Over a week ago, I came back from Cebu after facilitating the National Gathering of Diocesan BEC Directors and Coordinators. Over 130 delegates from 64 dioceses attended the gathering. I did most of the organizing as part of my work as executive secretary of the CBCP-BEC Committee. I also presented the National BEC Profile which provided a picture of the state of development of BECs all over the country. After a week of rest I am off again tomorrow - this time to Palawan to give a series talks on BEC to the clergy and religious and also to lay pastoral workers and leaders involved in forming BECs. I will be back at the end of the week then I have two weeks here in Manila before leaving for Butuan to attend the annual conference of the Catholic Theological Society of the Philippines where I will be delivering a paper on "The Reception of Vatican II Ecclesiology in the BECs in the Philippines." From there I will fly to Cebu to attend the Visayas Pastoral Assembly where I will be the guest speaker on October 22. This is a gathering of bishops, priests, sisters and laypeople from the 18 dioceses of Visayas. I was invited to give a talk on BEC: Lay Formation and Church of the Poor. I was supposed to fly to Zamboanga on October 23 to attend the Mindanao-Sulu Pastoral Conference where I was invited to give the synthesis of the reports but this was postponed due to the recent attack of the MNLF fighters and the military operations conducted by the Armed Forces of the Philippines. I still have two more speaking engagements in Marbel and in Leyte before the end of the year.
Although I find the travel tiring, I enjoy my work going to various places all over the country, helping promote the growth of BECs.
