Catholic masses offered Sunday for Filipino to be executed in China

MANILA, Philippines – The Catholic Church will offer Masses on Sunday for a convicted Filipino drug trafficker facing execution in China next week.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines said in a statement that the Masses would seek “divine intervention” for the grant of the Philippine government’s request that China’s highest court commute the Filipino’s sentence to life imprisonment.

It said Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, CBCP president, had asked all dioceses to offer Sunday’s Masses for the intention of the condemned man scheduled to be executed on December 8.

“We are united with our government leaders in the appeal to the Chinese government for a commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment. I have already given instructions to the bishops to ask their priests to offer prayers during Masses tomorrow for the Filipino convict,” the CBCP quoted Palma as saying.

“We will include in the prayers of the faithful a positive reply from the Chinese government to the appeal of our government for the commutation of the death penalty,” said Monsignor Joselito Asis, CBCP secretary general.

Asis said the move was also in response to Vice President Jejomar Binay’s request for prayers for the Filipino convict.

“As a Catholic, I have an unshakable faith in the power of prayer, and if all Filipino Catholics storm the heavens with our common prayer for our kababayan, miracles can happen,” Binay said in a letter to Palma on Friday.

Binay, in an interview, also called for prayers for “Marian intercession” in the case, noting that December 8 was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary,  the patroness of the Philippines.

The 35-year-old Filipino, who remains unidentified, was convicted of smuggling 1.495 kilos of heroin into Guangxi, a mountainous Chinese province bordering Vietnam.

The CBCP’s Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People (ECMI) said earlierit would write to the Chinese government to appeal for the commutation of the death sentence on the Filipino.

ECMI executive secretary Father Edwin Corros said the commission will submit a request to the Chinese government to spare the condemned man’s life for humanitarian reasons.

“We are hopeful the letter to be sent to the Chinese Embassy by the ECMI would be forwarded at the earliest time to Beijing, and that the authorities would consider your appeal, together with the appeal of our President, in a positive light,” Binay said.

The ECMI will send its letter directly to the Chinese government as the Catholic Church in the Philippines does not have officials relations with the state-sanctioned Catholic Church in China.