Pedestrian Observer GB: Catholics

"In societies where Robbing Hoods are treated like a celebrity it is but natural to expect political parties to act like a Mafia syndicate" Political Jaywalker "In a nation where corruption is endemic people tend to confuse due process with aiding and abetting criminals" Political Jaywalker "War doesn't determine who is right, war determines who is left" Bertrand Russell "You have just one flash flood of money, you keep your people poor. It's like a time bomb and it's scary" Philippine Lawmaker

Showing posts with label Catholics. Show all posts

Ayala Alabang Barangay Talibani Pro-Lifers ran amok

As we agonizingly laugh at the dumb and dumber theatrics of the freak circus side show of Tito Sotto in his legislative “brilliancy” of introducing a bill to ban poppy seeds, the Ayala Alabang Barangay council truly tops them all with an ordinance that effectively categorize contraceptives as a controlled substance. That is until we see another hilariously ridiculous theatrics that is coming our way, boy will we ever have a respite from all these madness. If Sotto’s bill passes, not that it will by any stretch of imagination, but in the Philippine legislative branch who knows what they are capable or incapable of doing embarrassing legislations. If Sotto’s bill passes does that mean the bakers will be treated as traffickers? Now, how exactly will they treat those who love their breads and pastries with poppy seeds in it or on top of it?

If you think the poppy seed fiasco is bad enough wait till you see how the circus unfolds down south of the itch errrr Makati. The Barangay Ayala Alabang ordinance penalizes anyone who advertises “by billboard, brochures, leaflets, flyers or similar means or any manner of form, sell, offer for free or endorse, promote, prescribe or distribute abortifacients.” Quite an ordinance I should say signed by its chairman, Alfred Xerez-Burgos Jr., and council members Alice Bacani, Joanna Calugcug, Maria Carmen Reyes, Maria Soledad Tugade, Mariano Manas Jr., Apolinario de los Santos III and Giancarlo Nazario. It was also signed by Sangguniang Kabataan chairman Juan Enrico Parfan and attested by barangay secretary Santos Rancudo. This is like the Talibani religious fanaticism but with an elitist twist or was it twisted? Not content with the prohibition even married couples will now have to get a physician’s prescription in order to buy and use contraceptives, what is this… a marijuana like substance that needs a prescription?

I wonder how the Barangay tanghod errr tanod will enforce the ordinance they passed, does that mean they have the authority to search couples for illegal possession of condoms. Remember these tanghod are not trained professional police but then again even professional police like that dumb cop in the tourist hostage massacre is not a guarantee that laws are enforced strictly. How much more with an ordinance passed by a mere Barangay policed by their sidekicks acting like cops with sticks in their hands.

Ayala Alabang is taunted err touted to be the Forbes Park of the south, you would think that majority if not all the residents are a breed apart being successful in their lives, so how can they elect ignoramuses in their Barangay council? Does that mean that most of them have a Taliban mindset allowing their Barangay officials in passing ordinances that are not just judiciary questionable but violative of womens rights. Since when did Barangay had the authority to impose their ignorant fanatical views on people and the privacy of couples bedrooms. Does that mean that they will now investigate couples that are not breeding like rabbits as a suspected condom or pill popping couples doing their sexual intramurals out to emjoy it and not to produce babies? Let me end this with an apt quote from Leah Salonga:

“Ignorance, at the end of the day, is what will be the death of us all. Plain and simple”

Filipino new chair for movements in Archdiocese of Washington

Adolfo Q. Paglinawan, national council member and regional coordinator for the mid-atlantic and southeast regions of Couples for Christ USA affiliated with CFC for Family and Life, succeeds Rick McKinney of the Mother of God Community for a two-year term as chairman of the Association of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities (and Third Orders) in the Archdiocese of Washington.

Paglinawan, together with his wife Margareth, is also CFCFFL’s missionary couple to the Caribbean Islands , and West and Central Africa; and heads the organization’s Secretariat based in Washington DC . They have six children and five grandchildren.

The incoming chairman brought Couples for Christ to the United States in April 1986 when he came to this country as a former diplomat of the Philippines . In fact in the Metro-Washington DC area, Paglinawan is better known as the former press officer of the Philippine Embassy. He also served as the Special Assistant of Ambassador Emmanuel Pelaez both in Washington DC and the Philippine Mission to the United Nations in New York .

