Archbishop Soc points to “signs of a healthy Church”
CHRISTMAS EVE MESSAGE
THREE signs indicate a “healthy” Catholic Church, according to Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, also the president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.
Villegas, speaking during the Christmas eve mass at the CSI Stadia in Dagupan, said these three are, “Family rosary, more catechists, and vocations of the priesthood aspiring to serve the Church full time as priests and religious.
“First, we are indeed a healthy Church if in every family the rosary is prayed at home…If the rosary is not prayed at home, we are sick because if there is no family prayer, the Church is not healthy at all,” he said.
The second sign is having more catechists in the communities than lectors and lay ministers serving in church.
“There should be more preachers and priests than ministers of the altar,” the church leader said.
The third sign, he continued, is every neighborhood should have a seminarian close by.
“If there is no seminarian that you know living in your neighborhood, the neighborhood is not healthy at all,” he said.
Villegas then challenged the Catholics to see to it that these signs become alive in the coming year.
For the Christmas season, he stressed that the meaning of the celebration is God being close by.
“Ang tunay na meaning ng Pasko ay ang Diyos ay hindi na malayo sa atin, ang Diyos ay nakiki- alam na sa atin, ang Diyos ay tumatabi na sa atin… From the heaven, God went down. That is the mystery of Christmas. He made our trust return,” he said.
“There is no salvation for someone who is indifferent, insensitive and shameless. There is no Christmas for people of this kind,” Villegas said.—Eva Visperas
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