Philippines protest

In a joint pastoral letter, the bishops of the Philippines have issued unprecedented criticisms of human rights violations by the martial-law government of President Ferdinand Marcos.
The letter. read from all church pulpits recently, condemned government deportation of foreign missionaries without due process, arrest of priests and lay workers, and harassment of newly-formed basic Christian communities.
The bishops also said that the government's treatment of the nation's minority groups was destroying minority cultures, and they protested against what they called "anti-natalist (antibirth) programmes" promoted through "coercive measures."
It is the first time that the majority of the nation's bishops had take a firm, sweeping stand against human rights violations by the Marcos government. Only eight of the nation's 82 bishops did not sign the document. The first to sign was conservative leader Cardinal Julio Rosales, 70-year-old Archbishop of Cebu.