Filipino archbishop: Face opposition with a martyr’s courage

September 6, 2017 CNA Daily News News Briefs 1 Print

Dagupan, Philippines, Sep 7, 2017 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Despite hostility, the Church must teach the truth of the Gospel with the courage of the martyrs, said the Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan in the Philippines.

In a Mass during the archdiocese’s second-ever synod, Archbishop Socrates Villegas said the most important work of those assembled is to reach everyone with the Church’s teachings.

“We must teach even if our voices get hoarse. We must teach even if they threaten us,” the archbishop said Sept. 2, according to CBCP News.

“We must teach even if they kill us and if they kill us, our message will echo even more because the best way to teach is through martyrdom!”

Archbishop Villegas spoke at the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist in Dagupan – an archdiocese particularly known to voice its opposition to the government’s extreme measures in its fight against drugs.

Since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in June 2016, over 7,000 deaths have been related to the war on drugs, with more than 2,500 killings attributed to the Philippines’ police force, according to Human Rights Watch.

However, despite cultural opposition from the government or even on social media, God will triumph, the archbishop said.

“In the lights and shadows of life, in the stormy and sunny days, in the persecutions we endure and the triumphs we bask in – the Lord speaks.”

He said during these times pastors must not be afraid to “fill the dark world with the light of Christ,” and he encouraged the crowd to live up to the challenge of Pope Francis – to meet people in “the peripheries” of society.

“We dream not of [a] status quo Church but an ever vibrant Church that is excited, not afraid to plunge into the deep,” Archbishop Villegas said, noting Catholics must be willing to reach out to the people in the streets.

One of the Philippine’s fastest growing pastoral jurisdictions, the Lingayen-Dagupan archdiocese was founded in 1963, and this is its first synod since 1985.

The gathering will discuss matters relevant to local parishes, but the archbishop said it will also be an opportunity to listen and serve.

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Evangelization begins with listening, Cardinal Tagle says

December 10, 2019 CNA Daily News 1

Quezon City, Philippines, Dec 10, 2019 / 04:01 pm (CNA).- Listening is the first step in evangelization, the newly-appointed prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples said Tuesday in Quezon City.

“Evangelization is communication. God is a God who communicates, who dialogues. But He is also a God who listens,” Cardinal Luis Tagle said Dec. 10, according to ABS-CBN News.

He was speaking during a meeting of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, which included the groundbreaking of the Veritas Asia Institute of Social Communications.

Cardinal Tagle encouraged a “spirituality of listening, to God, to neighbors and to the signs of the times.”

“Listening comes first,” he stated. “Many people are longing for someone and a community to listen. Even if you have no words, you communicate your presence, your compassion, your unity.”

The cardinal commented that “we are all in a hurry, rushing to say something, to issue a statement even when we have not heard yet. We have already something prepared without knowing what the question or statement is.”

He added that the Church needs people “who generate greater trust and confidence, as “in our world today [there is] so much fear, suspicion and prejudice. We don’t know whom to trust. We need people who can generate that atmosphere of trust.”

Cardinal Tagle also reflected that “having a beautiful building in itself does not guarantee evangelisation; it is the training and formation of people,” saying that “some of the most memorable catechetical lessons were learned under a tree” when he was a child. “If I were asked where we had these catechetical lessons, I could not name any building. Children were gathered. We had cookies. We had candies. And we came to the lessons.”

The cardinal, who is 62, was appointed prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples Dec. 8. He had served as Archbishop of Manila since 2011.

He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Imus at age 24, and was appointed bishop of that see in 2001.

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