August 22, 1994

To my dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

“Thanks be to God, who has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 15:57).

Thanks to your standing up for life and love and your generous response to my call as your Archbishop, the special day of prayer and fasting for our children and the family last Sunday, August 14, had an impressive turnout. It was seen around the world.

Families came in droves. Muslims, Protestants, men and women of other faiths came to proclaim their solidarity with Catholics in defense of the rights of the family and the unborn. Although some people in the mass media, for whom we must pray, have tried to falsify the facts, the whole world knows what happened at the Rizal Park. Our Immaculate Mother did not fail to intercede for us, and the Blessed Trinity smiled lovingly upon us.

But the fight is not over. The plague has not passed. The enemy is not yet vanquished and he does not sleep. We must keep our vigil and intensify our prayers.

After a series of consultations, the government and the Catholic Bishop’s Conference agreed on a mutually acceptable statement to be presented by the Philippine delegation to the International Conference on Population and Development to be held in Cairo on September 5-13, 1994.

This is a happy development, for which we thank and commend the government for its reasonableness. But what our delegation will say in Cairo is only good as what the government will finally do here, in our country, once the conference is over.

Whether or not the draft action program is finally approved in Cairo, and whether the perverse provisions which we oppose and denounce as a danger to humanity are preserved or finally removed from the program, the massive propaganda campaign to transplant and propagate a completely hedonistic neo-pagan lifestyle that is favored in rich consumerist societies into our Christian milieu can only intensify. We must continue to be vigilant.

Like the dumb lunatic in Scripture, the evil we are battling against “can only be driven out by prayer and fasting” (Mk 9:29). So I invite you to deepen your devotion to the Child Jesus and join me in a novena of prayer and fasting for the CAIRO Conference.

Starting August 31, the primary intention in all Masses in the Archdiocese of Manila will be the protection of the family and the unborn child at the CAIRO Conference. Continue to invoke the name of Mary, Mother of Fair Love (Sir 24:18) until her birthday which falls on September 8. Remember how with Joseph she carried the child Jesus on the flight to Egypt to escape the slaughter of the Innocents.

As the Conference draws near, I implore the sick and the suffering to offer up their pain as their incense to our Heavenly Father.

I ask the children to offer everyday this little prayer to the Holy Father: “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, protect our families! Return to Egypt once more to save our families!” God will surely heed them and “scatter the proud in their conceit” (cf. Lk 1:52).

I ask the mothers who are carrying a child in their womb to accept their motherhood with all the love they can bear, not only for the child in their womb but also for the countless unborn children whom their mothers chose to destroy in their womb.

I ask all married couples to accept generously and responsibly the children God gives them, knowing that every child is a gift not a burden (Ps 127:3).

And I ask you all to pray that God will use us all, our children, our families and our nation to bring back to Him the children, families and government of other nations.

Devotedly in Christ,

(SGD.) + Jaime L. Cardinal Sin, D.D.

Archbishop of Manila

August 17, 1994