Archdiocese supports Lenten charity drive

CEBU, Philippines - In observing Palm Sunday today, the start of Holy Week, the Archdiocese of Cebu joins the Catholic Church in supporting the decades-old program dubbed “Alay Kapwa,” a Lenten charity drive that aims to raise funds for the poor, the oppressed, and disaster survivors.

Cebu Archdiocese head Archbishop Jose Palma enjoined parish priests and moderators and the religious to allot the second Mass collection tomorrow for this campaign and to forward them to Cebu Caritas Inc., the official social action arm of the archdiocese based in Cebu City.

“This Church-based program truly needs all our support in many varied ways. One is to encourage your parishioners to give more and show their support to our Church programs through a generous contribution during the second collection in all Masses this coming Sunday,” Palma wrote in a letter.

The letter signed April 5, 2017 was addressed to the Cebu clergy and the faithful.

“Reflecting on the passion of our Lord finds us face to face with our own sufferings and those of our less fortunate brothers and sisters. We see abject poverty. We see families living at sidewalks. We see the degeneration of moral values and ascendency and the loss of respect for the ‘sacred’,” Palma said.

“We cannot escape likewise from the sad reality on the ‘death and killings in the campaign against prohibited drugs.’ This seems to be fast becoming as the ‘new normal’ today,” he added.

He recognized the importance of the Alay Kapwa program which has committed to bring about a society enlivened by Christian values of justice, peace and love. Most importantly, he said it is something that gives preferential option to the least marginalized.

The Alay Kapwa is the annual Lenten evangelization program of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines that began in 1974.

Palma found it fitting to support this program and asked every stakeholder of the Church to get involved with 2017 being recognized by the Philippine Catholic Church as the “Year of the Parish as Communion of Communities.”  —/BRP (FREEMAN)