnestly guide us to let go of our
fears and focus on perfecting a loveunion with the Creator. There is
no fear in love. Perfect love drives
away fear (1 Jn. 4:18).

Soulfood, B6

you to reach?
If your life isnt exciting, it may
because youve not been climbing
mountains.
Hear this: It will be your fears that
will keep you from reaching the summit.
But God is your rope. No matter what
happens, Hell hold you tight. Even if
you slip or make mistakes in climbing
the mountain, Hell never let go. Hell
keep you safe in His hands.
But if you think I was excited rock
climbing, it was nothing compared to
my excitement watching my 9-year old
son climb
Your Mountains Make You Grow
Believe me, it was incredible just seeing my son go up!
When he was already some 50 feet up

on a rocky ledge, all by himself, I heard

my wife pray to all the saints in Heaven.
Including those I never knew existed.
She said, Please pray for my son, St.
Fulgentius, St. Hegesippus, St. Ischyrion, St. Paphnutius, St. Radegundes,
St. Wenceslas
What was so frustrating was that I
couldnt be up there beside my son. He
had to climb all by himself. I couldnt
pull him, push him, hold him, or carry
him.
But even if I could have done all that,
I wouldnt have done it. Or I would have
stolen from my son the opportunity
to grow.
So when he finally rappelled down
to the ground wearing a million dollar
smile on his face, I realized he didnt
only conquer the rocky cliff. He con-

quered his fearswhich was the biggest

mountain of all.
I now realize that God will not remove your mountains. You need them.
Because He is using the mountain to
make you grow. God will give you all
the inspiration and wisdom and power
to overcome your mountains, but hell
let you do it seemingly alone. But
Hell cheer you. Hell guide you. Hell
bless you.
In your climb, remember that your
God is watching you. With pride.
I got deeper insights when my son
asked me for money two days ago
God Has Piled Up Your Blessings
On The Kitchen Counter
One day, my son Bene was going to
an internet marketing workshop. Before

leaving, he asked, Daddy, can you give

me Php 20? There are only pay toilets
there.
When I turned to him to say Sure,
I saw him already stuffing a P50 bill in
his wallet. I left a pile of money on the
kitchen counterand he helped himself
to it! Man, I loved it.
I share you this little incident because
of three key insights:
First, God has left all that you need
on the kitchen counter.
The universe is Gods kitchen counter.
He has loaded it to the brim with every
blessing and miracle that you need in
life to reach your dreams. If you only
realize whats available to you, youd be
totally overwhelmed. If you need love,
its there. If you need wisdom, its there.
If you need money, its there.

Second, ask for more than what you

need.
Didnt you notice? My son asked for
Php 20 but got P50.
I asked him why. He said, My cousin
Nicole is attending the workshop. She
goes to the toilet too. Isnt he wise? If
youre wise, you should also ask for more
blessings because you want to be generous. Life isnt about you. Life is about
loving others. So ask Big!
Third, be confident when you ask.
Even before my son heard my sure,
he already got my money from the
kitchen counter. My son already assumed that I would meet his needs
because he was confident in my love
for him. And I believe God would love
it too when were confident in His love
for us.

Lent, B6

and religious observances.

Many of the Pharisees in
the time of Jesus had become
victims of such temptations.
Much of their religious practices were just an empty show.
Je s u s c a l l e d t h o s e p e o p l e
frauds and whitewashed
tombs. (See Mt 23:27.)
At the very beginning of his
ministry, he warned his disciples not to commit a similar
error. (See Mt 6:2.5.16.) His
warning is ever-valid and applies to us, too. Jesus wants
all his disciples to be honest
and sincere, single-minded,
and eager to please God,
rather than crave for the
praises of people.
Lent is, for us, a unique
opportunity to mount a
campaign against any form
of self-exaltation or praise-

seeking. Through his example, Jesus himself teaches us

how to achieve the splendid
result of seeking only Gods
g l o r y i n a l l we d o . It i s
a matter of living in His
presence ever y minute of
our life and doing our duty
with the clear intention of
pleasing Him a matter
o f n o t j u s t d o i n g g o o d
b u t o f b e c o m i n g g o o d ,
rather than just appearing
to be such. It is a matter of
setting our priorities right
a n d a c t i n g a c c o r d i n g l y.
Then will the Lenten season
begin in the right way and
the Lord will show us his
merciful countenance. (See
the complete text of Misericordia Vultus [The Face of
Mercy] on pp. 269-270 of
this volume.)

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THE CROSS

A Supplement Publication of KCFAPI and the Order of the Knights of Columbus

CBCP Monitor Vol. 20, No. 2

January 25 - February 7, 2016

KC, KCFAPI support 51st IEC

THE 51st INTERNATIONAL
EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS
(IEC) opened last Sunday,
January 24, 2016 at the IEC
Pavilion, Pope John Paul
Avenue, Mabolo, Cebu City,
Philippines with the theme:
Christ in You, our Hope
of Glory and will continue
until Sunday, January 31,
2016. Cebu Archbishop Jose
Palma, in his talk at the Holy
See Press Office in Rome last
October 2015, encouraged
all to pray that the Congress
should bear fruit along
the lines of the following
objectives: a) to promote
an awareness of the central
place of the Eucharist in
the life and mission of
the Catholic Church;
b) to help and improve
our understanding and
celebration of the liturgy;
and c) to draw attention
to the social dimension
of the Eucharist. As with
the previous Congresses,
representatives of the
different Churches and
myriad of pilgrims from all
over the world are attending.
For his part, Luis Antonio
Cardinal Tagle, in one of his
previous homilies, focused
on one thing that needs to
be seriously addressed
the difficulty of translating
the social dimension of
the Eucharist into praxis.
Cardinal Tagle called this
practical atheism which is
very prevalent among many
Filipino churchgoers.
To help address this
concern, Archbishop
Palma announced the
creation of a committee
on social concerns among
the many committees of
the 51st IEC to make the
poor believe that we who
benefit from the Eucharist
should manifest this in our
concerns, especially for
the less privileged more
appropriately in the context
of the Extraordinary Jubilee
Year of Mercy.

