In the Archdiocese of Washington and the Diocese of Arlington, all parish churches are open on all Wednesdays of the Holy Season of Lent from 6:30PM-8:00PM for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
This program has been called, "The Light Is On For You."
Showing posts with label Echoes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Echoes. Show all posts
Friday, March 2, 2012
Friday, September 23, 2011
Blessed are the politicians...
I read this from the website dedicated to the late Cardinal Francis Van Thuan. It is worth sharing - as a prayer for our politicians, as well as a hope for renewed politics and social life. Hopeful reading.
***
8 "beatitudes for politicians"
Cardinal Francois-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, who is president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, proposed the moral guidelines on May 3, 2002 at a conference in the northern Italian city of Padua.Echoing the eight beatitudes preached by Christ in his Sermon on the Mount, Cardinal Thuan said politicians needed a similar set of rules that leave room for the faith in their profession.
- Blessed the politician who well understands his role in the world.
- Blessed the politician who personally exemplifies credibility.
- Blessed the politician who works for the common good and not for his own interests.
- Blessed the politician who is true to himself, his faith and his electoral promises.
- Blessed the politician who works for unity and makes Jesus the fulcrum of its defence.
- Blessed the politician who works for radical change, refusing to call good that which is evil and using the Gospel as a guide.
- Blessed the politician who listens to the people before, during and after the elections, and who listens to God in prayers.
- Blessed the politician who has no fear of the truth or the mass media, because at the time of judgment he will answer only to God, not the media.
***
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
A positive and hopeful echo
On a more positive note, here are some hopeful echoes:
Ambition - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos
Theres The Rub
Ambition
By Conrado de Quiros
Philippine Daily Inquirer
05/04/2011
The text of the article:
***
MANG NESTOR used to scavenge in Smoky Mountain before the mountain of trash there was razed down. Driven to live in Bagong Silang, he tried to make ends meet doing this and that, but found it the hardest thing in the world with two kids. Though his wife helped by cooking and hawking food, his family was in constant want. His dream of being able to send his kids to school to help them escape his lot in life remained just that, a dream.
They lived austerely. During his kids’ birthdays, he worked longer hours to try to get them some noodles, but not always successfully. He could not comprehend how people could throw away food so easily, masasarap pa naman, in fastfood and restaurants. It was such utter waste.
What he particularly minded was that there was no toilet where he lived. To relieve yourself, he said, you had to hike for 20 minutes to the nearest public toilet and line up for your turn. A pretty trying experience when you’ve got to go, and which the more desperate solved by settling for the tabi-tabi. A brutish life, with no relief in sight.
But relief did come in the form of a newly opened Gawad Kalinga village in Bagong Silang. Mang Nestor’s was one of 30 families that got awarded a home in that village, a tiny house by the standards of the rich and middle class but a veritable palace in the eyes of the beneficiaries. It had of course the most wondrous thing in the world: a toilet. Or a CR, as Mang Nestor, like other Filipinos, referred to it. Nowhere did the term “comfort room” take on the most literal meanings.
This was one of the things shown in the Hope Ball in Las Vegas where I was last weekend, a fund-raising activity by Fil-Ams that managed to raise enough funds to build homes for 150 more families. A couple of things ran through my mind when I saw this, quite apart of course from the epic contribution GK has been making to solving poverty in the Philippines over the last several years.
The first was to get a glimpse of the ugliness and monstrosity of corruption again. Or to get a new appreciation for President Benigno Aquino III’s “’Pag walang corrupt, walang mahirap.” Corruption is not abstract, it is concrete—and cruel. Corruption is far more wasteful than throwing away barely touched food in Jollibee and Mang Inasal while the street children sniff rugby to forget their hunger pangs. The other side of things like the AFP spending P800 million to procure bond paper, a city hospital overpricing Mongol pencils 5,000 times, and a governor diverting P25 million to his kid’s wedding is a horde of Mang Nestors who have to hustle their way through life to treat a daughter to some pancit during her birthday or trek a mile or so to relieve themselves of their stomach’s contents and their soul’s cares.
Corruption isn’t just monies being lost God knows where, it is food being taken away from the mouths of the hungry, it is roofs being taken away from the desolate, it is comfort being taken away from the anguished and bereaved. Corruption crushes. Corruption kills. The corrupt and the desperate are to each other as cause and effect. Truly, where there are no pillagers, there are no paupers. Truly,’pag walang corrupt, walang mahirap.
The second thing that flashed through my mind was the grandness of spirit shown by the movement Gawad Kalinga—yes, it is a veritable movement now—and the hope it is giving us. GK’s professed goal is to eradicate poverty in this country by the next decade. That may seem like an impossible dream, a quest more admirable for the scale of its aspiration than for the possibility of its realization. Yet when you come right down to it, why should that be so impossible? Why should that be so quixotic?
Ambition, Shakespeare said, should be made of sterner stuff, and you can’t find sterner stuff than the tears of gratitude and joy streaming down the faces of those who have not only been given houses but communities to live in, who have not only been given a roof over their heads but a gladness in their hearts. You can’t find sterner stuff than the 30 families who have been plucked from utter want who now live like human beings in a spot of Bagong Silang, the 150 families who will live like human beings in other spots of Bagong Silang courtesy of what the Fil-Ams raised in just one event in Las Vegas, the hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of families that will live like human beings over the next several years in other Bagong Silangs in this country, in other New Births or New Days or New Lives in this country.
I don’t know how Manny Pacquiao’s fight will turn out (he was due to make a pitch for Gawad Kalinga earlier today), but I do know that somebody else has already won a far more magnificent fight for the country and will continue to win far more magnificent fights for the country in the coming years.
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff, and none comes sterner than the spirit shown by the people who have dedicated themselves to this. Men and women, young and old, Pinoys and Fil-Ams who have worked tirelessly, eagerly, joyfully to bring the vision of the Philippines freed from want a little closer to reality. It is the exact opposite of the baleful spirit of corruption. Corruption in the end is selfishness, an inability to see beyond oneself or one’s family, an overriding need to secure self and family beyond all others, at the expense of all others. Either the men and women of Gawad Kalinga have gone past that or they have extended the meanings of self and family to include the farthest of the far, the poorest of the poor. They too are self, they too are family, walang iwanan, you don’t leave them behind, you don’t leave anyone behind. That is grandness.
That is ambition.
*end*
Ambition - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos
Theres The Rub
Ambition
By Conrado de Quiros
Philippine Daily Inquirer
05/04/2011
The text of the article:
***
MANG NESTOR used to scavenge in Smoky Mountain before the mountain of trash there was razed down. Driven to live in Bagong Silang, he tried to make ends meet doing this and that, but found it the hardest thing in the world with two kids. Though his wife helped by cooking and hawking food, his family was in constant want. His dream of being able to send his kids to school to help them escape his lot in life remained just that, a dream.
They lived austerely. During his kids’ birthdays, he worked longer hours to try to get them some noodles, but not always successfully. He could not comprehend how people could throw away food so easily, masasarap pa naman, in fastfood and restaurants. It was such utter waste.
What he particularly minded was that there was no toilet where he lived. To relieve yourself, he said, you had to hike for 20 minutes to the nearest public toilet and line up for your turn. A pretty trying experience when you’ve got to go, and which the more desperate solved by settling for the tabi-tabi. A brutish life, with no relief in sight.
But relief did come in the form of a newly opened Gawad Kalinga village in Bagong Silang. Mang Nestor’s was one of 30 families that got awarded a home in that village, a tiny house by the standards of the rich and middle class but a veritable palace in the eyes of the beneficiaries. It had of course the most wondrous thing in the world: a toilet. Or a CR, as Mang Nestor, like other Filipinos, referred to it. Nowhere did the term “comfort room” take on the most literal meanings.
This was one of the things shown in the Hope Ball in Las Vegas where I was last weekend, a fund-raising activity by Fil-Ams that managed to raise enough funds to build homes for 150 more families. A couple of things ran through my mind when I saw this, quite apart of course from the epic contribution GK has been making to solving poverty in the Philippines over the last several years.