His wife Margi and he conducted the first Christian Life Program in Springfield VA in September of the same year, and made representations with the late Cardinal James Aloysius Hickey, then Archbishop of Washington, for CFC recognition as a lay association.

During the infancy of CFC in the United States , he worked closely with the charismatic movements in the tri-state of Virginia , Maryland and DC, and later nationally starting in the other East Coast states of New Jersey , New York and Florida , in the Midwest states of Illinois and Texas , and at the West Coast in California . For the charismatics, Paglinawan organized marriage retreats and established three missions for evangelist couple Lito and Edith Urgino to the United States in 1988, 1990 and 1992.

Paglinawan also opened CFC in Japan in 1995 and Cameroon in November 2006. The birthing of Cameroon CFC is significant because it has been the largest in the organization’s history, outside of the Philippines . Three hundred three lay men and women plus eleven clergy took the inaugural Christian Life Seminar in Buea of its southwest province with the collaboration of now Bishop-emeritus Pius Awah.

The incoming chairman himself took the Christian Life Seminar (CLS) in 1981 in Manila , Philippines under the auspices of Ligaya ng Panginoon (Joy of the Lord), the mother community of Couples for Christ.

At about the same time Ligaya was founding a family life outreach with 16 couples also being initiated into the movement through the CLS. It was later named by the founding participants themselves, and incorporated in 1984 as Couples for Christ Foundation Inc. (CFCFI).

Couples for Christ is now in every town in the Philippines , 30 states in the US , 20 in Latin America —a total of 160 countries worldwide. It was officially granted Vatican recognition by the Pontificium Concilium Pro Laicis on April 25, 2005 on the feast of St. Mark the Evangelist.

To learn more about the ecclesial movements in the association in the Archdiocese of Washington, here list together with their respective websites: Bukas Loob Sa Diyos Covenant Community, The Catholic Charismatic Renewal, The Catholic Worker Movement, Communion and Liberation, The Community of Sant’Egidio, Couples for Christ Foundation for Family and Life, Cursillo, Faith and Light, The Families of Nazareth Movement, The Focolare Movement, Handicapped Encounter Christ, L’Arch e, The Legion of Mary, The Madonna House,Mother of God Community, The Neocatechumenal Wa y, Prayer and Life Workshops, Regnum Christi, The Schoenstatt Movement (German Schönstatt), Teams of Our Lady, Worldwide Marriage Encounter.

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Ado Paglinawan is a former press officer of the Philippine Embassy in Washington DC who occasionally contributes to the Philippines Daily Inquirer. He writes for various email groups and blogs under the pseudonym "mymaestro888". Ado has best served overseas Filipinos as a resource person providing inside information and backgrounders about the celebrated fertilizer scam that rocked the Philippine Agriculture Department and the Presidency since 2004.

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Illegal Filipino Migrant Street Children in Sabah, Malaysia

In Malaysia illegal Filipino migrants are not supposed to have children but of course they do anyway according to Al Jazeera's David Hawkins. So what happens when illegal Filipino migrant pro-creates? A societal, political, and moral dilemma ensues thus Illegal Filipino Migrant Street Children in Sabah, Malaysia are added in the mix of the under belly of a surreal yet mind boggling realities of harsh life for the unwanted. These are mostly Christian Filipinos who are probably unaware or ignorant that there are birth control pills or other device to avoid unwanted pregnancy. It is not certain or do we want to go there if the strong influence of Talibani pro-choice Catholic Bishops and their fanatic lay leaders and supporters whose mission in life is to encourage their flock to fulfill their biblical obligation of go and pro-create has somehow had any influence in this miserable life they have condemned these innocent migrant Filipino children.

Ok, there are the natural methods such as abstention that the pro-lifers and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo the Philippine president with questionable Garcified tenure champions, but knowing they are not in a position and the consequence of bringing in a child in a not so foreign land (Sabah is owned by the Sultanate of Sulu thus the Philippines has a claim to this territory) where being born to an illegal makes the offspring also illegal. These are contentious issues that sadly may stay with us for a long time and until leaders of these 2 nations and society come up with a resolution, Filipino migrant children are exposed to the most dehumanizing existence early on in life with no bright prospect for their future.

