CBCP MARCH 4 - 17, 2019, VOL 23, NO.Monitor 05 [email protected] PROTAGONIST OF TRUTH, PROMOTER OF PEACE Bishops vow accountability, end to abuse cover-up By Roy Lagarde Bishop THE country’s’ Catholic leaders have vowed to prays for end cover-up of clergy sex abuses, pledging Pinay in accountability and concrete actions to calls Saudi for reforms. The crimes won’t be covered up, promised Archbishop Romulo death row Valles, president of the Philippine bishops’ conference, who just A CATHOLIC bishop who arrived back from the Vatican heads the Church’s migrants summit on the protection of minors. ministry has asked for prayers “We will do whatever we can to for the Filipina on death row in protect minors in the Church. You the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. heard me, no hesitation and cover- This after the Saudi Court of ups!” he said during a Mass at the Appeals affirmed the Filipina’s San Pedro Cathedral in Davao City 2017 death sentence for killing on Friday, March 1. her female employer three Valles was among the nearly 200 years ago. She had claimed global church leaders who attended self-defense in the murder the landmark Vatican meeting case. amid new claims if clergy abuses “We turn to God in prayers and cover-up by ranking officials. that He may move the KSA Convened by Pope Francis, government to be merciful delegates heard the story of the and grant clemency to our victims and how church negligence Filipina,” said Bishop Ruperto had made the situation worse. Santos of Balanga. The pope has repeatedly The Department of Foreign apologized to the faithful over Affairs (DFA) said it will the global scourge, but vowed exhaust all diplomatic and to confront abusers and restore legal remedies to save the justice. Filipina. The Davao archbishop admitted “She has to be helped and their “shame” over the abuses, and assisted. Let us try everything asked forgiveness for the pain it to save her,” said Santos. caused to the victims, their families, The prelate also urged the and society. government to investigate “And with forgiveness the grace those behind the woman’s to stand up, repair and see to it that employment abroad as she was such things will not happen again recruited when she was still a in the Church,” Valles said. minor. “Placement agencies should ‘Moto proprio’ be made accountable for Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, whatever will happen to those who served as moderator of the OFWs they have sent to other four-day summit, said that the pope countries,” he said. will soon publish a new set of laws In January, Saudi Arabia and guidelines concerning child executed a 39-year-old Filipina protection. household service worker He said that the measures will found guilty of murder. More than 2.3 million Filipino be issued “moto proprio,” on the Pope Francis celebrates Mass on the final day of the meeting on the protection of minors in the church at the Vatican Feb. 24, 2019. Convened by the pope, pope’s own accord, and will be the summit brought together 190 church leaders -- presidents of bishops’ conferences, the heads of the Eastern Catholic churches, superiors of men’s and work abroad to provide a better Abuse / A6 women’s religious orders and Roman Curia officials. CNS/VATICAN MEDIA life for their families. Of this number, around half a million work in Saudi Arabia, making it Bishop David defies death threats Nuncio: See Christ in those who the leading country of destination among OFWs. (CBCPNews) are suffering Reach out to the needy, Cardinal Tagle says in Lent message CARDINAL Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila called for charitable giving in a Lenten message where he urged people to help the poor. In his message for Lent, he said that charity is central to the Church’s mission. “The Lenten season, which Kalookan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David listen to a woman lamenting the spate of extrajudicial killings in begins today, Ash Wednesday, Navotas City, July 2, 2017. CBCP NEWS is a time of mercy,” Tagle said in a pastoral letter. A CATHOLIC bishop insisted he will Conference of the Philippines. “To practice charity is never let his death threats impede In a turnaround from previous Archbishop Gabriele Caccia delivers the homily as he celebrates Mass at the Shrine of the Holy Face concrete proof that we are his campaign against killings. remarks, President Rodrigo Duterte of Jesus in Quiapo Manila, March 5. striving to follow Jesus, and Bishop Pablo Virgilio David on Feb. 24 warned people against that we are making the gift of knows he could pay the ultimate harming bishops and clergymen. THE papal nuncio to the Philippines Shrine of the Holy Face of Jesus in ourselves to active participation