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ANNUAL REPORT ON ACTIVITIES
carried out in the Period July 2000
- June 2001
Presented to the CBCP GENERAL ASSEMBLY
by the ECCCE Chairman
Tagaytay City, July 6-9, 2001
REGULAR SERVICES OF THE SECRETARIAT
AND PUBLICATIONS DEPARTMENT
The service rendered by the ECCCE Secretariat includes
the following:
- Welcoming the Catechists, Catechists Coordinators,
Religion Teachers, Priests and other people who call
at the ECCCE office to make inquiries or researches,
or to buy catechetical materials;
- Maintaining he contacts and sending communications
to the diocesan catechetical offices and catechetical
formation centers by mail or telephone;
- Preparation and holding of seminars on the CFC/KPK
and other activities promoted by ECCCE, such as the
Survey on the Catechetical Situation;
- Participation in all the meetings of the CEAP Board
of Directors, and follow-up of initiatives promoted
by CEAP, especially those pertaining to Religious
Education;
- Keeping list of Docete subscribers updated and
taking care of the mailing of the quarterly issues
of the Review.
The service rendered by the Publications Department
includes the following:
- Preparation of the content of each issue of Docete.
- Following up the printing and distribution of our
publications, such as the National Catechism, and
related literature.
NATIONAL CATECHETICAL SURVEY IN THE PASTORAL SETTING
Out of the some 2400 questionnaires distributed to
all the parishes, thanks to the collaboration of all
residential Bishops, we were able to retrieve only 32%
of accomplished forms. The tabulated partial results
of the Survey were presented to the participants in
the Joint Jubilee Congress held on Sept. 11-13,2000
in Manila. These partial returns have been published
in Docete Nos. 102-03 (June-December 2000) which is
included among the handouts distributed with this Report.
JOINT JUBILEE CONGRESS Organized by ECCCE and CEAP
The preparation of the Joint Congress - the first of
this kind - was quite a laborious one and required numerous
organizational meetings. Msgr. Gerry Santos, the Chairman
of the Steering Committee did an excellent job of coordination
and also in involving a great number of people as members
of the different sectoral committees.
The Theme of the Congress was "LIVING CHURCH,
LEARNING COMMUNITIES: Visions, Revisions, Remembrances.
Both the Objectives and the content of the Workshops
of the congress were structured around the three verbs:
REJOICE, REPENT and RECOMMIT.
The Congress was held on September 11-13, 2000 and
served also as celebration of the Jubilee of Catechists
and Catholic Educators. It was attended by 3,432 participants,
1,127 of whom constituted the catechetical contingent,
while the remaining 2,305 came from the educational
component.
The Congress included the conferment of a "Service
Award" to 49 deserving Catechists from as many
dioceses. It ended with a RECOMMITMENT by both Catechists
and Catholic Educators to faithfully fulfill their duty
in the areas of Catechesis and Education, and a "CONGRESS
COVENANT."
The Summary Chronicle of the preparation and Proceedings
of the Congress have been published in the special double
issue Nos. 102-03 of Docete, copies of which have been
distributed to this Assembly.
The evaluation of the Congress was very positive, especially
because it enabled the people involved in the Catechetical
Ministry and the Educational Ministry to know and appreciate
the difficulties and the achievements of each other.
NEW CATECHETICAL MATERIALS
1. The translation and publication of the "Catechism
for Filipino Catholics" into Pilipino under the
title "KATESISMO PARA SAMGA PILIPINONG KATOLIKO"
(KPK) was completed in time for the Joint Jubilee Congress
and formally launched on September 13, though only few
copies could be available, due to the difficulty of
getting the whole shipment from Hong Kong where it had
been printed.
Copies of the KPK have been available since the end
of September 2000.
2. We now have also its abridged version which is entitled:
"LAGOM NG KATESISMO PARA SA MGA PILIPINONG KATOLIKO"
(Lagom ng KPK), complimentary copies of which have been
distributed to this Assembly.
(This "Lagom. . ." is made available at a
subsidized price thanks to a grant from "Aid to
the Church in Need.")
