CBCP Monitor
C1
Vol. 17 No. 25
December 9 - 30, 2013
The News Supplement of Couples for Christ
“Family, Live the Joy of Faith!”
CFC at the Pilgrimage of Families in the Year of Faith together with the other CFC delegates, awaiting the gates of St. Peter Square to open for the weekend event. It was really an awesome and inspiring experience to be one with the multitude of people from different races, different nationalities and culture sharing that great love for God and standing firmly on their conviction in the sacredness and importance of the gift of love, marriage, family, parents, grandparents and children. The Pope’s central message that day focused on three assurances:
By Cynthia Campos It was Thursday, October 24, 2013, 1:15pm when we arrived at the Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Rome. It was my second time to visit this beautiful city. The first one was during the Jubilee Year in 2000 where we were privileged to come so near to John Paul II who was Pope then. Going to the Vatican this time with my husband George, my eldest son, Patrick and my youngest daughter, Christen was really an unexpected blessing for our family. We, together with over 90 other Couples for Christ delegates from Italy, UK, Canada and the Philippines represented the CFC global community in this historic Pilgrimage of Families. At 9:30 am of October 25, Friday, George, my two children and I, together with Mannix and Aileen Ocampo, Joe and Mila Yamamoto appeared at the Dicasterate of the Laity where George, Mannix and Joe updated Canon Law Doctors of the ac-
tivities of Couples for Christ and presented the various programs of the community in relation to building the church of the home and building the church of the poor. Couples for Christ was assured of their continued support as well as its Pontifical Recognition. Our group then proceeded to the Dicasterate of Evangelization where we were blessed to meet His Eminence Fernando Filoni, J.C.D., PhD, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. He was delighted to be updated of CFC’s missionary work and appreciated the contribution of the global community in propagating the faith and sending missionaries to the different parts of the world. After the fruitful one-hour meeting, Cardinal Filoni gifted everyone with a Rosary with the Holy Father’s emblem on it. His Excellency, Cardinal Filoni was assigned as Papal Nuncio to the Philippines in 2006 for a year before he was recalled back to the Vatican. Finally, on the 26th, we lined up under the heat of the sun
1. Despite the struggles and hard work that goes into the defense of the family, and the seeming lack of love in the world, God gave all of us His word from Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, so that your joy will be complete.” Pope Francis added, “Take home this Word of Jesus, carry it in your hearts, share it with the family. It invites us to come to Jesus so that he may give this joy to us and to everyone.” 2. Pope Francis took the words from the matrimonial vows, “I promise to be true to you, in joy and in sadness, in sickness and in health; I will love you and honour you all the days of my life,” and honored both the engaged and married couples for taking a journey into the unknown together, for promising to stay together, and remain healthy to raise their children. The Holy Father also reiterated on the three essential words in marriage: please,
thank you and sorry. Pope Francis stated, “The life of a family is filled with beautiful moments: rest, meals together, walks in the park or the countryside, visits to grandparents or to a sick person… But if love is missing, joy is missing, nothing is fun. Jesus always gives us that love: he is its endless source. In the sacrament he gives us his word and he gives us the bread of life, so that our joy may be complete.” 3. Finally, Pope Francis pointed to the icon of the presentation of Jesus in the temple, a beautiful picture of three generations—Simeon and
Anna, Joseph and Mary, and Jesus in Simeon’s arms. He describes the elderly couple representing faith as memory, and proceeds to ask the congregation, “Do you listen to your grandparents? Do you open your hearts to the memories that your grandparents pass on?” The Pope urged the faithful to reflect on the role of grandparents in the family, exhorting that a people who does not listen to their grandparents is one that dies as they are considered the wisdom of a people. Pope Francis stresses, “Like the Holy Family of Nazareth, every family is part of the his-
tory of a people; it cannot exist without the generations who have gone before it.” All throughout the weekend, people were praying, singing and playing music. Everywhere, you can hear different languages being spoken. There were smiles and laughter in the people’s faces, nobody was complaining even if they were standing for a long time. There were presentations, dances, songs, testimonials and storytelling for the children. And before blessing the faithful, Pope Francis reminded everyone, “Remain ever close to Jesus and carry him to everyone by your witness.”
