Awesome 5 days of 'fine tuning,' renewal for RP priests

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Feature/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

Manila, Philippines--“I SHED TEARS of joy. It was a time of renewal,” said Fr. Rocero Barroga of Ilocos Sur, a priest for 28 years.

Salesian Fr. Francis Gustilo of the National Congress of the Clergy II (NCC II) program committee said of the experience: “It hit the core of our priesthood. It was a happy surprise, a common learning experience. We relearned and renewed. It will have a great impact."

For Fr. Jun Estoque, 36, of Negros Occidental, the encounter with so many priests was unforgettable.

It was an event that was unprecedented for its sheer magnitude and spirit. “Na-calibrate na tayo! (We have been fine-tuned),” participating priests shouted with glee when it was all over.

Uniformly clad in white chasubles and cream-colored stoles, 5,542 priests and bishops were an awesome sight as they ended their five-day NCC II with a huge concelebrated Mass, which many of them had never experienced.

For the final day, all the participating priests and bishops, in their white robes, walked the 1.2-kilometer stretch of Roxas Boulevard from the World Trade Center, the congress venue, to the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City, for the concelebrated Mass led by Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales and Archbishop Nereo Odchimar, the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

The 5,542 participating priests represented 60 percent of all priests, both diocesan and religious, nationwide. Those aged 35 to 55 were the biggest age group represented. A number of foreign priests also participated in the NCC II. There are about 8,000 foreign priests serving in the Philippines.

For five days from Jan. 25 to 29, the priests focused on moral, pastoral and spiritual concerns in a retreat-like gathering that was closed to outsiders. Media were allowed in only at the opening and closing. The program covered prayer and liturgy, conferences, group reflection, faith sharing and journal writing. Time was also provided for interaction with host-families.

Inspiration
The congress, with the theme “Faithfulness of Christ, Faithfulness of Priests,” is the highlight of the celebration of The Year of Priests of the Catholic Church in the Philippines. Pope Benedict XVI has declared the period June 2009 to June 2010 The Year of Priests in commemoration of the 150th death anniversary of their patron saint, St. John Mary Vianney.

The saint’s sacred relics, consisting of a stole and breviary, were flown in from France to provide inspiration for the assembly. (The relics will be taken to the St. John Mary Vianney Parish in Barangay Cembo, Makati, tomorrow.)

An Italian priest, Franciscan Capuchin Fr. Raniera Cantalamessa, who preaches to the papal household, was the congress’ main preacher.

Celibacy is a gift
 For his last address, Cantalamessa tackled the theme of priestly celibacy, an issue that has wracked the Church throughout the world. The first National Congress of the Clergy in 2004 was held amidst the furor over violations of the priestly vow.

“Man is not determined by nature alone,” Cantalamessa said. “We are determined by our vocation.” And celibacy is closes to the final vocation, which is union with Christ, he added.

“We don’t bring offspring into the world but ours is a fecund and fertile state of life. We enhance the quality of life. Celibacy gives us wings to fly, it should not be a burden. Celibacy is not just a counsel, it is a charism, a gift we have received,” he said.

It is not an act of renunciation for priests to feel proud about but something exercised with humility, freedom and joy, Cantalamessa reminded the priests.

He said priests have to “fast from images.” Citing the Internet and television as threats to celibacy, he said priests must see the world with the eyes of Jesus. "God created the eyes, but he also created the eyelids to cover them," he remarked, to much laughter.

Several bishops and lay people also addressed the congress.

Jeans and cell phones 

The participating priests were not much different in appearance and dress from their lay counterparts. Many wore jeans and T-shirts. A few took the trouble to dress and looked stylish in black shirts with Roman collars or in casual barong. Very few wore the long religious habit. Many were in sandals and running shoes and almost everyone lugged backpacks, shoulder bags, tote bags or shopping bags.

A few younger priests sported long hair and pony tails, but the majority had regular haircuts. Many were graying and balding. Younger priests assisted the aging ones. During breaks, they

engaged in that most common of Filipino activities—texting or talking on their cell phones.

At the WTC main lobby, they shopped for religious books or souvenirs like jackets, T-shirts and ball pens, or for pricey embroidered chasubles and altar vestments. They bargained for what they bought.

Asked to contribute to the victims of the Haiti earthquake, the priests dug into their pockets. The collection reached almost P2 million.

Like family celebration

 “This is like a family celebration,” said Jesuit theologian Fr. Catalino Arevalo. "There is nothing that can substitute for the experience of being together. Together the priests experienced their priesthood in a special way, and received grace in a special way. It was both a human and divine experience.” this was what made the event special, he added.

The bearded, brown-robed Cantalamessa was given a standing ovation at the end of his final talk. He was mobbed by many of the young priests who jostled one another to take his photo with their camera phones.

Arevalo described Cantalamessa, with whom he has worked at the International Theological Commission in Rome, as “brilliant with lots of human experience. He is a genuinely holy man.”

Said Fr. Roderick Salazar of the Society of the Divine Word: “Fr. Cantalamessa speaks from the heart. You know he has lived what he is talking about.”