Members of Knights of Columbus Council (#) pass through the main entrance of the 51st International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) Pavilion on Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016. ROY LAGARDE

In strong support for

the 51st International
Eucharistic Congress, the
Order of the Knights of
Columbus in partnership
with the Knights of Columbus
Fraternal Association of the
Philippines, Inc. (KCFAPI)
registered a total of 104
Official Delegates who are
participating in the present
Congress.
The KCFAPI likewise
sponsored six of the total
51 banners representing
the 51 countries that have
hosted the International
Eucharistic Congress since
1881 up to this years Cebu
edition.
The International
Eucharistic Congress was
last held in Dublin, Ireland

in 2012 with the theme: The

Eucharist: Communion with
Christ and with one another.
That Congress coincided
with the 50th anniversary
of the inauguration of the
Second Vatican Council
and that was where Pope
Benedict XVI announced
via satellite from the Vatican
that the next congress (51st)
would be held in Cebu, the
Philippines in 2016. This is
actually the second time that
the International Eucharistic
Congress has come to the
Philippines. The 30th I.E.C.
was held in the Archdiocese
of Manila in February 1937.
That was an extraordinary
event for the entire Far
East then. Pope Pius XI,
for that Congress, chose the

theme on the relationship

between the Eucharist and
the missionary activity of
the Church.
For the ongoing 51st
International Eucharistic
Congress, the Catholic
Bishops Conference of the
Philippines (CBCP) earlier
confirmed that Pope Francis
will not attend the event
in order to afford him
more time to visit other
countries given that it was
only last year, 2015, when
the Pope was able to visit
the Philippines. The Pope
is being represented here
by the first Cardinal of
Myanmar Cardinal Charles
Bo as his appointed Papal
Legate.
Twenty Cardinals, 50

TURNOVER. THE Knights of Columbus Visayas Jurisdiction has turned over the 200 blankets and tarpaulins to the Membership and Program Provincial Coordinator (MPPC) of
Northern Samar and to Bro. Oskar Monje last January 16, 2016 for distribution to the victims of Typhoon Nona a calamity assistance from the Knights of Columbus Visayas
Jurisdiction led by State Deputy, Anthony Nazario. (VizNews)

A Christmas Carol. THE Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines Seminarians from Daet had their Annual Christmas Carolling
at the home office of the Knights of Columbus Fraternal Association of the Philippines, Inc. (KCFAPI) last December 21, 2015.

Bishops from other countries

and 131 Filipino Bishops
who recently attended the
Catholic Bishops Conference
Plenary Assembly also held
in Cebu have now joined the
I.E.C. As early as October
2015, 8,345 pilgrims
representing 57 nations had
already registered aside
from 5,000 volunteers and
600 host families who have
welcomed the pilgrims.
At the First International
Eucharistic Congress held
at Lille, France in June 21,
1881, the original idea for
the Congress was merely
local and it was met with few
adherents. However over
the years, each succeeding
Eucharistic Congress has
grown with ever-increasing

importance and has served

as a gathering of clergy,
religious, and laity all
bearing witness to the Real
Presence of Jesus in the
Eucharist.
Through the years, the
Eucharistic Congresses have
brought together people
from different countries
and have typically involved
large open-air Masses,
adoration of the Eucharist
(Blessed Sacrament), and
other devotional ceremonies
held over several days.
Congresses may both refer
to National (varies by
country) and International
Eucharistic Congresses.
Representing the KCFAPI
Group of Companies in the
International Eucharistic
Congress are the following:
KCFAPI Vice Chairman
Hilario G. Davide, Jr.,
Supreme Director Alonso
L. Tan, KCFAPI President
Jose C. Reyes, Jr., KCFAPI
Treasurer Raoul A.
Villanueva, KCFAPI Trustee
Reynaldo C. Trinidad,
KCFAPI Trustee Anthony
P. Nazario, KCFAPI EVP
Ma. Theresa G. Curia, KRDC
Director Vicente V. Ortega,
KCFC Vice Chairman
Rene V. Sarmiento, MACE
Director Danilo A. Sanchez,
KCFAPI VP Rowena M.
Diapolit, Atty. Neil Jerome
J. Rapatan and Executive
Secretary Annie M. Nicolas.
As advance preparations
for the International
Eucharistic Congress, a
three-day IEC Theological
Symposium was held from
January 20 22, 2016.
Each day of the Symposium
kicked off with two Plenary
sessions in the morning and
these were followed by seven
(7) concurrent sessions on
different selected topics.
The daily symposium
regularly started and ended
with the celebration of the
Holy Eucharist. (Robert
T. Cruz)

Poster-Making Contest. The Knights of Columbus Pasay City Council 4267 in coordination
with the Sta. Clara De Montefalco parish had an on-the-spot poster and slogan-making
contest participated by junior and senior high school students from different schools in
Pasay. The activity themed Protection of Life, Fight Abortion was held last January 16,
2016 at the 4th floor of St. Matthew Hall, Sta. Clara, Pasay City. (KC News)

Death Claim Benefits. IN PHOTO are the beneficiaries of the late Bro. Antonio C. Mencias of Las Pinas City. Receiving the check
in the amount of more than P1.1 M is Sis. Marcela A. Mencias (lady in white blouse) together with her daughters. The check was
handed over by KCFAPI Chairman Arsenio Isidro G. Yap and witnessed by (from left) KCFAPI VP Gari M. San Sebastian, KCFAPI EVP
Ma. Theresa G. Curia, daughters of Bro. Mencias, KCFAPI Independent Trustee Atty. Rogelio V. Garcia, KCFAPI Trustee Pascual C.
Carbero and KCFAPI Treasurer Raoul A. Villanueva.

