THE Diocese of Malaybalay celebrated Mindanao Week of Peace last November 30 to December 7, 2006 with activities aimed to bring a greater awareness among people of their responsibility in caring for the earth, and greater unity among Christians, Muslims and Lumads.
To kick off the week-long celebration, Fr. Robert Selecios led a group of bicycle riders and one employee from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to go to Dabong Dabong, Valencia City to nurture the trees planted there during the previous months.
Other activities included reading of the bishop’s pastoral letter and harmony prayer in the Mosque of Valencia.
A symposium with the theme “Care of the Earth” was also organized and held on December 2, 2006. The symposium which was participated by Christian, Muslim and Lumad leaders, tackled the theme from three different perspectives—that of Muslim, Lumad, and Christians as Shepherd.
Ustadz Alem Sanussi Pandapatan said that the earth’s resources were created by God for the benefit of all living beings. Datu Crispin Linsagan spoke of their beginning, their livelihood, their cultural practices and affinity with the earth. Sr. Nila Sajelan, MCM, speaking from the perspective of Christians as Shepherds and carers of creation, talked about the four pillars of peace; such as, truth, freedom, justice and charity.
Other pressing issues tackled in the forum included environmental degradation and pollution, illegal logging and mining, and land development.
The harmony prayer was aired on December 4 at station DXDB (the diocesan Catholic radio station) and also in the campuses of schools belonging to the Bukidnon Association of Catholic Schools (BUACS). In Valencia Cluster, the harmony prayer was aired at 5 am at the Mosque. It was the first time in the history of Bukidnon Silsilah Forum that such activities were initiated together by Christians, Muslims and Lumads.
It was also on this day, that the Valencia Cluster celebrated the Mindanao Week of Peace. Muslims, Christians and Lumads were all part of the celebration. The event started in the morning with the reading of the Holy Qur’an by Ustadz Abdul Fatah Mindalano. The grade school Christian and Muslim pupils of San Agustin Institute of Technology did an interpretative dance of the harmony prayer. Other activities included collage and poster-making contest on the theme’s celebration.
In his message during the event, Malaybalay bishop Honesto Ch. Pacana, SJ, explained the beginning of the Bishop’s Ulama Forum. He emphasized that the profound meaning of care for the earth is care for people. Inevitably, he said, when we care for people, we care for the earth. He challenged everyone to be a part of the continuing dialogue.
The Bishop-Ulama Conference was organized in 1984 as a means of helping solve the escalating discord between the Muslims and the Christians in Mindanao. But what was initially meant for Mindanao only has now spread all over the Philippines and abroad. The Christian-Muslim Dialogue eventually evolved to a Tri-People Forum which now includes the Lumads. One of the annual activities of this forum is the week of Peace which starts on the last Thursday of November.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Rural poor, victim of unjust economic order, says CBCP
IN a strongly worded pastoral statement on the dignity of the rural poor read to the media at the end of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) plenary assembly last January 28, the bishops called on the government for a full implementation of the comprehensive agrarian reform program (CARP) aimed at alleviating rural poverty.
Saying that the rural poor remain the greatest victims of the country’s unjust social structures and inequitable distribution of the nation’s wealth, the bishops called on government officials to put the common good above selfish interests.
“We ask (the government) that the CARP, defective as it is, be finally completed next year as it has been targeted. And if it is not sufficiently implemented by then, the program should be further extended and funded more seriously and generously,” the statement said.
CBCP also assailed the government’s lack of grit to fully implement the law on agrarian reform, saying that the government’s inability “mirrors the still over-powering opposition of the landed classes, the traditional political and economic elite of our country.”
Addressing the problem of rural poverty will reduce urban poverty since rural folk migrate to the cities simply to escape poverty in the province, the statement read.
As the bishops called on those who have the official responsibilities to act on behalf of the people they are called to serve and protect, they also challenged the faithful to ask themselves on what they can do as individuals, families, and communities to address the problem.
Citing problems of the rural poor as a serious social dilemma the CBCP urged basic ecclesial communities (BEC) in different dioceses to involve themselves in addressing social problems, big or small, whether on the national or local level; but also stressed that involvement must be done in accord with the social teachings of the Church.
