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Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila urged Catholics to avoid fake news and its manipulative ways and  engage in spreading the Good News through an integrity of life that is sensitive to the poor and the suffering.

Fake news manipulate and divide

Celebrating Chrism Mass in Manila Cathedral on Holy Thursday, the condemned the continued spread of fake news, saying people should shun and fight “manipulative strategies” that sow division to serve political interests.  The cardinal said it is sad that modern means of communication have been reduced” to strategies to manipulate people.

“Manipulation thrives in the context of disrespect. That’s why fake news proliferates … deliberately deceiving people,” Cardinal Tagle said.  Stressing that Catholics are all consecrated through baptism, he said the ordinary faithful share the same mission to evangelize and spread the Good News. 

Priests and religious

The Archbishop of Manila stressed the special role of the ordained and consecrated people to proclaim the Word.  “Let us put a stop to fake news! We are not called and consecrated to bring fake news, only Good News, especially through the integrity of our lives,” he said.

Evangelization, according to him, challenges the faithful to communicate the truth about God’s love, especially to the poor.

Attentive to suffering

“Evangelization happens in a covenant relationship not in a context where some see people as objects to be manipulated for one’s purposes,” stressed the cardinal who is also the president of Caritas Internationalis, the Catholic Church’s worldwide humanitarian confederation,

While acknowledging that the important task of evangelization is not without challenges, especially to priests and religious, the 60-year old emphasized that proclaiming the Gospel requires “attentiveness” to the human condition, specifically that of the poor and the suffering.

Integrity in word and action

Cardinal Tagle also stressed the importance of “integrity” among the bearers of the Good News, adding that it is to be proclaimed not only through words but deeds.  “That’s why many people don’t listen to the Good News because they don’t see it [in] the one talking,” said the Manila archbishop said. “They are looking for people of integrity whose words will match their action.”

“The Good News is not just to be proclaimed through words, in most instances it is better proclaimed in life, in deeds. That’s integrity,” he added.

More than 400 priests of the Manila archdiocese, including Papal Nuncio Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, renewed their commitment to priestly service during the Chrism Mass.  Cardinal Tagle also also blessed the Chrism or the holy oils that will be used for various sacraments in parish churches throughout the archdiocese.  (Source: UCANEWS)