https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12852/1659 2026-04-06T15:05:13Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12852/2510 Pastoral ministry to the bereaved child Sodoy, Calixto C. Man perceives death in different ways depending on his religious beliefs and culture, his age, his socioeconomic status, and other factors. Modern technological man has, to an increasing degree, sought to deal with death in ways that will take such differential perceptions into account. In this context the minister of God has acquired responsibilities that challenge his dedication and his interpersonal skills more than ever before. The challenge has been viewed as particularly demanding where children are concerned. Modern psychology and psychiatry agree that the child's reactions to the death of a "loved other" may affect that child's later adjustment to both life and death. The child as mourner "passing through the depressive position is struggling, in his unconscious mind, with the task of establishing and integrating his inner world..." In many cases, unless wise assistance is forthcoming, the child may be scarred in deeply subtle ways by the death experience. The minister approaching the task of providing aid or counsel—one is a phase of the other—where a child or children are involved has an immense tradition on which to draw. The ancient Christian view of Christ as the One Who overcame death no longer survives in its pristine form. But contemporary thought at least permits the view that "the wide gap, marked by the doctrine of the fall, between man's actual state and the state intended for him in God's purpose, is indeed a reality." The corollary is that "the ideal state, representing the fulfillment of God's intention for man, is not a lost reality, forfeited long ago in 'the vast backward and abysm of time' but something lying before us as a state to be attained in the... future." Life thus becomes a journey to a higher state. While acknowledging immeasurable diversity in the attitudes of those who must look on death at close range—whether child, adolescent, or adult—the minister can act out of his own understanding that the goal of life is not attained during man's earthly exile. Rather, that goal can only be achieved after death. There must, in this view, be a life or lives after death so that man can fulfill his immortal destiny. From such a base in theology a structure of effective approaches to the task of helping the bereaved child through his period of mourning can be built. With members of the other helping professions, the minister or pastor can admit the absolute need for the child to face and deal with death. Complexities must also be considered as a matter of course; and these will vary from child to child. One bereaved may feel that he or she has been abandoned by the decedent, for example; the need for security may focus more strongly on the surviving parent, and may require special attention. Others will react differently; expressions of emotion may range "from a silent withdrawal and isolation to a wild loud mourning which attracts attention and thus a replacement of a loved and needed object. Since children cannot yet differentiate between the wish and the deed... they may feel a great deal of remorse and guilt... they may... take the separation relatively calmly..." The Problem and Method of Exploration The fact of complexity only intensifies the need for careful preparation for the task of ministering to the bereaved child, or of advising parents or others on ways of meeting the emotional and psychosomatic problems that may arise. The child's long-term development is at issue and must be kept in mind. The formation of "values that make healthy adjustment to reality a natural process" may be aided or impeded depending on the forms of assistance provided. Such is the core problem of the present study: the development of a set of guidelines that will aid the minister or pastor in his quest for the appropriate responses where bereaved children are in need of help. The guidelines must be formulated on the basis of certain assumptions—for example, that those young people to whom one mediates the Christian tradition in the period of stress following a death have already made at least minimal contact with the ethical content of life. The minister will also want to proceed from a knowledge of certain long-range values. "We need to know that we are helping the child to develop some discriminating values concerning death, for not all death is the same. There is a difference between the death that comes to an aged person at the end of the natural cycle of life and death and the death that comes with untimely suddenness to a young person through a tragic accident... If children learn that death is natural for the aged but unnatural for the young, they have gained a resource for learning caution and valuing health." The method of exploration of the problem as enunciated was evolved from two main points of approach: the experiential and the theoretical or textual. The former rests on the author's own experiences in pastoral work. Effort will be made to distill the lessons of those experiences to determine their essential meanings and, secondly, to phrase those meanings in terms that have significance for the pastor or minister. Equally important is the data base on which the guidelines will be constructed. In-depth research of the literature was seen as indispensable to development of that data base. Specific lines of inquiry included the areas of the child's concepts of death, ways of providing aid and counsel, and the minister's traditional role. Extrapolation from personal experience was to be undertaken in light of the findings in such key areas. Dissertation introduction 1978-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12852/2128 The confrontation of the Roman Catholic church with the economic and social development in the Philippines in relation to the influence of the socio-theological position of the II Vatican council : Approaches and resources Diel, Domingo J. Jr. The historic visit of Pope Paul VI to Asia, particularly the Philippines, in November 1970, focused the attention of the Catholic world on the R.C. Church in the Philippines. For her and the majority of Filipino Catholics, it was the "crown" of more than four hundred years of Catholic Christianity in the country: the first visit of a Roman Pontiff to the so-called "only Christian nation" in the Far East. To determine the full impact of this visit is beyond the scope of this study, and besides, the necessary material for it - if any exists - is not available to the writer. The significance of the Papal visit had already been anticipated by various sectors of the Church and society long before the actual visit took place. Generally the expectations for the visit were high, because of the Pan-Asian Bishops' Conference (PABC) which was then taking place (Nov. 23-29) and because of the critical condition