While most of the migrant children are legal there are those unlucky ones that were born to illegal Filipino migrant workers. Those who did not have a say on where they should be born much less have a choice on who brings them out to this "wonderful" world find themselves with no access or right to health and education. The “lucky” ones (if you consider being able to afford the school yet stateless as lucky) are sent to private schools by illegal migrant parents who can afford it but most are not so lucky as if their complicated situation of having no legal identity or documentation is not enough are out living on the street trying to survive in a place where they are not welcome and seen as a strain to the territories resources.

This is what Yong Tek Lee, former Minister of Sabah has to say about the migrant street children:

Most of them would have come from broken families, uh…. single mother or just orphan. This is a bigger group and more difficult to integrate and politically a very sensitive subject….. for Malaysians to spend their resources on this group of immigrant children.

In fairness to Yong Tek Lee the quote maybe out of context or too short to really know how he sees the problem. True, some may have been from broken families but the question is how many of those are from broken families and those that have been separated due to their parents getting caught and deported back to the Philippines? Since they have been orphaned and with no help coming from the Malaysian government where half of the populations in Sabah are immigrants they are of course not in a position to give assistance to the “illegal” migrant children who end up in the streets of Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah. Indeed a strain to Sabahs resources and since they are stateless children with no legal personality to begin with no assistance is forthcoming on children that does not officially or legally exist. What is puzzling is when Yong Tok Lee talks about integration.... really integration? The reason why the children are homeless and living on the street is not by accident is it not? Who are we kidding here or is this another one of those political double talk? How can Lee talk of integration when the children are denied citizenship from the place they are born (Sabah) and due to their "illegal status" are denied access to education, health care and other assistance that are available to citizens of Sabah. No, Yong Tok Lee quit blabbering nonsense about integration when you know very well that denying these children citizenship is all about treating them like sub humans.

It makes matter even worse than hell when the Philippine government do not recognize these children as Filipino citizens either and are not willing to take them back. Yet, the Philippines put up a façade of welcome and making sure they protect the rights of embezzlers, crooks in politicians clothing, jueteng lords and all kinds of Mafiosi type criminal syndicates lording over the political outcome of fraudulent elections and other dregs of society that managed to scheme their way to the corridors of the high and mighty while we deny that these stateless migrant street children even exist.

These children end up in the streets and form a gang for survival while some young girls turn to prostitution preyed upon by sick bastard pedophiles. It does not help when the mindset of those who are supposed to look after their welfare have so much disdain for these disposable street children as seen in this remark by Anne Keyworth a social worker:

Some of them the orphans who ….uh abandoned… because their parents have gone back to the Philippines…. So they have a big brother…. Yeah, so they have to earn a certain amount for the big brother… but then their welfare are not taken care of….

I don’t know about the expression of this social worker but I fail to see a hint of compassion but then again maybe it is just how she projects herself on television. Somehow it gives you a feeling that her mindset was that of one who don't see the need to assist these street children because under Malaysian law they don't exist. The big brother of course are their pimps who preys on these vulnerable little girls all alone abandoned to fend for themselves in what society has relegated them into a life of wretched misery. A life if you can call that life in this day and age where she has no capacity to comprehend in a society that denies them education or even acknowledge that they exist. Imagine if these were your kids, your niece, cousin, son, daughter, brother, sister or grand kids you probably will move heaven and earth to rescue them from that miserable inhumane existence....... but we don't know them, not until you become aware of them. Should we just treat their sad miserable wretched inhumane existences as out of sight out of mind, toss it away and it's gone? Are the OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers) who are considered the modern day heroes and savior of the Philippine mismanaged economy are just good as milking cow for the dollar they bring in and yet we deny their offspring exist, not Filipino worthy enough to be a Citizen of the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's strong Republic?

Watch this video of Malaysia's migrant children - 25 Aug 07 below or proceed to Greg Constantine haunting picture stories of stateless Filipino migrant children.

Al Jazeera's David Hawkins meets the children of illegal immigrants from the Philippines living on the streets of Sabah.

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Single-Issue Catholics

Bottom Line
by Marvin Bionat

A good number of Catholics are not voting for Obama, because they only have one litmus test for the candidates: pro-life or pro-choice. For them, nothing trumps the issue of saving the lives of unborn babies.

Therein lies the genius of the Republican Party’s decision to embrace the pro-life position of the religious right. Captive Catholic voters—those who buy the single-issue pitch hook, line, and sinker—willingly overlook the misdeeds of the Republicans, simply because they are the party that openly campaigns against abortion.