Top Photos: CFC leaders and their respective families at the Dicastery of the Laity; Bro George Campos (CFC Executive Director) and Bro Joe Yamamoto. Photos Below: Colorful balloons with messages for the Pope released by the delegates; Official delegates from Couples for Christ gather together as one family.
Msgr. Paul Tighe Exhorts Netizens: ‘Communicate the Word!’ shy away from it, this will leave social media open to malicious content.” He adds, “We can only be effective communicators if we are soaked in the Word. Who is the Word? Jesus Christ. We do not only share the Word, but we invite people to get into a relationship with God.” Below is an overview of Msgr. Tighe’s keynote address during the CSMS:
By Alma Alvarez “The language of digital social communications is conversational, interactive and dialogical. If our communication is to touch people’s hearts and minds, we must be able to listen to them and engage seriously with their questions.” This is how Msgr. Paul Tighe, Secretary for the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Vatican, addressed the participants of the Catholic Social Media Summit v2.0 at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran, Manila last November 23, 2014. Msgr. Tighe, who manages the Pope’s twitter handle @Pontifex, flew in last November 19 to deliver the keynote address in the said event. Msgr. Tighe acknowledges the power of social communication in the modern times. “Social media can be a nasty place. This can make good people shy away from it. But if we who are responsible social media practitioners
By Alma Alvarez
Sharing the Word: The Church in a Digital World Communications is at the centre of the life of the Church. As a community called together by Christ, our mission is to share the Good News of God’s love for all people with those we meet on the pilgrimage of life. The fullness of God’s love is revealed in the person of Jesus, the Word made flesh. Jesus communicated in word and deed; the Church is called to proclaim and to witness to the continuing presence of Jesus among us. The Church has always sought to use media to communicate. Currently, we are living through a radical transformation of the media and the Church is focussed on understanding the ‘newness’ of the culture of digital communications in order to be communicate effectively. If we are to share the Good News with our brothers and sisters in the ‘digital continent’, we must speak a ‘language’ they can understand and be present as authentic witnesses to our faith. The’ language’ of digital and social communications is conversational, interactive and dialogical. If our communication is to touch people’s hearts and minds; we must be able to listen to them and engage seriously with their questions. As a Church, we are more used to preaching, to teaching and to issuing statements. These are important activities but the most effective forms of digital discourse are those that engage people individually, that seek to respond to their specific questions and that attempt to dialogue. It is a basic truth of communications that our witness – our actions and our patterns of behaviour – is often more eloquent than our words and proclamations in expressing who we are and what we believe. In the digital arena, a particularly significant way of offer-
ing such witness will be through a willingness to give oneself to others by patiently and respectfully engaging their questions and their doubts as they advance in their search for the truth and the meaning of human existence (Pope Benedict XVI, Message for World Communications Day 2013). It is therefore important to know how to dialogue and, with discernment, to use modern technologies and social networks in such a way as to reveal a presence that listens, converses and encourages. Allow yourselves, without fear, to be this presence, expressing your Christian identity as you become citizens of this environment (Pope Francis, 21 September 2013). If we look carefully at the activities that drive social media, we see that people are seeking human friendship, searching for information and sharing their knowledge. These activities manifest the basic and persisting human
needs for love, meaning and purpose. We must ask ourselves: are we up to the task of bringing Christ into this area, or better still, of bringing others to meet Christ? Can we walk alongside the pilgrim of today’s world as Jesus walked with those companions to Emmaus, warming their hearts on the way and bringing them to an encounter with the Lord? (Pope Francis, ibid). Even as we acknowledge the challenges to effective communication, we should remember that ultimately it is not our work but the grace of God that will change hearts. It is necessary to be absolutely clear that the God in whom we believe, who loves all men and women intensely, wants to reveal himself through the means at our disposal, however poor they are, because it is he who is at work, he who transforms and saves us (Pope Francis, ibid).
Photos (clockwise from left): Msgr. Paul Tighe, Secretary for the Pontifical Council for Social Communications; Msgr. Pedro Quitorio, III, Director, CBCP Media Office; Archbishop Guiseppe Pinto, Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines; and Msgr. Paul Tighe; Msgr. Paul Tighe at the mini Press Conference held on day 1 of the Catholic Social Media Summit.