“TEACHING TEACHERS ON TEEN SEXUALITY WORKSHOP” 2013

You are cordially invited to attend the May 2013

Pro-Life Training seminar entitled:

“TEACHING TEACHERS ON TEEN SEXUALITY WORKSHOP”

For teachers, counselors, catechists, parents, and lay leaders

Date: May 23-25, 2013 (Thursday to Saturday)

Time: 8:00 am to 5:00pm

Venue: St. Joseph Retreat House, Our Lady of Loreto Parish,

   Manzanas St., Sampaloc Manila

Fee: P1, 500.00 (inclusive of snacks, meals, handouts and certificate)

This year’s training seminar aims to strengthen the ability of the participants to respond to the needs of today’s teen-agers with respect to issues on human sexuality, marriage, family planning and population education, according to the teachings of the Catholic Church. This year we include three topics that are necessary for us to be equipped and well informed. These are Sex Education w/ LGBT Agenda, Championing Catholic Values and How teachers, counselors, catechists, lay leaders & parents be able to teach Pro-Life Values despite the RH Law.

The modules are specifically designed for teachers, counselors, catechists, parents, lay leaders, and others who work or deal with adolescents.

Participants will be trained to implement the training modules on teen sexuality packaged in our manual entitled “LEARNING TO LIVE AND LOVE” and will be provided updated supplementary activity and reading materials.

WORKSHOP TOPICS:

1. Meaning and Value of Life 

2. Defending Life

3. Understanding the Teen-Agers/ Situationer  

4. Basic Counseling 

5.  Role Play on Counseling Cases  

6.  Orientation on Module

7.  Sex Education with LGBT Agenda    

8. Championing Catholic Values 

9. How Teachers, counselors, parents be able to teach Pro-life Values despite the RH Law.      

For Provincial Participants who need to stay in accommodation:
St. Joseph Retreat House offers their services.

Php 250/day/person (non aircon)
Php 450/day/person (w/aircon).
They have 10 rooms w/bed that can accommodate 5 person/room.
They also have Big dorm 15-20 rooms w/no bed only foam.

Kindly make your reservations early if you want to avail the accommodations.

For reservations or for more info, please call Ellen at 733-7027. You may also send us a telefax at 734-9425, a text through our mobile 0919-2337783, or email us at life@prolife.org.ph


http://www.prolife.org.ph/?p=3774

You knit me together in my mother’s womb

Sr. Pilar Verzosa,RGS (1944-2012)

"I offer each stitch and turn the yarn with a prayer intention.
I think of how God was present in each and every fiber
of my being ever since I was in mother's womb."

“It was you who formed my inmost part and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Even my bones were known to you when I was being formed in secret, fashioned in the depths of the earth. I thank you for the wonders you have done.”

(Psalm 139:13-15)

I like to knit.  I knit bags, shawls, sweaters, baby booties and bonnets. I knit while waiting in the airport or bus stations.  I learned to knit from the Belgian nuns in St. Theresa’s College where I studied from kindergarten to high school.  One nun, Sr. Magda, taught me how to make small sweaters for the children in the Mountain Province.  She would reap the huge men’s sweaters donated from Belgium and motivate me to knit them for those poor cold children in the mountains.  That was when I was in Grade 5. Maybe that was when the seeds of a missionary vocation was planted in my heart.

I could talk about vocations and the religious life or being a missionary, but now I would like to share with you what I learn from knitting.  You might ask – what can one learn from knitting?  Aren’t you supposed to just cast the stitches on the knitting needle and work from row to row until you get whatever you are knitting all done?

Right! But it is in the “from row to row” that many things happen. FOCUSING is the first thing. If I don’t concentrate on how many stitches there are in a row, or think of what stitch I will do next, the design will not turn out as the pattern indicates. Now this does not mean that I cannot think of anything else while I am knitting – and that can be while I am riding the bus to Baguio or to Naga. I can still enjoy the scenery as I look up every now and then from my knitting, chat with my seatmate, or watch a full show on television even while knitting.  I offer each stitch and turn of the yarn with a prayer intention. I think of how God was present in each and every fiber of my being ever since I was in my mother’s womb.

