COTABATO Archbishop Orlando Cardinal Quevedo urged delegates of the fourth World Apostolic Congress on Mercy (Wacom) to empathize with victims of conflict and social injustice.
Quevedo cited President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody anti-drug campaign, as well as the degradation of the environment.
“We see various kinds of crimes, terrorism and kidnapping, there are signs of lack of communion between brothers and sisters of the human family,” Quevedo told Wacom delegates during the second day of the conference at the UST Quadricentennial Pavilion earlier today.
Quevedo said communities should not be indifferent to war and conflict victims.
“In this social, moral, religious context, it is especially now that the Holy Spirit is urgently calling the whole Church to be a communion in the Lord Jesus,” he said.
Quevedo said it is in the Church’s nature to be a “communion in love and mercy” between members of the laity, religious and the clergy.
“We are all called to reach out to our neighbors, parishes and communities, to the wider society, and in love and mercy, reconcile broken relationships, bring peace to families and communities broken by crimes and drugs, hostilities and factions, biases and hatred,” Quevedo declared.
Church for the poor
In his testimony, Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo highlighted the Church’s work on the poor and the oppressed.
It is the duty of the Church to speak on issues such as labor contractualization, human trafficking and the anti-drug war campaign, he said.
“When man makes the effort to be with the poor and really to get to know their situation, no one can keep one’s mouth closed. I have to defend their rights,” he said.
“God is truly not indifferent to the injustices happening to the poor. His mercy and compassion are not condescending, much less are they compromising.”