Are Republicans really more anti-abortion than Democrats? It is instructive to note that Harry Blackmun, the Supreme Court justice who penned the Roe v. Wade decision (which overturned laws restricting abortion), was actually a Republican appointee. Ironically, the senior dissenting opinion was written by Byron White, who was appointed by JFK, a Catholic Democrat. And why is it, after 20 years of Reagan, Bush senior, and Bush junior, Roe v. Wade is still in the books? There are now seven Republican appointees in the Supreme Court versus only two appointed by Clinton—seven out of nine Supreme Court justices, and abortion is still legal! One inescapable suggestion is that, i n the cold calculus of political gamesmanship, it is actually in the best interest of the Republican Party to keep the abortion issue alive. By not bringing the issue to a close and thus by continuing to carry and wave the pro-life banner, Republicans are able to hold the same sway among single-issue voters, including a good chunk of the Catholic vote.

To be sure, no one can seriously believe the malarkey that the Democrats are the “party of death,” as some hard-core pro-life ideologues like to portray them. Democrats don’t go around advocating the termination of fetuses. Accusations that Obama supports infanticide based on a vote he cast in the Illinois State Senate are not based on fact. Even the Republican senator who sponsored the bill at issue (SB-1082, which contained language designed to protect infants who were born alive) has said, “None of those who voted against SB-1082 favored infanticide.” Obama did not support the bill, because the protection it proposed was already part of Illinois state law.

It should be noted that pro-Roe or pro-choice (not support for abortion per se) is really a right of privacy protection issue according to the landmark Supreme Court decision. The Roe v. Wade case was filed on behalf of “Jane Roe,” who reportedly got pregnant because of rape, and who the Supreme Court believed had the fundamental right to decide whether to keep the baby. McCain himself has long been perceived to be lukewarm in his pro-life position, essentially because he favors exceptions in cases of incest, rape, or when the life of the mother is at stake.

Both Obama and Biden (who is the only Catholic in the mix) favor legislation that will minimize cases of abortion. Douglas Kmiec, a prominent Reagan Republican who is staunchly against abortion, has publicly endorsed Obama’s candidacy, partly because he believes that Obama’s commitment to programs that will reduce abortion will have a much greater and immediate impact than reversing Roe v. Wade, which he, a lawyer who once wrote briefs aimed at overturning the Roe decision, believes will simply pass the decision back to the states and still allow legal abortion to continue.

Other Catholics have no problem supporting the Obama-Biden ticket, because the official position of the Catholic Church in fact allows for a much broader social world view. In “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops notes: “There may be times when a Catholic who rejects a candidate’s unacceptable position may decide to vote for that candidate for other morally grave reasons.” There are certainly other morally compelling grounds for supporting Obama’s candidacy and for junking the Republican ticket: the war in Iraq, which the Vatican has condemned as morally wrong and which has cost thousands of American and Iraqi lives; the culture of greed and corruption that has thrived under the watch of the Republican administration and has precipitated the current economic crisis; the continued lack of health care for millions of Americans; etc.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also points out that while a “Catholic cannot vote for a candidate who takes a position in favor of an intrinsic evil, such as abortion or racism,” such injunction applies only “if the voter’s intent is to support that position.” That clearly runs counter to the single-issue litmus test that captive Catholics are inclined to apply and vindicates Kmiec in his courageous decision to support Obama.

My bottom line: When I went to Catholic institutions in high school and college, I was immersed in the central Catholic doctrine that challenged me to make a “preferential option for the poor and vulnerable.” It meant taking the side of the marginalized and the dispossessed. In fact, we were taught that in the Final Judgment we will ultimately be judged according to how we treat the hungry, the thirsty, and the stranger (Matthew 25:31-46). With that as the backdrop, this political season has again drawn me to side of the Democratic Party, because, while the Republicans continue to focus on giving breaks to the rich and the powerful (and to pay what appears to be lip service to protecting the defenseless unborn), I have no doubt (after paying close attention t o the candidates and the issues throughout the campaign season) that it is the Democrats who have greater passion for the poor, the struggling middle class, and immigrants.

Know the truth behind the smears:

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Marvin Bionat is the creator of PhilippineUpdate.com, a news and views site that has served as a virtual platform that promotes various advocacies, including the political empowerment of overseas Filipinos and accountability in government. He wrote the National Bookstore bestseller How to Win (or Lose) in Philippine Elections (Anvil Publishing, 1998) and is now based in the

U.S.

working as an editor.