Five good things

Our television channels, our radio stations, and our newspapers are prone to feature the bad news. But many good things are happening, right here, right now. Here are five of them:

John Paul II will visit Lourdes today and tomorrow, August 14 and 15. He will say the Rosary with other devotees at 11:30 p.m. this evening, Manila time. He will say the Mysteries of Light. Tomorrow, the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he will say Mass and the Angelus from 3:50 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., Manila time.

The entire visit will be carried live on E.W.T.N., the Eternal Word Television Network. In the Philippines it can be found at least on Home Cable, on Channel 73; and on Sky Cable on Channel 63.

Chucky Ibay, the blind Filipino American pianist and singer, was on E.W.T.N., all over the world yesterday, Friday, August 13. He appeared at 8:00 a.m., Philippine time, and again at 6:00 p.m. He will be on E.W.T.N. again at 11:00 p.m., this evening, Saturday, August 14.

He went totally blind immediately after birth, when his eyes were exposed to too much oxygen in the incubator. But when God closes a door, he opens a window — a big window. Chucky has an amazing hearing and memory of sound. He heard an Etude of Chopin once, when he was four years old. Three months later, still four years old, he sat down at the organ and played it.

At the age of seven he began to study music. At ten he was starring as a concert pianist, and singer, in the United States, in Australia, in South America, in Europe, and in Russia. He memorizes the music not through Braille, which he knows, but by hearing only. He was the only singer chosen to perform in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, during the Mass for the victims of the Twin Towers. On January 2, 2005, he will be the only singer for the blessing and inauguration of the National Shrine of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus at Villamor Air Base.

Two weeks from today, on Saturday, August 28, at Don Bosco Technical Institute on 736 General Kalentong, Mandaluyong City, the Philippine Association for Media Education will conduct a seminar on "Media Education: Promoting a Culture of Peace." The seminar will run from 8:00 in the morning until 4:00 in the afternoon.

The Keynote address will be delivered by Secretary Corazon Juliano Soliman, of the Department of Social Welfare and Development. The chief concern will be our children, who are growing up in an increasingly violent world. They are confronted with violence in the news of war and terrorism; in movies, where the hero is always more violent than the villain; and even in the comics in press and on the TV screen.

The media educators want to teach our children how to live in a violent world, without becoming violent themselves. Media education trains them to recognize what is good in media, and what is bad; what is real, and what is fiction. Above all it presents the deep human values, which are found in the Gospel, of self control, gentleness, forgiveness, compassion, love.

Four weeks from now, on Saturday and Sunday, September 11 and 12, there will be a vigil for the clergy and for Peace, at the Carmelite Monastery in Lipa. The Crusaders of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary are inviting everyone — especially the members of Catholic organizations — to attend this vigil.

They look upon this as a pilgrimage. Their name for it is "Magpupuyat at magyayapak." It will consist of an all night eucharistic vigil, a pre-dawn penitential procession, and finally Sunday Mass, offered for the sanctification of the clergy and for peace. The Mass will be said by the Archbishop of Lipa, Ramon C. Arguelles.

This is a movement of the laity, adding their own sacrifices and prayers to those of the 3,900 priests who attended the National Congress of the Clergy from July 5 to 9, last month. The main thrust of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, under the leadership of Archbishop Fernando R. Capalla, is Reconciliation, Unity and Peace. Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales, in addition to this, is stressing help to the poor and the on-going formation of the clergy.

The campaign for "Reconciliation, Unity and Peace" appeals very strongly to everyone. The Family Rosary Crusade and the Fellows of the Asia Foundation will launch a new television program in the first week of September. It will present the leaders of thought in this country on Peace, and how it can be obtained. It will be seen on ABC, Channel 5 in Manila, at 12:00 noon on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Archbishop Fernando Capalla himself will discuss the GRP-MILF Peace Talks, with Secretary Teresita Quintos Deles, the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.

Bishop Francisco Claver, S.J. who is a Bontoc himself, and the first Bishop in history to be chosen from the native people of the Cordilleras, will discuss: "Peace Among the Many Cultures of the Cordilleras" with Steve Rood, the head of the Asia Foundation in the Philippines.

Lourdes Mastura, who is a Muslim, will discuss "Peace Among the Many Cultures of Mindanao" with Tony Cervantes, who worked for many years in Mindanao with Panamin.

Secretary Teresita Quntos Deles will join with Baicon Macaraya, a Maranao Princess, in a very illuminating portrayal of "Unity and Peace in the Home, Both Christian and Muslim."

Manuel Quezon III and Alice Colet Villadolid will examine "Philippine Media and National Unity." In a second program they will take up "Terrorism in the Mass Media."

Secretary Corazon Juliano Soliman, head of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, will explain the Government’s Anti-Poverty Program with Attorney George V. Carmona, who will present the efforts of the Judiciary to give justice to the poor in the courts.

Rosario Uriarte, the new Chairman of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, with Alice Colet Villadolid, will examine Media and Philanthropy. Both our Government and many individuals in the Philippines are doing beautiful things for the poor, which the media never features.

Vicky Garchitorena, managing officer of the Ayala Foundation and a member of the Board of PCSO, together with Ambassador Tita de Villa, will point out what the Church, the State, and many non-government organizations are doing to help the poor.

Justice Sedfrey Ordoñez, with Tony Cervantes and Doctor Segundo Romero, will explain Federalism and its Impact on Philippine Minorities, a sensitive subject about which the ordinary Filipino knows very little.

Charito Planas and Sister Eva Maamo, S.P.C. will share their experience with the Filipino Poor. Sister Eva is a Doctor and a Surgeon, President of Our Lady of Peace Mission, which has built a charity hospital for the destitute poor on the Coastal Road. Charito Planas is devoting all of her time, her energy, and her extraordinary talent to the alleviation of poverty among the poor.

Finally, Archbishop Fernando R. Capalla, President of the C.B.C.P., returns with Congressman Michael Mastura, an outstanding Muslim leader, to explain the necessity of friendship and understanding, and mutual trust, if ever we are to achieve Reconciliation, Unity and Peace. We will never get to Peace without forgiveness, and love.

The symbol of this program is a handshake. The Master of Ceremonies is Claudine Zialcita. It is a serious effort to take an intelligent, thoughtful, practical approach to the crying need of our nation: Reconciliation, Unity and Peace.

Beautiful things do not happen by accident. Peace has to be built, block by block, like a house. Those who watch this television program will not be looking for entertainment. They will be searching for the truth, and for the best way to lift our country up from the bottom of the barrel, where we are now.