Maura Lipanda
Today I see that the Church is seeing the concerns of the community – including those of the youth. The Church is trying to act with the youth and engaging with them through the commissions and various ministries, but there are more actions needed in the areas of poverty, youth education, and sustaining faith communities.
We are aware that the living Church is the people themselves. While there are areas with physical church structures, many have few churchgoers and Catholic faith communities. Without active basic ecclesial communities (BECs) in rural communities, few go to the churches to celebrate Mass.
I was surprised to learn that I will be joining the meetings with some bishops in Mindanao and the community visits organized by the team of the River Above Asia Oceania Ecclesial Network (RAOEN), but after some reflection I understood that this is still part of the work I committed to in our Indigenous school in Bukidnon, the Apu Palamguwan Cultural Education Center (APC).
The long travel by land is a challenge but these occasions are also opportunities to meet and interact with other Indigenous communities like ours.
I was happy to be at the bishop’s residence in Iligan and be in the company of Bishop Jose Rapadas III of the Diocese of Iligan from whom I learned much from during the conversation with our visiting group.
I met Sister Melba Suan MSM, coordinator of the Iligan Diocese Youth Ministry (IDYM), who shared the ministry’s programs and activities on mental health, team building, genealogy generation, early pregnancy, early marriage, gender equality, ecology, climate change, safeguarding, synodality, sportsfest, recollections, and pilgrimage.
Ate Margie, the BEC coordinator shared that their BEC is strong, but only in Iligan and not in other communities outside the city. She also shared that a common concern among the BEC members is that only women participate in the sessions. Men are not active because they shy away from leading the rosary and reading scriptures.
Before visiting the community at Barangay Rogongon the next day, we met Father Charles Lwanga Okong’o CSSP, the parish priest of Our Lady of Fatima Parish located in Barangay Digkilaan in Iligan City.
Father Charles imparted some insights in relation to the BEC – about seeking peace and unity and praying over the Word of God each day. I found these insights useful to take back to my own BEC in Bendum. Father Charles also shared that the youth today are highly oriented to the modern world and that they seem to be no longer interested to till the land and soil their hands.
I believe that this can be attributed to a lack of appreciation and understanding of the land, and what it means as gaup, or theancestral domain of Indigenous communities.
There is also the great opportunity that need to be taken more seriously by families – the formation and guidance of children at home so that they do not become slaves of technology or adopt values that run counter to and weaken their culture. While there is nothing wrong with dreaming “big” or reaching for success, it is good as well to remember one’s roots and how and why it is important to live life simply.
Critical thinking is lacking and not exercised enough as more and more people, including our youth rely on the mobile phone and apps to do the “thinking” for them with just a click. The youth when attending school outside the community become attracted to values of the modern world that run counter to Indigenous culture and traditions.
For Indigenous schools like the APC, we have the ideal opportunity to form the young in a way that they can adapt to technology yet continue to sustain the values of their culture through the appropriate use and management of technology.
With available programs and opportunities to grow as leaders, Indigenous youth are in an opportune time to build their capabilities and use their creativity to be engaged in the synodal journey with the local Church. We need to gather our hopes for and with them so they can be part of the building of our common future.
Ms Maura Lipanda is the School Manager of the APC school in Upper Pulangi, Bukidnon that offers multilingual mother tongue-based K-12 education.