Ito po ay post ko na dapat ay naipost ko noong March 30, 2017, pero dahil sa hindi ko na maalalang dahilan ay hindi ko nagawa, kaya hayaan ninyo na mae post ko ito ngayon dahil sa pagnanais ng Presidente Rodrigo Roa Duterte na ibalik ang parusang kamatayan. Ito ay kanyang tahasang sinabi noong kanya SONA 2020 noong July 27.2020.
Some people wonder how could a three fourths of the honorable members of the Philippine Congress has voted for yes to reinstate the death penalty in our country. A move that is exactly and blatantly contrary to our Christian belief on the sanctity of life and inalienable right to life. And it is sad to say that this is the indicative of the prevailing belief of the Filipino Catholics because I have heard from not only one member of the lower house representative that a survey was been circulated to the assigned congressional district to feel the pulse of the people under his or her constituency. And the result of the survey is for death penalty with a wide margin of difference. I did not recourse to ask on the details of the survey since my own experience and the experience of many priests of the diocese tells me that many Catholics opted for the reinstitution of the death penalty.
This is not the first issue that the teachings of the Catholic Church on Morals have been put into tests. The passing of the RH bill though restricted in some of its powers was been passed by both the Senate and Lower house. And there are more bills on the houses which are being filed that has in direct opposition to the Catholic faith such as the same sex marriage and the like. And we should see these as signs that there are a lot of work to be done especially of the matters of faith formation. I do not want to use the term doctrinal formation because of its intellectual character centeredness but opted to use of faith formation which is more general in terms as it is directed to all facet of life of a catholic believer.
Even since the Second Plenary council of the Philippines, we have heard the phrase Sacramentalized but not Evangelized , but it has been more than three decades and it seems that we could not felt some great impact on the changes of our belief and its foundations. For me, I can see no direct and a more progressive campaign on the part of the Catholic Church here in Philippines, as there are no survey yet conducted to see the state of the Filipino faith since the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines, even from the national or to the diocesan level that I have knowledge of. Of course, there are a lot of efforts that has already been drawn and shared through the years but I believe that there should be a more extensive and thorough implementations of the suggestions drawn by the PCP II and Vatican II.
This is just my third year in the commission of Catechesis as the director of the first district of the diocese of San Pablo that comprises four Vicariates with more than 200 catechists. Many of my colleagues have been here for a lot more than triple of my stay here. So, I must catch up and be able to geared and direct the ministry on Catechesis on a more effective way. Well, we always bunk on the gift of the Holy Spirit as he draws us more closer to the Father but we have also to strengthen our foundation that grace is built on nature. Managing this nature according to the blows of the Spirit requires God given skills and these skills must be honed by those who have been there before us.
This is not the first issue that the teachings of the Catholic Church on Morals have been put into tests. The passing of the RH bill though restricted in some of its powers was been passed by both the Senate and Lower house. And there are more bills on the houses which are being filed that has in direct opposition to the Catholic faith such as the same sex marriage and the like. And we should see these as signs that there are a lot of work to be done especially of the matters of faith formation. I do not want to use the term doctrinal formation because of its intellectual character centeredness but opted to use of faith formation which is more general in terms as it is directed to all facet of life of a catholic believer.
Even since the Second Plenary council of the Philippines, we have heard the phrase Sacramentalized but not Evangelized , but it has been more than three decades and it seems that we could not felt some great impact on the changes of our belief and its foundations. For me, I can see no direct and a more progressive campaign on the part of the Catholic Church here in Philippines, as there are no survey yet conducted to see the state of the Filipino faith since the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines, even from the national or to the diocesan level that I have knowledge of. Of course, there are a lot of efforts that has already been drawn and shared through the years but I believe that there should be a more extensive and thorough implementations of the suggestions drawn by the PCP II and Vatican II.
This is just my third year in the commission of Catechesis as the director of the first district of the diocese of San Pablo that comprises four Vicariates with more than 200 catechists. Many of my colleagues have been here for a lot more than triple of my stay here. So, I must catch up and be able to geared and direct the ministry on Catechesis on a more effective way. Well, we always bunk on the gift of the Holy Spirit as he draws us more closer to the Father but we have also to strengthen our foundation that grace is built on nature. Managing this nature according to the blows of the Spirit requires God given skills and these skills must be honed by those who have been there before us.
Enliven the parish life is already exhorting effort to deliver the message of God on the everyday life basis of the Christian life. Adding a district work will also require additional time that is why we need skills to cope with the work presented to us on a more magnitude scale. The challenge is not only to catechized the Catholics but also to make ways on how to do it by replicating the effort by those who are willing to participate and I firmly believe that this is my calling of which I would like to provide, if God willing.
The latest statistics known to me is that we have Nine thousand priests and fourteen thousands religious for 80 million Catholics. Vocations is not to be doubled on the coming years. The diocese of San Pablo is graced by God of having nine hundred volunteered catechist coming from 86 parishes catering for more than a million Catholics. These volunteer catechists are teaching our Catholic students in the public schools in the elementary level mostly. There are some that can be able to teach the grade 7 to 10, 11 to 12 is a mission area.
My strength comes from the catechists who volunteers for the job hoping to share the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ though with limited resources and time. We are always on the mercy of the principal to let us enter their premises so that we might be able to teach the children on the value of Catholic life. Well, everything is on the Mercy of God, Everything is on the blows of the Holy Spirit but God has given us also the gifts to manage this world especially on directing our fellow men and women to seek the Truth. Although, I respect the individuality and the right of any religions or sects proliferating in the whole world, I have also to admit that there are sects or religions who thwarted Truth according to their image and these rightly hinder the proclamation of the Word of God as it should be. Let us take for example on the issue of death penalty. There are people defending the stance on death penalty on biblical grounds with deep convictions. Well, we know that this kind of problem will exists even with or without the preachers who teaches these errors but it will be more difficult to deal with the subject matter because of such situations. Reflecting on this situation and the like, has ignited me to exert more effort and resources for the establishment of a more efficient means and ways of the proclamation and this course as the members of our diocesan commissions and the leaders of Episcopal Commission on Catechesis and Catholic Education have suggested. Hoping that God may use of me on this Godly endeavor.
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