CFM SUCCESS STORIES IN THE PHILIPPINES
"Credit Union"
In 1965 the Immaculate Conception Parish in Quezon City, Philippines, had three units of the Christian Family Movement. The members, who were mostly from middle income families, decided to have a common Action after an Observe and Judge. They observed that many persons in the wet market were struggling to keep body and soul together by going into business; however, they borrowed their capital at usurious rates. The CFM'ers noted that these persons had families and their cherished dream was to send their children to college.
The CFM'ers saw that usury is one of the sins condemned in the bible. The situation in the parish would have made the Lord very unhappy. The borrowers must have been industrious; otherwise, they would not have ventured into business. They must have been honest and faithful to their obligations; otherwise, their borrowing days would have long been over. If given loans at Christian rates, they would have more "take home pay."
The CFM decided to study what another group of CFM'ers in a neighboring city
parish had done in a similar situation. Discovering that their action was practical and effective, they created the Immaculate Conception Cooperative Credit Union, Inc. Putting the CFM'ers little extra money together, the ICCU went into business and is still in existence today. The credit union has helped thousands of parishioners, having granted loans totalling over P240,000,000.00 ($4,800,000.00) since it began.
CFM has indeed made a difference in this parish, helping ordinary people earn a living while teaching them how to save and disciplining them to pay their obligations faithfully. Who would even think that the capitalization of less than P1,000.00 ($2,000.00) 36 years ago would grow to be the P43,000,000.00 ($860,000.00) that it is today!
"Covenant Experience and Marriage"
A little over a year ago, Bob and Irene Tomonto of CFM Florida, USA, generously shared with CFM Philippines their new program, the Covenant
Experience, an effective tool for expansion. The first to respond was
The Our Lady of Mount Carmel Shrine parish of Quezon City. They have so
far had three weekends, the third one of which had 11 couples from the
Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs) of the 21 who attended. These 11 couples were mostly heads of the 16 BECs of the parish. It is both easy and difficult to invite members of BECs to a parish undertaking - easy because they are in the mainstream of Parish activities. For the last 8 years or so, each parish priest (their term is only 3 years unless reappointed) has worked hard for the Formation of BECs. Holy mass has been brought to their areas weekly, Bible study groups have been formed, livelihood projects have been implemented and mass weddings have been held. It is difficult because
taking them away from work means loss of their income for the day each
day and there is the problem of who will mind their young children.
The Knights of Columbus (K of C) of the parish on the other hand has started a program which is tried and tested in Bangladesh. The project provides
loans for the chosen livelihood activity like making peanut butter,
retailing rice, vegetables, fish or rtw or cooking and selling rice
cakes. They started with 20 women giving them p2000 each. Every Saturday
At 3 p.m., K of C members and the beneficiaries of the program meet to discuss the progress of the activity. Besides being the day for making interest free installments to liquidate their uncollateralled loan, these women who now number 40 and some of them now receiving p4000, are provided
professional and technical advice on the daily needs of business concerns and guidance in living gospel values. Several months have passed and loan payments have a 100% track record! The head of the K of C Project is a long time CFMer.
CFM continues to be involved in the Covenant Experience follow-up. In November 2001, CFM conducted a Tipanan, a one day marriage enrichment in the vernacular for the BECs. A fter the follow up of this program, potential team couples from the class will be invited to train to have more classes among the BECs. For the last 8 years, this program has been adapted by CFM in the parish only as a pre-marriage requirement for mass weddings. Hopefully, CFM units will be formed from the Tipanan classses to provide continuing formation for the families. CFM is also seriously considering giving skills training to the male Tipanan and Covenant Experience graduates so that the jobless ones can augment the income of their working wives, many of them who are part-time laundry women, especially the beneficiaries of the K of C Program. Maybe none of these projects/ undertakings would have worked without the formations of BECs first.
It was wonderful to see some members do volunteer work to safeguard the national elections of May 12, 2001. When asked why they were working without compensation, they proudly answered, "kasi bec na kami!".
