PHILIPPINES, Mindanao: Christmas celebration shows progress in Interreligious Dialogue

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'Christmas Celebration Shows Progress In Interreligious Dialogue In South' - [UCAN Interview]

MANILA (UCAN) -- The bishop of a southern Philippine prelature that has a predominantly Muslim population considers it a sign of progress that Muslims joined Christians to celebrate Christ's birth.

The celebration on Dec. 14 was sponsored by Ranao Muslim-Christian Movement for Dialogue and Peace, Bishop Edwin de la Pena of Marawi told UCA News.

The Ranao movement was established in 1992 with Bishop Fernando Capalla of Iligan (now archbishop of Davao) and Columban Father Desmond Hartford, then administrator of Marawi prelature. Marawi City in Lanao del Sur province, 820 kilometers southeast of Manila, is near Iligan City in Lanao del Norte.

Clashes between armed groups at that time triggered the establishment of the movement to prevent groups from sowing terror and enmity between Muslims and Christians in the two provinces, then-Bishop Capalla told UCA News at that time. Christmas and other Christian celebrations and liturgies sometimes were tempered by acts or fears of violence and by sensitivity to local culture.

The Ranao movement, comprised of faculty members of Mindanao State University (MSU) in Marawi, attempted to involve local communities in interreligious dialogue through monthly meetings of 10 "ulama" (Islamic scholars) and other Muslim religious leaders and an equal number of Christian religious leaders.

In an interview with UCA News on the day of the Christmas celebration, Bishop de la Pena, 51, noted the extent of the movement's influence, as reflected in the celebration. He acknowledged pioneering efforts at a "dialogue of life" between Muslims and Christians by Marawi's first prelate, the late Bishop Bienvenido Tudtud.

A member of the Mission Society of the Philippines, Bishop de la Pena was installed prelate of Marawi on Aug. 12, 2000, four months before his episcopal ordination. Less than 5 percent of the 885,000 people in its territory are Catholics. He discussed challenges confronting the prelature, which has suffered from separatist wars fueled by centuries of attempts to subjugate local Muslims, coupled with corruption and neglect by government officials.

Since the late 1980s, a Protestant minister, a French priest and 12 Carmelite nuns have been kidnapped in Marawi. A grenade thrown in the bishop's house in 1994 killed a worker, and in August 2001, kidnappers shot dead Father Rufus Halley when the Irish Columban missioner refused to yield to them. The Carmelite nuns left the prelature after the killing.

During the interview, Bishop de la Pena, also chairman of the Episcopal Commission on Mission, shared his hopes for the Church and the Maranao people of Marawi, and for the Church's missionary work in Asia and the world.

The interview follows:
UCA News: How does the Church celebrate Christmas in your predominantly Muslim prelature?
BISHOP EDWIN DE LA PENA OF MARAWI: We are freer now than in any previous year. The peace and order situation here has improved since the killing of Father Halley. Now people come for Simbang Gabi (pre-dawn Advent novena Masses) without fear. They are no longer security-conscious about being out alone so early. We have experienced this peaceful situation now for the last four years. We all feel very much at home and at peace now. Many activities are scheduled at night now, whereas before it was impossible. We relish this very much.

What is the pastoral situation in Marawi?
We have four parishes including the cathedral and one quasi-parish here in Marawi. A chaplain is assigned in the Mindanao State University. I work with 11 priests. The majority of our 43,000 Catholics live in the remote areas.

What has changed in the Church in Marawi since your installation as prelate?
We are reaping the many fruits of the work started by Bishop Benny (Tudtud) some 25 years ago. Today I just came from a Muslim-sponsored Duyog Pag Pasko (accompanying at Christmas) held at the Mindanao State University. In 1980, Bishop Tudtud started Duyog nga Ramadan, in which Christians fast with their neighbors during the Muslim holy month. This is the first time the Muslim community has responded to that initiative by celebrating with us the birth of Jesus. This is a milestone of progress.

What is Duyog Pag Pasko?
About 100 religious leaders and members of MSU community had an interfaith prayer service for an hour followed by a parade through the city. After the parade, we had breakfast together and listened to a talk by Elias Macarandas (a leading ulama and member of the Tripartite Commission of the Bishops-Ulama Conference) on the "Miraculous Birth of Jesus." I followed with a talk on "Jesus the Prince of Peace and Mercy for the World." Later we had a choir competition and door prizes were handed out. There were also awards for cultural presentations.

What is the significance of the festivity and religious rituals?
In Duyog nga Ramadan, we dialogue with Muslims in our parishes through seminars and workshops so Christians learn more about the Islamic faith and the Maranao culture. The more we understand, the better we will be able to dialogue with them. Some of the speakers are Muslim ulama or tribal leaders. The bishop and priests who are always present also speak.

