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Saturday, September 27, 2003
Pope urges church to help stop terror in RP
By Marie Neri
UPROOTING terrorism should be one of the priorities of the Catholic Church in the Philippines.
Pope John Paul II urged members of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) who are in Rome for the “ad Limina Apostolorum” to commit to eradicating terrorism in the Philippines.
Monsignor Hernando Coronel, CBCP spokesman, said the bishops from the provinces of Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato, Davao, Lipa, Ozamis and Zamboanga have pledged to the Holy Father to exert all efforts to stop terrorism in the Philippines, particularly in the southern part of the country.
“The challenges given by the Holy Father are gladly accepted and, with God’s grace, would be fulfilled,” Coronel said in a statement.
In a meeting with the Philippine bishops in Castel Gandolfo last Thursday, the Pope directed the first batch of the CBCP members to do everything it can to end the growing and intense terrorist activities in the region.
“Doing everything possible to eliminate the root causes of terrorism. This, my brothers, must be the clear pledge of the religious leaders in Mindanao and throughout the Philippines,” the Pontiff said.
Correspondingly, the Holy See told the Philippine bishops to make contact with other religious leaders and work out a common plan that would address the problems of terrorism.
“The various Christian confessions as well as the world’s great religions need to work together to eliminate the social and cultural causes of terrorism. They can do this by teaching the greatness and dignity of the human person and by spreading a clearer sense of the oneness of the human family,” the Pope said.
Pope John Paul II also appealed to the government and the rebels to stop the unceasing violence that destroys the lives of the many innocent civilian victims of armed conflict.
Instead of killing, the Holy Father stressed, both parties should go back to the negotiating table and work out a formula that could end the military conflict in the country.
“I call on the parties involved to lay down the weapons of death and destruction, rejecting the despair and hatred which these entail and to take up the arms of mutual understanding, commitment and hope,” the Pope said.
(September 27, 2003 issue)
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