By Christina Hermoso The Archdiocese of Lingayen – Dagupan in Pangasinan plans to expand its Ministry of Mercy program to further help address the drug problem in the province. Lingayen – Dagupan Archbishop Socrates B. Villegas said, the archdiocese plans to include more aspects in its campaign aside from pastoral care. Archbishop Socrates Villegas leads a prayer service for the victims of extrajudicial killings and others who were slain under the government’s crackdown against illegal drugs, at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Dagupan City, Sept. 23, 2017.
(GLENN MUNOZ LOPEZ / CBCP / MANILA BULLETIN) “We are planning to include three interrelated approaches namely, education and prevention, community-based rehabilitation, and pastoral care to further help address the socio-pastoral problems of families of victims of extrajudicial killings,” said Villegas in a Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) News post. “We have a duty from the Lord to take care of the least of our brethren and we will be judged at the sunset of life by what we did to the least of our brethren,” said the former CBCP president. The archdiocese will hold a seminar workshop for the ministers of mercy on April 5 at the Lay Formation Center in Dagupan City to help prepare the parishes for the expanded program of the ministry, which was launched last year as the archdiocese’s pastoral response to the drug problem and the alarming cases of summary executions in the past two years. The ministry also offers sanctuary and protection to those willing to testify against cases of extrajudicial killings in the country. In October 2017, Villegas said, several members of the police, who expressed willingness to expose their knowledge on the EJKs, sought the protection of the Church.