User:Monjesperegrinos

The Pilgrim Brothers St. Francis is a monastic congregration founded in 1987 in Cebu City, Philippines and is listed in the Catholic Directory of the Philippines and the Conferenza Francescana Internazionale (Rome, Italy). It is also registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of the Republic of the Philippines. Also under the office of the Moderator General are the Congregation of Pilgrims of Jesus (S.E.C. registered), the Oblates of St. Anthony, and the Franciscan Sisters of the Incarnate Word (S.E.C. registered) in Daet, Camarines Sur. All male members, beginning novitiate, affix the title FRAY (or FRA) before their names. The Moderator General (since 1987) is Fray Paolo Maria Diosdado Granados Casurao.

The communities (including the affiliates) are engaged in cultural work; the brothers being liberal humanists and practitioners of the arts and letters. Cultural institutions and groups founded by the congregation through its SECCION FORMACION CULTURAL include the award-winning Ibabao Arts Council of Calbayog, Instituto de Drama para el Desarollo de los Pueblos (Institute of Drama for the Development of Peoples), Dulaang Laksambayanan (Diaspora Theater), Atelier Saint Gabriel, Dawatan Northern Samar Arts Council, Teatro Makabugwas, the Kapunungan ni Noy Kiko (Assembly of Brother Francis) and the PASUNDAYAG Cultural Network. In March 2010, on the occasion of the International Theater Day, Fray Paolo was awarded the UNESCO-ITI Philippines Outstanding Artist Award for his Arts and Crafts Workshop for vulnerable women and underprivileged people. He and Fray Timothy Joseph Santy P. Leano (Pasundayag Secretary General) were also included in the same award given collectively to the Kalahi Cultural Caregiving Teachers/Facilitators.

Recently E-mailed Article: CHRISTMASTIME IN THE CITY OF MAN: A humble reflection

The streets of the megalopolis are again ablaze with lanterns and twinkling lights. The North Wind pinches your cheeks as you regale in the electric display and the scents of the season’s fares tease your palate.

Carols and jingles blare from jeepneys and pedicabs as they disgorge their passengers in the landings of malls; behemoth commercial turbo pumps competing even for every last coin left in one’s pocket. One does not have to wonder why in the countryside, where people toil to produce food and other goods for the cities, there is hardly enough cash to go around. Whatever available cash in circulation is lapped-up by monster corporations run mainly by a few families.

Late in the evening, as the consumers haul their day’s hoards of Christmas bargains, the unwanted step into the shadows – under the bridge, sidewalks, and any other pavements that can offer enough undisturbed space until morning. In the vast Metro Manila, this shouldn’t surprise anyone anymore, except that this time they are more numerous and they consist of whole families.

It is easy to dismiss the losers as having just given up out of the proverbial indolence. Typhoons have swept their makeshift homes, fires have gutted their futures, posh villages have pushed them out of their vegetable plots…and the country that was once a bastion of labor security now has condemned young and old to the misery and scandal of perpetual contractual labor.

Observing the heavy Christmas traffic, a taxi driver commented on the seemingly mindless rush to the cash register. I asked him, “If I have P 10,000.00 in my wallet, how many Filipinos from the very young to the very old are actually without cash at the moment?” And then, he concluded that at the end of the day, the families controlling the malls are again awash with cash, while the rest of the country has become even poorer.

Consider: a student at a state university travels everyday the steeplechase route from the province to the Manila. Aside from the daily scourge of looking for food money, he/she faces the prospect of dropping-out, because he/she cannot afford the US$100 per semester tuition. It doesn’t take a whiff imagination to see him/her sleeping in the pavement in the not too distant tomorrow.

This Christmas, I am again asking forgiveness for not being able to buy gifts or send special greeting cards. I have promised to provide for a year of scholarship and, at the monastery, we will open the gate for the poor children on Christmas day, something that we have done every year whether it was bountiful for us or not. In times past, we have shared with them our poverty. Perhaps, we can all do the same...again.

fray Paolo