You plan to move to the Philippines? Wollen Sie auf den Philippinen leben?

There are REALLY TONS of websites telling us how, why, maybe why not and when you'll be able to move to the Philippines. I only love to tell and explain some things "between the lines". Enjoy reading, be informed, have fun and be entertained too!

Ja, es gibt tonnenweise Webseiten, die Ihnen sagen wie, warum, vielleicht warum nicht und wann Sie am besten auf die Philippinen auswandern könnten. Ich möchte Ihnen in Zukunft "zwischen den Zeilen" einige zusätzlichen Dinge berichten und erzählen. Viel Spass beim Lesen und Gute Unterhaltung!


Visitors of germanexpatinthephilippines/Besucher dieser Webseite.Ich liebe meine Flaggensammlung!

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Showing posts with label Pope Francis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pope Francis. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Tagle, pope's special envoy for bishops' meet in Bangkok


By Franco Jose C. Baroña



POPE Francis has appointed Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle as his special envoy for the upcoming and biggest gathering of Asian bishops in Thailand's capital city of Bangkok.


Tagle, the pro-prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, will preside over the closing Mass of the 50th general conference of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC) on October 30 at the Assumption Cathedral, the principal Roman Catholic church of Thailand at the Bang Rak District of Bangkok.


The Asian bishops' meeting will begin on October 12 and will be held at the Baan Phu Waan Pastoral Center of the Archdiocese of Bangkok.


More than 140 bishops from Asia are expected to attend the conference.

This year's conference theme is "FABC 50: Journeying together as peoples of Asia...and they went a different way." (Mt 2:12).


The assembly also marks the belated 50th anniversary celebration of FABC, which was established in 1970 with the approval of the Holy See.


The FABC Secretariat said the 19-day conference will "reflect on the re-emerging and emerging realities and challenges of the Church in Asia."


Before being appointed to the Dicastery for Evangelization, Cardinal Tagle headed the FABC's Office of Theological Concerns while he was still the Archbishop of Manila.


The FABC is an association of Catholic episcopal conferences in Asia to foster solidarity and joint responsibility for the welfare of the Church and society in the region.


The association's leadership is currently led by Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Yangon as president, with Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo as vice president, and Archbishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo as secretary general.


The FABC earlier called on Catholics to pray for the association so it will continue to be steadfast in its mission.


This charge was given by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in a circular sent to dioceses last week.


'Tagle could be next Pope'

Originally written in English, the "Prayer for FABC 50" was translated in four Philippine languages: Tagalog, Waray, Hiligaynon, and Cebuano.


The FABC asked its member episcopal conferences that the prayer be prayed in all churches until October 30 for the success of its general conference.


In his message for the occasion, Pope Francis expressed hope that FABC will "renew the Churches in Asia in fraternal communion and in missionary zeal for the spread of the Gospel among the richly diverse peoples, cultures and social realities of the vast Asian continent."

Thursday, June 30, 2022

Pope Francis sends good wishes to BBM

By Franco Jose C. Baroña, Manila Times

POPE Francis extended his congratulations to Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. for his upcoming inauguration as the 17th President of the Philippines.

"I send my congratulations and cordial wishes to your excellency as you begin your mandate as the president of the republic," Pope Francis said in his message shared by the Papal Nuncio to the Philippines, Archbishop Charles Brown.

The pope said he is praying for Marcos as he takes over the mantle of leadership of more than 100 million Filipinos.

"In assuring you of my prayers that you will be sustained in wisdom and strength, I invoke the Almighty God's blessings of peace and prosperity upon the nation," the pope added.

Marcos will be formally sworn in as president on June 30 after being elected by the majority of Filipinos in the May 2022 elections.

His inauguration will be held at the National Museum of the Philippines at 12 p.m. He will be sworn in by Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo.

Archbishop Brown earlier revealed the positive conversation he had with Marcos when he made a courtesy call on June 10. Their discussion centered on strengthening the relationship between the church and government.

The Vatican representative in the Philippines said Marcos expressed his willingness to cooperate with the church.

"We had a very productive, encouraging and positive discussion. The president-elect has assured me of his desire to collaborate and cooperate closely with the church and the Holy See," Archbishop Brown added.


Pope Francis conveys 'solidarity' with 'Agaton' victims

The Catholic Church in the Philippines already assured continued engagement with the incoming government for the benefit of Filipinos.

According to Caritas Philippines national director, Kidapawan Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo, they will work with the new administration on programs that will address the rights and dignity of the people as well as promote truth and honest governance.

Saturday, April 16, 2022

Pope Francis prays for victims of 'Agaton'


by Analou de Vera, Manila Bulletin


Pope Francis has conveyed his solidarity with the victims of tropical cyclone Agaton (international name: Megi) which has affected several areas in Visayas and Mindanao.


