Pope commends BUC, MPC, etc.. for helping advance peace in Mindanao and the world

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/12 October) – Pope Benedict XVI has commended the Bishops Ulama Conference, the Mindanao Peoples’ Caucus and other grassroots organizations in Mindanao for helping advance “peace in Mindanao and throughout the world.”

He also encouraged “all to persevere so that peace may prevail.
"In the conviction that evil is only conquered with good (cf. Rom 12:21), many in your country are taking courageous steps to bring people together in order to foster reconciliation and mutual understanding,” the Pope told Ambassador Mercedes Arrastia Tuason, the Philippines’ new ambassador to the Vatican when she presented her letters of credence at the Pope’s summer residence, Castel Gandolfo, 30 kilometers south of Rome, on Oct. 2.

“I am thinking in particular of the commendable work of the Bishops-Ulama Conference (BUC), the Mindanao People's Conference, as well as that of many grassroots organizations,” he said.

The BUC was organized by the Mindanao bishops and ulama in 1996 to provide the “faith” dimension in the peace process between the Philippine government and the Bangsamoro. The organization also inspired the convening of an Asian Bishops-Ulama conference.

The Pope was apparently referring to the Mindanao People’s Caucus, a tri-people’s grassroots organization active in the peace process between the government and the Bangsamoro. There is no organization named “Mindanao People’s Conference.” There is, however, a “Mindanao Interfaith People’s Conference” which is “an aggrupation of non-government nationalist development organizations and peoples organizations in Mindanao that acts as a service institution committed to the Mindanao tri-people poor of Lumads, Moro and lowland Christian communities through various capacity, conscious of the interfaith dimension of social development work.”

The Pope also said that the “Special Non-Aligned Movement Ministerial Meeting on Interfaith Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace and Development,” which the Philippines will host in December, “also holds out the promise of advancing peace in Mindanao and throughout the world.”

A transcript of the meeting is available through the Daily Bulletin of The Holy See Press.

In the meeting with Tuason, the Pope also relayed “assurance of my spiritual closeness and prayers, especially for the victims of Typhoon Ketsana.” Ketsana is the international name of Ondoy. Typhoon Pepeng had not reached the Philippines at the time of the Tuason presentation of her letters of credence.

“I am confident that the faith of the Filipino people – a faith, as Your Excellency has indicated, which gives them the ‘resilience’ to face any hardship or difficulty – will arouse in them a desire to participate ever more fervently in the worldwide task of building up a civilization of love, the seed of which God has implanted in every people and every culture,” the Pope said.

He said he was “pleased to note the various development initiatives under way in your country” but noted that the “struggle against poverty calls for honesty, integrity and an unwavering fidelity to the principles of justice, especially on the part of those directly entrusted with the offices of governance and public administration.”

“In an age when the name of God is abused by certain groups, the ‘work of charity’ (Caritas in Veritate, 57) is particularly urgent. This is especially true in regions that have been sadly scarred by conflicts. I encourage all to persevere so that peace may prevail. As you have mentioned, Madam Ambassador, initiatives that aim at facilitating dialogue and cultural exchange are particularly effective, for peace can never come about merely as the product of a technical process engineered through legislative, judicial or economic means,” the Pope said.

He then praised the work of the BUC, MPC “as well as that of many grassroots organizations.”

The Pope reassured the Filipino people of “my affection and continued prayers for them. I encourage them to allow their deep faith, their cultural heritage and the democratic values that have been a part of their patrimony from the time of their independence to shine as an example to all.” (MindaNews)