PATIENCE is another virtue I just have to practice in order to finish an article – no shortcut, no skipping a row. This is hand-done knitting, not machine-made like most of your socks and sweaters and T-shirts now.  Each article I make is truly a work of love because of the time I put into it. Wow! What patience my mother must have gone through the nine months I was in her womb – kicking around, causing her discomfort and heaviness, sleepless nights and cramps.  No wonder she loves me so much even if I sometimes become nasty and ungrateful to her.

CREATIVITY and IMAGINATION –begin with the end in mind.  Isn’t that one of Steven Covey’s Seven Rules of Successful People?  And to think that I have been practicing that since I was 10 years old when I first learned how to make a knitted headband. Actually, it took me three months to finish that eight-inch headband. Phew! Tough for a 10-year-old to sit quietly, balance the knitting needles and make sure the yarn does not fray or knot.  But my teacher-nun was there beside me, showing me what a finished product would look like, trying it on my head every now and then until I finally reached the last row.  God must have great imagination to create each one of us in such a unique fashion. Do you know that at the moment of fertilization, when the sperm cell and egg cell unite, the chromosomes and genes begin programming this new human being to have two arms and two legs, not four legs?! And what’s more – that embryo knows exactly when to develop its heart and brain cells, bones and muscles. At three months, it is thumb-sucking and swimming around, hears his or her mom’s voice and enjoys listening to her heartbeat.  Yes, only a God could have thought of all that.  Computers and robots are just that – robots!

HUMILITY – that’s my waterloo. But knitting teaches me that making a mistake is part of life and I just have to learn to admit my mistakes, go over the material, rip and redo it more carefully this time.  I could just gloss over my mistake and leave a hole here and a run there. But what a shame that would be – wearing a supposedly newly made vest with holes and gaps.  And shame is not humility.  The Son of God humbly took on flesh in His Mother’s womb. But he was not ashamed to undergo the passion in reparation (to repair) for the sins of humankind.

And finally, GRATITUDE – that I still have good eyes to see what I am knitting, hands  to hold the needles and fingers to loop the yarn,  friends who give me the needles and  nice colored yarn,  knitting tutors when I am stuck in a design, and above all TIME.  Yes, in spite of a schedule of giving pro-life seminars, weekly radio programs, counseling, managing the office,  community prayers and activities and daily exercise  – I still have time for my knitting.  It is the hobby I have chosen as I glide towards my retirement years.  Retirement? Ah – twenty years from now?

By the way, I also make mobile/cell phone pouches. Call me if you want to make an order. State your name, age, status, address, educational attainment, awards, jobs, present position and P1,000 donation to Pro-life!

(Sr Pilar Verzosa, RGS, Founder of Pro-Life Philippines Foundation, peacefully joined her Creator last Sept 9, 2012 . This article she wrote was published in Life is for Everyone Newsletter year 2005. )

 

The HHS Mandate and the RH Bill:Lessons on Parallelism

By Anthony Perez, Pro-Life Philippines

American conservatives were up in arms against the HHS mandate (Health and Human Services Mandate) of President Barack Obama, a mandate which will force every employer, including Catholics, to provide contraception and abortifacient pills to their employees. This is, of course, a slap against religious freedom,and the resulting backlash has seen not only Catholics but other denominations as well condemning thismandate. To ask Catholics to go against what their faith teaches is a clear violation of the often-misunderstood separation of Church and State. The US government has no right to prevent Catholics from living their faith nor does it have any right to implement a law or a provision that would go against their religion. All over the country, protests sparked out in defiance of the HHS mandate. Men, women, the young, the old, clergy, and laity, Catholics and even those who aren’t Catholic went out, joined the protests, and spoke their minds about thewhole issue of their religious freedom which is at stake.

The same thing should be happening to our country. Like the Americans, we have a president who thinks he can have his way against the religious, faithful CatholIc, and a pending bill that is set to trample the religious freedom of millions of Catholics around the country. The RH Bill (Reproductive Health Bill) , currently HB 4244 in Congress, has  provisions that go against many of the precepts of the Catholic Church, and this makes Herthe bill’s number one enemy.

