Filipino Migrants Urged to Pray for Families of Hostage Victims

MANILA, August 29, 2010-Filipino migrants across the globe have offered prayers for the families of victims of hostage-taking incident in Manila that left eight tourists and hostage taker dead.

Four days after the bloody end to the hostage-taking incident, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines' Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People called on various Filipino communities worldwide to pray for the families of the victims.

ECMI Executive Secretary Fr. Edwin Corros, CS, in an email sent to chaplains and lay leaders in about 70 countries worldwide, requested his counterparts to offer the coming Sunday Masses for the families of the hostage victims in Manila "particularly for the people of Hong Kong who feel so aggrieved by the poor handling of our government officials" in the almost 12-hour hostage-taking incident last Monday, August 23.

"The prayer is an invitation where among possible consequence to the worsening RP-HK relationship, the lives and works of our Filipino migrants are at stake," he said.

In the prayer titled "Solidarity Prayer for Healing for the Families of the Hostage Victims," Fr. Corros said people have been hurt and lives are never anymore tranquil since Monday as "lives were lost in a tragedy that nobody had ever expected."

The prayer went on saying "no amount of tears shed could bring back those precious lives of the innocent" and asked for "healing for those who mourn and those who continue to feel the pain."

Fr. Corros, who composed the prayer, asked for God's guidance during the time of confusion as he sought to "calm the sore wounds" of hearts.

He asked for God's healing with a call that all parties may learn to forgive and be reconciled with one another.

"This is only possible in our great faith in you as we unite all our prayers as Filipinos working and living around the world," the prayer concluded. (Melo M. Acuna)