In the late 1980s, these gatherings stopped for a while when leftist groups used them to advance their programs, but I restarted them when I took over.

The Dec. 14 activity shows us we have come a long way in the last 25 years in the area of interreligious dialogue. I am very excited about this Ranao Muslim-Christian Movement for Dialogue and Peace. More and more Muslims are joining our group. We are seeing many more peace advocates from the Muslim community and not all are religious and academe leaders as before. We are attracting young people and second-liners, so we will keep up all of our programs in this area to work for peace.

I like that I have a chance to share the Good News and that people outside of here learn that we have many good things going on here in our small Church. It is good to see also as we can become more active, and that it is all because we are only reaping the fruits from the seeds sown by Bishop Benny and Father Desmond Hartford.

What have been the effects of reported outward migration due to warfare?
The Christian population has actually increased. More Christians are coming in looking for work. There are plenty of opportunities for work here, especially manual and domestic types of work. The people who come here are usually from the Visayas (central Philippines region) and other Mindanao provinces. Most are from the lower class looking for work, and they can find it here. Maybe some businesspeople may move out, but not the ones in manual labor.

What main challenges will confront the Church in Marawi in the coming year?
Vocations are a challenge for us. We have a volunteer priest from Malaybalay (diocese just east of Marawi), who used to work with the late Father Halley. We have an MSP (Missionaries of St. Paul) priest who has been helping us and five Religious priests with four diocesan priests. None of our diocesan priests are originally from this area, though. One who is a delayed vocation is now my vicar general.

We have decided that in the future we will work harder on vocations and rely on our own homegrown priests. This is because we have had bad experiences with applicants from outside and so we said let us develop our own. We have three seminarians at present: one is in theology and two are still in college, but it is a good start for us. We have a priest who is now our vocation director who is looking among the youth for possible candidates.

We only have two schools in the prelature and we need more. We are very passionate about our desire to build more high schools. We see them as an important vehicle to get children when they are very young to educate them in the area of peace and dialogue.

We have very ambitious plans for the future. We are trying to start very much earlier than high school so we also hope to open more primary and prep schools to get to the children earlier. Parents are asking the Church to open elementary schools because they feel their children are not getting a good basic education in the public schools. In June 2006 we plan to open our first prep school on the campus of MSU in the city. It will be a service to the community especially the university faculty and workers. The plans are almost ready for the opening of the school year in June 2006.

Are there Religious sisters in the prelature?
We have two communities of the Missioners of the Assumption, based in Davao (about 180 kilometers southeast of Marawi). The two communities run our two schools.

But here is the good news for us here in Marawi. In 2007 the Carmelite Sisters will be back with us. They will "refound" Marawi Carmel. They are in the process of recruiting new members for the community and, hopefully, by 2007 they will open. Congregation members have been asking me to pray hard for this. I never expected that they would approve our request to reopen the convent. Part of the conditions for the refounding of Carmel, though, is since it is not a reopening, none of the former members can return. The community will be of entirely new sisters.

Are there Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs) in Marawi?
They are strong, but we have different types of basic communities in Marawi. The dialogue component is central to our basic communities. BECs are "open communities" in that they have to reach out to their Muslim neighbors so that eventually our people will not form basic Christian communities among themselves, but form "human communities" with Muslims. It is, in a sense, making little "zones of peace."

We have a real success story of that type in our prelature. We have a small Christian community in an area with a very large Muslim population called Maladig. The coastal town along the Illana Bay has a dynamic lay leader named Bob Anton who is the prime mover for a zone of peace. Mr. Anton is a Christian with many Muslim relatives, and he has used the BEC there to bring about a true zone for peace.

In the last five years we had good progress both with dialogue and peace through many of our BECs. It all started with the ideas of Bishop Tudtud to learn to engage in a "dialogue of life" with our neighbors.

What about the possibility of having lay missioners in Marawi?
There is a possibility, as different lay mission groups have approached me and I invited them to come and see us here. I told them our stance is (that) we don't invite people to come to work here. We invite them to come and see and if later on they have a special call to come and work in Marawi, they are welcome.

What are your hopes for the missionary work of the Philippine Church?
I hope we get more missionary awareness in the Churches of Asia. I also hope for more cooperation or mission interchange where missioners from other countries will come here to the Philippines and Filipino missioners will be sent to more Asian countries. There are so many possibilities that are open if only we learn to work together and coordinate our efforts.

How can this be done?
I am representing the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines in planning for an Asian Mission Congress (planned for October 2006) in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We have already had three preparatory meetings, and we will meet again in January for the final meeting in Bangkok. I am very positive about the Congress. For our part in the Philippines, we keep up all our efforts towards mission "ad gentes" (among people who are not Christians). Other places in Asia, like Korea, are very strong on the call to mission.

END

PM9449.1374    January 4, 2006