MANILA (UCAN): Bishop Francisco de Leon of Antipolo, the Philippines, wants to allow laypeople or nuns to administer dioceses instead of priests.
 
He made the proposal when he met with Pope Francis during an ad limina visit by Philippine bishops to Rome in May.
 
“I think and I feel that it’s high time for us bishops to leave the administration of the diocese to competent laity or religious persons,” the bishop said.
 

MANILA (UCAN): Church leaders in the Philippines have warned against any moves to pass a law that will revive the imposition of capital punishment. The Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care issued a statement on June 20 reminding newly elected legislators of their responsibility “to defend human life.”
 
Moves to revive the death penalty failed in the last Congress, but Church leaders said recent statements made by new legislators on the re-imposition of the death penalty were disturbing.
 

MANILA (UCAN): A Catholic bishop and an Islamic law expert warned Filipinos against falling for money-making schemes that seem too good to be true as Philippine authorities launched an investigation into the activities of a religious sect that allegedly promises a 30 per cent return on investing in donations.
 
“Let us be careful of making investments,” Archbishop Jose Palma of Cebu, said in a statement, adding that “some people have ways of using schemes that fool other people.”
 

MANILA (UCAN): Catholic bishops in the Philippines have criticised the government’s dismissal of the sinking of a Filipino fishing boat by a Chinese vessel as a mere “maritime incident.”
 
Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, described the incident as a “little maritime incident” that politicians had made worse because of irresponsible statements.
 

MANILA (UCAN): On June 22, Church leaders in Manila, the Philippines, launched the local counterpart of the Laudato Si’ Generation, a global youth movement that works to address the impact of climate change.
 
Hundreds of young Filipinos have their intention to join the movement that aims to call attention to environmental problems around the world.
 

MARAWI (UCAN): The rebuilding of St. Mary’s Cathedral in the Marawi, in Lanao del Sur, Mindanao, will have to wait until mosques are restored in the war-ravaged city according Brother Reynaldo Barnido, executive director of the non-government Duyog Marawi (Together Marawi) group.
 
The church was desecrated and burned by terrorist gunmen when they attacked the country’s so-called Islamic capital in May 2017, kicking off a five-month conflict.
 

MANILA (UCAN): “I will sue them,” Margarita Valle, said after she was arrested on June 9 having been supposedly “mistaken” for a wanted person in Mindanao, the southern Philippines, 
 
The columnist with the Davao Today newspaper, will sue the police for illegal detention, recounted that police officers ignored her appeals to call friends to verify her identity and held her incommunicado for 12 hours. She said that they also failed to read her her rights and refused a request to examine the warrant for her arrest.