THE Catholic Church has not been sleeping on its mission to help drug surrenderers.
This was the statement of Fe Barino, one of the organizers of Surrender to God (SuGod), after President Rodrigo Duterte criticized the Church for its alleged refusal to help the National Government with its anti-illegal drugs campaign.
SuGod, which started last year, is a community-based drug rehabilitation program led by the Archdiocese of Cebu.
During the graduation ceremony of SuGod’s sixth batch of recovering drug surrenderers yesterday, Barino defended the Church, saying it had been helping drug users fight their addiction.
As much as they want to inform the President of the Archdiocese’s efforts, Barino said they would rather let their deeds do the talking.
“We would rather not allow our right hand to know what our left hand is doing,” she said.
In a separate interview, Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma said that while he didn’t hear Duterte’s speech during the groundbreaking ceremony of the Cebu-Cordova bridge project last Thursday, he was not surprised of the President’s tirades.
He said the Church will continue to stand for what it believes, despite the criticisms they have received.
“Many of the things we have spoken, he may not like. As I mentioned in the past, we will never stop talking on what we believe is right and what is good for the people, for that is our mandate,” he said.
Palma facilitated the graduation of the 45 recovering drug surrenderers during the ceremony held at the Love of God Community in Barangay Yati, Liloan yesterday.