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Herald Malaysia
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Herald Malaysia
Filipinos mourn priest-turned-peace negotiator
Luis Gamboa Jalandoni is credited with several landmark peace deals between govt and communists Jun 09, 2025 Luis Gamboa Jalandoni is seen in this file image. (Courtesy: MANILA: People in the Catholic-majority Philippines have paid tributes to Luis Gamboa Jalandoni, a former Catholic priest turned peace negotiator between the government and communist rebels, who passed away on June 7. Jalandoni, former chairman of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), a peace negotiating body of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), died in Utrecht, the Netherlands, at the age of 90, his family members confirmed. He had been living in the European country in self-imposed exile after the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte labelled him a terrorist in 2022 after the breakdown of peace talks between the government and communists. 'We express our condolences to Ka Louie's family, whose love, strength, and support accompanied him through decades of service to the Filipino people's revolutionary cause,' the NDFP and CPP said in a joint statement on June 7. Ka stands for 'elder brother' in Filipino. The statement hailed Jalandoni as a person 'beloved by the masses, a true internationalist, revolutionary leader and stalwart of peace.' Jalandoni was born in 1935 to a wealthy landowning family in Negros Occidental province. He joined priestly formation and was ordained a priest. He served as the head of Social Action Committee of Diocese of Bacolod in Negros Occidental and in 1972, he established Christians for National Liberation, a faith-based underground revolutionary movement that supported the communist's armed struggle during the martial law regime of President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. He was arrested in 1973 along with Catholic nun Coni Ledesma, also a member of the revolutionary group. Both were released in 1974 and sought the Vatican's dispensation to leave religious life. They married the same year, and their marriage was solemnized by Cardinal Jaime Sin of Manila, who is hailed for being a central figure in the 1986 People Power Revolution that toppled the iron-fisted Marcos regime. Jalandoni joined NDFP, and in 1977, he became the group's international representative. From 1989 to 2016, he served as the chief peace negotiator on behalf of the communists. The CPP has been infamously waging one of the world's longest insurgencies for nearly five decades, which claimed an estimated 40,000 lives in conflicts. Its armed wing, the National People's Army (NPA), is designated as a terrorist outfit by the Philippine government. Jalandoni is credited with several landmark peace deals between the government and the communists over the years. Progressive group, Bayan Muna, in its June 7 statement, said Jalandoni's death is 'a big loss to the quest for a just and lasting peace in our country.' The group's vice president and former parliamentarian, Carlos Isagani Zarate, hailed him for 'decades-long dedication to the pursuit of just and lasting peace.' 'From a wealthy landowning family in Negros Occidental to a Catholic priest and eventually becoming a revolutionary – Ka Louie's journey reflects his genuine conversion to the cause of the poor and marginalized. He literally gave up his inheritance to landless workers and dedicated his life to their liberation,' Zarate said. He continued to represent the NDFP for peace talks with the current government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr despite being in exile. In a statement, Pilgrims for Peace, an interfaith alliance promoting peace and harmony, paid tributes to Jalandoni, calling him 'a gentle warrior for just peace in the Philippines.' Among the alliance members are top Christian leaders including Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos City in Negros Occidental. The state's main anti-insurgency body, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, said Jalandoni's efforts earned him respect despite differences of opinion. 'Even as we hold firm to truth and accountability, we acknowledge this deep loss for those who shared their lives with Jalandoni,' Ernesto Torres Jr., the task force's executive director, said in a statement on June