The first was to get a glimpse of the ugliness and monstrosity of corruption again. Or to get a new appreciation for President Benigno Aquino III’s “’Pag walang corrupt, walang mahirap.” Corruption is not abstract, it is concrete—and cruel. Corruption is far more wasteful than throwing away barely touched food in Jollibee and Mang Inasal while the street children sniff rugby to forget their hunger pangs. The other side of things like the AFP spending P800 million to procure bond paper, a city hospital overpricing Mongol pencils 5,000 times, and a governor diverting P25 million to his kid’s wedding is a horde of Mang Nestors who have to hustle their way through life to treat a daughter to some pancit during her birthday or trek a mile or so to relieve themselves of their stomach’s contents and their soul’s cares.
Corruption isn’t just monies being lost God knows where, it is food being taken away from the mouths of the hungry, it is roofs being taken away from the desolate, it is comfort being taken away from the anguished and bereaved. Corruption crushes. Corruption kills. The corrupt and the desperate are to each other as cause and effect. Truly, where there are no pillagers, there are no paupers. Truly,’pag walang corrupt, walang mahirap.
The second thing that flashed through my mind was the grandness of spirit shown by the movement Gawad Kalinga—yes, it is a veritable movement now—and the hope it is giving us. GK’s professed goal is to eradicate poverty in this country by the next decade. That may seem like an impossible dream, a quest more admirable for the scale of its aspiration than for the possibility of its realization. Yet when you come right down to it, why should that be so impossible? Why should that be so quixotic?
Ambition, Shakespeare said, should be made of sterner stuff, and you can’t find sterner stuff than the tears of gratitude and joy streaming down the faces of those who have not only been given houses but communities to live in, who have not only been given a roof over their heads but a gladness in their hearts. You can’t find sterner stuff than the 30 families who have been plucked from utter want who now live like human beings in a spot of Bagong Silang, the 150 families who will live like human beings in other spots of Bagong Silang courtesy of what the Fil-Ams raised in just one event in Las Vegas, the hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of families that will live like human beings over the next several years in other Bagong Silangs in this country, in other New Births or New Days or New Lives in this country.
I don’t know how Manny Pacquiao’s fight will turn out (he was due to make a pitch for Gawad Kalinga earlier today), but I do know that somebody else has already won a far more magnificent fight for the country and will continue to win far more magnificent fights for the country in the coming years.
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff, and none comes sterner than the spirit shown by the people who have dedicated themselves to this. Men and women, young and old, Pinoys and Fil-Ams who have worked tirelessly, eagerly, joyfully to bring the vision of the Philippines freed from want a little closer to reality. It is the exact opposite of the baleful spirit of corruption. Corruption in the end is selfishness, an inability to see beyond oneself or one’s family, an overriding need to secure self and family beyond all others, at the expense of all others. Either the men and women of Gawad Kalinga have gone past that or they have extended the meanings of self and family to include the farthest of the far, the poorest of the poor. They too are self, they too are family, walang iwanan, you don’t leave them behind, you don’t leave anyone behind. That is grandness.
That is ambition.
*end*
Osama and the US on hindsight
This analysis makes a lot of sense - both on hindsight and hopefully insight and forsight.
Osama’s no Martyr, but the Man Prevailed - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos
The text of the article:
***
Osama bin Laden is no martyr. He is certainly no Che Guevara, whose fate at the hands of the Central Intelligence Agency was strikingly similar to his. But one cannot escape the fact that he succeeded in unleashing a chain of events that led to his nemesis, the United States, becoming a diminished power compared to what it was in the halcyon days of unilateralism at the end of the last century. One cannot but acknowledge that in the duel between Washington and Osama, the latter was, at the time of his death, far ahead on points.
Soon after the US went to war against the Taliban in pursuit of Osama in October 2001, I penned a widely published analysis that at the time provoked controversy. However, it anticipated the course of the titanic struggle between a global power and a determined fanatic over the next decade. I am reprinting part of that essay below:
"In the aftermath of the September 11 assault, a number of writers wrote about the possibility that that move could have been a bait to get the US bogged down in a war of intervention in the Middle East that would inflame the Muslim world against it. Whether or not that was indeed bin Laden's strategic objective, the US bombing of Afghanistan has created precisely such a situation…
The global support that US President George Bush has flaunted is deceptive. Of course, a lot of governments would express their support for the UN Security Council's call for a global campaign against terrorism. Far fewer countries, however, are actually actively cooperating in intelligence and police surveillance activities. Even fewer have endorsed the military campaign and opened up their territory to transit by US planes on the way to Southwest Asia. And when one gets down to the decisive test of offering troops and weapons to fight alongside the British and the Americans in the harsh plains and icy mountains of Afghanistan, one is down to the hardcore of the Western Cold War alliance.
Bin Laden's terrorist methods are despicable, but one must grant the devil his due. Whether through study or practice, he has absorbed the lessons of guerilla warfare in a national, Afghan setting and translated it to a global setting. Serving as the international correlate of the national popular base is the youth of the global Muslim community, among whom feelings of resentment against Western domination were a volatile mix that was simply waiting to be ignited.
The September 11 attacks were horrific and heinous, but from one angle, what were they except a variant of Che Guevara's "foco" theory? According to Guevara, the aim of a bold guerilla action is twofold: to demoralize the enemy and to empower your popular base by getting them to participate in an action that shows that the all-powerful government is indeed vulnerable. The enemy is then provoked into a military response that further saps his credibility in what is basically a political and ideological battle. For bin Laden, terrorism is not the end but a means to an end. And that end is something that none of Bush's rhetoric about defending civilization through revenge bombing can compete with: a vision of Muslim Asia rid of American economic and military power, Israel, and corrupt surrogate elites, and returned to justice and Islamic sanctity.
Yet Washington was not exactly without weapons in this ideological war. In the aftermath of September 11, it could have responded in a way that could have blunted bin Laden's political and ideological appeal and opened up a new era in US-Arab relations.
First, it could have foresworn unilateral military action and announced to the world that it would go the legal route in pursuing justice, no matter how long this took. It could have announced its pursuit of a process combining patient multinational investigation, diplomacy, and the employment of accepted international mechanisms like the International Court of Justice.
These methods may take time but they work, and they ensure that justice and fairness are served. For instance, patient diplomacy secured the extradition from Libya of suspects in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, and their successful prosecution under an especially constituted court in the Hague. Likewise, the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, set up under the auspices of the ICJ, has successfully prosecuted some wartime Croat and Serbian terrorists and is currently prosecuting former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, though of course much remains to be done.
The second prong of a progressive US response could have been Washington's announcing a fundamental change in its policies in the Middle East, the main points of which would be the withdrawal of troops from Saudi Arabia, the ending of sanctions and military action against Iraq, decisive support for the immediate establishment of a Palestinian state, and ordering Israel to immediately refrain from attacks on Palestinian communities.
Foreign policy realists will say that this strategy is impossible to sell to the American people, but they have been wrong before. Had the US taken this route, instead of taking the law--as usual--in its own hands, it could have emerged as an example of a great power showing restraint and paved the way to a new era of relations among people and nations. The instincts of a unilateral, imperial past, however, have prevailed, and they have now run rampage to such an extent that, even on the home front, the rights of dissent and democratic diversity that have been one of the powerful ideological attractions of US society are fundamentally threatened by the draconian legislation being pushed by law-and-order types…that are taking advantage of the current crisis to push through their pre-September 11 authoritarian agendas.
As things now stand, Washington has painted itself into a no-win situation.
If it kills bin Laden, he becomes a martyr, a source of never-ending inspiration, especially to young Muslims.
If it captures him alive, freeing him will become a massive focus of resistance that will prevent the imposition of capital punishment without triggering massive revolts throughout the Islamic world.
