Caritas Philippines, the social action arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, is currently holding a gathering of social action workers from the 85 dioceses around the country.
The 40th National Social Action General Assembly (NASAGA) will be held from June 13 to 17 in General Santos City, South Cotabato. This year’s theme is “Leave No One Behind. Caritas Promise.”
“This is the biggest gathering of 240 individuals from the 71 diocesan social action centers in the history of the national social action general assembly,” said Caritas Philippines national director Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo over Radio Veritas.
The gathering is hosted by the Diocese of Marbel led by Bishop Cerilo Casicas and Diocesan Social Action Director Fr. Jerome Millan.
The assembly is held as the diocese campaigns to ban the open pit mining project in the town of Tampakan.
NASSA/Caritas Philippines executive secretary Fr. Antonio Labiao, Jr.said the role of the Church following the election will be tackled during the assembly as well as the response of the social action centers to typhoon Odette which affected 11 dioceses in December 2021.
The 13 sub-regional clusters will also showcase the best programs of their social action centers, Products from the different local and community social enterprises assisted by Caritas Philippines will also be on display.
“We are very happy with the turn-out of the delegates, especially after visiting 59 diocesan social action centers since February 2021. This is a very good indication of how we will be moving forward with the many things our church needs to address,” said Bishop Bagaforo.