Santhos Digal

Religious groups, government officials and NGOs met in Manila, Philippines on 7 July, to formulate new strategies to fight online child sexual exploitation, and appeal to the heads of state or government meeting in New Delhi in September.

The Church worldwide celebrates Sea Sunday on July 9. Sr. Victoria Sanchez, of the Sisters of Jesus the Good Shepherd, tells how through faith and prayer the Stella Maris Center helps keep sailors and those who are stranded for months with a loved one working on merchant and fishing boats. Out of 1.6 million sailors in the world as many as 400,000 are Filipinos.

Destroying marine ecosystems and damaging fisheries: the two seabed quarrying activities in Manila Bay have been going on undisturbed for two years. Opposition to these projects from local communities has mobilised around the petition of Bishop Reynaldo G. Evangelista

Sister Corazon J. Salazar, foundress of the Mary Queen of Heaven Missionaries (MQHM), heads the institute. Its 16 members travel to remote areas and rural villages to fight trafficking, rescue girls from prostitution, offer education, and help them find work. Extreme poverty favours exploitation.

The Arnold Janssen Kalinga Foundation helps hundreds of needy people in the capital city. Leading the work is the priest Fr. Flavie L. Villanueva, of the Society of the Divine Word. For many of those assisted, the programme has 'changed lives', opening hearts and minds and 'restoring lost dignity'.

Founded in 1998 by Fr Matthieu Dauchez from France, the NGO has been active in slums helping disadvantaged kids at risk of falling victim to drugs and violence. An estimated 830,000 children are in this situation in the Philippines. The first step is to reconnect with their families.

For the past 20 years, a community of apostolate of mostly French nuns has run a program for at-risk teens and young men who had a run-in with the law. Their stories illustrate how the program continues to provide a path to reintegrate society. Now some of them have become themselves “agents of change”.

Scalabrini Migration Center in Manila undertakes research on parents and children divided by migration in the Philippines and Indonesia. The goal is to offer material for reflection to the authorities, civil society groups and Church bodies pastorally involved in an area that affects millions of children.

From April 13 to 15, the Jesuit university hosted the International Conference on Youth Ministry. Among the goals was to "accompany" them on the "journey of maturation in faith and mission in modern society." The importance of planning and personalizing: for one Indian priest, it is "effective" when it becomes a response "to local needs."

FABC President Card Bo has challenged the removal of the programme director of the continental Catholic broadcaster by the Philippine Church body that runs the station. However, the real row is over moving its operations from the Philippines to Thailand to cut costs. In 2018 the station stopped broadcasting in more than 20 languages on shortwave in favour of the Internet. A committee of four bishops has been set up to find a solution.

Caritas leads a coalition of 62 groups. For Fr Gariguez, recognising the rights of nature means recognising and honouring the environmental rights of human beings. A survey found that 17 per cent of Filipinos have reported “severe” effects of climate change in the past three years.

For 13 years a lay Franciscan, together with some other young people and adults, has been goes around with a cart in the big city’s poorest areas to bring the light of faith. “When I was a child, I was like them, broken family, experienced being a drug addict, but God changed me through the help of a catechist," he said. They carry with them a Marian image that they have called Our Lady of the Peripheries.