Wrapping up 2009 with Optimism & Gratitude

With much optimism that Christian service and social responsibility would continue to blossom in the parish community, the Holy Rosary Parish – Social Action Center (HRP-SAC) wrapped up 2009 with various activities including the celebration of Human Rights Day on December 10 and the Gift-giving involving 450 indigent families from the eight barangays covered by the parish on December 30, 2009.

Human Rights Day Celebration

On December 10, 2009, the Holy Rosary Parish (HRP) joined the rest of the world in commemorating the 61st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The event, the first ever in the parish, came in the heels of the infamous Ampatuan massacre which resulted in the brutal killing of thirty journalists along with twenty seven other unarmed civilians. It was an opportunity to show solidarity with the grieving families of the victims. It was, likewise a chance to foster awareness on our basic human rights as adopted and proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948.

Among the rights covered are: Civil & Political Human Rights which are fundamental, natural, inherent, ‘inalienable’ rights that cannot be taken away (i.e. right to life, liberty, justice, freedom of expression); Economic, Social & Cultural Rights which are aspirational in nature (i.e. the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment); and Group Rights which include environmental & development rights.

HRP’s celebration kicked off with a holy mass presided by Bp. Pablo S. David, HRP Parish Priest and a well-known advocate of social development and human rights. The mass was highlighted by the offertory that featured an Aeta family bearing symbolic gifts. A short program that involved representatives from the various Chapel Pastoral Councils (CPC) of the parish followed. Each CPC offered a prayer based on its aspirations for the community.

Two intermission numbers featured local talents. Clad in black and gold costumes, a group of hearing-impaired teeners from the Angeles Elementary School did an interpretative dance of the song Batang-bata Ka Pa. Another teener named Patricia Aira Narciso, a Grade 6 pupil from the Angeles Elementary School sang a song entitled “Hawak-Kamay”. The event ended with a candle-lighting ceremony which symbolized the call for peace tempered with justice for all human rights victims.

Christmas Gift-giving

After the Human Rights’ Day celebration, HRP-SAC volunteers were kept busy with the preparations for the Christmas Gift-giving. This year, a total of 450 indigent families from Barangays San Pablo, San Vicente, Sto. Rosario, Lourdes Sur, San Jose, San Nicolas, San Roque, Sto. Cristo received media noche gift packs containing items (e.g. spaghetti sauce, pasta, corned beef, powdered juice, and bread loaf) for a hearty New Year’s Day meal.

The activity was done in coordination with the CPCs and made possible by the Holy Rosary Parish parishioners and friends who generously responded to the appeals made during the first and the last days of the Simbang Gabi. The Christmas gift-giving was the culmination of a year of Christian service and social responsibility which enabled HRP-SAC to provide the following assistance (Note: figures reflect beneficiaries served and assisted from July to December 2009 only)

• Assistance to walk-in clients needing basic items and services like food, transportation and clothes – 109 beneficiaries

• Referrals to other institutions- 25 beneficiaries

• Medical assistance/services – 26 beneficiaries

• Medical Mission in cooperation with SACOP, AUF and HRP Volunteer Doctors (Candaba and Arayat, Pampanga) – 807 patients

• Gift-giving (sponsored by various groups and organizations including Jollibee, Lingkod ng Panginoon, Lifegiver and Angeles City Food Package) – 104 families

• Parish-sponsored Gift-giving – 450 families

• Assistance to Disaster-affected Communities (Botolan, Zambales; Metro Manila; Pangasinan; Tarlac; Arayat, Pampanga) – Cash donations amounting to P 441,854.35 + donations-in-kind (e.g. clothes, food and non-food items) dispatched

HRP-SAC looks forward to 2010 with optimism as it girds for the planning and implementation of the Archdiocesan Integrated Pastoral Plan 3 (AIPP-3) which was launched in the Archdiocese on October 24, 2009. In line with this, a parish-wide pastoral planning will be conducted in the first quarter of 2010 to enable the parish to align its vision, mission, goals and objectives with those prescribed by AIPP-3. Among the pastoral priorities of the Archdiocese of San Fernando to which HRP belongs are: lay empowerment, basic ecclesial communities, liturgical renewal, service to the poorest of the poor, preservation of the environment, protection and promotion of human life, Catholic education, moral and spiritual renewal, responsible citizenship and good governance, and renewal and formation of leaders.

