Rosary campaign for WPS peace launched
‘May you receive all the support that the government can give you and that our people are able to. Take courage. Defend our seas and our people. Be the heroes we need now!’
Daily Tribune‘May you receive all the support that the government can give you and that our people are able to. Take courage. Defend our seas and our people. Be the heroes we need now!’
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas has urged the Filipino faithful to participate in a rosary campaign against China’s aggression. The campaign will commence on 27 June and conclude on 15 August.
In a pastoral letter dated 15 June, Villegas referenced significant historical times such as the height of Soviet power and the EDSA People Power Revolution in 1986 where the faithful armed themselves with rosaries.
“Let us do it again! The rosary is simple and small and powerful like the mustard seed in the Gospel,” he wrote.
“I also appeal to our Catholic faithful to fast whenever they can and to do penance, above all by approaching the Sacrament of Penance, and also by performing other acts of penance and supererogation with particular intensity within this period,” he said.
Further, the archbishop urged Filipino lawmakers to conduct investigations into national and local institutions allegedly infiltrated by agents and associates of the People’s Republic of China.
Villegas also called on prosecutors and judges to “be loyal to their oaths as administrators of justice” and prosecute and punish those “who have made a mockery of our legal and administrative processes to enable foreign elements to prejudice our national security and our interests as a nation.”
The archbishop also enjoined the uniformed personnel patrolling the Philippine seas to “escort our fishermen, assert our claims, and defend our territory and its waters.”
“May you receive all the support that the government can give you and that our people are able to. Take courage. Defend our seas and our people. Be the heroes we need now!” he said.
Villegas likewise lauded the Filipino fisherfolk who joined the recent flotilla that sailed to a disputed shoal in the West Philippine Sea.
