We welcome with joy and gratitude the release of the missionary, Fr. Giancarlo Bossi, by his abductors. For many weeks, in behalf of his relatives and community, many people prayed and appealed for mercy and compassion for Fr. Bossi.
Foreign missionaries are giving a great service to the people in far-flung corners of the country especially in Mindanao, at great sacrifice and even dangers. We hope that what happened to Fr. Bossi will not happen again.
Prior to the release of Fr. Bossi, there was the barbaric and bloody ambush of Philippine Marines at which 14 (?) lost their lives. We condemn such heinous act, and join the appeal for justice in the restoration of peace. Let the same not happen again in our society of already precarious peace.
We express appreciation to all who facilitated his release.
We recognize in the incidence, the elements of peace-making and peace-giving, from which we can try to move on.
+ANGEL N. LAGDAMEO
Archbishop of Jaro
CBCP President
July 20, 2007
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4 comments:
i am happy that he is already released. my pime classmates here in tagaytay were very happy too. sana di na masundan. we SVDs are also present in zamboanga.
I am also happy he has been released. But why has he stood for Charity and not Justice? Why does he not assist in bringing his kidnappers to bow before the Law?
I am sorely troubled by the revelations of Sgt Vidal Doble in the Bahay Pari incident.
If the rest of the Bishops do not speak out against collusion of certain of their brethren with military and govt operatives who were using grave threats of physical violence and deadly coercsion against the defenseless wife and children of a simple sargent, then they would be morally complicit in a despicable crime.
The Church will be irreparably harmed when the whole truth about this comes out.
I strongly beseech the bishops to act swiftly before that happens.
You must not rest on laurels of the past. Cardinal Sin is long dead. You are called again to defend the Christian faith as well as the faith of Christians in it.
Always must we stand for Justice and Charity, and never what the Father of Lies urges on our pride and vanity.
Imagine the terror we have all condoned in the utterly innocent children of Sgt Doble in those days of the Bahay Pari incident, the fear that Mrs. Doble felt not only for herself but for Darren and Danica, who surely knew something terrible was happening to them, to Papa, to Mama, but could not possibly have any idea what. Imagine them in the basement of Gen. Abu's house at Camp Aguinaldo.
It would be wholly disingenuous for the one sent there by the Manila Cardinal to assist the authorities to say he was just protecting the seminarians. When he took Doble to the chapel at San Carlos to prey, I could see in the eyes of Sgt. Doble as he related it, that he felt the death threat being delivered to his family, and that is why he went "willingly" with one who claims prayer and meditation are his vocation.
It is a dishonesty of the highest order, in my opinion, for it to be claimed that Soc was "preventing the violence of a military assault on San Carlos, for it was those who wielded the Sword that day only using the Cross as the deliverer of that terrible threat of violence.
And what will happen when Arlene and those once frightened children stand up next to tell the Truth of those despicable events?
We can wash our hands of this in public, and the public may even "believe" it or acquiesce in it. But our conscience will never rest easy.
With due respect,
Dean Jorge Bocobo
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