Hearing-impaired students from Angeles City Elementary School perform an interpretative dance number

during the Human Rights Day celebration at HRP

HRP-SAC volunteers distribute gift packs to indigent families in Angeles City

The Message of Christmas: Leveling the Playing Field by Luz Torres-Hecker, M.D.

“A voice cries out in the wilderness:
Prepare the way of the Lord.
Make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.”

(Isaiah 40:3-5)

For years, this passage has been with me whenever I think of Christmas.

To level the playing field. Indeed, the message of Christmas is a message of justice. Years ago, especially in religious circles, we referred to this as “preferential option for the poor”, poor not only materially but also those who are poor in many different ways. Nowadays, we hear and speak about reaching out to the least, the last and the lost.

All through the gospels, we see Jesus taking the side of the deprived and the helpless; the widows, the sick, the outcasts, the sinners, the women…all those looked down upon in the self righteous, patriarchal society of first century Palestine. To this he brought a new way of seeing things, a vastly different way of valuing, a different perspective, a new paradigm. He took what were held inviolable and sacrosanct in his day and turned them upside down. His teachings were revolutionary: the first shall be last, authority as service, man before the Sabbath. He spoke vehemently against injustice. He worked tirelessly to eliminate evil in all its forms: sin, sickness, isolation.

We, as Christians, are called to do likewise; to make Christmas happen, to respond to the call of justice; to level the playing field.

We start with the hard questions: why the phenomenon of the forever casual employee with no job security? Why is the Filipino labor our number one export to the sacrifice of the Filipino family? Are we only a democracy in theory but an oligarchy in reality? Why is the Philippines still poor? Why are there still groups marginalized in our own Church?

Christmas comes in different packages; when we choose a simpler lifestyle in the

awareness that the goods we squander belong to someone else; in the reasonable wages and benefits that are considered earned by virtue of charity if not of law; by choosing inconvenience over paying our way out of a traffic violation.

Culturally, this is a big challenge for us. We have to rediscover, individually, and as a people our collective conscience, that sensitivity to what is right and what is wrong, what is illegal and what is immoral. Values have been compromised often enough so that wrong is not only tolerated as norm but accepted as “SOP (standard operating procedure)”. We see this in our private lives and more blatantly in government. Nobody is exempt. Christmas happens when we humbly accept that we are all in need of conversion. Because we are all tainted.

I cannot accept that our culture is inherently corrupt. I grant though, that it is easily corruptible. We are deeply, passionately, communitarian. We have to constantly strive to delineate boundaries, physical and otherwise, lest we trespass against persons and /or property. It is a strong temptation to hold as ours what was given only in trust. Christmas happens when integrity takes precedence over personal relationships; when we realize that what we sometimes call kindness is actually timidity and when we finally muster the courage to speak up when we have to.

In a few months, we take to the polls. Once again, we, as a people are at the crossroads. But Christmas happens when we try to educate ourselves and others on the candidates’ backgrounds and stances on different issues. Christmas is in those groups, especially volunteers who sacrifice time and effort and sometimes limb to guard the sanctity of the ballot. Finally, Christmas is in us, when we claim one of our most treasured rights and responsibilities as citizens, as voters who are truly informed, honest and free.

God is always calling. But how do we know how to respond in our day to day living? It is different for each of us. He did not leave us with a detailed blueprint, but He gave us something more, a gold standard. Let us look up at the Christmas Star and follow where it leads…to the manger, to the Christ Child. And only in finding Him, do we begin to know.

A most Blessed Christmas to one and all!

Dr. Luz Torres-Hecker attends to patients during a medical mission in Candaba, Pampanga 

* Note: Dr. Luz Torres-Hecker is the Coordinator of the Volunteer Doctors' Group at the Holy Rosary Parish (Angeles City). 