C2

January 25 - February 7, 2016 Vol. 20 No. 2

Arsenio Isidro G. Yap

Ma. Theresa G. Curia

Chairmans Message

Curia Settings

THE INTERNATIONAL EUCHARISTIC

CONGRESS will be held in the Philippines

for the second time since its inception

in 1881 in France. The first one was
the 33rd Congress held in Manila from
February 3-7, 1937. It was attended by
more than one and a half million people
coming from different parts of the world.
The procession alone was participated in
by more than half a million people.
This Sunday January 24, 2016 up to the end of the month
January 31, the 51st International Congress will be held in
the Philippines for the second time and will be hosted by
the Archdiocese of Cebu. The 50th Congress was last held
more than three years ago in Dublin, Ireland from June
10-17, 2012.
Just exactly what is a Eucharistic Congress? Briefly, its a
gathering of Catholics, primarily members of the clergy and
the religious congregations together with the faithful or lay
people. The main focus of the event is to bear witness to our
Lord Jesus Christs presence in the Eucharist.
It is our belief that during the consecration in the Celebration
of the Mass, the bread and wine is transformed into the body
and blood of Christ. This belief is substantiated with the words
of Jesus Christ Himself when He said in the Last Suffer, This
is my bodythis is my blood.
The first Eucharistic Congress originated in Lille, France
and was approve by Pope Leo XIII. It was first organized by
Bishop Louis Gaston Adrien de Segur of France. Sadly, Bishop
de Segur died on June 9, 1881, twelve days before the start of
the first Eucharistic Congress on June 21, 1881.
This years International Eucharistic Congress in Cebu will
be participated in by tens of thousands members of the clergy
and the religious orders and at least a million lay people.
Members of the Knights of Columbus (K of C) coming from
all over the Philippines and possibly from the United States
and Canada as well, will actively participate in the different
programs of the event.
The Knights of Columbus Fraternal Association of the
Philippines, Inc. (KCFAPI) sponsored the registration fee of
a hundred members of the K of C in the Philippines. It also
sponsored six banners out of fifty one bearing the countrys
flag where the congress was held in the past. KCFAPI also
donated P50,000.00 to the procession committee wherein
about 300 honor guards in full regalia is expected to
participate in.
Individually and collectively, the contribution of the Knights
of Columbus in the Philippines together with KCFAPI and all
its subsidiaries is quite substantial living up to its claim as a
strong partner of the Church in all its activities.
May this worthy undertaking further strengthen the belief of
the faithful of our Lords presence in the Holy the Eucharist.
And may the participants be an instrument to evangelize to
those who no longer believe in our faith and Christ presence
in the Eucharist. Vivat Jesus!

Justice Jose C. Reyes, Jr.

Presidents Message

The Eucharist:
A place and event for gathering and transformations
ON January 16, 2016, the 51st
International Congress will be held in
Cebu. The first Congress was held in
France in 1881 and it was in 1937 during
the 33rd Eucharistic Congress that
Manila became the host with the helping
hand of our very own Servant of God,
Rev. Fr. George J. Willmann. There
has been no sequence as to the number
of years before another International
Eucharistic Congress is held since 1881.
Some were held a year, 2 years, 3 years,
5 years, 8 years, or even 14 years after
the other. The event is held in different
parts of the world and engages the whole
Church to reflect on the importance
and relevance of encountering Jesus in
the Eucharistic celebration. The whole
Church is also challenged to deepen
their devotion and commitment to
the Greatest Sacrament and all that it
stands for.
The core of the teaching of the Church
on the Eucharist is this: The Eucharist
is the font and summit of the Church
Life. Whenever we gather around the
Eucharist, we become the Body of
Christ for our time. The Risen Lord
becomes alive in the heart of the world.
No wonder that from the Eucharist,
we draw all the graces we need to be
able to exist gracefully as we encounter
Jesus and the community. Similarly,
all our daily activities, all the collective
efforts of the world towards justice,
unity and love are geared towards
making us a whole body worthy of being
able to celebrate the Eucharist. All our
accomplishments attain meaning and
fullness only when they are directed
towards the Lord at the Eucharist.
The Eucharist then becomes a place of
gathering and transformations.
At our celebration of the Eucharist,
the crowds which gather around One
Common Table become a Family, a
Body. Individuals who did not know
each other and who come together in

our churches are united in prayer and

praise, in memory and thanksgiving, in
intercessions and promises. Anonymity
is transformed into Community.
Indifference metamorphose into
Intimate Sharing in one Word, and one
Bread.
Several transformations are promised
to happen in our midst at the Eucharist.
One transformation happens when
the unleavened bread becomes The
Bread of Life for the world. A greater
transformation happens among the
people who come to celebrate. People
who came as strangers are called to be
brothers and sisters, in the Family of
God. Indeed, we become more and more
a Church as we gather from different
places and backgrounds, Sunday after
Sunday. People who come with their
own problems and agenda, with their
own hurts and fears are invited to
partake of the banquet of the Lords
Word and Flesh and be gathered as
One Body. Enmity and indifference are
made to reconcile as they are exposed to
the proclamation and prayer for mercy
and forgiveness. The sick, the confused,
the sinners, the dysfunctional, and the
broken hearted are brought to healing.
But they must encounter the Lord who
heals.
But for such to happen and for us to
experience, we need to make ready the
materials for transformation. First we
have to be there to be present physically
and psychologically, and we must be
emotionally and spiritually hungry.
The least we can do is to be conscious
that we are present before the Lord,
even if we do not feel anything or even
if we feel bad. Even if we are not able
to master ourselves, at least we must
be willing to expose ourselves to the
rays of the Energy of God present in
the Community and in the Collective
memory of what we are celebrating.
One way to prepare ourselves is to