Central to the HHS mandate and the RH Bill are the distribution of contraception. The Catholic Church has been consistent in its denunciation of contraception, which it considers as intrinsically evil. She teaches thatthe sexual act, aside from the fact that it is reserved for those who are bound in the sacrament of marriage, has two aspects – the unitive and procreative – and these two aspects must always be present. The denial of theprocreative side of the sexual act, which happens whenever the couple uses contraceptives, means that sex is debased and is made into just an activity for pleasure. It could also mean that the woman is objectified as a thing meant for achieving a sexual high.

In the United States, the mass distribution of contraceptives by the government happened a mere few years before Roe V Wade, which gives you an idea of how things spiral downwards so quickly with a country that adopts a contraceptive mentality. And we all know what Roe V Wade did to American Society: 54 million deaths and counting. To think it all began with a rather innocent but entirely wrong notion of sex: “Look dear, we can now do it without you getting pregnant!”

If everything were a game of chess, then President Obama is now executing his endgame moves, with theHHS mandate and the end of religious freedom as his idea of a checkmate and victory. Game over. Destroy theremaining resistance – the Catholic Church – by forcing them to adopt this lifestyle that the liberals have been living, not to say that many Catholics have been using contraceptives anyway. It was a dangerous gambit, bythe way, and the backlash against Obama’s obvious trampling of religious freedom has been overwhelming. Everything is still hanging in the balance.

Today, the RH Bill, and consequently our country’s future, hang in the balance as well. With everything still to play for, both sides are deadlocked in a slug fest and no one is giving up the fight yet. For us in the pro-life side, we only have to look at the United States in order to be reminded of what we do not want to become: a society filled with modernism and emptiness, a society that for the most part does not respect life, and it all began with the simple use of contraceptives. Pope Paul VI prophesied correctly when he said that the mass distribution of contraceptives will result in a lot of evil, namely: the loss of respect for women, women claiming that their bodies are theirs alone, rise in infidelity and a general decline on morality, and governments’ abuse of power especially in matters where they shouldn’t even be delving into (such as population and family matters). This has been happening on a large scale in countries that disregarded Humanae Vitae; fortunately for us, our bishops decided to be faithful to Pope Paul VI and on the teachings of the Church. This might be the reason why our country holds fast to its Catholic and Filipino values. Nevertheless, like the Americans, who zealously stand guard over their freedoms, we should be eternally vigilant in order to ensure that the RH Bill does not pass.

Because we all know what happens next if the RH Bill passes.

Posted April 24,2012

Miriam Quiambao Stands Up Against the LGBT Community

Fomer Miss Universe runner-up and beauty queen Miriam Quiambao just did the unthinkable by making herself an enemy of the LGBT community. 

She has caught the ire of the LGBT sector when she Tweeted last  Sunday: “Homosexuality is not a sin but it is a lie from the devil. Do not be deceived. God loves gays and wants them to know the truth.” 

This all started when she publicly disagreed with the Miss Universe Organization’s policy of accepting transgenders in the pageant. She fanned the flames further after a guest appearance on Boy Abunda’s talk show “The Bottomline” Saturday night on ABS-CBN in which she was quoted as saying, “Homosexuality is not the one that makes you a sinner. Actually, sexual immorality is what makes you a sinner."

The backlash against Quiambao has been severe but not altogether surprising. Later that same day, Miriam also initially issued a qualified apology with the tweet, “I’m sorry if the truth offends some people…” before tweeting the more categorical, “I'm sorry LGBT. Perhaps I was too harsh with the words I used. Will do my best to be more sensitive.”

Quiambao is a born-again Christian who constantly uses Twitter in order to spread her faith.

No Apologies Necessary

It seems that some people have become so distorted in their view of the truth. Right has become wrong and wrong has become right. We are living in an upside-down world.

Miriam Quiambao has spoken the truth about homosexuality and that truth has hurt a lot of people. But in order to avoid the truth altogether, they take it on the messenger. There is nothing categorically wrong with what Ms. Quiambao said and therefore no apologies were needed, in my opinion. At the very least, all she did was to voice out what she thought of the homosexual lifestyle. In fact, she hit the nail right on its head as her Tweet contained the “love the sinner, hate the sin” message.

