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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.”
On the evening of that first day of the week,” according to the Gospel of John, “when the doors were locked, where the disciples were … Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them: ‘Peace be with you.’ ”
The world is a wonderful place. Our God is so good in giving it to us. But to a large extent, we have not taken good care of it, nor of each other. We have polluted the water, fouled the air and are dangerously changing the climate.
As the first pope in history to address a joint session of Congress, Pope Francis, defending the human right of masses of oppressed and poor people to immigrate, said: “We must not be taken aback by their number, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation.”
