CBCP to launch Lenten campaign

MANILA, Philippines - The social action arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) is set to launch Alay Kapwa (AK), an evangelization campaign for the Lenten Season, in three dioceses starting tomorrow.

In a statement, the CBCP-National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace (Nassa) yesterday said it will launch its national Lenten campaign in the archdiocese of Nueva Caceres in Naga, the diocese of Catarman in the Visayas and the diocese of Digos in Mindanao.

The diocese of Catarman will launch the campaign with a series of activities from Feb. 13 to 15.

Meanwhile, at the dioceses of Digos and Nueva Caceres, the activities would start on Feb. 15 and Feb. 20, respectively.

The theme of this year’s national Lenten campaign is “Challenges and Responses of Stewardship in the Year of Faith.”

The campaign comes with a booklet of modules to facilitate reflection and social action and a Lenten box for collection as an expression of charity and solidarity from parishes, as well as Catholic schools and institutions in Metro Manila.

During the 36th National Social Action General Assembly held in August 2012, the bishops agreed that it would take a long time for all 86 dioceses to host the Lenten campaign launch, so they decided to break from tradition and select three dioceses per year to host the event.

The bishops said they decided to select three dioceses after they noticed that only the dioceses near the host diocese would attend the launch of the campaign.