It must be one of the most heinous crimes of the century, with little exaggeration and one, which went undetected by Filipino police until Dutch Internet investigators found abhorrent and revolting child pornography of Filipino children being sexually assaulted, tortured and murdered on videos on the computer of a Dutch national.
Attorney Janet Francisco, executive officer of National Bureau of’Investigation’s Anti-Human Trafficking Division (AHTRAD), said the videos were so “hateful, disgusting, and painful to watch. The babies being tortured and sexually assaulted and listening to their cries could haunt you forever,’ she told a national newspaper.
This terrible litany of crimes against children with the help of Filipino women who recruit, traffic and abduct children as young as one year old is surely just one crime of many. There are hundreds if not thousands of such crimes un-detected, un-reported and unknown.
Interior of Sacred heart Cathedral, Lahore [Wikipedia]
An update from Columban Fr Liam O’Callaghan in Pakistan
[We published a report from Fr O’Callaghan on 17 March.]
Lahore situation. The situation continues to be bad and quite tense. On Tuesday outside Township Church (which is in St Columban’s parish where we worked up until last July) there was firing on the police on duty outside the church by two men on a motorbike as they rode by. Two passersby were injured, it is not clear what the motive was but it has certainly spread fear.
In Yohannabad the situation is still very bad and many people have left their houses to stay with relatives in other areas. The lynching and burning alive of two Muslim men has come back to haunt the Christian community in a big way. The Police have arrested over 100 Christians on suspicion of being involved in it, spreading fear and resentment that the suicide bombings are almost forgotten about in comparison with the focus on this issue.
Each year, Archbishop Sebastian Shaw OFM (above) and all the priests of theArchdiocese of Lahore gather for a recollection day on the Wednesday of Holy week. This year, it has been decided that it will be held in Yohannabad as a sign of solidarity with the people there and to pray for peace. A Mass will be celebrated for the victims of the recent violence. Columban Fr Joe Joyce and I will attend. So it might be an opportunity for suggesting a Columban Society-wide prayer time for peace on Wednesday in solidarity with those who have suffered here – Muslims, Christians and other minorities.
The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting,
“Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord—the King of Israel!”
Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written:“Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.
Chalice, Gilt Silver, 1450 – 1500, Unknown Hungarian Goldsmith Hungarian National Museum, Budapest [Web Gallery of Art]
Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many” (Mark 14:23-24).
“Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want” (Mark 14:36).
As we enter Holy Week we can be overwhelmed by the sheer richness of the liturgy. I have always found it difficult to say anything about or during these days. American writer Flannery O’Connor in the quotation below touches on the inner suffering of some as they struggle to believe in Jesus, something she knew from personal experience. She also embraced the Cross in coming to terms with lupus, which had caused her father’s early death. His death was for her when she was 15, an experience of embracing the Cross.
Flannery O’Connor grew up as a devout Catholic in Georgia, in the ‘Bible Belt’ of the USA. In 1951 she was diagnosed with lupus, from which her father had died when she was 15. She said of her writings, The stories are hard but they are hard because there is nothing harder or less sentimental than Christian realism. She also wrote, Grace changes us and change is painful. The following quotation reflects this [emphasis added]:
I think there is no suffering greater than what is caused by the doubts of those who want to believe. I know what torment this is, but I can only see it, in myself anyway, as the process by which faith is deepened. A faith that just accepts is a child’s faith and all right for children, but eventually you have to grow religiously as every other way, though some never do. What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross. It is much harder to believe than not to believe. If you feel you can’t believe, you must at least do this: keep an open mind. Keep it open toward faith, keep wanting it, keep asking for it, and leave the rest to God.
May Holy Week be a time when each of us can embrace whatever share in the Cross God has in mind for us and may it prepare us to celebrate the Joy and Hope of Easter once again.
World Youth Day 2015Young pilgrims from Rio de Janeiro, site if WYDRio2013, receiving the Cross during WYD in Madrid 21 August 2011 [Wikipedia]
In years whenWorld Youth Day is not a major international gathering it is observed in Rome on Palm Sunday. The Message of Pope Francisfor this year’s WYD has as its theme Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matthew 5). One quotation from it echoes the words of Flannery O’Connor above:
The Lord’s invitation to encounter him is made to each of you, in whatever place or situation you find yourself. It suffices to have the desire for “a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter you; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day” (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 3). We are all sinners, needing to be purified by the Lord. But it is enough to take a small step towards Jesus to realize that he awaits us always with open arms, particularly in the sacrament of Reconciliation, a privileged opportunity to encounter that divine mercy which purifies us and renews our hearts
Submitted by FatherSean on Tue, 03/24/2015 – 14:01.
