Nuntio vobis

Three weeks ago I started doing something with the "dads" in our parish. Here is a description of the session we had this afternoon. Last week's session is found here.

Link to Full Story

The USA Employees Union, headed by its president, Theodore Neil Lasola, is calling for Fr. Vergara's ouster for his failure to settle the labor dispute.

Terminated along with Lasola are Flaviano Manalo, Rene Cabalum, Maria Luz Calzado, Ray Anthony Zuniga, Rizalene Villanueva, Rudante Dolar, Merlyn Jara, Monaliza Bautista, Maria Connie Alger, Maximo Montero, Apolbin de Asis, Rover John Tavarro, Alfredo Goriona, Julius Mario, John Mirasol, Mermenegildo Calzado, Danilo Lee Pac Hee, Nelza Laurea and Rena Lete.


The union members are demanding for the reinstatement of their officers as they want to participate in the negotiations for the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The termination order came after the Court of Appeals ruling, declaring the union's strike in 2003 as illegal.

If the University President gives in to the pressure being exerted by a labor union whose officers are justly terminated, he'll have bigger problems ahead. He should just stick to the consequences of the judgment of the Court of Appeals, and from there work on the resurrection of the University.

Did I write "resurrection"? Yep, and rightly!

UPDATE

The USA-Ilo and Labor Union wrangling is getting worse. Lasola's group has been joined by the Alab Katipunan and they are asking for the ouster of the University's President. But for what reason? Because Lasola has been legally terminated by the University. More about this here.

The "New Living Translation" is a non-Catholic translation of the Bible, sure. But it has some advantages over the Catholic translations we normally use. Here is a blog that shows why.

New titles that you may not be aware of: A one-volume history of Christianity, the sequel to "God of Surprises" and a book by Benedict Groeschel . Read about them here.

Emico is an author of a lot of comments in these blogs, especially those concerning the Iglesya ni Cristo. He has set up an "AgustinongPinoy" blog site at Blogger.Com and is saying that he "busted" me two years ago. That is his claim, anyway. He is using this fake "AgustinongPinoy" blog site, I think, to bait me into doing something that would give him the reason to sue me in court. He claims that I have been spreading lies, but he doesn't specify what. The problem with members of the Iglesya ni Manalo is that when you put them in a corner, they begin suing. Emico's blog is at http://dailygrumble.blogspot.com

Emico, just keep the links to this blog in your APinoy blog site. That way this site also gets some hits.

I did a few graphic files using Adobe Photoshop 7.0 and a few other graphic utility tools. Go here

Here is a sample:

Here is a discussion forum on Apollo Quiboloy. The forum runs on Matt's CGI Script, so it is a bit slow. Go here.

Katoliko.Com made its appearance on the web a few months ago. Right now, however, it is the only Filipino Catholic website that is presenting syndicated materials from EWTN.com and it is presenting these materials to help Catholics appreciate their ancient faith better and to "give reason for (their) hope". The main text of the website actually warns Catholics of Fundamentalist attacks. Go there.

This afternoon, our Flores de Mayo activities started. Below are just some of the images I took during the occassion.

Please go to the parish website for more....

Here is a link to homily of Pope Benedict XVI during his Installation Mass. The hub of the homily is an explanation of the symbols of the Papacy: the pallium and the fisherman's ring. Towards the end of the homily, he recalls the first words of the late John Paul II -- Be Not Afraid -- and adds something new to it. He says:

The Pope was addressing the mighty, the powerful of this world, who feared that Christ might take away something of their power if they were to let him in, if they were to allow the faith to be free. Yes, he would certainly have taken something away from them: the dominion of corruption, the manipulation of law and the freedom to do as they pleased. But he would not have taken away anything that pertains to human freedom or dignity, or to the building of a just society. The Pope was also speaking to everyone, especially the young. Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to him, are we not afraid that He might take something away from us? Are we not perhaps afraid to give up something significant, something unique, something that makes life so beautiful? Do we not then risk ending up diminished and deprived of our freedom? And once again the Pope said: No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation. And so, today, with great strength and great conviction, on the basis of long personal experience of life, I say to you, dear young people: Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ ? and you will find true life.

I guess that with this first public homily of the new Pope, we would be able to see how the original inspirations of John Paul II will be played out in full plus the genius of the new pontificate.

Bishop Leo Drona came to visit the parish yesterday, Friday (April 22, 2005). The visit will end tomorrow when he presides over the celebration of the feast of Our Mother of Good Counsel. Pictures taken from that day are made available at Glitches In Time.

Go here. The image was taken after his first mass today and first appeared in an issue of the Corriere della Serra online.

It was about six pm in Rome, April 19 when white smoke billowed from the chimney on top of the Sistine chapel and the bells of Rome began to sound. It was about twelve midnight here. I watched the proceedings through RAI-Uno. Read about the new Pope here.

A summary of the new Pope's post-communion message at his first mass is found here.

Click here...

The Fil-Augustinians.Net website is down. We are having problems with its database. I have informed the support crew and will be working on the problem during the next office day. The problem will be solved perhaps by Monday.

Read more »

We started the novena masses in honor of our parish's patron, Our Mother of Good Counsel today. The mass was preceded by a procession led by the parish priest, but the mass itself was presided over by one of the diocesan priests of our Vicariate.

Each of the daily masses from this day until Saturday next week have themes that expand on the main theme of this year's feast day celebrations, namely: "Our Mother of Good Counsel, Guide of the Christian Family." Today's theme was entitled "An Attack on the Family Is An Attack On Man, the Image of God" and was inspired by the first reading in today's Mass (Acts 9:1-20).

The reading from Acts narrates how Saul of Tarsus, in the act of persecuting the Christians in Damascus, got introduced to the one he was actually persecuting: the Risen Jesus. It was from this experience of the identification of Jesus with "those following The Way" that Paul would later on build on his Christology of "Christ the Head and His Body, the Church." A passage from John Paul II's address to Italy's Association of Families about the "New Attacks On The Family" delivered last year was used as the doctrinal basis for the theme.

It is just too bad that the celebrant missed the opportunity for explaining the situation of the Christian family at present based on a very recent address of the late Pope.

Link: http://www.engrish.com

I wasn't able to get much about the Pope's funeral since I was with the treasurers of the ASOLC at their San Juan formation center. But I did get quite some things from the internet about the funeral. These are all to be found in my TypePad blogs here and here.

The recollection part of the meeting for the ASOLC treasurers went well, although I had to make a last minute change in the materials I intended to present. In fact, it turned out that my changes were appropriate for the needs of the participants which was a mixture of lay and religious.

The homily of Cardinal Ratzinger during the Papal funeral is accessible via the Mystical Geek

This is what I am going to do on Friday.

While we mourn for the death of John Paul II, we also cannot forget the fact that the Philippines is in a sorry state. Prostitution is the fourth largest source of this country's GNP. This is not something to be proud about. And when the Church would even back a transport strike, you know something is really bad.>