by: Bo Sanchez
I am a Catholic lay preacher.
I love my faith and I thank God for my Roman Catholic church.
And I respect the faith of other people. I welcome and offer my friendship to anybody regardless of his or her creed, color, ethnic origin and political persuasion.
The servant leaders of our spiritual family share my religious beliefs on reaching out to anybody who is hurting or needy, regardless of his or her religion. Or even lack of it.
And so I thank God for what s happening in our various ministries for the poor.
A Protestant pastor in Calgary, Canada is supporting our Pag-asa ng Pamilya Scholarship Foundation. We gratefully welcome his support.
A Filipino SVD missionary in Cologne, Germany leads his community in supporting our orphanages and Grace to be Born shelter.
A Jewish family in Manila celebrated their daughter s birthday by holding a kiddie party in our Tahanan ng Pagmamahal orphanage in Pasig.
Sometime ago, a Jewish girl whose mother I met in Israel, came to our Grace shelter and volunteered her service on stay-in basis. No salary, no allowance.
An Indonesian nun is serving as center director of our Quezon City orphanage.
Last month, an Australian atheist began regularly reaching out to our hurting mothers in Grace ministry.
An unwed Muslim mother got pregnant and took sanctuary in our Grace to be Born shelter last April. We gladly welcomed her and ministered to her until she gave birth. A few weeks after her delivery, she went back to Mindanao. (Thank God we don t stone to death such women; we love them instead and care for them just like how we care for others.)
In Anawim, our home for the abandoned elderly, we accept those whomever God sends to us. Our Anawim social worker never bothers to ask if he or she is a Catholic before admitting the needy. Church affiliation has never been a criterion in accepting an abandoned elderly.
Over there in Muslim Mindanao, we are working closely with a missionary priest in Basilan and a nun in Zamboanga in helping send to school some impoverished Muslim youths. No hidden agenda. No attempt to proselytize. No conversion to Christianity is ever attempted.
In the Cordillera mountains of Abra, we have accepted indigenous Tinggian youths as scholars of our Pag-asa schoalrship foundation.
In Iloilo city, we are helping provide college education to a blind scholar who is a Protestant. He regularly attends the Baptist church services, not our Iloilo Feast. And that s perfectly okay with us.
We are helping morally and financially some Catholic seminarians and novice sisters aspiring to become nuns. And we pray for a healthy increase in religious vocations.
And the list goes on and on.
As I said, I am a Catholic. My fellow servant leaders are Catholic.
Oh, by the way, catholic means all-embracing.
Remember the story of the Good Samaritan in the Bible?
We just follow what our Lord Jesus teaches us.
I thank God for my religion of love.
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