Fr Colmcille McKeating
(9 July 1940 – 21 March 2015)
Fr Colmcille (‘Colm’) McKeating died in the Columban Nursing Home, Dalgan Park, Navan, Ireland, on 21 March 2015. Born in Belfast on 9 July 1940, he was educated at St Patrick’s Christian Brothers’ School, Donegall St, Belfast, and St Mary’s Christian Brothers’ School, Barrack St, Belfast. He came to St Columban’s, Navan, in September 1956 and was ordained priest on 21 December 1962. He was appointed to post-graduate studies in Science at Cambridge University and later at Queen’s University, Belfast.
Celtic Park, Belfast, where the young Colm often went in the 1940s with his father on Saturday afternoons to watch Belfast Celtic play. The club pulled out of the Irish League (soccer) in 1949 because of sectarian troubles.
Appointed to the Philippines in 1967, his first eight years were spent in the parishes of Iba and Botolan, Zambales, and he later combined pastoral work with full-time teaching mathematics and chemistry at Columban College, Olongapo City, Zambales. During his second term, from 1973 to 1978, he opened the new Parish of the Blessed Trinity in New Cabalan, Olongapo City, while he continued to teach part-time at Columban College.
Cathedral of St Augustine, Iba, Zambales [Wikipedia]
From 1978 to 1984, he was assigned to the Region of Ireland where he served initially as the Justice and Peace Officer, then for three years on the Vocations Team, and later on the staff of the Columban Formation Programme at Maynooth. From 1984 to 1986 he studied Fundamental Theology at Rome’s Gregorian University.
The Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome [Wikipedia]
He returned to the Philippines in 1987 where he directed the Spiritual Year for the first group of Filipino students. In the years that followed he combined involvement in the Initial Formation Programme with the continuation of his doctoral studies in Rome. The fruits of this research later appeared in his first book, Eschatology in the Anglican Sermons of John Henry Newman (1992). In 1998 he was appointed superior of the Luzon District, and Director of the Region of the Philippines from 1999 to 2005. This was followed by a period of teaching at Maryhill School of Theology, New Manila, Quezon City.
Painting of Blessed John Henry Newman, by Jane Fortescue Seymour, circa 1876 [Wikipedia]
Father Colm was a man of many talents, a pastor, a teacher, a theologian, and an able administrator. A man of keen mind, he was also kind, compassionate, good-humoured and committed to the struggle of justice for the oppressed. Illness forced his return to Ireland in July 2013 and he showed great courage and patience as his strength gradually diminished. He worked on his last book Light Which Dims the Stars – A Theology of Creation until it was ready for publication.
May he rest in peace.
Firmly I believe and truly
Word by Blessed John Henry Newman
Firmly I believe and truly
God is Three, and God is One;
And I next acknowledge duly
Manhood taken by the Son.
And I trust and hope most fully
In that Manhood crucified;
And each thought and deed unruly
Do to death, as He has died.
Simply to His grace and wholly
Light and life and strength belong,
And I love supremely, solely,
Him the holy, Him the strong.
[And I hold in veneration,
For the love of Him alone,
Holy Church as His creation,
And her teachings are His own.
And I take with joy whatever
Now besets me, pain or fear,
And with a strong will I sever
All the ties which bind me here.]
Adoration aye be given,
With and through the angelic host,
To the God of earth and Heaven,
Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Firmly I believe and truly
God is Three, and God is One;
And I next acknowledge duly
Manhood taken by the Son.
And I trust and hope most fully
In that Manhood crucified;
And each thought and deed unruly
Do to death, as He has died.
Simply to His grace and wholly
Light and life and strength belong,
And I love supremely, solely,
Him the holy, Him the strong.
[And I hold in veneration,
For the love of Him alone,
Holy Church as His creation,
And her teachings are His own.
And I take with joy whatever
Now besets me, pain or fear,
And with a strong will I sever
All the ties which bind me here.]