"STRATEGIC PLANNING" FOR
THE COMING THREE YEARS
Continuing the momentum created by the Joint Jubilee
Congress, ECCCE, CEAP, and MAPSA prepared a three-year
STRATEGIC PLANNING (2001-03) which focuses on 8 Key
concerns of the three Organizations, namely:
- Revision of the NCDP;
- Dissemination, actual and correct use of the CFC/KPK;
- Development of Elements of Minimum Learning Competencies
in Religion;
- Catechists Welfare and Development;
- Formation of Catechists and Religion Teachers;
- Relationship between ECCCE and CEAP, MAPSA, ACM
of Manila, Diocesan Catechetical Offices and
Catechetical Formation Centers;
- Catechetical development in transparochial communities
and other settings (BECs etc.,)
- Advocacy.
Copies of this Strategic Planning were distributed
during the Bishops' General Assembly in January 2001.
The same three-year Strategic Planning has been published
in Docete No. 104, pp. 44-48, copies of which have been
distributed to the Assembly.
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE "CFC/KPK SPEAKERS' BUREAU"
This "Speakers' Bureau" is a pool of resource
persons able to give talks and seminar-workshops on
the National Catechism either in English or different
local languages.
The purpose for establishing such a "CFC/KPK
Speakers' Bureau" is to enable as many catechists/religion
teachers as possible to master the essential content
and characteristics of our National Catechism in order
that they may use it properly and creatively. This is
one of "Key Concerns" of ECCCE/CEAP/MAPSA
as listed in the already mentioned Strategic Planning.
(See SP, #2).
The need for such a pool of resource persons to complement
or even replace the very limited number of experts on
the CFC/KPK was felt because of the difficulty of the
present ECCCE staff to readily answer the requests for
such seminar workshops from the dioceses, and especially
because such seminars should be given, as much as possible,
in the local vernacular.
The training of first batch of the "Speakers'
Bureau" took place on March 29-31 at the Mother
Francisca Spirituality Center, San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.
The participants were 18.
We have plans to organize a similar training of local
resource persons in Mindanao, the Visayas, and Northern
Luzon under the coordination of the ECCCE Bishop representatives
for each of the above-mentioned Regions.
ESTABLISHMENT OF "PHIL-CARE FOUDATION"
Phil-CARE stands for "Philippine Catechetical
Apostolate and Religious Education Foundation. "
Phil-CARE is a joint project of ECCCE and CEAP. Its
purpose it to endow ECCCE with the funds it needs
- to run the Secretariat more efficiently;
- to organize and run formation / upgrading programs
for both Catechists and Religion Teachers;
- to prepare and publish catechetical materials to
be used in public schools.
Phil-CARE were already formally established, its by-Laws
approved, and its first set of officers elected on April
4, 2001.
Copies of the By-Laws of Phil-CARE have already been
distributed to this Assembly.
The Board of Trustees is composed of the following:
Archbishop Leonardo Z. Legaspi, Bishop Manuel C. Sobreviñas,
Bishop Antonio R. Rañola, Fr. Salvatore Putzu,
SDB and Sr. Jesusa Enginco, OP representing ECCCE; Fr.
Roderick C. Salazar Jr., Msgr. Gerardo O. Santos, Bro.
Rolando R. Dizon,FSC, Fr. Redentor S. Corpus, and Mr.
Mariano U. Piamonte, representing CEAP.
Its first batch of elected Officers are the following:
Chairman: Archbishop Legaspi, OP, DD
President and Vice-Chairman: Bro. Rolando Dizon, FSC
Treasurer: Msgr. Gerardo O. Santos
Executive Director: Fr. Salvatore Putzu, SDB
Secretary: Sr. Jesusa Enginco, OP
Following the advise of Atty. Padilla, the Foundation
has not been registered with SEC for the time being
in order to avoid initial expenses and the hassle of
yearly reporting to the government agency.
The establishment of Phil-CARE is Key concern #4 in
our Strategic Planning.
REVISION OF "MATURING IN CHRISTIAN FAITH,"
THE NATIONAL CATECHETICAL DIRECTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES
This revision has been felt necessary since the approval
of our National Catechism by the Congregation for the
Clergy and the promulgation of the General Directory
for Catechesis (GDC) by the same Roman Congregation
on the same year (1997). However, it is only in the
year 2000 that ECCCE has taken the first concrete steps
toward implementing this plan first of all by including
it as its first "Key Concern" in the three-year
"Strategic Plan" and then by assigning its
coordination to Fr. Joseph Roche, SJ.
