Church

MANILA -- For
the head of the Church’s liaison body, carrying out peaceful dialogue remains
the best way to deal with the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), fearing
that launching an all-out offensive against rebel groups only spawns more
problems than it solves.

In an interview, Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick S. Pabillo told Church-run Radyo
Veritas government officials must persuade BIFF members to sit down with them
at the negotiating table.

MANILA — In what is perhaps their biggest public appeal to date, 81 Catholic Church leaders have resounded their plea to the country’s chief executive and to Congress to give new life and glorious finish” to the 27-year-old Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) by passing the twin measures House Bill 4296 and House Bill 4375 for the sake of Filipino farmers. Immediate passage In a recent two-page letter to President Benigno S. Aquino III (PNoy), the prelates led by Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) President Archbishop Socrates B.

CEBU CITY (PNA) -- The Cebu Archdiocese on Monday denied Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal made a direct call for President Benigno C. Aquino III to step down from office.In a statement issued by Msgr.

OMI Pastoral Assembly in Kidapawan City

TAGUM CITY — A Segunda Mana Night Market for a cause, why not? The Diocese of Tagum will be setting up a sale of new and pre-loved items from Feb. 19 to 20 at the Social Action Center, Diocese of Tagum as part of the activities lined up for the Mindanao celebration of the 40th Alay Kapwa (AK) anniversary and the launching of the Year of the Poor. I appreciated much how the ‘Segunda Mana’ of Caritas-Manila operates. And I wish to replicate it here in our diocese.

Colombo, Sri
Lanka, (CNA/EWTN News) - Pope Francis has begun his
visit to Sri Lanka, voicing hopes for days of friendship, dialogue and
solidarity.”

It is my hope
that Sri Lanka’s political, religious and cultural leaders, by measuring their
every word and action by the good and the healing it will bring, will make a
lasting contribution to the material and spiritual progress of the Sri Lankan
people,” the Pope said during a welcoming ceremony at the Bandaranaike
International Airport on the morning of Jan. 13.

DAGUPAN CITY — The Imitation of Christ.This was the central message of an open letter made public by Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) head Abp. Socrates B. Villegas recently in which he reminds his brother priests of the difficult but vital task of imitating the Lord in keeping with their vocation. These times call for imitation before proclamation, imitation before teaching, imitation before mission, imitation fund raising. Imitation of Christ before all else!” he stresses.

DAGUPAN City, Pangasinan, — With just a few days left before the world says goodbye to 2014, the head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) expresses confidence that the coming year 2015 will be like no other, especially when the faithful strives to place the Lord at its center. The Year 2015 is a Year of the Lord as every year really belongs to the Lord. Let us make it truly the year of the Lord by living each day praising Him, thanking Him, loving Him and following Him forever,” shares Archbishop Socrates B. Villegas in his New Year message.

First Reading

God sets a
father in honor over his children a mother’s authority he confirms over her
sons. Whoever honors his father atones for sins, and preserves himself from
them. When he prays, he is heard

he stores up
riches who reveres his mother. Whoever honors his father is gladdened by
children, and, when he prays, is heard. Whoever reveres his father will live a
long life he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother.

MANILA — Pope Francis on Christmas
Eve reminded the Catholic faithful of the true meaning of the birth of Jesus
Christ, noting it as the light which pierces and dispels the deepest darkness”
in the lives of the faithful.

Through the course of history,
the light that shatters the darkness reveals to us that God is Father and that
his patient fidelity is stronger than darkness and corruption,” the Pontiff
said in his Mass during the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord held at the
Vatican Basilica.

‘In love
with smallness’