Welcome Address

WELCOME ADDRESS

Most Rev. Socrates B. Villegas- Chairman, ECCCE

Your Excellency, Archbishop Capalla, our (CBCP) President, Msgr. Gerry Santos and my dear fellow workers in the catechetical ministry and in the ministry of Catholic Education. So what shall I say but WELCOME! But my words of welcome to you this afternoon carry with it not only a message of hospitality but also a word of challenge.

My welcome to you stands on four (4) legs: The first leg is GRATITUDE.

Gratitude to God for calling us to serve the Church, gratitude to God for making this possible - the first Joint Consultation of Catholic Education and Catechesis.
Gratitude to all of you for coming over from all over the Philippines in order to show your solidarity, in order to celebrate our COMMUNIO.
Gratitude to the steering committee for working more than 24 hours each day preparing for this BIG day.

Our second "G" for this consultation is GATHERING.

We did not just come together, we came here together to gather together our experiences, gather together our resources, gather together our talents because we know that when we come together to put together our resources, 1+1 is not 2. 1+1= 3. We are actually more powerful when we come together. And our gathering together is a celebration of our communion, which is the basic element of relationship in the Church. We must gather together because we must be united. There is great work waiting for all of us and we cannot afford to be disunited. We cannot face the challenges before us on our own. We must come together, be together -- like the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The third "G" is GIVE.

We must give because this consultation is a gathering of Christians, gathering of Catholic Christians. And the first and most important element of this gathering is LOVE. And we cannot be loving catechists, we cannot be loving educators unless we give. We will give our time, we will give our resources, we will give everything that we can in order to make this Consultation a grace-filled and meaningful one.

The fourth "G" is GO.

Go and make disciples. We must not forget the mission component of our Consultation. "Go and make disciples of all nations." Go! Go and preach the Gospel! The Church by her very nature is missionary. And the catechist, the Catholic educator by the very nature of his ministry is also a missionary.

So, we stand on four (4) "G"s: GRATITUDE -- which is celebrated in the Eucharist; to GATHER -- to gather together in prayer, to gather together in study, to gather together to listen to one another; GIVE - because our most important calling for the next three (3) days that we will be together is to love. And we cannot love without giving; and finally to GO - to go and make disciples, to go and be missionaries.

I'd like to end with an incident that happened to me in Bataan. At the height of one of our strongest typhoons, I saw the floods rising in Bataan and I was concerned about the condition of the Aetas. So, I borrowed a four-wheel-drive vehicle and asked the driver to bring me to where the Aetas were. Where he thought they were in danger because of the rising flood and the swelling river. We were ready to go until the driver said to me, "Father, the water is too high! We cannot proceed anymore." So, I said, "But I still want to meet the Aetas." And he said to me, "We can just ring the bell in the chapel and I'm sure they will come." So, we rang the bell at the chapel and after around 15 minutes of waiting, the Aetas were really coming down from the mountain going to the chapel.

I met a 60-year old lady Aeta, dressed in a party dress that certainly was not hers. And she was soaked up to the waist. So I asked her, "Ate, hanggang beywang po ba ang tubig?" Sabi niya sa akin, "Hindi po, lampas tao po!" Sabi ko, "E bakit po hanggang beywang lang ang nabasa sa inyo?" Sabi nya sa akin, "Naglagay lang po kami ng lubid para makatawid sa ilog. Naglambitin lang po kami sa lubid para makatawid dito, dahil narinig naming nagkakampana. Ang sabi ho ay nandidito kayo." Sabi ko, "Hindi naman ho ninyo kailangan, bakit pa ninyo kailangang maglambitin?" Sabi n'ya sa akin, "Gusto ko lang ho kayo makita!"

I felt very bad. I was troubled. I was not able to sleep that night. I felt guilty. I felt there was something wrong with me. There I was, their Bishop, apparently wanting to see them in their condition, but when I saw the floods rising, sabi ko, "I can wait for another day to see them." But here was this Aeta, so committed to her faith, willing to risk her life, her limbs her property just to be able to see her Pastor. I felt ashamed. I felt sad. I was troubled. I could not sleep. because I was face to face with Christ-like commitment.

My dear brothers and sisters in the Ministry of Catechetics, in the Ministry of Catholic Education, we have so much to share with one another. But let us not forget to listen to the voice of the poor, to listen to the voice of the marginalized because they have a beautiful lesson to teach us in commitment. God bless.