Catholic Apologetic Site for Filipinos

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I am Carlos Antonio Palad, 25 years old, and I’m new to CAF. I’m an Associate and Lecturer of Defensores Fidei Foundation (www.defensoresfidei.com)), and a member of Una Voce America. I’m also active in the Pro-Life Movement. I live in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines.

If there are any Filipinos here in Luzon, feel free to contact me at 09273852197. You can also contact me via email – caloyraj@yahoo.com.

Defensores Fidei has 2 whole-day series of lectures coming up – on Thursday, August 23, for the theology-level seminarians of the San Carlos Seminary (the seminary of the Archdiocese of Manila and its suffragans) and on August 25 for some parish-based groups in the Diocese of Antipolo (just east of Metro Manila).

We’re still finalizing the venue and the dates, but we’ll be holding our 3rd Annual Apologetics Seminar from September to December. This seminar will total 13 sessions of about 3.5 hours each, and will (hopefully) culminate in the 2nd annual gathering of Catholic Apologists in Metro Manila. We are currently giving monthly apologetics seminars to a group of parish communities in Laguna, as well as to the elders of Light of Jesus Community, the charismatic community founded by Bo Sanchez, a charismatic preacher famed in the Philippines.

Defensores Fidei isn’t as old or as well-established as Catholic Faith Defenders in the southern Philippines, but we do have plans to expand our operations and activities. Recently we’ve begun a weekly Bible study in Makati. We occasionally appear on radio and TV, but regular TV and radio programs are as yet not forthcoming.

What complicates our work is the fact that, compared to the southern Philippines, the Catholic Church in Luzon is a good deal more liberal. We spend as much time defending ourselves against liberals or in attempting to counter widespread dissent among both clergy and laity, as we do in equipping people to defend the faith against outside attack. Another complicating factor is the lack of educated laypeople. Many of those who come to us are full of zeal, but lack proper education in Catholic theology. As a result, much of our time is spent on educating Filipino Catholics in the basics of the faith.

We’ve also established a Yahoo Group (Apologia-Ph) and we are active in the other two major Filipino Catholic Yahoo Groups: Katoliko and PinoyDefensorFidei.

Contemporary Filipino Catholic apologetics has a LONG way to go before it can even equal its American counterparts, or even the level of Philippine Catholic Apologetics prior to World War II.
 
After touring the various threads where Philippine Church matters have been discussed, I feel compelled to say the following:

My message to Filipino Catholics and to non-Filipino Catholics who like to give rosy assessments about the Philippine Church is: we must not flinch from giving the real picture, the real score as far as Philippine Catholicism is concerned. The Philippine Church is in SHAMBLES, make no mistake about it. Do not let the nice spectacle of full churches and record-breaking attendance in papal masses fool you.

As a Filipino, I love the Church in the Philippines. And since I love her, I want her diseases diagnosed without cover-up, without anything being hidden. Only when Filipino Catholics themselves realize what illnesses now afflict the Philippine Church, can the the necessary steps to restore her to health be taken. At present, though, many if not most Filipino Catholics like to think of the Philippine Church as a perfect Church. Some even like to talk as if Filipino Catholicism is the savior of world Catholicism – an assertion that I, as a Filipino Catholic, find to be unjust, to say the least. (Sorry sa matamaan.)

To me, the almost total absence of Filipinos from the apologetic and liturgical movements now reawakening the Roman Catholic Church to a reappropriation of her historical heritage, as well as from the current trend of theological restoration and of a return to orthodoxy, is much more obvious and much more telling. We are the third largest Catholic community in the world, and yet our representation in the international Catholic theological and philosophical community is almost nil, and is doubtless far below what should be expected of us. The Indians and the Africans are light years ahead of us in this matter. To make matters worse, the very, very few Filipino Catholic thinkers who do have some international stature, are mostly on the side of liberalism and innovation, if not outright heterodoxy.

