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SUMMARY REPORT ON THE MAIN ACTIVITIES
AND EVENTS
IN THE PERIOD 1990 – 2000
(Prepared by Most Rev. Leonardo Z. Legaspi,
O.P. D.D. in the Year 2000)
THE PEOPLE WORKING AT ECCCE AND FOR ECCCE
The people working at ECCCE, of course, are the Chairman
and the permanent Staff, headed by the Executive Secretary.
In these past eleven years ECCCE has had three Chairmen
and as many Executive Secretaries. The Chairmen have
been:
Bishop Federico O. Escaler (December 1988-'91);
Bishop Manuel C. Sobreviñas (December 1991-'94),
and yours truly (December 1994 to the present)
The Executive Secretaries have been more or less co-terminus
with the Chairmen who invited them to work in the ECCCE
office. They have been the following:
Sr. Rose Celestial, RVM (December 1988- April '92);
Sr. Aurora Velasco, DC (April 1992-December 1994),
and
Fr. Salvatore Putzu, SDB (December 1994 to 2001).
It has to be noted that from November 1995 to 2000,
the ECCCE Secretariat has also had an Assistant Executive
Secretary in the person of Sr. Cristina Guytingco, SPC.
She has been the one reporting regularly to the office
in Intramuros and attending to the ordinary transactions,
entertaining visitors as well as taking care of the
DOCETE circulation and the accounting, while Fr. Salvatore
Putzu has been doing his share of work in his Makati
office, focusing his attention on the preparation of
the issues of DOCETE, representing the Chairman in the
CEAP Board meetings and other CEAP Activities, and going
around the country giving seminars on the CFC, the CCC
and other ECCCE publications.
Over these years the ECCCE staff has undergone a considerable
streamlining, due mostly to financial constraints. An
office like that of our Commission would surely need
more than the two members it has been relying on for
the past three years.
The people working for ECCCE are the Bishop Members
of the Commission, the members of the Advisory Council,
and the Consultants and various experts on whom we call
whenever their work is needed for a specific project.
Many of the great projects promoted by ECCCE would
not have materialized had it not been for the solidarity
of our Bishop Members, and the generous help of several
members of our Advisory Council, our Consultants and
Experts. Allow me to mention some who have been very
helpful and who have already gone to receive their well-deserved
reward from the Lord in these past years. They are:
Fr. Lino Banayad, SJ; Fr. Cornelius Lagerway, MSC; Fr.
Paul Brunner, SJ; and Fr. Pedro de Achutegui, SJ.
Others who are still alive and still continue to work
for ECCCE will be mentioned in connection with specific
projects to which they have contributed or are still
contributing.
REGULAR SERVICES OF ANIMATION AND COORDINATION
This form of service is one of the main duties of
the Commission. It has to be admitted that, though our
areas of concern are CATECHESIS and EDUCATION, over
the past eleven years (and even before) ECCCE has concentrated
almost exclusively on CATECHESIS as the area that seemed
most in need of attention. Consequently, it left the
concerns of Education, and especially Catholic Education,
mostly to CEAP. Occasionally, however, ECCCE has done
its share even in the field of education like when,
for example, it drafted the "Supplementary Ordinances"
for the implementation of "Ex Corde Ecclesiae';
prepared for CEAP (to be submitted to DECS) a position
paper on the government-sponsored modules on sex education
in public schools, and spearheaded the preparation of
a CBCP Letter of Support for private schools against
the proposed "Magna Carta" for Students.
Among the "Regular Services of Animation and Coordination"
I would like to mention the very precious work done
by our secretariat in the office: welcoming visitors;
answering inquiries about catechetical matters and activities;
making available catechetical materials; giving seminars
during diocesan and regional gatherings of catechetical
ministers; developing the yearly theme and related materials
for the celebration of the National Catechetical Week,
and continuing the publication of the catechetical review
DOCETE.
