Religious orders pledge ‘critical collaboration’
By Christian V. Esguerra, Inquirer -
http://newsinfo.inq7.net/breakingnews/metroregions/view_article.php?article_id=11806
26th July 2006
THE PHILIPPINES’ male religious congregations have agreed to engage in a “critical collaboration” with the Arroyo administration, if only to address the “real state of the nation,” particularly the problem of poverty.
In the eyes of the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines (AMRSP), the real state of the nation can be gleaned in the poverty, corruption, killings, environmental destruction, and selfish political interests plaguing the country.
The male section of the AMRSP is made up of the Jesuits, Dominicans, Lasallians, Marists, Alexians, Salesians, Vincentians, Redemptorists, Claretians, Columbans, Rogationists, Augustinians, Benedictines, and Franciscans.
They painted this grim scenario ahead of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo State of the Nation Address last Monday.
“We have spent time reflecting on the condition of the people that we serve and we are compelled to address the following concerns that plague our society today,” the group said in a statement following their convention in Cebu last week.
The congregations, numbering 103, noted the “mounting number of extrajudicial killings, the ill effects of mining and its control by foreign corporations, the railroading of the Charter change process, rampant corruption in both public and private sectors, and the immediate and dire consequences of poverty throughout the country.”
They agreed to engage in a “critical collaboration” with the administration to help address the concerns they had outlined.
It was a tack adopted by the late Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin in dealing with the dictator Ferdinand Marcos during the martial law years.
“The easiest thing to do is to bury ourselves in the work of our own provinces and not mind one bit what is happening around us. It is a temptation that is easy to succumb to,” said Brother Edmund Fernandez FSC, of the La Salle Brothers and AMRSP co-chairman, in a speech.
