SOWING SEEDS OF HOPE THROUGH MORAL VALUES
(A Talk delivered at the Institute for Solidarity in Asia on February 28, 2006)


The Catholic Bishops of the Philippines have been issuing pastoral letters to provide a moral compass for the decisions being made or proposed for the common good of our people. We can not stop doing what it is our duty to do: to remind our people and those who purport to lead them that core values drawn from natural law and the eternal law should serve as the moral foundations upon which we further build our nation.

Foundations securely a anchored on morals, and therefore on ethics, social responsibility and good governance make the institutions in our country strong; and such strong institutions can then work together to enhance the personal dignity of every individual as well as to promote the common good of our country. This happens, however, only if the agents of change and the transmitters of values in our society are empowered and invested with a deep sense of responsible citizenship. The family, the school, the business enterprise, and governance units at all levels should be at the forefront of our attention: through them we should ensure that all the programs we formulate, the projects we undertake, the targets we set, as one national community, are pervaded with the proper values that lead to the genuine development of our people.

Considering the social, economic, political and cultural imbalances and crises we are in, our vision of renewing Philippine public life is almost like a utopian dream. Both EDSA People Power I and II—successful and non-violent revolutions—stand in support of this dream. But we want this dream to become a growing passion and an obsession for every Filipino. To achieve this, we need to have at least a critical mass of nationalists who are willing to jump on to the beginning of a new political wave, to move into a new cycle of development, to operate with a social consciousness and conscience not for their individual or group safety and security, but for the good of the greatest number. We need servant-prophets of a new social order.

The scientist, Albert Einstein, offered a formula for solving the problems and crises that institutions, governments and churches are facing when he said: “The significant problem we face today cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” We will not solve our problem by insisting on doing the things that have produced the problem. Jesus Christ began his public ministry with a similar message “The time fulfillment has come…Repent (i.e. change your mind and behavior), and believe in the Gospel” (Mk. 1/15). The great Apostle Paul gives his rejoinder: “Be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the kindness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4/23).

The National Roadmap that has been unveiled fortunately captures these core ideas and invites all sectors of our society to taken them into so serious and account as to actually try to observe them. It establishes a fundamental and essential link between core values and strategic programs. It calls for full consistency between our core values and the measures we take, the targets we set, and the initiatives we undertake. Moreover, it asks all the drivers of change—the family, the school, the business enterprise, the governance units, and I might add all sectors of our society—to begin posing this question: what can we do for the common good of our national community? And in trying to answer this question, it strongly suggests that whatever answer we give must be fully consistent with the vision and mission we should have for our country and the core values that should underlie all aspects of our national life.

The most seriously affected by the crisis of moral values in the country are the poor, the marginalized, oftentimes exploited and treated like commodities. Graft and corruption have been flagrant and endemic, breeding poverty. Widespread poverty in turn breeds graft and corruption. The crisis of leadership at the highest level is like the tip of an “iceberg.” There is a concatenation of corruption that goes down to the barangay level, up and down and up, infecting the whole body politic like a contagious cancer. It deprives the poor of permanent shelter, health benefits, liberating education, dignified employment and above all sufficient food. To cure this social cancer we need a new breed of leaders in our country.

We must be able to gather a critical mass of like – minded and good willed nationalists, with a passion and obsession for good governance and prophetic leadership. This critical mass will be the training ground of other nationalists who will lead our country with the values of honesty and justice, truth and integrity, credibility and accountability, transparency and stewardship. These are the values—criteria that citizens must use to raise up a new breed of statespersons.

I fully this approach, I commend it to every sector and institution of our country. Follow it and make sure core values permeate all programs, targets and initiatives proposed and subsequently taken, monitored, and scored! It is the link between core values and decisions as well as actions we have been taking that has been missing for too long in our country. For as long as that link remains missing, we end up with more than a few leaders who act more like a band of thieves rather than as a band of responsible statespersons deeply committed to the common good of all.