have the habit of going to church a few

minutes before the mass starts. If we are
there early, we have a chance to enter
slowly and peacefully into the power
of the Encounter. We have a chance
to come to a point of quiet and rest
before the Assembly starts singing and
praying. When we are relaxed, we can
focus more on what will happen next
and we can absorb more the Energy of
the community. This preparation time
is also very good to gather our thoughts,
our mind, and heart and whatever we
like to lift up to God. This is a good
time to collect our weeks experiences,
our personal and family highs and
lows, and be able to say Im sorry
and Thank you. So, even before the
Eucharist begins, our personal offering
to the Lord is ready. In this way we are
ready to connect our personal lives to
the life of the community and the life of
the Risen Lord.
Week after week and depending on
the season and feast, the mood of the
community changes. Depending on the
theme of the mass, or of the year, or of
the season, or of the readings, different
truths about God and our realities are
communicated to us. Many times we can
almost experience a particular emotion
or receive a particular promise based on
the reading. Perhaps, we also feel the
grace we are asking for or the grace that
is being proclaimed as becoming real in
our hearts and in our guts.
A case in point is the topic of Gods
Mercy, which we will surely meet often
during the year, being the Jubilee Year
of Mercy. At the Eucharist it is really
possible to encounter the Mercy of the
Lord. Right as soon as the mass starts,
we are invited to experience Mercy and
Forgiveness as we proclaim: Lord,
have mercy, Christ have mercy. Before
Communion we pray again: Lamb of
God who takes away the sins of the
Curia Settings, C3

Michael P. Cabra

My Brothers Keeper

Hope and Glory

The Importance of the

Holy Eucharist
THE Holy Eucharist, more
commonly known as Holy
Communion, is both a sacrament
and a sacrifice. It is one of the
seven sacraments that we should
receive as often as we can. Through
it, we gain graces from God that
will make us grow in faith and
worthy of all His blessings He so generously gives us. The
Holy Eucharist is also a sacrifice because Jesus himself is
the sacrificial lamb offered during the Holy Mass. When
the priest lifts up the white host and then the chalice with
wine during Consecration, they are actually transformed
into the body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ; thus we
believe that God is truly present in the altar.
We, Christians, believe that we have a soul, and if we live a
holy life here on earth we can join God our Creator in heaven
when we die. By living a Christ-centered life and by receiving
the sacraments, we are actually feeding our soul. Let us not
forget then to take care of our soul so that we can overcome
death and gain eternal life. Our soul needs nourishment to
grow, mature, and become holy.
Let us recall our first Communion when we were all white
in our dress and even our shoes. We were so prepared to
receive Christ then. As we grew up and became adults, we
prepared less and less, and for some, even stopped going to
Holy Mass. We became more concerned about our physical
well-being and appearance, and very little time was spent
to take care of our soul. After receiving the sacraments of
baptism and confirmation, many became Sunday Catholics
who attend mass, hardly participating in the celebration.
Some receive Holy Communion regularly but without the
benefit of the sacrament of penance, more commonly called
Confession.
Let us then go back to where we started and remember
the preparations we used to do. Remember that we are
meeting God, and not just anybody, everytime we go to
mass. Let us not be late, instead let us come before the
start of the mass to settle down and focus on God, our King
and Savior. Let us actively participate and be one with the
community in offering the mass. Let us come prepared to
receive Holy Communion. Not wanting to receive Christ in
Holy Communion is like going to a banquet and refusing to
partake of the food the host has prepared for us. Before we
go, receive with a grateful heart, the final blessing from the
priest at the end of the mass.
No less than Bishop Soc Villegas, the President of the
Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, is enjoining
each one of us to not limit ourselves to Sunday mass but
also to go to mass daily, to pray the rosary daily with our
family at home, and to go to confession once a month. In
addition, it would be good to visit the Blessed Sacrament as
often as we can, and to read the Bible daily. Our soul, just
like our body, needs daily nourishment to be able to live our
Christian faith to the fullest. A grace-filled year to everyone!

The Cross

THE theme of the 51st

International Eucharistic
Congress is Christ in you, our
hope and glory.
It is derived from the Letter
of St. Paul to the Colossians,
Chapter 1 verse 27. Its
immediate context is from
verses 24 to 29.
The theme was chosen in
order to express the nature of
the Eucharist as mystery and
mission. For the Philippines
and in Asia, the Eucharist
is a mystery to be revealed,
lived, and proclaimed. In
the conte xt of the Ne w
Evangelization and within
the nine-year preparation for
the 500th anniversary of the
coming of the Christian faith
to the Philippines in 1521, the
theme points to the Eucharist
as the mystery or sacrament of
the presence of Christ Jesus
and of His saving mystery in

the Church People of God

and Body of Christ.
Christ in you indicates the
presence of Jesus Christ in the
Church which is also Church
for the Gentiles, and of the
Gentiles. Thus, the Church
itself is present as a mission,
the church is itself missionarymandate and event.
In line with this theme, an
insured KC member is also the
hope and glory of his family.
First is Hope, because
in case any of the threats
to the continuity of income
transpired to a KC member,
members of the family will
not suffer financially or at
least lessen their financial
loss. Threats to the continuity
of income include premature
death, disability, and old
age. Insurance benefits may
be given in form of death
claim, disability assistance,

or retirement support.
Then Glory, because
insurance benefit may
continue to provide not
only for the basic needs but
also for the achievement of
dreams especially that of the
members children. Statistics
show that most financially
successful people came from
families with life insurance
protection.
This same thought is the
integral part of the program
of the Knights of Columbus
Order since the dawn of its
founding in 1882. Fr. Michael
McGivney once HOPED that
his Knights will bring GLORY
to their family. With this we
can say that one is not a fullpledged member of the Order
if he doesnt have a benefit
certificate.
Having a benefit certificate
is not only for the rich or can-

afford members of the Order.