Emotional experience 

For many, the closed-door penitential rite and confession during the retreat was an emotional experience.

For Fr. Paul Arnel, a Monfort missionary, the experience moved him to be more intimate with Christ and strengthened his fidelity.

Fr. Reni Punnapanal, an Indian Monfort missionary and trainer of young seminarians, was amazed by the big turnout.

For Lipa’s Fr. Hermogenes Quiambao, 44 years a priest, the experience “will make me love my parishioners more.”

Creatures of the Spirit

 “It had a deepening effect. Fr. Cantalamessa’s talk on celibacy made things clearer. Celibacy is not a deprivation. It is a call, a gift,” he said, adding that he will have a lot to share with the seminarians back home.

In his homily, Cardinal Rosales spoke of priests as “creatures of the Spirit.”

“Like cows, we have been branded. We have been claimed. Once anointed we belong completely to God. There is no transfer of ownership. We cannot lend ourselves to someone. Our fidelity should go beyond observance of law and duty,” he said.

He also touched briefly on the coming elections, asking “How do we help the Filipino to be sensitive to what is good?”

Bishop Florentino Lavarias, head of CBCP’s Commission on the Clergy, said Fr. Cantalamessa led the priests in focusing on the three important elements of the priesthood—the Eucharist, the importance of social reconciliation and celibacy, which he described as a special relationship with Jesus.

He said Cantalamessa also warned against “frenetic activism.”

Only in RP 

Cantalamessa was quite impressed by the turnout, overwhelmed by the sight of so many priests in one gathering, according to Henrietta de Villa, the country’s former ambassador to the Vatican who was overall coordinator of the preparations for the congress.

“It’s only in the Philippines can these things happen,” De Villa quoted Cantalamessa as saying.

“I’m not comparing since each place has its own grace. But the retreat called in France gathered only 1,500 priests and that was an international event. Ours was a national one, and even with some walk-in (foreign priests), we gathered 5,542,” De Villa told reporters.

The attendance was so large that the organizers ran out of information kits and had to order more. Many groups and individuals donated goods and services or gave huge discounts.

Many parishes, religious houses and private homes provided lodging for the priests from outside Metro Manila.

Asked at the end of the concelebrated Mass whether they would come for the NCC III, the priests shouted with a loud “Yes!” With a report from Dona Pazzibugan

When 5,000 priests gather

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Opinion/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
STARTING MONDAY AND UNTIL TOMORROW, Friday, some 5,000 Catholic priests, both diocesan and religious, from all over the Philippines are closeted at the World Trade Center (WTC) in Pasay City for the Second National Congress of the Clergy (NCC II). They are on a spiritual retreat.

Political candidates are not allowed in the venue. During last week’s press conference, Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales stated this plainly.

People who are into cosmic projection, energy tracking, mystical divinations and the like will no doubt consider this gathering as highly and divinely charged, from whatever spiritual tradition or angle in the universe you may look at it.

For me, it also conjures awesome cinematic images, like the one in James Cameron’s “Avatar” where the imperiled beings of the forest gather to pray and chant in unison and radiate pulsating energy and immense beauty. Call me and the comparison pagan if you like.
But these priests are just ordinary men, you might say, men with feet of clay.

Early in his papacy, Pope John Paul II explained his own priestly vocation thus: “I am often asked, especially by young people, why I became a priest… Let me try briefly to reply. I must begin by saying that it is impossible to explain entirely. For it remains a mystery, even to myself. How does one explain the ways of God? Yet, I know that, at a certain point in my life, I became convinced that Christ was saying to me what he had said to thousands before me: ‘Come, follow me!’ There was a clear sense that what I heard in my heart was no human voice, nor was it just an idea of my own. Christ was calling me to serve him as a priest.

“And you can probably tell that I am deeply grateful to God for my vocation to the priesthood. Nothing means more to me or gives me greater joy than to celebrate Mass each day and to serve God’s people in the Church. That has been true ever since the day of my ordination as a priest. Nothing has ever changed this, not even becoming Pope.”

Yes, at some point in our lives we experience an absolute certainty, sometimes painfully or with profound joy, that we must tread a certain path. That’s my take.

NCC II is an awesome gathering considering that the 5,000 priests in attendance comprise more than 60 percent of all the priests in the Philippines. (There are about 8,000 in all.) And this is just the second gathering of its kind (the first was in 2004 when 4,000 came).

NCC II was held amid reports of scandals and controversies that wracked the Church in the United States and Europe. But the Philippines also had its share then. I wrote a two-part special report on this based on the research findings of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of Women in the Philippines.

NCC II is a moving forward. It is taking place during the period June 2009 to June 2010 which Pope Benedict XVI declared as “The Year of Priests.” The theme of NCC II is “Faithfulness of Christ, Faithfulness of Priests.”

NCC II’s organizers said the retreat will tackle moral, pastoral and spiritual concerns and would be conducted retreat-style. The retreat-congress includes prayer and liturgy, conferences, group reflection, faith sharing and journal writing. There will also be a time for interaction with their host families.

