During the region-wide consultation in 2009 which the Bishops-Ulama Conference (BUC) conducted through a team of academicians from Catholic, Muslim and Protestant Universities a Maranao Muslim from Lanao del Sur was asked: What can you contribute to peace in Mindanao? "I am only a farmer and...
With presidential encouragement from presidents Ramos, Estrada, Arroyo and Duterte, the Mindanao Week of Peace has been celebrated since 1998. This week-long festivities by peace loving Indigenous Peoples, Muslims, Catholics and Protestants through their respective institutions and associations begin on the Last Thursday of November....
Every year the Church celebrates the Feast of Christ the King on the last Sunday of November. It is the 30th day of this month. This day is also the closing day of what Pope Francis calls the Extraordinary Year of Mercy which began last...
In last week's Shalom we ended up our reflection that Jesus Christ cut the spiral of violence by offering Himself as victim. Yes, He did so out of love for the victim of the victimiser and for the victimiser himself/herself. In other words, the only way...
We Filipino Catholics will soon celebrate the feasts of All Saints and All Souls. These we will do three days from now on November 1 and 2. Why do we do this? What for? Our Church teaches us that our calendar of feast celebrations cannot accommodate...
The murder of Abel by his brother Cain as recorded in the book of Genesis (4:1-16) is considered the first murder in the history of mankind. Biblical experts tell us the story is a myth. According Father Shannon, in his book mentioned in last week's...
"It seems as if in our psyche there is a strange fascination with violence. It horrifies, yet at the same time it allures." (Seeds of Peace: Contemplation and Non-Violence by Rev. William H. Shannon, The Crossroad Publishing Company, New York, pp 93-94). I can understand...
This is a new word in the vocabulary of interfaith and intercultural dialogue. The word is understood by its originators as referring to a social effect of the process of people and groups coming together and interact towards a common objective. The originator is a group...
October is month of the Holy Rosary. This is a beautiful prayer we Filipino Catholics love to pray for 31 days. And it is done often in early dawn in our parishes. Even if there are only very few people the custom continues relentlessly. In most...
The Duterte government's war against the violence of drug addiction and drug production is carried out also in a violent way. This violent way is being questioned and debated. And this questioning and debates are somehow tainted with violence. So we are now being confronted...
