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Filipino Catholics observe Ash Wednesday; Cardinal Tagle calls for acts of charity
A month after the visit of Pope Francis, Filipino Catholics mark the start of Lent with Ash Wednesday on February 18.
A pastoral letter from Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle will be read during Ash Wednesday worship services in Catholic churches within Tagle's archdiocese.
In that letter, Tagle urges Filipino Catholics to pray, fast and do acts of charity. In particular, Tagle seeks support for the feeding program of the archdiocese.
The Manila archdiocese's news release said, “Fast2Feed is a Lenten campaign that asks that the money saved from fasting be donated Hapag-Asa program.”
The archdiocese also said the Fast2Feed campaign in 2014 “was able to feed 150,000 children in the Yolanda-affected areas and another 20,000 children through the six-month HAPAG-ASA feeding program.”
“It only takes P1,200 or P10 per day to bring back a hungry and undernourished child to his healthy state in six months,” Cardinal Tagle was quoted as saying in the news release.
On Ash Wednesday, millions of Filipinos go to church to have their foreheads marked with a cross using ash from palm fronds blessed during the Palm Sunday of the previous year's Holy Week.
On Ash Wednesday, millions of Filipinos go to church to have their foreheads marked with a cross using ash from palm fronds blessed during the Palm Sunday of the previous year's Holy Week.
Less the 50 percent weekly church attendance
Millions went out into the streets to welcome the pope in January, but a survey made just weeks prior to the papal visit indicates Pinoy Catholics return to their usual ways, including less frequent church attendance compared to Filipinos of other religions.
Only about 41 percent of Filipino Catholics attend religious services at least weekly, according to the Fourth Quarter 2014 Social Weather Survey, conducted from November 27-December 1, 2014.
In contrast, weekly attendance "was 89% among Iglesia ni Cristo members, 83% among Muslims, 72% among other Christians," the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey said.
The SWS said weekly attendance to religious services among adult Filipinos was higher than 50% "in only 5 out of 16 surveys since June 2010, reaching as low as 43% in February 2013."
The SWS said weekly attendance to religious services among adult Filipinos was higher than 50% "in only 5 out of 16 surveys since June 2010, reaching as low as 43% in February 2013."
— ELR, GMA News
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