Msgr. Gerardo Santos of the program committee says the basic objective of the congress is to provide the priests a deep and religious experience that will hopefully lead to a spiritual conversion and greater commitment. Former Ambassador to the Vatican Henrietta de Villa, one of the organizers, hopes the priests will fall in love with their vocation all over again.

The spirit of St. John Mary Vianney, popularly known as the Curé d’Ars and patron saint of priests, is being invoked in a special way. His stole and breviary were flown in from France to provide inspiration.

Franciscan Capuchin Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher to the papal household, has been the main speaker and facilitator these past days. I might be allowed in to listen to his last talk tomorrow.

A great add-on is the talk today on witnessing by a woman, Maria Voce of the Focolare Movement. She took over the leadership of the Focolare Movement after the death of founder Chiara Lubich in 2008. The charismatic Bishop Luis Antonio Tagle of the diocese of Imus is also a speaker today.

Tomorrow afternoon, the 5,000 priests plus bishops will go in procession from the WTC to the Cuneta Astrodome where the closing Mass will be celebrated. The public is welcome to accompany them. Visualize thousands of priests in procession and concelebrating. That would be an awesome thing to witness.

Even with all the graces that come with the vocation, it is not easy being a priest. I have written a good number of feature stories on individual priests, most of them killed in action. One was about a priest-turned-rebel who died in a hail of bullets during an encounter with the military. A priest involved in social action died in the flash floods in Quezon while he was trying to save lives. I wrote about a priest who was shot dead in Mindanao. There was the much-loved bishop of Jolo who was murdered. A priest in Cavite was killed while out to seek the lost sheep in the dead of night. He must have known too much about drug syndicates.

And there were those who died of natural causes but whose lives were just as rich, like Jesuit theologian Fr. Carlos Abesamis and Redemptorist Fr. Louie Hechanova, both great writers and exemplary priests and men of action whose hearts beat wildly for the poor, and whom I knew well when they walked this earth.

I end with a favorite quote from Thomas Merton: “But oh! How far have I to go to find You in Whom I have already arrived!”

Haiti’s Filipino nuncio counters critics on slow aid

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Feature/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

MANILA, Philippines—“Getting better every day.”

This was how Filipino Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Apostolic Nuncio to Haiti, described the progress of relief efforts in earthquake-ravaged Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital city.

He had some words for his critics who said relief efforts had been slow, chaotic and hampered by rivalries. “They have forgotten the tragedies when four hurricanes hit Haiti in 2008. Conducting relief efforts on a grand scale in a country without the basic infrastructures and with significant security and social problems is hugely problematic.

“Haiti imports 80 percent of its basic needs—like food. When disaster struck, most of the aid had to be flown or trucked from other countries, mainly from the United States and Haiti’s neighbor, the Dominican Republic. But the tremendous good will and human solidarity of all have overcome these negative factors,” Auza reminded the critics.

“I have been constantly visiting relief centers, especially those managed by Catholic agencies and have attended many meetings related to aid distribution,” Auza told the Inquirer in an interview via e-mail.

“There has been evident progress in the relief efforts,” he added. “As a way of encouraging aid agencies, I half-jokingly suggest to relief agencies that their motto should be ‘getting better every day.’ It has been that way.”

Auza, 51, survived the deadly Jan. 13 earthquake unhurt but said that since the earthquake, Masses at the apostolic nunciature have been held in the backyard. “Masses are celebrated outside, in courtyards, halls and open fields.”

At least 150,000 people are believed to have been killed in the recent earthquake. Haiti, a poor Caribbean nation which has a population of more than 10 million, is predominantly Catholic.

Native of Bohol

Auza, a native of Bohol, has been the papal envoy (the Vatican’s ambassador) to Haiti since August 2008. He is one of four Filipinos now serving as apostolic nuncios in different parts of the world. He studied at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila and the University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He did his diplomatic formation at the Vatican Diplomatic School, Pontificia Accademia Ecclesiastica.

He worked in Madagascar, Mauritius, Bulgaria, Albania, the United Kingdom, the Vatican’s Section for Relations with States and at the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations in New York.

Soon after the deadly earthquake struck, the Filipino archbishop called his mother, Magdalena Auza, in Bohol to say that he was all right. In an earlier news report, Auza was quoted telling his relatives via e-mail: “I am barely standing and very exhausted.” He had been very busy with relief efforts, consoling the bereaved and blessing the dead.

Not as lucky

But the archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Joseph Serge Miot and the first vicar general, Msgr. Charles Benoit were not as fortunate.

“When the earthquake hit, the archbishop was in the balcony of his room on the second floor. He was in the habit of praying the rosary in the afternoon,” Auza recounted.

“The violence of the tremor and the wind rushing out of the collapsing three-story building threw Miot out of the balcony and onto the pavement below,” he said.

Miot was about to have a meeting with some church officials to finalize the assignments of seven new priests ordained by Auza last Dec. 28.