Right now, I have in my possession a copy of a confidential letter from the Papal Nuncio, questioning the apparent inaction of the Philippine Church in the face of attempts to legislate the culture of death into our lawbooks. As an active pro-lifer, I am also painfully aware of three things: 1) the indifference of the majority of the clergy to the need to defend the teachings of the Church on human life and sexuality, 2) the dissent against Humanae Vitae and the liberal feminism that dominates our theological schools, and 3) the fact that the only reason why pro-life laws remain on our books, is not the power of the Church (which is rapidly on the wane), but a confluence of two factors: a) the tepidity and half-heartedness of the anti-life majority, given that they have other political priorities and b) the fact that the President (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) and the House Speaker (Jose De Venecia) are convinced Catholics on this point. However, should the anti-life majority in the Philippine legislature finally bestir themselves to push through the anti-life bills, they can easily overwhelm the some 50 or so (out of 200+) congressmen and the very few senators (out of 23) who are reliably pro-life. As for the Supreme Court: it is now headed by a Protestant Freemason after decades of being headed by devout Catholics, so I don’t think we can rely on the SC to uphold the rights of the unborn and the sanctity of life from the moment of conception.

As somebody who has an “insiders” view of what is happening in many sections of the Philippine Church, let me tell you that the situation is such as to bring me (at times) to the brink of despair. The Philippine Church is the classic example of a Church that, outwardly, is vibrant and alive, but inwardly tottering and ridden with crises.

Someone on this thread kept saying that we Catholic Filipinos should be proud because of Gawad Kalinga and CFC. Having worked on a GK project for a year, I agree that we should be proud of GK and CFC. And yet…look what is happening now! CFC has finally split into two hostile factions, and there is talk of taking GK out of CFC. I don’t want to discuss this now, but the fighting is apparently the result of years and years of misdirection and false teaching, some of it taken wholesale from the Pentecostals. Some of the teachings of the now expelled former head of CFC, Frank Padilla, can’t be considered Catholic by any stretch of the imagination.
 
PART 2:

More importantly, though, are the numbers: the cold, hard facts that tell the true story of the Philippine Church. Take, for example, vocations to the priesthood.

According to Cardinal Sandoval of Guadalajara, during the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist last 2005, “The lack of priests is an effect … the cause is the lack of faith, of spiritual vision, of transcendence. All this may be summarized in one word: secularization” (see consecratedlife.com/enews_10-17-05.htm)). If this statement be true, then the Philippine Church is suffering from “a lack of faith, of spiritual vision, of transcendence.”

Why do I say this? Let’s do some math: The US Church has some 65-70 million Catholics served by 44,000 priests in more than 20,000 parishes and churches. The Philippine Church, in contrast, has only 8,000 priests and 3 permanent deacons to serve more than 70 million Catholics. These 70+ million Catholics are served by 3,000 parishes – hence the spectacle of full churches! Even if only 15-20% of Filipinos go to Mass (as some clerics and experts have told me), our churches will still be bursting at the seams! Brazil, with some 155.6 million Catholics as of December 2005, had 18,087 priests and 1,759 permanent deacons to serve its Catholic flock. Do the math. Even Brazil – often held up as the classic example of the horrors of priest shortages – has a better priest-to-people ratio than we do! The only reason why Philippine priests are able to cope with the huge numbers of churchgoers (relative to their numbers) is by celebrating anywhere up to 9 masses every Sunday – a practice theoretically disapproved by the Church, and which fosters sloppiness in homilies and lack of reverence in the Mass --faults that are known only too well to Filipino massgoers.

There is no doubt that we have an abundance of seminarians. What is troubling is that the survival ratio is a dismal 4-5%. Out of twenty seminarians, only one or, at most, two, ever get ordained. And those seminarians who do get ordained are not always the best, the best oftentimes having left (or been driven out), sometimes in circumstances that recall Michael Rose’s “Goodbye, Good Men”. I am personally aware of some of these cases.

