Monday, November 5, 2007

Perspectives



I can't help but sigh with this one:


To: Recipient list suppressed:
From: Easter Group
Subject: TO OUR DEAREST YOUTH AND SINGLES

TO OUR DEAREST YOUTH AND SINGLES,

In life, hard realities come, and so we have to face the existence of two CFCs right now. Organizations, both religious and professional, have gone separate ways and we could not be the judge of the reasons and motivations that prompted such splits, spin-offs and separations. We assure that within CFC-FFL, the decision to move ahead became an inevitability when the leaders who chose to speak out were terminated from their services. Where do you go if you are unwanted and would still like to continue your service to the Lord? Recall that we started out merely as a Restoration Movement, and the intention was to work from within, inspire a critical collaboration with the intent of restoring the eroded spiritual anchors of our existence as a community. But we were left with no other choice because waves of terminations happened one after the other, because we chose to bring forth to the light the need to obey the authority of Mother Church, because we opted to prioritize the need for salvation over liberation, because we wanted to bring back the restoration of building a nation under the headship of God instead of raising heroes merely for the task of nation-building. The choices we have made were also done with the next generations in mind, that never again shall we be lulled into thinking and acting that we can never be saints because we have to be heroes first and expend precious time and effort in building physical structures while neglecting the all important food for the soul.We do hope we have your understanding but not necessarily your acceptance, because only time will tell if the choices we made were all done so that from this day forward, to the generations that will follow, to the history written down of these two CFC communities, which of the two remained true and faithful to the original charisms and was not afraid to openly proclaim its brand of Catholicism to the whole world.
God bless!
In Jesus through Mary,
CFC-FFL

Uhm. Ok, here are the Easter/Playboy bunnies minutes showing their plots, then look in the Resignations section HERE, a "clarification on a termination" video HERE, then see how they attempted to register for their own corporation.

These are not actions of people who supposedly merely wanted to start a "Restoration Movement" whose intentions were to "work from within."

C'mon FFL people. You are better than this, I know you can find enough credibility to recruit the youth without having to lie to them, it's already been done and the way has been shown to you. You are talking about starting something "with the next generations" in mind, how are you going to do that on a flimsy foundation built on untruths? Open your eyes...please.

Discuss this in the forum.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is so sad. Is there a way for CFC to ask Frank kindly not to kept on saying that they are CFC-FFL. They have separated and thus became JUST FFL. Bringing the name of CFC confuses a lot of us and it will surely confuse a lot of SFC and YFC. We hope and pray that once and for all this untruth will stop. We are hurting so much and because of these hurts, it causes us to sin. We request CFC to have an audience with all bishops and ask them to please ask Frank to stop doing this. To order a decree that they only have to bring the name FFL and no CFC attached to it, so when they do their sounding of trumphets, we know that it is not CFC.
a very concerned north american member
God bless

Anonymous said...

"...never again shall we be lulled into thinking and acting that we can never be saints because we have to be heroes first..."

Who said we have to be heroes first? Lies, lies... all lies. As a member of SFC I am very insulted that FFL thinks they can get us by lying. The Singles and Youth are more intelligent than that. We know that in SFC and YFC, future saints are being raised.

Anonymous said...

i sympathize with our north american groupmate here that something should be done with regards to the name situation.a lot of CFC chapters in the usa have "hijacked" their respective CFC websites bearing the CFC url into FFL sites. once the situation is resolved with will surely fvor the real CFC, a clear demarcation will be drawn and confusion will hopefully be dimished.

btw, should someone post already the official stand of the FFL. I mean they have virtually flip-flopped on all their stands and pronouncements. they say the'yre not answering to the IC anymore and yet they recently claim to be still part of a "split" CFC.someone ought to tell them the difference between split and complete abandonement.

can you also see a brewing pattern of flip-flopping in where all their reasoning all of a sudden shifts to another when the reasoning before becomes thwarted with the truth.

i once saw the blog "move on cfc" and i do agree with the comment there that questions how do we really move on.

closure must be reached if not attacks from both sides would still continue.

Anonymous said...

My dear Brothers and Sisters,
Who is Frank in my mind?
In the past, Frank was a person I admired, trusted, honored, and revered. The all these changed, in the recent turn of events, I saw a different Frank. One who has become a liar, a deceiver, an egocentric and a betrayor who took advantage of everyone in CFC.

A Frankenstein who haunted me. He used to inspire me,then in a short spun of time he caused me to be upset and angry.I believed in him and everything he preached. He was a leader who failed me bigtime!

This is all in the past because today, thanks to this blog... after reading the posts and the many comments of brothers and sisters, my perspective of Frank has changed.

