At this period of
suffering for many Filipinos still reeling from the devastation caused by
natural calamities, Christmas is a time for solidarity and peacebuilding, a
ranking Church official said.
In a Christmas
message, Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio J. Ledesma urged the faithful to express
their solidarity with the victims of typhoon Pablo that devastated Compostela
Valley and surrounding areas earlier this month.
He said parishes
from his diocese “have sent a solidarity fund to the Diocese of Mati along with
several volunteers from various organizations” as a concrete way of helping the
affected families.
Last year,
Cagayan de Oro also was devastated by Typhoon Sendong that killed thousands of
people and displaced hundreds of families.
A year after the
tragedy, many families have yet to be given proper housing despite joint
humanitarian efforts by national, local and international agencies to normalize
the life of the victims.
“While more than half of the Sendong
evacuee families have received permanent housing units within the city, many
others are still waiting to rebuild their lives and means of livelihood,”
Ledesma said.
Another contingency
Aside from the natural calamity, he also
pointed out the passage of the RH bill as another kind of contingency that
merits an urgent response from the faithful.
He said the approval of the RH bill with
its promotion of contraceptives urges the Church to be more active in educating
couples on natural family planning methods.
“While we continue to say no! to the
widespread promotion of contraceptives, we are all the more challenged to push
forward our All-Natural Family Planning program. Even now, media surveys indicate that most
couples prefer Natural Family Planning,” he said.
Ledesma has been active in the promotion
of NFP even when he was still the bishop of Ipil.
He said his “pastoral experience over
the past six years shows that not only Catholic couples but also those from
Muslim, indigenous people, and Iglesia
Filipina Independiente communities appreciate and want to adopt our All-NFP
program.”
The archbishop also cited the
collaboration of local government units and national government agencies like
DOH, PopCom, and DSWD, which he said, “have indicated their readiness to
promote NFP.”
“The ‘enemy’ is not so much the
government, but the lack of information on all NFP methods, including the
simplified ones, for the majority of couples today,” Ledesma said.
A lot to thank
God for
But despite the setbacks, the Jesuit
prelate also noted that still there are a lot to be thankful to the Lord.
He mentioned the recent ordination of
three priests and two deacons in the archdiocese as great blessings especially
in this year that the Church celebrates the ‘Year of Faith.’
“The gift of vocation offered and
answered during this Year of Faith is a special blessing for our local church,”
he said.
He also mentioned as another grace the
signing of the GPH-MILF Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro that can bring
long lasting peace in Mindanao.
But he said “the agreement requires our
own proactive efforts to forge inter-religious harmony at the personal level.”
“Peace on earth was the message of the
angelic choir to the shepherds in Bethlehem.
May that same message resonate throughout the island of Mindanao and the
rest of the country,” Ledesma said.
(CBCPNews)
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