And the theological education in the seminaries is bad, really bad. It is like being transported to the years of the “Spirit of Vatican II” in the 1970’s and 1980’s. I often shake my head in disbelief at the things I hear from seminarians and the young priests I encounter. Even as the West is returning to orthodoxy, to discipline, to liturgical dignity, to traditional religious life, the Philippine Church is abandoning these…

There is also the question of proper catechesis. According to the Ateneo De Manila’s survey of the youth in 2000, and duly reported in the column of Fr. James Reuter SJ, only one – I repeat, one – percent of the Filipino Catholic youth have received more than the basic catechism of religious training. It is a fact that most Filipino Catholics don’t even know the basics of the faith.

The Church itself is dismally failing in its attempt to reach out to the people. Radio Veritas has a listening audience mostly in the 40’s and above. The Catholic Cable TV station, TV Maria, is struggling to survive and is actually asking people for things to air – even environmental documentaries will do! Another Catholic TV station, the privately-run Divine Mercy Channel, is also struggling to survive. It is a pity to see the Catholic Church’s media outreach sputter so dismally while the INC has two TV stations and a steady stream of radio programs and even TV programs on other major TV sttions. I think, though, that the almost complete absence of doctrinal teaching in these Catholic programs is to blame. There is great hunger among Filipino Catholics for catechesis and education in the faith, but the Church will not give it to them… and so, hundreds of thousands if not millions turn every year to the Evangelicals and the INC…

These are just some of the things I want to say.

Bottomline is: the Philippine Church is in very deep crisis, and we cannot afford to act as if everything is okay. We need to voice our concerns about what is wrong, and about what needs to be done. The Catholic Church stands upon the impregnable Rock of Peter, the Vicar of Christ, and the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against it. However, this does not mean that the Philippine Church is assured of survival. The promise is given to the Church as a whole, not to each and every local manifestation of that one Church. There was a time when Asia Minor and Syria and Egypt were centers of Catholic faith, monasticism and piety: today the Crescent is ascendant on these lands. May the same fate not befall our beloved Philippines – but we must wake up before it is too late!
 
Carlos, welcome to CAF! I do not think that the Church here in the Philippines is all that bad, though there are things that do trouble me, like the influx of Protestant songs into Mass. However, I do see it to be part of the life and vitality of the Church. Perhaps we do need more Apologetics here, since as you noted we do have very few apologists as well as clergy who is very much into the Faith. We need so much to reach to many people. I am not even aware of those stations, though we have not subscribed to cable. I don’t think there is a dearth in Catechesis here, but rather there’s not enough follow-up from the initial build-up. Many have been taught the foundations of our Faith, but then it’s not followed up. There is that lack in following it up, and so many are either lost or go into superstition.
 
Joero said:
Hello, emiljoe! It won’t be hard to contact the CFD here in Cebu if you wish to, for this organization now becomes part of Archdiocese of Cebu’s program for evangelization. One of the founders of this organization (CFD - Catholic Faith Defenders) is a well-known apologist (in Cebuano parlance we call it “debatedor”) Bro. Socrates C. Fernandez. Atty. Marcelo Bacalso is also among of the founders. At present, you may contact the telephone # of the Archdiocese of Cebu. Bro.Ramon Getamundoc is now the new President of CFD Archdiocesan, he is an engineer by profession and teaching at the CIT (Cebu Institute of Technology). Bro. Soc Fernandez is the mayor of Talisay City, serving his second term as a public official. You may also contact him in his residence telephone # 272-3475 or at Talisay City Hall tel. # 272-0669. He has also a radio program at DYRF from Monday to Saturday every 7:00 P.M. He is now the National Adviser of the Catholic Faith Defenders and has originated a free bible study every Monday from 6:30 - 9:00 P.M. at Carmel Chapel, University of San Jose Recoletos.
I am also a CFD starting from almost 30 years from now.
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Hi! Another Cebuano here:D .
Don’t you also have a TV show on CCTN? What day and time does it air?
 
