Dominicans to fast against drug war killings

Dominicans to fast against drug war killings
People raise candles as they welcome the image of Our Lady of Fatima after a kilometer-long procession for national healing from Edsa Shrine to the People Power Monument in Quezon, November 5, 2017. ROY LAGARDE

MANILA— The Dominican family will stage a day of fasting and prayer for peace in the country amid the growing number of deaths linked to government’s war on drugs.

The fast is scheduled on December 3, the first Sunday of Advent, as a response to “the challenges against the value and dignity of human life”.

Fr. Napoleon Sipalay, Jr., president of the Dominican Family in the Philippines Foundation, said the day is also an opportunity to intensify the act of charity for families of victims of extrajudicial killings.

“The intention is to save the amount we could gather out on that day of fasting from different communities of the Dominican family… for the families of EJK victims,” Sipalay said.

The Dominicans earlier expressed concern on the human rights situation in the country as the government refused to hit the brakes on its relentless crackdown on the illegal drug trade.

Even Fr. Mike Deeb, the Domincan Order’s permanent delegate to the United Nations and its General Promoter of Justice and Peace, sounded alarm on the rising drug-related killings.

He said that drug abuse is “very worrying” and a “big issue of concern” in the UN, but stressed that killings will not address the problem.

Sipalay added that while their action is only “a drop in the big ocean” on the problem of drug killings, he is hoping that such activity touch the lives of other people.

“What we are doing is to start the ripple of touching the many members of the Dominican family to do something concrete,” he said. CBCPNews