Adoration aye be given,
With and through the angelic host,
To the God of earth and Heaven,
Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Fr Colm with four newly-arrived Korean Columban Lay Missionaries in the Philippines, 2011
L to R Noh Hyein, Kim Sunhee, Park Juri and Shin Hyun Jeong
Father Colm once told your editor that he was the youngest ever Columban to be ordained, with a special dispensation because he was only 22 years and five months. The usual minimum age is 24. And he also told your editor that when appointed Regional Director in 1999 at the age of 59 he was the oldest to begin in that position.
Among Father Colm’s many gifts was a pleasant tenor voice. His ‘party piece’, which your editor often heard him sing, was the song below. Ruby Murray was also from Belfast.
Fr Colm McKeating with four newly-arrived Korean Columban Lay Missionaries in the Philippines, 2011
L to R Noh Hyein, Kim Sunhee, Park Juri and Shin Hyun Jeong
Fr Colm McKeating died at 5:30pm, local time, in Ireland on Saturday 21 March. His death was not unexpected and he had suffered much since the beginning of the year.
Father Colm, ordained in 1962, spent most of his missionary life in the Philippines, in the Diocese of Iba, Zambales, and later teaching in Maryhill School of Theology, Quezon City, for many years. He was Regional Director of the Columbans in the Philippines for six years.
Father Colm’s funeral will take place at St Columban’s, Dalgan Park, Ireland, on Tuesday or Wednesday. Please remember him in your prayers.
Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (John 12:24).
Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)
GospelJohn 12:20-33 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada)
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks.They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.
And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself (John 12:32).
Sir, we wish to see Jesus. This was the request of some Greek pilgrims to Jerusalem who spoke to Philip. Jesus when told of this said to Philip and Andrew, Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Presumably, these words were conveyed to the Greeks by the two apostles or perhaps repeated to them by Jesus himself.
The Lord was making it very clear that there are consequences to following him. Philip himself was to end his life as a martyr.
On 12 March Pope Francis addressed the bishops of Korea during their ad limina visit. He recalled his visit to Korea last year when he beatified a group of martyrs. The Bishop of Rome said [emphasis added]: For me, one of the most beautiful moments of my visit to Korea was the beatification of the martyrs Paul Yun Ji-chung and companions. In enrolling them among the Blessed, we praised God for the countless graces which he showered upon the Church in Korea during her infancy, and equally gave thanks for the faithful response given to these gifts of God. Even before their faith found full expression in the sacramental life of the Church, these first Korean Christians not only fostered their personal relationship with Jesus, but brought him to others, regardless of class or social standing, and dwelt in a community of faith and charity like the first disciples of the Lord (cf. Acts 4:32). “They were willing to make great sacrifices and let themselves be stripped of whatever kept them from Christ…Christ alone was their true treasure” (Homily in Seoul, 16 August 2014). Their love of God and neighbor was fulfilled in the ultimate act of freely laying down their lives, thereby watering with their own blood the seedbed of the Church.
Last Sunday there were attacks on a Catholic church and a Protestant church in an area of Lahore where many Christians live as my Columban confrere Fr Liam O’Callaghan, who is based in Pakistan, reports. Pope Francis expressed his grief during his Angelus talk later in the day and noted: Our brothers’ and sisters’ blood is shed only because they are Christians.
When we say, We wish to see Jesus we have no idea what this might entail. But we do have the assurance of Jesus himself today where our following him will lead us: Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
Let us pray for the Christians of Pakistan, the Christians of the Middle East, the Christians in those parts of Africa where they are being persecuted simply for being followers of Jesus. May the promise of Jesus, Whoever serves me, the Father will honor give them courage and honour.
.
Responsorial Psalm (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)
Antiphona ad introitum Entrance AntiphonCf Psalm 42[43]:1-2
Iudica me, Deus,
Give me justice, O God,
et discerne causam meam de gente non sancta;
and plead my cause against a nation that is faithless.
Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)
GospelJohn 3:14-21 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada)
Jesus said to Nicodemus:“And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
The Pharisees generally have a bad name and the adjective ‘pharisaical’ is defined in Merriam-Webster as marked by hypocritical censorious self-righteousness. Those words could certainly describe most of the Pharisees we meet in the gospels. But they do not apply to Nicodemus. He was patently a good man who said to Jesus when he met him at night, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God (John 3:2). He was also with Jesus at the end helping to prepare for the burial. Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds (John 19:39).
