Church has to be an agent of social change, says CBCP head

http://www.cbcpnews.com/?q=node/1862

MANILA, April 9, 2008—The Philippine Church needs to become an instrument of social transformation and evangelization, said Jaro Archbishop Angel N. Lagdameo, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

Social change is a component and consequence of the work of evangelization, without the former, the latter is incomplete. “If our struggle to build the Kingdom of God and our striving is to authentically follow the Jesus of the Gospel, then it must be a journey towards social transformation, towards truth and justice, love and peace, a journey towards the fullness of life,” he said. (Photo: Bishop Lagdameo, http://www.fabc.org/img/ArchLagdameo.jpg )

“If the Philippine Church is to become a community of communities of the disciple of Jesus, an embodiment of solidarity and communities of compassion, it must have interdependence as a moral category and solidarity as a moral and social virtue. Underlying the call to lay evangelization and social transformation is the call to interpersonal leadership,” the archbishop said today.

Lagdameo was speaking at the graduation ceremony of the Southeast Asia Interdisciplinary Development Institute (SAIDI), held at the Manila Hotel.
In order to achieve interpersonal leadership, both individual and group must move out of the paradigm of dependence into the paradigm of independence and interdependence, the CBCP head stressed.
ocial responsibility for development is not an individual duty and isolated effort at the expense of others, and then development becomes exaggerated and misdirected. What is called for is the collaboration in social development involving all, the prelate said.
“Working for social transformation means recognizing the truth that we are created for interdependence, fellowship, dialogue, collaboration, creative cooperation and community of families,” he said.

Interdependence and interpersonal leadership is behind the approach of Jesus in sending the 12 apostles and 72 disciples two by two. Marked by a common vision and common mission, they could combine their talents and abilities and create something greater together, 67-year old Lagdameo said.
Interdependence is a methodology—“the team approach to evangelizing”—that demands the emergence of a new type of leadership that will animate, facilitate and coordinate team efforts, activate charisms and maximize participation, he said.
The prelate explained that interdependence leadership is a partnership, which shifts the interaction from vertical to horizontal and being partners in results as well as in operation.
“’Communities of disciples’ is the antidote to our ‘chronic, almost compulsive, dividedness,’ group loyalties, obsessions and jealousies, and destructive fragmentedness,” Lagdameo said.
Establishing “community of disciples” and “communion of communities” may appear almost an impossible task. However, with God’s grace, everything is possible, he said.
The spirituality of social change demands a properly formed social conscience, the lack of which in many Filipinos is a major tragedy, the prelate added.
“Through interdependent and interpersonal leadership we will achieve the social transformation that renewed evangelization envisions to achieve, a leadership that in our present critical situation demands transparency, accountability, commitment to truth and justice, the sum total of which is credibility,” the CBCP head said. (Santosh Digal)

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Sa aming film showing na “BRINGING DOWN A DICTATOR,” kagabi, isang pelikulang nakapatungkol sa people power at kung paano naibagsak ng mga mamamayan ang diktadurang Slobodam Milosevic ng Serbia, ang dating Yugoslavia sa Europe. Matapos ang palabas ng pelikula, naging mainit ang talakayan at diskurso. Kung saan-saan umabot ang usapan, mula sa konteksto at pagkukumpara ng Serbia sa kaso ng Pilipinas, mula sa arena of struggle, debate sa “non violent at electoral politics,” uri't sistema ng lipunan hanggang sa class struggle. Sa dinami-dami ng kwento, ang sabi ko na lang, hanggang “political at electoral reform” ang kaya kong maibabhagi.

Patungkol sa artikulo sa itaas, kung ating aanalisahin ang pahayag ni Bishop Lagdameo, kung ano man ang interpretation at kahulugan, kung ano man ang ibig sabihin ng social change, ang mahalaga at ang punto, "naniniwala si Lagdameo ng social change" at malamang, bilang sa daliri ang may ganitong pananaw sa hanay ng simbahan.

Para sa akin, sa maiksing pagdidiskurso, "isang klase ba ito ng lipunang kung saan ang demokrasya ay monopolyo, tinatamasa lamang at kontrolado ng mga makapangyarihan at mayayaman? Na ang demokrasya ay para lamang sa OLIGARKIYA at sa malalaking mga pampulitikang ANGKAN, na ang SISTEMANG PADRINO ang siyang kalakaran at siyang nakapangyayari, na ang nagdudumilat na katotohanang walang tunay na demokratikong representasyon ang maliliit at ang mamamayan? Na ang buluk na pulitika ang siyang lumalabas na pangunahing industriya sa Plipinas, na siyang dahilan kung bakit lugmuk at nagkakaganito ang ating bayan, na ang ganitong buluk na sistema ang siyang canal na pinagbubuhatan at sanhi ng (lamok) ng political uncertainty, pangungurakot, katiwalian, inhustiya, karalitaan, na siya namang tinatapatan ng rebelyon, kudeta at insureksyon."

Walang kaduda-dudang isa lamang moro-moro ang election sa Pilipinas. Ang pampulitikang makinarya ng TRAPO ang siyang mapagpasya't nakapangyayari sa mga election. Ang tinatawag na "democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people" ay isa na lamang guni-guni, bangungut at haka-haka. -Doy

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