Welcome Address To Sisters Congress

WELCOME REMARKS

Rev. Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez, our beloved Bishop here in the Diocese, our dedicated Local Leaders of SOCSARGEN both from government and private sectors, the beautiful Governor of South Cotabato Governor Inday Daisy Fuentes, we have the two good looking gentlemen here the Governor of Sarangani Province Governor Migs Domingues and the City Mayor of General Santos City Mayor Jun Acharon, our religious and diocesan clergy in the Diocese of Marbel, our Delegates, Guests and Friends of the Association of Women Religious of SOCSARGEN, who are here, Maayong Gabii sa inyong tanan.

The 10th MSPC Sisters Congress, is one of the sectoral congresses of the Mindanao-Sulu Pastoral Conference by the Catholic Church in the archipelagic region of Mindanao. This year, the Association of Women Religious in SOCSARGEN is privileged to host this occasion. Like many congresses of women-religious in the past, this coming together of sisters is a gesture of our continuing communion with the Mindanao church who continually struggles to respond to the challenges of the times. Pope Benedict XVI, himself, continues to remind the religious about the importance of such communion. In his own words, he said that “…the consecrated person's constant commitment is to cultivate a sincere life of communion, not only in the individual communities but with the whole Church, because charisms should always be safeguarded, deepened and constantly developed in harmony with the Body of Christ continually in the process of growth" (Message to the Congregation’s Plenary Assembly, Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life).

It is in the spirit of this “life of communion” and “continual process of growth” that we want this Congress to seriously and deeply consider two important things: the context of the life-situation of the majority of Mindanawoans who are poor and marginalized, and the vision of a renewed Church of the Poor as put forward by PCPII, which constantly shape our life as women-religious in this region.

This Congress banners the theme: “Discerning Missionary Presence in Mindanao–Sulu”. It intends to highlight the fundamental task of women religious to constantly discern the movement of the Holy Spirit in our history. There are two aspects in the theme that the host of this Congress would like the participants to experience:

First, the inputs which may provide impetus to the presence of religious that demands the prophetic witnessing in the mission: When our group was discerning the direction to which this congress will proceed, we have considered both the national and local events. On the local scene, we have considered the situations that were happening to the missionaries here in Mindanao, especially during the 3rd quarter of 2007 and the 1st quarter of 2008. We have witness the untoward incidents of the kidnapping of Fr. Giancarlo Bossi, PIME in Lanao and the brutal killing of Fr. Rey Roda, OMI in Tabawan, Tawi-tawi. On the national scene, the anomalous deal of NBN-ZTE has brought into our national consciousness the gravity of the corruption in our government leadership. This display of callousness and indifference to morality in governance has revealed to us the poverty of social conscience that our society suffers today. Added to these are the alarming climate change as dramatically indicated by the natural calamities of typhoons, flashfloods, tornados, and the skirmishes or the armed conflict in the countryside - all of these events and situations are, indeed, “Signs of the Times” that demand our collective discernment and active response. There is no doubt, these life-and-death situations are challenging and raising questions on the quality of our missionary presence.

Second, the presence in the congress that will allow women-religious to experience the inconvenience as lived by the poor, the evacuees and the internally displaced persons (IDPs). The common experience of evacuations suffered my many of our poor always aggravates their already inconvenient life. The violence of pocket wars has driven the families of civilians to live in the household (school buildings, etc) where they are not familiar with.

In this Congress, we will definitely not experience typhoons, floods, tornadoes, and war. We, certainly, have evacuated ourselves from the comforts of our convent. But, not in order, to enjoy the comforts and amenities of world class convention centers. Here, we have opted not to offer you such convenience, but living simply in a manner that we taste the simple inconveniences of not having the resources at our disposal – the lifestyle of the poor. We hope to experience something different within the four days that we’ll be together. We invite you to relive/revisit the Old Testament experienced of the chosen people of God when they camped out/ put up tents and surrounded the tabernacle of YAHWEH – whose presence they experienced in their midst.

The participants of the Congress will stay in the tents for those who made the choice. Tents will be provided but it will be in group of three or four persons in one shelter/tent. The participants who have access to individual tent were encouraged to bring their own. There’s enough space for individual tent.

However, like our poor people who still celebrate life despite the painful inconvenience of material poverty, let us have fun. Let us kick the old habits of comfort and allow ourselves to savour joyfully the newness that comes from the Spirit of simplicity itself, the Spirit that molds a simple lifestyle.

To the delegates we hope that you will feel at home with the simplicity of lifestyle and may you relish the beauty of SOCSARGEN, the Sarangani Bay, the festivity of Yaman Gensan and the T’nalak Festival of South Cotabato.

So sa inyong lahat WELCOME and be NOURISHED.