austraLasia #2673 Year of Youth in the Philippines - a "providential opportunity"
MANILA: 13 July 2010 -- The Catholic Bishops Conference of the
Philippines (CBCP) declared 2011,
in its 18 July 2010
meeting, to be the Year of Youth in the Philippines. Upon
the request of the FIN Province, in coordination with the FIS, the Year
of Youth in the country begins on 16 December 2010, the first day of
the nation’s novena dawn masses in preparation for Christmas. This
Philippine tradition called the “misa de gallo” is meant “to preserve
the Catholic faith” in this largely Catholic country in Asia, and the
first day of these novena masses is dedicated for the intention of the
evangelization of youth.
In their letter of request to the bishops, FIN
mentioned the visit of the casket of St. John Bosco to FIS (5-22 Dec)
and to FIN (23 Dec-15 Jan) as a reason to begin the year of youth at
the start of the liturgical year, not the civil or school year. The
bishops indeed recognized
this visit of “the father and teacher of youth” as a “providential
opportunity.”
While this provides an opportunity for FIN and FIS
to make known the person and the mission of St. John Bosco to the
larger church and society, the responsibility for the evangelization of
the youth of the Philippines becomes for the confreres now much wider
than those of their own educative-pastoral communities. _________________ AustraLasia is an
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