Cardinal Quevedo: ‘I want to work for peace’

Cardinal Orlando Quevedo and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle with Bishop Antonieto Cabajog, Archbishop Romulo Valles, Archbishop Jose Palma, Bishop Antonio Tobias and the community of Pontificio Collegio Fillipino. (Photo: PCF)

WITH many calling him ‘Cardinal Peace’ because of his involvement in the Mindanao peace process, Archbishop Orlando Cardinal Quevedo said it is his desire to work for peace in the southern region, but would prefer that he does it behind the curtain.

“When they say ‘Cardinal Peace’, I am not in front. I am behind. I am behind the curtain. [Both sides] would consult me, but my name does not appear…. I want to work for peace, yes, but not in the forefront. I want to stay in the background,” Quevedo said during a conference he gave at the Collegio Fillipino in Rome on Feb. 23.

Quevedo, who have been silently involved in a dialogue for peace in conflict ridden Mindanao for many years, said “mutual mistrust that creates all the misinformation” is at the root of the Mindanao conflict.

“The fear of the Christians and the fear of the Muslims towards each other are fed by these misunderstandings and mistrust,” he explained.

Dialogue on three levels

Quevedo said he carries out his role in the interreligious dialogue on three levels.

 “First, in my dialogue with students in my university, we have a dialogue of life,” he said.

The Cardinal described how Muslims and Christians would study, play and even pray together.

“We pray the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be, then we say ‘Notre Dame, pray for us’. The Muslims might not pray the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be, but when we say Notre Dame, they also say, ‘Pray for us’,” he said.

The second level of dialogue, according to Quevedo is “sharing of religious experiences”, noting that even NGOs that are Christians and NGOs that are Muslims share their religious experiences.

“And the third level, in which I am engaged, is the level of Theological discussion,” Quevedo said, explaining that when a Muslim scholar presented what the Koran said, “you would see that there are convergences between the Biblical and the Koran views.”

Their discussion also included such varied topics as creation, environment, and climate change involving Protestant bishops and Pastors, the Catholic Bishops of Mindanao, and the Imams and Muslim scholars.

BECs

Quevedo, who served as chair of the CBCP Committee on Basic Ecclesial Communities, also expressed his hopes on basic ecclesial communities and what BEC members can contribute in the building up of the Church and society.

“My hopes are from the bottom up, in the BECs… Make sure there is no corruption among the leaders of the BECs,” he said.

‘Myths’

Quevedo also took the opportunity to correct what he said as “myths” being said about him and reported on the papers.

The first myth, according to him is that he is “the architect of the Asian Pastoral Churches.”

“I hope this is true, but it is not true. What I actually did was when there was an insight in the FABC in 1974, on the local Church. The Church is incarnate in the people,” Quevedo said.

He said he just made a synthesis of those ideas which developed in the subsequent conferences, and “that will be my contribution to the Church in Asia.”

The second myth, Quevedo said, is that “I got the highest vote in the Synod of Bishops for Asia in 1974.”

“They voted for 3 candidates for America, 3 for Europe, 3 for Africa, 3 for Asia and Oceania. It so happened that for Asia-Oceania, the Bishops voted for me as number 1. And it so happened that I got the highest. But they had to vote for three from every region,” he explained.

The third myth, he said, “is that I graduated with a Doctorate in Educational Management from UST.”

Quevedo explained that he was writing the second to the last Chapter of his thesis when his provincial told him to come home.

“You come home now. You will be the president of Notre Dame University. I told him, ‘do you know that if I come home now, I will not finish the thesis?’” ‘Come’, he said. So I was happy. So, instead of a graduate, I am a drop-out. A total drop out, since I went to become President of Notre Dame,” he said.

Keep EDSA spirit alive, Villegas urges Filipinos

Archbishop Socrates Villegas presides the Holy Mass at EDSA Shrine on Feb. 25 (Photo: Noli Yamsuan)

LINGAYEN Dagupan Socrates Villegas urged the people to keep the spirit of EDSA alive in their hearts and learn wisely from its lessons during a Mass he celebrated at the Mary Queen of Peace shrine to mark the 28^th anniversary of the EDSA People Power on Feb. 25. 

Coming all the way from Dagupan to celebrate the thanksgiving Mass, the prelate couldn’t help but express his sadness in seeing that so few people came to celebrate. 

“After 28 years is this all that we can gather to thank the Lord for an event that made Filipinos 10 feet tall in the family of nations. I cannot resist returning to the Gospel, and returning to the question of the Lord after he cured 10 lepers and only one returned, and said, “Where are the other nine?”  Villegas said. 

“But I am not here to accuse you. I am not here to make you sad. I am not here to contaminate you with my sadness and loneliness. I am here to bring you joy, the joy of the Gospel, the joy of the Lord,” he said. 

