PH Envoy present during Pope’s state-of-the-world address

Philippine Ambassador to the Vatican Grace Relucio-Princesa spoke to Vatican News about some issues raised by Pope Francis during his address to the diplomatic corps on January 7. The Holy See observes a yearly gathering with the diplomatic corps named as traditional exchange of New Year greetings. In that gathering which happens every first Monday of January, the Holy See gives his own state-of-the-world address to the diplomatic corps.

This year the newly-appointed Philippine Ambassador to the Vatican was present and heard the address of Pope Francis. According to Ambassador Grace Relucio-Princesa some of the issues raised by Pope are issues affecting the Filipinos especially on migration, environment, and inter-faith dialogue.

After the whole speech of Pope, Ambassador Princesa expressed satisfaction that the Pope commended the Global Compact on Migration that was signed in Marrakech, Morocco, on December 10 and 11 and she also said that what she focused on the speech was about the dignity of the human being and particularly of the migrants because she thinks some people know that the Philippines has migration issues and also environmental and inter-faith issues.

Ambassador Grace Relucio-Princesa was appointed by President Duterte as Philippine Envoy to the Vatican on September 2018 after which the newly-appointed met the Holy Father in a formal ceremony in Vatican to present her credentials. She mentioned to the Pope that migration can lead to development. She also hopes to deepen the 5 F’s of the Filipinos and her own 5 F’s which are Faith, Family, “Filipinoness”, Fitness and Finance. These are the things she said she tried to share with the Filipinos, “We are able to deepen the faith and I think we should understand if we are new missionaries, we should take care of ourselves, we should learn how to save money, show our ‘Filipinoness’, our culture so we can stand tall.” (Alodia Luy | HCDC Intern)