CEBU CITY (UCAN): Beniamino Cardinal Stella, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome, said priests should “undertake, in a unique way, ongoing human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral formation” in his message to four-day National Conference of Seminary Formators on the Promotion of the New Ratio held in Cebu City, the Philippines, at the end of January.
 
The cardinal said Filipino priests need to discover wider horizons in their evangelisation work.
 

MANILA (UCAN): Luis Cardinal Tagle of Manila, issued a circular granting dispensation from the Lenten discipline abstaining from meat on the first Friday of Lent to Chinese Catholics in the archdiocese of Manila as this year, it falls on February 16, the first day of Chinese New Year in 2018.
 

LEGAZPI (Agencies): Bishop Joel Baylon of Legazpi said providing food for 84,000 people has become a “tall order” especially because of the constant threat posed by the erupting Mayon Volcano, UCAN reported on February 6.
 
The bishop said that Church leaders and government officials have been cooperating closely over the past few days to provide for the needs of displaced residents.
 

MANILA (UCAN): Bishop Renato Mayugba of Laoag wants an image of Blessed Justo Takayama Ukon, a Japanese candidate for sainthood, to be enshrined in his church in the town of Badoc in the northern Philippine province of Ilocos Norte. 
 
Blessed Takayama, who was a kirishitan daimyo and samurai, died in Manila in 1615 after fleeing the persecution of Christians in Japan.
 

MANILA (UCAN): The Philippines’ Lower House of Congress is fast-tracking a bill that seeks to recognise as civilly legal and binding the nullification and annulment of marriages by the Catholic Church. The House of Representatives approved the bill on its second reading on January 24. 
 
Once the proposed measure becomes law, a declaration of nullity by the Catholic Church will hold as much weight and have the same effect as a court decreed civil annulment.
 

ALBAY (UCAN): Caritas Philippines has appealed for donations for the relief and rehabilitation of families affected by the ongoing eruption of Mount Mayon in the Albay province.
 
As at January 25 over 70,000 people had been evacuated to temporary shelters as the volcano started spewing columns of ash as high as 10 kilometres into the atmosphere.
 

MAKATI (SE): “Some people are proposing a digital detox… I don’t know how to do it. But they say, through silence, return to reflection and prayer life,” said Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, the archbishop of Manila on January 19, CBCPNews reported.
 

MANILA (UCAN): A proposal in the Philippine Congress to qualify a provision in the country’s constitution on freedom of speech has drawn flak from various quarters.
 
Allies of the president, Rodrigo Duterte, in the House of Representatives proposed to insert the qualifier, responsible, in the constitution, to read “No law shall be passed abridging the ‘responsible exercise’ of freedom of speech.”
 

MANILA (UCAN): The move by the Philippines’ Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) on January 15 to revoke the license of online news agency, Rappler, has sparked suspicion and outrage among media and human rights groups in the country.
 
The agency has been highly critical of the government of president, Rodrigo Duterte, especially the deadly war on drugs.