Auza narrated: “Monsignor Benoit was inside the residence. His body was found eight days later and was still intact, which seemed to indicate that he died only a short time before his body was recovered from deep under the rubble. I was told that he was holding a rosary on one hand and a host on the other.”

Many seminarians died

Auza said he knew some Filipinos who were killed. “I have been in close contact with the Philippine UN contingent here since I arrived in 2008. I know many in the UN Mission who died, in particular, all the high officers.”

The Port-au-Prince archbishop and the vicar were buried on Jan. 23 in front of the cathedral and Auza was busy meeting the delegations including bishops from the United States. Haiti’s President Rene Preval was among the dignitaries present.

“The Holy See will certainly restore the leadership of the archdiocese as soon as possible,” Auza assured, “but without rushing too much as a concrete gesture to honor local tradition and sensibilities.”

He gave a long list of church structures in Port-au-Prince that were destroyed including the major seminary where many seminarians died. “There could be around 20 seminarians and a professor still under the rubble,” he lamented. “And where are we going to house the 256 seminarians who have lost everything?”

The theological institute for religious formation also collapsed, burying 15 people, Auza said, and it would take some time to assess the damage and count the dead. “One thing is certain. The poor church in Haiti cannot even think of reconstruction without the generous help of all Catholics and people of good will throughout the world.”

Church aid

Auza, the bishops and officials of the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) have been meeting regularly to coordinate efforts. “The Holy See has appointed CRS to be the lead agency,” he said. “Haiti is the biggest CRS program in the whole of the Americas. The Church’s vast infrastructure on the ground and, above all, the parishes, are actively involved. Frictions are inevitable but we always try to smooth things out.”

Horrible as it was, the earthquake could provide a new start for the country, Auza reflected. “Surely we would not have needed such a devastating catastrophe to renew ourselves. But I believe the brightest silver lining in this huge disaster should be the renewal and commitment to do things better, be it in governance, in civil society and in the Church.

“For instance, the disaster has revealed to the world what we in Haiti live with every day, like nonexistent basic services and infrastructures. For everyone in Haiti, including those in Church leadership positions, this is a never-to-be missed occasion to show transparency and accountability, in order to restore the trust and confidence of the international community.”

Donors will lose confidence, Auza stressed, if corruption and a lack of transparency would emerge in the initial phases of reconstruction and, as a result, Haiti would never recover.

Auza had earlier called on Filipinos to help. Monetary donations may be sent to Istituto per le Opere di Religione (or the Vatican Bank), Vatican City, Account No. 20480001, under the name of the Apostolic Nuncio to Haiti Archbishop Bernardito Auza.

Bacolod donors

Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra also appealed for cash donations for the victims of the HaitiSocial Action Center at the Bishop’s House in Bacolod City or they can call 4344978. earthquake. Donations may be brought to the Caritas Bacolod Office.

“We are called to answer a Christian challenge posed by the latest devastation in Haiti. More than half-a-million people in Port-au-Prince are dead, dying, sick, hungry and homeless,” Navarra said on Monday in Bacolod City.

The bishop cited the need for everyone to pitch in to alleviate the sufferings of the people in Haiti. “A little amount will go a long way,” he added.

Navarra also called for prayers for those who died and for those still suffering in Haiti so they would be able “to rise from despair with renewed hope in God and humanity.” With Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas

Haiti's history of slavery and bravery

DESPITE SO MANY deprecating descriptions of Haiti, this country whose capital city is in ruins because of last week’s deadly earthquake, has produced remarkable individuals that shine in the field of art, music and literature. Right now when I think Haiti, I think reggae, too.

Last month, before the great destruction in Port-au-Prince, journalist Joel Dreyfuss who is of Haitian origin and who calls himself a “diasporate,” wrote for The Haitian Times an article titled “A cage of words” where he lamented the frequent use of what he called “The Phrase” to describe Haiti. And that is “the poorest nation in the western hemisphere.” (Sorry, I have to repeat it here.)

True enough, when I opened my Time magazine that arrived Wednesday just before I wrote this column piece, “The Phrase” was there. Time’s cover story (“Haiti’s Agony”) was about the earthquake that is believed to have killed at least 100,000 Haitians and foreign nationals working there, Filipinos included. “The phrase” is right smack on the first paragraph. It is the second sentence of the cover story. “Tragedy has a way of visiting those who can bear it least. Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere….”

Indeed, “The Phrase” has become a boilerplate, a sentence in the perspective paragraph in articles about Haiti.

Wrote Dreyfuss: “The phrase still grates with us because it also denies so much else about Haiti: our art, our music, our rich Afro-Euro-American culture. It denies the humanity of Haitians, the capacity to survive, to overcome, even to triumph over this poverty—a historical experience we share with so many others in this same western hemisphere.”

Imagine if, in articles about the Philippines, there would always be the boilerplate sentence that says, “the most corrupt country in Southeast Asia” or, as one Hong Konger wrote, “a nation of servants.”

