Bishop Gabriel Reyes
ANTIPOLO City, Feb. 7, 2014—The Episcopal Commission on Family and Life will hold the National Conference on Family Ministry and New Evangelization at Planta Hotel, Bacolod City on February 10-14, commission national chair Most Rev. Bishop Gabriel Reyes, D.D., on Thursday said.
The gathering, convening on the theme “The Good Pastor Gives Life to Family,” will train diocesan teams for the ongoing formation of Catholic priests and religious across the country, he said.
Based on the paper provided by Bishop Reyes, the five-day conference will seek to enthuse the heart of the priest to get the Word of God and his joy of having experienced Christ penetrate the door of every home.
The commission also states that despite active pastoral ministry, the priests and the religious saw that the family remains the most effective channel to spread faith and love.
Having seen the negative effects of broken marriages and fragmented families to society, the priests and the religious will uncover a new method of pastoral work to rigorously bind faith and life together, in private and in public.
The training is meant to provide the priests and the religious with a working knowledge on how to respond to the vocation to love in a society ill from culture of death and selfishness, secularization and long spate of essentially anti-life, anti-marriage, and anti-family public policies espoused by the state.
In the afternoon of February 10, Lingayen Archbishop Socrates Villegas, D.D., will deliver a keynote speech to the participants.
Mr. Stephen Kampowski, SThD, will talk on “The Anthropology of Marriage and Family: Personhood and Family Relationship” at 4pm. Kampowski is a graduate of and professor at the Pontificio Istituto Giovanni Paolo II Per Studi su Matrimonio y Famiglia in Rome.
A Eucharistic Celebration at San Sebastian Cathedral will follow at 5pm, which will be presided by Bacolod Diocese Most Rev. Bishop Vicente M. Navarra, D.D.
At 9am on February 11, Kampowski will lecture on “Marriage and Family in Scriptures, The Nuptial Mystery and Theology of the Body.” The professor is resource person again at 10:30am on “The Vocation to Love and Christian Morality.”
At 2pm, Fr. Nitodel A. Soriano, SThL, PhD, will talk on “Sociology of the Filipino Family: The Ambivalence of Filipino Values.”
Fr. Soriano is also a graduate of the Pontificio Istituto Giovanni Paolo II Per Studi su Matrimonio y Famiglia, and a professor at the Pope John Paul II Institute of Studies on Marriage and Family.
At 4pm, Fr. Soriano and Carmen Tan, MaEd, are resource persons on “State of Filipino Marriages in the Philippines: Sacramental and Civil Marriages vis-à-vis De Facto Unions.”
Tan is a professor and Assistant Dean at the Pope John Paul II National Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family.
At 9am on February 12, Fr. Ronald S. Quijano, SThD, will lecture on “The Familiaris Consortio and Family Rights.” He is Dean of Studies and a professor at the Pope John Paul II National Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family.
The lecture on “Public Policies Affecting Marriage and Family” will follow at 10am by Fr. Noli Blancaflor, SThL. Fr. Blancaflor is a professor at the Pope John Paul II National Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family.
At 2pm, Msgr. Victorino A. Rivas, JCD, will talk on “Family Ministry: A Diocese Pastoral Ministry.” He is a graduate of Angelicum University in Rome, and Director at the Pope John Paul II National Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family.
The 9th and last lecture, “The Diocese Institute for Training of Family Minister: The Empowerment of the Lay,” will be instructed by Msgr. Rivas together with Ma. Teresa Golez, MaEd, at 4pm. Golez is a professor at the Diocesan Institute of Marriage and Family.
Workshops are scheduled on February 13-14. A Valentine dinner party is set in the evening of the last day of the gathering.
The Pope John Paul II National Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in the Diocese of Bacolod will host the weeklong conference, Bishop Reyes said. (Oliver Samson)
