Bishop Gutierrez’ Message

Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez delivered a message during the launching program of the Modules.

Honorable City Mayor, Dr. Peter P. Miguel, MD and dear friends.

Integrated character building is an essential strategy in integral human development and promoting the integrity of God’s creation.

This integrated character building is based on eight (8) Core Values which were launched last year.

Today, 30 May 2011, we are launching the Facilitators’ Manual on Values Formation.  This Manual is designed to assist facilitators achieve maximum effect at least cost to human and material resources.

Expected output is, ultimately, integrally developed citizens who are “Maka-Diyos”, “Maka-bayan”, “Maka-buhay” (“Maka-tao”), “Makatarungan”, “Maka-Kalikasan”, law-abiding, committed to the common good and endowed with competitive spirit and skills to achieve excellence in products and services.

1)      “Maka-Diyos”.  Faith in God.  Without God’s help human work is fruitless.  Cut from Jesus Christ, the Vine, branches wither, do not bear fruit.  Against secularism – only this world; no life hereafter.  Against materialism – only material things exist, are real; the immaterial, spiritual does not exist, only pigment of imagination.

2)      “Maka-bayan”.  Love of country.  To suffer, even to die for the Fatherland (“patria”) or Motherland (land of our birth).  Sovereignty.  Freedom from foreign domination/influence.

3)      (3) “Maka-buhay”/”Maka-tao”.  Respect for life, God’s gift.  Respect for human dignity – created after God’s image and likeness.  Against condom which prevents new life.  Against IUDs and others which destroy life.

4)      “Makatarungan”.  Just, morally upright.  A person of integrity.  Against corruption and all forms of injustices.

5)      “Maka-kalikasan”.  God created man to care for the earth.  God owns the universe.  Humans are stewards who act according to the owner’s (God’s) will.  Against commercial logging and destructive mining.

6)      Law-abiding.  A disciplined citizen obeys the nation’s laws and the City’s ordinances.  Pay taxes, clean air, clean water.

7)      Commitment to the common good.  Authentic development, according to Paul VI’s Populorum Progressio” is integral that is: “all of man (body and soul) and all men, not few.  Against monopoly, political dynasty, cultural elitism.

8)      Educational institutions and training programs should equip graduates with appropriate knowledge, values and skills to be competitive.

If people in the City ofKoronadalwould internalize these 8 Core Values, I foresee a civilization of love and life where people live in harmony with God, with one another and with Mother nature.

I foresee, as a consequence, a prosperous and peaceful City ofK oronadal– a peace based on “truth, justice, love and freedom” (Blessed John XXIII, “Peace on Earth”).

Congratulations to former City Mayor Fernando Q. Miguel, the consultant – Dr. Noemi B. Silva, the Technical Working Group, Module Writers and other responsible persons.

I assure you of my prayers and full cooperation to make this value formation program successful.

Easter Is New Life

Jesus Christ has risen! Alleluia (cf. Mt. 28: 6; Mk. 16:6; Lk. 24: 6 and Jh. 20:10)

Easter celebrates Jesus Christ’s victory over sin, death and the devil.

For us, Christians, Easter means overcoming our sins: pride, greed, lust, slot, etc.  It means resisting evil with God’s grace.

Easter is, for us believers, hope in our own resurrection by God.

Christ’s resurrection impels us to a more vigorous prophetic ministry.

Like the prophet Jeremiah we are sent “to root up and to tear down, to destroy and to demolish, to build and to plant” (1:10).

What to uproot?  Primarily corruption.  Corruption is the principal cause of poverty, incompetence in government and environmental destruction.

What to tear down? Unjust, oppressive and dehumanizing structures: ideologies like secularism, materialism, and neo-colonialism.  Economic policies that favor global corporations.  Anti-life laws such as Mining Act of 1995 and HB 4244 or “The Reproductive Health Bill”.

What to plant? The Good News. St. Paul writes: “ I did the planting, Apollos did the watering, but God made things grow” (1 Cor. 3:6).

Prophets are also sent to build.  Benedict XVI in his address to the Bishops of the Philippines during their “Ad Limina” visit said: “…the proclamation of the Gospel brings about its life changing fruits” (cf. Mk. 16: 15-18).  He continued: “The Church contributes most toward the building of a just and charitable social order when by preaching the truths of the Gospel and bringing to bear on all fields of human endeavor the light of her doctrine and of a Christian witness, she respects and fosters the political freedom and responsibility of citizens” (Gaudium et Spes¸76).  (Boletin Ecclesiastico de Filipinos, March-April 2011, p. 170).

