Basic Ecclesial Community Bible Bound to Renew the Church
Manila (AsiaNews) One of the highlights in this week's Congress of the Clergy at Manila's World Trade Center is tomorrow's launching of the Basic Ecclesial Community (BEC) Bible. The volume was commissioned by the Philippines Bible Society and the Episcopal Commission for the Biblical Apostolate (ECBA). The BEC Bible is presently available only in English and Tagalog but additional translations in other Filipino languages are being prepared. In the foreword, Bishop Arturo Bastes, president of the Commission, emphasises the importance of the volume in the renewal process of the Church. "Without the Bible," he said, "no BEC can be formed and sustained." At the back of the new volume, there are different modules for Gospel-sharing groups.
Father Oscar Alunday, SVD, told AsiaNews that "to renew the Church, make it the Church of the Poor, it is essential to keep BECs alive and spread the teachings of the Bible. It is the Bible which gives light to the issues and the concerns of the community. When the people gather for Bible sharings, they read the text and get to understand the concerns of their community."
Father Alunday explained that the first BEC was founded in Mindanao, in the southern Philippines, in 1960 and multiplied throughout the 1970s, when the country was under the Marcos dictatorship. "During martial rule people became stronger in their faith and struggled against injustice and oppression. The inspiration of people in small communities was the Word of God, because of the atmosphere of fear." In 1991, the Bishops' Conference insisted that the BEC experience be extended to the whole country. Still, by 2001 it was recognised that non all dioceses had responded.
Today, the second day of the Congress, Father Catalino Arevalo gave the keynote speech. He underlined the importance of the prayer of the priests, of how it is rooted in their calling and their vocation.
Father Broderick Pabillo of the Parish of St. Ezequiel Moreno, a remote village on Palawan Island, was one of those who shared his experience. In his village, there are 8,000 people, 7,500 of whom are Catholic. He compared and contrasted his present existence with his former life. He left the comfortable life of a city parish in order to perform his ministry among the indigenous people. Once he lived in places where churches were full, and priests had everything: food, books, mobile phones and Italian shoes. Now, he leads a simpler life, one in which "being poor does not simply mean being materially deprived. It includes, yes, the lack of things, but is not just reduced to it."
Living in an indigenous community as a poor priest, Father Pabillo, has learnt to rely on God who is the Father, to pay more attention to others than to things or money, to find happiness in doing even small things as long as they are done with love, to reach those who are marginalised, to let the Poor's way of life touch his own, to bear humiliations when they come.
Yesterday, as the inaugural speaker of the Congress, Cardinal Ricardo Vidal, Archbishop of Cebu, spoke about the priesthood referring to it as a gift and mystery thus making direct reference to the title of John Paul II's famous book. Newly-appointed Bishop Socrates Villegas of Balanga instead talked about the Paschal Mystery and the meaning of the priesthood.
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20/07/2004
