HEADLINES
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY December 16 - 31, 2018
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Duterte’s Christmas message:
kindness, compassion, reconciliation
Philippine President Rodrigo
Duterte urged the Filipino people to be
guided with ideas of compassion and
reconciliation as he wished everyone a
meaningful Christmas.
“To my countrymen, my sincerest
and most heartfelt greetings to all Filipinos,
both here and abroad, as we celebrate
Christmas,” Duterte said in his Christmas
message aired over government-run
People’s Television (PTV).
“Once again, it is the time of the
year where we honor, gather our families
and friends to celebrate the nativity of
Jesus, share life’s many blessings and
demonstrate our love and gratitude for
each other,” he added.
Duterte urged the Filipinos to use
“this joyous occasion” to contemplate
on the worth of the lessons that “we can
learn from the narrative of Christ’s birth.”
“Let the ideas of compassion,
kindness, and reconciliation guide us as
we embrace our countrymen in the spirit
of shared humanity,” the President said.
“Together let us bring hope and
peace in our nation this Yuletide season
as we welcome the coming year with
much hope and optimism,” he added. “I
wish everyone a happy and meaningful
Christmas.”
He noted that during every year
during the holiday season, families and
friends alike in this predominantly Catholic
nation of more than 100 million Filipinos,
gather to celebrate the nativity of Jesus.
“As we take part in the festivities
during this joyous occasion, may we also
contemplate on the wealth of lessons
we can learn from the narrative of the
Savior’s birth to the calls of compassion,
kindness and reconciliation being echoed
throughout the globe,” Duterte said.
The tough-talking Philippine
leader celebrated Christmas in Davao
Pope Francis calls for
friendship among humans in
Christmas message
Pope Francis used his annual
Christmas Day address to express his
belief that all humans are part of an
extended holy family.
Addressing tens of thousands
of tourists, pilgrims and Romans in St
Peter’s Square, Francis said that the
universal message of Christmas was
that “God is a good father and we are all
brothers and sisters”.
Without fraternity, the Pope said
“even our best plans and projects risk
being soulless and empty”.
“My wish for a happy Christmas is
a wish for fraternity,” Francis, 82, said
during his “Urbi et Orbi” (“To the City
and to the World”) benediction from
a balcony above St. Peter’s Square in
Vatican City on December 25.
“Fraternity among individuals of
every nation and culture. Fraternity
among people with different ideas, yet
capable of respecting and listening to
one another. Fraternity among persons
of different religions,” the Pontiff said.
He added, “Our differences, then,
are not a detriment or a danger; they are
a source of richness.”
Pope Francis called for a spirit of
fraternity to be rekindled in places where
conflict has prevailed.
The Pope cited various conflicts,
including
between
Israelis
and
Palestinians, in Yemen — where children
are exhausted from “war and famine,”
he said — on the Korean Peninsula,
in Venezuela, Ukraine and in the
“beleaguered country of Syria.”
“May the international community
work decisively for a political solution
that can put aside divisions and partisan
interests, so that the Syrian people,
especially all those who were forced to
leave their own lands and seek refuge
elsewhere, can return to live in peace in
their own country,” Pope Francis said.
The Pope’s appeals for peace and
fraternity — including toward those
suffering the “ideological, cultural and
economic forms of colonization” and
from “hunger and the lack of educational
and health care services” — were in
keeping with his traditional Christmas
prayers.
Pope Francis also voiced concern
for persecuted Christian minorities in
countries or regions where the faithful
have been killed or had their religious
freedom suppressed.
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City.
Duterte was seen enjoying a Noche
Buena feast with his family in Davao City.
In a photo uploaded by his son
and former Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo
Duterte, the president sits with his former
wife Elizabeth Zimmerman and their
children Paolo, Davao Mayor Sara Duterte
and Baste Duterte.
The president’s grandchildren also
joined them for the Christmas gathering.
“From our family. Thank you
very much and Merry Christmas to you
all,” Paolo Duterte said in Bisaya in his
Facebook post.