Php 70.00 Vol. 45 No. 5 • MAY 2011 - IMPACT Magazine Online!

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NEWS
FEATURES
Call made for John Paul II to be
patron saint of youth
VATICAN, April 30, 2011―Pope John
Paul II should be declared a “patron
saint of youth.” That’s the opinion of
none other than the former Prefect of the
Congregation for the Causes of Saints,
Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins.
“I personally think that John Paul II
should be made patron saint of youth,”
Cardinal Martins told a gathering a
Rome’s Santa Croce University on April
30. He even mapped out how that could
be achieved.
“Some saints are patrons. If somebody
wants to make a proposal to nominate
somebody as a patron saint, though,
then they must submit comprehensive
documentation on their reasons and
motivations.”
It’s easy to understand Cardinal
Martins thinking. Over the 27 years
of his papacy, Pope John Paul II had a
particular rapport with young people.
So much so that he was known to many
as “the Pope of Youth.”
In 1984 he initiated a now-famous
event, World Youth Day, to enable him
to meet young people from around the
www.saintjohnchurchmiddletown.com
globe every three years.
The initiative proved to be such
a success that the 1995 event in the
capital city of the Philippines, Manila,
brought over five million young
pilgrims together with the Pope. It’s
still estimated as the largest communal
gathering in history.
His challenge to the young people
on that occasion was typical of his
pontificate. “Are you capable of giving
yourselves, your time, your energy and
your talent to the well-being of others?
Are you capable of love? If you are, the
Church and society can expect great
things of each one of you.”
There is already a patron saint of
youth, the 16th century Portuguese
Jesuit St. Aloysius Gonzaga. It is not
unheard of, though, for there to be more
than one patron saint of a particular
cause.
Any proposal to make Pope John
Paul II a fellow patron saint of youth
would have to go before the Vatican
body responsible, the Congregation for
Divine Worship. (CNA/EWTN News)
Priest walks, runs preaching
message of life, peace
MANILA, May 2, 2011―A
Redemptorist priest on a pilgrimage
across the country
preaching the Gospel of Life
and Peace has now covered
more than thousand kilometers
on his journey, walking and
running, a month after he began
in Davao City.
Fr. Amado Picardal has
reached Lopez, Quezon on May
1 after logging some 1,207 kms
in a walk-run pilgrimage across
the Philippines.
The priest who keeps a
regular update of his journey
on his blogsite http://amadopicardal.blogspot.com/
is already
halfway through his two-month
pilgrimage which will end on
May 28 in Aparri, Cagayan.
Picardal said he is doing
the pilgrimage to preach
the message of life and peace
amid the culture of death that
is threatening society.
“There are many manifestations
of this culture of death
- abortion, contraception, war,
environmental destruction, poverty,
capital punishment, etc. We
therefore need to proclaim and
promote the value and sanctity
of life as we struggle against the
culture of death,” he said.
The priest said his pro-life
advocacy involves not just
against RH bill but also mining,
extrajudicial killings and support
of the peace process.
“To be pro-life it is not
enough to be against the RH
bill, we have to be against
war and the destruction of the
environment and to work for
peace, justice and the integrity
of creation,” he said.
Picardal also paid homage
to Pope John Paul II, who was
beatified on May 1 in solemn
ceremonies at the Vatican, saying
that “the message of life and
peace that I proclaim during
this pilgrimage is based on his
encyclical Evangelium Vitae
(the Gospel of Life).”
Although Picardal has run
and biked across the country in
the past, this is the first time he
is doing his walk-run pilgrimage
on his own.
He averages some 40 kms
a day in distance sometimes
walking leisurely, other times
running.
As he passed town after
town, people sometimes
recognized him and offered
him food and other forms of
hospitality.
The local media have also
Picardal, page 25
www.amadopicardal.blogspot.com
MANILA, May 1, 2011—Government
agencies should provide income
generating activities for poor parents
to keep their children off the streets,
a Church official said.
Fr. Edwin Gariguez, executive
director of the CBCP-Episcopal
Commission on Social Action, Justice
and Peace said various entities
should appropriately respond to
the problem of child labor through
income-generating activities for children’s
parents in order to support
their brood.
He said the presence of street
children in every locality is a challenge
to both the local government
unit and the parish church.
Gariguez said street children
along with minors working in various
livelihood activities need to enjoy child’s
play and enough time for studies.
“One need not pass ordinances
to act and respond to these realities
because it simply needs concern and
reasonable resources,” Fr. Gariguez told
CBCPNews.
As the country’s wage-earners
hope to hear some “good news” from
the government on Sunday, May 1
known as International Labor Day, the
Catholic church through its various
ministries will address concerns about
child labor.
The Philippine country office of the
International Labor Organization (ILO)
has recently presented a research titled
“Towards a Child Labour-Free Philippines,”
underscoring the existence of
child labor in Bukidnon, Northern Samar,
Govt agencies urged to act on child labor issue
© Roy Lagarde / CBCP Media
Quezon and Masbate provinces.
ILO’s Giovanni Soledad quoted last
year’s Labor Force Survey disclosing
the presence of some 2.4 million child
workers in the country.
A more detailed survey will be made
this year through the auspices of the
National Statistics Office.
Malaybalay Bishop Jose Araneta
Cabantan admitted that a good number
of children usually accompany their
parents every harvest time, whether in
sugar or corn lands.
Bukidnon, a landlocked province
in Southern Philippines hosts sugar and
corn plantations.
Cabantan, a licensed chemical engineer
before he entered priesthood, said
whenever there are working children,
poverty exists.
“In my talks with Catholic school
officials, they said parents would
usually request for their children’s
presence during harvest seasons to
augment their income,” the 53-year
old prelate said. About 47% of those
surveyed (1,632) said they are no
longer in school.
Meanwhile, Msgr. Melecio V.
Verastigue, Diocese of Lucena’s Social
Action Center director said child
labor occurs in areas where people
are poor.
The International Labor Organization
reported the existence of
some 1,453 child labourers in Quezon
Province, specifically Lucena City,
Calauag and Catanauan towns. Some
24% are into informal sales, 18% into
Child Labor, page 25
12 IMPACT • May 2011
Volume 45 • Number 5 13