It is the mission of every
KC member. Right after the
first degree exemplification
you are privileged to be part
of the Fraternal Accidental
Death Benefit (FADB) for
free. Remember to fill-out the
FADB form. Once you become
a member of the Order, you
and your immediate family
members can enrol to the KC
Family Protect Series for a
lifetime insurance protection,
KC Elite Pro for retirement
support, and One-TimeContribution plans for short
term goals like a dream house,
a dream car, or a dream
business.
As we join and celebrate the
51st International Congress
let us be reminded that like
Christ, let us be the hope and
glory of our family and the
generations after us.

An Affair to Remember
OLD movies and TV shows showcase
a womans traditional role as a homemaker. A typical scenario in films is that
the woman cooks dinner as her husband
comes home from work with his
briefcase in hand then she delightedly
greets him and asks him how his day
was. In these reels of classic cinema,
it specifies gender roles for men and
women wherein the men are the strong
breadwinners of the family and women
lovingly take care of the children and
household duties. Nowadays, women
are regularly performing duties that
were traditionally assigned to males.
They also have the amazing ability to
still be able to perform and constantly
maintain her duties at home. I tell you,
I do not know where and how they
find the time and energy to juggle and
balance their careers and take care of
the family.

Last January 16, 2016, The

Diocesan Councils of Alaminos,
Lingayen-Dagupan and Urdaneta in
coordination with KCFAPI Central
Luzon Conquerors of Nueva Ecija,
Aurora and Pangasinan held the event
An Affair to Remember recognizing
womens roles as Knights of Columbus
Leaders Partners in Generating
Membership and Strengthening of the
Order. The affair was held at the City
De Luxe Restaurant and Bakeshop in
Dagupan City Pangasinan.
This event is the brainchild of Bro.
Manuel Naldoza, Area Manager of
Central Luzon Conquerors, to honor
the supportive and understanding
wives of Knights of Columbus
members. The first ever An Affair to
Remember was held in Harvest Hotel
in Cabanatuan City last June 20, 2015.
Around 200 guests were present

for the event attended by 79 couples

consisting of KC members and their
loving wives. Among the esteemed
special guests invited were KCFAPI
Chairman, Bro. Arsenio Isidro G. Yap;
Knights of Columbus Membership and
Program Consultant for Philippines
and Guam, Bro. Vince Pacis; North
Luzon Deputy and KCFAPI President,
Court of Appeals Justice Jose C.
Reyes Jr. and KCFAPI Executive Vice
President, Sis Ma. Theresa G. Curia.
The program started with an opening
prayer followed by the National
Anthem, hosted by Bro. Manuel L.
Naldoza and the Regional Diocesan
Coordinator of Nueva Ecija, Aurora,
and Pangasinan, Bro. Gil Dindo Berino.
Bro. Naldoza then introduced Bro.
Armando Abalos, the Chairman of the
Diocesan Councils of District Deputies
An Affair to Remember, C3

The Cross

C3

January 25 - February 7, 2016 Vol. 20 No. 2

Our Service to Youth

By SK Carl A. Anderson
S T R E N G T H E N I N G
COLLABORATION with parishes
will allow K of C councils to better
serve young people
During the November midyear
State Deputies meeting, I announced
our new Orderwide initiative,
Building the Domestic Church
While Strengthening Our Parish.
My remarks were reprinted in last
months Columbia and are available
on kofc.org.
At the heart of this new program
is a commitment to strengthen the
Catholic identity of our families by
integrating our activities more fully
into the sacramental and social life of
our parishes. In this way, we will not
only help families, but also further
the mission of the new evangelization
and revitalize parish life.
The Knights of Columbus has
always been an organization
dedicated to the family and to
helping our brother Knights be
better husbands and fathers. Our
new initiative is refocusing on this
core mission.
A major aspect of the family
as domestic church is our

responsibility to transmit the

practice of the faith to our children
and grandchildren.
In November, I said that our
youth need a stronger relationship
with their parish and that parishes
need more effective youth ministry
programs. The Knights of Columbus
is providentially positioned today to
further both of these goals.
As part of the Building
the Domestic Church While
Strengthening Our Parish
initiative, grand knights should
meet with pastors to discuss how
their councils can support parishbased youth ministry activities.
This can incorporate Knights of
Columbus youth programs such
as the Free Throw Championship
and the Soccer Challenge. Youth
Activity chairmen should act as
liaisons with the parish youth
ministry teams to determine how
councils can appropriately support
parish youth activities.
To promote better integration into
parish life, the Board of Directors
has concluded that the Knights of
Columbus will no longer be the
chartered organization for Boy Scout
troops. This does not mean that

the Order has abandoned Catholic

Scouting. Rather, we intend closer
alignment of our youth activities
with the goals of each parish.
To the extent that pastors wish
to provide Catholic Scouting in
their parish, councils are strongly
encouraged to continue volunteer
and financial support for Scout
troops, under the guidance of their
pastors. This change is meant to
strengthen the relationship between
the parish and the troop. Our goal?
To provide for a more robust and
sustainable Catholic Scouting
experience.
Where a council presently
sponsors a Scout troop, the grand
knight should meet with the pastor
to discern whether Catholic Scouting
fits into the parishs youth ministry.
If so, the grand knight should
coordinate with troop leadership
and the local Scouting council to
designate the parish as the chartered
organization for the troop. Once this
change has been made, the council
should continue to provide volunteer
and financial support.
If a council has an active Squires
circle, the grand knight and Squires
counselor should meet with the

pastor to discuss how Squires

activities may be better integrated
into the parishs youth ministry.
Active Squires circles may continue
serving boys according to current
practice, reporting to the council
and recruiting new members. The
Supreme Council will continue
to provide support materials to
these circles. However, councils
are encouraged not to form new
circles, and inactive circles should
be disbanded.
Curia Settings, C2