If it fails to kill or capture him, he will secure an aura of invincibility, as somebody favored by God, and whose cause is therefore just…
September 11 was an unspeakable crime against humanity, but the US response has converted the equation in many people's minds into a war between vision and power, righteousness and might, and, perverse as this may sound, spirit versus matter. You won't get this from CNN and the New York Times, but Washington has stumbled into bin Laden's preferred terrain of battle."
I take no credit for originality of the thoughts expressed in this ten-year-old essay. Many others who had studied the history of insurgent movements and imperial responses could have written the same thing then and anticipated the general thrust of events over the next decade.
Unfortunately for the world, hegemonic powers never, never learn from history, and Washington did stumble into Osama’s preferred terrain, with all the consequences of this move motivated by imperial hubris: thousands of lives lost, loss of credibility, loss of legitimacy, and a significant erosion of power.
*Inquirer.net columnist Walden Bello is a member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines and a senior analyst of the Bangkok-based institute Focus on the Global South.
*end of article*
Osama’s no Martyr, but the Man Prevailed - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos
The text of the article:
***
Osama bin Laden is no martyr. He is certainly no Che Guevara, whose fate at the hands of the Central Intelligence Agency was strikingly similar to his. But one cannot escape the fact that he succeeded in unleashing a chain of events that led to his nemesis, the United States, becoming a diminished power compared to what it was in the halcyon days of unilateralism at the end of the last century. One cannot but acknowledge that in the duel between Washington and Osama, the latter was, at the time of his death, far ahead on points.
Soon after the US went to war against the Taliban in pursuit of Osama in October 2001, I penned a widely published analysis that at the time provoked controversy. However, it anticipated the course of the titanic struggle between a global power and a determined fanatic over the next decade. I am reprinting part of that essay below:
"In the aftermath of the September 11 assault, a number of writers wrote about the possibility that that move could have been a bait to get the US bogged down in a war of intervention in the Middle East that would inflame the Muslim world against it. Whether or not that was indeed bin Laden's strategic objective, the US bombing of Afghanistan has created precisely such a situation…
The global support that US President George Bush has flaunted is deceptive. Of course, a lot of governments would express their support for the UN Security Council's call for a global campaign against terrorism. Far fewer countries, however, are actually actively cooperating in intelligence and police surveillance activities. Even fewer have endorsed the military campaign and opened up their territory to transit by US planes on the way to Southwest Asia. And when one gets down to the decisive test of offering troops and weapons to fight alongside the British and the Americans in the harsh plains and icy mountains of Afghanistan, one is down to the hardcore of the Western Cold War alliance.
Bin Laden's terrorist methods are despicable, but one must grant the devil his due. Whether through study or practice, he has absorbed the lessons of guerilla warfare in a national, Afghan setting and translated it to a global setting. Serving as the international correlate of the national popular base is the youth of the global Muslim community, among whom feelings of resentment against Western domination were a volatile mix that was simply waiting to be ignited.
The September 11 attacks were horrific and heinous, but from one angle, what were they except a variant of Che Guevara's "foco" theory? According to Guevara, the aim of a bold guerilla action is twofold: to demoralize the enemy and to empower your popular base by getting them to participate in an action that shows that the all-powerful government is indeed vulnerable. The enemy is then provoked into a military response that further saps his credibility in what is basically a political and ideological battle. For bin Laden, terrorism is not the end but a means to an end. And that end is something that none of Bush's rhetoric about defending civilization through revenge bombing can compete with: a vision of Muslim Asia rid of American economic and military power, Israel, and corrupt surrogate elites, and returned to justice and Islamic sanctity.
Yet Washington was not exactly without weapons in this ideological war. In the aftermath of September 11, it could have responded in a way that could have blunted bin Laden's political and ideological appeal and opened up a new era in US-Arab relations.
First, it could have foresworn unilateral military action and announced to the world that it would go the legal route in pursuing justice, no matter how long this took. It could have announced its pursuit of a process combining patient multinational investigation, diplomacy, and the employment of accepted international mechanisms like the International Court of Justice.
These methods may take time but they work, and they ensure that justice and fairness are served. For instance, patient diplomacy secured the extradition from Libya of suspects in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, and their successful prosecution under an especially constituted court in the Hague. Likewise, the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, set up under the auspices of the ICJ, has successfully prosecuted some wartime Croat and Serbian terrorists and is currently prosecuting former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, though of course much remains to be done.
The second prong of a progressive US response could have been Washington's announcing a fundamental change in its policies in the Middle East, the main points of which would be the withdrawal of troops from Saudi Arabia, the ending of sanctions and military action against Iraq, decisive support for the immediate establishment of a Palestinian state, and ordering Israel to immediately refrain from attacks on Palestinian communities.
Foreign policy realists will say that this strategy is impossible to sell to the American people, but they have been wrong before. Had the US taken this route, instead of taking the law--as usual--in its own hands, it could have emerged as an example of a great power showing restraint and paved the way to a new era of relations among people and nations. The instincts of a unilateral, imperial past, however, have prevailed, and they have now run rampage to such an extent that, even on the home front, the rights of dissent and democratic diversity that have been one of the powerful ideological attractions of US society are fundamentally threatened by the draconian legislation being pushed by law-and-order types…that are taking advantage of the current crisis to push through their pre-September 11 authoritarian agendas.
As things now stand, Washington has painted itself into a no-win situation.
If it kills bin Laden, he becomes a martyr, a source of never-ending inspiration, especially to young Muslims.
If it captures him alive, freeing him will become a massive focus of resistance that will prevent the imposition of capital punishment without triggering massive revolts throughout the Islamic world.
If it fails to kill or capture him, he will secure an aura of invincibility, as somebody favored by God, and whose cause is therefore just…
September 11 was an unspeakable crime against humanity, but the US response has converted the equation in many people's minds into a war between vision and power, righteousness and might, and, perverse as this may sound, spirit versus matter. You won't get this from CNN and the New York Times, but Washington has stumbled into bin Laden's preferred terrain of battle."
I take no credit for originality of the thoughts expressed in this ten-year-old essay. Many others who had studied the history of insurgent movements and imperial responses could have written the same thing then and anticipated the general thrust of events over the next decade.
Unfortunately for the world, hegemonic powers never, never learn from history, and Washington did stumble into Osama’s preferred terrain, with all the consequences of this move motivated by imperial hubris: thousands of lives lost, loss of credibility, loss of legitimacy, and a significant erosion of power.
*Inquirer.net columnist Walden Bello is a member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines and a senior analyst of the Bangkok-based institute Focus on the Global South.
*end of article*
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Holy Week Reflections
Let us reflect on the Paschal Mystery with Filipino Theologian, Fr. Catalino Arevalo, SJ. Please find three other earlier posts.
We are in grace-filled days. May we receieve the graces of these most holy days.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The Church and the Young
The Church and the Young, The Young and the Church, The Young Church, The Church of the Young.
The Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences, in the First Plenary Assembly (1974) wrote this:
"Asia is young. And so the Church in Asia must be young. The apostle in Asia must speak the language, and think the thoughts, and feel in his heart the emotions of those who are under seventee. He must be patient when they are impulsive, and understanding when they are unreasonable. Above all, he must appreciate their real contributions: freshness of outlook, vitality, creativity, courage, compassion, integrity, generosity, the open heart, their willingness to learn."
The Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences, in the First Plenary Assembly (1974) wrote this:
"Asia is young. And so the Church in Asia must be young. The apostle in Asia must speak the language, and think the thoughts, and feel in his heart the emotions of those who are under seventee. He must be patient when they are impulsive, and understanding when they are unreasonable. Above all, he must appreciate their real contributions: freshness of outlook, vitality, creativity, courage, compassion, integrity, generosity, the open heart, their willingness to learn."
Sunday, March 20, 2011
A Priest, A Father of Two, and the Issue of Clerical Abuse
Archbishop Dolan of New York shares an encounter.
***
An Airport Encounter
It was only the third time it had happened to me in my nearly thirty-five happy years as a priest, all three times over the last nine-and-a-half years.