The objectives of this revision are:
- To bring our National Catechetical Directory in
line with several new insights contained in the GDC;
- To update it in the light of the content of our
National Catechism; and
- To update those parts which describe religious,
catechetical, organizational, cultural, political,
and economic situation which are no longer reflective
of the present one.
The first draft of the revision in scheduled to be
presented for discussion and improvements during a General
Catechetical Assembly which will be held this coming
September in Manila, and whose participants will be
all the Diocesan Catechetical Directors and Coordinators
as well as the directors of all the Catechetical Formation
Centers and Institutions in the country.
PREPARATION OF "ELEMENTS OF MINIMUM LEARNING COMPETENCIES
IN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION"
The main recipients of this project are:
- Authors of religion textbooks who will find in
it a sure basis on which they can rely in the preparation
or revision of the content of their books;
- School Administrators, Religion Coordinators and
Catechist Coordinators, Priests and other people in
charge of the Christian formation of children, youths
and adults in evaluating existing Religion textbooks
or other materials to be used in teaching the Catholic
Faith.
- The Bishops and Diocesan Censor in evaluating Religion
Textbooks and other Christian formation books before
they grant the Nihil Obstat and the Imprimatur.
These "Elements of Basic Learning Competencies
in Religion" will be based on the content of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church; the Catechism for
Filipino Catholics; the Document of PCP II, and other
official documents of the Universal and Philippine Magisterium.
This Project is now in its initial stage of gathering
the contributions of people involved in forming catechists,
or teaching Religion both in private and public schools.
Once the first draft is finalized, it will be submitted
to the Bishops for a thorough study, remarks and eventual
approval, before having it disseminated among the recipients
for their guidance and implementation.
This Project the third "Key Concern" in our
three-year "Strategic Planning." The coordination
of this work has been entrusted to Fr. Salvatore Putzu,
SDB
DISTRIBUTION OF THE MOVIE "JESUS"
IN VIDEOTAPE
This project was already presented to the Assembly
of the Bishops by Mr. Henry Capello in January 2001.
It is now about to be implemented since ECCCE has just
received the first installment of 100,000 copies of
the videotape from the local recording company that
has dubbed it.
The collaboration of all the Bishop will be needed
to ensure a speedy, safe, and FREE distribution of the
tapes to all those institutions and groups that will
utilize them for catechetical and formation purposes.
NEW FACES AT ECCCE
Since November 2000 Sr. Maria Cristina Guytingco, SPC
who served as ECCCE's Assistant Executive Secretary
for six years has been replaced by Sr. Maria Jesusa
Enginco, OP Siena who performs the same functions as
her predecessor.
In May 2001 Fr. Salvatore Putzu, SDB tendered his formal
resignation from his position as ECCCE's Executive Secretary
on the ground of his inability to fulfill satisfactorily
the duties of such a post, due to his demanding commitments
to Word & Life Publications. However, he has accepted
the invitation to continue his collaboration with ECCCE
as Editor of Docete and other future publications. He
likewise continues to be in charge of the project "Elements
of Minimum Learning Competencies in Religious Education,"
the completion of the Catechetical Survey, and as Executive
Director of Phil-CARE.
Since June 2001, Msgr. Gerardo O. Santos has taken
over the position of ECCCE's Executive Secretary in
addition to his being the chairman of MAPSA and the
Minister of the Manila Archdiocesan Catechetical Ministry.
In the past, Msgr. Gerry has been a very close, efficient
and appreciated collaborator of many of ECCCE's projects
for a number of years in his capacity as chairman of
MAPS A and ACM, the last of these projects being the
holding of the very successful "Joint Jubilee Congress"
and the preparation of the three-year "Strategic
Planning."
PRESENTATION OF THEME FOR THIS YEAR'S
NATIONAL CATECHETICAL WEEK
This year's National Catechetical Week will be held
from Sept. 16 to 22. The focus of the observance will
be the more intensive and proper use of the National
Catechism, either in English and Filipino, now that
the two versions are available both in their complete
text and in their abridged from.
Hence the theme for this year is "COME AND LEARN.
GO AND TEACH." The illustration in the poster features
a copy of the Catechism in the center and a church right
above it to show that the study / teaching of the Catechism
should take place within the parish as its ideal setting.
The four illustrations forming a circle exemplify some
of the main professions of our people in the rural and
city areas. As was done in the previous years, the ECCCE
Secretariat will produce a more detailed explanation
of the poster and a series of supplementary materials
to be used in the celebration of this 17 NCW.
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