President Benigno Aquino had this year’s EDSA anniversary celebration transferred to Cebu, where he visited typhoon-ravaged areas and spent time with victims of typhoon Yolanda. 

Villegas lamented how the EDSA spirit “has been manipulated, abused, raped, [and] prostituted” through the years. 

Nonetheless, he said, “we must always return to it [as] EDSA was a gift from God and it will always be so.” 

The EDSA celebration can take on many forms and its story may be retold in many ways but there is one element in its history that cannot be erased, and that is God, Villegas pointed out. 

“You can tell the story of Tita Cory but don’t forget that she prayed the rosary with us. You can tell the story of Cardinal Sin but do not forget that he was first man of God and the Church before being a man of the streets. You can tell the story of the military, of the businessmen, of the professionals, of the soldiers, of the nuns, but please remember all the time, that the soldiers, the nuns, the businessmen, politicians, cardinals, bishops and priests, all of them will be nothing if God did not walk with us on this hallowed ground in 1986,” Villegas noted. 

“My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter how you retell the story of EDSA, I plead with you on bended knees, do not forget the rosaries you prayed; do not forget the image of Our Lady of the Immaculate Heart that we put on top of tanks. Do not forget the bibles that we read,” the prelate added. 

Stressing that God is the main protagonist in the EDSA story, Villegas lamented that “sometimes we forget, and sometimes we claim the honor that belongs to God as our own.” 

“But our country, our government cannot move on if it continues to ignore God,” he said. 

Villegas noted that 20 years of dictatorship and four days of EDSA should be more than enough for Filipinos to learn to never repeat the mistakes of history. 

He said it is the Filipinos’ faith in God that made EDSA 1986 extraordinary in the eyes of the world. 

“Our faith in God got married with our love for country. At EDSA love of God and love of country came together. That love of country is not alien to somebody who follows the Lord. And love of country would be empty unless it is grounded on the love of God,” he stressed. 

Villegas urged the people to remain established in their faith as they have shown the entire world during the 1986 EDSA revolt. 

He noted that the issue hounding EDSA today is that the people seemingly have forgotten that God is central in its history. 

“The issue is not God is with us. The issue is: Are we with God or have we strayed from the path of God,” Villegas asked.

Reminding that the EDSA shrine is a hallowed ground, the prelate urged the faithful to tell the story of God’s encounter among his people at EDSA to their children and succeeding generations. 

“Please tell your children and your children’s children that EDSA is holy and it is people that will keep it holy, and that is you.” 

And even if celebrations of EDSA are done in other places, Villegas told the community to faithfully celebrate at the EDSA shrine “because here on this ground, you and I and God had a brief loving encounter for four days and history cannot be changed anymore.” 

“On this hallowed ground, for four sacred days the blessed Virgin Mary walked with us; the Lord of Peace walked with us. Keep it sacred, no matter where you go, because here you will always find the living God,” he added. 

Pondo ng Pinoy re-launches fund campaign to support feeding program

Photo grabbed from HapagAsa Facebook page

THE Pondo ng Pinoy is re-launching a fund campaign to raise money for its feeding program that targets around 250,00 malnourished children nationwide this year.

Dubbed as Fast2Feed fund campaign, the activity encourages faithful to donate money saved from fasting on Ash Wednesday to Hapag Asa feeding program of Pondo ng Pinoy.

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, in a memorandum to PnP member dioceses, proposed a re-launching of the Fast2Feed Fund Campaign on March 5, Ash Wednesday, to help alleviate malnutrition and hunger among children especially in the disaster stricken areas.

Tagle, who chairs the Pondo ng Pinoy Foundation that implements the Hapag Asa program, said 50,000 children of the targeted 250,00 will come from PnP member dioceses and those areas hit by calamities.

Many dioceses have suffered a series of natural and man-made calamities that struck the country last year-- war in Zamboanga, earthquake in Bohol and Cebu, and typhoon Yolanda in the Visayas region last November.

To alleviate hunger and malnutrition among children affected by calamities, Hapag Asa is seeking to intensify its feeding activities in partnership with the concerned dioceses.

"This means providing food subsidy of P5 per child per day or P600 for six months in addition to the MannaPack food supplements that we will ship to them for their use," the cardinal said.

HAPAG-ASA feeds hungry and malnourished children, 6 months to 12 years old, once a day, five days a week for six months with nutritious food. It only takes P10 a day or P1,200 for six months to feed one child.

Aside from feeding the children, the program also provides the parents with necessary skills and values to enhance their ability to nurture their children.

Parents are also given livelihood trainings to grant them the chance to gain employment and get involved in income generating activities.

The cardinal also encouraged the faithful to donate to the program as an act of solidarity with the poor.