of the R.C. Church in the country. The expectations were reflected in the statements made by the Pope himself regarding the purpose of his visit to the Philippines: "to meet the episcopate of the Philippines and that of the countries of that immense part of the world." Thus, the aim of the Pope to have direct contact with the local Churches of Asia (through their bishops) and their particular problems evoked a kind of hope for the Church there, especially for the Church in the Philippines. A typical expression of this expectation was the Pastoral Letter of the Philippine Hierarchy issued shortly before the Papal Visit; in this the Hierarchy described the two-fold significance of the Popes' presence in the country: first, his presence in the PABC was "a sign of unity among the bishops" in the conference and "a sign of unity" with the Pope himself; and secondly, "at a time full of doubt and rebellion ... there is one authority (i.e. the Pope) to whom we can turn with security and follow with peace of soul." Introduction 1974-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12852/2127 A mission history of the Philippine Baptist churches 1898-1998 from a Philippine perspective Bunda, Nestor D. In 1963 Dr. Agustin E. Masa, former General Secretary and President of the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches (CPBC), in his nine-page Outline History of the Baptists in the Philippines, had endeavored "to set in writing the history of the Baptists in the Philippines" as a response to a "popular request". He emphasized that "without such organized written account of the activities of various Baptist groups in the country, there will be no basis for objective investigation of such activities or no way to assess their advances or lapses." Masa’s attempt to write a Philippine Baptist history was quite similar to what Dr. Feliciano C. Sombito, first President of the CPBC, had indicated earlier in 1936. "Agud mapauswag sing maayo ang aton pinanumbli (sic) dapat naton hibal-an (sic) ang matuud naton nga kahimtangan. Dapat naton usisaon kag suklon ang aton kusug kag kaluyahon. (....) magamitlang sang mga defectos, sa espiritu nga dili pag padiutay apang pagpadaku, dili pagmusmus apang pagbatak, dili paghikay apang sa higugma, kag dili pag patay apang sa pag hatag kabuhi." To develop well our legacy we should know our real situation. We should analyze and assess our strength and weakness. (....) state our defects in the spirit that does not belittle but promote, not to ridicule but to elevate, not to humiliate but to love, and not to slay but to give life." In a way, history serves as a basis to understand and transform the present and a guide to plan for the future. Meditating on religion, politics and social transformation, Philippine Baptist scholar Dr. Lester Edwin J. Ruiz pointed out that "memory, narrative, and vision are decisive for transformation inasmuch as they mediate the possibilities of the 'fundamentally new and better.' Without dreams - indeed, without the capacity to dream - the future is closed; without memory we are cut adrift in the present without any guiding stars to show the way; and without narrative - or the capacity to tell and re-tell our past and future - there is no possibility for meaning. Taken as a triadix structure, past, present, and future provides the context for human life.” The American Baptist missionaries were not unaware of the need to write history. In 1966 Elizabeth Chambers, librarian of the Baptist-owned Central Philippine University, was one of the participants in an Asian-wide conference on theological education attended by Asian church leaders involved in education, together with some theological school leaders from the United States. In that conference, Missionary Russell Brown affirmed that Chambers acknowledged that there are no historical materials available to help the Philippine people to know about their religious origins. Chambers stressed the importance for Protestant denominations to have a sense of their own beginnings in the Philippines and Brown requested the missionaries "to give serious thought to the possibility of the preparation of a Baptist Church History for the Philippines." Not before 1976, however, the delegates to the annual assembly of Philippine Baptist churches had resolved to write a Philippine Baptist history. In succeeding years a number of committees were commissioned to do research and to come out with a written history. In June 1981 another committee was created to facilitate a Baptist historiography. That committee wrote a project proposal, "Historical Education and Research (HEAR)", to come out with a book on the history of the Philippine Baptist Churches. With a budget of 219,000 pesos it was expected to launch the book in 1985.4 In 1984, Dr. Domingo J. Diel, Jr., then CPBC General Secretary, announced that the CPBC would "come out with a Baptist primer, compilation of selected sermons, and selected biographies of selected Baptist pastors."5 The need to write a history cropped up again in 1990. During the 55th CPBC annual assembly, the delegates made two important recommendations: first, that "the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches asks the Central Philippine University College of Theology to include in its curriculum a subject of theology in the Philippine context." Second, that "the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches should encourage Filipino Baptist theologians to write books or Baptist Primer taking into account the Philippine setting and culture." Those endeavors, although they were not realized, could be regarded as efforts of Baptists to recognize the need to write a history. This study is an attempt to partly fill in that need. Introduction 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12852/2061 Problems of college students at the University of Iloilo Lorenzo, Romeo L. This action research was conducted to determine the problems of college students at the University of Iloilo. The subjects of the study were the thirty second year AB Philosophy students of the College of Arts and Sciences, University of Iloilo. Of the thirty students, seven or 23.3% were male and twenty-three or 76.6% were female. This descriptive research utilized a survey questionnaire to gather the data. The statistical tools used to analyze the findings were frequency count, percentages, and rank. The results showed that "poor finances" were the students' most prevalent personal problems. For their teacher-related problems, the most prevalent was "teachers' unfairness in giving grades". For their administrator-related problems, the most prevalent was "administrators' slowness in attending to students' needs". For their peer-related problems, the most prevalent was "their peers' poor study habits". For their school-related problems, the most prevalent was "classroom facilities like chairs, tables, windows, etc. that needed immediate repair." Abstract only 2001-01-01T00:00:00Z