CBCP also proposed holding a rural congress later this year to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the Rural Congress of 1967.
The 1967 rural congress brought to light the neglect that rural areas suffer “both from government’s development programs and the Church’s pastoral care” hence, the call for “the Church to go to the barrios” and serve the needs of the marginalized members of the Church.
In the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines, (PCP II) pastors and other Church leaders were exhorted to be in solidarity with the poor and to collaborate with the poor themselves and others to lift up the poor from their poverty.
“Preferential option for the poor means our respect, and upholding of the human dignity of the least of our brothers and sisters. To paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi, we should be especially concerned with the last, the least, the lowest and the lost in our society,” said CBCP vice-president Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, SJ.
In the planned congress the rural folks will do the talking and planning themselves, while the Church listens.
“It is the time of our solidarity with the rural poor, to look at unfinished issues like agrarian reform, and justice, in terms of extra judicial killings of peasant leaders,” Ledesma said.
The bishops hope the future rural congress will provide a venue for the poor to find their voice, and “as a people come together to work for the common good of the country and of ourselves.”
“Doing so, they will be effectively asserting the dignity that for so long has been denied them. And the rest of us, participating with them in their reflections and deliberations, we will be honoring their inborn dignity as children of the same Father in heaven,” the statement said.
Acknowledging that the planned congress is only a small thing to do in the face of grave social problems involving the poor, CBCP, nevertheless, stressed that the root of the country’s many problems and human injustices, such as graft and corruption, and killings, “are all rooted in the practical denial of the basic human dignity and rights of our very poor.”
Saying that the rural poor remain the greatest victims of the country’s unjust social structures and inequitable distribution of the nation’s wealth, the bishops called on government officials to put the common good above selfish interests.
“We ask (the government) that the CARP, defective as it is, be finally completed next year as it has been targeted. And if it is not sufficiently implemented by then, the program should be further extended and funded more seriously and generously,” the statement said.
CBCP also assailed the government’s lack of grit to fully implement the law on agrarian reform, saying that the government’s inability “mirrors the still over-powering opposition of the landed classes, the traditional political and economic elite of our country.”
Addressing the problem of rural poverty will reduce urban poverty since rural folk migrate to the cities simply to escape poverty in the province, the statement read.
As the bishops called on those who have the official responsibilities to act on behalf of the people they are called to serve and protect, they also challenged the faithful to ask themselves on what they can do as individuals, families, and communities to address the problem.
Citing problems of the rural poor as a serious social dilemma the CBCP urged basic ecclesial communities (BEC) in different dioceses to involve themselves in addressing social problems, big or small, whether on the national or local level; but also stressed that involvement must be done in accord with the social teachings of the Church.
CBCP also proposed holding a rural congress later this year to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the Rural Congress of 1967.
The 1967 rural congress brought to light the neglect that rural areas suffer “both from government’s development programs and the Church’s pastoral care” hence, the call for “the Church to go to the barrios” and serve the needs of the marginalized members of the Church.
In the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines, (PCP II) pastors and other Church leaders were exhorted to be in solidarity with the poor and to collaborate with the poor themselves and others to lift up the poor from their poverty.
“Preferential option for the poor means our respect, and upholding of the human dignity of the least of our brothers and sisters. To paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi, we should be especially concerned with the last, the least, the lowest and the lost in our society,” said CBCP vice-president Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, SJ.
In the planned congress the rural folks will do the talking and planning themselves, while the Church listens.
“It is the time of our solidarity with the rural poor, to look at unfinished issues like agrarian reform, and justice, in terms of extra judicial killings of peasant leaders,” Ledesma said.
The bishops hope the future rural congress will provide a venue for the poor to find their voice, and “as a people come together to work for the common good of the country and of ourselves.”
“Doing so, they will be effectively asserting the dignity that for so long has been denied them. And the rest of us, participating with them in their reflections and deliberations, we will be honoring their inborn dignity as children of the same Father in heaven,” the statement said.
Acknowledging that the planned congress is only a small thing to do in the face of grave social problems involving the poor, CBCP, nevertheless, stressed that the root of the country’s many problems and human injustices, such as graft and corruption, and killings, “are all rooted in the practical denial of the basic human dignity and rights of our very poor.”
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