The Pope has been “informed of the recent loss of life and destruction” as a result of the onslaught of the said cyclone, said Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin in a telegram on April 14.


“His Holiness Pope Francis wishes to express his solidarity with all those suffering in the wake of the storm,” said Parolin in the telegram addressed to Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines Archbishop Charles Brown.


Pope Francis also offered prayers for the victims of Agaton.


“He (Pope) also offers the assurance of prayers for the dead, injured, and displaced as well as those engaged in recovery efforts,” said Parolin.


“As a sign of his spiritual closeness, His Holiness willingly invokes upon all the Filipino people God’s blessings of strength and peace,” he added.

Monday, March 15, 2021

Pope Francis thanks Filipinos for the joy ...

 

... they bring to the world, Christian communities; says Filipino women in Rome are ‘smugglers’ of faith


by Leslie Ann Aquino

Manila Bulletin




Pope Francis thanked Sunday, March 14, the Filipino people for the joy they bring to the whole world and Christian communities.

Pope Francis listens to Philippine Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle (not in picture) during a mass to mark 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines, on March 14, 2021 at St. Peter’s Basilica in The Vatican. (Photo by Tiziana FABI / POOL / AFP)

“Dear brothers and sisters, five hundred years have passed since the Christian message first arrived in the Philippines. You received the joy of the Gospel: the good news that God so loved us that he gave his Son for us. And this joy is evident in your people. We see it in your eyes, on your faces, in your songs and in your prayers. In the joy with which you bring your faith to other lands,”he said in a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome in celebration of the 500 years of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines.

“I have often said that here in Rome, Filipino women are ‘smugglers’ of faith! Because wherever they go to work, they sow the faith. It is part of your genes, a blessed ‘infectiousness’ that I urge you to preserve,” added the Pope.

“I want to thank you, then, for the joy you bring to the whole world and to our Christian communities,” he said.

In his homily, the Pope also urged Filipinos to persevere in the work of evangelization and to keep bringing the faith, the good news they have received 500 years ago, to others.

“On this very important anniversary for God’s holy people in the Philippines, I also want to urge you to persevere in the work of evangelization – not proselytism, which is something else,” he said.

“The Christian proclamation that you have received needs constantly to be brought to others. The Gospel message of God’s closeness cries out to be expressed in love for our brothers and sisters,” added the Pope.

“I know that this is the pastoral program of your Church: a missionary commitment that involves everyone and reaches everyone. Never be discouraged as you walk this path. Never be afraid to proclaim the Gospel, to serve and to love,” he said.

The Mass started with a procession of an image of the Sto. Niño (child Jesus) and a replica of the Magellan’s cross.

The pontiff was joined by Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, and Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, the pope’s vicar of Rome.

In the Philippines, most dioceses will launch the year-long commemoration on April 4, Easter Sunday.


In 2019, Pope Francis also led the Philippine traditional “Simbang Gabi” Mass with the Filipino community in Rome and acknowledged the role of overseas Filipino workers in the growth of Catholic Church throughout the world.

In his message after the Mass, the Pope called on Filipinos, especially those who are living abroad, to “continue to be smugglers of the faith”.

When he visited Manila in 2015, he also described how the Philippines is gifted “for it is the foremost Catholic country in Asia”.

“This is itself a special gift of God, a special blessing,” the pope said in his homily during Mass at the Luneta Park. “But it is also a vocation. Filipinos are called to be outstanding missionaries of the faith in Asia.”

Italy hosts the largest population of OFWs in Western Europe.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Duterte's Anger and Frustration Directed at Government Failures but NOT at the Pope

Office of the Senate Majority Leader
Alan Peter S. Cayetano
Rm. 603 GSIS Complex Senate of the Philippines Roxas Blvd Pasay City
         

PRESS RELEASE
01 December 2015


Duterte's anger and frustration directed at government failures not at Pope Francis – Cayetano


"Pope Francis is a man of God. He is loved and respected by millions of people, from different religious affiliations worldwide, Mayor Duterte included. But even Pope Francis would never allow people to suffer at his expense."

This is what Senator Alan Peter Cayetano said in response to attacks against Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte over his statements at the PDP-Laban proclamation yesterday.

"Traffic ang minura ni Mayor Duterte hindi si Pope Francis. He was not directing his anger and frustration at the Pope, he was expressing the people's frustration over the government's incompetence in handling the metro's worsening traffic situation and the daily suffering and inconvenience it causes," Cayetano said.

"It is unfortunate that the Mayor's statements were grossly taken out of context. Mayor Duterte deeply respects religious beliefs and the Filipino's spirituality. Those who know him can attest to this. He himself has a deep relationship with God. He doesn't talk about it publicly but I know this personally having discovered this through my constant engagement with him," Cayetano added.

