The violent ending to yesterday’s hostage drama in Manila shows a failure of Catholic leaders, the director of an institute for religious life said today.

“The Church has failed, although it is trying its best, to cope with the situation of poverty and helplessness that led to desperation,” Claretian Father Samuel Canilang, director of the Institute for Consecrated Life in Asia, told ucanews.com.

Who is this priest next door? He is young, idealistic, talented, full of energy. He is erratic, though, in his decisions, not so conscious with his time, immature in his ways. Yet, the kids and the teens hang around him, the old adore him, the members of the Parish Pastoral Council drink and laugh with him, the ecclesial communities and new movements love his homilies and short talks. Who is he? He is the parochial vicar, an appointee from the Diocese to help the parish priest in all his ministerial works. He is not necessarily a threat to the person and influence of the parish priest, but with him in the parish is there enough room for both of them? How would his authority stand beside the popularity and adulation of this young upstart? How should he deal with him?

Pais,

Maupay unta kun nadidto ka kanina ha Christ the King Minor Seminary Gym, E. Rodriguez Ave., QC, 9-12nn, han aton broderly basketball game: PAIS vs XVD. Missed ka namon didto, 100-93 an score. Next week liwat. Mag-post nala ako of the sked.

thnks pais,

Bro. Romy L. Florencio
Pais - Servant General
(63)9228563173
(02)3467817

Stay safe.....

SECURITY ADVISORY

Incidence of Vehicle/Road Hijacking

Vehicle hijacking incidence targeted at private utility vehicles has been noted during the past weeks. Just recently, an American national and his Filipino wife fell victim to armed car thieves and lost their sports utility vehicle and P2.5 million in cash and valuables in Mandaluyong City. The attack involved a modus operandi wherein carnappers would intentionally bump into the victim’s vehicle so they would stop, then would proceed to hijack the vehicle and later dump their victims someplace.

The Philippine Alliance of Xseminarians – A Catalyst for Change

The proposal for formation of an alliance of Catholic ex-seminarians, to bring all seminary alumni associations and all ex-seminarians under one umbrella organization, while retaining the autonomy of the alumni associations and individuality of the members, is made for this reason.

The Priesthood of Ex-Seminarians – A Prophetic Role

To determine the role we have to play in renewing, rebuilding, and restoring our society in Christ, it is imperative that we should determine first who and what are the ex-seminarians.

I checked the website of the CBCP for the real figures and here they are  http://www.cbcponline.org/gen_info/statistics.html

Active Members – 95

Honorary Members – 24

No. of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction – 80

* Archdioceses – 16
* Dioceses – 51
* Vicariates – 7
* Prelatures – 5

Military Ordinariate – 1 :

Thanks for the correction Brods. With that let's go to the sixth installment:

THE ROLE OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATIONS

By proposing the formation of this alliance, I am not proposing the dissolution of the alumni associations, their identity, affiliations, and independence. The best examples for this kind of framework are the United States of America, the Dominion of Canada, and, most of all, the European Union.

The United States of America is composed of 50 autonomous states, state governments with almost similar responsibilities, powers, and authority as that of the federal government. Each state government has its own constitution, 3 branches of government (legislative, executive and justice), set of taxation, laws, and militia. The only differences between the federal and the state governments are in the realm of foreign policy, armed forces, and review of state laws, which are the prerogative of the central government, and other central functions such as the general application of economic policies and others in the entire country and the adjudication of disputes between states.  This is also similar to the Dominion of Canada, which is composed of 9 autonomous provinces, which have their own economic and government policies independent of each other and the central government.

The 27 members (and counting) of the EU are sovereign states, which have their own armed forces, economic and foreign policies, and previously, their own currencies (that is, for most of the states). Of course, as the EU is slowly integrating, some of the powers and prerogatives of the states are being surrendered to the European Commission, the governing body of the EU. Even then, these nations will try to maintain their sovereignty on certain matters, such as the form of their own governments.

The proposed group could learn from these two entities on how to define the role of each alumni association within the alliance. However, one function which cannot be removed from each association is the authentication of the identification of each member. This function will be too cumbersome for the alliance to assume unless a computerized system can be established.

Moreover, as I have mentioned, the alliance cannot replace the associations.  We can say that the associations are basic units of the alliance, in the same manner that the families are the basic units of our society.  We cannot and should deny their importance nor replace the loyalty of the ex-seminarians to their alumni associations.  Each ex-seminarian should retain his original identification as a Pian, Paisano, Angkan ni San Vicente, Mariani, Niñan, etc.

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE HIERARCHY

Under our By-laws and Articles of Incorporation, as its name implies, the St. Pius X Seminary Alumni Association, Inc. is a non-profit and non-stock corporation whose membership is composed of all persons who have studied for at least one year in the Seminary of St. Pius X.

Nota Bene:

The reason notes from this series is interspersed with reference to the Alliance of Christian Ex-Seminarians (ACES), particularly in the early parts is due to the fact I originally proposed for the establishment of this group worldwide.  In March 2008, the group of Ricky Ribo decided to name it to the Philippine Alliance of X-seminarians, as this alliance is conceived in the Philippines. ACES might eventually become a reality when the alliance spread worldwide.  PAX is then a pioneer in the establishment of this organization, and will eventually become the mother national alliance.

Objectives of the Alliance

In my discussion with some priests, bishops, Pians, and other ex-seminarians, I have mentioned to them the following objectives for the formation of this group:

Before proceeding to part III of this series let me clarify the comment of Romy Florencio.

a. The Officers of Pax, as reported in Part II, were "elected" in the interim for the purpose of (1) Incorporating Pax with SEC, and (2) to serve as interim officers pending the calling of a convention where the general assembly shall elect the officers after adopting the by-laws.

b. The June 30, 2010 meeting has called for the convening of convention, hopefully on December 8-12, 2010 to give all prospective members the chance to voice out what they thought what Pax should be.An ad hoc committee was created for this purpose.

c.  This series is intended to help the members in that direction and to solicit for more comments and sugggestions so that the By-Laws that will be adopted during the convention will truly reflect the sentiments and ideas of the members.