Hurting’ families breeding ground for drug

problem – bishop
Filed under: Headlines |

Laoag Bishop Renato Mayugba leads the concluding Mass for the Regional Orientation and
Workshop Seminar on Amoris Laetitia in Baguio City, July 27, 2016. (Photo: Sam Bautista)

BAGUIO City, Aug. 16, 2016– There would be no problem of drugs if there are no broken and
“damaged” families.

This was what Laoag Bishop Renato Mayugba and concurrent Northern Luzon regional
coordinator of the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life of the Catholic Bishops’
Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) had to say about the country’s drug abuse problem, which
the Duterte administration plans to eradicate through the PNP’s “Oplan Tokhang”.

Mayugba explained that the root cause of the country’s drug problem can be traced to members
of “damaged families” who look for palliatives to escape the difficulties they face in their own
families.

Wanted: more good families

“We can win the war on drugs by building good families whose members can work for harmony
in their homes,” explained the prelate at the end of a 3-day Regional Orientation and Workshop
Seminar on the apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis titled Amoris Laetitia held in Baguio City
from July 25 to 27.

He encouraged the clergy as well as the lay family and life workers from the 16 dioceses who
attended the workshop seminar to exert extra efforts on the family, particularly on the Pre-Cana,
Post-Cana, and accompaniment work they have committed themselves to.

“This [is what] can lick the drug problem,” stressed Mayugba.

More than 200 participants coming from the various dioceses of northern Luzon – Regions 1, 2,
3, and the Cordillera Administrative Region attended the said event.

At the fringes

“Now, we have 200 miners, diggers who can expose the treasure which the apostle Matthew
described in chapter 13 of his Gospel,” said the bishop.

Organized by the fledgling Northern Luzon Family and Life Ministry, the Baguio workshop-
seminar tapped the expertise of Daet Bishop Gilbert A. Garcera, who also chairs the Episcopal
Commission on Family and Life of the CBCP.

During the three-day seminar-workshop, Garcera explained Pope Francis’ intentions through the
apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, saying it encourages pastoral workers and the clergy to be
more understanding of the plight of those at the fringes of pastoral care: overseas Filipino
workers (OFWs), those with same sex attractions, single parents, the old and infirm, those in
irregular unions, and especially the poor. (Sam Bautista/CBCPNews)