15 CATHOLIC VIETNAMESE YOUTH ARRESTED WITHOUT VALID REASON

Vietnamese Parents Beg Prayers After Arrest of 15 Youths

Say Their Only "Crime" Is Promoting Common Good

HANOI, Vietnam, SEPT. 2, 2011 (Zenit.org).-
Vietnamese authorities arrested 15 Catholic youths in July and August,
six of whom are being held in Hanoi, while the whereabouts of the other
nine is unknown. 



Their families launched an appeal for
solidarity in an open letter in which they ask for the active support
and prayer of the whole Church, the Eglises d'Asie agency of the Foreign
Missions of Paris reported Thursday.

The families say their children
are innocent of any crime, and that they should not be punished for
involvement in social activities that promote the common good. 

Among those arrested is Paul Tran Minh Nhat, a student of the faculty
of Foreign Languages and Information Technology of Hanoi. He belongs to
a Catholic parish of the Dioceses of Vinh, in the province of Nghe An.




He finished his studies Aug. 27. At the end of his last test, when he
was leaving the classroom, four security agents in uniform accompanied
him to the door of the university and forced him to get into a waiting
car. He was taken to his room, which the police searched in his
presence, and then to an unknown destiny.




Since that date, the family has not received a notification of his arrest.




Amnesty




While the police were arresting the student, Vietnamese President
Truong Tan Sang was announcing the release of 10,000 detainees on the
occasion of today's national feast day.




Bishop Paul Nguyên Thai Hop of Vinh, the diocese where the majority
of Catholics have been arrested recently, told the Fides agency that
"the amnesty is a practice that is repeated every year and often applies
to prisoners sentenced for crimes against security and not prisoners of
conscience."




According to the Human Rights Commission in Vietnam, at least 258
political prisoners and prisoners of conscience are in Vietnamese
prisons.

The U.S. State Department's 2010
report on religious freedom noted the "significant problems" in Vietnam
with regard to this human right.

CATHOLIC YOUTH GATHERED IN THE LARGEST ANTI-RH BILL FORUM

Youth heed the call to celebrate Humanae Vitae teachings

MANILA,
July 20, 2011–In a massive display of support for the call of the
Catholic Church to reject the House Bill 4244 or the Reproductive Health
(RH) bill authored by Albay Representative Edcel Lagman, student
delegates from the Manila Archdiocesan and Parochial Schools Association
(MAPSA) and Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP)
trooped the University of Santo Tomas (UST) campus in what could be
tagged as the largest anti-RH forum ever held.

Dubbed
“Kalakbay Patungo sa Kapunuan ng Buhay at Pamilya,” the forum marking
the 43rd anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae (On
Human Life) had a combined crowd estimate of 4,000 from UST, St. Paul
Manila and Quezon City, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle
University-Taft, Lourdes School Quezon City, Letran College-Intramuros,
St. Jude Academy, Cainta Catholic School, La Consolacion College Pasig
and Valenzuela, San Beda College, St. Mary’s College of Quezon City,
Philippine Normal University, Assumption College Makati, Technological
University of the Philippines, and Santa Catalina College-Legarda
filling the UST Chapel.

Renelyn
Tan of World Youth Alliance Asia Pacific (WYAAP) started the forum with
an overview of what Humanae Vitae is and how the youth should
appreciate the prophetic encyclical of Pope Paul VI. 

Richard
Pazcoguin of the UST Institute of Religion reiterated how the RH bill
now pending in Congress is anti-life and anti-youth.

Zambales
Representative Ma. Milagros “Mitos” Magsaysay, on the other hand, said
that the problem of maternal deaths should have been addressed by now.

“We passed a law already, but the government failed to implement the provisions of the Magna Carta for Women,” she said. 

The solon also reminded young women that they should value themselves as they are worth “more than a pack of condoms.”

A
video featuring Adamson University and UST students was presented for
deepening and workshops as part of the forum, followed by a CBCP for
Life music video shown to promote the recently launched resource portal
for family and life issues.

Student
representatives from participating schools also joined the
slogan-making activity, from which the chosen student and school would
be awarded a plaque. The slogan will be adapted for the CBCP for Life
site. 

Students
posted their entries on CBCP for Life’s Facebook page. One student from
UST Faculty of Arts and Letters posted, “God gives us what men DESERVE
to have (life), not what men DESIRE to have (contraceptives).” (Raymond
Bandril)

Photo Album

UNIVERSTY OF STO. TOMAS STUDENTS STAND FOR LIFE! Report by one of our reader, follwer and fellow Catholic Apologist Bro. Ian Joseph Riñon

Pro-lifers at the Tigers' and Falcons' Camps

Last July 19, the CBCP has launched two pro-life forums held at two
separate locations: the Adamson University for the laity, and the
University of Santo Tomas for the students. Both were successful, and
both were graced by pro-life Representatives--Rep. Roilo Golez for AdU
and Rep. Mitos Magsaysay for UST. Let me focus on the latter since it
was where I was....