price in his unwavering fight to end At a campaign rally in Cebu City, said on the eve of Lent that the face Manila’s Quiapo district. of Christian life,” he said. human rights abuses. he quoted part of Cardinal Luis of Jesus pushes people towards Pointing to shroud image of Jesus In Manila, he said that one “But no threat or intimidation Antonio Tagle’s message to him that those who suffer. at the altar, he asked the devotees way to engage in charitable can stop me from carrying on with David and some priests received Speaking during Mass for the why they are seeing somebody activities is by supporting my spiritual and pastoral duties as death threats from “someone local feast of the Holy Face of Jesus, who has suffered and disfigured the Pondo ng Pinoy’s Hapag- a bishop,” he said. claiming to be working for the Archbishop Gabriele Caccia said by violence, mockery and injustice. Asa Integrated Nutrition, or On Feb. 25, David, a vocal critic of president’s family”. that Lent is the commemoration “How can it be the face of God? FAST2FEED campaign. the government’s bloody drug war, “Do not touch priests, they had of Christ’s passion and death as an God is beauty, God is justice. Why For several years now, confirmed receiving death threats nothing to do with politics,” Duterte expression of His love for mankind. the face of God shows something especially during Lent, the from unknown people. said. “So anytime we look at the face of different?” he said. church has been promoting “But I don’t know who they “Either Muslims or Christians, Jesus we should be able to recognize According to him, the Way of the the program to help reduce are coming from,” said the Vice they had nothing to do with us. him in all people who are suffering,” Cross shows Christ’s embrace of malnutrition prevalent among President of the Catholic Bishops’ Threats / A6 Caccia told the mass-goers at the Suffering / A6 Lent / A6 A2 WORLD NEWS March 4 - 17, 2019, Vol 23, No. 05 CBCP Monitor French nuncio accused of sexual Vatican Briefing misconduct during time in Canada Vatican announces theme for World Day of Migrants and Refugees OTTAWA, Canada— Archbishop After moving the Vatican celebration of the World Day of Luigi Ventura, apostolic nuncio to Migrants and Refugees from January to September, Pope France, has been accused of sexual Francis wants Catholics to understand how concern for misconduct against an adult male migrants and refugees is part of a much broader Christian while he was nuncio in Canada. The concern for people in need. The Vatican celebration of the Vatican diplomat is already under World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2019 will be celebrated investigation for alleged sexual assault Sept. 29, the Vatican said, and the pope’s choice for a theme in Paris. is: “It is not just about migrants.” “With this theme, Pope Christian Vachon emailed the Francis wants to highlight that his frequent appeals for nunciature to France Feb. 22 to file migrants, refugees, displaced and trafficked people should a complaint against Ventura. Vachon be understood as integral to his deep concern for all the says that during a banquet held July inhabitants of today’s ‘existential peripheries,’” said a note 26, 2008 at the Basilica of Sainte- from the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for Anne-de-Beaupré, about 20 miles Promoting Integral Human Development. (CNS) northest of Quebec, Ventura touched his buttocks at least twice. At the time, Caring for the ill should include spiritual assistance, Vachon was 32. pope says “I believe that the ‘modus operandi’ Taking care of those who are sick or struggling with illness of Archbishop Ventura has left a doubt requires taking care of the whole person -- including their in the conscience of the victim as to Archbishop Luigi Ventura, the Vatican nuncio to France, meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican in this file photo from Oct. 18, 2018. VATICAN MEDIA spiritual needs, Pope Francis said. Offering care and healing whether he was truly a victim of touch,” is focused not just on “the disease of an organ or of cells but Vachon’s email to the nunciature read, of the person in his or her entirety,” he said. “The fact that according to Présence, a French clergy sex abuse scandal, he shared his French daily Le Monde reported the spirit transcends the body means that this is included in Canadian religious news service. experience, again without identifying Feb. 15 that Ventura is being a greater vitality and dignity, which is not that of biology, but Ventura, 74, was apostolic nuncio to Ventura, on an online forum in investigated by Parisian authorities that of the person and the spirit,” the pope said told members Canada from 2001 to 2009.