Other priests tell me it has happened to them a lot more.
Three is enough. Each time has left me so shaken I was near nausea.
It happened last Friday . . .
I had just arrived at the Denver Airport, there to speak at their popular annual “Living Our Catholic Faith” conference.
As I was waiting with the others for the electronic train to take me to the terminal, a man, maybe in his mid-forties, waiting as well, came closer to me.
“Are you a Catholic priest?” he kindly asked.
“Sure am. Nice to meet you,” says I, as I offered my hand.
He ignored it. “I was raised a Catholic,” he replied, almost always a hint of a cut to come, but I was not prepared for the razor sharpness of the stiletto, as he went on, “and now, as a father of two boys, I can’t look at you or any other priest without thinking of a sexual abuser.”
What to respond? Yell at him? Cuss him out? Apologize? Deck him? Express understanding? I must admit all such reactions came to mind as I staggered with shame and anger from the damage of the wound he had inflicted with those stinging words.
“Well,” I recovered enough to remark, “I’m sure sorry you feel that way. But, let me ask you, do you automatically presume a sexual abuser when you see a Rabbi or Protestant minister?”
“Not at all,” he came back through gritted teeth as we both boarded the train.
“How about when you see a coach, or a boy scout leader, or a foster parent, or a counsellor, or physician?” I continued.
“Of course not!” he came back. “What’s all that got to do with it?”
“A lot,” I stayed with him, “because each of those professions have as high a percentage of sexual abuse, if not even higher, than that of priests.”
“Well, that may be,” he retorted. “But the Church is the only group that knew it was going on, did nothing about it, and kept transferring the perverts around.”
“You obviously never heard the stats on public school teachers,” I observed. “In my home town of New York City alone, experts say the rate of sexual abuse among public school teachers is ten times higher than that of priests, and these abusers just get transferred around.” (Had I known at that time the news in in last Sunday’s New York Times about the high rate of abuse of the most helpless in state supervised homes, with reported abusers simply transferred to another home, I would have mentioned that, too.)
To that he said nothing, so I went in for a further charge.
“Pardon me for being so blunt, but you sure were with me, so, let me ask: when you look at yourself in a mirror, do you see a sex abuser?”
Now he was as taken aback as I had been two-minutes before. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Sadly,” I answered, “studies tell us that most children sexually abused are victims of their own fathers or other family members.”
Enough of the debate, I concluded, as I saw him dazed. So I tried to calm it down.
“So, I tell you what: when I look at you, I won’t see a sex abuser, and I would appreciate the same consideration from you.”
The train had arrived at baggage claim, and we both exited together.
“Well then, why do we only hear this garbage about you priests,” he inquired, as he got a bit more pensive.
“We priests wonder the same thing. I’ve got a few reasons if you’re interested.”
He nodded his head as we slowly walked to the carousel.
“For one,” I continued, “we priests deserve the more intense scrutiny, because people trust us more as we dare claim to represent God, so, when on of us do it – even if only a tiny minority of us ever have — it is more disgusting.”
“Two, I’m afraid there are many out there who have no love for the Church, and are itching to ruin us. This is the issue they love to endlessly scourge us with.”
“And, three, I hate to say it,” as I wrapped it up, “there’s a lot of money to be made in suing the Catholic Church, while it’s hardly worth suing any of the other groups I mentioned before.”
We both by then had our luggage, and headed for the door. He then put his hand out, the hand he had not extended five minutes earlier when I had put mine out to him. We shook.
“Thanks. Glad I met you.”
He halted a minute. “You know, I think of the great priests I knew when I was a kid. And now, because I work in IT at Regis University, I know some devoted Jesuits. Shouldn’t judge all you guys because of the horrible sins of a few.”
“Thanks!,” I smiled.
I guess things were patched-up, because, as he walked away, he added, “At least I owe you a joke: What happens when you can’t pay your exorcist?”
“Got me,” I answered.
“You get ‘re-possessed’!”
We both laughed and separated.
Notwithstanding the happy ending, I was still trembling . . . and almost felt like I needed an exorcism to expel my shattered soul, as I had to confront again the horror this whole mess has been to victims and their families, our Catholic people like the man I had just met . . . and to us priests.
***
***
An Airport Encounter
It was only the third time it had happened to me in my nearly thirty-five happy years as a priest, all three times over the last nine-and-a-half years.
Other priests tell me it has happened to them a lot more.
Three is enough. Each time has left me so shaken I was near nausea.
It happened last Friday . . .
I had just arrived at the Denver Airport, there to speak at their popular annual “Living Our Catholic Faith” conference.
As I was waiting with the others for the electronic train to take me to the terminal, a man, maybe in his mid-forties, waiting as well, came closer to me.
“Are you a Catholic priest?” he kindly asked.
“Sure am. Nice to meet you,” says I, as I offered my hand.
He ignored it. “I was raised a Catholic,” he replied, almost always a hint of a cut to come, but I was not prepared for the razor sharpness of the stiletto, as he went on, “and now, as a father of two boys, I can’t look at you or any other priest without thinking of a sexual abuser.”
What to respond? Yell at him? Cuss him out? Apologize? Deck him? Express understanding? I must admit all such reactions came to mind as I staggered with shame and anger from the damage of the wound he had inflicted with those stinging words.
“Well,” I recovered enough to remark, “I’m sure sorry you feel that way. But, let me ask you, do you automatically presume a sexual abuser when you see a Rabbi or Protestant minister?”
“Not at all,” he came back through gritted teeth as we both boarded the train.
“How about when you see a coach, or a boy scout leader, or a foster parent, or a counsellor, or physician?” I continued.
“Of course not!” he came back. “What’s all that got to do with it?”
“A lot,” I stayed with him, “because each of those professions have as high a percentage of sexual abuse, if not even higher, than that of priests.”
“Well, that may be,” he retorted. “But the Church is the only group that knew it was going on, did nothing about it, and kept transferring the perverts around.”
“You obviously never heard the stats on public school teachers,” I observed. “In my home town of New York City alone, experts say the rate of sexual abuse among public school teachers is ten times higher than that of priests, and these abusers just get transferred around.” (Had I known at that time the news in in last Sunday’s New York Times about the high rate of abuse of the most helpless in state supervised homes, with reported abusers simply transferred to another home, I would have mentioned that, too.)
To that he said nothing, so I went in for a further charge.
“Pardon me for being so blunt, but you sure were with me, so, let me ask: when you look at yourself in a mirror, do you see a sex abuser?”
Now he was as taken aback as I had been two-minutes before. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Sadly,” I answered, “studies tell us that most children sexually abused are victims of their own fathers or other family members.”
Enough of the debate, I concluded, as I saw him dazed. So I tried to calm it down.
“So, I tell you what: when I look at you, I won’t see a sex abuser, and I would appreciate the same consideration from you.”
The train had arrived at baggage claim, and we both exited together.
“Well then, why do we only hear this garbage about you priests,” he inquired, as he got a bit more pensive.
“We priests wonder the same thing. I’ve got a few reasons if you’re interested.”
He nodded his head as we slowly walked to the carousel.
“For one,” I continued, “we priests deserve the more intense scrutiny, because people trust us more as we dare claim to represent God, so, when on of us do it – even if only a tiny minority of us ever have — it is more disgusting.”
“Two, I’m afraid there are many out there who have no love for the Church, and are itching to ruin us. This is the issue they love to endlessly scourge us with.”
“And, three, I hate to say it,” as I wrapped it up, “there’s a lot of money to be made in suing the Catholic Church, while it’s hardly worth suing any of the other groups I mentioned before.”
We both by then had our luggage, and headed for the door. He then put his hand out, the hand he had not extended five minutes earlier when I had put mine out to him. We shook.
“Thanks. Glad I met you.”
He halted a minute. “You know, I think of the great priests I knew when I was a kid. And now, because I work in IT at Regis University, I know some devoted Jesuits. Shouldn’t judge all you guys because of the horrible sins of a few.”
