The Philippine Catholic Church is urging the people to be merciful amid the social and moral issues in society on the Fourth World Apostolic Congress on Mercy (Wacom).
Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, who opened the international congress on Monday, encouraged delegates to continue sharing Jesus to the world and become disciples of God’s mercy.
“So many people today experience pain with violence, vices and human trafficking that lets mothers cry at night with the loss of their children. That is why whenever a mother cries, it is the hour of Jesus; the hour of mercy. Therefore, it is important to become signs of God’s mercy, this is only possible with remembering and keeping God’s acts of mercy, ‘for it is not our work, but the work of Jesus,’” Cardinal Tagle said in his homily at the Manila Cathedral on the first day of Wacom 4 on January 16. Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Cardinal Quevedo also expressed the importance and urgency of building communion with God and with one another.
“In this social, moral, religious context, it is especially now that the Holy Spirit is urgently calling the whole Church to be a communion in the Lord Jesus. We have to build communion with one another. We are to reach out to our neighbors, to our parishes and communities, to the wider society and in love and mercy, reconcile broken relationships, bring peace to families and communities broken by crimes and drugs, hostility and faction, biases and hatred,” Cardinal Quevedo said on his talk on the second day of Wacom at the University of Santo Tomas.
On that same day, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas posed a challenge to Catholics not to be afraid to be merciful.
“We need mercy, and yet we are afraid to show mercy. Instead of mercy, there is terror. Instead of mercy, there is anger. Instead of mercy, there is death penalty. Instead of mercy, there is revenge,” Villegas said in his homily.
Meanwhile, Novaliches Bishop Emeritus Teodoro Bacani encouraged the faithful to proclaim life and reject the merciless ways in dealing with the most miserable in his talk on the third day of the international event at the National Shrine of Padre Pio in Santo Tomas, Batangas.
“Even as we proclaim the mercy of God, let us with boldness also uphold the rights of human beings, even of the most miserable. As we proclaim life, let us boldly reject unmerciful ways, merciless ways of dealing with the most miserable, including our drug addicts,” Bacani said.
On his part, Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles made an appeal to every community and individual to become merciful to others, as they are also recipients of mercy.
“Every community and every individual therein, ordained or lay can and must be witnesses and bearers of mercy after and while remaining incessantly recipients of mercy,”
Arguelles said.
Wacom 4 will conclude today, January 20, at the Diocese of Balanga, Bataan, with a mission sending ceremony by the sea, where all the delegates will gather to receive the mandate to spread and proclaim the unfathomable mercy of God.
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1 comment
Show mercy, my @SS, TAGLE DAMASO.
Bring out your Billions to help the Poor, as Jesus Christ would do. Share your vast landholdings.
Otherwise it’s just all HOT AIR, as usual.