CBCP: No politician’s money
used in clergy congress

THE Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said no politician funded the gathering of the country’s priests and bishops this week. Msgr. Pedro Quitorio, CBCP spokesman, said the funds they used for the gathering came from institutional and individual donors and corporate sponsors. The event is also being funded by the P2,000 registration fee [...]

Filipino priests donate
to Haiti quake victims

FILIPINO priests who are gathered this week in Manila for their five-day retreat congress donated about a million pesos for the earthquake victims in Haiti. The collected amount, which is estimated to reach a million pesos, will be sent to Haiti, which was hit by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake early this month. The Catholic Bishops [...]

‘Little priests’ take over
from clergy on retreat

LAY assistants, also dubbed “little priests,” have taken over parishes in Mindanao while the clergy are on retreat in Manila. The “little priests,” men and women, have been trained to assist the clergy at Mass and administer sacraments when they are absent. The job is usually only part time, but they are having to work [...]

Administration bet junks RH bill

ADMINISTRATION standard bearer Gilbert Teodoro is abandoning his support for the reproductive health bill and even proposed granting conditional cash transfers to poor couples employing “natural methods” of birth control. Teodoro found himself defending his and his wife’s decision to withdraw support from the controversial measure before doctors and medical students at a forum at [...]

70 buses ferry priests
to congress venue

AT least 70 buses bring priests daily to the venue of the Second National Congress of the Clergy in Manila. Transport companies have provided 70 buses, vans and 20-seater vehicles to ferry participants to the venue in the morning and back to their foster families in the evening. Fr. Tony Navarette, parish priest of San [...]

Drug lords abandon
crime thanks to Gospel

ABOUT 150 drug lords have abandoned their criminal activities and are finding an alternative life for their families after attending a program of training and work placement arranged by a priest in the Archdiocese of Manila. “Nobody has ever dared to help these people rebuild their lives,” said the director of catechism for the archdiocese. [...]

St. Francis is model of dialogue,
respect for creation, Pope says

CALLING St. Francis of Assisi “an authentic giant of holiness,” Pope Benedict XVI said the 13th-century saint continues to be a model for living simply, respecting God’s creation and entering into dialogue with people of other religions. Continuing a series of talks about theologians and saints of the Middle Ages at his weekly general audience [...]

Author confirms John Paul
practiced self-mortification

POPE John Paul II always took penitence seriously, spending entire nights lying with his arms outstretched on the bare floor, fasting before ordaining priests or bishops and flagellating himself, said the promoter of his sainthood cause. Msgr. Slawomir Oder, postulator of the late pope’s cause, said Pope John Paul used self-mortification “both to affirm the [...]

Retired bishop slams Dublin
archbishop’s support for priests

BISHOP Dermot O’Mahony has called into question the support Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has shown for his priests and the current diocesan policy since the publication of the Murphy Commission Report. In a letter sent to members of the Council of Priests on December 30, Bishop O’Mahony, a retired auxiliary bishop mentioned extensively in the Murphy [...]

US bishops urge Congress to
enact genuine health reform

THREE leading US bishops called on members of Congress Jan. 26 to “set aside partisan divisions and special-interest pressures” to achieve genuine health reform. “The health care debate, with all its political and ideological conflict, seems to have lost its central moral focus and policy priority, which is to ensure that affordable, quality, life-giving care [...]

Irish priest back in Mindanao
2 months after kidnapping

IRISH priest Michael Sinnott returned to Pagadian City in Mindanao barely two months after he was freed by his kidnappers, a newspaper reported on its website Tuesday. “He’s there already and we are providing security to the priest,” the report quoted Chief Superintendent Angelo Sunglao, Western Mindanao police director. He declined to provide details on [...]

Bishop praises police
in troubled province

A BISHOP investigating private armed groups in the country praised the police command in Masbate, an island province that has been declared an election hotspot. Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos of Butuan, a member of the government commission looking into private armies, told UCA News the openness of police in the area gave him some [...]

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