The Hermeneutic of Continuity

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III assumed office on June 30 and the Philippine Bishops have wasted no time in calling on him not to promote a contraceptive mentality. In a previous post , I gave some of the figures from the UNAIDS report showing the enormous difference between the Philippines and Thailand, in numbers of people living with HIV. It is not surprising that the Philippine Bishops should be concerned to avoid the same disastrous policy in their country. Speaking on behalf of his brother bishops, Bishop Nereo Odchimar of Tandag, the president of the bishops’ conference, said: Among the many concerns, the media has shown a particular concern on sex education and reproductive health bills. There are no changes in the stand of the Church. Human life starts at conception, and conception takes place at the fertilization of the egg by the sperm. Human life is a gift of God and has to be respected and protected from conception till natural death. The Church is always conc...

Archbishop Socrates Villegas was ordained priest in 1985 by the great Filipino Cardinal Jaime Sin whom I had the privilege to meet whilst studying in Rome. He was consecrated as an auxiliary Bishop in Manila in 2001 at the age of 40. Last year he was appointed as Archbishop of the diocese of Lingayen-Dagupan. On 31 December he wrote a pastoral letter to his priests on the celebration of Mass, entitled " That our sacrifice may be pleasing to God ." The Archbishop encourages his priests to celebrate Mass reverently, to keep the altar linens clean and distinct from each other, and to eschew secular love songs in the Mass. Fr Seán Coyle, a Dubliner from the Missionary Society of St Columban, works in the Philippines and has added his own comments on the letter in a post on his blog Bangor to Bobbio. Many thanks to him for drawing my attention to Archbishop Villegas' letter. The Archbishop was at the heart of the ESDA non-violent revolution which toppled Marcos, has fought fo...

Fr Sean Cole of Bangor to Bobbio sends the disturbing news that Columban Father Michael Sinnott was on Sunday evening from the Columban house in Pagadian City by six armed men while he was walking in the garden. Fr Sinnott will be 80 in December, had a heart bypass four years ago, and has regular medication. Please say a prayer for his safe return to the community in the Philippines where he has served local people for decades. For further information, see Fr Sean's posts: Columban priest abducted in Pagadian City, Philippines Update on kidnapped Fr Michael Sinnott

Bishop Jesse Mercado of the diocese of Parañaque in the Philippines has actively encouraged the celebration of Mass according to the usus antiquior at the National Shrine of St. Therese of the Child Jesus where there is a Missa Cantata every Sunday at 9.30am. There are several other locations in the Philippines where the Classical Roman rite is celebrated. The photo above is from Christmas Day Mass at the parish of Jesus, Lord of the Divine Mercy, in the Diocese of Novaliches. See Fr Seán Coyle's post at the "Bangor to Bobbio" blog: Philippine 'Diocese brings back Latin Mass' for more details. In Sweden also, the usus antiquior is thriving, particularly among the native Swedish Catholics. See the post on Rorate Caeli: “Jag skall träda fram till Guds altare” (Swedish for Introibo ad altare Dei )

While doing a bit of fact-checking at the website of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), I saw that several of the Bishops have their own blogs. Customarily, the mainstream media would make this a "bearded lady" story, and volunteer some weedy jokes; but it seems only common sense for Bishops to use this means of communication. The Philipino Bishops have been able to put out statements on a great variety of subjects including pro-life matters, liturgy, clerical discipline, and matters of social justice in their country. Some of them state that they are maintained by the Media Office of the CBCP. This makes a lot of sense. Here is a selection: Bishop Oscar V Cruz - Viewpoints . See especially the blunt article on "reproductive health" Just Asking . Archbishop Orlando B. Quevedo writes Perspectives Archbishop Angel Lagdameo writes In Season and Out of Season - see his cracking sermon on Humanae Vitae , Celebration Of Family and Life Bisho...

There are lots of great photos from the Philippines over at the Pro Deo et Patria blog. The above shows the bishop-emeritus of Catarman, His Excellency Bishop Angel Hobayan, celebrating a Pontifical Mass in the old rite earlier this year at the Diocesan Shrine of St Therese of the Child Jesus of the Military Ordinariate of the Philippines, Villamor, Pasay City. Fr Elijah Pantorilla OFM Conv assisted as chaplain. Here is the arrangement for the altar at the parish of the Lord of the Divine Mercy when the ordinary form is celebrated versus populum . No mistaking who is at the centre of attention there! (Incidentally, I quite like the look of BubbleShare which Gerald uses a lot on his blog. Bubbleshare claims to be more straightforward than other popular photo sharing services. The "marquee" type scrolling collections look very useful. Does anyone else use this service?)