Pope tells Filipinos to have hope amid crises

Despite the serious problems of human rights violations and anti-life programs, Pope Benedict XVI assured Filipinos that God and the Church are still with them, particularly the poor. Pampanga archbishop Paciano Aniceto said the Pope contained these assurances in his encyclical "Spe Salvi facti sumus (In hope we are saved)" released last November 30, addressing the concerns of the faithful who at times "appear to lose hope." "The Holy Father tells us despite the serious problems we have today, from poverty to armed conflict and terrorism, human rights violations and anti-life programs, we all have hope because God is with us," Aniceto said in a statement on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) website. "Our God is not a political God, He is the good shepherd who identified Himself with the poor, the hopeless, downtrodden which is all summarized in the encyclical," he added. Aniceto also quoted that Pope as saying that: “In the midst of all the chaos that make us almost humanly helpless, you can never overcome the grace of God because the grace of God is more powerful than evil and that conversion is possible, that Jesus came in order to save everyone." The archbishop added that: "What is important is not how one looks or what one possesses but what is within one's self, what is within, the core values and the character that one has," he said. Aniceto said the Pope first released his Deus Caritas Est during the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord on Christmas Day 2005, which underscored God's love, adding that the Pope may soon write another encyclical on Faith. - GMANews.TV