‘Poverty, migration for jobs breaking up families’

MANILA, Philippines - Pope Francis warned yesterday of the many dangers to Filipino families, including “natural, economic and destructive lifestyles” that threaten their integrity and break up the basic unit of society.

“The pressures on family life today are many,” the pontiff said in a speech at the Mall of Asia Arena during his encounter with Filipino families.

He said that in the Philippines, countless families are still suffering from the effects of natural disasters.

Pope Francis said economic difficulties have also caused families to be separated by migration and the search for employment, and financial problems strain many households.

“While all too many people live in dire poverty, others are caught up in materialism and lifestyles which are destructive of family life and the most basic demands of Christian morality,” the pope said.

“The family is also threatened by growing efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution of marriage, by relativism, by the culture of the ephemeral, by a lack of openness to life. Our world needs good and strong families to overcome these threats,” he said.

The event convened families faced with the “three most difficult challenges” present in contemporary Philippine society: poverty, migration and disability.

No mass was held at the meeting of families, but it featured Gospel reading and a reflection from Pope Francis. The pope then blessed the families present.

Appeal to pope

Meanwhile, the Filipino Migrant Workers in Hong Kong yesterday urged Pope Francis to hear them and stand with them for change.

In a statement, Filipino Migrant Workers in Hong Kong chairperson Dolores Balladares said they are one with their families here in welcoming Pope Francis.

“Even overseas, we are overjoyed with the pope’s presence among our compatriots and fervently wish for his support to our people who are impoverished and disempowered by the economic, social and political problems in our country,” Balladares said.

She said that as OFWs, they appreciate Pope Francis’ meeting with Filipino migrant workers and families as part of his visit to the country.

“We are a people displaced by poverty, unemployment and a system that does not uphold our dignity and right for a decent living with our loved ones. Despite the vaunted growth that the government reports, the increasing number of Filipinos forced to live and work overseas, experience exploitation and discrimination and encounter some of the most unspeakable abuses in a foreign land are proofs of a people desperate to survive and sustain even the most basic of needs,” Balladares said.

She hoped that Pope Francis will go beyond what Philippine authorities may show and promote before him, and see the real condition of Filipinos, both those working in the country and abroad. – With Jose Rodel Clapano