We need to rally behind Ms. Quiambao in order to tell her that she is not alone in her belief. To be truly Pro-Life we need to “put to rout all that is not life”, as Thoreau puts it. The Homosexual lifestyle is a direct manifestation of the culture of death and is in direct conflict with God’s plan for humanity.

Double Standard

RH Activist Carlos Celdran has some of the most scathing tweets for Quiambao:  “When did you become a freakshow? Dahell? Didn’t see this one coming. Wow. You need help, woman.”

Celdran and the LGBT community are quick to cry ‘foul’ when it comes to ‘discrimination’ against homosexuals. Almost automatically, they unleash their verbal counter-attack, calling anyone who goes against their lifestyle ‘homophobic’ or ‘bigot’ or ‘hater’.

Herein lies the double standard.

They cry for equality and freedom of speech and expression when they go about their homosexual activities, but when it is our turn to express our disagreement over their lifestyle, we are then called bigots and haters. What they are saying is that we have to tolerate them and the homosexual culture that has already crept its way into the media and entertainment industry, but they cannot tolerate us when we disapprove of their actions.

The LGBT were free to express themselves. But Miriam cannot. Such is the double standard these LGBT communities shove down our throats. 

Weren’t Celdran et al the same guys who cried “freedom of expression” at the Kulo exhibit at the CCP? 

Posted May 2, 2012

Anthony Perez, Pro-Life Philippines

Pag-aralan natin: RH Bill 101

Marami ang sumusuporta sa RH Bill, o ang HB 4244, kahit hindi pa man nila ito nabasa. Layunin ng seryeng ito na ilahad mismo ang HB 4244 at ang kanyang mga probisyong hindi naaayon sa ating pagka-Pilipino at pagka-Kristyano. Ilalahad din ang mga ibang isyung nakapaloob sa HB 4244 upang lalo nating maintindihan kung ano ba talaga ang layon ng saligang batas na ito at kung bakit ito dapat tutulan at ibasura.

Simulan natin sa Section 2, Declaration of Policy.

¨  The State recognizes and guarantees the exercise of the universal basic human right to reproductive health by all persons, particularly of parents, couples and women, consistent with their religious convictions, cultural beliefs and the demands of responsible parenthood. Toward this end, there shall be no discrimination against any person on grounds such as sex, age, religion, sexual orientation, disabilities, political affiliation and ethnicity.

Ang konsepto ng “Reproductive Health” ay galing sa mga banyagang bansa at ipinapahiwatig nito na ang lahat ng tao ay may karapatan sa “responsible, safe and satisfying sex life”; nakapaloob din sa konsepto ng Reproductive Health na karapatan ng tao na pumili kung paano, kailan at gaano karami sya mag-aanak.

Ang ibig sabihin nito – Walang pinipiling tao ang RH. Kahit sino, may karapatan sa RH:

1. Babae man o Lalaki.

2. Kasal man o hindi

3. Ano man ang kanyang edad. Kahit daw ang bata, may karapatan sa RH.

4. Kahit anong sabihin ng iyong relihyon, ang karapatan mo sa RH ang dapat manaig.

Samakatuwid, sa Section 2 pa lang ng RH bill ay tinuturuan na tayo na ang karapatan sa Reproductive Health ay higit pa sa mga nakagisnan nating mga kabutihang asal at kaugalian, kahit ano pa ang sabihin ng relihiyon o konsensya natin.    

By Anthony Perez, Pro-Life Philippines

Youth Gather at Congress, RH Forum in a Show of Pro-Life Force

By: Anthony Perez, Pro-Life Philippines

True to their promise that their voice will never be silenced, the youth sector has come out and came in droves of hundreds, attending the resumption of Congress after its summer break.

Hundreds of young people from different organizations and parishes attended the opening day of Congress in order to show their support for Pro-Life solons, especially the 9YL or 9 Young Legislators.

Even more young people attended the RH Forum which was held simultaneously at St. Peter’s Church at nearby Commonwealth Avenue, with many of them proceeding to the Congress after the said event.