San Francisco Chronicle
08-05-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Bay Area reacts to first American pope: ‘We are being given a seat at the big boy table'
As the first American pope greeted the multitudes at St. Peter's Square Thursday, many Catholics and non-Catholics 10,000 miles away in the Bay Area celebrated the selection of the moderate if not liberal-leaning pontiff — who recently chastised Vice President J.D. Vance 's biblical knowledge in a tweet. Chicago native Robert Prevost, now christened Leo XIV, is the 267th pope, elected by the church's cardinals to lead the 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide, while holding significant cultural and political sway among the most powerful leaders. Leo XIV, who spent much of his career in Peru and has dual citizenship there, replaced Pope Francis, who broadened the church's views on LGBTQ issues, while also advocating for action on climate change, immigration and human rights. In Oakland, Keith Bachman, an Oakland native visiting his parents from Portland, decided to visit the Oakland Cathedral with his sister during their morning walk near Lake Merritt after hearing the news of a new pope. 'We hope that the movement for social justice that Francis started continues,' he said, adding he didn't know much about Prevost. 'We certainly need more people holding up fairness and justice.' The choice of an American pope, albeit one with a long missionary sojourn in Peru, was unexpected. The United States is predominantly Protestant, as opposed to the Catholic-majority countries that have produced more popes. Former President Barack Obama offered his sentiments via social media shortly after the announcement. 'Michelle and I send our congratulations to a fellow Chicagoan, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV,' he said. 'This is a historic day for the United States, and we will pray for him as he begins the sacred work of leading the Catholic Church and setting an example for so many, regardless of faith.' In San Francisco, Father Michael Liliedahl, who is in residence at St. Stephens and director of campus ministry at San Francisco State, said he was indeed surprised by the choice. 'I never expected to have an American pope in my lifetime," he said, adding the fact that the new pope was born and raised in Chicago and educated at Villanova sends the message that the US counts, 'We are being given a seat at the big boy table. The church has always been a very European centered organization.' But Liliedahl also pointed out that Pope Leo the 14th had done most of his ministry in Peru. "You can tell his time in Peru and the small villages he worked in had a profound impact on him,' he said. 'At the very very beginning he talked about peace, bringing peace to the family, bringing peace to the world." Liliedahl noted the new pope's choice of the name Leo. 'Both Leo I and Leo XIII talked about the dignity of the human person,' he said. 'I think there is a great continuity from Francis who would stand up for the human person whether that person be a migrant, the refugee, the unborn, the death row inmate, the outcast, the poor." Leo XIV has not been afraid to stand up against those sitting in the highest seats of power. In February, he twice repudiated the views of Vice President Vance, a Catholic, who had argued that prioritizing one's own country is a just and natural 'ordo amoris,' or order of love. '[Y]ou love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country, and then after that you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world,' Vance said. 'JD Vance is wrong,' Prevost wrote in a Feb. 3 tweet. 'Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love.' Prevost then followed it up with another post on Feb.12, citing a letter from Pope Francis that also challenged Vance: 'Christian love,' the former pope wrote, 'is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups.' 'For many of us, the name Leo XIV happily brings to mind Leo XIII's Rerum novarum which was a blessing for working people,' she said. 'And it is heartening that His Holiness continued the blessing that Pope Francis gave on Easter Sunday: 'God loves everyone. Evil will not prevail.'