EXCEPTIONAL FORMS OF ANIMATION ACTIVITIES
Under this title fall those activities which are "exceptional"
in their importance and in the organizational effort
they have entailed.
Among the main ones I would like to mention are the
following:
- the organization of National and Regional Catechetical
Conventions;
- the organization of Seminars/Workshops on the CCC
and the CFC, and
- the holding of national surveys on the catechetical
situation.
Specifically, I would like to single out the following:
- the "National Catechetical Year," launched
in Cebu in January 1990 with its theme: "Every
Christian, a Catechist" and concluded in Manila
in December of the same year;
- the three-day National Catechetical Congress, held
in December 1990;
- the "Catechists' Formators' Convention,"
held in Manila in 1991;
- the National Catechetical Seminar-Workshop, held
in Jaro, Iloilo in October 1992;
- a series of Regional Catechetical Seminar-Workshops,
partly funded by WEKEF, to assist the dioceses in
the training of catechist formators who will implement
the 'Catechists' Basic Formation Program' according
to their own needs and resources;
- the Regional Catechetical Convention, held in Davao
in November 1993;
- the Introductory two-day Seminar on the CFC given
to the Bishops in January 1994;
- the Northern Luzon Regional Catechetical SeminarWorkshop,
held in Baguio in October 1994;
- the Bicol Region Catechists' Formators Seminar
Workshop, held in Naga in August 1995;
- the Catechetical Seminar-Workshop for the Formators
of Catechists of the Visayas Region, held in Cebu
City in August 1996.
- We also held numerous two-day introductory seminar-workshops
on the CFC.
To mention the main ones:
a. The Seminar given in Rome to the Filipino student
priests;
b. The Seminar-Workshops given to priests, catechetical
formators and coordinators and catechists of the dioceses
of San Fernando, Pampanga; DADITAMA; Davao; Northern
Luzon; CABUST AM; Lipa; San Fernando, La Union; Urdaneta.
12. We also presented the CFC at the National Catholic
Educators Congress, held at the PICC in Manila on
January 29-30,
1998.
Among the "Exceptional Forms of Animation Activities"
we should include also:
13. the participation as resource persons in the
series of seminar-workshops organized by CEAP on the
theme "Religion as Core of the Curriculum";
14. the holding of a National Survey on the Catechetical
Situation in Public Schools; and
15. recently, the holding of a Survey on the Catechetical
Situation in the Pastoral Setting at the beginning
of the Third
Millennium.
To be included in this type of service is, likewise:
16. the preparation, with the collaboration of CEAP's
legal office, of a detailed Position Paper on the
teaching of Religion in public schools. That Position
Paper was used as the basis for "House Bill 509"
for the introduction of a law meant to rationalize
religious instruction in public schools. (That House
Bill was presented by Senators Angara, Herrera and
Alvarez but was not discussed because it was not certified
as "Urgent." Its basic content, however,
was taken up by Secretary Ricardo Gloria and inserted
in his last DECS Memo on Religious Instruction in
public schools Vv1lich set a minimum of 80 minutes
per week, allowed teachers of other subjects to teach
religion if duly authorized by the religious authorities,
and gave the possibility of allotting to Religion
classes 2 of the 5 periods per week normally assigned
to Values Education.)
Another important form of animation service, which
extended beyond the Philippines were:
17. the participation as resource persons by the
Bishop Chairman and the Executive Secretary in the
PanAsian Conference on
Catechesis, organized by FABC and held in Singapore
in October 1995, and
18. the participation as resource persons in the
First National Conference of Catechist of Malaysia.
Of unique value and importance were:
19. the innumerable sessions held by the Editorial
Committee of the National Catechism to examine the
remarks received from Rome, and prepare our Responses.
These tedious and sometimes painful interactions reached
their climax in
20. the dialogue held at the Vatican in January
1997 between the Philippine delegation and the Vatican
panel of experts to obtain the approval of the CFC.
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