The Gentle Warrior

By James B. Reuter, SJ
Part II of Chapter Two of The Gentle Warrior series
CHAPTER TWO
--------.--------The Knights of Columbus
IT was with the Alumni Association that
George first met the Knights. Many of the
Alumni belonged to Council 1000, of the
Knights of Columbus the only Council
in the Philippines. Many of the fathers of
the boys he taught in class belonged to the
Knights. And then George remembered a
conversation he had, seven years ago, in
1915, when he was about to leave his job
in the Bank, in Brooklyn. He was already
accepted in the Society of Jesus. He was
saying goodbye to his old friends.
I went to say goodbye to a few
old friends. One gentleman was a Knight
of Saint Gregory, and a wealthy man. He
was like an uncle, rather than a friend. I
went to his business house to say goodbye.
He said: wait a minute, George. When you
come back as a priest, try to be a chaplain
of the Knights of Columbus. The Knights
of Columbus in Brooklyn are doing a lot of
good, but they would do more good if they
had a chaplain who was active. I said: I will
try to do that.
When he met the Knights in Manila, in
1922, he could not possibly be a chaplain,
because he was not yet ordained. He
was a Jesuit Scholastic in regency, still in
training for the priesthood. He would not
be ordained until six years later, in June of
1928.
George felt very close to this group of
men not only because they were good

Our new approach to youth

evangelization is one important part
of our Building the Domestic Church
While Strengthening Our Parish
initiative. Over time, this initiative
will develop a multifaceted approach
in support of parish life that will
make the Knights of Columbus
the strong right arm of our parish
church. This will also set a firm
foundation for the future growth of
strong parish-based councils.
Vivat Jesus!

men, and reminded him of the good Catholic

men he had met on Wall Street most of
the active leaders of the Knights were from
Ateneo families! Many of their sons would
later enter the Society of Jesus! The first
Filipino Grand Knight, elected in 1918, was
Gabriel la O, a young lawyer, who took office
at the age of thirty-two.
Thirty-one Irish-American military men
established the Knights of Columbus in
the Philippines in 1905. As the faith came
to the Philippines with Magellan, in 1521,
together with conquest, so did the Knights
come to the Philippines, with the American
occupation?
But by 1918 the Americans were moving
out, and the Filipinos were taking over. The
men whom George met at their meetings
were all closely associated with the Atone:
Angel Ansaldo, Gregorio Araneta, Jose
Maria Delgado, Antonio Escoda, Felicisimo
Feria, Juan Guerrero, Julian la O, Maximo
Paterno, Claro Recto, Gregorio Singian,
Jaime de Veyra, Jose P. Bengzon, Emeterio
Barcelon.
The Grand Knight during his first year
at the Ateneo, 1922 to 1923, was Angel
Ansaldo. The Grand Knight during his
second year, 1923 to 1924, was Felicisimo
Feria. The Grand Knight in his last year of
regency at the Ateneo, 1924 to 1925, was
Jaime de Veyra.
When he met these men, at their meetings,

George was impressed by their seriousness.

They were thoughtful, and deeply interested
in the Knights. They wanted the organization
to grow, in numbers, and in strength. They
talked about their trips to the province, to
establish new centers: San Pablo, Cebu,
Cagayan de Oro, Laoag and Vigan. They
talked about an amazing priest in the north,
Isaias Edralin, who was organizing the
Knights in Vigan, and in Baguio. That was
the first time that George heard the name of
this man Edralin. He was a secular priest,
campaigning for the Knights of Columbus,
in the North of Luzon. In 1933, Father
Edralin applied for entrance into the Society
of Jesus, and was accepted. He and George
became good friends, when George came
back to the Philippines as a priest. (To be
continued on the next issue.)

world, have mercy on

us and grant us peace. If
we close our eyes during
the singing of these
songs we can almost
see the hand of God
stretched out to us and
offering us Gods mercy
and forgiveness, Gods
healing and compassion.
And if we are attentive,
it is very possible
that Gods Mercy will
spring again through
a word or phrase from
the readings, from the
psalm, from the homily,
or from the prayers of
the faithful, especially
if we find ourselves
needful of Gods mercy.
The Eucharist is so
rich, so vast, and so
deep that we can never
exhaust the different
facets and areas
where we can discover
different experiences.
That is why we go to
celebrate it Sunday
after Sunday, without
fail. Added to this is
the fact that we also
change from day to day,
even from hour to hour,
from being positive to
negative or even in
between. We need to
expose ourselves to the
riches and secrets of the
Eucharist. Many times
we just need to be there;
to detach ourselves
from the problems of

the week, of the family,

and work and even from
the fluctuating attacks
of our psychological
clocks. When we kneel
before the mass, let us
leave behind all the
worries and tensions
which weigh on our
shoulders. Just kneel
naked before the Lord.
Just kneel and rest in
the Lord and surrender
ourselves to the
Presence of the Energy
that moves the world.
When we are weak, we
become strong. When
we feel nada, God comes
and takes us into his
loving arms. And the
Eucharist can begin.
[The author, Sis.
Ma. Theresa G. Curia
is the Executive Vice
President of the
Knights of Columbus
Fraternal Association
of the Philippines, Inc.
(KCFAPI). With the
approval of its Board of
Trustees, KCFAPI has
paid the Registration
of 80 delegates to this
Years IEC, donated
P50,000.00 cash for
the procession and
sponsored 6 banners
for the procession to
represent the Six
Majority-owned
or Wholly-owned
companies of the
KCFAPI]