The program was held at the UST Chapel. Aside from the host school,
which is UST, there were also delegations from St. Paul University
Manila and Quezon City, Lourdes School Quezon City, Colegio de San Juan
de Letran, St. Jude Academy, Cainta Catholic School, La Consolacion
College Pasig and Valenzuela, San Beda College, St. Mary's College of
Quezon City, Philippine Normal University, Assumption College Makati,
Technological University of the Philippines, Santa Catalina
College-Legarda, and though uncharacteristic, small delegations from
Ateneo and La Salle.





Aside from Rep. Magsaysay, the other speakers were Ate Renelyn Tan of
World Youth Alliance and Prof. Richard Pazcougin of the UST Center for
Campus Ministry.





Sir Raymond Bandril gives you
the rest of the report, while Ma'am Diana Uichanco reports the Adamson forum.


The Varsitarian also has an article about this.




These are some of the pictures of the events that happened at UST. The rest can be shown
HERE.

Take note of the vestments: a
stole and a cope. That means, it's a paraliturgical celebration, not a
Mass since the priest must wear a chasuble in order to celebrate the
Holy Eucharist. 

The guy in green with a scarf near the center is my Pro-life friend.... :) 

Thomasian reinforcements.... Sweet.... 

Thomasians avoid passing through
the Arch of the Centuries because of a prevailing urban legend. But
students of other schools don't care about it just to get to España. 

The Legion of Life in formation. Find me in the crowd! hahahahaha 

Good thing these guys never hesitated to smile at the camera.... ^_^

And after
that, a number of Thomasians have started flooding the CBCP for Life
Page with their statements. (and I guess, these are the new set of
students handled by Prof. Agui Jalin, mostly from the Faculty of Arts
and Letters) This is what I posted: 








"WOW!
Another batch of Thomasians standing for life! The Artlets (colloquial
term for AB students in UST) have represented, We want to hear from
other Colleges as well! GO USTE!" 




Congratulations to everyone!





And, yeah. The people on the other side are not happy about this.

TIGERS! ON THE DEFENSE! NOW! 

Source:

http://mediasocietyandgod.blogspot.com/2011/07/pro-lifers-at-tigers-and-falcons-camps.html

University of the Philippines Student Rejects the RH Bill

Choose self-control, shun birth control – youth

MANILA,
July 16, 2011–A student from the University of the Philippines, a
school long regarded as among those going with the flow when it comes to
support for the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, gave a hopeful picture
of  how much young people are capable of understanding.

John Juat, a member of the group UP Against the RH Bill, saw through
the supposedly good intentions of the RH bill, citing the dangers that
the P3 billion-a-year measure posed on the youth.

What’s wrong with birth control?

Focusing on taxpayer-funded distribution and procurement of birth
control supplies, he said that “the youth are in danger of accepting the
idea that it is responsible to use contraceptives, when it is clear
that by using these, we go against the real design of sex which is for
intimacy of the couple and openness to life.”

The bill also misleads young people into “believing that
contraceptives are safe, when there are more than 60 documented
side-effects of contraceptives. The youth are  in danger of thinking
that contraceptives will protect us from different STDs, when the only
real solution is chastity and self-control,” pointed out the
21-year-old, who was among the students who took part in the July 1
silent protest against the RH bill in UP Diliman.

Confusing love with lust

Juat added that a birth control measure will make it even more
difficult for the youth to recognize love and to differentiate it from
lust.

“Contraceptives degrade the dignity of a person, making that person a
mere object of pleasure and making sex selfish rather than self-giving.
Contraceptives will make men predators rather than protectors of women,
and women objects rather than persons,” he lamented.

The solutions to the country’s problem lie in proper allocation of funds and in strengthening our values, he said.

“We
are a nation that is pro-life, pro-family, and pro-God. We must be
strong in these values…and every law made should be for the common good.
As a youth and as a concerned citizen who loves our country dearly, I
know that the RH bill will only make our country’s problems worse.

“Let us not sacrifice morality for money. Let us instead work on
reviving our Filipino values, protecting the family and valuing life,”
Juat concluded.

Juat was one of the panelists at the press conference held by the
Interfaith Pro-Life Coalition, which has issued a call for moral
recovery and threw its support behind the government’s fight against all
forms of corruption.

The group—composed of Catholics, Baptists, evangelical Christians and
Muslims–is leading a “Congress of the Faithful” on July 25 to manifest
the people’s perspective on the real state of the nation. (CBCP for
Life)