“Thanks!,” I smiled.
I guess things were patched-up, because, as he walked away, he added, “At least I owe you a joke: What happens when you can’t pay your exorcist?”
“Got me,” I answered.
“You get ‘re-possessed’!”
We both laughed and separated.
Notwithstanding the happy ending, I was still trembling . . . and almost felt like I needed an exorcism to expel my shattered soul, as I had to confront again the horror this whole mess has been to victims and their families, our Catholic people like the man I had just met . . . and to us priests.
***
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Zacchaeus
There is in everyone a Zacchaeus, once a sinner, seeking for Jesus. The wonder is, even before one find Jesus, Jesus find him. And enters his house, and his heart. Receiving Jesus, Zacchaeus is never the same. Justice and compassion then flow from his heart. He is saved.
May we allow Jesus to find us today. May we allow him to come to our house. May we allow him to come to our hearts.
WE could also learn from the approach of Jesus.
God loves his creatures. His desire is to save not destroy. Wisely and compassionately, Jesus saved Zacchaeus. May we, the Church, mirror not only God's justice, but also his wisdom and compassion which alone truly saves.
May we allow Jesus to find us today. May we allow him to come to our house. May we allow him to come to our hearts.
WE could also learn from the approach of Jesus.
God loves his creatures. His desire is to save not destroy. Wisely and compassionately, Jesus saved Zacchaeus. May we, the Church, mirror not only God's justice, but also his wisdom and compassion which alone truly saves.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
An Email Brigade
I received this through e-mail today. If I am not mistaken (which I could be), this was already published by Fr. Reuter earlier. Still, the message is ever relevant.
We pray for an integral renewal of Pilipinas, and ating Bayang Mahal, Lupang Hinirang. And also, we also pray, resolve, and act on our own personal renewal. As once said (thanks to the wisecracker), "Become the change you want to happen."
THE ONLY HOPE FOR THE PHILIPPINES
by Father James Reuter, S.J.
Our republic has become one of the weakest nations, steadily left
behind by its more progressive neighbors.
The signs are clear. Our nation is headed towards an irreversible path
of economic decline and moral decadence. It is not for lack of effort.
We've seen many men and women of integrity in and out of government,
NGOs, church groups & people's organization devote themselves to the
task of nation-building, often times against insurmountable odds. Not
even people's revolutions, bloodless as they may be, have made a dent
in reversing this trend. At best, we have moved one step forward, but
three steps backward.
We need a force far greater than our collective efforts, as a people,
can ever hope to muster. It is time to move the battle to the
spiritual realm... It's time to gather GOD's people to pray for the
economic recovery and moral reformation of our nation.
Is prayer really the answer?
Before you dismiss this as just another rambling, I'd like you to
consider some lessons we can glean from history.
England 's ascendancy to world power was preceded by the Reformation,
a spiritual revival fueled by intense prayers.
The early American settlers built the foundation that would make it
the most powerful nation today --- a strong faith in GOD and a
disciplined prayer life. Throughout its history, and especially at its
major turning points, waves of revival and prayer movement swept
across the land.
In recent times, we see Korea as a nation experiencing revival and in
the process producing the largest Christian church in the world today,
led by Rev. Paul Yongi Cho.. No wonder it has emerged as a strong
nation when other economies around it are faltering.
Even from a purely secular viewpoint, it makes a lot of sense. For here,
there is genuine humbling & seeking of GOD through prayer, moral
reformation necessarily follows. And this, in turn, will lead to
general prosperity. YES, we believe prayer can make a difference.
It's our only hope.
Today, we launch this email brigade, to inform Filipinos from all over
the world to pray, as a people, for the economic recovery and moral
reformation of our nation. We do not ask for much. We only ask of
you to fwd this email to your close friends and relatives.
This is the kind of resolve and unity which can make a big difference.
Of course, if you feel strongly, as I do, about the power of prayer,
you can be more involved by starting a prayer group or prayer center.
We have tried people power twice before; inboth cases, it fell short.
Maybe it's time to try prayer power. GOD never fails. Is there hope?
YES! We can rely on God's promise, but we have to do our part. If we
humble ourselves and pray as a people, GOD will hear and heal our land.
By GOD's grace, we may still see a chance of a better future for our
country..
'If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and
pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I
hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their
land...
(2 Chronicles 7:14).
If you care for your children and grandchildren, let's not abandon the
Philippines .
PLEASE, pass this on.
We pray for an integral renewal of Pilipinas, and ating Bayang Mahal, Lupang Hinirang. And also, we also pray, resolve, and act on our own personal renewal. As once said (thanks to the wisecracker), "Become the change you want to happen."
THE ONLY HOPE FOR THE PHILIPPINES
by Father James Reuter, S.J.
Our republic has become one of the weakest nations, steadily left
behind by its more progressive neighbors.
The signs are clear. Our nation is headed towards an irreversible path
of economic decline and moral decadence. It is not for lack of effort.
We've seen many men and women of integrity in and out of government,
NGOs, church groups & people's organization devote themselves to the
task of nation-building, often times against insurmountable odds. Not
even people's revolutions, bloodless as they may be, have made a dent
in reversing this trend. At best, we have moved one step forward, but
three steps backward.
We need a force far greater than our collective efforts, as a people,
can ever hope to muster. It is time to move the battle to the
spiritual realm... It's time to gather GOD's people to pray for the
economic recovery and moral reformation of our nation.
Is prayer really the answer?
Before you dismiss this as just another rambling, I'd like you to
consider some lessons we can glean from history.
England 's ascendancy to world power was preceded by the Reformation,
a spiritual revival fueled by intense prayers.
The early American settlers built the foundation that would make it
the most powerful nation today --- a strong faith in GOD and a
disciplined prayer life. Throughout its history, and especially at its
major turning points, waves of revival and prayer movement swept
across the land.
In recent times, we see Korea as a nation experiencing revival and in
the process producing the largest Christian church in the world today,
led by Rev. Paul Yongi Cho.. No wonder it has emerged as a strong
nation when other economies around it are faltering.
Even from a purely secular viewpoint, it makes a lot of sense. For here,
there is genuine humbling & seeking of GOD through prayer, moral
reformation necessarily follows. And this, in turn, will lead to
general prosperity. YES, we believe prayer can make a difference.
It's our only hope.
Today, we launch this email brigade, to inform Filipinos from all over
the world to pray, as a people, for the economic recovery and moral
reformation of our nation. We do not ask for much. We only ask of
you to fwd this email to your close friends and relatives.
This is the kind of resolve and unity which can make a big difference.
Of course, if you feel strongly, as I do, about the power of prayer,
you can be more involved by starting a prayer group or prayer center.
We have tried people power twice before; inboth cases, it fell short.
Maybe it's time to try prayer power. GOD never fails. Is there hope?
YES! We can rely on God's promise, but we have to do our part. If we
humble ourselves and pray as a people, GOD will hear and heal our land.
By GOD's grace, we may still see a chance of a better future for our
country..
'If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and
pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I
hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their
land...
(2 Chronicles 7:14).
If you care for your children and grandchildren, let's not abandon the
Philippines .
PLEASE, pass this on.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
A thought for today
Obscurity, Ordinariness, Goodness and Greatness
Blessed John XXIII, the pope who convened the Second Vatican Council wrote (in his Journal of a Soul) that one of the things that baffle him in the life of Jesus is its obscurity. For thirty years, the Son of God lived in obscurity – silent and unnoticed. This he says speaks of the humility of God who stripped himself of all grandeur and entitlements to live among us as one of us.
If I may add, obscurity of life that God opted for is a statement on the goodness of humanity. That God chose to become one of us and lived the simple life of a carpenter’s son is God’s way of telling us that man is capable of goodness. The simple person is capable of greatness. The carpenter’s son, the carpenter, the laborer’s son, the laborer, the ordinary person is capable of great things.
