Each first day of the New Year, in the Catholic circle, is dedicated to World Day of Peace. For 2009, Pope Benedict XVI addresses the entire world and reminds all people of goodwill of the intimate tie between poverty and peace. His World Day of Peace message is entitled ‘Fighting Poverty to Build Peace’. The peace message that the pope gives us for 2009, surprisingly, connects us to the social teaching of the church – often labeled as the Church’s ‘well-guarded secrets’. In speaking about poverty, the pope goes beyond the material poverty that ails the world. It reminds the world of the relation between poverty and its spiritual and the moral dimensions, particularly in affluent societies.

The reference to the spiritual and moral implications of poverty lays the ground in viewing poverty beyond the usual sociological and empirical data. It urges us to deal with the poor by clearly recognizing the moral imperative that we all share in a single divine plan and that we all are called to form one family in which all – individuals, peoples and nations – model their behaviour according to the principles of fraternity and responsibility.

The World day of Peace message, indirectly, addresses the United Nation’s millennium development goals (MDG). While it speaks of poverty reduction, it also questions the perspective of poverty from the standpoint of simple demography. The document particularly cites the successful poverty reduction by almost half from 1981 to the present, even in the face of increasing population. This belief is further reinforced by the fact that certain countries have recently emerged on the international scene as new economic powers, and have experienced rapid development specifically because of the large number of their inhabitants. Moreover, among the most developed nations, those with higher birth-rates enjoy better opportunities for development. In other words, population is proving to be an asset, not a factor that contributes to poverty.

The message also addresses the pandemic diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS. No doubt, they affect the wealth-producing sectors of the population and they are a significant factor in the overall deterioration of conditions in the country concerned. These pandemic diseases are major cause of poverty. Yet the document speaks of addressing, too, the moral issues connected to these diseases. The imperative of making available to poorer peoples the necessary medicines and treatment is a morality issue. It is not simply a question of the international rules protecting intellectual property but a moral issue of a determined effort to promote medical research and innovative forms of treatment, as well as flexible application, when required, so as to guarantee necessary basic healthcare to all people.

Then the document speaks of child poverty. No doubt, in addressing the issue of poverty, the children prove to be the most vulnerable victims. It reminds us that almost half of those living in absolute poverty today are children. The pope invites us to take the side of children when we tackle the issue of poverty. Among others, this would include caring for mothers, commitment to education, access to vaccines, medical care and drinking water, and actions safeguarding the environment. It reminds us that when the family is weakened, it is inevitably children who are affected most.

The other area that needs particular attention from the moral standpoint is the relationship between disarmament and development. The pope points out that ‘immense military expenditure, involving material and human resources and arms, is in fact diverted from development projects for peoples, especially the poorest who are most in need of aid’.

Another issue directly connected to the fight against material poverty is the current food crisis, which places in jeopardy the fulfillment of basic needs. This crisis, as the pope points out, is characterized not so much by a shortage of food, as by difficulty in gaining access to it and by different forms of speculation. The resulting malnutrition causes grave mental and physical damage to the population, depriving many people of the energy necessary to escape from poverty unaided. This contributes to the widening gap of inequality, and can provoke violent reactions.

Fighting poverty would require a strong sense of global solidarity between rich and poor countries, as well as within individual countries, including affluent ones. Benedict XVI proposes a ‘common code of ethics’ that consists of norms based not upon mere consensus, but rooted in the natural law inscribed by the Creator on the conscience of every human being. Does not every one of us sense deep within his or her conscience a call to make a personal contribution to the common good and to peace in society?

Moreover, if the poor are to be given priority, then there has to be enough room for an ethical approach to economics on the part of those active in the international market, an ethical approach to politics on the part of those in public office, and an ethical approach to participation capable of harnessing the contributions of civil society at local and international levels. International agencies themselves have come to recognize the value and advantage of economic initiatives taken by civil society or local administrations to promote the emancipation and social inclusion of those sectors of the population that often fall below the threshold of extreme poverty and yet are not easily reached by official aid.

In conclusion, the pope directly locates the fight against poverty right at the heart of the Church's social teaching that has always been concerned with the poor. At the time of the Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum, the poor were identified mainly as the workers in the new industrial society; in the social teaching of Pius XI, Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II, new forms of poverty were gradually explored, as the scope of the social question widened to reach global proportions. This expansion of the social question to the worldwide scale has to be considered not just as a quantitative extension, but also as a qualitative growth in the understanding of man and the needs of the human family.

