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December 8, 2017, Adrian, Michigan – The Adrian Dominican Sisters join in calling for justice, an end to impunity, and prayer for the people of the Philippines, as we mourn the loss of Father Marcelito (“Tito”) Paez, 73, the country’s first Catholic priest to fall victim to the rash of extrajudicial killings that have taken place during President Duterte’s term in office. 

Father Tito Paez

A retired diocesan priest from the Province of Nueva Ecija and a long-time friend of our Sisters in the Our Lady of Remedies Chapter of the Congregation, Father Tito was gunned down by motorcycle-riding assassins on the evening of December 4. Earlier in the day, Father Tito had assisted in providing bail to release a political prisoner.

Sister Zenaida Nacpil, Chapter Prioress of Our Lady of Remedies Mission Chapter, remembers Father Tito as “a consistent defender of the poor who died helping a voiceless poor political prisoner. He died a martyr for justice and peace!”

In a statement issued by the National Clergy Discernment Group, Father Wilfredo Dulay, MDJ, wrote:  

[Father Tito] was killed by assassins riding motorcycles in tandem, a manner of murder now so commonplace in the Philippines it is now considered routine alongside illegal arrests, extra judicial killings and forced disappearances. What is happening to our country? Has it become the location of the new killing fields of Asia? Violent death has become a daily occurrence in many of our poor urban neighborhoods—random, arbitrary, brutal as in cruel and inhuman. It is doubly scary because the unnamed but usual suspects are law enforcers whose declared profession and vocation in life is to protect the lives of the people of this country.

Monsignor Manuel Gabriel, convener of the National Clergy Discernment Group, made the following comment about the murder of Father Tito:

"Today, I grieve for a friend who has given his life so that his people may have life in abundance. In this year of the clergy and those in consecrated life, I grieve for a brother priest who was brutally slain because he took the road less traveled, the pastoral care of political detainees. I am in pain for the Diocese of San Jose de Nueva Ecija for losing a pastor who has dedicated 45 years of his life in the service of the poor and the victims of injustice. 

“Our country lost Father Marcelino "Tito" Paez to the culture of violence and death plaguing our country. I have known Father Tito Paez since our seminary days. I have worked with him in the National Clergy Discernment. I feel certain that, given this tragedy, Father Tito challenges me and fellow priests to transform our griefs and pains to actions on behalf of justice. We need to strongly embrace our prophetic task to proclaim the reign of God and condemn the reign of terror. Father Tito Paez must not end up as a statistical number or [be] seen as a collateral damage in our society. His martyrdom has to enliven our prophetic ministry to our people." 

Sister Zenaida notes that “there are many mobilizations against militarization tactics.” Among them are those initiated by the Lumad, indigenous people of Mindanao in southern Philippines, who have been picketing in front of the Department of Education because their schools are being used as military camps. Sister Zenaida invited a group of Lumad high school students to share their stories and songs of protest with other students at one of the schools our Sisters run.

As we enter this Advent season of hopeful waiting, we join our prayers with and for our brothers and sisters in the Philippines that God’s justice and peace will prevail. We pray for the repose of the soul of our brother in Christ, Fr. Tito, who “considered our convent as his second home, a place to rest and re-charge in quiet prayer,” Sister Zenaida shared in remembrance. 

A Mass in Father Tito’s memory will be celebrated at St. Catherine Chapel on the campus of the Adrian Dominican Sisters at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, December 21, 2017. 

A group of Lumad high school students share their stories and songs of protest with students at Holy Rosary College at the invitation of Adrian Dominican Sisters Zenaida Nacpil, OP, and Myra Dalisay, OP (center, second row), Principal of the school, located in Tala, north of Manila.

 


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December 5, 2017, Adrian, Michigan – More than 1,000 days after the beginning of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan – dubbed by some as the poorest city in the United States – Sister Carol Weber, OP, gave an update on the crisis and on the work of St. Luke N.E.W. Life Center on Flint’s North Side. 

The presentation to Adrian Dominican Sisters and Associates took place December 4 in the Rose Room of the Dominican Life Center in Adrian. It was sponsored by the Congregation’s Office of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation.

“We go to the water faucet, turn it on, and brush our teeth and don’t think anything of it,” Sister Carol said. But the people in Flint are not so lucky. Recalling a visit to another nation where she needed to use bottled water to brush her teeth, Sister Carol said, “Now I live in a city in the United States of America where we [also] need to use bottled water.” 

The crisis began when, as a cost-saving measure, government officials decided to use the Flint River as the source of the city’s water. The corrosive water damaged the lining of lead pipes, allowing lead and other materials into water used by Flint families. The pipes now are being replaced. “We hope that by the end of the season they’ll have 6,000 replaced,” Sister Carol said, adding that estimates are the project won’t be completed for another five to six years. 

Sister Carol Weber, OP, in the literacy center area of St. Luke N.E.W. Life Center.

From the beginning of the crisis, the N.E.W. Life Center has been a support to the people of Flint.  “When the news first broke, we got semi-loads of water,” Sister Carol said. “It came from all across the country.” The Center had to dedicate a room to store the water, she added. Now, the bottled water is formally distributed from four centers in Flint, but N.E.W. Life Center still gives out bottled water with the food it provides.

Even today, many people in Flint still rely on bottled water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and brushing their teeth. Sister Carol and two staff members of N.E.W. Life Center spoke of the daily difficulty that Flint residents face in carrying large, 24-bottle cases of water on the city bus and relying on that water for daily chores. “That’s been going on for three years,” Sister Carol noted.

“The water crisis affects the children the most,” Sister Carol said. N.E.W. Life Center added a program to teach parents and grandparents of young children about nutrition, and offered food that would help children to fight off the effects of the lead poisoning. “Once the lead gets into your system, it tries to go directly to your bones,” Sister Carol explained. “Food like green, leafy vegetables is the most important thing to eat to counteract that. We dedicate ourselves to providing this for the people we serve.”

With all the material needs that Flint residents face, Sister Carol said their greatest need is hope and trust. “To build the trust level back in our city will take a long time, but we believe we can build trust one person at a time.”

Sister Carol, Sister Judy Blake, CSJ, Co-Founder and Co-director of the N.E.W. Life Center, and the staff have been building up the trust in Flint since the Center was established in 2002.

Through the Center’s sewing social enterprise, women learn to become seamstresses and work in the Center’s own business, which originally manufactured medical scrubs and hospital gowns. Now, the enterprise is involved in other projects, such as making teddy bears for first responders to pass out to children, and producing filters for air conditioning and heating units.

The Center also has an employment-training program for the men. After a 16-week training program, the Center hires graduates temporarily to ensure that they have learned a good work ethic, and then helps them to find jobs. Many of the graduates endure a nearly hour-long commute to work in Brighton, Michigan, “but the men and women we have sent there are so grateful to have a job that they don’t mind the travel time,” Sister Carol said.

Other programs include a literacy center, which offers one-on-one tutoring and GED preparation; a food pantry; and a hot meal served three days a week, serving 3,000 people; Christmas gifts to about 580 children ages 10 and younger; and Christmas gifts of personal items to the people who participate in the feeding program. 

Sister Carol noted that the Center has received monetary and volunteer support from the Congregation and from the greater community. She thanked the Sisters for their prayers and support. “I know that prayer carries us, and I know that where one of us [Adrian Dominican Sisters] is, we’re all there,” Sister Carol said. “So thank you for being there with me for Flint.”

Feature photo: Volunteers help with food and water for St. Luke N.E.W. Life Center’s food program.


 

 

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