While i still have to deal with my hurt feelings, I have somehow managed to find meaning and reason behind all these.

This is a personal journey of my own faith. I realize that Frank is just as human as I am. He has his weakness just as I have mine. If I were in his shoes, if I was the leader of CFC, I might have been more treacherous and abusive... perhaps even many times over. I would have succumbed to the many temptations many years ago, become swell headed, arrogant and scheming. It is a daunting task.

Today, I pray for him more than myself, because I know he needs more of my prayers than I do.

As they say in Latin, 'perspicere'! Yes, I can see clearly now, and I forgive Frank and I am grateful for this experience. I have become a better person, surely pleasing to the eyes of my Creator, Jesus Christ!

Thank you Lord for helping me see You in this turmoil.

GOD bless us all, CFC and FFL!

Anonymous said...

I feel insulted that our own personal choice can be percieved as malice towards many FFL members. We all have a choice and say in our own spiritual nurishment. If it is FFL, then GOD Bless and more power to them, and with our current community, then likewise.

With that said, I am proud to stand with my fellow brothers and sisters in Couples for Christ.


-anonymous Windows 95 user

Anonymous said...

I was just puzzled how one of the leaders of FFL in Toronto, Canada is trying hard to get the support from the original members of CFC. This FFL leader who always insist the errors of CFC, especially accepting donations from Pfizer medical company who produce contraceptive drug. But you know Bro. & Sis. I don’t think he is in his right sense. Because this top leader of FFL is working with the one of the company who is marketing contraceptive drugs too. Yes his company is not producing but selling. It’s like a pusher only. Well you can imagine what kind of mentality of people who can see others and not him self. Anyway blind in the hand of blind will surely go nowhere.


Just puzzle

CFC Emmaus said...

The SFC and YFC, are the most youthful and aggressive of the Family ministries. They carry with them the next generation of CFC. And we place so much hope on them, for they will carry on and follow the will of God.

In Manila, the SFC and YFC stood firm and exhausted every effort to reconcile both side. They stood valiantly, but the elders in the community did not listen. Now, they carry on the results of these stubborness of the leaders.

Yes, time will tell, and we in CFC and CFC-SFC and CFC-YFC, stood by what we were taught by Christ and we know our leaders who were anointed by Christ.

Leave us in peace!

CFC Emmaus
cfc_emmaus@yahoo.com.ph

Anonymous said...

Dear Brethren,

As I have previously mentioned in my comments, FFL leaders will always look for justification to their act of separation from the original body of CFC. To do that, they (FFL) will twist every truth, spin any lie and create confusion even in the minds of the young.

To all our young (SFC & YFC), focus on JESUS CHRIST & NOT on any person. Keep your faith intact and do good works. "FOR FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD".

God bless!!!

Anonymous said...

wag na lang pansinin yan si frank!
the worst that we can do to people LIKE FRANK AND FFL is to give credence to everything THEY SAY.
frank has really developed his talent for talking. perhaps we should teach hin to LISTEN just by simply shutting him down!!

Anonymous said...

It's funny because I tried to send a response back but their email is not working or accepting emails?

Anyway, they have contradicted what they said about "not judging the reasons and motivations for splitting" but then go on to judge by "assuring that assure that within CFC-FFL, the decision to move ahead became an inevitability (inevitable) when the leaders who chose to speak out were terminated from their services."

And how can they say they are not judging or are trying to move on as a separate group when their tagline only attacks CFC as "Restoring the Authentic Couples for Christ Charism." Who is to say that CFC is not authentic or living charismatically?

Bah! The split to me is like asking a brother/sister in Christ to love God or love them? We have to choose between family and God.

CFC-Youth/SFC North America

Anonymous said...

C.D., have you read the latest e-mail from the easter group entitled "A Rejoinder to 1)Pandora's Box - Show Me the Money"?

One of the things they're saying is they'd appreciate it if the writer of the article/blog entry can reveal himself. Yet, the sender of the e-mail is one "juan de la cruz" and his e-mail address "kara.krus@..."

huh?!? (scratching my head)

C.D. said...

asm,

Yes actually I made that a topic in the forums here:

http://defendingcfc.phpbbweb.com/viewtopic.php?t=86&mforum=defendingcfc

I'm not going to waste blogspace on that, they trip over themselves so many times it's hard not to laugh.


C.D.

Anonymous said...

just wondering on how the singles in FFL will be known... CFC-FFL-SFC???

CFC West C Sector said...