These principles of social teaching tend to clarify the links between poverty and globalization and they help to guide action towards the building of peace. Among these principles, it is timely to recall in particular the “preferential love for the poor”, in the light of the primacy of charity, which is attested throughout Christian tradition, beginning with that of the early Church (cf. Acts 4:32-36; 1 Cor 16:1; 2 Cor 8-9; Gal 2:10).

I join my voice to that of Pope Benedict XVI in the appeal to all people of goodwill to fight poverty as we build peace. Wishing one and all a Prosperous New Year 2009!

“That the nearest in affection to them are those who say: ‘We are Christians’. That is because there are priests and monks among them; and because they are free from pride.” (S. V: 85)

This call in different languages and tongues is being launched and heard from the mountains to the plains, from big cities and small alike, from the Vatican to Cairo, from the smallest ‘pesantren’ (Islamic School) in an Indonesian village to a small Basic Christian Community or BCC in Southern Philippines. People of different faiths and ethnicities are struggling to grapple and face the challenges and demands of dialogue as it is presented today. Universities, dioceses and governments including the United Nations have established centers for peace and dialogue, indicating that nearly all institutions have caught the virus.

Why does the issue of dialogue have a paramount place in an era of globalization?

A few years back, people believed, especially the “prophets” of modernization and secularization, that religion and ethnicity would be the first casualties of globalization. It did not happen. Instead, the world was shocked and continued to be shocked by the increasing religious and ethnic intolerance. The ethnic war in Rwanda and Burundi with its accompanying tragedy of “genocide” is a classic example in Africa. The partition of former Yugoslavia and the ensuing ethnic and religious war, again, with the ugly face of “ethnic cleansing” has shocked the world in this so-called era of globalization. The same thing can be said in East Timor, Indonesia and Southern Philippines. Yes, the world is experiencing the malady of religious and ethnic intolerance and killing.

The word “fundamentalism” in religion is seen as the fuel that feeds on terrorism that has held the world hostage since September 11, 2001. There is no doubt that the surge of fundamentalism and the present paranoia over terrorism has contributed to the urgency of dialogue between and among nations. The present manifestations of fundamentalism have not only shown intolerance, but it has also made dialogue very difficult. For one, the narrow and exclusive worldview of fundamentalism admits no compromise or dialogue. The “command” is to blindly “obey,” “follow,” or be in “total submission”.

History is replete with tragic periods of intolerance. First, there is the painful memory of historical supercession of Christian faith in the East and North Africa by the expansion of Islam in the 7th and 8th Century. Part of this memory is the occupation and “reconquista” of the Iberian Peninsula. Then there was the Ottoman assault and occupation of some strategic areas in the Balkans, the former Yugoslavia, and other parts of Eastern Europe.

Second is the fact that the long tradition of Islamic tolerance of the Church and its faith is true only in terms of a freedom to remain only and not the freedom to recruit. The “dhimmi” status of the Christian minorities (the status of the protected people) is both resented and hated. Freedom of movement of belief within the Islamic World is only into Islam.

Third, the memory of the long history of Crusades is still alive. More recently the situation has been more embittered by the Christian involvement in that Western dominance of Muslim peoples politically and economically - which Islam sees as a kind of aberration from the true course of Islamic history where power must always be in the hands of Muslims.

The lingering resentments and injustices are deep in the psyche of relationships. With few exceptions, there was no mutual openness between faiths, but only survival within supercession, conquest, colonialism and the steady accumulation of the instinct by which both faiths developed a sort of exclusivism of culture and identity around their inner focus of faith and rituals drawing all things into a calculated “otherness” and reciprocal “antagonism” from which we now struggle so hardly to escape.

All those legacies are familiar enough and part of our problem. Is it possible to escape from their tyranny over our spirits? For this to happen, both faith communities need to steadily school themselves to resist and reject the habit of preferring suspicion to trust, the instinct to prefer familiar confrontation to new relationship.

Why? Because despite these legacies of enmity and otherness, we have to wake up to the reality that we inhabit the same small planet, we breathe the same air, and cultivate the same land we considered our own, and we are co-workers in the same work places. Then there are fascinating areas of common spiritual territory within our simple religious ancestry.

Yes, we are peoples of many and diverse faiths, cultures and political ideologies. Though many and different, the relationships need not be hostile or indifferent. In fact, the diversities invite us to make a shift in our paradigm from hostility to partnership; from indifference to involvement; from being closed to being open to one another, and from being exclusive to being inclusive in our outlook.

