WCR Letters to the Editor

Parishioner recalls Fr. Gani

A Google-search for our former parish priest in Cavite City, the Philippines, led me to the above article. I'm glad to know that Father Isagani Avinante is still climbing mountains, and it's typical of him to celebrate his 25th year as a priest doing just that.

Father Gani left our parish in the early 1990s, to take up a post in Manila, and then later in Canada.

Not long after that, I also left the Philippines for Austria, where I now live with my husband and children.

He was a mentor to me, and a major influence on our parish. It was his vision and his faith that inspired us to build the new church complex of St. Peter the Apostle, which was consecrated in 1986.

The years during the church's construction were among the most politically dangerous and economically depressed in the Philippines, but our parishioners somehow found inspiration and strength from Fr. Gani's faith and vision, and the construction was finished in record time.

We had no funds at all to start with and it was a miracle that it happened, considering that we (the parishioners, led by Father Gani) were concurrently active in the volunteer efforts campaigning against the Marcos dictatorship.

Maria-Fe Parco Ortner
Salzburg Austria

Pro-lifers made point at Way of the Cross

For over three years, pro-life has tried to have the right to life explicitly included at this community prayer service. Organizers have rejected the idea on the basis that the right to life issue is very inflammatory and that the Way of the Cross is an ecumenical, non-political event.

Such arguments beg the question - which social justice issue is not inflammatory and does not have political ramifications? As well, the argument that the gathering is ecumenical is hard to understand when one considers that the pro-life movement is an ecumenical initiative that welcomes people of all religious persuasions, including agnostics and atheists.

In fact, right to life issues are based on natural law and are so basic to every human being that even if the pope wanted to, he could not change the teachings of the Church on these issues.

It is hard to believe that we Canadians, who have a reputation of being a peace-loving and tolerant nation, could be implicated in a social injustice of such unprecedented magnitude. However, the sooner we face this truth, the sooner we can work to ensure the right to life for all, beginning in our own community and among our own friends and family.

Mary-Ellen Robinson
Edmonton

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