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About
CFC-FFL
Who
is the CFC-FFL?
The
Movement for Restoration Our
Covenant
Our
Mission and Vision
Our Statement of
Philosophy
Our
Core Values
Family Ministries Kids
for Family and Life (KFL) Youth
for Family and Life (YFL)
Singles
for Family and Life (SFL)
Handmaids
for Family and Life (HFL)
Servants
for Family and Life (SvFL)
Wish
to JOIN?
The
highest courage is to dare to be yourself in the face of adversity,
choosing right over wrong, ethics over convenience, and truth over
popularity.
Travel the path of integrity without looking back, for THERE IS
NEVER A WRONG TIME TO DO THE RIGHT THING.
-
Bishop Soc Villegas
25 July 2007
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THE
WAY FORWARD IN CHRIST
(Part 24)
THE YEAR THAT WAS
December 31,
2009
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
2009 was another eventful and fruitful year in the life and mission of
CFC-FFL. Our work continues to grow. Following are some significant
highlights.
CFC-FFL was established in 4 new dioceses in the Philippines,[1]
making a total of 41 dioceses. Our work was also started in 5 new
countries,[2] making a total of 65 countries.
This year CFC-FFL was given official recognition as a National Private
Association of the Lay Faithful, by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference
of the Philippines, through its Episcopal Commission on the Laity.
True to our calling of renewing the family and defending life, we
participated in two major international Church events. My wife Gerry and
myself, together with Edwin[3] & Nila Andrews,
participated in the 6th World Meeting of Families held on January 14-18
in Santa Fe, Mexico. In attendance were 9,000 delegates, including 20
cardinals and 200 bishops. Then we, together with over 100 of our USA
brethren, participated in the 36th March for Life on January 22 in
Washington DC, USA. There were 30,000 participants, including 50
bishops, 400 priests and 500 seminarians.
True to our core value of being a servant to the Church, aside from our
brethren becoming very active in their respective parishes, we served in
the 9th FABC[4] Plenary held in August in Manila. We are
active in the Episcopal Commission on Youth. We have given assistance to
various chaplaincies.
We have been privileged to be intimately connected to the work of the
Holy See. Our Spiritual Director for Young Ministries, Archbp Socrates
Villegas, was appointed to the Pontifical Council for the Family. Our
Asst Spiritual Director, Fr Francis Gustilo SDB, was appointed to the
International Theological Commission of the Vatican. My wife and I were
re-appointed as members of the Pontifical Council for the Family.
Our Pro-Life work has moved ahead. We are involved in a coalition of the
major pro-life groups in the Philippines. We have active collaboration
with international pro-life organizations such as Human Life
International and Priests for Life.
The work of our Social Ministries moves ahead. We have our Restoration
Villages and Mission Villages, and are collaborating with Habitat for
Humanity. We have our education ministry, doing work in public and
private schools, in parishes and in our communities among the poor. We
have our prison ministry doing work in various prisons, most notably in
the Maximum Security Compound of the National Bilibid Prison with 1,000
prisoner-members.
CFC-FFL has 116 full-time workers in 14 countries,[5]
including 11 missionaries -- 5 in Latin America, 2 in Indochina, 2 in
Malawi and 2 in Europe.
We have been busy, and the Lord has blessed us. We continue to move
strongly forward in our evangelization. We are achieving our calling to
renew the family and to defend life.
I thank all you my brethren for giving of yourselves in serving Christ
and God’s people. Our work has not been achieved without sacrifice and
pain. To the many who simply do their work without fanfare and even
without recognition, I praise God for you.
The work continues, as we look forward to another year of serving God.
May you all join me in giving thanks to God for His faithfulness, for
blessing our families and our community, and for giving us the privilege
to serve. We thank our blessed Mother Mary, to whom CFC-FFL has been
consecrated, for keeping us in her loving embrace. With full trust in
Jesus, we look forward to another year.
I wish you all a very happy new year. God bless you always.
Your brother and co-worker in Christ,
Frank Padilla
P.S. It might surprise you that this paper is Part 24 of The Way Forward
in Christ. Actually I just reclassified some previous articles and
consolidated them into this folder. Our website will later show all the
articles contained in this folder.
[1] San Fernando (Pampanga), Iba (Zambales), Legaspi (Albay)
and Ozamiz (Misamis Occidental).
[2] Monaco, United Kingdom, Papua New Guinea, Saudi Arabia
and Czech Republic.
[3] International Moderator of Matrimonios para
Cristo-Fundacion para la Familia y la Vida (MPC-FFV), the Hispanic
counterpart of CFC-FFL.
[4] Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences.
[5] Argentina, Austria, Cambodia, Canada, Costa Rica,
Ecuador, Ghana, India, Malawi, Peru, Philippines, Thailand, USA,
Vietnam.
Go
to "The Way Forward in Christ Part 25"...>>
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