Many times, we fail to see this. We fail to see that we are capable of goodness, of greatness. Like the town mates of Jesus. Their rejection of Jesus from the fact that they knew his humble origins and humble life was not only a rejection of Jesus; it was a rejection of their own selves. They were in effect saying that they were not capable of goodness, of greatness. Worse, unable (or unwilling) to see this in ourselves, we deny this too of others. Like the town mates of Jesus there is a tendency for us to look down and dismiss people who shine in goodness and rise to greatness.
In the Philippines, this attitude is called crab mentality – from the behavior of crabs in a basket. There is no danger of losing any of them because no one would allow one to leave the basket. If one attempts to climb the basket and leave, the others pull him down, back into the basket.
To counter this mentality and attitude, one teacher’s attitude towards her students is noteworthy. When she enters the classroom, she looks at each student not for what they are, but for what they can become. Before her could be the next president, the next great scientist, the next pope, a saint. And so she has a lot of respect for them.
Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World teaches us that Christ reveals to us our truest selves. The very person of Jesus reveals to us who we are, what we are capable of, what we are destined for. But we can only become our truest selves, realize our utmost capabilities and reach our destination only if we truly and fully accept Jesus and make his teaching, his very life and person the standard and guide for our own lives. And this also entails seeing the goodness and greatness of Jesus in other people.
I invite you to pray,
Lord, make us accept the ordinariness of the life of Jesus, make the ordinariness of our lives be filled with the goodness and greatness of Jesus, and make us see not the ordinariness of other people, but the infinite capacity for goodness and greatness that you have gifted them with.
Blessed John XXIII, the pope who convened the Second Vatican Council wrote (in his Journal of a Soul) that one of the things that baffle him in the life of Jesus is its obscurity. For thirty years, the Son of God lived in obscurity – silent and unnoticed. This he says speaks of the humility of God who stripped himself of all grandeur and entitlements to live among us as one of us.
If I may add, obscurity of life that God opted for is a statement on the goodness of humanity. That God chose to become one of us and lived the simple life of a carpenter’s son is God’s way of telling us that man is capable of goodness. The simple person is capable of greatness. The carpenter’s son, the carpenter, the laborer’s son, the laborer, the ordinary person is capable of great things.
Many times, we fail to see this. We fail to see that we are capable of goodness, of greatness. Like the town mates of Jesus. Their rejection of Jesus from the fact that they knew his humble origins and humble life was not only a rejection of Jesus; it was a rejection of their own selves. They were in effect saying that they were not capable of goodness, of greatness. Worse, unable (or unwilling) to see this in ourselves, we deny this too of others. Like the town mates of Jesus there is a tendency for us to look down and dismiss people who shine in goodness and rise to greatness.
In the Philippines, this attitude is called crab mentality – from the behavior of crabs in a basket. There is no danger of losing any of them because no one would allow one to leave the basket. If one attempts to climb the basket and leave, the others pull him down, back into the basket.
To counter this mentality and attitude, one teacher’s attitude towards her students is noteworthy. When she enters the classroom, she looks at each student not for what they are, but for what they can become. Before her could be the next president, the next great scientist, the next pope, a saint. And so she has a lot of respect for them.
Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World teaches us that Christ reveals to us our truest selves. The very person of Jesus reveals to us who we are, what we are capable of, what we are destined for. But we can only become our truest selves, realize our utmost capabilities and reach our destination only if we truly and fully accept Jesus and make his teaching, his very life and person the standard and guide for our own lives. And this also entails seeing the goodness and greatness of Jesus in other people.
I invite you to pray,
Lord, make us accept the ordinariness of the life of Jesus, make the ordinariness of our lives be filled with the goodness and greatness of Jesus, and make us see not the ordinariness of other people, but the infinite capacity for goodness and greatness that you have gifted them with.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Remittances: More than the Dollar
I received this article in my e-mail from the Metro DC based Migrant Heritage Commission. I think it is worth a thought, and more.
__________________________________________________________
Subject: NOT ALL REMITTANCES ARE $ (THE OTHER FACE OF THE DIASPORA)
NEWS ARTICLE FROM ABS-CBN'S RODNEY JALECO
When people talk about remittances, most Filipinos will perhaps think about the dollars their overseas brethrens send regularly. That’s an extremely restricted and limiting perspective, according to a recent paper by the Migrant Policy Institute (MPI).
“Whether we see remittances as a development panacea or as a way for states to shift responsibility for solving structural problems to migrants, economics is not the whole story,” wrote the paper’s authors – Peggy Levitt of Wellesley College and Harvard University, and Deepak Lamba-Nieves of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Center for the New Economy.
“Migrants from the developing world bring with them social remittances that shape their encounters with and integration into their host societies,” the pair pointed out.
More significantly, they stressed that migrants “also send back social remittances that promote and impede development in their countries of origin.”
This merely reinforces what many have observed as the richly multi-dimensional qualities of the modern Diaspora.
The authors lament the lack of studies on this aspect of international migration. It could hardly be a stretch to see at least some facets of the recent Philippine election linked to the historic ascension of America’s first African-American president and the message of hope and change that catapulted him to power.
Levitt herself coined the term “social remittances” in 2001 to call attention that dollars is not the only thing overseas workers and expats send home.
She focused on a village in the Dominican Republic and the Jamaica Plain neighborhood in Boston, MA.
She observed that there are at least four types of social remittances – norms, practices, identities and social capital.
Through over a decade of study, Levitt and later Lamba-Nieves, explained the three key concepts of social remittances – that they are circular in nature, they are inclusive and they influence development either by “scaling up to other levels of governance and scaling out to other domains of practices”.
“The ideas and experiences migrants bring with them strongly influence who and what they are exposed to and interact with in the countries where they settle. These circumstances then affect the social remittances migrants send back,” they noted.
They observed for instance, that “when Boca Canesteros (from Dominican Republic) recreated their baseball league in Boston, they not only came into contact with other immigrant and native-born players and fans, they also had to learn to negotiate the municipal park system and to secure permits for hosting fundraising events.”
In turn, the Boston-based Boca Canesteros’ influence in the Dominican Republic was manifested in the way they suddenly demanded that “builders and caterers there sign contracts and stick to deadlines the same way saw food and beverage suppliers are held accountable in the United States.”
With about 10 percent of the Philippine population living and working overseas – about four million of them in the US – it seems evident policy and decision-makers should explore the possibly pervasive effects of social remittances on the 90 percent who’ve stayed behind.
Modern amenities (cellphones, Facebook, Skype, etc.) tend to accelerate the pace of social remittances.
Taking into account a United Nations study that showed dollar remittances are primarily used to pay for basic needs (food, clothes, electricity, etc.), education and health – understanding social remittances could have commercial implications as well.
There are, of course, positive and negative outcomes from social remittances, the study (aptly titled “It’s Not Just About the Economy, Stupid”) pointed out.
That could come in the form of greater emphasis on health and fitness (such as the influence exerted by the Boca Canesteros).
It could also, as political scientist Luis Jimenez discovered in Mexico, “challenge people’s ideas about democracy and the rule of law.”
“Every time a street light went out or the garbage wasn’t collected, Gilberto visited City Hall,” the authors recounted because in the US “that what governments are supposed to do and that citizens should make sure that happens.”
They also observed how professionals and entrepreneurs from Pakistan and India “not only send back new technology and skills but ideas about conducting business. Working in the United States has emboldened some to take chance, think outside the box, and challenge a superior rather than deferring to him”.
Levitt and Lamba-Nieves point out, however, that social remittances help perpetuate the “culture of migration”. Moving, they say, becomes almost inevitable “because people are no longer satisfied by the economic and social opportunities their homelands offer.” Over decades of practice, it can be relegated to a “rite of passage” especially for the youth.
“Social remittances are an understudied, important piece of the migration-development nexus,” the authors wrote, “Their impact on immigrant incorporation and sending-community dynamics is not well understood…They are a potential resource and a potential constraint.”
