MANILA, Jan. 18, 2010—There will be no mass the whole next week in majority of the country’s Catholic Churches—because there are no priests to celebrate it.

A ranking church leader said thousands of priests are going to Manila to attend the 2nd National Congress of the Clergy from Jan. 25 to 29 and many dioceses can’t supply stand-in.

MANILA, January 21, 2010—“The Second National Congress of the Clergy (NCC2) is a real retreat experience. It is basically a retreat, a call to interior renewal, a call to holiness.”

This is how Msgr. Jose Bernardo, Jr., Executive Secretary of National Organizing Committee of NCC2, discussed on the framework of the forthcoming national clergy congress in a recent press conference.

PAX ADVISORY:

During the PAX meeting of January 9, 2010 at our new PAX office site at Pines Place No. 41 Scout Chuatoco QC, the following task forces were created, to wit:

Climate Change and Environment Protection- Arch. Jun Palafox (xvd) Note: Independent Film Maker Boyet R (CEAFI-CICM) and Milo Leal (CEAFI-CICM) are currently going around the country presenting documentary films on Climate Chage and environment before schools. 

Vocation Fun Run- Giovanni Concha (OLGMSAA) PAX will support the 5K Fun Run organized by Our Lady of Guadalupe Minor Seminary Alumni Association which is scheduled on February 27, 2009 9:30 a.m. at the Quirino Grandstand, Manila. Registration Fee is P250.00.

Good Governance Atty. Roy Dator (San Carlos/ UST). He will be assisted by Atty. Lito Gatan (UST)

Membership, Bong Almonte (OLAS -Franciscans)

Project Smokey Mountain Bagsakan, Tony Cruzada (PAIS of Leyte) This is a joint project with Veritas eTrading, DA and NHA. Actual operations may start on the first quarter of 2010.

Do-One-Good-Deed-A-Day Movement, Unding Orlanes (Blanos of Samar)

Project Anti-Vote Buying Jojo Agravante (xvd) This is an attempt by PAX to take concrete steps to address the evils of vote-buying and vote-selling, the original sin of graft and corruption by seeking to increase its penalty to reculsion perpetua (a non-bailable offense often referred to as "bitay") via a People's Initiative.

PAX Grill and Resto Ping Tidon (Bicol) This will serve also as our PAX Office. Interested investors may contact Ping Tidon or Gil Mangobal (Bulacan). Target date of opening first week of February 2010. 

Bloodletting and Cataract Removal Willy Dimaano (xvd). This is tentatively set to be held after the May National Elections.

For the PAX TE CUM Committee chaired by Jules Quinabo (xvd), Malunggay Project chaired by Sam Yap and Jim Mateo (xvd) Sun Flower Project also chaired by Sam Yap (xvd) please refer to earlier postings.

Kindly join any of the created Task Forces ut unum simus... ad Deo, Patria et Terra.

Rome’s Advice to Copenhagen

"If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation," said Pope Benedict XVI in his Message for World Day of Peace on Day One of 2010. His predecessors, of course, had always shown concern for the environment long before such concerns became fashionable or laden with economic interest.
From their standpoint nature is neither an adversary to be conquered or destroyed nor an evil from which one must be freed. Rather, it is the garden from which God fashioned the human being,  and which God gave as gift to man and woman to keep and till (cf. Gen 2: 15); it is the place and plan for which man and woman, who were made “in his own image” (Gen 1, 27) are to feel truly responsible. 

In their view the Creator willed the human being to evolve more and more into a co-creator, not an exterminator, though this latter role is what we’ve seen humans often choose to play.

Feliz Año Nuevo a todos. Que Dios nos bendiga a todos este nuevo año!

THIS may be the last time the country observes Rizal Day on December 30. The National Historical Institute supports bills moving the date from the anniversary of Rizal’s execution to that of his birth, June 19. It is more convenient because it allows students to be dragooned into forced commemorations, and allows a celebratory continuum, beginning with the Flag Days that start on May 28, flows into Independence Day on June 12, and culminates with the proposed new Rizal Day on June 19.

MANILA, Dec. 25, 2009—Saying that the message of peace is as relevant and urgent today as it was two thousand years ago, the president of the Catholic hierarchy urged Catholics to work for social transformation beginning “within ourselves” for peace to become a reality in the country.

“Let us ask Christ, the Prince of Peace, to heal our troubled land wounded by fraternal strife, and to touch our hearts to be open to love, justice and Christian faith,” said CBCP president and Tandag Bishop Nereo Odchimar, in a Christmas message.