When Dreyfuss asked the correspondent of a foreign news organization why “The Phrase” was always in her stories, she answered that even though she did not put it there, her editors always did.

What Dreyfuss said is instructive to journalists: “What a difference it would have been if American, or French, or British journalists had looked through the camera at their audience and declared, ‘Yes, this is a poor country, but it has also produced great art, like Ireland or Portugal. Yes, this country has suffered a brutal government and yet produced great writers and scholars, like Russia or Brazil. Yes, many of Haiti’s downtrodden have fled—and achieved more success in exile than they ever would at home—like those Jews in America or the Palestinians in the Middle East.’”

Such statements would have linked Haiti to the rest of the world, Dreyfuss said, but then Haiti would become less mysterious and exotic and those who report about Haiti over the last few years would not want it that way. “Keeping the veil over the island was easier than trying to understand factions and divisions and mistrust and history. And it gave America an out if the intervention failed.

“So foreign journalists fell back on The Phrase. It was shorthand. It was neat. And it told the world nothing about Haiti that it didn’t already know.”

Haiti, a Caribbean country with a population of more than 10 million, shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. Haiti has a very unique historical and ethnolinguistic background. It was the first independent nation in Latin America, the first post-colonial nation whose independence was won partly through rebellion by African slaves who had been brought in by Spanish and French colonizers. French is an official language along with Haitian Creole which is based largely on 18th-century French and with African, Spanish, Taíno and English influences. Haiti is predominantly Catholic.

Christopher Columbus landed in Hispaniola in 1492 and claimed the island for Spain. The Spaniards mined the island for gold. They also brought in diseases that virtually rendered the indigenous Taino extinct.

The French also settled on the island, which gave rise to hostilities with the Spaniards. In 1697 the island of Hispaniola was divided between France and Spain. The eastern side went to the Spaniards and the western side to the French who named it Saint-Domingue (not to be confused with the Dominican Republic). By 1790, Saint-Domingue had become a bastion of sugar, coffee and indigo industries and the richest French colony in the New World.

It is said that the French ran one of the most “brutally efficient slave colonies” in that part of the world and one-third of their newly imported African slaves died within a few years.

It was former slave and leader of the slave revolt Tousaint l’Ouverture that helped bring peace and prosperity. He led the ousting of both the Spanish and British invaders. But the French did not like l’Ouverture’s creation of a separatist constitution. So they kidnapped and sent him to France where he died in prison. Native leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines emerged and defeated the French troops.

On Jan. 1, 1804, the former slaves declared independence and named the new nation Haiti, in honor of the indigenous Taino who called the island Haiti. The revolution resulted in a massive multiracial exodus. Well, Dessalines turned out to be a despot and was assassinated.

The next 200 years would be a series of rise and falls. Enter Simon Bolivar whom Haiti helped in the fight for independence of South American colonies. Haiti was a young republic straining toward the future. The US occupied the island from 1915 to 1934. After that Haiti would experience a series of unfortunate events, upheavals and despots. And now…

We fail Haiti and we fail ourselves. It must rise again.

Taking child's play seriously

Sunday Inquirer Magazine/FEATURE/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

“FOLLOW the child.” This was what it all meant.

In a dream she had many years ago, noted child psychotherapist Doctor Ma. Lourdes A. Carandang found herself looking deeply into a child’s eyes. The child was looking back into hers. Later, during a spiritual retreat, Carandang realized the dream’s significance. It was not only an affirmation of her calling.

Shortly after, her career as a therapist took an even more focused direction. It moved toward the healing of children.

In her latest book “The Magic of Play: Children Heal Through Play Therapy” (Anvil, 2009), Carandang and the therapists who had trained and worked with her share their experiences and journey with children. The book is not just about the therapists’ view but also about the children who were themselves a source of learning and inspiration. One could even consider the children as “co-authors” because their insights, drawings, written and art works are a vital part of the book.

“Play is the child’s natural medium of expression,” says Carandang, whom friends and colleagues fondly call Honey. “I dare say that it is the child’s natural way of being. It is an essential part of the child’s total development. But its value is often unrecognized and unappreciated by the people who take care of children.”

But play as therapy, despite having been practiced for decades and having yielded beneficial results, is still the least understood approach in the field of psychotherapy, Carandang notes.

Child-directed play therapy (CDPT) is what Carandang and her team have used in helping children who need to heal, to cope, to become their best or to make sense of difficult, confusing or traumatic situations. At the core of this kind of therapy is the therapist’s belief that each child is unique.

Therapist Wash Garcia, one of the book’s contributors, explains that most children are resilient and may not need extra help in dealing with life’s difficulties. “[But] some events may be too overwhelming for children to handle,” Garcia says. “These children can benefit from play therapy.”

“Play therapy,” Garcia says, “is an intervention where the child’s natural means of expression, that is, play, is employed as a therapeutic tool to assist them in coping with personal difficulties or trauma.”