Social remittances, we found, can be a fascinating subject – not only to better see how and why life back home is changing the way they do from the practices and ideas overseas Filipinos take back home, but also how their adopted countries are changing because of what Filipinos bring on the table.
__________________________________________________________
Subject: NOT ALL REMITTANCES ARE $ (THE OTHER FACE OF THE DIASPORA)
NEWS ARTICLE FROM ABS-CBN'S RODNEY JALECO
When people talk about remittances, most Filipinos will perhaps think about the dollars their overseas brethrens send regularly. That’s an extremely restricted and limiting perspective, according to a recent paper by the Migrant Policy Institute (MPI).
“Whether we see remittances as a development panacea or as a way for states to shift responsibility for solving structural problems to migrants, economics is not the whole story,” wrote the paper’s authors – Peggy Levitt of Wellesley College and Harvard University, and Deepak Lamba-Nieves of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Center for the New Economy.
“Migrants from the developing world bring with them social remittances that shape their encounters with and integration into their host societies,” the pair pointed out.
More significantly, they stressed that migrants “also send back social remittances that promote and impede development in their countries of origin.”
This merely reinforces what many have observed as the richly multi-dimensional qualities of the modern Diaspora.
The authors lament the lack of studies on this aspect of international migration. It could hardly be a stretch to see at least some facets of the recent Philippine election linked to the historic ascension of America’s first African-American president and the message of hope and change that catapulted him to power.
Levitt herself coined the term “social remittances” in 2001 to call attention that dollars is not the only thing overseas workers and expats send home.
She focused on a village in the Dominican Republic and the Jamaica Plain neighborhood in Boston, MA.
She observed that there are at least four types of social remittances – norms, practices, identities and social capital.
Through over a decade of study, Levitt and later Lamba-Nieves, explained the three key concepts of social remittances – that they are circular in nature, they are inclusive and they influence development either by “scaling up to other levels of governance and scaling out to other domains of practices”.
“The ideas and experiences migrants bring with them strongly influence who and what they are exposed to and interact with in the countries where they settle. These circumstances then affect the social remittances migrants send back,” they noted.
They observed for instance, that “when Boca Canesteros (from Dominican Republic) recreated their baseball league in Boston, they not only came into contact with other immigrant and native-born players and fans, they also had to learn to negotiate the municipal park system and to secure permits for hosting fundraising events.”
In turn, the Boston-based Boca Canesteros’ influence in the Dominican Republic was manifested in the way they suddenly demanded that “builders and caterers there sign contracts and stick to deadlines the same way saw food and beverage suppliers are held accountable in the United States.”
With about 10 percent of the Philippine population living and working overseas – about four million of them in the US – it seems evident policy and decision-makers should explore the possibly pervasive effects of social remittances on the 90 percent who’ve stayed behind.
Modern amenities (cellphones, Facebook, Skype, etc.) tend to accelerate the pace of social remittances.
Taking into account a United Nations study that showed dollar remittances are primarily used to pay for basic needs (food, clothes, electricity, etc.), education and health – understanding social remittances could have commercial implications as well.
There are, of course, positive and negative outcomes from social remittances, the study (aptly titled “It’s Not Just About the Economy, Stupid”) pointed out.
That could come in the form of greater emphasis on health and fitness (such as the influence exerted by the Boca Canesteros).
It could also, as political scientist Luis Jimenez discovered in Mexico, “challenge people’s ideas about democracy and the rule of law.”
“Every time a street light went out or the garbage wasn’t collected, Gilberto visited City Hall,” the authors recounted because in the US “that what governments are supposed to do and that citizens should make sure that happens.”
They also observed how professionals and entrepreneurs from Pakistan and India “not only send back new technology and skills but ideas about conducting business. Working in the United States has emboldened some to take chance, think outside the box, and challenge a superior rather than deferring to him”.
Levitt and Lamba-Nieves point out, however, that social remittances help perpetuate the “culture of migration”. Moving, they say, becomes almost inevitable “because people are no longer satisfied by the economic and social opportunities their homelands offer.” Over decades of practice, it can be relegated to a “rite of passage” especially for the youth.
“Social remittances are an understudied, important piece of the migration-development nexus,” the authors wrote, “Their impact on immigrant incorporation and sending-community dynamics is not well understood…They are a potential resource and a potential constraint.”
Social remittances, we found, can be a fascinating subject – not only to better see how and why life back home is changing the way they do from the practices and ideas overseas Filipinos take back home, but also how their adopted countries are changing because of what Filipinos bring on the table.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Prayer for Deliverance from Calamities
Sr. Grace, SPC emailed me this prayer. Let us join our hearts in imploring God.
Oratio Imperata
For Deliverance From Calamities
For Deliverance From Calamities
Almighty Father, we raise our hearts to You
in gratitude for the wonders of creation
of which we are part, for Your Providence in sustaining our needs,
and for Your Wisdom that guides the course of the universe.
We acknowledge our sins against You and the rest of creation.
We have not been good stewards of Nature.
We have confused Your command to subdue the Earth.
The environment is made to suffer our wrongdoing,
and now we reap the harvest of our abuse and indifference.
Global warming is upon us, typhoons, floods, volcanic eruptions,
and other natural calamities occur in increasing numbers and intensity.
We turn to You, our loving Father, and beg forgiveness for our sins.
We ask that we, our loved ones and our hard earned possessions
be spared from the threat of calamities, natural and man-made.
We beseech You to inspire us all
of which we are part, for Your Providence in sustaining our needs,
and for Your Wisdom that guides the course of the universe.
We acknowledge our sins against You and the rest of creation.
We have not been good stewards of Nature.
We have confused Your command to subdue the Earth.
The environment is made to suffer our wrongdoing,
and now we reap the harvest of our abuse and indifference.
Global warming is upon us, typhoons, floods, volcanic eruptions,
and other natural calamities occur in increasing numbers and intensity.
We turn to You, our loving Father, and beg forgiveness for our sins.
We ask that we, our loved ones and our hard earned possessions
be spared from the threat of calamities, natural and man-made.
We beseech You to inspire us all
to grow into responsible stewards of Your creation,
and generous neighbors to those in need.
Amen.
and generous neighbors to those in need.
Amen.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Domingo de Ramos
The Solemn Mass of the Sunday of the Lord's Passion at the St. Paul Metropolitan Cathedral was presided by the Most Rev. Ernesto A. Salgado, Archbishop of Nueva Segovia.
The Eucharist began in front of the Cathedral with the blessing of palms.
Families came.
The multitudes gathered, like in the time of Jesus when He was welcomed by the people in Jerusalem.
After the blessing of palms, the Gospel and a brief homily by the Archbishop, he led the people into the Church with the invitation - "Let us go forth in peace, praising Jesus our Messiah, as did the crowds who welcomed him to Jerusalem."
The Eucharist began in front of the Cathedral with the blessing of palms.
Families came.
The multitudes gathered, like in the time of Jesus when He was welcomed by the people in Jerusalem.
After the blessing of palms, the Gospel and a brief homily by the Archbishop, he led the people into the Church with the invitation - "Let us go forth in peace, praising Jesus our Messiah, as did the crowds who welcomed him to Jerusalem."
Monday, March 9, 2009
THE THEOLOGY OF FAITH
From http://www.angelfire.com/nm/AndI/Tommy.html.
John Powell, A Professor at Loyola University in Chicago writes about a student in his Theology of Faith class named Tommy:
Some twelve years ago, I stood watching my university students file into the classroom for our first session in the Theology of Faith.
That was the first day I first saw Tommy. My eyes and my mind both blinked. He was combing his long flaxen hair, which hung six inches below his shoulders. It was the first time I had ever seen a boy with hair that long. I guess it was just coming into fashion then. I know in my mind that it isn't what's on your head but what's in it that counts; but on that day I was unprepared and my emotions flipped.
I immediately filed Tommy under "S" for strange...very strange. Tommy turned out to be the "atheist in residence" in my Theology of Faith course. He constantly objected to, smirked at, or whined about the possibility of an unconditionally loving Father-God. We lived with each other in relative peace for one semester, although I admit he was for me at times a serious pain in the back pew.