Carlos_Palad said:
After touring the various threads where Philippine Church matters have been discussed, I feel compelled to say the following:

My message to Filipino Catholics and to non-Filipino Catholics who like to give rosy assessments about the Philippine Church is: we must not flinch from giving the real picture, the real score as far as Philippine Catholicism is concerned. The Philippine Church is in SHAMBLES, make no mistake about it. Do not let the nice spectacle of full churches and record-breaking attendance in papal masses fool you…
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True that the picture you paint is pretty dismal… But we have to hope always and be optimistic inspite of all these…The first thing to do as always is to pray fervently for our country and the Bishops everyday and for the intentions of the Church here in the country.👍

In a way, I am personally thankful that there are masses on different times of the day in our Churches… otherwise, it would be close to impossible for me to receive our Lord while I was doing my studies in med school (straight 35 hours in the hospital, so Mass early morning on day I’m about to go on duty, and on the following day, when I’m off duty, late eveniong mass).

It is also true that people are so uninformed about the teachings of the faith here in our country. I only became serious in my own faith after attending means of formation at a Center of Opus Dei while attending college, and this gave me the strength to face the different bioethical issues at work with full knowledge of what is right and what is wrong.

We each have to begin with ourselves and learn our faith then slowly teach it to those around us: family, friends, colleagues. It may be a small thing but it is a start.

One thing I pray for is that the charismatics groups popular here in our country should have a stronger background in Church doctrine… I almost fell off my seat when I once heard a classmate (known member of a charismatic group) declare in a discussion that :“Ethics is relative” and proceeded with a situation-ethics take on the use of contraceptives… Unfortunately did not have a chance to refute her since class ended shortly afterwards…😦
 
daraku said:
godandscience.org/cults/jesus.html#n12

Guys, i just wanna ask if this is a catholic website? The author is Rich Deem…
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I don’t think so. If you check their doctrines page, they believe in Sola Fide. They also believe that, if I may quote, Baptism is neither sufficient nor necessary for justification. These are non-Catholic beliefs.

There may be other doctrines of them that are contradictory to the Catholic church but these are just the ones I found so far.
 
ssejllenrad said:
I don’t think so. If you check their doctrines page, they believe in Sola Fide. They also believe that, if I may quote, Baptism is neither sufficient nor necessary for justification. These are non-Catholic beliefs.

There may be other doctrines of them that are contradictory to the Catholic church but these are just the ones I found so far.
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If it’s not a catholic website how come they are defending catholic faith? They even proved that Jesus is really God…

See the links below…
godandscience.org/cults/jesus.html
godandscience.org/cults/songod.html
godandscience.org/cults/worship.html
godandscience.org/cults/jesuscreated.html
 
daraku said:
If it’s not a catholic website how come they are defending catholic faith? They even proved that Jesus is really God…

See the links below…
godandscience.org/cults/jesus.html
godandscience.org/cults/songod.html
godandscience.org/cults/worship.html
godandscience.org/cults/jesuscreated.html
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I think you’re confusing Catholicism with Christianity as a whole. Not because they defend the divinity of Christ doesn’t mean they’re Catholic. Ask a Baptist, a Lutheran, a Methodist, a Pentecostal, an Anglican, an Orthodox, every Christian believes in the divinity of Christ. Once you deny Christ’s or the Holy Spirit’s divinity (or the Trinity as a whole), you become quasi-christian (e.g. INC, JW… etc.)

I say again, there are doctrines that don’t coincide with catholic beliefs. They believe in Sola Fide (we are justified by faith alone). Catholics believe in Fide et Factum. Faith and works. If you look into history, you will see that the pioneers of the reformation are the ones who started the Sola Fide/ Sola Scriptura ideas. Not Catholic my friend.
 
**hello guys i think this is a group that is promoting what they call “Theosophy” that is if my memory still serves me right…

they are promoting the harmony between faith and science…they have alot of publications especially on national bookstore (stores) always blended with Catholic publications…may pagka new age din yan sila…**
 
Shalom.

I have something to ask from you all : prayers.

