Office of the Archbishop

Archbishops House
P.O. Box 113
Cagayan de Oro City 9000 Misamis Oriental, Philippines
TeleFax No. +63 88 857-1357 * Tel No. +63 88 324 0839
Mobile No. +63 937 3700 703
E-mail address: acdo_chancery@yahoo.com / rcacdo33@gmail.com

Pastoral Letter

August 4, 2016
Feast of St. John Mary

Vianney
Universal Patron of All Pastors
To: the clergy, religious and laity and all men and women of good will

Of Drugs and Fullness of Life

I have come that you may have life and have life to the full. (John 10:10)

The current problem concerning drugs cannot escape anyones attention. The
problem with drugs has reached the level of a calamity and an emergency situation.
It is systemic, having its roots in poverty, woundedness, greed and abuse of power.
It has become a plague afflicting the whole society. The drugs issue is not only
about individual users and pushers but also about families and communities
affected by this pervasive problem. It cuts across all strata of society from the
poorest to the wealthiest and most powerful.
If there is a positive side to the current war on drugs, it is the fact that thousands
have surrendered and hundreds more arrested and put to jail. The problem with the
latter is that our jails have become extremely congested since they were built for a
limited number of detainees only; but now the number has been multiplied many
times over. This poses a lot of risks and dangers.
In Cagayan de Oro alone there are already at least 4,000 responders who, after
presenting themselves to the police station, return to their homes with the promise
not to engage in drug use or drug-dealing again. They have yet to be classified
according to the extent of their addiction i.e., those who need residential
rehabilitation or community-based intervention. Many of these responders are
baptized Catholics and people from other faiths and religious denominations who
may be suffering from all sorts of psychological, moral, spiritual and financial
difficulties.

As a Church we cannot remain indifferent to this reality. Pastoral charity urges us to

concretize the challenge of this Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. Communities of faith
are called to become islands of mercy and field hospitals, in the words of Pope
Francis. Thus, we have initiated the coming together of various stakeholders to
assess the current situation and look into possible responses to the drugs crisis. In
as much as the problem is systemic, we want to address it communally and
systematically.

On the part of the Archdiocese, we have declared a Jubilee of Mercy for drug
responders and collaborators. Availing of the Season of Grace we also take this
opportunity to launch our program involving activities towards immediate and longterm rehabilitation and intervention. This will take place on August 22 at Our Lady of
Mt. Carmel Church in Carmen, Cagayan de Oro City. The activities include:
Recollection (9 am 12 nn), Penitential Service and Confessions (1 4 pm),
Procession to San Agustin Cathedral entering through the Door of Mercy (4:30), and
Eucharistic Celebration (5:30 pm).
I am asking all pastors in the Archdiocese to open available facilities such as
churches and parish halls for community-based recovery programs. I also enjoin all
ministries, religious organizations and lay ecclesial movements to be actively
involved in these collaborative efforts to accompany responders/recoverers,
together with government agencies, NGOs and private institutions.
The church with her charism in moral and spiritual matters can be a safe oasis for
silence, prayer, reflection and sharing through retreats and recollections. For the
Catholic responders, the church possesses the great treasure in the Sacrament of
Reconciliation which they can avail of. We are deeply aware that behind the
problem of drugs is the inner longing for authentic tranquility which according to St.
Augustine can only be found in God: You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and
our heart is restless until it rests in Thee.
We want to be proclaimers of the gospel of Jesus who said, I have come that you
may have life and have life to the full. Thus, while we commit ourselves positively
to these tasks, we uncompromisingly uphold the sanctity and dignity of human life.
We are opposed to any form of extrajudicial killings as a means of addressing the
issue of drug use. We cannot solve a crime by committing another crime.
As St. Paul says, we conquer evil by doing good. This was the path chosen by St.
Monica in accompanying her wayward son, Augustine. If not for her relentless faith
and compassion, we would not have a St. Augustine today.
Our steadfast
journeying with and care for the wayward on the road to recovery is the same path
that leads all of us to holiness and fullness of life.

+Antonio J. Ledesma, S.J.

Archbishop of Cagayan de
Oro