This good Pharisee can help us come to the light, especially when that involves walking through the darkness. Physical darkness is part of the reality that God has given us and can protect us from the cosmic powers of this present darkness (Ephesians 6:12), as it did Nicodemus when he came by night to visit Jesus.
God has given us many examples of persons willing to confront the cosmic powers of this present darkness even at the risk of their lives. One such person is Patience Mollè Lobè, a 57-year-old widow and member of the Focolare Movement. An engineer, she became a very senior official in the Department of Public Works in Cameroon. She saw at first hand the powers of darkness in the corruption she encountered there. Here she relates how attempts were made three times to kill her.
Patience Mollè Lobè is yet another example of a layperson living fully the vision of Vatican II. So many have the idea that carrying out a particular kind of liturgical service, eg, being a reader, is what being a good lay Catholic is all about. It’s much more than that. It is a way of life in following Jesus, living every moment according to the Gospel, bringing the values of Jesus into every human situation. In the words of St Paul in today’s Second Reading: For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life (Ephesians 2:10).
Here in the Philippines many of us have known persons like Patience Mollè Lobè, some of whom have died for confronting the cosmic powers of this present darkness. Their witness to Jesus and the Gospel brings us the light of hope and proves the truth of his words today, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Antiphona ad introitum Entrance Antiphon Cf Isaiah 66:10-11
Laetare, Jerusalem, et conventum facite, omnes qui diligitis eam;
gaudete cum laetitia, qui in tristis fuistis,ut exsultetis,
et satiemini ab uberibus consolations vestrae.
Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her.
Be joyful, all who were in mourning,
exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast.
+++
On 11 March it was announced that the the poem below by Irish poet Seamus Heaney (1939 – 2013) had been chosen as Ireland’s best-loved poem of the last one hundred years.
When all the others were away at Mass
by Seamus Heaney
In Memoriam M.K.H., 1911-1984
When all the others were away at Mass
I was all hers as we peeled potatoes.
They broke the silence, let fall one by one
Like solder weeping off the soldering iron:
Cold comforts set between us, things to share
Gleaming in a bucket of clean water.
And again let fall. Little pleasant splashes
From each other’s work would bring us to our senses.
So while the parish priest at her bedside
Went hammer and tongs at the prayers for the dying
Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)
GospelJohn 2:13-25 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada)
The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.
In 1990 I went to renew my driving licence in Dublin. It took about twenty minutes, as I had to go to three or four different persons. But everything was orderly. Now you only have to go to one and the procedure, apart from filling up the form, takes less than a minute.
When I reached the last official he told me that I’d get my licence in the post (mail) in a day or two. I told him that I was leaving for Iceland the following day. (I was going on a pastoral visit to the Filipinos living there and was to drive around the whole country).
The clerk looked at me. And while he didn’t swear at me, he said something to the effect, ‘You stupid idiot. Why didn’t you say so before?’ I had no reason to do that since on previous occasions I had received my licence then and there. Now there was a new system.
On the face of it, the clerk was insulting me. But in a very ‘Dublin way’ he was being most helpful. He got up from his desk and came back a minute or two later with my new licence.
I had met an official with common sense, a person with a sense of public service.
Over the years here in the Philippines I have heard far too many stories of officials in situations like that who make it extremely difficult for members of the public, especially poorer ones, and who use delaying tactics unless something is passed across the counter.
In today’s Gospel Jesus uses physical force to show his utter disgust at the Temple being used as a market. He knew that some of these people took advantage of those who were poor. There are such persons in every community.
Jesus was emphasising the sacredness of the Temple, the only place where Jews offered sacrifices to God
But the First Reading links worship with daily life. It gives us the Ten Commandments, which spell out how our relationship with God and our relationship with those around us are intertwined. When the connection is not made evil follows, as the death of Floribert Bwana Chui in the video above shows.
I knew of a provincial engineer here in the Philippines who was never promoted. The reason? He used all the money allotted to build an excellent road nearly 50 years ago between two towns, by far the best in his own and in the neighbouring provinces. No ‘brown envelopes’. No kickbacks. Every centavo allotted went into the road. Many Columbans knew this man and told me of his deep faith and integrity.
When we truly worship God at Mass and on other occasions in the church or other designated sacred places, we come to see that every place, every situation, is meant to be sacred also. My mother more than once in scolding me said, House devil, street angel! In effect she was calling me to integrity, the kind of integrity I saw, for example, in my father’s life.
