ASIA/PHILIPPINES - “What is needed is credibility and a new generation of leaders”, says president of Philippines Bishops’ conference before diocesan Youth Day

Manila (Fides Service) - “In the Philippines today there is a crisis in credibility. The country needs new leaders” Archbishop Angel Lagdameo of Jaro president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines Filippine said in an address to young people on the eve of Youth Day, Palm Sunday 9 April. “We have difficulty trusting other people, difficulty in believing our national leaders. When a political leader says one thing and does another this is a blow to credibility” it becomes a problem for the country because it undermines social relations and the relationship of trust between government and people.
According to the archbishop young people must be educated to become new leaders “capable of leading the nation along the necessary path of honesty, truth and freedom”.
“If we lose our young people, we lose our hope and our future”, he added recalling the message Pope Benedict XVI wrote for the 21st World Youth Day. “Young people may think they are free, but they are not when they are misled by the errors and illusions of aberrant ideologies”, the archbishop said quoting parts of the message. The Church - he noted - invites you to celebrate World Youth Day to “to sustain the flame of peace”, so young people can become promoters of moral values “in our globalised society”. Archbishop Lagdameo also recalled that the same topics will be treated during the next Asian Youth Day in Hong Kong 28 July to 5 August. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 7/4/2006 righe 27 parole 274)