If in traditional psychotherapy adults “talk it out,” in CDPT children “play it out,” Carandang explains. Play involves all parts of the child’s total person, she adds, quoting well-known developmental psychologist Erik Erikson, who said, “Making sense of the world is an enormous task for young children. They are constantly at risk of being overwhelmed by events and feelings. Play remains an indispensable harbor for the overhauling of shattered emotions after periods of rough going in the social seas. To play it out is the most natural self-healing method childhood affords.”

“Magic of Play” cites real cases where children indeed “played it out.” There was Rita who tortured the stuffed mother turtle repeatedly. There was Renato, 5, who built, destroyed and rebuilt a doll house 10 times. There was Joel, 10, who was afraid of the rain. And so many more. It was through play that these children were able to surface the hidden negative feelings that lurked inside them.

“When the child does what he wants to do repeatedly in play,” Carandang explains, “he is in control. The child can master emotions, get hold of the experience, grasp it, and in the process, the intensity of the trauma lessens.” Adults do this too, she adds, when they repeatedly recount traumatic events.

“Magic of Play” can be a good read if you’re looking for something real that is stranger than fiction. But, more than that, it is a great source of insight and information for those who work with children. Despite its serious content, the book is very readable, even entertaining because it is about children, their stories, their games. Read “Magic of Play” and enter a world so amazing and so familiar. Remember how you played as a child.

Carandang had worked with children who survived the 1990 killer quake and other recent disasters. A best-selling author, she has written several books on the situation of Filipino children and families. She is a scientist, practitioner and researcher. She has been recognized as an outstanding psychologist and honored as National Social Scientist in 1995.#

Sidebar: (Excerpted from “The Magic of Play”)

Six ways to maximize the use of play to help kids overcome trauma and stress

1. The therapist establishes rapport or a warm and caring relationship with the child by tuning in to his or her present emotional state.

2. The therapist respects the child’s pace and does not hurry him/her up. Sinasabayan niya ang bata, hindi inuunahan.

3. The therapist unconditionally accepts and validates the child’s feelings. Doing so makes children know that they have a right to their feelings.

4. The therapist has a basic and genuine respect for the child’s innate wisdom and ability to heal herself/himself when given opportunities.

5. The therapist sets clear and firm limits to help the child feel a sense of clarity and safety. The child knows that he/she is free to express his/her feelings but hurting another or oneself is not allowed. This makes the child feel physically and psychologically safe.

6. The therapist gives the child permission for free expression of feelings in different ways or languages the child uses to communicate, such as: games, clay, story telling, music, art. Expressive therapies are used as the language, but the six principles of child-directed play therapy cited above are the basic guides.

Catholic lay faithful's letter to bishops, priests, religious

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Opinion/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
A GROUP OF FILIPINO Catholics are preparing for the scheduled "Discernment on the Prophetic Calling of the Lay Faithful in Philippine Society" in Feb. 2010. A prelude to that gathering is a letter they (I, among them) have written and addressed to the bishops, priests and religious asking them to hold high the moral compass and provide pastoral and prophetic accompaniment for the laity during these crucial times. The letter lists urgent tasks that need to be addressed.

Please go to the link http://www.gopetition.com/online/33369.html and read the letter. Involved and concerned Catholics are enjoined to sign online or on paper. The signatures are needed before Jan. 18 so that they could be included when the letter is delivered to the National Priests' Assembly and the meeting of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines that will be held soon.

Here is the full text of the letter.

“Today, we are at the dawn of a new decade, a time for new beginnings. The National Priests’ Congress is being held and the new leaders of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) have been named.

“We, the LAY FAITHFUL who compose 99.06 percent of the Catholic Church in the Philippines, look forward to new directions and a new pastoral approach within the Church that will bring real change in ourselves, our communities and our nation.

“We are living in crucial times and circumstances. Our nation is faced with problems of inequality and inequity, environmental degradation, fighting and strife and a crisis in leadership. The gravity of the situation gives us feelings of helplessness and confusion.

“As Christians and Filipinos inspired by the Holy Spirit, we aspire to become true witnesses to our people. And so we hope to affirm our rightful place and dignity in the Church, to get involved and go over and above rituals and personal piety, to work actively for the just ordering of society and for the common good.

“We need you, our bishops, priests and religious, to hold high the MORAL COMPASS that will light our way, and for you to provide the PROPHETIC PASTORAL ACCOMPANIMENT that will strengthen us in fulfilling our role and mission as sons and daughters of God.

“We would like you to make a stand with us and walk with us. Together let us fulfill these urgent tasks:

1. Achieving a just peace that is not the mere absence of conflict but one that honors human dignity, protects human rights, and condemns institutional violence as well as all forms of cruelty.
2. Protecting the most vulnerable among us (the least, the last and the lost) by providing access to justice, livelihood, health, education and all other basic human needs, as well as promoting the livelihood of the poor instead of bailing out big business and granting corporations exemptions from wage increases.
3. Protesting the ill-effects of globalization, among them, loss of jobs, exploitation of land and labor, unfair trade practices, women being turned into commodities.
4. Promoting a culture of integrity and stewardship in society and in the Church. Denouncing corruption in all its forms and in all levels, in both the public and the private sectors, and demanding that the corrupt be held accountable.
5. Condemning abuse of power and the culture of impunity that allows crime to go unpunished.
6. Offsetting the breakdown of OFW families with parish support, counseling programs and projects.
7. Caring for the environment, conserving it for future generations and speaking against its abuse.
8. Calling on the citizenry to take an active role in ensuring that the coming elections are credible.