St Paul, so to speak, nails the life of the follower of Jesus to the Cross in today’s Second Reading: We proclaim Christ crucified. The sacrifices offered in the Temple foreshadowed the Sacrifice of Jesus in which all of us share each time we celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Some God calls, after strengthening their faith especially through the Eucharist and his Word, to share literally in the Sacrifice of Jesus. Floribert Bwana Chui was one of those.
Pope Francis has spoken frequently about the martyrs of our time. On 6 February, the feast day of the Martyrs of Japan, he said, I think of our martyrs, the martyrs of our times, men, women, children who are being persecuted, hated, driven out of their homes, tortured, massacred. And this is not a thing of the past: this is happening right now. It would do us good to think of our martyrs. Today, we remember Paolo Miki, but that happened in 1600. Think of our present-day ones! Of 2015.
We can see clearly the martyrdom of someone killed simply for being a Christian. There have been many such martyrs in recent years in the Middle East and in parts of Africa. What we don’t see so clearly, perhaps, is that a person who is killed for refusing to give a bribe, for refusing to tell a lie, for refusing to cooperate in crime, for demanding and working for justice, is also a martyr. There are many such persons such as Floribert Bwana Chui.
Another such is Clement Shahbaz Bhatti, the Pakistani politician assassinated on 2 March 2011 because he saw his life as a politician as his vocation in following Christ:
My name is Shahbaz Bhatti. I was born into a Catholic family. My father, a retired teacher, and my mother, a housewife, raised me according to Christian values and the teachings of the Bible, which influenced my childhood. Since I was a child, I was accustomed to going to church and finding profound inspiration in the teachings, the sacrifice, and the crucifixion of Jesus. It was his love that led me to offer my service to the Church.
The frightening conditions into which the Christians of Pakistan had fallen disturbed me. I remember one Good Friday when I was just thirteen years old: I heard a homily on the sacrifice of Jesus for our redemption and for the salvation of the world. And I thought of responding to his love by giving love to my brothers and sisters, placing myself at the service of Christians, especially of the poor, the needy, and the persecuted who live in this Islamic country.I have been asked to put an end to my battle, but I have always refused, even at the risk of my own life. My response has always been the same. I do not want popularity, I do not want positions of power. I only want a place at the feet of Jesus. I want my life, my character, my actions to speak of me and say that I am following Jesus Christ.
Floribert Bwan Chui, whom I learned about only a few days ago, and Shahbaz Bhatti, whom I have written about many times, understood how the Temple and the ‘Marketplace’ – the latter in its proper ‘location’ – are related in terms of following Jesus. And they both embodied fully the vision of Vatican II for the lay person:
For man, created to God’s image, received a mandate to subject to himself the earth and all it contains, and to govern the world with justice and holiness; a mandate to relate himself and the totality of things to Him Who was to be acknowledged as the Lord and Creator of all. Thus, by the subjection of all things to man, the name of God would be wonderful in all the earth.
This mandate concerns the whole of everyday activity as well. For while providing the substance of life for themselves and their families, men and women are performing their activities in a way which appropriately benefits society. They can justly consider that by their labor they are unfolding the Creator’s work, consulting the advantages of their brother men, and are contributing by their personal industry to the realization in history of the divine plan (Gaudium et Spes, 34).
The most recent discovery of a human fossil, a jawbone with four teeth in Ethiopia has amazed anthropologists because of its age. It strengthens the theory that the migration of the first humans out of Africa occurred about 1.5 million years ago.
Some of them moved through Asia and across land bridges into South East Asia and the Philippines.
Their descendants could well be the Filipino indigenous people, the real survivors of an ancient past and the true owners of the Philippine ancestral lands. Marginalized as they are now-a-days their valid claims to ancestral land rights has been largely ignored by the dominating elite families that claim ownership and control 70 percent of the wealth of the country.
The goal of the Preda Fair Trade is to help these indigenous people and the small mango and coconut growers. We call on all who respect human rights to support them in their lawful and rightful claims to their ancestral land. They need help to resist the incursions of mining companies and land grabbers into the last remaining lands that they have occupied and for hundreds for thousands of years. The rich corrupt politicians have cut down the once magnificent rain forests. Fighting for social justice for the poor, the oppressed people is an important part of Fair Trade.
