At least 3 bishops to join priest’s nationwide bike for graft, pro-life issues
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DAVAO CITY, At least three bishops will join Redemptorist biking priest of Mindanao, who will start his nation-wide biking for peace and pro-life issues for 45 days.
Zamboanga Archbishop Romulo G. Valles, Cotabato Auxiliary Bishop Jose Colin M. Bagaforo, and Ilagan Bishop Sergio L. Utleg are willing to join him on different dates, said Fr. Amado Picardal, CSsR
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Bagaforo will also join Picardal on Day One of his journey and Utleg will join later in Laoag.
Davao Archbishop Fernando Capalla will send Picardal off at 8 a.m. on Monday, March 24, at the Archbishop’s residence.
Picardal, 53, said, “As I bike around the Philippines (from Davao to Aparri and back), I will be preaching the gospel of life and peace in parishes where I will be staying overnight.”
During his journey, his sermons would deal with issues such as: widespread abortion; never-ending armed conflict; extrajudicial killings; and environmental destruction due to mining and logging, he said in a press statement.
“I will also speak out against the culture of corruption which contributes to the perpetuation of the culture of death. I will preach about the sacredness of life and call on everyone to respect life, to say no to abortion, to stop the armed conflict and resume peace negotiations, to defend the environment, and to end the culture of corruption,” Picardal said.
On April 27, Picardal is expected to deliver a letter to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to express his disappointment and indignation that after over seven years of governing, the culture of death and corruption still persists; and that “she stands accused of perpetuating these evils,” according to the priest’s blog posted in March 17.
“The main purpose of my biking is to ask the president for reforms. It also emphasizes that I am not asking the embattled president to resign. The primary purpose of my biking and preaching is to draw attention to the culture of death and corruption that afflicts Philippine society—from top to bottom (from Malacanang to the barangay). Delivering a letter to Malacanang is just a side-trip and I don't expect the President to meet me or to read the letter—it is just symbolic. I will make the contents of the letter public. In it I will denounce the President for perpetuating the culture of death and corruption and for being a hypocrite (she goes to mass everyday and claims that it is God's will that she is president),” he said.
“Although I want her to resign, I will not be demanding her resignation because I know that it will be futile—she will continue to cling to power at all cost. I will just tell her that she will face the judgment of history and of God. Her worst punishment will be to live the rest of her life in shame and disgrace—knowing that the majority of the people have condemned her as a corrupt, greedy and power-hungry president—no better than Marcos and Estrada. But I don't want to focus all my energy in just denouncing the president,” he continued.
Picardal spent 18 days biking from Davao to the tip of northern Luzon, covering a distance of 2,083 kilometers in 2000 and 21 days on all sorts of road condition from Davao to Surigao, to Agusan, Misamis Oriental, Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental, the three Zamboanga provinces, Zamboanga City, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, North Cotabato, Davao del Sur and back to Davao City, covering a distance of 2,179 kilometers.
This year’s bike around the country will cover more than twice the number of kilometers Picardal covered around Mindanao two years ago.
During his bike tour in 2006, Picardal delivered homilies not only from the pulpits of the churches where he celebrates masses but also in the carinderias, sari-sari stores and roadsides they passed, the urgent messages to sop the war, resume the peace talks, stop summary executions and assassinations, impose a total log ban, repeal the mining act and stop drug abuse and trafficking.
Picardal has also climbed Mt. Apo, the country’s highest peak, seven times, according to his blog.
Besides being a poet and theologian, he has also authored a book on the Basic Ecclesial Communities and is considered a “BEC expert.” (Santosh Digal)
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