Cayetano said he understands Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) President Archbishop Soc Villegas statement on Duterte's alleged remarks against the Pope.

"Mayor Duterte's environment and experience brought him up speaking tough, rough and uncensored. The Mayor came from a time and place of great conflict and suffering. While the Mayor's words and statements were stronger than what is deemed socially accepted by some, and may rub some in the wrong way, the most important thing is, he is authentic and his heart is in the right place. He is who he is. He will always fight for the people and never allow them to suffer," Cayetano said.

Cayetano reminded the public that the national debate should focus on how to change the country for the better. "We are here to change the country, not to change him."

In an interview, Duterte said he was merely expressing the people's outrage. He said it was never his intention to hurt sensibilities or disrespect the Holy Father. He said his anger is directed at the government and the 18 years of systemic neglect that has resulted in the suffering of the people.

Cayetano also questioned the sincerity of Press Secretary Edwin Lacierda in defending of the Pope. The senator said Lacierda himself justified the whitewashing of the hiding of the poor during the Pope's visit in the country. He also said the government's lack of action in defending the public from problems like the tanim bala scam and the pilferage/taxing on balikbayan boxes is a great disservice to the people.

"Sec. Lacierda obviously wanted to anger the people by using Pope Francis to score propaganda points. Pero ang tanong ko, tingin ba ni Sec. Lacierda ay sang-ayon ang taumbayan noong tinago nila ang mga pulubi at mga palaboy noong bumisita ang Papa? Tingin ba niya na pabor ang tao na bumiyahe at maipit ng 5 oras sa traffic noong nandito ang Papa kung pwede naman pala pag handaan para maiwasan ito?" Cayetano asked.

"Before Sec. Lacierda points an accusing finger at Mayor Duterte maybe he should look at his own backyard and see how the government's flawed policies and inaction have greatly disadvantaged the people,"Cayetano concluded.###