When he came up at the end of the course to turn in his final exam, he asked in a slightly cynical tone: "Do you think I'll ever find God?"
I decided instantly on a little shock therapy. "No!" I said very emphatically.
"Oh," he responded, "I thought that was the product you were pushing." I let him get five steps from the classroom door and then called out: "Tommy! I don't think you'll ever find him, but I am absolutely certain that he will find you!" He shrugged a little and left my class and my life.
I felt slightly disappointed at the thought that he had missed my clever line: "He will find you!" At least I thought it was clever. Later I heard that Tommy had graduated and I was duly grateful. Then a sad report, I heard that Tommy had terminal cancer. Before I could search him out, he came to see me. When he walked into my office, his body was very badly wasted, and the long hair had all fallen out as a result of chemotherapy. But his eyes were bright and his voice was firm, for the first time, I believe.
"Tommy, I've thought about you so often. I hear you are sick!" I blurted out.
"Oh, yes, very sick. I have cancer in both lungs. It's a matter of weeks."
"Can you talk about it, Tom?" "Sure, what would you like to know?" "What's it like to be only twenty-four and dying?" "We'll, it could be worse." "Like what?" "Well, like being fifty and having no values or ideals, like being fifty and thinking that booze, seducing women, and making money are the real 'biggies' in life."
I began to look through my mental file cabinet under "S" where I had filed Tommy as strange. (It seems as though everybody I try to reject by classification God sends back into my life to educate me.)
"But what I really came to see you about," Tom said, " is something you said to me on the last day of class." (He remembered!) He continued, "I asked you if you thought I would ever find God and you said, 'No!' which surprised me. Then you said, 'But he will find you.' I thought about that a lot, even though my search for God was hardly intense at that time."
(My "clever" line. He thought about that a lot!) He continued, "But when the doctors removed a lump from my groin and told me that it was malignant, then I got serious about locating God. And when the malignancy spread into my vital organs, I really began banging bloody fists against the bronze doors of heaven. But God did not come out. In fact, nothing happened."
Tom went on, "Did you ever try anything for a long time with great effort and with no success? You get psychologically glutted, fed up with trying. And then you quit. Well, one day I woke up, and instead of throwing a few more futile appeals over that high brick wall to a God who may be or may not be there, I just quit. I decided that I didn't really care . . .about God, about an afterlife, or anything like that."
"I decided to spend what time I had left doing something more profitable. I thought about you and your class and I remembered something else you had said: 'the essential sadness is to go through life without loving. But it would be almost equally sad to go through life and leave this world without ever telling those you loved that you had loved them.' "
"So I began with the hardest one: my Dad. He was reading the newspaper when I approached him." "Dad" . . . "Yes, what?" He asked without lowering the newspaper. "Dad, I would like to talk with you." "Well, talk." "I mean.. .. .. It's really important." The newspaper came down three slow inches. "What is it?" "Dad, I love you. I just wanted you to know that."
Tom smiled at me and said with obvious satisfaction, as though he felt a warm and secret joy flowing inside of him: "The newspaper fluttered to the floor. Then my father did two things I could never remember him ever doing before. He cried and he hugged me. And we talked all night, even though he had to go to work the next morning. It felt so good to be close to my father, to see his tears, to feel his hug, to hear him say that he loved me." "It was easier with my mother and little brother. They cried with me, too, and we hugged each other, and started saying real nice things to each other. We shared the things we had been keeping secret for so many years. I was only sorry about one thing: that I had waited so long. Here I was just beginning to open up to all the people I had actually been close to. "
"Then, one day I turned around and God was there. He didn't come to me when I pleaded with him. I guess I was like an animal trainer holding out a hoop, 'C'mon, jump through. 'C'mon, I'll give you three days . . . three weeks.' Apparently God does things in his own way and at his own hour. But the important thing is that he was there. He found me. You were right. He found me even after I stopped looking for him."
"Tommy," I practically gasped, "I think you are saying something very important and much more universal than you realize. To me, at least, you are saying that the surest way to find God is not to make him a private possession, a problem solver, or an instant consolation in time of need, but rather by opening to love. You know, the Apostle John said that. He said God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God and God is living in him."
"Tom, could I ask you a favor? You know, when I had you in class you were a real pain. But (laughingly) you can make it all up to me now. Would you come into my present Theology of Faith course and tell them what you have just told me? If I told them the same thing it wouldn't be half as effective as if you were to tell them."
"Oooh . . . I was ready for you, but I don't know if I'm ready for your class."
"Tom, think about it. If and when you are ready, give me a call." In a few days Tommy called, said he was ready for the class, that he wanted to do that for God and for me. So we scheduled a date. However, he never made it. He had another appointment, far more important than the one with me and my class. Of course, his life was not really ended by his death, only changed. He made the great step from faith into vision. He found a life far more beautiful than the eye of man has ever seen or the ear of man has ever heard or the mind of man has ever imagined. Before he died, we talked one last time.
"I'm not going to make it to your class," he said. "I know, Tom." "Will you tell them for me? Will you . . . tell the whole world for me?" "I will, Tom. I'll tell them. I'll do my best." So, to all of you who have been kind enough to hear this simple statement about love, thank you for listening. And to you, Tommy, somewhere in the sunlit, verdant hills of heaven: "I told them, Tommy . . . as best I could."
Friday, March 6, 2009
4 Wives...
I received this through email. It makes a lot of sense.
Once upon a time, there was a rich king who had four wives.The Lenten Season may be appropriate time to see if there is anything we have neglected.
He loved the 4th wife the most and adorned her with rich robes and treated her to the finest of delicacies. He gave her nothing but the best.
He also loved the 3rd wife very much and was always showing her off to neighboring kingdoms. However, he feared that one day she would leave him for another.
He also loved his 2nd wife. She was his confidant and was always kind, considerate and patient with him. Whenever the King faced a problem, he could confide in her, and she would help him get through the difficult times.
The King's 1st wife was a very loyal partner and had made great contributions in maintaining his wealth and kingdom. However, he did not love the first wife. Although she loved him deeply, he hardly took notice of her!
One day, the King fell ill and he knew his time was short. He thought of his luxurious life and wondered, "I now have four wives with me, but when I die, I'll be all alone."
Thus, he asked the 4th wife, "I have loved you the most, endowed you with the finest clothing and showered great care over you. Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me company?" "No way!" replied the 4th wife and she walked away without another word. Her answer cut like a sharp knife right into his heart.
The sad King then asked the 3rd wife, "I have loved you all my life. Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me company?" "No!" replied the 3rd wife. "Life is too good! When you die, I'm going to remarry!" His heart sank and turned cold.
He then asked the 2nd wife, "I have always turned to you for help and you've always been there for me. When I die, will you follow me and keep me company?" "I'm sorry, I can't help you out this time!" replied the 2nd wife. "At the very most, I can only walk with you to your grave." Her answer struck him like a bolt of lightning, and the King was devastated.
Then a voice called out: "I'll go with you. I'll follow you no matter where you go. "The King looked up, and there was his first wife. She was very skinny as she suffered from malnutrition and neglect. Greatly grieved, the King said, "I should have taken much better care of you when I had the chance!"
In truth, we all have the 4 wives in our lives:
Our 4th wife is our body. No matter how much time and effort we lavish in making it look good, it will leave us when we die.
Our 3rd wife is our possessions, status and wealth. When we die, it will all go to others.
Our 2nd wife is our family and friends. No matter how much they have been there for us, the furthest they can stay by us is up to the grave.
And our 1st wife is our Soul. Often neglected in pursuit of wealth, power and pleasures of the world. However, our Soul is the only thing that will follow us wherever we go. Cultivate, strengthen and cherish it now, for it is the only part of us that will follow us to the throne of God and continue with us throughout Eternity.
Monday, March 2, 2009
On children
Kahlil Gibran on Children
And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children."
And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you
with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)