As we celebrate the wonderful life and gift of Pedro Calungsod, let us also appreciate Malala Yousafzai. As many already know, she is the 14-year-old girl who was shot by the Taliban for her courageous fight for women’s rights, especially their right to education.
We got to know her better by checking the Internet. She is from Mingora in the Swat Valley, “where the Taliban has at times banned girls from attending school”.
She was named after “Malalai Maiwand, a Pashtun poetess and warrior woman.” Her father, a poet and an “educational activist” is very close to her and has been a great influence in her life. “Ziauddin referred to his daughter as “something entirely special, permitting her to stay up at night and talk about politics.”
When Malala was only 11 in 2008 her father brought her to Pshawar where she spoke before the local press club and declared: “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education!”
When BBC Urdu asked a girl to write about “life under the Taliban”, she later withdraw from the project. Malala, four years younger, became the alternative. To protect her she became a blogger using a pseudonym “Gul Makai” or corn flower.
Malala has been described as owning a laptap and “played computer games” and watched cable television.
Her next media experience was through a film documentary done by New York Times reporter Adam B. Ellick. She was quoted as saying “I’m really bored because I have no book to read.”
She also participated in the District Child Assembly SWAT supported by UNICEF. The gathering was meant to provide children a chance to air their concerns and propose solutions. Then at the close of 2009 she was involved with the “Open Minds” project of the Institute of War and Peace. Forty-two schools of Pakistan were provided with “journalism training and discussion of current affairs”. The work of the participants was edited and they were linked with local papers. Many girls joined this activity due to Malala’s efforts.
So in 2011 she was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize. Pakistan also awarded her with “the first National Youth Prize.”
The Taliban decided to kill her. When she was asked by a CNN reported how she would respond to “these guys who had guns and bombs”; she replied: ”If they didn’t want to talk, she would use the holy book, they (the Taliban) used to justify their brutality. Nowhere in the Q’uran, Malala said, does it say that girls should not be allowed to go to school.”
Since I wanted to honor Pedro Calungsod I went over Msgr. Ildebrando Jesus A. Leyson”s book and found Msgr. Rodolfo Villanueva’s “Beatitudes of Pedro Calungsod” to be a very beautiful description of St. Pedro Calungsod’s life and person. So I asked Msgr. Rudy’s permission to have it here.
1. In you true service found fulfillment.
You placed the Lord’s commands ahead of all
And so you did not count your youth as misspent.
Young and old alike became your pupils
In the face of threats and the promise of bloody death.
2. You chose to serve in a place far away,
Leaving behind everything you considered dear,
And became for the missionary Diego kind assistant.
Many were the travails that came your way
As you strove to spread the light of Christ.
Refrain I
Servant of men and of God,
Exalted son of the Visayas,
This voice of mine is fondly hopeful,
And this strange language, too,
That they may sound familiar to you.
I: Pedro Calungsod, we now call upon you
As townmates call upon one another
Here on earth, the same as in Heaven:I
3. Because of your great love for children
You cared for them, taught them God’s Word
And protected them from their many enemies.
You gave your help to the holy missionary
Mindful of the never-ending growth of the Church.
4. Even your enemies experienced your love,
They who invented many trials to test you.
This was done for them to experience God’s wisdom
Which he often grants that his love
May be manifested unto all nations.
5. Fear or tiredness never could hinder you,
Taught by the Man of God, who was tireless.
But the mission called and go you must.
Nothing could frighten you,
Who trusted God completely,
And who brought along no arms for protection.
6. The threats of those ferocious enemies, you chose
Not to mind, at which their anger was inflamed.
Their hatred was for God, but their vengeance for you.
Then you chose not to escape from the lance and the sword
And martyrdom’s victorious palm became your own.
Refrain II
Pedro Calungsod, regard with loving eye
All our young, and deign to bless
Those who have them in their hearts.
Into your hands we entrust them for now
And for all time so that the youth of the Philippines
Be like unto you, favorite child of God!