FROM
THE SERVANT GENERAL
THE WAY FORWARD IN CHRIST
(Part 24)
THE YEAR THAT WAS
December
31, 2009
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
2009 was another eventful and fruitful year in the life
and mission of CFC-FFL. Our work continues to grow. Following
are some significant highlights.
CFC-FFL was established in 4 new dioceses in the Philippines,[1]
making a total of 41 dioceses. Our work was also started
in 5 new countries,[2] making a total of 65 countries.
This
year CFC-FFL was given official recognition as a National
Private Association of the Lay Faithful, by the Catholic
Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, through its
Episcopal Commission on the Laity.
True
to our calling of renewing the family and defending life,
we participated in two major international Church events.
My wife Gerry and myself, together with Edwin[3] & Nila
Andrews, participated in the 6th World Meeting of Families
held on January 14-18 in Santa Fe, Mexico. In attendance
were 9,000 delegates, including 20 cardinals and 200 bishops.
Then we, together with over 100 of our USA brethren, participated
in the 36th March for Life on January 22 in Washington DC,
USA. There were 30,000 participants, including 50 bishops,
400 priests and 500 seminarians.
True
to our core value of being a servant to the Church, aside
from our brethren becoming very active in their respective
parishes, we served in the 9th FABC[4] Plenary held in August
in Manila. We are active in the Episcopal Commission on
Youth. We have given assistance to various chaplaincies.
We have been privileged to be intimately connected to the
work of the Holy See. Our Spiritual Director for Young Ministries,
Archbp Socrates Villegas, was appointed to the Pontifical
Council for the Family. Our Asst Spiritual Director, Fr
Francis Gustilo SDB, was appointed to the International
Theological Commission of the Vatican. My wife and I were
re-appointed as members of the Pontifical Council for the
Family.
Our
Pro-Life work has moved ahead. We are involved in a coalition
of the major pro-life groups in the Philippines. We have
active collaboration with international pro-life organizations
such as Human Life International and Priests for Life.
The
work of our Social Ministries moves ahead. We have our Restoration
Villages and Mission Villages, and are collaborating with
Habitat for Humanity. We have our education ministry, doing
work in public and private schools, in parishes and in our
communities among the poor. We have our prison ministry
doing work in various prisons, most notably in the Maximum
Security Compound of the National Bilibid Prison with 1,000
prisoner-members.
CFC-FFL
has 116 full-time workers in 14 countries,[5] including
11 missionaries -- 5 in Latin America, 2 in Indochina, 2
in Malawi and 2 in Europe.
We have been busy, and the Lord has blessed us. We continue
to move strongly forward in our evangelization. We are achieving
our calling to renew the family and to defend life.
I
thank all you my brethren for giving of yourselves in serving
Christ and God’s people. Our work has not been achieved
without sacrifice and pain. To the many who simply do their
work without fanfare and even without recognition, I praise
God for you.
The
work continues, as we look forward to another year of serving
God.
May you all join me in giving thanks to God for His faithfulness,
for blessing our families and our community, and for giving
us the privilege to serve. We thank our blessed Mother Mary,
to whom CFC-FFL has been consecrated, for keeping us in
her loving embrace. With full trust in Jesus, we look forward
to another year.
I
wish you all a very happy new year. God bless you always.
Your brother and co-worker in Christ,
Frank Padilla
*
* *
P.S. It might surprise you that this paper is Part 24 of
The Way Forward in Christ. Actually I just reclassified
some previous articles and consolidated them into this folder.
Our website will later show all the articles contained in
this folder.
[1]
San Fernando (Pampanga), Iba (Zambales), Legaspi (Albay)
and Ozamiz (Misamis Occidental).
[2] Monaco, United Kingdom, Papua New Guinea, Saudi Arabia
and Czech Republic.
[3] International Moderator of Matrimonios para Cristo-Fundacion
para la Familia y la Vida (MPC-FFV), the Hispanic counterpart
of CFC-FFL.
[4] Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences.
[5] Argentina, Austria, Cambodia, Canada, Costa Rica, Ecuador,
Ghana, India, Malawi, Peru, Philippines, Thailand, USA,
Vietnam.