An Affair to Remember, C2

Deputies of Alaminos, LingayenDagupan and Urdaneta who gave

an inspiring message in his opening
remarks. He thanked the guests for
attending and proceeded with his
speech where he described a woman,
or wife as someone who is married
to a man. She is there to give endless
support and be always there when he
and the family needs her.
Bro. Abalos also stated that A
woman uses the example and
inspiration of Jesus Christ to place
the needs of her husband above her
own, in providing for his physical,
emotional, and spiritual needs.
In doing so, she glorifies God in
modeling the relationship between
Christ and the Church. He addressed
the dear ladies to prepare themselves
to be surprised, excited, and be
inspired, then welcomed everyone
to the Bangus City of Dagupan.
A couple of audio-visual presentation
were exhibited then after the speech.
The first one was about the order
of Knights of Columbus wherein
members of the order talked about
the true essence of the organization by
showcasing activities such as outreach
programs, annual family days, and
gift-giving which highlights that the
Knights of Columbus is more than
just a Brotherhood of men, for it is
for the whole family as well. Then,

the second presentation was Bro.

Manuel Wel L. Naldozas 2014
Area Manager of the Year speech.
He thanked KC and KCFAPI officers,
staffs, and FCs for their continuous
support. Bro. Wel even shared his
secrets to success such as: the unified
1st degree exemplification for the area;
members of his project level up team
where in each and every member has
their own contribution; the annual
values formation and the KC officers
orientation; the annual CLC Area
Family Day; the Grand Knights and
District Deputies partnership; and
lastly the support of his loving wife,
the late Sis. Purificacion Puring S.
Naldoza.
Prior to the aforementioned
presentation, District Deputy of
U03, Bro. Jose Bernabe Romero,
acknowledged the Bro. Knights and
their respective ladies as well as the
guests present at the event. This was
then followed with the Membership
report by Bro. Gil Dindo Berino
wherein Bro. Jose C. Reyes Jr. and
Bro. Arsenio Isidro G. Yap awarded
tokens to the representatives of
Council 12528, Council 4710,
Council 15309, and District U03
for exceeding their membership
recruitment quota last December.
Then, Sis. Charmaine Joy N.
Humarang, the daughter of Bro. Wel

and Sis. Puring Naldoza, recounted

how Sis. Puring supported Bro. Wel.
To most families, Sundays are their
bonding day. To their family, Sundays
are KC-themed day. Sis Puring was
always present during KC Activities
where she was in charge of entertaining
guests and her fellow sis. wives. Due
to her endless support, Bro. Wel
developed the idea of involving the role
of wives in the Knights of Columbus.
Another audio visual presentation
was shown displaying pictures
of the sister wives during their
younger years and some wedding
photos of the brother knights and
sister wives which was meticulously
prepared by Bro. Nestor Berber.
The sudden rush of nostalgia was
applauded, and cheered by the
audience. To everyones surprise,
we were treated to a live serenade
by Tessie Lagman-Balboa, Cora
Bautista-Garcia and Cynthia Garcia
to top off the presentation.
After which, Sis. Ma. Theresa
Tes G. Curia gave her message on
the role of women in the Knights
of Columbus. She praised the
audio-visual presentation about
the Knights of Columbus for it truly
captured what Knights of Columbus
is all about and really enjoyed the
audio visual presentation of the
pictures as well and stated that it

is a thing of beauty to remind the

couples of how much they love each
other. Sis. Tes helps out the Knights
of Columbus by doing her utmost
best in her job as the Executive
Vice President of the Knights of
Columbus Fraternal Association of
the Philippines, Inc. She then asked
the question as to why our Church is
called Mother Church. The Church
is considered to be a mother to its
members because it is the Bride of
Christ as stated in Ephesians 5:2133. She then gave the audience the
assignment of discovering why our
planet is called mother earth. She
also cited that women should be
in full support of men as stated in
Genesis 2:18 The Lord God said,
It is not good for the man to be
alone. I will make a helper suitable
for him. She presented a table that
showed that women lived longer,
were more religious, and more
honest than men. She showed the
logo of the Knights of Columbus and
the meaning behind each color. She
presented another slide that showed
that 82% of our countrys population
is Catholic but only 37% of them
attend the church. And only 0.46%
of Catholic men are members of the
Knights of Columbus. Sis Tes closed
her presentation with the quote All
good men and women must take

responsibility to create legacies that

will take the next generation to a
level we could only imagine, and
asked everyone to make memories
in exchange of gifts. Matthew 6:2021 But store up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where moths
and vermin do not destroy, and
where thieves do not break in and
steal. For where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also.
A plaque of recognition was
awarded by Bro. Arman Abalos to
Sis. Tes together with her Husband,
Bro. Harry Curia.
The final speaker for the event was
Bro. Jose C. Reyes, Jr. He thanked
the wives of the KC members for
understanding their husbands roles
in the Knights of Columbus and stated
that Bro. Knights honor their wives
through our insurance program.
KCFAPI was formed to show our
wives that we love them, by leaving
a legacy long after were gone. He
hoped that the wives would continue
to support the Knights of Columbus.
And as finale for his speech, Justice
Reyes sang a few lines of the classic
song An affair to remember.
The program ended with the Bro.
Knights giving roses, chocolates, and
perfumes to their lovely wives and
danced with each other. (Erwin
John B. Mallari)

C4

January 25 - February 7, 2016 Vol. 20 No. 2

The Cross

New Board of Director of Mace Insurance Agency,

Inc.: Bro. Teodulo C. Sandoval, REE, ChBA
AS an active servant of Roman
Catholic Church activities, a year
before Bro. Sandoval began his
service as a KC member in 1999 he
was a member of the Extraordinary
Minister of the Holy Communion
(EMHC) in 1998. As he continues his
service, Bro. Ted became the Grand
Knight of Council No. 13548 in 2007
and was bestowed with a Star Council
Award for CY 2007-2008. At the same
time, he was the Diocesan President
of the Lay Minister of the Word,
Diocese of Antipolo until 2012. In the
same diocese, he was also a resource
speaker in Bible Study since 1999.
Bro. Ted was also the President of the
Parish Pastoral Council of St. Therese
of the Child Jesus Parish from 20082010. In St. Francis Xavier Assembly
ACN 3169, he was the Chartered

