Big Challenge to BUC

The Duterte government’s war against the violence of drug addiction and drug production is carried out also in a violent way. This violent way is being questioned and debated. And this questioning and debates are somehow tainted with violence. So we are now being confronted by what is called the spiral of violence. ‎If this spiral is not stopped and cut it will bring us to total destruction. How to do this is a big challenge to the Bishops-Ulama Conference.

This challenge is both personal ‎and organizational. A good Catholic and Protestant person must be non-violent like Jesus Christ. A good Muslim must be non-violent because he/she totally submitted to the God/Allah of peace. The Conference as an organization of non-violent individuals professing the Christian and Islamic faiths has to be non-violent.

This personal challenge is very difficult because it involves doing violence to oneself. Fasting, detachment, all forms of self-sacrifice as means to acquire self-control and self-mastery. These are moral values which BUC members must help others to acquire if they have to cut the spiral of violence in society.

This will be part of the new thrust of intra-faith dialogue ‎in the coming activities of the BUC. For this we and our respective constituencies must pray and make personal sacrifices.