The Redemptorists’ Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish in Davao City. Photo courtesy of the parish’s Facebook page
The Way of the Cross at 5:45 p.m. on Friday, March 13 will be held inside the church along Bajada, for parishioners to reflect on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines’ theme on the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity on March 16, 2021: “Dialogue Towards Harmony, Integrating Inter-Religious Dialogue (Dialogue with Other Faith Traditions), Indigenous Peoples (Dialogue with Other Cultures) and Ecumenism (Dialogue with other Christians).
March 16, 2020 is the 499th years after the first indigenous Filipinos embraced Catholicism. It is also the 83rd Araw ng Dabaw but the activities in the city have been cancelled due to the COVID-19.
In its advisory, the Redemptorist Church said the CBCP theme “is further interfaced with Care for the Earth, the subject of Pope Francis apostolic exhortation Laudato Si and which he also tackled in the most recent Synod document Querida Amazona,” the Redemptorists said in an advisory.
Instead of the usual Way of the Cross format, the Redemptorist Church is appropriating the same format – with the 14 stations of the Cross – “in a manner that will reflect our desire to seek God’s forgiveness for all the transgressions we have committed against promoting dialogue as well as care for our common home – the planet.”
“Apart from asking God’s forgiveness for the usual personal and private sins we commit, during this Way of the Cross we seek God’s pardon for sins we have committed against our neighbors of different religions and cultures, as well as the sins we have committed against Mother Nature,” the advisory said.
The parishioners of the Mother of Perpetual Help Parish, the churchgoers to the Redemptorist church and the general public are invited to join the Way of the Cross as well as the Lenten reflection “as part of their entering into the spirit of the Holy Week.”
On Holy Monday, April 5, several speakers have been invited to talk inside the church from 7 to 9:30 p.m. on the theme “Deepening our Commitment to Care for the Earth considering the Climate Emergency the World is Facing Today.”
The Lenten talk will integrate songs, poetry, video clips and dramatizations.
Seminarian Marty Sculdito, CSsR will talk on “Global and National Ecological Situationer;” environmentalists Norma Javellana, a Datu Bago awardee, and her husband Arnold Vandenbroeck – founders of Interfacing Development Interventions for Sustainability or IDIS – will speak on “The looming Water Crisis of Davao City.
Redemptorist Brother Karl Gaspar, CSsR, also a Datu Bago awardee and co-founder of IDIS, will talk on the “Urgent Call of the Church to Respond to the Climate Emergency;” while Deacon Joey Trillo, CSsR and Ms Hannie Santillan, staff of the Redemptorist Center for Social and Ecological Concern, will discuss “Concrete Responses that Davao Citizens can engage in vis-à-vis Ecological Advocacy.”
The singer-songwriters who will render songs include Dabawenyos Popong Landero, Maan Chua and Sheila Labos. They will sing their own compositions related to the environment.[]
Other performers will sing songs composed by ASIN, Gary Granada, Nars Fernandez and Bishop Manny Cabajar CSsR.[]