Faithful Navigator for CY 20092011. Currently, he is the Luzon

State Spiritual Formator since 2009.
On that same year, he was a finalist
in the Top Outstanding Knights of
Columbus Awards (TOKCA). For CY
2011-2013, Bro. Ted was the State
Culture of Life Director of the Luzon
Jurisdiction. After which, he was
cited as the Outstanding District
Deputy and was bequeathed with
Star District Award for CY 2013-2014.
Since 2013, he was a District Deputy
of the Luzon South Jurisdiction up to
present. And for CY 2015-2016, he is
the State Ways & Means Chairman
for the same jurisdiction.
Engr. Teodulo C. Sandoval
graduated Bachelor of Science in
Electrical Engineering at Mapua
Institute of Technology in March

of 1978 and passed the Electrical

Engineering Board Examination
in September of 1979. He has
completed the Chartered Business
Administrators in August of 2010 at
the AIM Conference Center. Bro. Ted
has been in the Telecommunication
Industry for 37 years. His first job
was as an Engineering Assistant at
the Plant Engineering Department
of PLDT where he started last August
of 1978. Then he joined the Saudi
Telecom in July of 1982 as Assistant
Chief in the Transmission Engineering
Department. Bro. Sandoval became the
Sales Director of AT&T in 1992 where
he received an AT&T Outstanding
Sales Award, a Country Manager of
Raychem in 1996 & Marconi Country
Manager in 1999 and presently the
President of EXi Telecom since 2002,

a company dealing with installation

of cell sites. He was the President of
MIT Electrical Engineering Alumni
Association (MITEEAA) 2011 2012,
and was also a Member of IIEE
and National Association of Mapua
Alumni (NAMA) Board of Director
last 2011 2014 and currently the
Treasurer. In 2012, he was the
Outstanding National Association of
Mapua Alumni Affiliate President and
was also bestowed with Outstanding
Mapua Organization (as President of
MITEEAA).
Bro. Sandoval was born in
Alitagtag, Batangas on December
23, 1955. He is married to Sis.
Zenaida Bautista Sandoval and they
are blessed with 4 children. Their
eldest is Jerome who is a Manager
at Thompson Company, next is

their eldest daughter Katherine

who is connected with Smart
Communications. The third child
is Paul who is with Toyota and the
youngest is Marigrace, a graduating
student of Communication Arts with
De La Salle University.

KC, KCFAPI send 104 official

delegates to IEC
MORE than one hundred official delegates of
the Knights of Columbus in the Philippines
were attending the International Eucharistic
Congress (IEC) in Cebu from January 24 to 31
sponsored by its insurance arm, the Knights
of Columbus Fraternal Association of the
Philippines, Inc. (KCFAPI).
Aside from delegates, KCFAPI has
sponsored banners, while selected Fourth
Degree Color Corp Members from Luzon,
Visayas, and Mindanao Jurisdictions will
be joining the procession on the 6th day.
The Visayas Jurisdiction is coordinating the
participation of around 300 to 500 Honor
Guards nationwide to serve during the grand
procession on January 29 after the mass.
Meanwhile, Manila Archbishop Luis
Antonio Cardinal Tagle described the
upcoming 51st International Eucharistic
Congress as Bigger than the World Cup,
bigger than the Olympics.
Tagle, a former Columbian Squire and
a scholar of the Knights of Columbus will
speak on the 5th day, January 28 with the
topic, The Eucharist and the Dialogue with
Cultures.

The Eucharistic Congress is an international

gathering of people aimed at promoting an
awareness of the central place of the Eucharist
in the life and mission of the Catholic Church.
Daily Bible Reading and Mass
SOME officials of KCFAPI urged the other
faithful to read the Bible daily and to go to
church more often.
It would be good to visit the Blessed
Sacrament as often as we can, and to read
the Bible daily. Our soul, just like our body,
needs daily nourishment to be able to live our
Christian faith to the fullest. A grace-filled
year to everyone, said Justice Jose Reyes,
KCFAPI President and Luzon Nort
One way to prepare ourselves is to have the
habit of going to Church a few minutes before
the mass starts, said KCFAPI Executive
Vice President, Ma. Theresa G. Curia. She
added being early may give us the moment
to reflect and so our personal offering to the
Lord will be ready. In this way we are ready
to connect our personal lives to the life of the
community and the life of the Risen Lord.
(Yen Ocampo)

Luzon AMs Meeting. THE first area managers meeting for the year 2016 was held last January 7 at the KCFAPI board room attended
by KCFAPI officials Chairman, Arsenio Isidro G. Yap; President, Justice Jose C. Reyes, Jr; Executive Vice President, Ma. Theresa G.
Curia; and Vice President for FBG, Gari M. San Sebastian. The activity aims to discuss the performance of their area last 2015 and
the plans and programs of the Fraternal Benefits Group this year.

ANNOUNCEMENT
There will be two Walk for Life events this 2016. The
first one will be held on March 12, 2016 in Manila to
be sponsored by the Knights of Columbus Luzon South
Jurisdiction. The second one will be held on March 19,
2016 in Malolos, Bulacan to be sponsored by the Knights
of Columbus Luzon North Jurisdiction.

Contact No. (02) 527-22-23 loc. 215 and 252

KOMPASS Credit and Financing Corporation is the latest addition to the family of the KNIGHTS of COLUMBUS FRATERNAL ASSOCIATION OF THE PHILIPPINES,
INC. (KCFAPI)
KOMPASS will GUIDE you in having your own car and a house and lot which you can call your home.
KOMPASS is also open to the general public.