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Pope Francis in Tacloban

TACLOBAN, Philippines — Pope Francis arrived in the typhoon-hit Philippine city of Tacloban on Saturday, where he was met by a huge crowd drenched from waiting for hours in the rain.
The pope will celebrate a Mass in an open field near the airport, and have lunch with survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, the November 2013 storm that leveled entire villages and left more than 7,300 people dead or missing.
A police official estimated the crowd at 150,000 and said tens of thousands more are lined up outside. Wearing plastic raincoats, the festive crowd clapped in unison to blaring music welcoming the pope, cheering when they heard the pope's plane land.
RELATED: Get updates on Typhoon Mekkhala at Stars and Stripes' Pacific Storm Tracker blog
Villagers hung banners welcoming the pope from the bow of a steel-hulled cargo shop that smashed houses when it was swept in by Haiyan and remains on shore.
"Pope Francis cannot give us houses and jobs, but he can send our prayers to God," said Ernesto Hengzon, 62. "I'm praying for good health and for my children too. I am old and sickly. I'm praying that God will stop these big storms. We cannot take any more of it. We have barely recovered. Many people are still down there."
The rains were brought by approaching Typhoon Mekkhala, which has prompted authorities to suspend ferry services to Leyte province, where Tacloban is located, stranding thousands of travelers including some who wanted to see the pope.
Francis is on the second full-day of a three-day visit to the Philippines. He was in Sri Lanka earlier in the week.
He issued his strongest defense yet of church teaching opposing artificial contraception on Friday, using a rally in Asia's largest Catholic nation to urge families to be "sanctuaries of respect for life."
Francis also denounced the corruption that has plagued the Philippines for decades and urged officials to instead work to end its "scandalous" poverty and social inequalities during his first full day in Manila, where he received a rock star's welcome at every turn.
Security was tighter than it has ever been for this pope, who relishes plunging into crowds. Cellphone service around the city was intentionally jammed for a second day on orders of the National Telecommunications Commission and roadblocks along Francis' motorcade route snarled traffic for miles (kilometers).
Police vans followed his motorcade while officers formed human chains in front of barricades to hold back the tens of thousands of wildly cheering Filipinos who packed boulevards for hours just for a glimpse of his four-door Volkswagen passing by.
Police said another 86,000 gathered outside one of Manila's biggest sports arenas, capacity 20,000, where Francis held his first encounter with the Filipino masses: a meeting with families. There, he firmly upheld church teaching opposing artificial contraception and endeared himself to the crowd with off-the-cuff jokes and even a well-intentioned attempt at sign language.
Francis has largely shied away from emphasizing church teaching on hot-button issues, saying the previous two popes made the teaching well-known and that he wants to focus on making the church a place of welcome, not rules. But his comments were clearly a nod to the local church, which recently lost a significant fight when President Benigno Aquino III pushed through a reproductive health law that allows the government to provide artificial birth control to the poor.
"Be sanctuaries of respect for life, proclaiming the sacredness of every human life from conception to natural death," Francis exhorted the crowd. "What a gift this would be to society if every Christian family lived fully its noble vocation."
He then deviated from his prepared remarks to praise Pope Paul VI for having "courageously" resisted calls for an opening in church teaching on sexuality in the 1960s. Paul penned the 1968 encyclical "Humanae Vitae," which enshrined the church's opposition to artificial birth control.
Francis noted that Paul was aware that some families would find it difficult to uphold the teaching and "he asked confessors to be particularly compassionate and understandable for particular cases."
But he nevertheless said Paul was prescient in resisting the trends of the times.
"He looked beyond. He looked to the peoples of the Earth and saw the destruction of the family because of the lack of children," Francis said. "Paul VI was courageous. He was a good pastor. He warned his sheep about the wolves that were approaching, and from the heavens he blesses us today."
Francis also urged families to be on guard against what he called "ideological colonization," an apparent reference to gay marriage, which isn't legal in the Philippines. The church opposes gay marriage, holding that marriage is only between man and wife.
The government has declared national holidays during the pope's visit, which culminates Sunday with a Mass in Manila's huge Rizal Park, and the crowds responded by turning out in droves to welcome him. Authorities estimated that between 700,000 and 1 million people lined his motorcade route in from the airport Thursday night.
"It is the wish of every Filipino to see him, and if possible, to interact with him, talk to him," said Alberto Garcia, a 59-year-old electrician who was among a crowd of about 100 people who gathered in front of a giant screen mounted on a truck at a public square to watch Friday's Mass. "Because that is impossible, just by being here we can take part in his mission to visit and bring grace to this country."
Francis was clearly energized by the raucous welcome, stopping several times Friday to kiss children brought up to him once he entered the presidential palace grounds. His motorcade didn't stop along the route, though, for him to get out to and greet the crowd as he likes to do.
It remains to be seen if he will chafe at the intense security provided by authorities, who appeared to leave nothing to chance. They have good reason to go overboard after Pope Paul VI was slightly wounded in an assassination attempt during his visit in 1970 and St. John Paul II was the target of militants whose plot was uncovered days before his 1995 arrival.
About 50,000 police and troops have been deployed to secure the pope in a country where relatively small numbers of al-Qaida-inspired militants remain a threat in the south despite more than a decade of U.S.-backed military offensives.
Associated Press writers Oliver Teves and Teresa Cerojano in Manila contributed to this report.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Philippine Church "Right" despite Pope Francis Comments

 
Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma: Be involved. Photo from http://www.cbcponline.net/

Philippine Catholic leaders are standing firm against contraception, abortion and homosexual marriage despite Pope Francis’ comments urging a change of tone on those issues, the national Church said Tuesday. 
 
About 80 percent of the Philippines’ 100 million population are Catholics, making the country the bastion of the faith in Asia, and Church leaders insisted that its dogma would remain in place.

“He is not saying that what the Church deemed before as wrong is now right. He is merely telling us to be more compassionate,” Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines president Jose Palma said in reaction to the recent papal statement.
“He won’t be saying contraceptives, and even abortion, are now okay. No! Do not expect that to happen,” Archbishop Palma said in comments made Monday.
In an interview published last week, the Argentine pontiff urged a break with the Church’s harsh “obsession” with divorce, gays, contraception and abortion.
Philippine Church leaders have led a decade-long campaign against a birth control law that required the state to hand out free condoms and birth control pills, and provide post-abortion medical care.

The Supreme Court suspended the law in March so that judges could hear formal petitions from a range of Church-backed groups arguing that it was unconstitutional.
Archbishop Socrates Villegas, the vice president of the bishops’ group, said: “He (the pope) did not rebuff the strong opposition to contraception, abortion or homosexual marriage. He just set it on proper grounding.”

The transcripts of Palma’s and Villegas’ comments were made available by the bishops’ organisation to AFP on Tuesday.

Edcel Lagman, a former legislator who wrote the birth control law, told AFP the pope’s comments had put the Filipino Church leaders on the defensive, saying they belonged to its “ultra-conservative wing”.

“I think they will have to reconcile their doctrines and make themselves attuned to the liberal thinking of the new pope. There is no way to go but to follow the pope,” he said.

Lagman said the Filipino Church’s conservative activism was rooted in its key role converting locals to Christianity as part of the Asian islands’ 17th-century colonisation by Spain.

“The Church feels it should meddle in the affairs of the State,” he added.