Gearing Up for the 2010 Elections

Bp. Ambo David, D.D. delivers the opening remarks before the retreat participants

Fr. Albert  'Paring Bert' Alejo, S.J. synthesizes the participants' reflections on the 2007 elections experience

In response to the call of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) for “lay participation in social change” and, specifically, for a more active engagement in principled partisan politics the Holy Rosary Parish – Ministry on Service - Ad Extra offered a one-day Political Retreat last November 3, 2009. The activity was held at the Ephatha Development Center of the Social Action Center of Pampanga (SACOP). Fr. Albert Alejo, S.J., a popular social anthropologist and staunch good governance advocate served as the Facilitator. Paring Bert, as he prefers to be called, is the Director of Ehem!, a nationwide anti-corruption program and Director of Konsult Mindanao which helps facilitate the on-going peace consultations across Mindanao.

The Political Retreat was attended by lay leaders of the Holy Rosary Parish and representatives from the Archdiocesan Council of the Laity (ACL), the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV-Pampanga), Dominican Sisters of Our Lady of Remedies, Commission on Family and Life, Holy Angel University, Holy Rosary Parish – Social Action Center and various Catholic Charismatic Communities of Pampanga.

The morning session gave the participants an opportunity to look back and reflect on Pampanga’s 2007 experience. Mounting a copy of Luid Ka!, a coffeetable book which chronicles the events leading to the victory of Among Ed Panlilio, a Catholic priest who won through the Kapampangan Crusade for Good Governance on a podium to serve as reference, Paring Bert invited the participants to recall their experiences and tell their own stories about what many regard as a miracle in Pampanga. The book was published by Kapampangan Marangal, Inc. (KMI) in 2008.

In the afternoon, the facilitator shared his insights about politics and culture. The session paved the way for planning on both partisan and non-partisan involvement of church people. Key actors and possible actions were presented as outputs towards the end of the retreat.

“What happened in Pampanga in 2007 brought ripples of hope across the country. People from as far as Mindanao became hopeful of reforms as a result of your example. Always keep that one shining moment in mind,” noted Paring Bert. 

Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng Calamity Fund

Donations in Kind for Communities Affected by Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng

Donations for Botolan, Zambales

 

HRP Conducts Relief Operations for Flooded Communities in Botolan

 

Heeding the appeals for relief assistance made by Diocese of Iba Bishop Florentino Lavarias for Botolan folks, the Holy Rosary Parish (HRP) in Angeles City started a relief drive last August 14, 2009. Typhoons “Kiko and Labuyo” caused massive flooding in Botolan, displacing thousands and causing immense damage to properties.

Seeing the urgency of the need, Bp. Pablo S. David, D.D. appealed for donations in cash or kind. It did not take long for the parishioners of HRP to respond by delivering their cash and check donations as well as various goods including rice, canned goods, noodles, used clothes, etc to the HRP-Social Action Center (HRP-SAC) office . A total of P 129,700.00 in cash was remitted to the Diocese of Iba, along with three truckloads of assorted stuff delivered in three batches (Pls. see attached report).

HRP-SAC volunteers Fely Salita, Lourdes Sanga, Olive Dizon and Joel Ocampo personally delivered the first batch of goods on August 15, 2009, traveling all the way from Angeles to Botolan via the Tarlac-Pangasinan route. The trip took all of eight hours (one-way) since the Botolan highway had become a virtual river with rampaging floodwater flowing through it. Bridges and roads had become impassable because of the flood.

Rev. Frs. Ian Maniago and Kenneth Mason warmly welcomed the group upon its arrival in Sta. Monica Parish, Botolan, Zambales. Prior to this, the HRP-SAC volunteers paid a courtesy call on Iba Bishop Florentino Lavarias, a native of Mabalacat, Pampanga who was a member of the Pampanga clergy before he was ordained bishop and assigned in Zambales.

An ocular survey of the group on the affected areas revealed massive damage to properties including houses, schools, agricultural lands and business establishments. Brgy. San Juan was among the worst affected along with Barangays Carael, Paco and Bangan.

The disaster experience of Botolan folks was likened to the experience of Kapampangans after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991. Floods and lahar took a heavy toll on the economy and changed the landscape of Pampanga. It has, since, become a mission among Kapampangans to give back and help other communities back to their feet after a debilitating disaster. The generous and timely response of the parishioners of Holy Rosary Parish to the Botolan disaster was part of that mission. (Olive Dizon)