Do more works of charity, Tagle urges faithful

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle: Do more works of charity. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle has called on the Catholic faithful to do more works of charity, saying that parishes throughout the country were teeming with lectors and commentators but too few volunteers for social apostolate.

At a forum in Quezon City over the weekend, Tagle said that if charity and social ministry were not practiced, Christian life would founder.

“Our Christian life is not absolute if these three foundations are not present: ministry of the Word, ministry of the sacraments, and service and charity,” he said in a speech at a forum on good governance for lay leaders last Saturday.

Many of the faithful would rather be Eucharistic ministers such as catechists, Bible study coordinators, among other things, rather than get involved in works of charity, like volunteering to be ministers for human rights or the environment, Tagle noted.

“It’s good we have many volunteers to be lectors and commentators but sometimes it takes three weeks or at least a month before they get their turn again. Why do you cram yourselves to become Eucharistic ministers?” he asked.

“I do not belittle that. But why is it that when we ask for ministers for human rights, people say, ‘That’s dangerous.’ And when we ask for volunteers for the environment, they say, ‘That’s a dirty job, you will step on a lot of big toes.’ Why are people scared of doing charity and service?” he said.

Not just another job

The cardinal said he may sound like a broken record as he urged the faithful to take up a social ministry and make it dynamic instead of turning it into just another job in the diocese.

“Social involvement is still weak at the parish grassroots level. Sometimes social services merely become an office at the diocese,” he said.

“Please, I appeal to you… please keep social ministry, social apostolate and public affairs alive in the parishes.”

Tagle said he had just come from a meeting of Caritas International in Bangkok where it was emphasized—as stated in Vatican II and reiterated by Pope Benedict XVI—that the three pillars of Christian life as a community were the Word of God, the sacraments and acts of love.

“Christian life will be wanting without these three, so that’s why let us examine our parishes,” he said.