Youth Manifesto

Earlier that day, a press conference was held at the CBCP conference hall by representatives from the youth sector: present to give their respective group’s position papers on the RH bill were : Kiboy Sagrada (UP for Life), Raymond Ibarrientos (Singles for Christ – Youth for Christ), Eilleen Esteban (Youth Pinoy!), Lea Dasigan (Federation of Nat’l Youth Orgs), Allen Guballa (Columbian Squires), Peter Pardo (NCR Youth Ministry)

Later on, they would sign the historic Youth Manifesto, which enjoins all young people to embrace the culture of life and to reject the RH bill. In effect, they have also declared that they will not vote for anti-life legislators.

“The youth, in defense of our welfare, can and will invest our support in legislators who know how to genuinely invest in us. In solidarity, we declare our opposition to the RH Bill. This is our voice. This is our vote.”

“We are opposing the bill as young people because it is us who will be directly and severely affected by the RH bill, not the congressmen who push it” adds Eileen Esteban of Youth Pinoy!

“We are not only the hope of tomorrow,” says Lea Dasigan of FNYO, “we are also the hope of today.

These youth leaders, along with their groups, would  go to join more young people at the Congress later that day.

RH Forum

While the session in congress was going on, there was a forum on the RH bill held at St. Peter’s Church in Commonwealth Avenue. More than a hundred youth from the Singles for Christ and the Diocese of Novaliches attended the forum.

The Speakers were Atty. Marwil Llasos, OP, Anna Cosio, RN, and Dr. Rene Bullecer, MD, of Human Life International. They all spoke against the RH bill from the point of view of their expertise, Dr. Bullecer and Anna Cosio being medical professionals, and Atty. Llasos being an impeccable lawyer and an outstanding theologian as well.

Young Hearts, Tomorrow’s Heroes

Coming together in order to oppose the RH Bill and proposing concrete solutions, the youth leaders and their respective members deserve much of our respect and admiration. Young as they are, they have shown that they are indeed the worthy inheritors of the torch that is about to be passed on to them in the next few years.

They have all vowed to vote wisely and to vote Pro-Life. They have all vowed to preserve the culture of life. They have all shown their desire to eradicate poverty the right way and not just resort to shortcuts. There is fire in the collective gut of these young people, a fire which may have been long-extinguished inside our anti-life congressmen, who seem to be more into buying contraceptives instead of providing for the basic necessities of the poor like food, housing, and education. The likes of them should never be elected into office again.

Much of our future lies in what we do today, and if our young turn out to be citizens unworthy of her country’s proud heritage, then the blame lies solely on us who failed to raise them properly. Therefore we educate the young not only to oppose the RH bill, but to embrace the culture of life.

Patriotism used to exclusively mean dying for the country. Nowadays, to live one’s life defending life and protecting the small, the helpless, and the weak – that is patriotism, too.

PRO-LIFE FORUM ON SAME-SEX ATTRACTION THIS JULY

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO ATTEND

PRO-LIFE FORUM SERIES

PRO-LIFE PHILIPPINES FOUNDATION, INC. seeks to educate the general public & Pro-Lifers everything we must know about Same-Sex Attraction: 

• What are the origins of Homosexuality?
• What does the Church say about the “Gay Lifestyle”?
• How does the gay lifestyle injure God’s plan for marriage & family life?
• How should we relate with gays?
• What do we do to help gay love ones?

In this forum we will learn and understand how to deal with people exhibiting same-sex attraction whether male or female. Let us help to make these people understand themselves better. We must understand its implications in our pastoral care, student guidance counseling and classroom management and even to our family. Send your family life volunteers, pastoral workers, guidance counselors, teachers and school administrators. Reserve now.

Resource Speaker: MR. ANSEL BELUSO

Mr. ANSEL BELUSO, former entertainment writer and showbiz talk-show host, now, married with two children and a  pastoral worker in Couples for Christ Foundation for Family & Life, responding to God’s call to start a psycho-spiritual program for the pastoral care and spiritual nourishment of active homosexuals who struggle to step out of the enslavement of their flesh. He is also the host of radio program, “Digma ng Buhay”, Veritas 846 AM Station. 

For reservations or more information, please call Ellen at 7337027 or you may send us a telefax at 7349425; or a text through mobile # 09192337783; or an email at life@prolife.org.ph. Visit our website at www.prolife.org.ph

Posted June 5,2012