The bottom line is the affirmation that we are together in the journey through life. For better or worse, we are neighbors and we hope and believe that as neighbors, we can be partners in building not only a better world but more so a friendlier community where you and I, and our children live as brothers and sisters. There are three basic steps that will help us walk this new path of dialogue. They are as follows:

• The first step is to take our pluralism seriously.
• Second is to be open to learn not only from each other but more so to live with each other in tolerance. We must be willing to accept, to trust, and to live together.
• Third is our commitment to guarantee the rights and dignity of every person, regardless of faith, gender, culture, and color within our society/community.

The basis of this commitment is our belief that all peoples even though they belong to different religions, nations, etc., all form ONE human family, created by the ONE and same God, living in the same world/community, and destined for a common end. In dialogue there is one WORD that captures our efforts and endeavors – Ephphata (Be opened) as described in the Gospel according to St. Mark.

“And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech; and they besought him to lay his hand on him. And taking him aside from the multitude privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, “Ephphata”, that is, “Be opened.” And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.” (Mk. 7: 32-35)

Openness is NOT a universal element in human relations. It has to be slowly, patiently and sometimes painfully built through time. In a more recent time, the late Pope John Paul II presented to the world his dream and hope for Christianity and Islam as we journey together into the new millennium in his Addresses in Syria (John Paul II in the Great Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, 6 May 2001).

“It is my ardent hope that Muslim and Christian religious leaders and teachers will present our two great religious communities as COMMUNITIES IN RESPECTFUL DIALOGUE, NEVER MORE AS COMMUNITIES IN CONFLICT.”

More than ever, in these times of growing insecurity and ambiguity, it is crucial for the young to be taught the ways of respect and understanding, so that they will not be led to misuse religion itself to promote or justify hatred and violence. Violence destroys the image of the Creator in his creatures, and should never be considered as the fruit of religious conviction.

Muslim and Christian partnership is a major issue and concern in the work for peace in Mindanao. This has been made more complex by the rise of a new wave of fundamentalism, both in Islam and in Christianity in our contemporary times. Coupled by the tragic legacies that have marred our relationships, the question of Muslim and Christian partnership has become a more problematic task. Biases and prejudices are as strong as ever, if not stronger. Often our perception of each other is shaped more by historical memory and the mass media than by actual knowledge and factual experiences.

Today, the rise of fundamentalism is a single factor that seems to block Muslim and Christian partnership. The new wave of religious fundamentalism is not a monopoly of Islam. Tragically, our secular humankind understands this new religious awakening in a very narrow sense. Various religious revivalist movements in Islam as well as in Christianity or in other religious traditions are, often, lumped together under a generic label of religious fanaticism. Often, this religious “strain” is interpreted as a reaction to the present secular realities.

Yet, the religious revivalist movement is much wider and broader. Muslims themselves, like their Christian counterparts, do not accept the label of fundamentalism to describe the present religious re-awakening. For one thing, religious re-awakening differs from country to country. In fact, it is as complex as the very relations between Muslims and Christians.

As in the Christian re-awakening movement, the Islamic one is a desire and a determination to “return” to the perceived “basics” or “fundamentals” of the religious tradition. There are those who are inspired by the ancient religious “grandeur” and want to replicate, in our present time, the institution and praxis of the so-called “golden era”. On the other hand, there are those who attempt to recapture the dynamism of religion and reconcile it with the exigencies of a modern and technological era and the condition of globalization in which old rules cannot possibly remain unaltered. Then there are those who embrace the new wave of religious re-awakening to oppose the increasing secularizing trends of contemporary society.

There are four basic common characteristics of current religious revivalism. First, there is the accepted blueprint of societal as well as individual life. Rightly or wrongly, they believe that God gives this blueprint in the revelation. The blueprint is completed and/or nearing completion. The “believers” are called upon to either re-produce or hasten the realization of the said blueprint in our times.

Second is the fact that religious revivalism is a reaction to the contemporary secularizing trends that are perceived as menace to the faith of the individuals and the community. The adherents of this movement believe that this new “modernism” and the perceived moral and social “corruption” threaten to destroy the very fiber of the traditional mooring of the individuals and societies. Revivalism, in this sense, is a strong reaction to the present social and moral order that is perceived as a new “paganism”.