“Today, let us heed the call of the times, let us walk and work together to make our country a better place for our people."

“I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest, says the Lord God. The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal…shepherding them rightly.” -Ezekiel 34:15-16

Music for a cause: Tomorrow, Jan. 15, singer-composer Jose Mari Chan and singer Nina will hold a musical night at Crossroads 77 on Mother Ignacia St. in QC. “Catch a Dream 3” is meant to raise funds for the expansion of Fiore del Carmelo School in QC which serves mainly poor children of Batasan Hills. I have visited this “little school on the prairie” and it was heartwarming for me to see poor kids getting quality education like their classmates from middle class families. Joe Mari never tires of singing for Fiore’s cause again and again. Call 9394714, 4613278.

For the cause of nature: Susi Foundation is again holding a three-day seminar on Nature Farming in Bahay Tuklasan, Tiaong, Quezon (two and a half hours ride from Makati). Isyang Lagahit and Emma Alday will facilitate the hands-on learning process.

Nature farming is farming according to the law of nature. It is a farming system that works with the help of nature and not against her. Crop production and livestock raising take into consideration the nature of the earth’s inhabitants in order to create balance and harmony in the total environment. The quality of life and the future of succeeding generations are valued over quantitative production and needless consumption. Collaboration with and respect for all living organisms, particularly those responsible for producing safe and nutritious food, is the farming system of choice. Nature farming is agriculture that nurtures nature. Call (042)5456359, 0919-4649394, 0927-3405920.

The subject is women's urinals

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Opinion/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

ALBERT EINSTEN and Simone de Beauvoir were among those quoted in a treatise on women’s urinals delivered at the British Toilet Association by one Mr. Orde Levinson. I found the piece in the Internet while trying to learn something about women’s urinals. Despite the piece’s seriousness, it could make you laugh if you use your imagination.

It begins with a quote from Einstein: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” And from the irrepressible Beauvoir: “If women start acting like people, they will be accused of acting like men.”

After putting up those hot pink enclosures for men’s urinals on Metro Manila’s sidewalks, the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is planning to have women’s urinals as well. The brainchild of former MMDA chair Bayani Fernando (now vice presidential candidate) the men’s urinals which have been around for a couple of years were the object of jokes and speculations when they were being planned.

Will they last? Will they be vandalized? Who will maintain them? Will they be a source of pollution? Why hot pink? And so forth and so on. New MMDA chair Oscar Inocentes will turn all that pink into green. What shade of green is anybody’s guess. Teal, lime, Nile, apple, fluorescent?)

The men’s urinals were supposed to be the answer to men’s urgent need to pee and prevent them from doing their thing on posts, walls, trees, bushes, sides of vehicles, garbage piles, etc. But despite these urinals, posted signs (“bawal omehi dito, by order”, “ Aso lang ang umiihi sa pader” ) and even a TV ad, I still see many Filipino men defiling the environment with their liquid.

Drivers usually go to gas stations to relieve themselves and to park their vehicles. I think the men’s urinals are used mainly by male pedestrians, sidewalk vendors and walkabouts. Some issues have been raised against these structures—the foul odor, the possible pollution of the ground water, the problem with drainage, etc.

And now, women’s urinals? The source of the news stories about them have been coming from men in charge of running Metro Manila. They sound like they are heaven’s gift to the women of this metropolis. Not that I’m against these structures. The question is: have they asked the women? What shape or form will these women’s urinals have? Have they considered the female anatomy and underwear?

One blogger writes of her experience in the US: “Lately I’ve been running into urinals in women’s restrooms. I have tried using them (while wearing) pants and skirts, but the only way I can figure they would work is if the woman were naked or not wearing any underwear. Who invented the infernal contraptions, how are they intended to work, and why are they cropping up more and more?”

Women’s urinals, by the way, are not like your regular flush toilet at home. Here was someone’s answer which explains why women’s urinals are that way: “They were introduced into (the US) from Europe in the early 30s (along with the bidet…), and were intended as a convenience for women who did not want their delicate flesh coming into contact with yukky public toilet seats. They came in both floor- and wall-mounted models, the latter looking very much like their male counterparts.”

The writer goes on to describe the women’s urinal as something with a protruding narrow bowl that the user, while facing the wall, was expected to straddle (like straddling a horse) having first lowered her panties and raised her skirt, whereupon the woman could then do her thing. Can you picture that?

“One problem,” the blogger writes, “may have been that women’s underwear manufacturers never managed to come up with an equivalent to the male underpant which is laden with useful apertures that facilitate the use of urinals.”