+ANGEL N. LAGDAMEO
28 February 2006

Lent: A Call to Transformation

Ash Wednesday launches the Catholic Church into the season of lent. On Ash Wednesday we are given a grim reminder by the church “You are dust, and unto dust you shall return.” The liturgy allows the use of Jesus Christ’s inaugural message as he entered his public life: “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” (Mk 1:15). This is said as the ashes are imposed on the forehead.

It is season of Lent. “Quaresma,” it is also called. Season of penance and mortification. Season of “pabasa,” the common singing of “pasyon.” Season of the Stations of the Cross every Friday. The season leads to Palm Sunday… the Visita Iglesya on Holy Thursday…the Seven Last Words on Good Friday…the Empty Tomb on Easter Sunday.

Jesus Christ’s invitation of “Repent” in this season of lent takes on a peculiar perspective in the context of our national situation. It is a call to transformation. Considering the social, economic and political crises we are in, the vision of change and transformation becomes a growing passion and obsession. We want the Resurrection to new life brought by Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday observed and experienced not only on the spiritual level but also as a transformation in our economic, social and political life.

Lent as a call to transformation means that out of the repentance of believers in the Gospel, the slum dwellings are transformed to permanent shelters, the poor are given health benefits, the marginalized are offered liberating education, the exploited are given dignified employment and malnourished children sufficient food. Transformation of society is the fruit of repentance and reform of life.

While political priorities occupy many of our leaders, the most immediate and urgent priority of the common Filipinos is their daily struggle to earn their livelihood. Poverty, despite the professed development at the macro-level, remains the heaviest burden the country bears.

I repeat what the Bishops had said in their Pastoral Statement Renewing Our Public Life: “At the bottom of our political chaos is a crisis of moral values, a crisis of truth and justice, of unity and solidarity for the sake of the common good and genuine peace.” Renewal of moral values in the service of the common good means converting the energies that one used for graft and corruption into energies for better public service. We hope that from the “ashes” of political crisis and corrupted institutions will resurrect a transformed nation, a truly moral society, built up in truth, justice, freedom and love.


+ANGEL N. LAGDAMEO
Archbishop of Jaro
President, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines

February 28, 2006

Pastoral Exhortation

Call to Patriotism


We have been informed that a segment of our Philippine Army had planned a “coup” on the occasion of rallies commemorating EDSA People Power I, a sign of withdrawing its support to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. As a result thereof the President has declared “a state of emergency”—among others prohibiting holding of rallies, and resulting in the arrest of some civilians. As the governance of President Arroyo continues to be haunted by questions of legitimacy and corruption, our life as a people is unavoidably affected.

In the meantime, as we discern the “signs of the times” we call upon all in civil society to exercise prudence, sobriety, patience and vigilance. Let us meet this event with calmness. We reject violence from whichever group that may come either in pursuance of its purpose or to take advantage of the crisis-situation. Remember “Tayo’y kapwa Pilipino, mahal ng Dios!”

To all parties concerned, we as Shepherds appeal to you to be open to reason and respect truth and the Rule of Law and to avoid creating the atmosphere of belligerency—because innocent people are likely to become involuntary victims of selfish interest. The situation is a challenge to magnanimously prove that your patriotism and concern for the poor and the suffering are of higher value than personal survival.

May the key players in this military and political unrest all listen to one another in a dialogue and come to agreement for the good of our country. May there be honesty, peace, freedom and justice in the pursuance of the democratic order. May the decision-makers and problem-solvers have the integrity and wisdom to put the total welfare of the suffering republic above party interest and ambition to power, and to soonest end our military and political crisis without bloodshed.

We invite all people of good will, especially the Church organizations and the contemplatives to have a chain of Holy Hours, where feasible, before the Blessed Sacrament to pray for our country.

We invoke the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary that they may help us in these trying times. Lord, deliver our country from further corruption and greater crisis.


For the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines


+ANGEL N. LAGDAMEO
Archbishop of Jaro
CBCP President