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How colonial mentality became our Stockholm Syndrome
By Metty Vargas-Pellicer It’s always an ordeal to make a trip home to the Philippines. The 14-hour trans-Pacific flight and another four hours in the air if you’re coming from the U.S. East Coast seem interminable. I didn’t know why I was making this trip again after just two years. Alone on the beach with […]
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Will Iglesia Ni Cristo be granted tax-exempt status? (Part 2)
By Cristina DC Pastor The purchase of Johnsonville gives the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) – or Church of Christ — a total of four locations in Connecticut. There are already INC churches in Bristol, Stamford and Windham — a total of 32 local congregations and missions in the Northeastern Seaboard, said Brother Joji Crisostomo, INC […]
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Iglesia Ni Cristo buys abandoned village in CT, opens it to public on Aug 26 (Part 1)
By Cristina Dc Pastor East Haddam town in Connecticut is a panoramic three-hour drive from New York City. It is the only home Laurie D’Aquila, a registered nurse and a lifelong resident, has known. When Johnsonville Village in East Haddam was struck by lightning in early 1970s, D’Aquila remembered the neighborhood burning. “I was 16, […]
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In the land of Sopranos, a thousand Sto. Niños find a home
By Cristina DC Pastor From the outside, this modest, cottage-style house in the residential section of Linden, N.J., looks like any family home. This house on East Blancke Street is actually a museum cradling more than a thousand statues and figurines of the Sto. Niño Infant Jesus, giving the visitor an entrancing feeling of being […]
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My sister Myrna
By Luis H. Francia In my mind’s eye, I can see my ‘ate,’ or older sister Myrna here, possibly as a ‘babaylan,’ part of a religious community more solidly rooted in folk beliefs than the Catholic Church and more empowering of her as a woman. I remember attending her 25th anniversary celebration as a nun […]
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A new year filled with joy, peace is our hope
By Ludy Astraquillo Ongkeko, Ph.D. Greetings to all! It is our hope that your Christmas turns out to be a blessed one, and a new year filled with joy is another hope! There is nothing like the near conclusion of another 12 months to remind us of a myriad of events. Likewise, there is that […]
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St. Joseph parish to honor San Lorenzo Ruiz with masses for the elderly, victims of injustice
To celebrate the feast of San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila, the first Filipino saint, the parish community of Saint Joseph will host a series of novena masses from September 20 to 28 at St. Joseph Church located at Pavonia Avenue corner Baldwin Avenue. The event is open to the public. Various priests led by the […]
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Let ‘divorced Catholics who remarry’ return to the sacraments
By Ludy Astraquillo Ongkeko, Ph.D. “Divorced Catholics who remarry, as well as their children, deserve better treatment from the church.” This was heard from Pope Francis himself as he warned pastors against treating those couples as though they were excommunicated. It all goes back to certain practices: Catholic teaching considers divorced Catholics who remarry as […]
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Deliver us from evil: Episcopalian priest shares experience with his ministry of exorcism
By Father Fred Vergara I had a few experiences of exorcisms or deliverance ministry. In the Philippines, I participated in an exorcism rite in one barrio in Pangasinan. An extended family built their house on a former abortion clinic and they would hear infants crying by the wall. After the exorcism, we conducted a requiem […]