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The Church leadership and the People of God in the Philippines are facing the stark moral realities of the government’s violent war on drugs. They are called upon to take a stand and speak out. They are also called to reach out to those drug dependents who are in danger of being shot dead and in need of healing and help.
Working for over twenty years helping drug dependents recover from abuse and addiction in a rehabilitation sanctuary for young people using chemical substances, I learned that they are not criminals but in need of medical help and intervention.
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Capiz Rep. Fredenil Castro want to bring back the death penalty in the Philippines as a deterrent to crime. It can be said that the death penalty is already effectively and practically in force daily. As many as ten suspects are killed every day in the war on illegal drugs.
About two months ago, the new speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives filed two bills that will lower the age of criminal liability for children in conflict with the law—from fifteen to nine years old—and reintroduce the death penalty by hanging. It is not likely but the implications are that children and teenagers could, according to the proposed laws, face the death penalty.
The Philippines has a new president, Rodrigo Duterte. Many people have taken his promises seriously and they will be expecting results. We have to help him succeed in fighting corruption and criminality within the law. The killing of suspects is not the way. That will bring down international condemnation and shame and the Philippines will be the pariah of the civilized world. The Secretary General of the United Nations has already spoken against Philippine death squads killing journalists already. If the vigilantes have their way, the presidency will be gravely affected and branded as a killer regime and violator of human rights.
“You are the light of the world.” Don’t take my word for it, that’s Gospel truth from Jesus Himself (Mt 5:14). And it’s a tall order, indeed.
Something Beautiful for God was the title of the classic work by Malcom Muggeridge that, back in 1971, introduced Mother Teresa to the world at large. This title can describe very movingly the sacrifices that the four Sisters of Mother Teresa made up to the point of being killed by a group of Muslim terrorists.
During his recent trip to Mexico, Pope Francis once again weighed-in on the debate about migrants. While governments are concerned about granting civil and legal status to the migrants, the Holy Father has appealed to all to look at migrants with eyes and hearts of mercy, in the hope of preserving and uplifting their rights and dignity as human beings.
In Ireland, the discovery of a syndicate bringing impoverished young men and women into slave-like conditions in Romania has shocked police and the public. The human trafficking ring was centered in Letterkenny, County Donegal where a group of young men was being forced to work without salary and to sleep in dirty, unsanitary degrading conditions.
Deeply concerned about a “globalization of indifference,” Pope Francis, in his 2016 World Day of Peace message entitled “Overcome Indifference and Win Peace,” warns that “the first kind of indifference in human society is indifference to God, which then leads to indifference to one’s neighbor and to the environment.”
