Browse past isues
Help the mission
Support the mission
Get in touch
Instead of justifying these human tragedies, we need to have a sense of shame for what is happening. Yes, it is shameful that millions have no place to call home.
Traffickers in Egypt and Libya are increasingly using children to drive boats of migrants to Italy. Many of these teenagers are then detained and imprisoned by the Italian authorities, facing up to 15 years in jail and fines of hundreds of thousands of euros.
The cardinal responsible for overseeing Pope Francis’ reform of the Roman Curia has confirmed that two new congregations will be set up and suggested that lay people could be appointed to lead some of Rome’s dicasteries.
The United Nations appealed for $16.4 billion to pay for global humanitarian needs in 2015, saying it needs that money to help 57.5 million of the world’s most vulnerable people.
While loved ones braced for the full impact of Typhoon “Hagupit” back home, Filipino activists in Lima urged climate negotiators recently to act, with more urgency, on drafting a global plan to limit such potentially life-threatening events.
WFP officials suspend voucher program that allows refugees to buy food and other necessities. About US$ 64 million are needed for December alone. Since the start of the conflict, the program has injected US$ 800 million in the economies of host countries.
With his unexpected broadside at the Vatican’s elite last Christmas, Pope Francis solidified his reputation for surprise. At times it almost seems this maverick pontiff should come with a warning label, like a pack of cigarettes: “Caution … predictions are hazardous to your health!”
Tragedies which have resulted in the loss of thousands of lives because of negligence, have pushed many, both in the Philippines and Korea, to seek justice for its hapless victims. Many, however, are still crying out for and seeking true justice because of the partial and corrupt concept of justice being espoused by some of those in power.
During the 2014 Synod on the Family in Rome, Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle brought to the fore the main reason why Filipino families are torn apart. While many Western families are divided by divorce, Filipinos are “separated out of love” because they have to work abroad to provide for their families. While employment-related migration has become a common phenomenon in the Philippines, utmost care and concern for the plight and welfare of Filipinos working abroad should be a paramount concern not only of the government, but of those who benefit from remittances or who have been left behind.
The Gospel narrative of the “Flight into Egypt” is rarely discussed, if at all commemorated, in Church liturgy today. Many have, therefore, lost sight of its significance in relation to the accounts of Jesus’ infancy. However, the story finds its true meaning today in the “plight” and “flight” of thousands of refugees around the world, who, like Jesus, Mary, and Joseph lived in fear and uncertainty while in exile.
