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Category: Frontiers

Churches Must Be Lifestyle Witnesses

In recent months, market-run media have been distracting the public with an array of tumbling market digits. Investors wonder how their money was squandered, and we ordinary people wonder how funds unavailable to feed starving billions suddenly surfaced to bail out big business. The billions of dollars pumped in to re-capitalize cash-strapped banks and whining industrialists did not come from fat cats or government leaders. Bail-out funds came from resources stacked away, while the poor were denied basic needs. Such surpluses could have been better used to fight poverty, disease, ignorance and injustice worldwide. A global sharing of resources also may have helped evolve an alternative economic system based on equity and justice, not on “greed,” the euphemism now used to blame bankers and entrepreneurs.

Hector Welgampola | Journalist

A Renewed World

Christmas and all it represents and stands for has to be redeemed. With the turning away of the western world from Christ and all He lived and died for, the spiritual meaning and value of Christmas has been lost to commercialism. Now, children value more what they find in holiday socks than what they see in the Christmas manger, if they ever see one. They admire the twinkling lights more than understand the family that brought change and challenge to the world. A challenge to renew all humankind, bring dignity and equality to all, an end to hunger and disease, a world built on justice and truth. The festival that once celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, now celebrates the sum of all our possessions.

Shay Cullen | PREDA Foundation

Frontiers

The Selfless Commitment Of Christians

The selfless commitment of Christians of all denominations to live, risk their lives and suffer for the Gospel values, human rights and to live out the mission of Jesus Christ to save the poor and the oppressed from pain and exploitation inflicted on them by the irresponsible rich and powerful, is at the heart of Christianity. Hundreds of thousands of Christians are living this idea by serving the poor, the sick, defending human rights and taking a stand for social justice all around the world. They have given their lives throughout history and do so today for these sublime goals that raise humans to a level of nobility and spirituality.

Shay Cullen | PREDA Foundation

Frontiers

Priest, Prophet And President

Retired Catholic Bishop Fernando Lugo laid aside his miter and took up the sash of the presidency of Paraguay last April 20. He is the first bishop of modern times to be elected to high office and he ended the dictatorial 61-year rule of the Colorado party of the former dictator and tyrant Alfredo Stroessner who drove three of Bishop Lugo’s brothers into exile in fear of their lives.

Shay Cullen | PREDA Foundation

Frontiers

End Sex Tourism

While a young girl was recovering from a horrific life of sexual abuse and trafficking, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo gave the state-of-the-nation-address to the Philippine Congress and enumerated the many achievements of her government for the past year; curtailing the trafficking of women and children is not among them. She is the most politically powerful women in the country and could deal a deadly blow to the pimps and pedophiles, the sex traffickers and foreign mafia that enslave the children in their sex bars and clubs. However, the politicians behind the sex industry are powerful allies. The rich property owners that rent the buildings housing the sex dens, bars and clubs are influential. The hotel owners fill their double beds with sex tourists and the emaciated bodies of impoverished children and women. They have influence and the Department of Tourism goes along with them. Sex, even sex with children, is big business and the laws are ignored and not enforced. Even police own clubs and bars.

Shay Cullen | PREDA Foundation

Frontiers

A Terrible Man-Made Tragedy

The storm clouds were dark and threatening, weather stations had raised and broadcast danger signals, the radio was announcing the approaching onslaught of “Frank,” or by its official international name “God of the Winds,” a massive typhoon packing 150 kilometer-an-hour wind. And yet, the ill-fated ferry MV Princess of the Stars put to sea with 862 passengers and crew amid treacherous waters from Manila to Cebu City last 21 June.

Shay Cullen | PREDA Foundation

Frontiers

A One-Sided Report

There was no comfort in the Philippine report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva for 14-year-old Felix Avila, emaciated, half-staved, brutalized, shocked and dazed as he was helped walk from behind the bars of a police detention center in Metro Manila. Like a skeletal survivor of Auschwitz, he was helped walk on weak unsteady legs to a rescue van and away to freedom. Rescue, because it was as if he was released from the pains of hell to the joys of heaven. Heaven was when they stopped at the first restaurant and he devoured his first proper meal in months.

Shay Cullen | PREDA Foundation

Frontiers

A Day in the Life of Anna Maria

Anna Maria, 15, is recovering at the PREDA Center. She goes to school and loves to learn. She travels to school with 35 other children who are also recovering and overcoming the trauma of abuse. Given care, affirmation support and good therapy, victims are not damaged forever. They can recover and make a success of life. That is the goal of the Childhood for Children Life Recovery Program. There are 53 children recovering in PREDA at present, not all are ready for school.

Shay Cullen | PREDA Foundation

Frontiers

Priest, Prophet Or Politician

Is he a prophet, priest, politician or a popular uncorrupted elected leader? These are the questions that run through everyone’s mind when they hear that Father Ed Panlilio, 54, a Catholic priest on a leave of absence from regular priestly duties, is now the elected governor of Pampanga Province in the Philippines. Father Ed, as he is affectionally called by the hundreds of thousands who supported his bid for election last May, won against the traditional dynastic families that have ruled for generations. It was a powerful message from the people who had almost despaired of finding an honest independent candidate to oppose the elite. The people want to end the corruption and the culture of vice that the traditional politicians had fostered. Father Ed Panlilio has been named Filipino of the Year 2007 by a leading daily.

Shay Cullen | PREDA Foundation

Frontiers

The International Criminal Court

It is good news that The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has put several high level political and military suspects on trial for the abuse and exploitation and torture of children. This is a very new and welcome development for victims of violence, abduction, exploitation, abuse and trafficking. “Child offenders, beware; your days are numbered” is the slogan of the children’s rights defenders. Investigations, still secret, are targeting Filipino officials and eventually international arrest warrants could be issued according to human rights campaigners.

Shay Cullen | PREDA Foundation