Third, religious revivalism gives answer to the individual’s needs for healing and identity. No doubt, the “woundedness” and injustice, particularly the structural violence that reduces the greater number of people to poverty, seek healing and redress. The religious re-awakening movements focus on this individual and communal “brokenness” and the necessity of healing by way of strict adherence to the imperatives of faith as given in “illo tempore”. In the same vein, the growing alienation of people in our contemporary world surfaces the need for identity and belonging where lines and parameters are clearly defined and delineated. Often, these parameters are also God-given thus cannot be changed or modified at all times. The religious revival movements give “security” and identity as well as belonging to individuals and groups who are considered “saved” or “redeemed” constituting the new “Holy Nation”.

Fourth, the new revivalism is seen as an alternative vis-à-vis the growing arrogance of the state to think and decide for all. The imposition of a uniform economic and social order in this era of globalization threatens to destroy the specific character of peoples, nation and individuals. The new revivalist movements take this power from the state and business and restore it to God.

There is, today, a strong belief that the new surge of religious revivalism in the world is the single factor that erodes the inter-religious dialogue and collaboration that have gained currency in the post-Vatican II era. Religious re-awakening both in Islam and Christianity as in other religions has taken an “exclusivist” form that views all others as “foreign” bodies and source of contamination and defilement.

Moreover, the new religious revivalism is bringing to the fore the lingering resentment and injustices of our past relationships. These are easily resurrected since the resentment and prejudice are deeply embedded in the psyche of Muslim-Christian encounters. With few exceptions, there is really no mutual openness between Muslims and Christians but a steady accumulation of bias. These have developed into a sort of exclusivity of culture and identity, drawing all things into a calculated “otherness” and reciprocity.

Another view has gained popularity in our globalized era beginning from the mid 1990s with the publication of Prof. Samuel Huntington’s seminal work, "The Clash of Civilizations." This view sees the historical territorial contests between “Islamic” and “Christian” powers from the seventh centuries (in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Asia) to the present (in the Persian Gulf and again in Asia, Middle East and Africa) as instances of the “clash of civilizations”.

In a similar vein, in some segments in the Muslim world, the perceived “Christian” or Western dominance in the globalizing trends of new world social and economic order is seen as another form of territorial contest that undermines the true course of Islamic history. All these readings of the “clash of civilizations” are familiar enough and part of our present problem. Often, they exercise tyranny over our spirits. They have produced a culture and a habit of suspicion and confrontation that make partnership and dialogue truly a very difficult task. It requires a commitment and determination to steadily school our hearts and minds to resist and reject the habit of preferring suspicion to trust, and the instinct to prefer the familiar confrontation to a new relationship of partnership in the world that is in difficult transition.

Years ago in the early 1960s the only working hospital in the whole Sulu Archipelago was the provincial hospital in Jolo. The inhabitants either had to go to Jolo for their medical needs or simply died. This absence of medical professionals outside of Jolo, particularly in the Tawi-Tawi islands, prompted the late Bishop Francis McSorley, OMI, to invite the Medical Mission Sisters (a religious congregation of women health professionals) to open a hospital in Bongao in 1968 to provide professional medical services to the people of Tawi-Tawi. The Medical Mission Sisters Loreta De Guzman, Scholastica Los Banos, and Lina Raeldones pioneered the opening of Holy Family Hospital or HFH, a secondary hospital offering appropriate medical and surgical services from 1968 to the present.

With the coming of the government hospital in Bongao in the late 1970s, the Holy Family Hospital took stock of the relevance of its continued professional medical services to the poor in the Tawi-Tawi archipelago. This reflection paved the way for a new way of healing presence in the context of its milieu.



The HFH decided to revert to a primary health care facility to be more relevant and rooted in the socio-economic, political and cultural realities of the people of Tawi-Tawi, with preference for the poor. This decision led to a cycle of changes. The hospital has now become part of the community at large and of the Federation of Community Health Organizations known as the Parhimpunan Paghambuukan ha Pamaranan sin Kauman (PPPK) composed of community health workers and members from 8 barangays. The Federation's vision was to pursue a common dream of the "establishment of an alternative health care system by the people, for the people, and of the people."

In 2003, the Medical Mission Sisters turned over to the PPPK the management of the Holy Family Hospital, one of the first hospitals managed by an organization largely composed of poor Muslim communities, mostly Muslim housewives, and their leaders.

Today the Holy Family Hospital is a part of the larger Federation of Community Health Organizations (PPPK) and HFH continues to serve the people of Tawi-Tawi and the poor communities, in particular, through its quality health care services and excellent staff. The Hospital is unique in the country not only for the quality training to the local staff but also for the integration of the community health programs in the 8 barangays.