That kind of women’s urinal, as described, should be a thing of the past because most women now wear pants like the men but have a different anatomical plumbing. But in Levison’s treatise, “The Female Urinal: Facts and Fables”, he argues that women can do it standing: “That a woman can urinate standing is clear and the more I investigate this, the more women indicate and prove that it is possible and not that it cannot be done. The conclusion once again points to the need to dispel cultural prejudice and create practical suggestions for women: to offer them the ability to learn a natural and environmentally sound technique…The most significant one for overall improvement and the most for reaching one being the installation of standolets, otherwise known as the places where women can urinate standing. History has always favored development, especially in issues of social justice, hygiene, comfort and common sense.”

Are you not laughing yet? The only women I have seen urinating while standing were old rural women in patadyong and who wore no underwear.

I remember a rugged bus trip to the Cordillera hinterlands many years ago. A friend and I were fussing about where to relieve ourselves. An English-speaking Cordillera woman was so solicitous and every time the bus stopped, she would ask us in a loud voice for everyone to hear, “Do you want to urinate?” and tell us where to go. No euphemisms. In some stops we headed for the bushes. I wished I were wearing a skirt.

Squat type, straddle type or wall-mounted (for women who can do it standing) women’s urinals? How private will these public women’s urinals be? I remember photos of women’s bottoms shot with hidden cameras in mall restrooms and circulated in the net. Where will they be placed? Will they hang signs like, “Bawal mamboso?” Will there be tabo and tissue?

Ask the women.

May 2010 be full of laughter for you!

Free trade bad for Asean, warns solon

Philippine Daily Inquirer/News/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

“ALL OUR FEARS have come true,” said Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello, reacting to the launch of the world’s biggest free trade area comprising China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) on Jan. 1

The China-Asean Free Trade Agreement (Cafta), lauded by governments as a spur to intraregional trade and investments, cuts import tariffs on about 90 percent of products and offers members access to a combined market of 1.7 billion consumers. Cafta is bigger than the European Union and the North American FTA in terms of trade value and population involved. But it has its detractors.

“We have warned against the detrimental effects of free trade agreements with strong economic powers like China, Japan, the US and Europe,” said Bello. “Unfortunately, all our fears have come true.

Bello’s credentials

The author of 15 books, Bello is a senior analyst at the Focus for the Global South, a progressive international think-tank based in Bangkok. He was a professor of sociology (just resigned) at the University of the Philippines and visiting professor at several US universities. One of his latest books is “Deglobalization: Ideas for a New World Economy.”

“Asean has not yet managed to consolidate itself as an economic bloc,” Bello told the Inquirer.

“Yet here we are launching a free trade area with China that will mean eventually bringing our tariffs down to zero. Asean is already noncompetitive with China across a whole range of manufactured goods and agricultural products.”

China zooms past US

Agence France-Presse quoted Sundram Pushpanatham, deputy secretary general for the Asean Economic Community, as saying that China had just overtaken the United States as Asean’s third largest trading partner and would likely leap past Japan and the EU to become Southeast Asia’s number one market within the first few years of the FTA.

Under the agreement, the six founding members of Asean—the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore and Thailand—and China will drop tariffs on Asean goods from 9.8 percent to 0.1 percent, while Asean countries will cut tariffs on Chinese goods from 12.8 percent to 0.6 percent. Other Asean members, Vietnam and Cambodia among them, have until 2015 to open up.

Cafta, eight years in the making, is seen by its promoters as an answer to the slowdown in export-led growth. The deadlock in the Uruguay round of global trade talks has given rise to other regional trade blocs. The decline of the US market has also made privileged access to the China market more appealing to emerging economies.

But Bello warned: “The China-Asean free trade area will mean acceleration of the erosion of our industry and agriculture owing to very cheap Chinese goods, at the same time that investments will be flowing to China.”

Not ready to compete

While proponents of Cafta point to its benefits, some Philippine and Indonesian manufacturers said they were still not ready to compete with very cheap Chinese goods. Textiles and footwear companies are some examples.

“Our World Trade Organization commitments together with FTA’s are bringing our economy to its knees, but successive administrations have simply refused to see the handwriting on the wall,” Bello said.

“Labor export simply is no substitute for a domestic economy that is healthy and able to absorb our growing population.”

‘Path to economic ruin’

In his article, “China and Southeast Asia: Emerging Problems in an Economic Relationship,” Bello said China’s rapid growth is often presented as the engine driving Southeast Asian economies but, as the example of the Thailand-China ‘early harvest’ FTA shows, “complete trade liberalization can be a path to economic ruin.”

At first glance, Bello said, it seemed that the China-Asean relationship was positive. After all, he added, demand from a Chinese economy growing at breakneck pace was a key factor in Southeast Asian growth beginning around 2003 after a period of low growth dependent on domestic demand.

But, Bello said, the picture is more complex than that of a Chinese locomotive pulling the rest of Southeast Asia along with it to economic nirvana. There have been widespread fears, Bello said that China’s growth was, in fact taking place at Southeast Asia’s expense.