"From Family Mass to CFM"
In the Philippine diocese of Cubao His Grace Bishop Honesto Ongtioco excitingly launched, under the Family and Life Ministry, the Simbang Pamilya (Family Mass), a brain-child of Priest coordinator Fr. Omer Prieto. It is an ordinary Sunday Mass in which one family makes the offering and reads the Prayers of the Faithful. It seems an ordinary event that is already being done in many parishes, but the participation goes beyond the apparent.
Earlier, the Family and Life Ministry team members call on the volunteer family at their home to prepare them for their participation in the coming Sunday Mass. At this visit the Ministry team gets to know the family members well and make them feel welcome as an important part of the Church. They may talk about the Gospel of that Sunday so the family members understand it better when they listen to the homily. The second important aspect is the witnessing of the family during the Mass when other families see them participate. The participating family feels their active part in the Eucharistic Celebration, and other families gain a desire to participate also.
In the parish where this was first introduced, the list of volunteer families is growing. These families are then invited to come to other parish activities such as
a family recollection and then a evangelization program (similar to a CFM meeting) or the FIRES programs, Covenant Experience and other CFM family enrichment programs. This form of active participation at the Holy Mass greatly increases the dynamism of the Church.
The Simbang Pamilya is the beginning of a program to make families "Domestic Churches," which the Church needs badly to be revitalized and grow. It is so simple that a newly-organized parish Family and Life Ministry can begin implementing it with minimal preparation, yet its impact on the Church is tremendous, fulfilling what Pope John Paul II said that the future of humanity passes by way of the family.
Together with the Simbang Pamilya, the Family and Life Ministry is engaged in a diocese-wide parish orientation on the importance of the family, inviting parents to be members of the ministry. Next month, the Family and Life Ministry shall begin a series of Basic Formation Program (sharing to parishes from CFM) to form new Family and Life Ministry teams.
Hope that CFMers throughout the world would look at this program and implement it.
Joe and Charito Hilario, Lay Coordinators, Family and Life Ministry, Diocese of Cubao
Past CFM Asia Presidents
At the end of 1999, the Year of the Elderly, we CFMers did a small study on old age, based on our own experience of growing old, our aging parents and the views expressed by our children and grandchildren. What we uncovered through our observations and discussions was published in our Newsletter under the above heading, as the facts were interesting and worth attention.
CFM's romance with Senior Citizens began several years ago with an inquiry we used at a monthly meeting. It was observed that this section of the parish went entirely unnoticed and did not feature in any of the parish programs, nor were there any programs tailored to suit their needs. We went into action.
We invited the Senior Citizens of the parish to a social evening. There were games, dancing, singing, plenty of prizes and plenty of snacks. They had a whale of a time, greatly pleased to have been plucked from anonymity with a special celebration. Thus began a series of programmes. We organized and took them on picnics - now an annual CFM event in our parish - organized talks on naturopathy, cancer, mental health and age-related problems. We helped them enroll in a Senior Citizens Association, so that they would enjoy the benefits offered to the aging. We involved them in discussions on old age and helped them to feel wanted and useful and young at heart. One year we chaperoned them to a Sports Day in a neighbouring parish.
After the CFM raised awareness, the parish began to take notice of the elderly. For several years, Senior Citizens were chosen to be the Twelve Apostles for the Washing of the Feet on Maundy Thursday. Different areas of our large parish began having programs for Sr.Citizens and, last year, in one area the children went around singing Christmas Carols and gave each Senior Citizen a love token of a red rose!
Of all the programmes CFM has organized for the parish, the Senior Citizen Programs have been the most fulfilling. They are always well attended and always appreciated.
As a preparation for the celebration of the International Year of the Family (IYF) in 2004 we would like to present you a project of an art campaign for kids with the title "A page from our family chronicle".
The reason of the project is to underline the importance of the family within the society in one hand and the vision of the children regarding their own family in the other hand. It aims to actively involve children, teachers, parents, family oriented NGOs and also state authorities in the celebration of the IYF 2004.
Below you will find a brief description of the proposal of the project. In the Czech Republic, this project is organized by the National Center for the Family and YMCA Living family (CFM Czech Republic). In our country we achieved moral support from the Ministry of Education and from authorities of all regions. We have now closed the regional level and we have got hundreds of works in each region. Even the media are interested! It really functions!
CFM groups or other Family oriented NGOs can play a role of the national (regional) coordination center(s).