For most health workers in the hospital and in the federation, the Holy Family Hospital stands for three things:

First, HFH stands for the development of a holistic and alternative health care system that is responsive to the needs of the people especially the majority poor.

Second, the set up of the HFH allows the staff and workers to experience how patients should be treated when they seek medical attention and help. In the HFH, patients are attended immediately upon the evaluation of the physician or staff on duty without asking the patients if they have money for deposit or advance payment. The staff on duty sees to it that the much-needed tender and loving nursing care is given equally to all, regardless of patient's capacity to pay.

Health education is an integral part of the professional services that the hospital gives. The staff shares their knowledge and skills to the patients so they have the necessary knowledge for preventing diseases when they go back to their respective communities. Verily, the patients are not only treated, but they too are empowered!

To many of the health workers, the actual experiences in the HFH leads also to personal healing, especially of the many biases towards hospitals and medical professionals. To them the HFH is an experience of healing and helping save people's lives.

Third, the vision of the HFH promotes good relationships between Muslims and Christians in the province. Friendly relations provide occasions to correct negative judgments and impressions about the “other”. In the HFH, the staff, patients and the communities commit to live as friends and both Muslim and Christian events are celebrated hand in hand with respect and understanding.

Here are some reflections of the health workers on the healing mission of the HFH:

“I feel very lucky to have been part of Holy Family Hospital for 14 years as I have found it fulfilling to be part of the healing mission of the Vicariate of Sulu and Tawi Tawi's healing ministry and the PPPK (Parhimpunan Paghambuukan ha Pamaran sin Kauman, Inc.” (Ms. Nareza Jumalon, Administrative Officer- Holy Family Hospital)



“I started serving HFH in 1974. I was trained by Sister Josphine Derequito, MMS. I became one of the nursing staff even I was only a high school graduate. During the years of healing ministry with the Medical Mission Sisters, I learned first hand the nursing process and I had several laboratory training in different centers outside of Tawi-Tawi to identify malaria, see the TB bacilli in the skin for Hansen's disease and in the sputum for pulmonary tuberculosis. I also became part of the facilitating team of the PPPK and we coordinate all efforts of the 7 communities and the more 400 families and 2000 individuals that are part of this program for the people, by the people of the people. Coming from a poor family, I was interested to serve my own people. The Sisters influenced me a lot because I became closer to God. You can say that they were my models and their prayerfulness and dedication to service especially to the poor.” (Helen de la Pena, Supervisor, Personnel Services Dept.)

The HFH serves the Badjaos who really are the poorest of the poor. They are the "nomads of the sea" who, at one time, lived in small boats but now they live in shanties by the coast. Their life is about family and community. A case worth sharing is the ritual of birthing in the Badjao family and community.

On one occasion a group of Badjaos came by boats to the hospital bringing a member of their community who was pregnant and in labor. There were about 30 to 40 people with the pregnant mother and they were all excited about having a new baby in their community. The Badjao community excitedly went to the hospital but no one brought the baby's clothes. Neither did they have the financial capacity to buy pampers or clothes for the newborn baby. They were all laughing and in their excitement, they rushed back and forth getting things to help each other with the very little they had.

The Hospital provides professional health services to about 5,000 patients annually and in its 40 years have served more than 200,000 individuals. And through the Federation, the HFH ceaselessly confronts the continuing cycle of poor disease-prevention practices, absence of potable water, poor sanitation, and high incidence of water-borne diseases. The endemic nature of malaria and stronger strains of the multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB) and Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever contribute to high morbidity and mortality in the archipelago.

These are the realities that the HFH faces daily. The hospital has committed and well-trained staff who render professional and loving health services. Their work points to the growing awareness that health and healing services are indeed ministries that are very important in the community.

The hospital needs financial assistance for the next five years and Jolo Bishop Angelito Lampon, OMI and Medical Director Dr. Joseph S. Llenado,M.D. are knocking at every door to make the Holy Family Hospital in Tawi Tawi survive.

What are truly amazing are the courage and the undaunted spirit of the people in the HFH and the Federation. In their hardship and want, they continue to dream, looking for a day that they would modernize the hospital and train more health personnel and community workers. They believe that with modern technology and facilities, the hospital can serve the poorest of the poor with quality health care and services.

The hospital needs urgently a basic laboratory to diagnose infectious diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, and water borne diseases. It also needs a small X-ray machine. Are there any generous souls out there?