..singles ministry
..youth ministry
..kids ministry

no more Christ.

and they say we are veering away

estelito.iii said...

i believe the singles of FFL are called FFL-Singles.

they also have "Young Ministries" (probably to reference those who came yfc and sfc) i saw a banner in their multiply site a couple weeks back.

btw, i just realized while writing this comment...

is there already a kids for christ equivalent in ffl? hmmm...

Anonymous said...

"...never again shall we be lulled into thinking and acting that we can never be saints because we have to be heroes first..."

There is some kind of a spiritual arrogance in the quoted statement above made by anonnymous.

The ordinary living Filipino, specially if he is one who lives as a poor man eking out a living out of garbage, does not have a moment of thought for sainthood and heroism. Neither does the rich Filipino, whose reason for existence is self promotion through power and wealth.

Both kinds however needs someone to model for them a life in Jesus, and would it not be better if either an FFL man or a CFC man does so, along with the evangelization efforts likewise of other Catholic communities like Focolare & BLD?

So what is this writer talking about?

Anonymous said...

When Jesus told the one man who was crucified beside him, "From this day on,you shall be with me in paradise!", did Jesus bother to ask him whether he was a saint or a hero?

Anonymous said...

Hello young brothers and sisters in Christ in the ministries of YFC & SFC,

Here are some brotherly reminders:

1. When you get to be an organizer, founder, top leader of a Catholic organization in your school, in your office, in your parish, among the youth of your days or in the future...and you need to move on and leave that community you've belonged to for many years..just move on and pray for the community you are leaving and pray for the leaders you are leaving behind.

2.Don't get disgruntled leaders members from your former community (or those with axes to grind) for their collective anger will rub on you, specially if in the beginning your departure is or was peaceful.If you are already married by then, ask your wife to have a silent spirit and to pray for your decision, a decision that is not made as a knee jerk reaction to an event or a person.

3. Don't set up tactical meetings in the name of pagan or secular organizations in order to upset, create trouble, or block the peaceful administration of the community you are leaving behind. Best if you could maintain a brotherly and a spiritual relationship with them.

4.Do not conduct spiritual "audits" on what they do, instead pray to the Holy Spirit, that the actions of the community you are leaving behind will truly serve and honor the Lord, in better ways than when you were leading it. That way, your legacy will be insured and then you will have people praying for you in a better light.

5. Do not ever corrupt the minds of their community's youthful members. Trust the Lord that their spiritual life.. as well as your own personal spiritual life too, will be checked,overlooked and protected by God.

6. Lastly, don't use undue influence on the Clergy, specially if you know of the many weaknesses of the specific members of the Clergy who will kowtow to your influence.

7 Pray a lot, for many days, and in many moments each time you think you know what needs to be done in the community you have left behind.

8. Lastly, look to the new horizon and ask God in what area does he want to lead you in serving Him.

Anonymous said...

In another forum, one blogger expressed exasperation for our seemingly unending talk about the issues. Well, look at what the Easter Group just came up with?

The email says, "To Our Dearest Youth and Singles." The subject alone already tells me that a series of lies was about to be told. Look again..."our youth and singles." They're no longer CFC and here they are, saying, "our youth and singles." There's a deception cleverly embedded already there.

Should we just stand and watch?

I don't think so.

The RoundEyedToddler

Anonymous said...

Bro. Raul, I read somewhere that they call it Singles for Family and Life or SFL and the youth is Youth for Family and Life (YFL) and Kids for Family and Life (KFL).

Anonymous said...

estelito.iii there is already an KFC equivalent in FFL. FFL-Kids Ministry. saw it somewhere.

Anonymous said...

To FFL Youth Couple Coordinators who are reading this,

we have worked together before as i am a YFC coordinator myself. and this is really a sad letter to read. i challenge you then to say this to the (FFL) youth that you have now. say this letter in front of them, looking them in the eyes, rather than through an email.

tell them honestly "what the waves of terminations" were.

tell them honestly what is it that you are restoring.

tell them why their work for GK before has now been branded more as "building physical structures" rather than being one of the paths to salvation and holiness.

the works mentioned here, of being heroes, are the very works that the full-time workers before were telling the whole community and whole world at that (starting from the Metrocon in Megamall 3 or 4 years ago)! these very same FTW, who were shouting about being heroes, about nation-building, are now working with you.

tell your youth then (and to your FTWs) that you made a mistake in the teachings before about working with the poor. about the gospel of bringing glad tidings to the poor.

tell them the truth. they deserve better.

Unknown said...

Indeed there is no doubt the recent split is the work of the evil one. The Devil is using our confused loyalties to keep us distracted from living out our Catholic faith.

Remember, we are first Catholic and when everything else fails we look to Mother Church for instruction and exhortation and to Christ for our salvation.