Safeguarding children: one of the greatest forms of Christian service
September 22, 2024 – 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Wisdom 2:12, 17-20; Psalm 54, R. The Lord upholds my life. James 3: 16-4: 3; Gospel – Mark 9: 30-37
This Sunday I would like to focus on one topic: our care for the children of our society. In today’s Gospel, the Lord placed the children front and center of the discourse on what greatness is all about. Nelson Mandela eloquently and powerfully set the standards: “The true character of society is revealed in how it treats its children.”
Let us reflect on our nation, our Philippine society’s care for our children. I invite you to reflect on three areas: healthcare, education, and social protection, specifically safeguarding. Then I will end with an epilogue to loop back into today’s Gospel narrative.
Malnutrition, particularly for the first 1000 days of a child from the time of conception, presents a big challenge to us as a society. For over 30 years the percentage of children below five years old who are stunted has remained the same, 29 percent. We belong to the group of 10 countries with the greatest number of stunted children, according to a 2021 World Bank report.
Though the percentage neither improved nor deteriorated, in real numbers the problem has dramatically worsened given that in 1994 the population was 67.65 million and 30 years later we are 115.56M.
Stunting is not just the outside physical appearance of height and weight, but even more problematic and alarming is the stunting of the brain. This leaves children who are stunted a lifelong handicap.
Science tells us that stunting can be reversed, at the very least mitigated, if caught within the first two or three years, thus the crucial period of the first 1,000 days. After this, we reach the point of no return for the poor.
Poor quality of education
The second crisis in caring for our children is in the field of education. For decades we have been wailing over the poor quality of education, particularly of our public school education.
Our youth will be handicapped when they enter the job market. Compounding this is the movement of quality jobs towards Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) or STEM-based jobs.
While many will agree that accessibility to quality education is still the best solution to empower the marginalized sectors of our society and ensure genuine and long-term development, failure to do this will have very dire consequences.
With these two issues alone, if unattended and not reversed, it will not be alarmist to say, the worst is yet to come.
Finally, the lack of social protection for our children. Over a year ago we started to pilot a media literacy program among the youth. The parents are important to be part of this. What we learned in our limited engagement is that a good number of parents are not aware that what they would consider as harmless may already be child pornography.
Human trafficking
The problem of human trafficking among children is very alarming. Three of our biggest and richest cities are centers of human trafficking, with one supposedly being the child pornography capital of the world.
One bright spot is the safeguarding policy of the church, i.e., the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults. Pope Francis has asked that each archdiocese set up a safeguarding office, which the church is taking seriously.
“‘If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.’ Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, ‘Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.’”
These three areas that impact the children of our society call for a whole-of-nation approach. In short, all hands on deck. Doing our share in any of these areas will be one of the greatest forms of Christian service.
In our Caritas Philippines recollection planning the other week, and in the homily I gave in one of the Masses in a Caritas Asia meeting this past week, I offered for our reflection the centrality of presenting the Gospel worldview in all of our social action programs.
Good service
Caritas Philippines has been doing good service in education the past years, reaching out to the last, the lost, and the least.
This past year, we partnered with UST Medical School Golden Jubilarians 1974 for an action research program to combat stunting, and Caritas Philippines has since made a feeding program to combat stunting a priority program.
We continue to campaign for anti-human trafficking, and many archdioceses and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines are working on putting in place safeguarding policies and offices.
There are many efforts being made, but we must all do our share as one church, as one human family.
“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.”