What to build?  God’s Kingdom on Earth, Jesus sent the apostles to “proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal” (Lk. 9:2). St. Paulsays: “This Kingdom of Godmeans righteousness and peace and joy brought by the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14: 16-18).

What, then, is our plan?  To build a more humane, just and free Philippines where people live “in harmony with one another, in harmony with creation, and in harmony with God.  Ours shall be a civilization of life and love” (PCP II, n. 255).

Happy Easter!  Happy New Life in the Risen Christ!”

Easter Sunday

Bishop Dinualdo celebrated mass on April 24 at the Chapel of the Diocesan Radio Station DXCP.  Participants spilled over to the ground around the chapel.

His homily.

“…they killed him…but God raised him to life” (Acts 10: 39-40).  “Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2). “…he saw and he believed” (Jh. 20:8).

Message of Easter is renewal.  Renewal of self (personal) and transformation of sinful structures.

1)      Self-renewal.  Ezekiel quotes God: “I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give you a heart of flesh instead.  I shall put my spirit in you, and make you keep my laws…” (Ez. 36: 26-27).  A heart of flesh is an obedient heart.

We remove from ourselves pride and greed – two capital sins relevant to our times.  Replace them with humility and generosity/charity.

2)      Social transformation.

Corruption is replaced with honesty, transparency and accountability to God and people.

Secularism (this earth only) and materialism (only material things matter) are replaced with faith in God, in the after life and integral/holistic view of man and society.

Mining Act of 1995 to be replaced by HB 3753.  This Bill is based on the principles of environmental justice, integrated development, promotion of human rights, subsidiarity and nationalism.

How to change?

1. Religious/values formation and adequate mass education.
2. Strengthening of families and NGOs and POs.
3. Dialogue with concerned government agencies and officials.
4. Communal actions: prayer rallies, among other non-violent actions.

Our hope is a new heaven and a new earth.  Peter writes: “What we are waiting for is what he promised; the new heavens and new earth, the place where righteousness will be at home.  So then, my friends, while you are waiting, do your best to live lives without spot or stain so that he will find you at place”. (3 Pet. 3: 13-15.  emphasis, Mine).

Religious Freedom, the Path to Peace

POPE’S MESSAGE, 44TH WORLD DAY OF PEACE

Benedict XVI, in his message dated December 8, 2010 greeted everyone with wishes of serenity and peace at the start of the new year. He decried however current persecution, discrimination, violence and religious intolerance (n. 1).

“The right to religious freedom is rooted in the very dignity of the human person…created by God” in his own image and likeness (cf. Gen. 1:27) (n. 2).

“Religious freedom is at the origin of moral freedom”. It is “the guarantee of full respect between persons” (n. 3).

“The family, the school of freedom and peace”. “It is the primary training ground for harmonious relations at every level of coexistence” (n. 4).

“Among the fundamental rights and freedoms rooted in the dignity of the person, religious freedom enjoys a special status”. “It is an achievement of a sound political and juridical culture. It is an essential good”. (n. 5).

Public dimension of religion. “The contribution of religious communities to society is undeniable, specially “its ethical contribution in the political sphere”. (n. 6).

Pope Benedict XVI encouraged dialogue between civil and religious institutions as well as interreligious dialogue (nn. 9-11).

“Religious freedom, the path to peace”, is explained by Pope Benedict XVI. “The world needs God. It needs universal, shared ethical and spiritual values, and religion can offer a precious contribution to their pursuit, for the building of a just and peaceful social order at the national and international levels” (n. 15).

Bishop’s Christmas Message (2010)

Christmas is love. “Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life. For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved” (Jh. 3: 16-17).

“The Word was made flesh, he lived among us…” (Jh. 1: 14).

Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, the Son of God, did not only become man. He lived among men and women to preach the Good News and performed many good deeds.

God’s love is a liberating love. It is at the same time an empowering love.

“We are to love, then, because he loved us first” (1 Jh. 4:19).

This means loving everyone. “Let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God” (1 Jh. 4:17).

Lack of love causes corruption, poverty, destructive conflict, ecological degradation. It causes unpeace!

On the other hand, “love is a creative power”, avers, St. Maximillian Kolbe. Love makes people generous, not selfish; honest, not corrupt; competent, not incompetent; peace-makers, not trouble makers; and stewards of God’s creation, and not its destroyers.

Since Christmas is love, let us make each day a little Christmas in order to achieve peace. “Peace on Earth will come to stay, when we live Christmas every day” (Helen Steiner Bice).

Adds Hamilton Wright Mabie: “Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love”.

A BLESSED CHRISTMAS AND A PEACEFUL NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!