EAST Asian Catholic bishops attending a recent Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences (FABC) seminar on climate change in Hong Kong signed the Global Catholic Climate Change Movement (GCCM) petition that asks world leaders at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris in December.
The petition seeks to adopt a strong and ambitious universal climate treaty to keep global average temperatures within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels.
The GCCM petition was also signed by Cardinal Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Bombay and president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India and the FABC.
The GCCM petition supports Pope Francis’ call for climate action outlined in “Laudato Si.” It has been signed by Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle of Manila and other Philippine bishops, as well as bishops from Brazil, Ecuador, Chile and Canada. The petition was endorsed by Pope Francis in May 2015.
Aside from Gracias, Asian signatories were Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing of Hong Kong, Bishop Peter Kang U-il of Cheju, South Korea, Bishop Isao Kikuchi, SVD of Niigata in Japan, also president of Caritas Asia and Japan, and Bishop Philip Huang Jaw Ming of Hualian, Taiwan.
Year of the Poor ends
The Archdiocese of Manila held a concelebrated Mass led by Cardinal Tagle to formally close the Year of the Poor last Nov. 7 at the Concordia College in Paco, Manila.
Passed was the 10-point Agenda for the Year of the Poor. It addresses the needs of the poor sectors such as workers, farmers, urban poor, fisherfolk, women, persons with disabilities, youth, elderly and prisoners.
“We remember that God calls us to walk in the footsteps of Jesus by committing ourselves to decrease the suffering of the people,” said Fr. Luke Moortgat, head of the Committee for the Year of the Poor. “We respond in line of Pope Francis by bringing love and mercy to all the people with a special attention for those who suffer from injustice, disabilities, mental illness, other long-term diseases and rejection. We teach the poor the message of Christ so that they will be filled with hope and, on their own, will evangelize others.”
The Commission on Social Services and Development of the Archdiocese of Manila is composed of Caritas Manila, Domus Mariae, Handicap Center Lourdes, Ministry for Persons with Disabilities, Ministry on Health Care, Ministry on Public Affairs, Ministry on Ecology, Ministry on Restorative Justice, Ministry on Socio-Political Advocacy, Ministry for Labor Concerns and Pondo ng Pinoy.
Message of Father Cadore
For the formal opening of the Dominican Jubilee celebration last Nov. 7, All Dominican Saints Day, French Fr. Bruno Cadore, the master general of the Order of Preachers (OP), issued a video message right at Santa Sabina, the famous church and headquarters of the Dominicans in Rome.
The Dominican Jubilee celebrates the 800th anniversary of the confirmation by Pope Honorius in 1216-1217 of the OP founded by St. Dominic de Guzman from Caleruega, Spain:
“I am happy to greet all the brothers, sisters and lay Dominicans at this opening of this year of Jubilee of the Order of Preachers, and I am pleased to greet you all from the Basilica of Santa Sabina that was given to Saint Dominic.
“Why? First, because Santa Sabina is the place where Dominic’s preaching was rooted. He loved to pray here, he loved to contemplate, to speak to God. He loved to allow the mysteries of Christ’s life to inhabit his own life. And then he also loved, they say, to speak about God to those he met, with whom he spoke about the Gospel of peace.
“And here, in this conversation with God, he found the strength to go and preach again. For him to go and preach meant, as is shown in the mosaic of Santa Sabina, to preach unity: the unity between the circumcised and the gentiles, unity among those who believe and those who do not believe, the unity of all, because all are capable of the same communion.
“That is what he wanted to announce. He found the conviction for this in his vision of Peter and Paul: Paul gives him the scriptures, the revelation, the unity of God’s plan, and Peter gives him the pilgrim’s staff so he could go forth. So he goes and opens the door!
“This is what the Jubilee of the Order is about. He opens the door, and then he looks at the door, and he sees the first representation of the crucifixion. To preach the Gospel of peace is to preach the life given in abundance by a crucified Messiah. Then he goes and he joins all those who, beginning from Christ, have preached this.
“The motto for the Jubilee is ‘Go and preach!’”
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