Irish Times
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Ireland an ‘outlier' in requiring religious certs to teach in most primary schools
Only countries such as Saudi Arabia *, Iran and Pakistan share the requirement of Irish primary schools for teachers to have religious certificates in order to teach in most settings, a teachers' conference has heard. Almost 90 per cent of primary schools are under Catholic patronage where a religious certificate is required to teach due to the way religion is integrated into the curriculum. At the Irish National Teachers' Organisation 's (INTO) annual congress in Galway on Wednesday, primary teachers backed calls for the removal of the Catholic certificate requirement. They also supported calls for the repeal of legislation which permits schools to discriminate in hiring on the basis of religion. READ MORE Jason Kenny, a Dublin-based teacher, speaking at the annual congress of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation in Galway. Photograph: Moya Nolan Jason Kenny, a Dublin-based teacher, told the congress that Ireland was an outlier internationally. 'I looked at other western democracies – countries like the UK, the United States, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand. All of them maintain secular public-school systems. Even in Catholic-majority countries like Spain and Italy, the vast majority of public schools are secular,' he said. [ Pope Francis's remains moved to St Peter's Basilica as public begin to pay respects Opens in new window ] 'Religious certificates are only needed to teach religion – not every subject. Ireland is the outlier. Who else requires religious certificate to teach in the majority of public primary schools? 'Countries like Saudi Arabia*, Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia, Egypt and UAE – many of these are countries without a clear separation of church and state; some are not democracies at all.' Alana Wilhem, a primary teacher based in Blessington, Co Wicklow, spoke of having to 'hide her non-religious identity' until recently. 'I taught in my school for 14 years. My colleagues are kind, but genuine belonging means being able to share who you truly are without fear,' she said. 'Only recently ... did I speak openly, a moment that was both terrifying and necessary. I knew I might be risking future employment opportunities, but I'm an adult and I can carry that weight.' Alana Wilhelm speaking at the annual congress of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation in Galway. Photograph: Moya Nolan She also spoke of how one of her children – who attends a local Catholic school – was upset when she had ashes placed on her forehead against her wishes. 'She was upset and afterwards the teacher tried to wash them off. These moments of othering happen every day through ritual, routine and message that imply 'you don't belong',' Ms Wilhem said. 'We cannot champion inclusion while reserving systems of exclusion.' Delegates adopted the recommendations of a union taskforce on the future of religious education and primary school patronage, which calls for an acceleration of divestment of religious schools and a more 'equitable, inclusive and modern' education system. Some delegates, however, spoke in favour of maintaining choice within the education system rather than moving towards a secular system. Hazel McWey, a school principal in Co Carlow, said she was a practising Catholic and that parents were entitled to school choice under the Constitution. 'We don't need to throw the baby out with the Baptismal water,' she said. Helena Teehan, a teacher from Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, said Catholic schools were very accommodating and made 'wonderful efforts' to include all children, regardless of their background. She said the religion of teachers did not come up in the staffroom and that having choice in the system helped to vindicate parents' rights. The embassy of Saudi Arabia has since clarified that the Saudi ministry of education 'does not require teachers in primary schools to hold any religious certificates'.
The Star
26-04-2025
- General
- The Star
Blessed ray of hope after the storm
Fourteen months after the deadliest storm in the country's history, Pope Francis stood on a rain-swept stage to deliver a message of hope to the battered town of Tacloban. It was desperately needed, mayor Alfred Romualdez said on Aprl 22, a day after the pontiff died in Rome. Already in his late 70s, the pope had insisted on making the January 2015 trip to the central Philippines despite an approaching storm. 'He didn't have to do that. He didn't have to come here in bad weather. He could have waited for three or four more days,' said Romualdez. Just over a year earlier, Super Typhoon Haiyan had left more than 7,000 people dead or missing after it slammed into Leyte province and the surrounding areas. The storm and the massive waves it generated flattened entire coastal communities that were already among the poorest in the Catholic-majority country, leaving mass graves, collapsed homes and dazed survivors in its wake. '(People) were asking a lot of questions, and they were important questions. It affected their faith... they were shattered,' said Romualdez. 'We lost 500 children, so people were starting to question... These children were innocent. Why did they have to die?' 'Was I a sinner?' 