I have been contemplating on starting a student apologetics group here in our university (University of San Carlos, Cebu City, Philippines). Yet, I myself have no specialized training on apologetics. I am self-taught and my experiece is mainly on correspondence and online forums. I do have 12 years of teaching experience in tertiary level, and I love to innovate in the method of instruction (currently using problem-based cooperative learning approach).

My immediate problem is two fold : (1) I am starting blind. (I don’t have a model to follow. I do know of the Catholic Evidence Guild and two other school-based apologetics group. Although I have colleagues like Ramon Gitamondoc (of the Catholic Faith Defenders) and one other colleague in the EE/ECE Department, we seem unable to find a common time to meet and discuss this matter.); and (2) I am planning to leave USC soon. (Professionally, the job does not present anything new anymore - coupled with internal conflict. My children are growing and I have to find some greener pastures to sustain that growth.)

I need your prayers. If I am to start that apologetics group, I need to do that very soon. If the Lord chooses another to do that, I will still be a servant of the Lord. I need your prayers to discern that calling.

God bless you.
 
dacs…rest assured of our prayers…

continue on what you are planning…nasa likod mo kami…

If it is the will of God (and i know it is), it will prosper, kung hindi naman, maybe this is not the right time…

pray also bro…

suportahan ka namo…! 👍
 
dacs said:
Shalom.

I have something to ask from you all : prayers.

I have been contemplating on starting a student apologetics group here in our university (University of San Carlos, Cebu City, Philippines). Yet, I myself have no specialized training on apologetics. I am self-taught and my experiece is mainly on correspondence and online forums. I do have 12 years of teaching experience in tertiary level, and I love to innovate in the method of instruction (currently using problem-based cooperative learning approach).

My immediate problem is two fold : (1) I am starting blind. (I don’t have a model to follow. I do know of the Catholic Evidence Guild and two other school-based apologetics group. Although I have colleagues like Ramon Gitamondoc (of the Catholic Faith Defenders) and one other colleague in the EE/ECE Department, we seem unable to find a common time to meet and discuss this matter.); and (2) I am planning to leave USC soon. (Professionally, the job does not present anything new anymore - coupled with internal conflict. My children are growing and I have to find some greener pastures to sustain that growth.)

I need your prayers. If I am to start that apologetics group, I need to do that very soon. If the Lord chooses another to do that, I will still be a servant of the Lord. I need your prayers to discern that calling.

God bless you.
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Hello Sir, are you teaching ReEd? BSCompE 2005 here…

I would love to join your apologetics group…im planning of taking masters degree…maybe MBA…

would love to join the group…
 
janryboy said:
Hello Sir, are you teaching ReEd? BSCompE 2005 here…

I would love to join your apologetics group…im planning of taking masters degree…maybe MBA…

would love to join the group…
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Peace and all-good!

Starting a student Catholic apologetic group is a noble endeavor and is not difficult to start. In Ozamis City (Philippines), the Catholic Faith Defenders - Misamis University Chapter (CFD-MU) is now one of the students’ recognized organizations in the campus and is indeed, very effective.

Ave Maria!

jpaul
 
hagia_sophia said:
**hello guys i think this is a group that is promoting what they call “Theosophy” that is if my memory still serves me right…

they are promoting the harmony between faith and science…they have alot of publications especially on national bookstore (stores) always blended with Catholic publications…may pagka new age din yan sila…**
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Jesus said, " He who is not against you is for you." (Mark 9:39) I think the Church does not teach that faith and true science are opposed to each other.
 
agangbern said:
Jesus said, " He who is not against you is for you." (Mark 9:39) I think the Church does not teach that faith and true science are opposed to each other.
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Ofcourse agangbern…it teaches that there is harmony with faith and science, the problem with this group, (if this is the theosophy group i know), is that they are using science to explain God…putting God under a microscope! that is devaluing God! i stand corrected if they are not promoting these things. Please correct me if i’m wrong…

If they are teaching this doctrine, surely…they are against us…
again please coorect me if i’m wrong, knowing ofcourse that ur wiser than me…
 
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