'The pope gave us hope,' Jenita Aguilar said of his 2015 visit. Her seven-year-old son Junko was among the hundreds of lost children. The 53-year-old still remembers the moment Haiyan's surging winds and floodwaters ripped her son from his uncle's arms as the family clung to the unfinished rooftop of a store. They would spend two days walking through Tacloban's villages searching piles of bodies – human and livestock – in hopes of finding him. Sometimes she still imagines him alive, rescued and living safely in someone else's home, his memories of his parents wiped away by trauma. 'I was asking God why it had to happen. Was I a sinner?' she said through tears. With grief driving a wedge in her marriage, Aguilar said she went outside to catch a glimpse of the passing Popemobile on the day Pope Francis spoke in Tacloban. To her surprise, the pontiff reached down and clasped her hand, delivering a blessing. 'It was a sign the Lord still loved me,' she said, tightly clutching a rosary the pontiff personally handed her that day. 'God used (the pope) as a bridge for me and my husband to return to Him.' A heart at ease Aguilar's neighbour Gina Henoso, 50, was among the sea of 200,000 that turned out in heavy rain that day to watch Pope Francis conduct his Mass at the Tacloban airport. Dressed in a thin yellow rain poncho, identical to the one worn by the pope onstage, she walked two hours from her home to reach the venue. It was nothing compared with the hours she had spent wandering in search of food each day after Haiyan, she said. 'When I saw him, I was reminded that I was really alive,' Henoso said, her voice cracking. At the storm's peak, she and her seven children had been forced to squeeze into a neighbour's cramped toilet as they waited for authorities to evacuate them. 'I still have nightmares about what happened... I'm still anxious whenever it rains.' She described walking 'with dead bodies all around just to look for milk for my children'. But the pain lifted for her that rainy January day, she said. 'The rain was hard, but when you see him in his Popemobile, there's something about it that makes your heart at ease.' 'With his flock' 'How do you mourn ... (when) you don't have a roof over your head, you have a lot of dead, and you still have to prepare for your next meal?' Father Chris Militante asked. The priest, who serves as media director for the Archdiocese of Palo, said he had every reason to fear his parishioners would begin to doubt their faith after Haiyan's devastation. But when the pope arrived in Tacloban, he didn't pretend to have easy answers. 'Maybe you have a lot of questions. Maybe I don't know the answers. But I am here,' he remembers Pope Francis saying during the Mass. And it was his presence that mattered, said Militante. 'In spite of the devastation... God was with us through the (pope's) presence,' he said of that day. 'We didn't worry.' A decade on, the priest said he hopes people will remember Pope Francis as he chooses to – as a shepherd 'being with his flock'. '(Pope Francis said) that you have to smell like the sheep, and he did. He walked the talk.' With all eyes now turning to Rome, where a conclave will determine Pope Francis's successor, Aguilar, the grieving mother, insists she knows exactly what kind of man is right for the job. 'Someone who will treat Filipinos the way Pope Francis treated us,' she said. 'Someone who would go back to Tacloban again.' — AFP
Express Tribune
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
List of world leaders heading to Pope Francis' funeral
Listen to article A host of world leaders and dignitaries have begun arriving in Rome to pay their final respects to Pope Francis, whose funeral is set to take place on Saturday, April 26, at St Peter's Square in Vatican City. Although the late pope, who passed away earlier this week at age 88, had requested a modest ceremony, the event is expected to draw one of the largest gatherings of international figures in recent memory, with 170 foreign dignitaries expected to attend. The funeral will begin at 10:00 am CET and, in a break from traditional papal rites, the pontiff will be buried in a simple wooden coffin at Santa Maria Maggiore — his favored basilica during his life. Pope Francis, known for his humility and outspoken advocacy for the poor and marginalized, had expressed his wish for a simpler burial. Despite the understated nature of the ceremony, the political and symbolic weight of his passing has drawn global attention. World's dignitaries Among those attending are US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Representatives from the UK's royal family, including Prince William, will also be present. Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose country has the world's largest Catholic population, and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, will represent key Catholic-majority nations. European and global leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Indian President Droupadi Murmu, will also join the ceremony. Argentina's President Javier Milei will represent the pope's homeland, despite past tensions between the two leaders. While the occasion serves as a moment of global unity, it is not without diplomatic undertones. Pope Francis had openly disagreed with several leaders during his lifetime — notably Donald Trump over immigration, and Italy's Giorgia Meloni on migration policy. Notably absent are Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, both of whom are under international scrutiny and subject to arrest warrants over alleged war crimes. The funeral, though modest in scale by design, underscores Pope Francis's influence on global affairs and the Catholic Church's evolving role in modern times. As the world prepares to bid farewell, the gathering also sets the stage for the Church's next chapter.
